I fly a 2000 Saratoga regularly. It's a turbo-charged retract version.
Cruising at 30" and 2300 while keeping the TIT below 1650 results in 18.5 gph in the 5000' range. Get up towards 8-9 and it comes closer but not exactly to the book of 16.5 gph.
The cruise speed seems to be a little slower than book (shocker, I know) but you can count on 155-160 true. If you get up to O2 levels then maybe you can achieve book speeds, never tried it.
You can only carry 6 if you have several little people. Just did a trip a week ago with 6 but 3 were kids and my lady is pretty tiny. Needed to keep the fuel at ~45 gallons to accommodate passengers and very light baggage. Keep in mind this plane has an A/C and built in O2 which cuts into weight. On the other side of W&B, if have just one other person up front with you and try full fuel you may be too far forward with the CG. 102 gallons is max fuel usable.
I can't speak to maintenance problems because I rent it. I'm glad to have been able to because it helped me realize that a twin is what I need (in the market now). It goes a little slower than I'd like, burns more fuel than I'd like (bridges the twin gap), and most importantly it doesn't have the useful load I need at times. Like I said above, you will find yourself (even with 4 adults) offloading quite a bit of fuel which kills the range with that burn rate. If an SP isn't turbo charged, I'm not sure, then it would be better in my flat lander book.
As with your prior Piper time, it lands perfectly fine as long as you don't chop the throttle. The plane flys solid like you'd expect from a heavier single. This one has an STEC 55 which can get goofy at times switching from enroute to approach but when it doesn't get goofy, it fly's the approach all the way down to MDA/DH. If you hold off on the gear till first notch flap speed and do both simultaneously you can't even really feel the pitch change.
Overall, a very good airplane (in my opinion) just not excellently suited for me.
