Possibly buying SAAB

Expensive to fix but what isn't these days? Finding someone who knows how to work on it is another possible predicament? Internet says good car if you get a good 1! Bad car if you get a bad 1! Take as long a test drive as you can? Dealer or private owner?

Hi NI15,

The 2010 9-3 is a good looking car. I would prefer to drive one of those than a Camry. However, from a mechanical standpoint it is a bit of a toss up. The Camry has a good reputation and the Saab is not as well known (at least in my region). The Camry is cheap to maintain and everybody works on them. However, depending on where you live there are a ton of Saab specialty shops around that will give you alternatives to the dealer.

Anytime you are buying something with miles, you just want to find out who the previous owner was. Any OEM/dealer should be able to tell you who owned it previously. Clearly, they are not going to tell you a person's name but they will tell you if was a private owner, business owned, or a rental car. Stay away from rental cars. Then the dealer should also be able to give you the warranty history in addition to the car fax. Warranty repairs are not a problem unless it appears it has had the same type of repair over and over. This would point to a persistent issue that may be the reason the previous owner got rid of it. With so many options out there, I would just avoid any individual car with that type of history. The nice thing is, the car company didn't just make one of them and there will be another that doesn't have the same history.

Other than that, it will come down to your taste because you can't predict if a vehicle is going to breakdown in the future. Plus it has depreciated pretty much all that it will. All that is left is which you like better assuming all mentioned earlier is equal.

I am not one that will ever recommend a service contract. If you just take the amount of money you would pay for one and set it in a bank account, on average it will cover the cost of any repairs excluding maintenance.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have other concerns or want me to review any documents they provide as far as the history on the vehicle. Just upload them and I will take a look.

Thanks

Good luck.

Looks good to me. In fact, it looks to be a lease turn in that was sold again as a used car. You can tell by the maintenance records and the time and mileage it was turned back in. Those make the best used cars because the person who has the lease, is required to do the maintenance and takes really good care of it because they are responsible for any damage.

Not sure if you are in CO or not but clearly it has spent its whole life there and they use a salt brine for road treatment and that is really hard on cars. However, if you are from that area, then you know what to look for. Have them put the car on a lift for you to look underneath if you are concerned.

Other than that, it looks like it has been well maintained and I don't see anything that would give me pause. You can't predict the future about when a car is going to fail so all you can do is expect it to and set a "car fund" to the side for when it does. This way it is just a small inconvenience rather than a devastating blow.

Let me know if I can be of more assistance. Have fun buying your next car.

Kenny.

Glad to help. They don't but they still have service facilities all over the place. Parts are not that hard to find. Being in Houston, you will have no issue finding a good Saab tech.