Saab 9-3

The Saab 9-3 is a slightly left-field alternative to all those high-priced German small saloons. Handling and ride not quite up to par, so concentrate on the value and the performance.

• Comfort

  The ride is shuddery and gets worse with sportier chassis and tyres. But Saab's seats are great and the ergonomics well sorted.

  

• Performance

   Spec your 9-3 with a light-pressure turbo engine and you'll have useful overtaking performance at a price thousands less than a weedy 318i engine in a BMW. The turbodiesel engines are pretty lively too, and then once you go to full-boost or V6, you'll be tearing up the tarmac. Possibly accidentally.

  

• Cool

   The base models are a bit university lecturer, but the Turbo X in black is all Stig Blomqvist, Bjorn Borg, Abba and 1970s Swedish sex. Cool.

  

• Quality

  There is a slight old-school GM feel of wobbliness about some bits of the interior, but this car is fundamentally solid and they've had years of practice screwing them together. No worries.

  

• Handling

  The more powerful the engine fitted the less satisfactory: you get wheelspin and torque steer and general fuzziness. It can cope with the diesels and lower-power petrols well enough, especially if the roads are smooth and open. The XWD all-drive system is the only sensible route for the full-fat turbo versions: still not brilliant finesse, but security and decorum.

   

  

• Practicality

   It's a saloon not a hatch, but Saab is very good at taking care of the little things that make a car easy to live with. Like the world's best cupholders.

  

• Running costs

  Saab is getting more and more folded in with GM, which means close-to-Vauxhall servicing prices, a good thing. Low initial prices mean low absolute depreciation too, and some of the engines are pretty economical for their performance.