Do you think a nearly 13 year old saab 9-3 with roughly 200 000 km would be reliable? My dad told me I can get it for free. It's got a six-speed manual transmission with a diesel engine and a little surface rust.
Regards from Sweden.
If it runs and is free, why not? Normally I do not recommend Saabs for most people despite having owned them myself for about 40 years. However your situation is a little different.
The company is long dead and here in the U.S. most mechanics are not familiar with them. In Sweden the support network for Saab should be a better. Saab Parts (now Orio) did not go bankrupt and still provides OEM Saab Parts, though some parts have been discontinued or are in short supply. There is an active owner community that can also provide support. Since you're saying the car is nearly 13 years old it sounds like that is one of the cars built by Spyker towards the end.
We did not get the diesel engine in the U.S. so I can't comment on that. Manual transmission sounds good, no worries about a failing automatic trans.
Since the thing is free, if it runs and drives OK I would just use it until something expensive goes wrong with it.
