2008 SAAB 9-3 Vector Review
April 1, 2008 by Matt Brogan
2008 SAAB 9-3 Vector Review
Park it anywhere, the 9-3 draws a lot of compliments.
Model tested:
- 2008 SAAB 9-3 Vector Sedan 1.9 litre turbo diesel automatic – $52,400 (RRP).
- Metallic Paint $1300 (Fitted); Sport Chassis $750; Premium Leather $4000; Bose Stereo Upgrade $2500; Electric Front Seats (with Memory) $1350; Folding Wing Mirrors $550; Sunroof $2300; Bi-Xenon Headlamps $1600; Alarm Upgrade $800.
Sleek Body, Decent Performance, Comfortable Ride
Big Turbo Lag, Road Noise, Questionable Pricing
CarAdvice Rating: 
- by Matt Brogan
It’s a summer day and you stroll in to the local gelato bar for a cool, refreshing treat. In your over zealous haste you mix in a few too many varieties and once outside, the blistering sun has its way with your frozen scoops. The ensuing creation of molten traditional and contemporary flavours creates an odd tasting combination which now doesn’t seem quite right – this is how the 9-3 feels to me.Take the 9-3 on face value and the car is quite impressive, rather stunning to look at and surprisingly comfortable to ride in, but start blending the various parts and practicalities together as a whole and you soon realise a few things could have been done a little better.But before we get in to the nitty gritty, let’s take a quick look around the car. It’s a neat package over all, modern, sporty looking, and rather sleek, with a curious habit of standing out in a crowd. The angular front end, large clam shell bonnet and bold headlights really make a statement drawing much of your focus from the profile around to the fore end of the car.
Smooth parallel shoulder and hip lines carry unbroken through the length of the vehicle to a well finished rear end sporting frosted tail lights and high boot line. The bold tail end suits the vehicle’s proportions and makes a nice change from regular cars who’s designers seem to have fallen asleep by the time they draw the back of the vehicle.
Inside the cabin is well presented, has a lovely ambiance and with the possible exception of the outdated dashboard and instrumentation panel, really does make you feel as though you’ve done well in choosing the 9-3. The heated leather seats are comfortable, well textured to the touch and lose none of that vital support.
The front seats are well proportioned dimensionally which makes for very pleasant longer trips and the driving position is excellent, almost sporty. Unfortunately the rear leg room is a little on the tight side for adults, more so if your front row buddies have long legs.
Climate Control, Cruise, and all the expected powered goodies do a fine job considering their design age, though I would option the Bose stereo were it my car as the standard six disc unit (with iPod plug in) leaves a lot to be desired, especially in terms of clarity at volume. It may also help disguise some of the annoying road noise.
Boot space too is rather generous for a mid-sized sedan and the rear seats fold 60:40 to allow greater flexibility when required. If you need extra carrying capacity the 9-3 can be optioned with removable roof racks and/or a 1,600kg (braked) tow kit, which I’m sure the torquey diesel would have no trouble pulling.
Upfront the 110kW 1.9 litre common-rail turbo diesel does a brilliant job of keeping things on the boil once moving and with thanks to a healthy 320Nm, pulls rather strongly mid gear. The down side however is that the performance suffers incredibly from (initial) turbo lag.Whilst this is a trait of many turbo diesel engines it is most especially noticeable in the 9-3, so much so you even feel it when trying to exit slower corners. It’s disconcerting really, much more evident than it should be, and whilst it can be managed with the use of manual mode when in motion (say on tight windy roads), is something you really need to be mindful of from stand still (like when tackling a busy intersection).
Swapping cogs for you is the Sentronic six-speed auto. It’s capable enough, and smooth when allowed to carry its own pace, but try and stir it up a little, even in sport mode, and it can become annoyingly slow to respond. Thankfully the remedy is a click away, and if you’re in need of sharper response, the thumb shift ‘M’ mode (manual – steering wheel mounted) is a far better option.The suspension too isn’t quite there in terms of overall ability. It may be comfortable enough, and does a fair job of soaking up lumps and bumps, but on the handling front is rather nervous. There’s a fair bit of body roll, especially on high speed sweepers, and the car will tend to under steer if the turn-in speed isn’t quite slow enough, which can make for hard work considering the heavy power steering.Braking though is good, reassuring, and a lot better than the 9-5, but the pedal feel is still somewhat firm and requires far more input than similarly priced European or Japanese rivals. Still the ABS with Brake Assist, Cornering Brake Control and Electronic Brake Force Distribution, brings the 9-3 to rest confidently and drew little in the way of messy black dust all over the sporty 17″ alloys which was nice for a change come clean up time.
In all though the 9-3 is a great looker, is cheap to run and is surprisingly comfortable. Whilst it does lack some of the driving finesse you’d expect of a premium brand, and though it could do with a little tweaking to satiate the needs of a fiercely fought price bracket, it’s has one unique thing going for it – people just love to admire it.Parking from place-to-place this week the Vector has drawn plenty of compliments, most especially from the type of person who understands where SAAB is at, and what owning one affords you in terms of social status. It’s a rare thing these days with prestige cars being so common and if you can live with the 9-3s compromises, that feel good buzz could mean owning one is right for you.
CarAdvice overall rating: How does it drive: How does it look: How does it go:
- Engine: 1910cc four-cylinder turbo diesel
- Power: 110kW @ 4,000rpm
- Torque: 320Nm @ 2,000 – 2,750rpm
- Transmission: Sentronic Six-Speed Automatic
- Driven Wheels: Front
- 0-100km/h: 11.0 seconds (Claimed)
- Top speed: 210km/h (Claimed)
- Safety: ESP (with TCS); ABS (with BA, CBC & EBD); Front, Side and Curtain Airbags
- NCAP rating: 5 Stars
- Turning circle: 10.8 metres
- Wheels: Alloy 17″ x 7.5″ (As Tested – Usually 17″ x 7″)
- Spare Wheel: Space Saver
- Fuel tank: 58 litres
- Fuel consumption : 6.8 litre / 100km (ADR Combined Average)
- Fuel type: Diesel
- Towing Capacity: 1,600kg (Braked)
- Weight: 1,509kg (Tare)
Print it: 
Almost as boring as a Volvo…. at least Volvo’s have started to look nicer the last few years.
MATT BROGAN……cool review. Mate plenty say I should write when I cut the laughter out, and I thought to tell you that it was brilliant red and had me captivated by the story line with the gelato ice cream comment.
To me it is a tad boring mismatch of styling themes! Just doesnt truly gel.
G R E A T resale…….
NOT!
Pass
Cheers
F-0
GGM should sell it to SAAB, join together and become a proper Swedish brand again.
Hey, this got moved to the top again, is this an April Fools joke? :)
And in English….
GM should sell SAAB, then they can get together with the sold VOLVO and form a SuperSwede Auto Company.
American have no idea what Swedes amd Euros are looking for in a vehicle.
Cheers
F-0
Volvo is in a different class, SAAB has not changed anything for many years and getting very boring, no resale just hand balling here….
I really like it for saab is really doing well to estABLISH THERE OWN DESGIN THEM AND HAD IT NO BEEN FOR GMS TOROUble a few years back we would have seen a new 9-3 9-5 9-4 and 9-1 a lot earlier.
Good review of a good solid & secure car. They may not be the best looking things but atleast you can count of the safety.
Also, this particular car tested does not have HID (xenon) lights as mentioned in the review. There are not any light washers which is the dead giveaway.
Frugal, GM have finally started to invest money into SAAB, I doubt they have any intention of selling them off. SAAB have new vehicles coming out next year, including the 9-1X, the 9-4X and the 9-5. Ford too, I believe, have no intention of selling Volvo.
Ozz – the Xenon lights mentioned at the top of the page are with all the options available on the 9-3 and are not necessarily specific to this car, the only one of these options fitted to our car being Metallic Paint. Apologies for any confusion.
Thats a pretty good towing capacity from such a small engine!
GM really don’t know what to do with Saab. Sure, this model is a slightly positive sign, but what on earth are they doing still selling the oh-so-ninties 95. Attacking a car with a chrome gum doesn’t constitute a new model.
I reckon GM should either commit to this brand or sell it off, then let the new owners develop some new models, including a hatch version which Saab was always famous for.
Same engine with a proper gearbox is fine. Autos for peeps who think they know how to drive. I managed fuel consumption at 5.6’s over a recent 800k drive with the same engine ia vectra.
Yep Saab should be doing there own thing perhaps with the exception of engines.
Its gone back to lookinkg like the 9-5 which has been on the market for the last 100 years. The acceleration is also pathetic…11 seconds!
The 9-5 review is currently being edited, stay tuned!
I agree with Phillip when he notes GM don’t really know what to do with SAAB. We have had five SAAB’s over the years and the original SAAB SCANIA built vehicles were superb; A+ build quality, cheap to service & run, reliable, safe – oh you all know the story. Our current SAAB is a GM owned version with appalling build quality; we have had broken seat adjusters, broken window washer jets (?), broken dash switches and print graphics that have worn off the switches. We have only done 32,000 klm’s and it is our second car so it does not get a lot of use. SAAB have not advanced and the newer SAAB service departments aren’t interested in the marque. I guess GM wanted their turbo technology and safety advances; beyond that they might as well not bother because the current SAAB is a glorified Holden! Who wants that?!
SAAB GM need to step up…….quickly! The design is dating alot and the dash is too old looking. I said in other posts of that saabs, the dash reminds me of VT/VX’s Commodores, but ive changed my mine it looks similar to VR/VS Commodore dashes with it flat dash face but curvy dash. Its main rival VOLVO is a big step a head. And i forget to mention RESALE! They need to fix that too!
For several months I have studied the market of European mid-size cars with a view to purchase, and at the end of the day I am buying a SAAB 9-3. I am undoubtedly prejudiced, my decision having been influenced by past experience of the ownership of three SAABs, a 900 and two 9-3s. The first two SAAB’s I had for 5 years each. The latest one I have had for 8 years. The entire sum of repairs and defects in these cars has been a clutch (the 900) and two batteries, one each for the 9-3’s.
Mr Brogan’s review of the diesel engined 9-3 is generally positive but why “Climate Control, Cruise… do a fine job considering their design age”? What does that mean ? If the thing does a fine job what else is needed ?
And “outdated dashboard” ?
Saab are in receivership now. That is the end result of years of making cars that had poor resale due to poor marketing technique. They brought this on themselves. How ridiculous offering a 25% discount. All it menas is that they overpiced the car in the first place.
Myke Says:
April 1st, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Frugal, GM have finally started to invest money into SAAB, I doubt they have any intention of selling them off.Ford too, I believe, have no intention of selling Volvo.
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Ahhhhhh, Myke, the irony of the date you posted, and i WAS CORRECT [AGAIN] on both counts….
F-0 WRONG?I think NOT!
:-)
Cheers,
F-0
That reply F-0, was GOLD! :-)