New 9-7x owner seeking out fellow GMT360 owners

MDBT

Original poster
Member
Jan 26, 2012
223
Hi, I'm Mike. I just picked up an 07 Saab 9-7x this week and I'm in the process of getting to know it. I've been a GM guy ever since my second vehicle (a 94 S-10)...my first was a Ford Bronco II that I rolled at the tender age of 16 because I was driving like, well, a 16 year old boy. I had a 99 Jimmy 4dr SLT 4wd that I loved dearly but it got too long in the tooth. My cousin had an 03 TB LS 4wd and I liked it but I wanted something a little different.

I'm and avid atv rider, at least when I can get away from work, and I've found atv forums to be an enjoyable way to gain and share knowledge and meet interesting people. I've registered on a few GMT360 based sites and found this site when panning through the Ohio section of one of them just about an hour ago. After looking around a bit I like what I see and I look forward to being a part of the community.
 

BO TIE SS

Member
Nov 18, 2011
1,497
Welcome fellow Ohioan ! :tiphat:

Ohio is a very active state for meets. Keep an eye on the Midwest section. :thumbsup:
 

Short Bus

Member
Dec 2, 2011
1,906
Welcome :tiphat:

Were do you ride? I use to ride 3 wheelers and dirt bikes in the Wayne National Forest in the mid 80's
 

HARDTRAILZ

Moderator
Nov 18, 2011
49,665
Howdy
 

MDBT

Original poster
Member
Jan 26, 2012
223
Thank you for the warm reception. I have spent a little time down in Wayne but I have been doing most of my riding in the sand the last few years. There are some sand dunes in Michigan on the west coast and I make a trip with friends out to Oklahoma when we can all get away. I keep meaning to get back into trail riding but it seems as time passes more and more of my friends give up the sport.

One of my first toys was an old Honda Big Red 3 wheeler and I recently had a Honda 185s. Trikes are a lot of fun.
 

MDBT

Original poster
Member
Jan 26, 2012
223

Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
MDBT said:
The Altitude was a special edition in 07 that was really just an option package that bundled running boards, chrome wheels, rear dvd, and a special paint color/finish. There were 500 made in 2007.

Rarefied Air: Saab intros 9-7X Altitude Edition
2007 Saab 9-7X Altitude Edition - Top Speed

They also had the Altitude package available in 08 and 09, but was available with all colors.

I came across one altitude edition when shopping for mine but the rims looked like they were scrubbed with steel wool. It was a corporate fleet vehicle with 30,000 miles and the whole thing was completely beat up but had a price as if it was pristine. I actually just got an email from the dealer telling me they finally lowered the price because of lack of snow and hence lack of interest in SUV's but it was still too high.
 

MDBT

Original poster
Member
Jan 26, 2012
223
There are a couple of imperfections on my wheels, but they could use a good cleaning. The dealership just kind of wiped them with a wet rag it looks like.

Hard to see here, crappy cell phone pic, but they do still shine. While I was looking for one to buy I had had it in my head I was going to get some aftermarket wheels and use the factory 18"s for snow tires but I like these well enough I don't think I'm going to bother.

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Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
MDBT said:
There are a couple of imperfections on my wheels, but they could use a good cleaning. The dealership just kind of wiped them with a wet rag it looks like.

Hard to see here, crappy cell phone pic, but they do still shine. While I was looking for one to buy I had had it in my head I was going to get some aftermarket wheels and use the factory 18"s for snow tires but I like these well enough I don't think I'm going to bother.

View attachment 3186

I'm sure they are really nice. 07 is still practically a new car. Both my 07's weren't put 'in service' until 08 anyway what is the 'in service' date of yours? Your Carfax should tell you. I have those same running boards on the Rainier and I'd like to get some on the 9-7 as well. Why don't you post up some more pictures of the inside and outside. By the way did you know that the 9-7x was the most leased car there was? It was because of the low numbers produced. Number 2 most leased car was one of the over the top expensive BMW models. My 9-7 was one of the few privately owned, one owner, no original loan or lean vehicles I came across. Even some of the 2009's had up to 4 owners which I never quite figured out. My criteria for buying was that I had to have the nav and the dvd player and wanted a one owner as well but I could have lived with out the one owner. I love the DVD because I can listen to internet radio from my cell phone through the RSE system or play a movie from the IPOD or cell phone. I also can use the car speakers to hear my cell phone calls through the RSE system as well which is cool. Finding both the Nav and DVD player was actually really difficult and so I had to buy mine out of state and have it shipped here to MN.
 

DJones

Member
Jan 21, 2012
701
St. Petersburg, Florida
The part numbers for the center caps would help me a ton. I can't seem to find them anywhere on the Internet, but some places sell the complete set with them included.
 

Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
DJones said:
The part numbers for the center caps would help me a ton. I can't seem to find them anywhere on the Internet, but some places sell the complete set with them included.

You lost me here. Do you mean the part number for the SAAB rim center caps? Saab center caps are stick on decals and they are all over Ebay.
 

MDBT

Original poster
Member
Jan 26, 2012
223
Mine was put "in service" on 9/29/07, first as a corporate lease, then a private owner, then me.

I wanted the DVD as well. The more I thought of it the more I wanted the traffic functionality of the newer stand alone GPS units, which I would be purchasing for my company vehicle. Since I had that, I didn't NEED it on the personal car, I could always switch it over. The DVD player is capable of taking an input and putting it through the speaker system by using the RCA jacks, something I learned about from a forum post, which will work for now. Mine also came with an ipod adapter already installed somehow, so while I would have liked the Nav as well I'm not going to miss it too much. I've also been looking into the Bluestar add on modules as the 9-7x didn't have bluetooth until 09.

It's been raining here the last few days, I'll be sure to post more pictures up when it clears up.:smile:

The wheels were available from 06 on. In 06 they were part of the Prestige package, 07-09 the Altitude package, but they were available as a stand alone option in each of those years. I don't think they were around in 05.
 

Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
MDBT said:
Mine was put "in service" on 9/29/07, first as a corporate lease, then a private owner, then me.

I wanted the DVD as well. The more I thought of it the more I wanted the traffic functionality of the newer stand alone GPS units, which I would be purchasing for my company vehicle. Since I had that, I didn't NEED it on the personal car, I could always switch it over. The DVD player is capable of taking an input and putting it through the speaker system by using the RCA jacks, something I learned about from a forum post, which will work for now. Mine also came with an ipod adapter already installed somehow, so while I would have liked the Nav as well I'm not going to miss it too much. I've also been looking into the Bluestar add on modules as the 9-7x didn't have bluetooth until 09.

It's been raining here the last few days, I'll be sure to post more pictures up when it clears up.:smile:

The wheels were available from 06 on. In 06 they were part of the Prestige package, 07-09 the Altitude package, but they were available as a stand alone option in each of those years. I don't think they were around in 05.

I have a stand alone nav unit but like the large screen on the 360's so only use it when I travel with rental cars now or on my boat to see my actual speed. The other cool thing about the 9-7x nav unit is that it is the only 360 to have two slots so you can use the Nav and play a cd at the same time (Our Rainier also has Nav and dvd). The second slot is behind the nav screen. I have checked out the Bluestar and others but you can actually buy the 2009 oem blue tooth module on ebay. You get a new onstar phone number and have to find a GM tech willing to hook the car up and make the onstar unit work though. The one thing I can't quite find a direct answer to though is if you can use the 2009 OEM bluetooth to stream music to the car like you do with phone calls. Apparenty as I read, people were simply buying the bluetooth module for their pre 2009 360's and so GM stepped in and made the module and the dealer service needed to make it work restricted. Now you buy a bootleg onstar blue tooth module and need to find a service tech willing to look the other way or at least that is what I read. Hooking the cell phone up to the RSE (rear seat entertainment system) is a B grade way to do the connectivity stuff where bluetooth seems to be on all the new cars these days. I'm just happy to have some way to hook up and not have to pay for any mods.

By the way how many miles are on your new 9-7?
 

DJones

Member
Jan 21, 2012
701
St. Petersburg, Florida
Jkust said:
You lost me here. Do you mean the part number for the SAAB rim center caps? Saab center caps are stick on decals and they are all over Ebay.

I'm looking for the GM part number for the actual center caps. Since they were most common on the 9-7x, I figured I would start there. Stick on decals would just fall off after a while and wouldn't solve the big hole problem.
 

Short Bus

Member
Dec 2, 2011
1,906
MDBT said:
Thank you for the warm reception. I have spent a little time down in Wayne but I have been doing most of my riding in the sand the last few years. There are some sand dunes in Michigan on the west coast and I make a trip with friends out to Oklahoma when we can all get away. I keep meaning to get back into trail riding but it seems as time passes more and more of my friends give up the sport.

One of my first toys was an old Honda Big Red 3 wheeler and I recently had a Honda 185s. Trikes are a lot of fun.

I had a Honda 185s. It had a Supertrap exhaust and a Gunner Gasser 1/4 turn throttle, I loved that thing. (I was 13 or 14 at the time)
 

MDBT

Original poster
Member
Jan 26, 2012
223
Jkust said:
By the way how many miles are on your new 9-7?

In a perfect world, I'd own an 09 Gray Aero w/ Nav and RSE :biggrin:

I test drove a cocoa brown 07 with the Nav and it was a nice unit. That particular car had too many miles (almost 80k) and some issues with the air suspension. That was the only car I found locally with both the Nav and RSE. The RSE wasn't a strict requirement for me, I don't have kids, but I'll take it. The Nav would have been nice to be sure though. The new garmin has a 5" screen, I'm hoping that will be sufficient.

I don't really have any use or desire for the OnStar service itself, though if it allows streaming over bluetooth and the bluestar does not I'll have to consider snagging the 09 part.

My "new to me" 9-7x has just a tick over 60k on it. I have a company car which means my personal vehicle only gets driven about 8k miles a year so it should last a while.

DJones said:
I'm looking for the GM part number for the actual center caps. Since they were most common on the 9-7x, I figured I would start there. Stick on decals would just fall off after a while and wouldn't solve the big hole problem.

You can find the center caps and the wheels here, though I'm not sure if those part numbers are OEM or not. The wheels are listed at $544.05 a piece though I'm sure there are cheaper ways to get your hands on them.

http://www.thesaabsite.com/97X/97Xrims.htm

Edit: I haven't been able to find those wheels on any GM parts sites. They only seem to have the standard alloys and not the optional chrome or the Aero wheels.

http://www.gmpartsdepartment.com/pa...teid=214533&vehicleid=1433749&diagram=7322300
 

Regulator

Member
Nov 20, 2011
2,496
Hiya, Welcome to the Nation!
 

MDBT

Original poster
Member
Jan 26, 2012
223
Jkust said:
Why don't you post up some more pictures of the inside and outside.

I always love to have an excuse to be a picture whore :thumbsup:

Here are a few I took yesterday. I also learned that the 6 disc changer doesn't play mp3's, I only have 1 of the original 2 wireless headphones (but it and the remote are in factory wrappers), and that Caddyshack is still fun to watch on a tiny screen.

I found out I have a Scoshe iPod interface, but it's buried under the dash somewhere and it doesn't work with my iPad. Buying a 250 dollar ipod just to use it doesn't seem like the best choice at the moment especially since I can't control it through the factory radio. And I can't seem to find the On-star box under the passenger seat but I may have found it under the center console.

I also went through my RPO list and found a website called compnine, only to find out it was dead. There's a site called rpocodes.com, but they're missing a lot of the codes on my sticker and some they do have don't seem to be correct (ie I don't have Emerald colored seats). I searched all over the web and haven't found a better resource, but I will keep looking.

Anyway, here are some pictures. I'm not terribly good with the editor so you'll still see me show up in some reflections :duh:

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BO TIE SS

Member
Nov 18, 2011
1,497
Very nice. My wife wants to know where you bought it.
 

The_Roadie

Lifetime VIP Donor
Member
Nov 19, 2011
9,957
Portland, OR
MDBT said:
...And I can't seem to find the On-star box under the passenger seat but I may have found it under the center console..
Welcome! I'd be fascinated with some pics of the rear seat area and the console. In our vehicles, the SRS airbag control module is at the rear bottom of the center console. But your console has the keyless ignition switch, doesn't it? So there was a bunch of electrical redesign I have no documentation for. Very important to buy the factory shop manual if they published one for the Saab, now it's an orphan.
 

Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
It looks really nice. I do really like the chromed rims. You can buy a 5$ jack to plug into your RSE system and at the least get the internet throught the radio or play movies for the back seat passengers from your phone.
As for the Aero, I'm not interested in the gas mileage. It is substantially worse than the 5.3 and the 5.3 is bad enough. I had to be at least a little practical given the 9-7 is my daily driver.
 

MDBT

Original poster
Member
Jan 26, 2012
223
BO TIE SS said:
Very nice. My wife wants to know where you bought it.

Thanks. The local ford dealer, Germain, had this on the lot. I was set on a white 08 9-7x at a Mitsubishi dealer on 23 just north of town but I got a better deal on this one and I prefer the color and options this one has.

the roadie said:
Welcome! I'd be fascinated with some pics of the rear seat area and the console. In our vehicles, the SRS airbag control module is at the rear bottom of the center console. But your console has the keyless ignition switch, doesn't it? So there was a bunch of electrical redesign I have no documentation for. Very important to buy the factory shop manual if they published one for the Saab, now it's an orphan.

I tried pulling up the dealer pictures but they've since removed them from the site. I just had the console apart to inspect the Scoshe hookup (to no avail) and came across some small boxes below it. I'll see if I can get some pictures. That's a good point about the manual, thanks. I will certainly be on the lookout for some documentation.

Jkust said:
It looks really nice. I do really like the chromed rims. You can buy a 5$ jack to plug into your RSE system and at the least get the internet throught the radio or play movies for the back seat passengers from your phone.
As for the Aero, I'm not interested in the gas mileage. It is substantially worse than the 5.3 and the 5.3 is bad enough. I had to be at least a little practical given the 9-7 is my daily driver.

That's the same thing that pushed me away from the Aero, that and most of them around me were another 5k or more. This will be primarily used for highway driving and towing, and bad weather conditions when the company car isn't sufficient so I too couldn't stomach the 5mpg or worse drop in economy. The 5.3 is a huge jump from the 4.3 vortec v6 in my old 99 Jimmy and I've never experienced the power from behind the wheel of a 6.0L powered GMT360 so for now I'm more than happy. I may look into a PCM tune in the future. I've been reading up and the combination of a few extra ponies along with economy performance intrigues me.
 

BO TIE SS

Member
Nov 18, 2011
1,497
MDBT said:
I was set on a white 08 9-7x at a Mitsubishi dealer on 23 just north of town
We were just at that dealership 2 weeks ago looking at Outlanders.

MDBT said:
I've never experienced the power from behind the wheel of a 6.0L powered GMT360
I can fix that. :wink:
 

Boricua SS

Member
Nov 20, 2011
3,080
Ohio
welcome from a fellow Ohioan up north in Lorain County...
 

Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
MDBT said:
and most of them around me were another 5k or more.

Yes it seemed most of the Aero's I came across had really low miles and were all pushing 20k or more. The sample wasn't really that big and maybe I saw three plus a couple on Ebay that never seemed to sell.

I justified the gas mileage of the 5.3 after having driven two GMC Acadia's for over a month total and realized the Acadia and the 3.6 liter got nearly as bad of mileage as our 5.3's. One of the Acadias was an AWD and the other was only FWD. I had considered an Acadia but to get one loaded up with AWD and lower miles, I'd have had to shell out maybe $10,000 more dollars to not get better economy but a few more updated tech bits.
 

cmd

Member
Dec 8, 2011
13
the roadie said:
Welcome! I'd be fascinated with some pics of the rear seat area and the console. In our vehicles, the SRS airbag control module is at the rear bottom of the center console. But your console has the keyless ignition switch, doesn't it? So there was a bunch of electrical redesign I have no documentation for. Very important to buy the factory shop manual if they published one for the Saab, now it's an orphan.

What pictures do you need? I would be happy to take them for you as a thank you for all of the help you have provided to me both at this site and the old one.
 

Instrumental

Member
Jan 29, 2012
268
I have an 07, and it's not keyless, but yes the ignition is in the center console. In the few weeks I've been digging around, I haven't found anything different so far from the other GMT360's. To be clear, I haven't opened up the center console, but the rear seat controls look just like the pictures I've seen of other GMT360's.
 

Jkust

Member
Dec 4, 2011
946
Instrumental said:
I have an 07, and it's not keyless, but yes the ignition is in the center console. In the few weeks I've been digging around, I haven't found anything different so far from the other GMT360's. To be clear, I haven't opened up the center console, but the rear seat controls look just like the pictures I've seen of other GMT360's.

There are quite a few differences on the 9-7 on the console having owned three 360's and two currently. I think every switch, dial and button is different and in a different location including even the washer stalk and just about everything else including the navigation system and steering wheel and buttons being different as well. Really the major changes that are noticable on the 0-7 mostly take place on the dash and console. The rest are additions and modifications to the handling plus a few novelties like the HID's and accompanying washers, engine cover, oem hood strut, and some others. When I drive my 9-7 then my wifes Rainier it takes a second to remember where everything is since every control is different. Even the fog light switch is totally different.
 

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