Saab 9-3 Vector 1.9 tdi 150 Anniversary

Good long distance motor, excellent comfort and enough poke to be interesting

A company car this, I didn't get a choice as it was a hand-on from a leaving colleague. The Anniversary edition (pre face-lift) comes with a full list of goodies, with Sat Nav a useful highlight, along with the premium sound system. Ideal for cross country driving for my job. Performance is excellent and economy is good. Once you know the car well, you really can punt it around if you want, using the good grip from 245/40s to make up for the car's naturally understeery tendency. Excellent brakes too. The only negative, I find the steering very light and lacks feel for what's going on at the front - not good in icy conditions. Much of my 30000 miles/year is done on motorways where the Saab will bimble along quietly and with a surprisingly high natural cruising speed for hours and hours. At the other end, there are never any aches and pains, unlike it's predecessor A4 - a curse on all offset pedal arrangements and c***py seats.
The Bluetooth doesn't work well with my phone, and there are only a limited number of phone cradles catered for with the wired-in setup. Overall I like this car a lot, very pleasantly surprised considering I wouldn't have given this model (a Vectra in drag, I thought) a second thought had I had the choice.

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