2004 Saab 9-3 Aero Review & Ratings

Fourth Place: Saab 9-3 Aero
Bringing up the rear in this tight formation of overachievers is the pert, compact Saab 9-3. Despite a switch to a General Motors global platform last year, a cadre of dedicated Saabisti in Trollhattan, Sweden, have kept the Saab mojo alive--ignition key on the floor, dash blackout panel, and all. The 9-3 shares its GM Epsilon chassis architecture with the Chevrolet Malibu, Pontiac G6, and Opel Vectra; Saab fits its own suspension, steering, brakes, and turbocharged drivetrains. The three-door and five-door hatchback 9-3s of previous years are gone, replaced by a four-door sedan with seductive coupe overtones. Saab claims the new body is three times stiffer than its predecessor's, and it feels that way. There's a substantial quality to the structure, free of second-order buzzes, squeaks, and creaks.

It's no small task to make a convincing near-luxury sport sedan out of a smallish midsize front-driver. For one thing, the 93 competes with luxury sport-sedans powered by six-cylinder engines at least half again as large as Saab's. The little Swede closes the gap with turbocharging, squeezing 210 horsepower out of a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine (with a corporate GM/Opel block and Saab DOHC head) in Aero model trim. Under the right circumstances, turbo boost transforms this four-cylinder economy car into a rorty sport sedan. The 9-3 was the quickest car to accelerate to 30 mph in our group. But the turbocharged power comes in surges and waves.

Using the 9-3's intercooled turbo is a bit like surfing: Choreograph the throttle opening, engine speed, road load, and gear selection just right, and the car surges forward in a pleasing rush. Synchronizing all these parameters to keep pace with the ebb and flow of traffic, however, turns out to be challenging work. The 9-3's tip-in throttle response often tried our patience; as the transmission downshifts and turbo starts to build boost, it feels like the car actually slows down for a moment before gathering itself up. Meanwhile, the driver loses an opportunity to merge, pass, move over a lane, or pick an open slot in a long train of cars. When cruising down the highway off-boost in top gear, the 9-3's engine just feels flat--no throaty sounds from the intake, no burble from the pipes, no perceivable performance edge.

As nonlinear as the 9-3 Aero is in freeway traffic, unpredictable turbo boost is even more of a factor when it kicks in midcorner on twisty roads. Saab engineers tweaked the Epsilon platform with the Swedish automaker's own four-link independent rear suspension featuring ReAxs passive rear steering, weight-saving aluminum control arms, and large-diameter vented disc brakes, but numb, nonlinear steering dulls the man/machine interface. Though the suspension feels taut, chasing transient responses in the throttle and steering make the 9-3 Aero a less-is-more car.