The Reddit community has deeply mixed feelings about Saab — many users celebrate the brand's legendary over-engineering, durability, and crash safety, while others warn of crippling maintenance costs and near-impossible repairability outside of Sweden. The brand's pre-GM era cars inspire genuine devotion, with multiple users reporting 200k–1M+ mile examples, but the consensus is heavily shaped by where you live and whether you have access to a knowledgeable mechanic.
Pre-GM Saabs can genuinely last decades and hundreds of thousands of miles, but their BIFL potential depends heavily on access to specialist mechanics and proximity to a market where parts and expertise are available.
Pre-GM Saabs are widely praised for exceptional build quality, rust resistance, and extraordinary longevity, with several users citing personal examples exceeding 300,000–1,000,000 miles. Their safety engineering and Swedish build standards drew loyal fans who simply never needed to replace them.
The biggest recurring criticism is that Saabs are extremely difficult and expensive to repair, with most mechanics refusing to touch them outside of specialist shops. The GM-era models are widely seen as a shadow of the original brand, and repair costs can be punishing.
A Top Gear episode captured the community's sentiment perfectly: no one could understand why Saabs cost so much until they crashed one — implying exceptional safety engineering justified the price.
One user bought a Saab for $500 expecting to drive it for a summer and was still driving it four years later with nothing but oil changes and a flat tire repair.
A commenter noted that in Sweden, Saabs are so common that you can buy an entire spare parts car for $500, making long-term ownership very practical — but this advantage almost entirely disappears outside of Sweden.
Someone who owned a 1999 Saab 93 for 17 years and 364k miles called it a great car, but ultimately switched to Volvo when faced with a $1,700 repair for a broken plastic heater selector.