Is a Saab a good first car?

id say no.. Although Saab is a nice car they are not very reliable in my opinion... Parts are expensive as well.. not sure who makes Saab these days but regardless any mechanic will charge you top prices to fix it..

Jeff, Like any other car, be thorough with what you are buying. Generally, look for corrosion, leaks, and other miscellaneous items that are signs of premature wear and failure. Understandably price point has something to do with that so some wear for a car of that era is expected. As for a Saab 9000 specifically. I personally have only owned the 9-3SS and a 9-7X, both of which were later models built by General Motors. The 9-3 was a great car, it was a 2006 and was after the "buggy year". The 9-7X, well its a GM and lets leave it at that. My experience with this era, stay away from the 2004s, particularly because it was GM's first years with a technology they were not overly experienced with. For instance, the main wiring harness in the 9-3 is fiber optic, not copper cabling. This is something frequently done on "higher end" cars such as BMW or Mercedes. The following years proved much more successful. As for my 9-3, I never spent a dime on maintaining it other than routine oil and so on. My 9-7X on the other hand, still to this day is a service departments best friend and my wallets worst enemy. It suffers many GM common issues for their small and mid sized SUVs. It currently has a new engine, rebuilt transmission, and a rebuilt transfer case. All of which completed within 20k miles and it only has 84k miles. But other than that, I'm still a fan of Saab. The 9-7X I currently own is plagued with the same issues a previously owned Isuzu Ascender had, also the same GM platform. Anyway... enough of that. I do know many people that have owned and still own the elder 9 series cars. The original Saabs so to speak. They love them. They come with little problems from what I know as well and have proven quite dependable. I hear they also do pretty good in cold weather and snow as well. I know my 9-3 did great. I think, and if you have time, you'll find the best way to answer your question in great detail is to jump into an Owners forum and express your concern there. A forum such as www.saabcentral.com would be a great place to start. I've done the same in the past and people are quite receptive to such a question and will eagerly express and share their thoughts and opinions. I too am a member to that site and it has proven exceptional for when the time comes and I need to find parts, service, or other information vital to owning a Saab. Edmunds also posts known data about maintenance and ownership costs. You can look up your selected vehicles associated costs at www.edmunds.com. I've found it is a pretty reliable source as well. Hope this helps, happy venture!