Coscienzios

Model years to avoid

Saab 9-3

What it says about you

Opinion

You are keeping alive a car built by a company that no longer exists, and you have a relationship with an independent mechanic that borders on the familial. You would not change any of it.

Not measured, not from the data, and offered in fun. Everything below this is not.

8 model years on record, 1,128 complaints filed.

The years to look at closely: 2008 (intake), 2007 (rough). Everything else drew a normal number of complaints for this model.

What owners report, and when

Faults that dominated the complaints of more than one model year. Not the same question as which year to avoid — a car can have an ordinary number of complaints every year and have most of them be about the same thing.

  • start 2008, 2009 peak 23.4% of that year's complaints
  • convertible 2005, 2007 peak 22.1% of that year's complaints

Every year

  1. 2012 nothing on record 0 complaints
  2. 2011 4 recalls 30 complaints
  3. 2010 4 recalls 60 complaints
  4. 2009 3 recalls 86 complaints
  5. 2008 intake 368 complaints
  6. 2007 rough 310 complaints
  7. 2006 3 recalls 179 complaints
  8. 2005 3 recalls 95 complaints

What does a Saab 9-3 say about you?

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Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints — compared against itself rather than against other cars, so popularity and age do not decide the answer.