On each Saab Aero project I've done, there's one part that I always find most rewarding; the interior refresh. The early 9-3 and 9-5 both have beautifully designed, intuitive aesthetics, but they've also proved to be superior quality too, they've faired well over the past 20 years and with patience and hard work can be brought back to a seriously nice place to be.
They do of course have their Achilles heal, and these from experience are the seat bolsters, the dash buttons and screen pixels. The soft touch rubberised coating on the buttons wears off easily and can also become sticky to the touch, I always look out for units that have minimal wear, but these are getting harder to find now, there are fixes around, but originality to me is always key. For the 9-5 Aero, I've managed to source a set of new dash units that have excellent buttons and also no missing pixels, they slot in beautifully and always help to remind me just how exemplary Saab interior design was.
The seats are always another area of wear, mostly on the driver's bolsters, but if not looked after, the entire seat surface can become cracked and tired. I've found a set of sand coloured leather Aero seats from a 2005 model, these offer more side support and comfort and work beautifully in the gen 1, I've also added leather trimmed door cards from the later model, some minor adjustments to the boot and full buttons are required, but again, the results really add to the overall interior feeling. I'll be having some new leather handle covers made as the rubber coating on these too, tend to perish and flake off.
Ive removed the seats and given the carpet a good clean, the seats have been cleaned and moisturised, and all surfaces treated. Ive added a brand new Saab Carbon Fibre dash and also another beautiful Nappa leather steering wheel by TunStyle to finish it all of nicely. Ive even found a set of new, genuine Saab sand coloured carpet mats which really do work wonders.
