Saab 9-3 SportCombi Aero Car Review

Overview

The interior of the car is a little bit boring. The car also has leather seats, which are expected in a car of this price. Fortunately, the Saab did equip the interior with heated seats with three temperature levels. Now that heated seats are becoming the norm in many cars, it is almost a must that manufacturers equip them in any car that has leather seats. This car drives like a charm.

Details

This car drives like a charm. For a six speed automatic transmission, which will cost you an additional $2,500), it actually drives quite smoothly, switching between gears without any problem. However, it is not quite as fast as a manual transmission would be, and the steering wheel controls that are incredibly convenient are also a pain, and take forever to actually shift the car. It's quite enjoyable to fool those at red lights who glance over and assume you are in a typical wagon. They will be quite surprised when you gun the 2.8 Liter V6 engine and get going-it was actually surprising with such a shoddy gearbox. Since it is also a turbocharged engine, it can produce about 184kW at 5500RPM and makes a fantastic noise out of the rear pipes when getting up to full power. At speeds in the range of 2000RPM and 4500RPM, it will produce torque of about 350Nm. In addition the engine being impressive, the performance brakes in the vehicle were also fantastic. While they can be a little soft, they are perfectly capable when you give them full pressure. The suspension can be a little hard, which can get quite aggravating after some time driving it. Also, watch yourself when driving on hard angles-since the car sits so low, it can bottom out, which will leave a lot of scratches on your car.

My first reaction to this car was that I was not impressed by the fact that it was a Saab and supposed to be a SportsCombi. Those two words, to me, just do not go that well together. I have always imagined rich business-people driving around in Saabs, and most of the time I doubt that they are looking for a sports car, but looking more for a luxury car of some kind. Even if they were looking for a sports car, I would feel like they were posing. In addition to it being a Saab, it is a front wheel drive vehicle, which does not make it fit the general stereotype of sports cars, which usually are equipped with Rear Wheel Drive or All Wheel Drive. The outside appearance, though, is much different than this image I had. For a wagon, it has a lot of style in its design, and is quite attractive aesthetically. Nevertheless, all of these things go out the window once you sit down in the driver's seat.

Although the car comes with these good interior aspects as well as others like the outstandingly clear automatic Xenon headlights, it had a little bit of a cheap feel to it, and it still could have a lot more on the inside for a price tag of $81,400. If you looked at the quality of the foldout cup holder on the dashboard, for example, you would see that if you put a heavier beverage in that cup holder, it would not be adequately held in place and would either spill out, fall on the floor, or break the cup holder altogether. This just would not work for me-I carry beverages in my car all the time. Most cars of that price have pretty impressive interiors, and compared to them the Saab is not that great. One thing that was particularly aggravating was the ornery glove box, which never closes the first time you try it. This could be very annoying after a while.

If you are going on a road trip, you can rest assured that your passengers-both front seat and back seat, will be comfortable. The room in the front seat is more than adequate, and the back seat has a good amount of space as well. There is also plenty of luggage room in the trunk. Keep in mind that this does start to intrude a little on the backseat space, but as I said, it is nothing that will make your back seat passengers uncomfortable. Also, if you do not have any back seat passengers riding with you and need to transport a good amount of stuff, you can fold down the backseats very easily. On a down side, the fuel efficiency is not something you would want during a road trip. With a measly 58 Liter fuel tank, there are more frequent trips to the gas station since you will only get an average of 15L/100KM to 20L/100KM, which for a car of this type is absolutely ridiculous.

The interior of the car is a little bit boring. The fabric and dash/paneling is very dark black, first of all. The built in screen looks is an effort to look more technological, but it actually looks very out of date and is not very functional, to add to that. In addition, the center console has an overwhelming amount of buttons and gadgets, which are meant to be helpful to the driver and passenger, but actually just end up being a hindrance. One of the nice things about the car is that while other SportsCombi vehicles have the 'Sport' button on the dashboard, the Saab had these on the steering wheel, which is much more convenient for the driver to activate while driving. Another one of the exceptional things about the interior of this car is the audio system, which not only has more than enough speakers, including a subwoofer, but it also has a fantastic sound quality. However, like many audio systems, if you turn the volume up too loudly, it starts to sound a bit distorted and not the best quality that it can be. The car also has leather seats, which are expected in a car of this price. Unfortunately, sometimes leather seats are not as much as they are cracked up to be. My old car had leather seats, and they were a pain when it was hot because the seats were steaming hot to sit down on. In addition, when it is cold and you sit down in the seats, it will nearly freeze your rear end off. Fortunately, the Saab did equip the interior with heated seats with three temperature levels. Now that heated seats are becoming the norm in many cars, it is almost a must that manufacturers equip them in any car that has leather seats.

In conclusion, the outside of the Saab 9-3 SportCombi Aero is very aesthetically pleasing, especially for a wagon. It also has a great engine sound when it is fully revved, which is something that most people are all in agreement about. However, the interior, as I said before, leaves much to be desired. Most people who are forking out that much money on a car are going to want more features than it has on the inside. In addition, some of the interior features just did not feel like they were worth the price to pay for it. And though the engine was fantastic, the additional automatic transmission was not worth the additional $2,000. It almost would be better to stick with the manual transmission. Although I had some ideas about this car at first assumption, I now know that I cannot apply a stereotype to the type of person that is driving it. If you have the money to afford this car and are looking for something in the wagon market that does not scream 'soccer mom', then this might be a car that you should consider. It easily puts itself at the top of the wagon class, and has many good features that you could benefit from. If you are not that concerned about the interior benefits and do not mind that it is not evenly aligned with other cars in its same class, then you should most definitely stop by and give it a test drive.