History
The first car I purchased after graduating from college was a 2004 Saab 9-5 Aero. It was the first vehicle where I wasn't restricted by financial limitations, and the first vehicle where I got exactly what I wanted. I had previously owned a 1989 Saab 9000 and was smitten with the brand ever since that experience, so it wasn't too much of a surprise that I ended up with another one.
The car was beautiful and performance was adequate. The turbo powered 2.3 liter engine produced 250hp which gave impressive results on such a large and heavy sedan. Handling was mediocre, as the front heavy vehicle could get a little tail-happy when pushing the car. The interior was completely Saab, so it really felt like you had control of everything from your drivers seat - its a very comfortable feeling.
Despite my compassion for the car, there were some things I didn't like. The car was FWD, and after my experience with my father's Subaru WRX, I knew I wanted an AWD vehicle. The computer also is very controlling of the engine. If any modification was done to the car without flashing, the engine would compensate by decreasing fuel. Also, unless you drove the car hard all the time, the computer would decrease fuel in order to increase MPG. That was a huge shocker when trying to kick-down the car when exiting the highway.
Saabs in general are very expensive to modify because the demand is just not out there. Any performance part costs twice as much because demand is too low for economies of scale to take affect. Being that the car was very front-heavy, it suffered from lunging, but no coilover sets were made available.
One thing the Saab did do for me, was give me a huge appreciation for a well tuned inline 4-cylinder engine with a turbo. So when I started looking for a car to replace it, I knew I had to have it. Putting together my necessities, I wanted a luxury vehicle with a turbo-charged inline 4 engine. It had to be AWD and it had to come with a manual transmission. And of course, it had to look sporty. Only one vehicle matched my needs, and that was the Audi A4.