2009 Saab 9-3 problems
Owners have filed 46 complaints with NHTSA about the 2009 Saab 9-3. Air bags is the most reported problem area, at 37% of complaints. After that come engine (28%) and fuel system (9%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 46 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 37% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 1 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 0 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 63,000 miles 29 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 6 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 4 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 3 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 10 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 3 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 2 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 1 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Among the 29 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 62,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 1 complaint mentions a crash. Its complaints are less severe on average than those of 94% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2009 ranks 12th most-complained-about out of 13 model years of the Saab 9-3 with enough data (14 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
My hood release( what I pull to pop the hood inside of the car) broke 14 months ago and I had the old saab dealer fix it. You would pull it and nothing would happen. About a month ago the same thing happened. The hood would remain in the completely shut position. On 3-14-15 I was driving 40 miles per hour and the hood flew up and smashed into the windshield. Thank goodness I was not on the highway and there were no cars close by. If this happened on the highway I hate to think what could have happened.
Drivers side low beam is dim. Dealer found the low beam bulbs were overheating. Replaced low beam bulbs and reprogrammed the electrical center under the hood with new software to prevent the headlight bulbs from overheating.
After starting car and adjusting seat I backed out of parking space and applied the brakes which did not seem to work properly. The car eventually stopped as I was not going very fast. I put the car in drive and began to accelerate to move to another parking spot and as I turned the corner going approximately 10 MPH I applied the brakes and they did not work; I accelerated again to test the brakes again and they did not work; I again accelerated to test the brakes again and they still did not work.
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 saab 9-3. While driving at an unknown speed, the contact heard a rattling sound near the front passenger side of the vehicle. The contact self-diagnosed the vehicle and stated that the front coil spring was fractured. The vehicle was not repaired and the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 44,000.
The driver side and passenger seat belt retractor fails to retract. The driver side has some retraction left and passenger side has none left. I found the recall notice from june 2014 however it only mentions the convertible model while my vehicle is the station wagon. The recall should be expanded to cover other models that have the same issue.