Complaint Review: Saab Automobile USA

I purchased my 2004 Saab 93 Linear 2.0 in 10/04 because of a friend that had pretty good luck with his 2001 Saab Hatchback. To date, this has to be the worst purchase decision of my life.

Within just a couple of days my brakes started making a deplorable squealing/screeching sound when I applied the brakes or turned a corner. On 10/20/04 I took it in and they replaced the 3rd left and the 4th right brake calipers, brake housing, brake hose, seal, and took care of the brake pads.

Within just a few days they started making the same noise again, and I took it in yet again for service and they reworked the brakes. I didn't even have the car out of the shop another 5 days when they started squealing again and had to take it back. It took 3-4 times for Saab to fix the brake problem.

Since then I have had in in for two recalls, one for the keyless entry, and the other for a brake recall that was not related to my prior experience. I have also had it in for the cruise control, apparently the bottom of the control module was unplugged. Like on of the previous writers, my alloys are also rusting and started looking awful at about 25-30k because of the incessant brake dust being kicked up, and I have had the decals (front and rear) redone twice because they keep peeling, also some of the interior is peeling as well. My most recent problem is an error message that states "power lock system failure", and locks me into the vehicle or renders me unable to get into the vehicle without actually needing to physically use the standard key. I also get a error that reads "anti lock system failure" and the alarm will randomly go off.

In addition, the car will sputter and sometimes die, but starts back up. The three problems are somehow interconnected. I have taken it to the dealer 3-5 times for these problems and they can not find the problem because it is failing to produce an error code in the system, or when it dies and I restart it, it will fail to save the error code per my service advisor.

At first I thought it was the mechanics at the dealership, so I took it to another local Saab dealer. They couldn\'t find the problem either. At this point my vehicle had about 46k on it and I was worried that when my warranty expired that I would end up being responsible to pay for SAAB\'s defective parts out of my own pocket, so in turn I called SAAB customer service and opened a claim.

Even SAAB customer service wasn\'t able to figure out what was going wrong with the vehicle and I finally decided to go forward and tell them they need to buy the car back. They opened a claim for me and it took almost 2 weeks to even hear from someone in legal affairs, and when he did finally call me back they offered me a 2 year, 24k warranty. He told me it would cover the electrical system, etc. At the time I thought it was great. I thought they were giving me a lovely cushion.

I received the Fed Ex\'d paperwork in the mail and read the warranty policy. It has limited electrical coverage considering I drive a Saab and I realized that they did hand me a cushion, but the cushion was empty. In reviewing it I soon realized I would be lucky if their warranty even covered the parts that are malfunctioning in my vehicle.

The icing on the cake is they also sent me a "release and settlement of claim" form. This states that I would agree to "release and forever discharge SAAB Automobile and the said dealership, their officers, directors, representatives, shareholders, agents, employees, affiliates, predecessors, successors, and assigns from any and all actions, causes of action, claims, demands, losses, costs, damages, and expenses on account of or in any way arising out of, or in any way incidental to, connected with or related to any and all alleged defects or non conformities or a certain 2004 Saab 93", etc.

Taking into consideration that the warranty does not appear that it will cover my malfunctioning parts, I refused to sign the release or the warranty paperwork, which means they will not give me the warranty as stated. This condition was not told to me over the phone by the legal affairs department.

In addition, Saab "legal affairs" listed the mileage at the time of extended warranty sale as 47,496, which was when I opened the claim almost 2 months ago. As of the date of the contract and paperwork, my car has about 50,600 miles. The verbiage in the warranty contract lists " Your odometer mileage (at Contract Purchase Date), not "claim opened date. Doesn't appear to be very "legal" to me.

They also drew up the paperwork incorrectly by using the wrong purchase date, and the contract has only been checked "Pinnacle" for the warranty. No where in the paperwork does it list what compenents are covered, they just sent me a book. You would think they would want the customer to acknowledge what parts are covered by listing the parts and requiring a customers signature acknowleding they know what parts are covered.

I talked again to SAAB legal and they advised me this is the best they will do and I have to sign the paperwork or they will do nothing else. I told them I'd take my chances and have filed a complaint with the Atlanta BBB and the Attorney General\'s Office. I have also notified my lienholder because maybe they will reconsider financing SAAB\'s in the future if enough people complain about their product.

If anyone wants to file a complaint about SAAB they will need to do it through Georgia and can do it online at www.atlanta.bbb.org. For future purchases, I have decided to base my decision off of a company that pays their employees off of finding defects, and not how many cars they can rush off of the assembly line. GM has destroyed a previously good car company. Makes me sick that I flushed thousands and thousands of dollars down the drain because they fail to produce a reliable car, which then causes severe depreciation. I didn't buy a car, I bought an anchor

Christina
Olathe, Kansas
U.S.A.

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