Five stars for adult occupant protection in the Euro NCAP crash tests and a long history at Saab of investigating real-life road crashes means the 9-5 is one of the safest vehicles on the road. All cars also come with a potentially life-saving electronic stability programme as standard.

A 500-litre boot is better than a Volvo S80, but falls short of the standards set by newer cars, like the BMW 5-Series (520 litres) and Audi A6 (546 litres). The boot opening is wide though and the load lip not overly high, so loading and unloading heavy or larger items isn’t too much of a struggle. Storage areas in the cabin include door bins, stowage pouches on the front seats, a net pocket in the passenger footwell, map pockets in the front seat-backs and cubbies in the front and rear armrests.