A great bargain in the luxury sport wagon market

Why i chose Saab - I had decided to get a sport wagon and had narrowed it down to the volvo v70 T5, passat w-8 and the saab 9-5 aero. While each of these cars were good, what swayed me over to the saab was the looks of the car (i got a ferrari red wagon), the way it handled and the price. Saab had a 5k incentive and i came out with a fully loaded wagon with bi-xenon head lamps, ventilated seats and the works for 34k + tax out the door, a steal. No other wagon was even close at this price. The way i arrived at the price was invoice - 5k incentive - dealer hold back. Plus i got 3.9% financing for 60 mos, all in all an awesome deal.

Now to the interior - Saab has definitely the best seats in the market. The Volvo comes close in this category, but with ventilated seats the Saab has it beat. The ventilated seats are noisy when turned on, but are great at quickly wicking away moisture on a hot summer day. Interior is nice with even the glove box being air-conditioned. It supposedly can cool the glovebox down to 6 degrees celcius. Almost a refrigerator! Signal stalks for the turn signal and the wipers feel kind of cheap for a vehicle in this price range but otherwise the interior is nice and comfy and very roomy. The Harmon-Kardon music system is very good, but no cd-changer, just a single cd player and cassette! There is loads of interior room, and with the rear seats folded more than most midsize SUV's in the market.

Next to the engine and transmission - I got the automatic as my wife doesn't drive a stick, plus all the reviews said that the 5-speed on this car is well matched to the powerplant. I would have to agree. The Sport mode on this transmission is a revelation. Turn it on, floor the gas pedal and the car pushes you back in your seats. There is a rush of acceleration and from 70mph to 100mph it goes in a flash. Tremendous pulling power. It pulls like a locomotive. There is turbo lag however at low engine speeds but once you go past 1800 rpm you have 257 lbft of torque available all the way to 4000 rpm.
You can see it is a 4 cylinder as the idling is not smooth and you can clearly hear it idling. The engine is definitely unconventional in this category, but it gets the job done wonderfully. It also returns good gas mileage, an advantage of using just a 2 litre engine. This car may not be much of a drag strip racer because of the slight turbo lag, but once on the move not too many cars can keep up with it. It would blow away most sport sedans on the market.

On to handling - Its no sports car, but its no slouch either in the handling dept. Its got above average handling on par with most sport sedans except say the 330i or G35. When pushed to the limit it understeers just like any front wheel drive car. There is some road noise but not much. The car rides on 225/45 17" wheels. With such low profile tires you cant expect the car to be lexus like. There is reasonable feedback from the steering, and it quick around the turns. All in all a solid handling car, and for a wagon, outstanding.

Overall i would say for the price and features, the 9-5 aero wagon is positively a bargain with performance to boot.