mintontaylor
06-28-2002, 09:01 PM
I bought this car from new in March 2000 from Gordon Lamb in Sheffield.
The sales process was great. It’s about the only time when I have felt that I have not been talked down to or patronised by a car dealer. The sales guy was experienced, thoughtful and knowledgeable. No sales speak, no hard sell, just a friendly chat. Even my wife was treated as the highly intelligent human she is, rather than a dumb blonde.
(When she bought her R Reg Ford Puma new for cash she insisted in buying the car from the female sales receptionist at the main Ford dealer because she had some simpatico with the woman rather than the all male so-called sales team who hadn’t even bothered to read the consumer reviews of the car they were selling. My wife actually knew more about the car than the salesmen. I remember one of the sales guys commenting…. “Madam this seat is so easy to fold without breaking your finger nails…” Jesus where do they breed these car dealers? Why are they so mindless, childish and boorish? Fortunately Ford Europe were suitably aghast at the whole affair so that restored our faith in what we think is a great marque that produces a first-class range of drivers’ cars. And the Ford Puma is truly a design icon).
I do PR for a Swedish car and ro-ro shipping line called Wallenius Wilhelmsen that ships Saabs far and wide around the globe and so have been very fond of the marque for a number of years. I’ve driven as a company car a Saab 900 coupe and a Saab 9000 Sedan, but the Saab 95 Aero Estate was my first private purchase.
My initial impressions of the Saab 95 Aero automatic estate were spoilt somewhat after it consistently stalled within a hundred miles of driving it. The engine kept dying on me when coming to rest e.g. traffic lights. It went back to the dealer twice before it was resolved. It was off the road for nearly two weeks. Fortunately, the fault has never reappeared, but the problem was never satisfactorily explained to me - so whether it was screw-up in manufacture (Friday car?), had been languishing outside in a storage compound for too long before the dealer got his hands on it, or …… I don’t know? However, I cannot fault the dealer, Gordon Lamb who were magnificent throughout during what was a pretty tortuous time for us – having saved up for a number of years to buy a car which cost nearly as much as three terraced houses!
While I did get the car at a discount I was not best pleased when a letter came winging through the letterbox just weeks after buying the car form Saab HQ to let me know that they were slashing the purchase price by 13.5%. As a PR consultant with some 30 years experience, I felt that this was just a bit of an own PR goal.
What’s the car like now after 25,000 miles. Great long distance high-speed cruiser. Indeed I regularly make long trips eg 265-mile trip from my Yorkshire Dales home in Cononley, north Yorkshire to my shipping client in Southampton. The car makes the drive a breeze - good all round vision and easy to park - and you climb out of it none the worse for wear after five hours on the road.
The car is a dream. It’s stylish and I believe one of the best-looking estate cars on the market. I just love the organic exterior design. The interior is a dream. Very comfy seats, first-rate controls, and everything just where it should be. It’s the little details that make this such an inviting car, from the superb cup holder that so elegantly folds out of the dashboard to the switchgear which is so perfectly positioned - falling beautifully to hand. And those alloy wheels, you positively drool over them. This is Scandinavian design at its best, thoughtful, considerate and stylish in a very understated. Just how I like it. Mine comes in what was a rather fetching Cosmic Blue metallic, although I rather now fancy the gunmetal grey.
There’s bags of room in the front and at the back for the tall driver and passengers. Boot space is excellent. The sound system is good too.
Acceleration is fantastic. I have an automatic, but even this does little to blunt the acceleration in a straight line especially in the 50-60 mph range. Just what you need on the twin lane roads that abound near me with plenty of farm traffic to negotiate. You can accelerate and pass with ease and in safety.
Road noise levels are good with little being transmitted through to the car's interior. Wind noise is admirably low even at 70 mph cruising speeds. It’s probably not up to Toyota Lexus standard but then you are not paying Lexus prices.
I’ve been through a set of tyres, partly due to crappy road surfaces and the fronts wore out after 20,000 miles – don’t know if that’s terrible, indifferent, or average for this model. They are the Michelins, the predecessors of the Michelin Pilots.
I have found the servicing to be great – both at Gordon Lamb in Sheffield and Nidd Vale in Harrogate, courtesy car provided each time and car returned valeted – a small detail, perhaps, but in these days of diminishing customer service, that’s a welcome bonus.
I can’t say the same for the Saab’s UK information line – I suspect it’s a contracted out job – because they frankly haven’t a clue what they are taking about. I got some really bum advice recently about roof racks for cycles and had I not double-checked the information with a Saab dealer I would really been in the soup.
The not so good things.
The torque steer can be pretty scary at times especially in the wet. Compared to my wife’s gorgeous Ford Puma that sticks to the road like a limpet in all weather conditions this is not a car for fast driving in the curving, switchback roads of the Yorkshire Dales. It quickly looses its agility and is a bit of a devil in the wet despite the standard fit anti-skid system unless you drive it with care. Booting the car away across a traffic junction on a not so perfect road surface is not to be recommended, so go easy on the throttle! They’re poor gritting some of the unclassified back roads around us, although North Yorkshire County Council do an excellent job on the A and B roads, so the Winter button on the automotive drive shift is excellent and keeps the car on an even keel.
Fuel consumption is so, so around 28.5 mph on long runs and 19-20 mph in town – and I don’t give it much welly, tend to drive pretty smoothly.
It’s extremely stable in poor weather and you do feel very safe in the car even in the high winds and horizontal driving rain you get up here in these parts.
Oddments space I feel is lacking. Yes I know there is map wallet in the front seat cushion and the glove box is chilled, but the door pockets are far too narrow to cram anything really useful into them.
I always enjoy driving the car and as does my wife, who’s a far more accomplished driver than I am.
The only thing that worries me is the lacklustre non-bullet proof depreciation and the rather high cost of servicing and spares that seem a bit steep. But then this is a premium car.
Would I buy one again? Maybe. However, the next car will hopefully a new 93 estate when it eventually comes out. Until then the Saab 95 Aero Estate will do me just fine. It suits my somewhat eccentric nature and I get a smile every time I drive it!
The sales process was great. It’s about the only time when I have felt that I have not been talked down to or patronised by a car dealer. The sales guy was experienced, thoughtful and knowledgeable. No sales speak, no hard sell, just a friendly chat. Even my wife was treated as the highly intelligent human she is, rather than a dumb blonde.
(When she bought her R Reg Ford Puma new for cash she insisted in buying the car from the female sales receptionist at the main Ford dealer because she had some simpatico with the woman rather than the all male so-called sales team who hadn’t even bothered to read the consumer reviews of the car they were selling. My wife actually knew more about the car than the salesmen. I remember one of the sales guys commenting…. “Madam this seat is so easy to fold without breaking your finger nails…” Jesus where do they breed these car dealers? Why are they so mindless, childish and boorish? Fortunately Ford Europe were suitably aghast at the whole affair so that restored our faith in what we think is a great marque that produces a first-class range of drivers’ cars. And the Ford Puma is truly a design icon).
I do PR for a Swedish car and ro-ro shipping line called Wallenius Wilhelmsen that ships Saabs far and wide around the globe and so have been very fond of the marque for a number of years. I’ve driven as a company car a Saab 900 coupe and a Saab 9000 Sedan, but the Saab 95 Aero Estate was my first private purchase.
My initial impressions of the Saab 95 Aero automatic estate were spoilt somewhat after it consistently stalled within a hundred miles of driving it. The engine kept dying on me when coming to rest e.g. traffic lights. It went back to the dealer twice before it was resolved. It was off the road for nearly two weeks. Fortunately, the fault has never reappeared, but the problem was never satisfactorily explained to me - so whether it was screw-up in manufacture (Friday car?), had been languishing outside in a storage compound for too long before the dealer got his hands on it, or …… I don’t know? However, I cannot fault the dealer, Gordon Lamb who were magnificent throughout during what was a pretty tortuous time for us – having saved up for a number of years to buy a car which cost nearly as much as three terraced houses!
While I did get the car at a discount I was not best pleased when a letter came winging through the letterbox just weeks after buying the car form Saab HQ to let me know that they were slashing the purchase price by 13.5%. As a PR consultant with some 30 years experience, I felt that this was just a bit of an own PR goal.
What’s the car like now after 25,000 miles. Great long distance high-speed cruiser. Indeed I regularly make long trips eg 265-mile trip from my Yorkshire Dales home in Cononley, north Yorkshire to my shipping client in Southampton. The car makes the drive a breeze - good all round vision and easy to park - and you climb out of it none the worse for wear after five hours on the road.
The car is a dream. It’s stylish and I believe one of the best-looking estate cars on the market. I just love the organic exterior design. The interior is a dream. Very comfy seats, first-rate controls, and everything just where it should be. It’s the little details that make this such an inviting car, from the superb cup holder that so elegantly folds out of the dashboard to the switchgear which is so perfectly positioned - falling beautifully to hand. And those alloy wheels, you positively drool over them. This is Scandinavian design at its best, thoughtful, considerate and stylish in a very understated. Just how I like it. Mine comes in what was a rather fetching Cosmic Blue metallic, although I rather now fancy the gunmetal grey.
There’s bags of room in the front and at the back for the tall driver and passengers. Boot space is excellent. The sound system is good too.
Acceleration is fantastic. I have an automatic, but even this does little to blunt the acceleration in a straight line especially in the 50-60 mph range. Just what you need on the twin lane roads that abound near me with plenty of farm traffic to negotiate. You can accelerate and pass with ease and in safety.
Road noise levels are good with little being transmitted through to the car's interior. Wind noise is admirably low even at 70 mph cruising speeds. It’s probably not up to Toyota Lexus standard but then you are not paying Lexus prices.
I’ve been through a set of tyres, partly due to crappy road surfaces and the fronts wore out after 20,000 miles – don’t know if that’s terrible, indifferent, or average for this model. They are the Michelins, the predecessors of the Michelin Pilots.
I have found the servicing to be great – both at Gordon Lamb in Sheffield and Nidd Vale in Harrogate, courtesy car provided each time and car returned valeted – a small detail, perhaps, but in these days of diminishing customer service, that’s a welcome bonus.
I can’t say the same for the Saab’s UK information line – I suspect it’s a contracted out job – because they frankly haven’t a clue what they are taking about. I got some really bum advice recently about roof racks for cycles and had I not double-checked the information with a Saab dealer I would really been in the soup.
The not so good things.
The torque steer can be pretty scary at times especially in the wet. Compared to my wife’s gorgeous Ford Puma that sticks to the road like a limpet in all weather conditions this is not a car for fast driving in the curving, switchback roads of the Yorkshire Dales. It quickly looses its agility and is a bit of a devil in the wet despite the standard fit anti-skid system unless you drive it with care. Booting the car away across a traffic junction on a not so perfect road surface is not to be recommended, so go easy on the throttle! They’re poor gritting some of the unclassified back roads around us, although North Yorkshire County Council do an excellent job on the A and B roads, so the Winter button on the automotive drive shift is excellent and keeps the car on an even keel.
Fuel consumption is so, so around 28.5 mph on long runs and 19-20 mph in town – and I don’t give it much welly, tend to drive pretty smoothly.
It’s extremely stable in poor weather and you do feel very safe in the car even in the high winds and horizontal driving rain you get up here in these parts.
Oddments space I feel is lacking. Yes I know there is map wallet in the front seat cushion and the glove box is chilled, but the door pockets are far too narrow to cram anything really useful into them.
I always enjoy driving the car and as does my wife, who’s a far more accomplished driver than I am.
The only thing that worries me is the lacklustre non-bullet proof depreciation and the rather high cost of servicing and spares that seem a bit steep. But then this is a premium car.
Would I buy one again? Maybe. However, the next car will hopefully a new 93 estate when it eventually comes out. Until then the Saab 95 Aero Estate will do me just fine. It suits my somewhat eccentric nature and I get a smile every time I drive it!