Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2005 07:36:29 -0400 From: "Tex" <texnospamm101.org> Subject: Re: Any Saab employees here?
"ma_twain" <ma_twainnospamo.com> wrote in message news:4253614F.9070000nospamo.com... > Tex - I notice you did not use the words "reliable" and "durable" to > describe the "two true Saab vehicles".I did not hesitate to buy a 12 year > old Classic 900 turbo. I have not bought a 9-3 because of the reliability > and repair cost issues. Who are you kidding? I don't care who made your car. A car older than 10 years and with 100k+ miles on the odometer, will invariably have more repair issues than any new car. The fact that most here happily fix their older Saabs regularly, suggests that they need fixing regularly (not exactly a good sign of quality). According to the JD Powers ratings, initial quality marks for 1993 Saab 900 are actually similar to Saabs from 1997 and 2004. That suggests that Saab quality hasn't really gone up nor has it gone down (these marks are generally all relative to their contemporaries). > The electronics have gotten too complex and too expensive to fix on your > own. Agreed, but this could be said of virtually any car in its class today. Funny thing is, 20 years ago, you would probably have heard the same exact comment from older mechanics..."Arrrggh, the Saabs these days are too complex to fix. I'll stick to my 96". My point is that it's natural for people to resist change, particularly as we get older. > This makes the car very expensive to repair once the warranty expires. > This is just one of the reasons Saabs don't retain their resale value. Unfortunately, Saabs historically have had poor resale value. While it wasn't until more recent years that these kinds of figures began to be more accurately tracked, it's been historically accepted that Saabs will lose their value quicker than others in its class (namely Lexus, Infinity, Mercedes et al). And that can be said even of Saabs pre-GM. The evidence suggests that there is more to quantifying resale value than simply a vehicle's expected reliability over a given period. For example, while Mercedes and BMW retain their value better than Saabs, their longterm reliability is not significantly better than Saabs. This is more likely related to the fact that Saabs serve a much smaller, less mainstream market than Mercedes and BMW, making the resale market even smaller. All else equal, decrease the demand and you decrease the market price. With certified pre-owned Saabs which carry a 100k mile warranty (at least in the US), any reliability problems become manufacturer problems (within that term). As far as the new 9-3's are concerned, the verdict is still out. Little in the way of long term reliability information is available about the car (having been introduced only in late 2002). Intitial quality data places it above average, similar to BMWs. - tex
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