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I have a '98 9000 with 179000 miles. I've own the car for 10 years and use it as my daily driver. I had the car serviced for the last two years at Saab of Hunterdon in NJ and in Feb of 2008 I had the car in for a routine oil change. After waiting an hour, the service rep. called me over and told me I needed a new turbo since it was leaking oil. The new turbo cost what the car is worth so I didn't have them do the work and left the place thinking I needed a new car. I drove the car for two months daily checking my oil regularly to insure it didn't drop and cause more problems. To my surprise the oil level didn't drop at all.
One morning the car didn't startup right away. I thought that was it for the car. It finally started so I brought it to a general mechanic who is a friend of the family. He looked it over with me and couldn't explain why it didn't start since it was now starting fine. I asked him about the Turbo and he said the turbo looks good but the car is leaking from the transmission cooling lines. I did noticed that since my visit to Saab of Hunterdon the DI board was missing a screw but hadn't thought much of it until now. I drove to a local Saab repair shop - Swedish Car Service - and asked I could buy the screw for the DI board which they just gave me. As I was tightening down the screw I noticed that the other 3 screws were loose and the DI board was not correctly seated. Between the DI board being loose and another mechanic telling me the Turbo was fine I became very suspicious of the Saab of Hunterdon.
Upon checking the oil regularly I noticed duct tape appearing below the Turbo! Someone had wrapped duct tape around one of the cooling pipes below the turbo!???!?? At this point Saab of Hunterdon was the last shop that had my car without me watching and I know the DI board was not loose or missing a screw and the duct tape was not there before this last visit.
When I saw the duct tape I panicked. I called the Saab repair shop - Swedish Car Service in Bound Brook NJ - to schedule an oil change, look over the car and investigate the duct tape. After inspecting the tape they told me the turbo was fine and was told 'it's very rare to have to replace one of these turbos'. They also stated that the leaking was from the transmission cooling lines and would cost less than $130 to repair!! I was confused why Saab of Hunterdon told a different story. When reporting this story to Saab USA they called the service department to investigate and explained to me that although they are supposed to document what was offered to a customer Saab of Hunterdon had no record of offering me a turbo to repair the car. I am now convinced they were going to screw me into buying something I did not need to the tune of $3500. Needless to say I will never use Saab of Hunterdon or their affiliates JMK Saab, JMK BMW or JMK Group in NJ for buying my next Saab or any Saab repairs.
Lessons learned 1. get any repair claim in writing before making a decision 2. get a second opinion for major repairs 3. don't use Saab of Hunterdon for anything!
Hopes this prevents someone from getting screwed by Saab of Hunterdon.
posted by 141.202.24...
, Tue, 20 May 2008 19:33:25
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