Horror story with a brand new top of the range SAAB 9000 CD Turbo 2.3 Ltr....

I promised to write to you and let you know my horror story with a brand new top of the range 9000, so here I go. In 1992 I took the opportunity of purchasing a SAAB 9000 CD Turbo 2.3 Ltr. Since I bought it on the international diplomatic sales system I only got 1 years guarantee. Just after the first year I had a problem when the Traction Control System (TCS) light lit up on the console. My first indication of this was when the electronically controlled accelerator stopped working and the "backup system" of the directly connected cable took over. Now this is much harder to push but you can get used to it. But when I took my foot off the accelerator to stop at a junction the engine did not idle properly and stalled. At this point, of course I lost the power assisted steering, and the power assisted brakes. So there I am trying to negotiate a junction with the engine stalling, bad brakes and bad steering. THIS IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.

I took the car to my dealer and they replaced a valve on the accelerator control system. This cost me Ł150 I had the same problem and in 1996 and this time it happened when the engine was hot, and this happened in a traffic jam by the famous road works on the M25 near the M3 junction. I spent 20 minutes of restarting the engine every time the car had to stop (dozens and dozens of times). The valve was replaced again in England at a cost of over Ł100 and 3 days of my vacation. The problem has re-occurred again 3 months ago, I have cleaned the tubes and played with the valve and this seems to have solved the problem temporarily.

The next problem I had was high petrol consumption. It was never below 14 ltrs/100km and in town would get well above 15 Ltrs. I spoke to the dealer and they just said it was a turbo and my driving style

1994: I stopped at a SAAB garage in England when the brakes where making a noise. The Garage told me I need 4 new pads and that the front left disk had to be replaced. ON A 2 YEAR OLD CAR WITH LESS THAT 25000 miles cost over Ł400. After the replacement the consumption dropped to between 11 and 13 Ltrs/100km. I believe that the front left brake was sticking and rubbing. I calculate that

40000 km @ 15 Ltrs = 6000 Ltrs actual consumption

40000 km @ 13 Ltrs = 5200 Ltrs at the new consumption

this means I have not only had to pay for a new disk but the I used 800 Ltrs of petrol extra at a cost of Ł400 (assuming 50p Ltr).

1994: Clutch master cylinder had to be replaced.

1995 Electronic ignition block replaced.

1996 Rear suspension struts needed to be replaced. Drivers seat heater stopped working.

1997 Radiator thermostat failed. Main engine gasket blew in England Ł700 + Ł300 flights

Surprisingly enough this happened again in England and again I went to SAAB garage (with lots of steam blowing out the exhaust). Now when I got the car back the consumption had again dropped and now I can get UNDER 10 Ltrs / 100km on motorways with the cruise control set to 70 mph. In town it rises to 11.5 (remember when it used to be over 15)

1997 The ACC does not seem to respond properly.

1998 After hearing a noise from last week the garage has told me I need a new gear box. Cost minimum Ł1000.

In addition stupid things like interior panels have fallen of.

The boot has a smoked plastic reflector panel (read, amber etc, but the silver backing started coming off after the first few car washes, and when some one tried to open the boot by putting their hand under and missed the small handle the caught the panel and it split. This is so easy to do since the panel is thin plastic and not protected at the side of the hidden handle.

Poor quality paint job (small chips pealing of the front of the bonnet).

All this on a car that only 6 years old and has done just 70,000 miles.

In addition the local SAAB garages seem to love "adding" extra work to the work list.

Last March I had done 99,000kms and I was worried about my brake pads (see what happened in 1992) so I went to Kwik Fit for their free complete brake test. They gave me an OK (5.6mm front and 7.6mm rear) I was very happy. I feel this re-enforces my opinion that I am not a rough driver. I asked them to replace the front pads as they were getting close to being worn down, which they did. The rest of the braking system was marked as acceptable on all points.

In April 97 (5 weeks and 1600km later) I had a service at my local Luxembourg dealer. I picked up the car that evening and received the bill 3 days later and was shocked to see that they had replaced the front brake tubes at a cost of over Ł120 with out my consent and just after Kwik-Fit had reported them as OK.

All of the information on these pages is to my knowledge either an accurate summary of events and facts or is my opinion. It doesn't represent the views of Saab (urgh), my Internet service provider, or anyone else.