Looking for something special E39 alternatives

A Saab 9-5 is 80% of the drivers' car an E39 is but with 150% of the gas mileage, at 30% of the price, and mods can raise both of those performance percentages. Perhaps something to look at. You can get REALLY close to 400HP with nothing more than a downpipe, 3.5bar FPR and a tune.

How big is the Saab vs the Jetta? and what about reliability? The car above is quite lustworthy

SlickDizzy wrote: A Saab 9-5 is 80% of the drivers' car an E39 is but with 150% of the gas mileage, at 30% of the price, and mods can raise both of those performance percentages. Perhaps something to look at. You can get REALLY close to 400HP with nothing more than a downpipe, 3.5bar FPR and a tune.

Having owned both, I'd say the 9-5 is more like maybe 50% the drivers' car, with 110% of the gas mileage, and 200% of the problems and difficulty to work on.

Oh that darker one makes my pants all weird.

I owned a 9-5 but put my dad in an E39 528i when he was shopping, FWIW. 200% of the problems is exaggerated, you make it sound like E39's don't have issues (A/C fan shriek of death, broken cupholders & trim, etc). A 9-5 with a tune and upgraded or Aero suspension is pretty entertaining. And with Saab's recent woes, you can pick them up for pennies on the dollar compared to an E39. I think they're an incredible value for money and worth the few hassles overall; I paid $1200 for mine, it returned 34MPG on the freeway on my best tank, was a hoot to drive and I sold it for $2650. That being said the E39 is also a very good car. I just think the 9-5 is a better bargain, and it will definitely return better gas mileage on a commute. They look pretty sharp stock, too.

Volvos are bulletproof, cheap and spacious. Maybe an 850?

For 20 grand you could also get a new Elantra with 40 mpg.

Oh, I know the E39s have their issues as well, but my experience (accepting fully the limitations of a sample size of one) has suggested that the BMW's problems are mostly easy to deal with and/or relatively inconsequential, while I had a fair few minor problems and several major, costly, and enormously inconvenient problems in the Saab. And I didn't even have the common sludge, oil pump or DI cassette failures.

Almost everything I've had to deal with on the BMW has been pretty easy to do (relatively speaking), while the Saab was apparently not designed with maintenance or repair in mind for anything beyond oil changes.

Oh, and for anyone with a 9-5, I've still got a bunch of maintenance and repair parts on the shelf that I'll let go cheap.

Volvo is a good option. Wish it was RWD and seems hard to find manual trans cars?

Sad, turbo wagon sounds nice but..

http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?zip=92056&endYear=2013&modelCode1=V70&sortBy=derivedpriceASC&showcaseOwnerId=342970&startYear=1981&makeCode1=VOLVO&transmissionCode=MAN&searchRadius=0&listingId=322185188&Log=0

Truedelta does not have good records on reliability for the volvo's

I have an 850 - basically the same car as a V70 - and love the way it drives. It has just enough power to make the FWD noticeable. RWD would be awesome but the AWD setup on them isn't that great. The biggest issue for you I think is the back seat's not going to handle two rearward facing baby seats and have room in front for you. It's a decent back seat but it's still a fairly compact car.

Then again, I don't know that an E39 is going to be any better.

Reliability wise, I don't see them as any more troublesome as an E39, but that's all anecdotal evidence. Maybe the actual numbers tell a different story.

Jaguar X-Type?

In reply to SlickDizzy:

How did you get that for 1200? Beaters around here seem to go for 5k.

One thing to keep in mind is that the situation regarding rear-facing child seats has changed in the past year. The previous recommendation (by the American Academy of Pediatrics) was to have the child rear-facing until they were 12 months/20 lbs, and now they're recommending kids stay in a rear-facing car seat until they're 2. It definitely changes the length of time you're dealing with a rear-facing seat, and also increases the odds that you'll have two rear-facing seats (or an infant and a rear-facing seat) at the same time.

In addition to the rear-facing seats taking up a lot of room, most of the the infant car seats are much deeper than the front-facing child seats, so those can pose issues in terms of space, as well. We actually owned a '00 Saab 9-3 when we had our 2nd child (our oldest was 19 months old at the time), and we ended up selling that car and putting the proceeds towards a minivan. As it was, one rear-facing seat in the center rear position was a tight fit with the driver's seat adjusted for me (I'm 5'10" with average leg/torso proportions). Granted, switching to a smaller car seat might be one answer (we used Britax Marathons, which are enormous), but the bottom line is that rear-facing seats make it much tougher to fit kids in a car (but are admittedly much safer). I'd highly recommend that you factor the size of the car seat into the equation when you purchase them. After all, t's much cheaper to go out and get another car seat than it is to switch vehicles because the car seat doesn't fit in the car!

I've always thought that Nissan Maximas struck a good balance between a fairly large car that was reliable, fun-to-drive, and got decent mileage. My preference would be one of the '02-03s with the 6spd manual

My daughter is turning 2 in less than a month and we just turned her around. I just read someone else's thread on here about the Maxima

Subaru WRX and STI's pretty much all get poor mileage yes?

Cotton wrote: In reply to SlickDizzy: How did you get that for 1200? Beaters around here seem to go for 5k.

Have you checked book value on one since Saab went out of business? Mine was 'worth' $900 - values are through the floor these days...

In reply to mazdeuce: one rear facing child seat in the center of a 2 means the other two kids use the baby as an armrest. We took a seat with us to see.

Jaynen wrote: My daughter is turning 2 in less than a month and we just turned her around. I just read someone else's thread on here about the Maxima Subaru WRX and STI's pretty much all get poor mileage yes?

27-28mpg highway stage 2 (exhaust, boost, tune). They have noticeably less rear seat room than an e46.

That is quite a bit better than I was thinking it was. This is the standard WRX I assuming? From what years? I have seen some cool looking old body style foresters :)

I love wagons and hatchbacks

Consumer reports is showing the WRX back seat as being even smaller than the Jetta

Jaynen wrote: That is quite a bit better than I was thinking it was. This is the standard WRX I assuming? From what years? I have seen some cool looking old body style foresters :) I love wagons and hatchbacks

The exhaust/boost/tune are a requirement to get that mpg. More mpg AND more horsepower.

Bugeye WRX non sti.

Darn you mean you have to get MORE power too, what a bummer. Does the necessary exhaust pass california smog? How much does it add to the cost of the car so to speak

Is essentially the same thing true for the second gen XT Foresters?

In reply to Jaynen:
By the way...Welcome to GRM.
It seems you will fit in quite nicely around here.

I'll let you in on "the secret handshake." Go to the bottom of this wiki listing for some of "the rest of the story."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassroots_Motorsports

I've been a lurker for a while and reader of the mag for a couple years just not a poster. I need to ditch the noob tag that is missing avatar :)

MrJoshua wrote: In reply to mazdeuce: one rear facing child seat in the center of a 2 means the other two kids use the baby as an armrest. We took a seat with us to see.

Yea, we called that "playing with the baby". It worked out fine for us but I can see it bothering some people. I keep saying that I can fit 3 booster seats in my 2, and I can, the problem is that its tight enough that I need to help my 6 year old buckle up most of the time. That's why I drop them off for school in the car, where they just have to unbuckle by themselves, but I pick them up in the truck where they have enough wiggle room to do it themselves. The details are very important when it comes to car seats.

In reply to mazdeuce:

Lol-our 18 month old tends to kick her siblings if they are in range. It takes about 30 seconds after getting in the car for one of the the kids to yell- "Daddy, can we take Aria's shoes off?"

Kids are awesome.