My parents have one exactly the same. Steel Grey with the full leather
interior. It's also an 03. Peroformance wise, it's not hugely quick
from a standstill, but 3rd and 4th gears are where the actions at. It
makes sense really, as you usually use the most acceleration when your
already moving.
A lot of magazines go on about there being build quality issues with
the cabin, but personally I don't see them. It's certainly no worse
than a Mk5 Golf, and in 2 and a half years, everything inside has
stayed put and is as solid as the day we got it. The piece of plastic
next to the handbrake (a mirror image of the handbrake when it's down)
is actually meant to come off as you can replace it with various things
from the accessories catalogue including another cup holder or a CD
holder. As it stands, it's a parking ticket holder which is a nifty
idea.
The earilier models (as it would appear your friends car is) have more
toys as standard. Saab constantly change the features and in early 04,
the Aeros no longer came with Xenons as standard (although they then
switched back to them later again that year). Furthermore, the
headlight sprayers changed from the pop up jobs to permanent warts that
stick out in late 03 as someone somewhere (possibly Antarctia) had a
problem with them freezing shut! It won't ever be a problem here though
as it never gets cold enough. More recently, the rear air vents have
been deleted on the lesser models.
As a few checkpoints: All 03 model cars had the 6 speed transmission.
It's not the fastest or smoothest of gear changes at the best of times,
but it does get very, very notchy in the winter. Make sure you drive
the car for a decent amount of time and check that this notchyness goes
away. If it doesn't, or it jumps out of gear at any time then it's time
for a new box! They changed the design of the syncromesh on the box at
some point (not sure when) as it had a habit of malfunctioning. My
parents got a new gearbox under warranty as it got so bad that there
were times when you couldn't get it into gear!
On the early cars, the black paint on the door handle surrounds has a
habit of fading and flaking. Again, this is a warranty job, but if it's
just fading, back to black will sort it. The handles and the surrounds
are made from different materials (the surrounds are a titanium alloy
to prevent theives from doing the old job of ripping the lock out), so
they fade at different rates.
Check the front spoiler. It will get caught in multistory carparks, but
it's not visable usually. Make sure it's not been clouted really hard
though as it's only held in place at the far right and left of the
bumper.
The brakes often squeal on the Aero. The dealer can clean them for you
(and I've heard of them being replaced too), but unless it's really
bad, it's nothing to worry about.
The roof and boot dent very easily. We had some conquers fall on them
last autumn and it made a load of tiny little dents all over the roof
which were sorted by a dent repairer. The boot can't be fixed though as
it's double skinned.
The paint on the sideskirts can peal in some cases. It's very rare, but
woth a look. Wheelarch get's quite chipped too, but generally nothing
worse than you would expect.
The standard PZeros will last about 15k at the front when driven
carefully. I would reccommend using Goodyear Eagles though when it
comes to replacement as they have softer sidewalls which makes the ride
less jarring and stops a lot of the tramlining.
The SID (the display on top of the dash) has a habit of going wrong in
it's fuel calculations. This can usually be fixed by holding down clear
for 5secs.
Hope that helps. It's unlikely you'll have any of the gearbox problems
or anything else major. The engines are well made and reliable, and
service intervals are 18k and about ?200 a time and they're very
comfortable on the motorway and quite entertaining round the back
roads. There are numerous tuning companies who will take the power from
210bhp to 250 and there seem to be no problems with them so far.
Price wise....you're looking at anywhere between ?17k and ?20k
depending on it's condition and the number of options it has. Expect to
pay ?18k though.
Good luck...and enjoy
