Saab 9 3

Our verdict

The Saab 9-3 SportWagon is a slightly left-field alternative to all those high-priced German estates. 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.

10 out of 20

Performance

Spec your 9-3 with a light-pressure turbo engine and you'll have useful overtaking performance at the 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.

10 out of 20

Cool

On the way to being as cool as those ice-block rear lamps.

11 out of 20

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.

10 out of 20

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.

10 out of 20

Practicality

The boot, if you load it to below the windows and keep the back seat up, isn't huge. But it's a car that presents you with lots of options in use, all of them carefully thought through, like the double-floor boot.

15 out of 20

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.

10 out of 20