Very interesting comments on Greg Abbott’s reliability post. Interesting, too, that no-one’s piped up and said “I’ve had XXXX Saab for XXXX years and nothing/very little has gone wrong with it”.
Is that because it’s never happened?
For the record, nothing went wrong with my Viggen except for one broken shock absorber in the two years I had it before the crash. The only non-routine stuff we’ve done on our 9000 in three or four years is a radiator. All acceptable for the age of the respective cars.
A follow up post to Greg’s article will be coming shortly.
——
The Saab 9-4x gets some love from Mark Phelan of the Detroit Free Press in his “good and bad” article from the NAIAS:
Saab’s elegant and sporty crossover SUV rides on a new basic structure GM developed to give its luxury brands competitors for models like the BMW X3 and Acura RDX. The styling sets the tone for an expanding line of new models coming from the Swedish brand. Note the blacked-out pillars, which make the roof appear to be suspended over a glass cockpit, and a front view inspired by the nose and air intakes of the jet fighters Saab has built.
I think Mark’s got a soft spot for Saab going on previous pieces covered here, which is cool.
——
Yesterday I took to GM’s ‘accentuate the positive’ policy when it came to reporting sales of Saabs in 2007.
Today, there’s even more evidence in favour of ditching the corporate spin. Memo to GM: when you get caught out you look even worse!
It was widely reported this week that the two automakers finished in a dead heat for the No. 1 spot. Here is why: GM includes in its total 516,435 vehicles of the Wuling brand in China.
But GM owns only 34 percent of the Chinese company that produces Wuling vehicles, SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., a major automaker in China, owns 50.1 percent of SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co.
Automotive News follows industry practice by including sales of only majority-owned subsidiaries in an automaker’s global total. For instance, sales of Mazda Motor Corp. are not included in Ford Motor Co.’s total because Ford owns 33.4 percent of Mazda.
So Automotive News subtracts Wuling-brand sales from GM’s reported total, arriving at 8,885,599.
It’s hand-in-the-cookie-jar stuff and makes you seem more desparate when it’s discovered. Just build good cars. Start with Saabs.
OK?
——
(stolen) Saab 9-7x behaving badly:
Police are on the hunt for the driver of a stolen SUV who struck multiple vehicles during a flight from police this morning. The chain of crashes, which began north of downtown Edmonton, ended at 105A Avenue and 96 Street when the SUV driver smashed into a Ford minivan…..
……“He jumped out while (the SUV) was running,” Chisholm said of the SUV driver, who fled westbound on foot on 105A Avenue.
It turns out he also took out two cop cars prior to this as well.
No way to behave whilst one’s driving a Saab.
——
Saab-Cadillac-Corvette-Hummer dealership in Dresden, Germany.
How long until we see a setup like this in the US dominated by Saabs like this, with a Saab 96 in the showroom, too!
Click here for a large version.
I notice a lot of Saabs in that picture, not much viewing of the other brands. If the hummer was home in his part of the garage, would anyone else get in there?
And it’s good to see a bmw driver parked up having a test drive,
Sorry, I didn’t had time today to go through all the comments on that post. I write my answer here.
“I’ve had XXXX Saab for XXXX years and nothing/very little has gone wrong with it”
Well, I feel it’s true for me… I had my 9-3 MY01 for exactly 4 years now. The only thing that has gone wrong is the SID – the usual problem with the bad connector and I fix it myself about twice a year. Oh, and the badge on the hood is losing the paint. Other than those – nothing. Regular service once a year. Changed the H4 light bulbs 2 times. Changed 2 other light bulbs at the rear and a small one in the SID.
I you own something (like a car) and it works, you really don’t think about it and talk about spontaneously. It’s just a normal state that you tend to ignore it. But if you own something and you have problem with it, you tend to think about it because it is a part of your life in an annoying way. This is especially true for a car since, it’s expensive and its problems can really wreck havoc to your daily routine. So I think that for every person that say something positive about his/her car, you have 10 persons telling about all the problems they have or had.
i was passing through an unfamiliar area yesterday and saw this dealer. have you ever seen so many brands on one lot?
they did have a nocturne combi out front, which was nice. (nose to nose with a caddy…)
Funny you should mention that stolen 9-7X. I live in Edmonton and I was wondering if it would make it to this site.
jeffk: Yes. This is my Saab dealer (however, BMW, Volvo and Mini are not located there. The other 11 brands, including Saab, are at one facility.)
James: That’s a great line up at your local dealer. They seem to have a very large website budget. Their SAAB site is very different from the cookie cutter saab dealer sites and you can even build and price a car, including the Turbo X.
Off the topic of this thread, but in reference to the the one about the SAAB name vs. the SAAB logo, look at how well the SAAB logo stands out among all of those premium and even ultra premium brands.
jeff k – Wow, I wonder if they had Oldsmobile at some point. All they’re missing is Saturn, I think.
James – Wow again. No Lambo, but other than that…wow.
I had my 96 900S for two years and I’ve had…three pumps die (oil, air, and fuel, the last of which killed my car), a cracked oil pan (probably my fault), a ruptured coolant hose, a malfunctioning catalytic converter, a stretched timing chain, a rotted-through serpentine belt, a muffler that developed several rust holes at once, a bent something-or-other in the steering column that permanently screwed up my alignment, a cracked windshield, half a dead taillight, a severely dimmed headlight, my rear washer jet never worked, my headlight wipers never worked, half my SID stopped lighting up as much as the other half, a leaky trunk, and, of course, my badges were completely devoid of color.
As of Saturday, I will no longer be a Saab owner. I’m going to buy another one down the road, either an OG9-3 (SE or Viggen), or possibly a 9-3SC, if I can find one for cheap. I wanted an OG9-3 3-door, but I couldn’t find any for sale around here. As a result, I’ll be driving around in a ’94 Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe. DAMN that thing is fast.
Yeah – buying a Honda or Toyota would be
“safe”. But those companies can’t produce a car with personality or soul.
That’s why my next vehicle will be a Saab.
J
PS: for the record, i used to drive a Mazda 626
and an Acura Integra. the problems i had
w/ those cars will never lead me back to those
companies.
J: Of course, Acura=Honda.
On the GM/Wuling car thing: I’m not saying that the Automotive News is wrong; they likely aren’t. However, China is a different market, and 34% of a Chinese joint venture is a controlling stake. The Chinese government will always set up a company (SAIC in this case) as a 50.1% owner, but that owner does nothing except count money. The “joint venture” in China is a one way street — it’s the only way to build a business in China, and the business is completely up to the minority partners.
I tell you this: I am very leery of China when it comes to these things. I think that they are using the West to get what they want and they get it all on their terms. Bad precident.
I have had a 1999 Saab 9-3 for 8.5 years and nothing/very little has gone wrong with it! (knocking on wood, crossing fingers…) Sure the ignition cassette crapped out 6 months ago (it was the original), but other that the car has been a rock. Going back aways, my 1989 900 started having trouble when it was about 7-8 years old, but before that it was great. Can’t say anything bad about the 1997 NG900 I had sandwiched between owning the 2 other cars.
Maybe I’m lucky or maybe I take care of my cars and do the preventative maintenance recommended by Saab…
Up next a 9-3 Aero XWD. The only question is do I wait for MY09 when eLSD is rumored to come standard with XWD here in the States or go without in MY08. I’m not so concerned about the performance differences, rather I am concerned I may take a hit down the road on resale/trad-in value if MY08 turns out to be the only year the Aero doesn’t come equipped with eLSD (the depreciation on Saabs in the northeastern US is staggering as it is).
Sorry I didn’t get around to posting this sooner! I’ve always had excellent luck in terms of reliability with my Saabs. My current Saab is a 2001 9-3 which I bought used with 30K miles. It now has 100K and has not had any problems except for the SID pixel thing. Other than that it’s just oil changes and brake pads. My last Saab, a classic 900, went over 250K before major work-the transmission needed some help (and I wasn’t exactly conservative in my driving style). I think that people who do experience major problems are more compelled to make a statement than people who have not had any issues. I’m sure that for every person with a bad experience, there are far more content Saabers on the road. I’m definitely in the latter group! Oh yes, just for the record…my 1981 900S had 350K when I DROVE it to the salvage yard!
BrianL: It is a great lineup, but Saab gets lost too easily.
Since it’s also a big expensive snooty dealer (even their phone system has a woman with a British accent) it’s quite expensive parts and labor wise. I’ve found MAG selling parts for double what one of the Saab dealers in Cleveland sells them for.
Jeff–Lamborghini Ohio is about 20 minutes down the road from MAG. They claim to be the nation’s largest Lambo dealer. It’s odd that the nation’s largest Lambo dealer is in a city that’s barely a suburb of Columbus–whose biggest claim to fame is the Honda of America (Accord/TL) assembly plant.
It seems like some of the commenters on the reliability-related posts here imply that owners of Saabs with problems likely don’t take care of them like they should. I would disagree.
I think like many things you get some cars that have virtually no problems, others that are “lemons”, and varying levels in-between.
We bought my wife’s ’01 9³ certified-pre-owned in 2004. I wouldn’t say it’s been a “lemon”, but we’ve had many problems with it which I wouldn’t expect out of a modern car.
Just off the top of my head we’ve had to replace the air conditioning compressor which seized, causing the serpentine pulley to break along with the belt (the compressor was back-ordered and took weeks for the dealer to acquire while I had to drive around in a Kia rental car on Saab’s dime as the car was still under CPO warranty), the heater control in the instrument panel, the transmission mount, the suspension creaks to this day when driving over speed bumps (despite the dealer supposedly trying to fix this numerous times), the D.I. cassette failed, numerous coolant hoses have failed, the brake rotors and lug nuts show rust, and normal consumable items such as brake pads, tires, and bulbs have had to be replaced.
All this is in one of the supposedly more reliable Saab models (the OG9³). While I love the character and driving dynamics of the car, as well as the safety, I would not recommend it to a friend or relative. I wouldn’t want to catch hell about it every time their car is in the shop for expensive repairs.