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Saab 9-3 Prices Paid and Buying Experience



  • pengwin,

    Can you tell me where are you located? What color is the exterior/interior? The $25k OTD sounds like a good deal.

    I got a quote for $26k OTD on a 07 2.0T sedan with smoke beige exterior and beige interior. Automatic, moonroof, and cold weather package. I was ready to go sign the purchase papers tomorrow until I saw your posting.

    Please let me know your location and if you did buy the car at $25k OTD. Thanks.
  • car is fusion blue metalic 5000 miles navagation 50000 msrp car is in new york manhattan
  • waterdr
    "Saabs depreciate faster then any car on the planet in the first few years, then they seem to slow down, because "it's a Saab."

    Take into account that your $"32k" price tag was really closer to $27,000 to $28,000 with the incentives that were given at the time. The reason that Saabs depreciate so fast is because it is so closely competing against the new car deal.

    Why would someone buy a year old car for 23k or 24k (and have a $500 payment) when they can either buy a new one at 26-28k or lease a new one at $400-$500?

    Consumers always want to compare it to sticker and not the price they paid.

    Thats why is starts to slow down after the first 3 years or so.
  • waterdrwaterdr Posts: 307
    You did not get the point of my post. Incentives always play a part. What I was trying to say is that even despite incentives, Saabs depreciate very quickly. At the time I purchased my car, which was 3 model years old, there were not the incentives there were today. I paid $17k and have owned it for about 18 months. It is probably now worth $14k. If I had paid $28k for a car with an MSRP of $32k, it would now be worth about $ $8k loss rather then a $3k loss.

    The clincher with Saab is that they offer better warranties on the used ones then on new ones which is not the case with other makes.

    I am not against buying fact, I just did purchase a new car. But stictly financially speaking, buying used is always smarter. But, leasing changes things.

    The payment does not tell the whole story. But, it is America, and that is all 99% of the consumers seem to care about. If someone looks at a car like a rental and wants to get rid of it every two years, then leasing is the only option.

    The last point about Saabs is that once they get some age on them, they seem to actually hold their value better then most other brands. At least what I see where I live is that no matter of miles, if it is a clean 4WD or a Saab, they seem to always get money. But for someone leasing, why should they care.
  • 3K loss in 18 months seems rather minimal to me?

    And most all the manufactures offer better certified pre-owned warranties than they do new (most all have 6yr/100k certified used and 4yr/50k new). The idea is to give the dealers as many reason to buy them when they come off lease so the manufacturer doesn't have to take their beating sending them to the auctions.

    I will agree with you that MOST of the time it make much more fiscal sense to buy used than new, but there are exceptions to very rule.
  • saablcpsaablcp Posts: 195
    The unasked question here is"depreciate compared to what?".Your statement has to have a context.All cars depreciate much more precipitously in the first 3 years.This is the basic rationale behind leasing as a financial option.Another component of resale value is market supply and demand.Saabs account for less than 1/4 of 1% of all cars sold in the U.S.A. and have proportionately less demand in the used car market thus impacting negatively on re-sale value.
  • waterdrwaterdr Posts: 307
    Yes $3k loss in 18 months is minimal because I purchased used. The car already took most of it's beating. I am not sure if you were agreeing with me or not by the use of the "?".
  • Beware of Saab...

    We got rid of ours after owning it for two years and driving 15K miles on it. Long story short, we got rid of it because we kept having serious electrical problems with the car. The worst part was that the battery died on us after two years of ownership. When we called the Saab roadside assistance people, they sent out a couple of cars and it took 9 hours to jump start. Why did it take so long? According to the Saab service people, the car is designed not to be jump started since the car has so many delicate electronics - funny how Lexus, Mercedes, BMW and other don't seem to have such "delicate electronics." So, basically it was a design flaw - I say this because the tow truck people didn't really know of this "feature." Don't want my newborn and wife getting stuck in the middle of nowhere with a car that can't be jump started.

    Anyways, when we went to go sell the car, the Lexus dealer called the Saab dealer to see if they would buy the car. The Saab dealer told the Lexus dealer that they would not buy the car since, presumably, they probably couldn't sell the car. On the other hand, as long as the Lexus dealer didn't pay more than $15K for the car, they'd be fine... a car that two years ago we bought for $40K+ - talk about a disaster for a depreciation. We will never buy another GM vehicle - much less a Saab ever again.
  • waterdrwaterdr Posts: 307
    Yup...welcome to the Saab depreciation dissaster! Tis why I bought used and with a 100K warranty. Saabs seem to loose money faster then other brands in the first few years.

    BTW, my wifey likes to leave the keys in the ignition for some dumb reason which has killed the battery twice. Both times I called Saab roadside. Both times they came and jumped the car in seconds using standard, run of the mill jumping equipment. I think the last guy that jumped it was nammed "Bufford" and I think he just got out of bed eventhough it was 3 in the afternoon.

    There is nothing special with jumping a Saab with a dead battery. A battery is a battery.

    The last GM vehicle I owned previous to this was a Suburban....and put 100k miles on it. It was NEVER in the shop....not once except for oil, tires, and brakes. The first set of rotors did not go on it until 65k. When I got rid of it, the only thing that did not work was the electronic compass on the rearview mirror.

    Meanwhile, the guy across the street is undergoing lemon law proceedures against Honda. The car is in the shop more then it is on the road due to a suspension design flaw that can't be fixed. Go figure.

    While I can relate to your family concerns and know all too well the pain associated with loosing a child, Saab makes one dam safe car. I feel very confident in mine and one of the reasons we own it.

    It was unfortunate your luck was bad and you feel the way you do. I really can't find fault with Lexus as this brand is a great choice.
  • saablcpsaablcp Posts: 195
    Oh,by the might want to google Forbes Magazine's list of "10 Least Expensive Luxury Cars to Own".Published in August of '07 it calculates total cost of ownership (incl.depreciation)for 5 years of ownership.The 4th least expensive vehicle was the 9-3 Sport-combi.The 2nd least expensive vehicle to own was the Saab 9-3 Sedan.I hope these "facts"have some impact on your "opinion"!
  • waterdrwaterdr Posts: 307
    Hey, I am always open to evidence. That is certainly good information to have and great for us Saab owners. However, I guess you have to consider what they are comparing the vehicle too. BMW, Jag, Caddy, and Mercedes have all done terrible these past few years with re-sale while when you look at Honda and Toyota it is a different story. Also, I think calling a Saab a Luxury car is a stretch. In many casis, the initial purcahse price is a lot less then the initial price of other makes which would make the cost of ownership lower too.

    As a Saab owner, I don't place Saab in the same playing field as many of the other luxury brands.
  • waterdrwaterdr Posts: 307
    Here is an example of a "luxury" 9-5 2001 Saab with lowish miles getting $4,500:

    Sad....very sad, indeed if you ask me.

    Go to the last page.
  • Currently the deals on left over 2007's are very good, but the deals on 2008 are not that special. However a dealer told me that great deals on 2008's will start after January 1, 2008. Anyone heard about great deals on 2008's? I like Saabs but will not buy one unless a special deal due to rapid depreciation in early years of ownership. On the left over 2007's, does the $4000 rebate for 9-3's apply after you negotiate a deal with a dealer?
  • jchan2jchan2 Posts: 4,956
    The $4000 cashback is after the deal you get with the dealer.
    I would try to get invoice price, and then subtract the $4000 from that.
  • waterdrwaterdr Posts: 307
    While I am no "car buying expert", there appears to be three kinds of rebates. The straight forward "rebate" is advertised and then there is also sometimes "factory to dealer cash" which is not.

    I recently purchased a vehicle that had no rebates, but had $5500 in factory to dealer cash. I tried to buy the car from 4 different dealerships. One of them flat out told me how much money there was w/o me even asking and graciously deducted it from the 1% under invoice price.

    Two of the other dealers when asked by me simply stated that there was some money to "play with" but never disclosed the amount. The last dealer outright denied that any money existed even after telling them that I had confirmed this fact with a different dealer. They were either not aware, or chose to not allow me to have the money.

    The third type of "rebate" I become aware of only after having a friend who was a finance manager for a Mistubishi dealer. He claimed that Mitsubishi would give them special incentives for moving a certain number of vehicles in a specified period of time. If they did, they got cash back or even a "free" car from the manufacturer. The numbers were rather large if I recall....something like 25 - 30 cars in a short period of time....something that only a big volume dealer could do.

    He further indicated that if you caught the dealer at the correct time such as perhaps needing to sell one or two more cars in a day or two in order to get the big bonus, the dealer might extend closing incentives to the customer.

    All this makes trying to get the best deal possible hard to do. At some point, you just need to buy the thing and not look back. Apparently everyone must get a great deal anyway because I have never heard anyone ever say that they got screwed - lol
  • A dealer near me has a few '07 9-3 sedans w/about 5k miles but none are certified pre-owned...Do you think this is because they won't be made CPO until the incentives on the '07s (4k customer cash) expire?

    If so I'd rather just wait to get the CPO warranty.
  • jchan2jchan2 Posts: 4,956
    the $4,000 cash will expire until they clear most of the leftover 2007 inventory.

    Try asking them if they'll CPO it for you.. Or maybe they're not CPOed because they wouldn't pass the inspection.
  • waterdrwaterdr Posts: 307
    With those low miles, I would suspect that they may be demos an thusly never titled. As such, they probably can't be CPO cars.
  • you can't cpo a new car with incentives. GM/Saab would call that double dipping incentives.
    You can however buy a extended warranty or have one included in whatever price you negotiate.
  • Hi,

    I recently purchased a new 2007 9-3 SportCombi.

    $32400 (msrp)
    - $1k (gm supplier discount--I bet anyone could get this with a big of haggling)
    - $650 (extra negotiation)
    - $5500 (GM '07 incentive--remember this comes off *after* taxes!)

    I had to find a dealer that was willing to search national inventory for the car I wanted. My local dealer only seemed interested in selling what was on the lot.

    The car is great so far, I feel the price was good. I don't worry about depreciation, I hope to keep this car 8 years. Without the incentive I think these cars are horribly over-priced.
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