2007 Saab 9-5: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 2007 Saab 9-5
On the 2007 Saab 9-5, the failure owners report most often is airbag inflator rupture, with 9 reports on file. Across every failure mode on this year, half the dated reports were filed before 50,000 miles. Overall it scores 65 out of 100, high risk for a 2007.
High risk for a 2007 — 261st riskiest of the 365 2007 vehicles we can rate. 17 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork.
What breaks on the 2007 Saab 9-5
Owners have reported 6 named failure modes on the 2007 Saab 9-5, and the three most-reported carry 65% of everything filed, so the trouble here is concentrated rather than scattered.
Airbag inflator rupture leads with 9 reports and about 1.0 per 1,000 vehicles.
Steering column or shaft failure follows with 1 report, median 50,000 miles.
Other engine problem follows with 1 report, median 5,000 miles.
By system, the reports fall mostly into airbag (9), steering (1) and engine (1).
When these failures get reported
Too few of the reports on this year carry an odometer reading to describe the timing: 7 of them do. The mileages quoted elsewhere on this page come from the modes that have enough of them.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
How bad it is when it goes
Nothing in the reports on the 2007 Saab 9-5 mentions a crash, a fire or an injury. That is the ordinary case and it is worth stating: most defect complaints are about a car that stopped working, not one that hurt somebody.
The average severity weight across every report on this year is 5.47, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.
What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: airbag inflator rupture at $0–$0, steering column or shaft failure at $600–$2,500, other engine problem at $300–$4,000 and other powertrain problem at $400–$4,500. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.
12% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.
Every reported failure mode
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbag inflator rupture | airbag | 9 | 2 | — | 104k | — | 1.0 | $0–$0 | Critical |
| Steering column or shaft failure | steering | 1 | 1 | — | 52k | — | 0.1 | $600–$2,500 | Critical |
| Other engine problem | engine | 1 | 1 | — | 6k | — | 0.1 | $300–$4,000 | High |
| Other powertrain problem | transmission | 1 | 1 | — | 18k | — | 0.1 | $400–$4,500 | High |
| Other electrical problem | electrical | 1 | 1 | — | 62k | — | 0.1 | $250–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Other speed control problem | adas | 1 | 1 | — | 35k | — | 0.1 | $250–$2,000 | Critical |
| Unclassified problem | other | 3 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.3 | — | Moderate |
Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.
How often, against how many were built
Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 2007 Saab 9-5 draws about 1.8 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 74th percentile of complaint rates among 2007 vehicles we can rate.
That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.
The working figure is 9,476 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 2007 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The odometer reading is the one the owner gave.
Airbag inflator rupture
Takata recall - I received the attached letter in may, 2016. The vehicle is unsafe to drive. However, gm tells me it's ok to drive. That's not acceptable. Attached is an e-mail string of my correspondence with gm. I can't drive the car, it's in storage; and I can't sell it without full disclosure, which makes it worthless. And it's been six months with no indication that the replacement parts will be available soon.
Takata recall: gm/saab sent me notification at the beginning of may that my vehicle was subject to a recall because of saftey concerns around my airbags. However, the manufacturer has yet to offer a solution - they note that parts are not available. No date is given for a remedy. I feel like I've been driving a defective, potentially dangerous vehicle for 2 months without a sense of when this problem will be resolved.
Steering column or shaft failure
Steering column lower u-joint became loose causing vague steering. U-joint is not correctly sized to take loads of steering input and over time becomes loose and noisy. This looseness causes the driver to overcompensate when driving. First notified in june, 2014. *tr
Other engine problem
Tl*the contact owns a 2007 saab 9-5. While driving 50 MPH and attempting to accelerate, the vehicle stalled. The failure occurs intermittently. The dealer was unable to diagnose the cause or duplicate the failure on two occasions. The contact is aware of the safety risk involved. The current and failure mileages were 5,800. Updated 09/18/07 *tr
Recalls on the 2007 model year
NHTSA has issued 2 recall campaigns covering the 2007 Saab 9-5, affecting an estimated 17,674 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.
The campaigns cover air bags:frontal:driver side:inflator module and seats:front assembly:head restraint. Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.
Recalls also distort complaint counts. Publicity about a campaign reminds owners that complaining is possible, so reports for a recalled component often spike after the recall rather than before it.
AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:DRIVER SIDE:INFLATOR MODULE
113,716 vehicles 2016-02-03- Defect
- General Motors LLC (GM) is recalling certain model year 2006-2011 Saab 9-3 vehicles manufactured May 31, 2002, to February 15, 2011, 2006-2009 Saab 9-5 vehicles manufactured June 7, 2005, to May 28, 2009, and 2008-2009 Saturn Astra vehicles manufactured April 11, 2007, to July 24, 2008. Upon deployment of the driver's frontal air bag, excessive internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture.
- Consequence
- In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the driver's frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants resulting in serious injury or death.
- Remedy
- GM will notify owners, and dealers will replace the driver's frontal air bag inflator on Saab 9-3 and 9-5 vehicles and will replace the driver's frontal airbag module on Saturn Astra vehicles, free of charge. The recall began on March 1, 2017. Owners may contact Saab customer service at 1-800-955-9007 or Saturn customer service at 1-800-553-6000. GM's number for this recall is 28810.
SEATS:FRONT ASSEMBLY:HEAD RESTRAINT
57,389 vehicles 2008-04-09- Defect
- Saab is recalling 57,389 my 2002-2008 9-5 series vehicles for failing to comply with the requirements of federal motor vehicle safety standard no. 201, "occupant protection in interior impact." during compliance testing, one of the upper interior occupant protection test points exceeded the standard's requirements.
- Consequence
- In the event of a vehicle crash, personal injury to occupants may occur.
- Remedy
- Dealers will install a-pillar trim with improved energy-absorbing capability free of charge. The recall began on november 25, 2008. Owners may contact saab at 1-800-955-9007.
Recall work is free at a franchised dealer regardless of the car's age. Check the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before assuming it was done.
How it ranks in the 2007 field
The score at the top of the page, placed among its peers. The zones are the same thresholds the scorer applies, read out of the scorer itself, so the picture and the band word cannot disagree.
Scores are ranked within the model year, never across years, because an older car has had longer to accumulate reports.
- Left fewer and less serious reports
- Right more, or worse
- Marker this vehicle
Where 2007 sits in the model line
High risk for a 2007 — 261st riskiest of the 365 2007 vehicles we can rate. The comparison is always within the same model year, so an older car is never penalised for having had longer to break.
Across the 10 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 2005 comes out best at 56 and 2002 worst at 67, with 2007 itself at 65.
If the model year is negotiable, 2005, 2000 and 1999 score lower than 2007 by a margin worth acting on. Same body, same engines, different luck — usually a supplier change or a mid-cycle fix, which the complaint data can show but never explain.
Within the 2005–2011 generation specifically, 2005 is the strongest year at 56 and 2008 the weakest at 66.
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.
Within the 2005-2011 generation, 2005 Saab 9-5 scores best at 56 and 2008 Saab 9-5 worst at 66.
Where these figures stop being useful
17 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.
Of those 17 reports, 7 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 41% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".
Named failure modes come from matching phrases in the complaint text, so a badly worded complaint can land in the wrong bucket. The effect washes out across hundreds of reports and does not wash out across five.
And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.
Questions this page answers
What are the most common problems with the 2007 Saab 9-5?
The most-reported failures are airbag inflator rupture (9 reports, median 105,000 miles), steering column or shaft failure (1 report, median 50,000 miles) and other engine problem (1 report, median 5,000 miles). Counts come from owner complaints filed with NHTSA, which are voluntary, so they show what owners bothered to report rather than every fault that occurred.
Is the 2007 Saab 9-5 reliable?
It scores 65 out of 100 on our risk index, which is high — 261st riskiest of the 365 2007 vehicles we can rate. The score is a comparison against other 2007 vehicles, not a prediction about any individual car, and it is built from complaint rates, severity and how early failures appear.
Which year of the Saab 9-5 is best?
Within the 2005–2011 generation, 2005 scores best at 56 out of 100 and 2008 worst at 66. Same body, same engines, different luck.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed