We currently have a 2003 BMW 325i wagon and a 2008 Volvo S60 2.5T AWD. The Volvo replaced a 2004 Saab 9-5 Linear wagon, which in turn replaced a 2002 Saab 9-3 SE. I’m not a car expert by any stretch, but I’ll share our experiences and opinions.
The BMW has been a really good car. It’s required a few repairs, among them a temperamental self-leveling headlight assembly (bi-xenon repairs =
$$$$$) and a new control panel for the HVAC system. The headlight has required several repairs although all of them (plus the HVAC repair) were covered under the factory and extended warranties. Other than those two areas and a few minor hiccups the car has been very durable. My partner loves it and right now has no intention of parting with it. (Our next door neighbors have a 1999 3-series sedan and love it dearly. They, too, have no intention of trading it for something else.) My mom has a similar 2003 wagon but with all-wheel drive and has had only minor repairs on hers (a sensor in the engine and an electric window motor, I think). She also has a 1998 Mercedes that’s nothing like the 1988 Mercedes it replaced. Among the fancy European brands I think Mercedes has slid the farthest in terms of the quality they’re building today versus the quality they used to build.
The 2008 Volvo has been a terrific car. We’ve had it just over a year and half and it hasn’t required any repairs. Personally, I think it’s way more comfortable than the BMW although my partner feels exactly the opposite. I would buy this car all over again if I had to. It’s solid, rattle-free, the materials have a good feel to them, and it does everything it’s supposed to quite well. I wish the city MPG was a little better, but that’s because of the extra heft of the AWD system.
The 2004 Saab was mediocre at best. Some interior components felt okay, while others (such as dash switches and controls) were cheap and plasticky. Ticks and rattles were everywhere. The HVAC system heated and cooled well but blew a moldy smell whenever a/c was used. Two dealers were unable to correct the problem. In fact one service advisor even told me it was just the way the a/c system was designed. Huh? Also, at one point a blade broke off the a/c fan and the car spent three weeks in the dealer’s service department waiting for new parts. I never had anything repaired out of warranty, although I’ve been told by other Saab owners that repairs are very costly. I did replace the front brakes to the tune of around $550. As a precautionary measure we sold the car before the factory warranty expired.
As an aside, our 2004 9-5 had OnStar as an extra-cost option, as did our 2002 9-3. After we had the car for about three years OnStar discontinued providing service to the vehicles with analog wireless equipment like ours. Understandable with the switch to digital, although Saab made no concessions to buyers who paid extra for the OnStar option and were left with systems that no longer functioned. They made some insulting offer to cover a year’s worth of OnStar should I purchase another GM vehicle with the new digital wireless OnStar equipment. I chose to give a Volvo my business instead and couldn’t be happier about it.
The 2002 Saab 9-3 was actually a better car than the 2004 9-5. In hindsight we should have kept it and never purchased the 9-5. It never suffered any major breakdowns, but sounded like a pair of maracas when driving over the smallest bumps in the road. Everything in that car ticked and rattled. That doesn’t bother some people, but I find it endlessly irritating. To this day the 2003 BMW is as tight and rattle-free as it was new, yet Saab can’t seem to build a car that’s free of rattles even for its first year of service. The 9-3’s information display screen had to be replaced after about a year and there was a mysterious faint clunking noise that came from the front left wheel, although the dealer service never could determine the cause.
So based on our experiences, I’d say BMWs and Volvos are good cars, although proceed cautiously with Saabs and Mercedes. Repairs on any of them will be costly, but if you find a well maintained car for a really good price you might still come out ahead even if you have to repair a thing or two.
I think this concludes the longest post I've ever written.
