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- Vehicle:2000 SAAB 9-5 WAGON
- Color: Midnight Blue
- Interior: Warm Beige (leather)
- SRP of tested vehicle: $37,215.00
- Additional: 4-speed auto transmission
- Additional: Premium package (leather, Harmon/Kardon audio, memory driver’s seat)
- Additional: Front and rear heated seats
- Additional: Midnight blue mica paint
By: Krisiti Bannen
So, what picture comes to mind first when you think about a station wagon? If you’re anything like me, my first thought was a big, stodgy, family car. The 2000 SAAB 9-5 Wagon pleasantly surprised me and changed my mind about wagons.
This was one of the most comfortable cars I’ve ever driven. The SAAB 9-5 Wagon was stylish, luxurious, and turbocharged. It comes standard with a 2.3-liter, four-cylinder engine coupled with a five-speed manual transmission. Our test car came with the optional four-speed auto transmission.
I loved how easily this car handled and how smooth the ride was too. The 9-5 Wagon accelerated quickly while moving in and out of traffic flawlessly. This surprised me since it’s a bigger, longer car. There were times I forgot I was driving a station wagon.
The interior was just as impressive. Just sitting in the car made me feel like I was in a luxury car. The seats were covered with a "warm beige," comfortable leather that reminded me of a well-made leather couch. The inside was elegantly enhanced with a burled walnut dash. The design of the front windshield and instrument panel was inherited from Saab’s aircraft ancestry. Saab compares sitting in the driver’s seat to sitting in the cockpit of a jet. With a big, wraparound windshield for optimum viewing and the instrument panel that clearly rounds out the driver’s "cockpit" area and displays everything necessary in plain view.
The Midnight Blue exterior was really nice-looking too. It appeared almost black with a deeper, bright blue hue shining through.
The Saab 9-5 Wagon comes standard with an instrument night panel feature that dims everything on the console except the essential info like your speed. Warning lights still come on when necessary. I was pretty indifferent at first about this feature, yet the more I drove at night and used it, I realized how less distracting it was when you have less light.
This car has lots of standard features, almost too many to list but I’ll give you the ones I liked most. The Saab 9-5 Wagon comes with power locks and power windows with the one-touch opening function. It has a power tilt and slide tinted sunroof and dual automatic climate controls. For comfort and pleasure, it has cruise control and a great AM/FM stereo with a CD and cassette player and seven speakers along with Weatherband. The audio system automatically changes volume as you speed up or slow down to offset road noise and the steering wheel has sound controls built right in.
Two features I thought were unique and useful were the cooled glove box and the wide-angle passenger side mirror. The glove box has a special refrigeration vent that allows food and drinks to keep as cold as 50 degrees. And for people who didn’t pass the parallel parking in driver’s ed and still haven’t mastered it, Saab has helped make your life easier. The passenger side mirror has special optics on the outside edge. It’s convex to extend your field of vision by one-third. And, if you get the Saab 9-5 Wagon with the memory seat option, there’s a button for a back up feature so when you’re backing into the parking space, you push the button and the mirror automatically shifts down and in to show you the curb and the rear wheel. Voila! No more scuffed tire walls!
As for safety, the Saab 9-5 Wagon comes with anti-lock braking system (ABS) and driver and passenger front airbags and front seat head and torso side air bags. It also has child safety rear door locks and windows and daytime running lights with automatic shut off. Saab also provides 24-hour roadside assistance.
I found it interesting to learn Saab invented headlamp wipers and seat heaters as well.
The Saab 9-5 Wagon comes with eight high-pressured windshield washer nozzles --one on each headlight and six on the windshield that with one shot of wiper fluid really did clean the bugs off the windshield.
Heated seats (a very nice and necessary option in our colder states!) were a 1960’s innovation borrowed from Saab’s airplanes too. The car we tested had heated seats in the front and rear. Warm and happy customers all the way around!
For those of you in warmer states, don’t worry, the Saab 9-5 Wagon offers you a ventilated seat option to wick moisture away and keep you cool and dry.
There are enough cup holders in the Wagon for all 5 passengers. In the front there’s a cup holder for two that pops out of the dash and swivels into place when you press it. The center console opens for storage and has a removable cup holder. There’s another push-out cup holder for two built in the backseat armrest. The only problem I had with all the cup holders except the one in the front console was that condensation from cold drinks dripped because the cup holders didn’t have enclosed bottoms.
Saab put the trunk and fuel door releases right on the arm of the driver’s door and I thought that was very convenient. The back hatch was a bit heavy to close at times and I noticed the same problem with the other doors too. They all seemed to be a bit heavy for a "casual" light push. I found myself having to re-close the doors a few times.
There’s plenty of storage for skis and other longer items in the back with the 60/40-split fold down rear seat. And for the stuff you want to throw in the back and hide for quick clean ups, there’s a nice foldable cover. The Saab 9-5 Wagon we tested also had a luggage rack for additional travel gear.
Overall, I really enjoyed the SAAB 9-5 Wagon’s high performance and quiet, stable ride. I took this car on an extended trip (about 400 miles in one afternoon) and it was one of the most comfortable rides I’ve had. I give this car a 3 tires and one spare rating for above average.
Kristi’s Fun Fact:
SAAB stands for Svenska Aeroplan AB. (AB is the Sweden company extension like we use "Inc." at the end of U.S. companies). It was in 1937 SAAB Swedish Airplanes Ltd. was founded. (Hence, its aircraft history.) Before World War II, SAAB was largely known as a builder of military aircraft. After the war, with demand declining for airplanes, SAAB executives realized they would need to expand their horizons. So they expanded into the auto industry. The first SAAB cars (SAAB 92) were introduced in Swedish showrooms in Dec. 1949 and were painted aircraft green.
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