All offer more or less the same amount of spec for the price, all go like stink, offering a varying amount of quirkiness and individuality and all seem to chase what many reckon to be the class icon — the five. But then there's the wildcard...

Saab's 9-5 Aero costs R397 500, gets to 100 in 6.9 seconds and runs an easy 250km/h top whack. It's far quirkier than the rest and beats that icon in every one of those three vital parameters. And we beat it in the Total Economy Run too — by a whisker, but a win, pal, is a win...

Perhaps its because we've lived with our svelte Swede for six months now, but we're getting more and more involved with it. We're starting to overlook its odd habits and those few faults that bug us, and enjoy it for what it is and what it boasts.

I spent about 4000km running the car gently at just on the speed limit on all kinds of roads while preparing for the Economy Run and another thousand plus in the event. That meant not once did I urge it onto the boost — beyond the white part of the turbo gauge — in more than a month of driving. Not once did I revel in that marvellous, fluid, torquey turbo rush of Aero acceleration. I never took it past three grand on the tach. And I never missed it.

OK, I had a good deal of Economy Run Calf — the ache one gets after hours of fine throttle work while keeping that pedal at precisely the position that's ideal. Nevertheless, I thrived in the lounge, that airy, spacious lounge that's 9-5 Aero's cabin.

The same chair that hugged me while I taught those hot hatch heavies the lesson of their month has cosseted my bulk for long, boring hours and I can report nothing less than comfort all the way. All three of our observers in the run commented on the comfort, space and legroom at the back, each asking why there was so much space — didn't we want to move back a whole lot?

And at the pump, in the end, it stole the Economy honours from that iconic five, too...

So, yes, I've become a Saab 9-5 Aero lover. Among its rivals listed, it's the cheapest, the fastest and the quickest and it won that four hundred grand class for us in the 2003 Total Economy Run. Looking at in that way and based on our Top 20 principles, it's a landslide winner...

Need any more reasons why we love our Saab...?