I'll agree the 9-5 despite the Aero 2.3T being nuts in straight line speed, the suspension is a little boat like and has nothing on the old 9000, this is partly due to the GM platform underpinning it. The 9-3 had all sorts of issues as GM forced Saab over to digital harness before all the bugs were worked out. They also had a horrid issue of cracking their bulkheads due to the way the steering rack is mounted, but most 9-3's had this resolved with a dealership supplied kit that welded in. (They picked up the cost of the repair, so long as the vehicle had been serviced correctly by Saab) Out in the yard here, we have my 1998 900 turbo which handles like it's on rails, one neighbour has the last ever shape 2011 Saab 9-5 TTID with "dealership" tweak of ~220hp and bucket lump of torque. He had the last 9-5 Aero but was convinced to give the coal burner ago, and hasn't looked back. My other neighbour stacked his 2004 Saab 9-3 Aero, when an oncoming car left it's lane, and has since replaced it with a 2006 9-5 2.3T Estate which we both agree has the handling of a small aircraft carrier at lower speeds. So umm yeah we like our Saab's here.. Saab is more about magical 3rd gear mid-range punch than 0-60. 3rd isn't as magical as the Audi Quattro, but nearly. My 2 litre lump puts out its peak torque off spool (2.2K RPM), but once spooled it maintains it all the way to redline. This means it'll tug along at 25mph in 5th and pull to 150mph without changing gear, but staying off spool it returns 45mpg. I hear you laughing but 45mpg isn't bad considering the car. One thing I would like to point out, is back in the early 2000's when fuel started to climb above £1/litre and a lot of people converted to Diesels to "save" money, they treated them like there old N/A petrol motors, where they don't think about frequency of oil changes and then question why the turbo blows up.
Not really. Brake lines degrade over time. They don't tend to just fail randomly. You shouldn't ever have to change any of the brake lines (hard or soft) until a considerable amount of miles have been racked up. I use an independent MOT centre which don't do any work themselves. As such they are impartial and unlikely to be conning me into changing brake lines. The guy was extremely helpful and advised me on how to adjust my hand-brake when that was the reason my car failed a couple of years ago. He also advised me to use some spray grease to protect the corroding brake lines, but unfortunately I've not had any time to do so (a Master's degree is a little time consuming). Not necessarily. These are small issues that are likely to go wrong on many 3 series' of it's age. - Electric window: a small plastic clip which holds the glass to the wire breaks. The fix is easy using a zip-tie. There's guides all over the internet, because it's a common issue. - Rear light cluster: Again a common fault, and I had to ring a number of breaker yards until I found a car that hadn't already had the light cluster removed. The one I finally found had already had the same issue as there was a new replacement cluster in there, with the wires spliced (I took all the pins out of the connector and did it properly). - Broken wires to the boot-lid: again a very common fault. They snap where they pass from the main part of the car into the boot-lid. The more times the boot is opened, the more chance they break: so high milers will likely develop this fault. - Broken switch: Just one of those things. Wear can cause fatigue. Maybe someone has been too forceful with it in the past, and cause a small crack. This can happen with any age car, but the more it's used, the more the chance. - Handbrake: one of the biggest faults on high miler 3 series'. I'll probably need to replace the discs to fully solve the slight rubbing I sometimes get. - Airbag light: a couple of reason this can come on with BMW's in general. The sensor for the passenger seat fails (there are actual kits you can buy to bypass this), seatbelt pre-tensioners, and the connector under the seat. This is just trying to highlight that you can get small niggling problems on every car that's been used a lot. The E46 3-series isn't renowned as being an unreliable car, but issues can still occur. I think you'd have to be very, very lucky not to experience little things like this on cars which have either done a) a lot of miles (90,000+) or b) are simply getting on a bit. This may be true, but there are a lot of stories of blown turbo's, even with cars that are well maintained. BMW's are generally owned by people who spend a lot of money keeping them well maintained. The friend's father I mentioned had a full BMW service history, with no expenses spared (he wasn't exactly struggling for money), but experienced a turbo failure. A quick look online shows it's a common problem across multiple car manufacturers, and is a bit of a lottery, and nothing to do with oil services etc. Of course poor servicing can have a factor. Saying that though, my parents old Rover which mustered 220k miles didn't have an oil change after the 60k mark. It was topped up with whatever oil dad had for the Tractors on the farm. Went through two 17 year old new drivers (who obviously ragged it from time to time), and lives it's entire life in Mid-Wales on country roads, not cruising on a motorway. Engine never faulted it's entire life (other than unforeseen little things like a blown turbo pipe), and was still going strong when the car was scrapped after a wheel fell off.
My final word on this, is correct maintenance for a vehicle related to its work load will insure that it's perfectly fine over 100K (your original point of not trusting over 100K) Manufacture service intervals are average lengths based on average driving conditions, if you veer off to an extreme then it needs closer attention. Cambelt's on average vary between 36K for city driving and 72K for country driving or the usual 5 years. If you ignore these factors your in for painful wallet raping. Personal oil and filters are so cheap I just dump it every 6-8K, ensuring it never goes deep black which is total saturation of the oil with carbon and metal fragments, If it smears on my glove a dark dark gold bordering on black then for me it's due a change. I've applied this every car friends and family and not suffered any pains of wallet rape. I know vehicle maintenance isn't everybodies cup of tea, but being pro-active on looking after those expensive items we so love can help save money. Would you leave your computer fans clogged with nasty dust bunnies? Also from what we've learn't here, it that the OP isn't interested in a BMW, and the 3-series can be a bit of a lemon, not factoring in the fact that most 2nd hand BMW's at some point end up getting ragged around a roundabout by someone trying to drift. Pretty sure it's a rule of ownership in the handbook. Well at least around here it's the case.
Suppose my original point wasn't to steer clear of cars with over 100k miles, but to be weary. Things can and often will go wrong, even if they are relatively trivial, small things. That's not to say it's still not worth it. I was happy to buy a high miler, and would buy another car with 80,000 on the clock. But I knew I could fix 90% of any issues I was likely to encounter myself. That Alfa looks like a stonking car, in great condition. If the service history is up to scratch, with things like discs recently changed etc. then it could still very much be worth it. Edit. Another thing which will come into this I suppose is the money saved on buying a high mileage car. Car value does tend to take a big hit once the 100K mile barrier has been broken, so you're saving on the initial outlay. The Alfa Romeo the OP linked to would probably cost a hefty chunk more if it had 20k less on the clock. So even if a couple of small issues arise, like needing replacement discs etc.) it might still be much better value than buying the one with less miles. Haha, I know what you mean. I know he doesn't want a BMW, just trying to give my personal experience when it comes to driving reasonably high milers. I've still been happy with my car despite the small niggles. I have no problem fixing these little issues myself, and haven't spent more than a couple of hundred over-all in replacement parts over the 3 years I've had the car. But if I had to get all those problems fixed at a garage, I probably wouldn't be quite as happy. With regards to oil changes. Completely agree. My dad just can't be bothered. You should see his "workshop", if you want to find a no. 13 spanner be prepared to spend a couple of hours searching. I personally go to National Tyres to get my oil changed. Cost me £45 last time including Castrol Edge oil and Bosch oil filter. I couldn't buy the oil alone for less than £60. The filter would have been another £10, not to mention the hassle of finding/buying a container to catch the old oil and getting rid of it, and the actual time to do the change myself. Cheap enough to do regularly.
