Are these typical 93 tid 150 estate problems?

[Oldone990]

I bought my MY2007 Tid150 estate when it was some 30 months old with 14.5k miles. Since then I've had DMF at 20k (warranty), alternator at 30k, replaced the front springs, cleaned the EGR and MAP sensor numerous times and still if I don't fully warm it up the engine management light comes on. It has a slight hesitancy around 2000 rpm most noticeable when the engines has been warmed up and allowed to partially cool before restarting, it's not too bad when fully warmed up but still there. New water pump when cam belt changed at 5 years (yes it was leaking slightly) It had a new AC condenser at around 45k now I have a slight leak on the steering rack which I think are the seals on the hydraulic pipes (anybody had this?) and the near side rear LED light doesn't work which I think thanks to sgould I know the answer to (is this common?) It's now done some 55k miles and while I still like the car I'm getting a bit fed up with the £200 - £300 problems every year. Is the typical for Saab owners? Any help with any of the outstanding issues would be gratefully received.
Thanks all.

[Audax]

You've been a bit unlucky to get so many problems early but it's not uncommon for the 1.9 diesel. The warm up problem is most likely the thermostat which is about £120 and not simple to replace. But to be really honest, if you're only paying £200-£300 a year for problems you're doing well compared to most cars and that's an expected cost of owning a car, you won't find any car cheaper than that as they'll either break more often for less or break less often for more, a friend of mine just had his 5 year old BMW eat the engine, £8500 for a replacement! 

[sgould]

Ah! Now the diesel itself is an unknown quantity for me.  I have heard of problems like yours. 

My own opinion is that diesels do not like being used for short journeys.  Modern diesels are designed for low fuel use by company car drivers who do a lot of miles.  They are not like the old diesels that were found in taxis.  All the emission control gear seems to have been added as an afterthought and does not seem to be up to the job.  Saab is not alone in this.

My wife's 9-3 is a typical low mileage second car.  it is nearly 11 years old.  it was the dealer's demonstrator when the 9-3 was launched at the end of 2002.  Her car has yet to do 50,000 miles.  She bought it at a year old and has had it for almost 10 years. It has had a few niggles, nothing too bad.  The only major failure is the steering rack which went very rattly.  Probably as a result of almost all those 50,000 miles being round our local estate!!

Your experience tends to confirm my opinion that the real-life running costs of a diesel easily outweigh the fuel savings and that a petrol engined car is a better bet for the private owner.  But I have no direct experience of anything modern and diesel.  The only diesel we owned was a 12 year old Mercedes that was sold in 1976!!  No turbo.  No emission control stuff.

[Audax]

Your experience tends to confirm my opinion that the real-life running costs of a diesel easily outweigh the fuel savings and that a petrol engined car is a better bet for the private owner. 

A few years ago when working with Saabs on a daily basis we used some real life customer bills to work out when owning a (1.9) diesel saved you more than a petrol, you had to be driving somewhere around 16,000-20,000 miles a year to end up paying the *same* in servicing+repairs+fuel+tax as owning a petrol would have cost you (this was averaged, some were lucky and some unlucky obviously but the same applies to petrol cars). We didn't take into account that diesels cost a good couple of thousand premium over petrols to purchase at that point as diesels were more desirable. Saying that I suspect that the cost of owning a diesel vs. petrol with the 9-3 has dropped as the later cars were mostly a bit more reliable as many parts were revised and even the early cars will have had failed parts replaced with later part revisions now but it's still a significant mileage you need to do just to break even.

The trouble is that people are hard to change and ingrained into thinking diesel is better as the fuel is cheaper and then they always come up with an anecdote about 1980's merc diesels which you can safely run on chip fat which isn't comparing like for like as the 80's mercs were well put together cars with a pinnacle of 60's-80's technology and very well engineered. For a few customers we really tried to steer them away from buying a diesel from us (as we knew they only did very short journies) to the point we offered low trade ins for their cars and wouldn't budge on the price of the diesel car they wanted to buy and yet they still went for them.

[sgould]

Back in 2006 when it became clear that one of us needed to change their saloon for an estate, my wife went to look at a 9-3 diesel automatic at the local dealer.  She was very politely steered away from it and told to look at a petrol model.  The discounts they offered on a 2.8 V6 made it a very tempting deal, since she would be using little fuel, but her environmental conscience said "no". 

After 18 months of fruitless search for a 1.8t auto estate with lots of toys, I eventually changed my car instead.

[Audax]

The discounts they offered on a 2.8 V6 made it a very tempting deal, since she would be using little fuel, but her environmental conscience said "no". 

There was a time it was hard to give away a 2.8 V6 but in reality they are not that bad on fuel especially if you only do short trips, trying to convince someone who did less than 4000 a year that a 2.8 V6 was probably the best car for them (they don't really seem to go wrong very often either!) was met with real resistance. It's what I might be looking for when I replace my current 9-5.

[nine-fiver]

9-3 Aero in manual, Hirsched. 440Nm. Hmmm.

[Oldone990]

Thanks Audax and sgould for your comments, do you know whether the leak I have on the joint between the hydraulic hoses and the steering rack is common? Are the seals "O" rings or something more elaborate?
Thanks again

[Audax]

Leaks between hydraulic hoses and rack are uncommon, rack failures are quite common though. All I can say is that if it's leaking it needs fixing and it is an MOT fail.

[Geoff1951]

...But to be really honest, if you're only paying £200-£300 a year for problems you're doing well compared to most cars...

I'll second that !