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| (Photo: Philippe Champoux) |
This is where the good points conclude. All the power is sent to the front wheels and this poses the usual torque-steer problem. Off the line or under hard acceleration, the wheel jerks to one side. Spirited driving requires two hands on the steering wheel at all times. The other downside is the brakes. The pedal is wooden in feel and response is deceivingly slow. Stopping distances turn out to be much longer than I would have anticipated. To be fair, as far as the brakes are concerned, I will attribute their lacklustre performance to the fact that the car is not a production model.
So then, what is missing?The SAAB does not have the necessary panache to insert itself assertively in the ranks with the Mercs and Bimmers. Audi has worked very hard over
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| (Photo: Philippe Champoux) |
the last decade and they have finally arrived. What has not helped the Swedish brand is a long line of unreliable poorly built cars and furthermore, the image of the brand has been affected by Subaru and Chevrolet clones. There are some good arguments in favour of the 9-3 and 9-5. For starters, the new 5 year- 160 000 km warranty puts it up there with the others. Also, you are almost certain that your $50,000 investment will not be lost in a sea of logos. Question is, how important is the logo to you? It would seem as though it is one of the most important criteria to most luxury car buyers.
The base 9-5 SportCombi retails for $44,500 and reaches $53,000 for an
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| (Photo: Philippe Champoux) |
Aero automatic with options.
Good stuff:Powerful engine
Great design
Front seats
Not so good stuff:Torque steer
Brakes
Competitors:BMW 3-Series
Mercedes-Benz C-Class
Volvo V50 / V70
Audi A3 / A4
