I’ve got a bet with TTAC’s Ken Elias. I reckon the feds will examine GM and Chrysler’s term papers (i.e., viability reports) and slam ’em. The automakers will take a real drubbing in the press. And rightly so. And then their Congressional watchdogs will sign the next round of checks. Ken figures that come March, Uncle Sam will cry basta! GM and Chrysler will be forced into both a shotgun marriage and bankruptcy. We shall see. Meanwhile there’s news out of Sweden that at least one government statsråd knows a con game when he sees one. I speak here of Jöran Hägglund, Sweden’s State Secretary to the Minister for Enterprise and Energy. “We have asked for… a more credible business plan that outlines the development over the next few years based on a scenario where sales continue to decrease and the measures needed to combat that,” Hägglund told Swedish public radio [as reported by AFP]. In play: a 28b kronor ($3.5b) auto industry bailout package. Hägglund gave GM two weeks to get its shit together.
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Saab will be just fine, mate. Saab know it, and Mr Haegglund knows it, too.
TrollhattenSaab:
With all due respect, how’s that going to work? What do you know that GM doesn’t?
I would have aimed for the bushy tailed tree rat.
I SOOOO love that commercial!
Especially when the insect yells; that makes me laugh really hard and spew up whatever beverage I may be drinking…
Nah, the suicidal dog is the best. Maybe for a Mercedes Watch I guess.
GM has proven itself completely incompetent and clueless with regard to all things Saab from the day they got their toes in the door. Why would anyone expect their latest essay to be any better than the work they’ve been doing all semester?
Saab is a disfigured company quite likely beyond repair, which is really sad … because it didn’t have to go this way.
Arrogance + Incompetence = Disaster
On a positive note, the Saab 9-3 was declared the most reliable car in its class in Germany.
article on B92
The article is in Serbian, so you’ll have to take my word for it, but I think one of the German bloggers can verify this by searching for the original news piece in German media.
Anyways, it says that DEKRA (a German automotive body of some type, possibly a government agency?) has declared the 9-3 the most reliable in its class. Its decisions are based on a sample of 15 million vehicles from the past 2 years with a minimum of 1000 inspections. I’m not exactly sure what all that means, maybe a German member of the blog can explain.
Anyways, what I do understand is that according to this, is that after 50,000 km, 93.1% of all Saab 9-3s did not have a malfunction requiring service, while after 100,000 km that figure was 84.2%.
Also noted that its direct competitors in this class of vehicles, which it did better than, were the Audi A4 and the Toyota Avensis.
So maybe Saab is not such a hopeless brand, contrary to TTACish opinion? In Europe, at least?
On a positive note, the Saab 9-3 was declared the most reliable car in its class in Germany.
Also noted that its direct competitors in this class of vehicles, which it did better than, were the Audi A4 and the Toyota Avensis.
I’m sorry, but that’s either luck, or bull. Either I know a lot of unlucky 9-3 owners, Saab builds better cars for Europe, or Germans have a much more tolerant concept of “reliable” than the rest of the world.
Knowing the market, I’d bet #3. Europeans put up with crap that North Americans never would.
Hi hazard,
in Germany every car has to undergo a safety check every 2 years, and if the car passes, a badge is put on the number plate. These checks are carried out at your workshop, and monitored by a third-party mechanic from DEKRA or TÜV. That’s where the data is coming from. DEKRA is an association specialized in car expertise. It’s short for “German Association for Motor Vehicle Monitoring”. It’s a huge building in Stuttgart full of funny and light-hearted people.
If anobody’s interested, here are all the results:
http://www.dekra.de/image/image_gallery?img_id=2732098&t=1229331965815
It’s split into 3 mileage categorys. (The Saab seems to fall apart after 100.000km)
The table reads:
Vehicle class | Milage | 1st/2nd/3rd place
However, i’d be VERY skeptical, i don’t trust these DEKRA surveys. 13 out ouf 21 winners are german, the overall winner is the Audi A6, and that seems a little bit odd. I guess the german carmakers “helped” with the survey design. I just can’t imagine an A6 being more reliable than a Lexus.
I can’t wait to see the mechanics of how they call back the “loans”…
Doesn’t ADAC provide a reliability study? I think they would be the most accurate.
// What do you know that GM doesn’t? //
Is that a trick question?
I was just looking at some 9-3’s on the Carmax website and wishing that I could trust Saab, but I have an Audi now and anything I exchange that for better be more reliable…
Their cars have always appealed to me. Seeing a Saab 900 or 9000 when I was growing up in Eastern NC was as rare and exciting as seeing a Porsche.
Yea, I was wondering what happens to the Saab after 100,000 km. I mean 100k is not exactly a insanely large number of kilometres.
Knowing the market, I’d bet #3. Europeans put up with crap that North Americans never would.
I think it’s also about Europeans driving less. Less kilometres, that is. This may be anecdotal but…my friend who lives in Serbia (in Belgrade, a large city) and who basically gets in his car when he has to go anywhere farther than 2 blocks from his house, only puts about 10,000 km on his car per year. Distances are shorter. The cities of Europe are packed more tightly together than those of North America. Also, in the top European cities like Paris or London, public transit is world class. Comparing the Paris metro to the Toronto subway is like comparing The Space Shuttle to a WW2 piston plane. Or an Audi to an Aveo. And let’s not even talk of some other NA cities (which could probably be thought of as Yugos and Zaporozhets in our analogy).
So if you put 10,000 km per year on your car, 50,000 km will give you 5 years. 100,000 km 10 years. If almost 95% and 85% of 9-3s don’t need repairs in the first 5 or 10 years respectively than that’s great.
On the other hand your typical NA driver probably clocks at least 20k per year.
I have a 2003 9-3. Fantastic car! Had a couple things that were fixed with the warranty at the start… I now have driven 86,000 trouble free miles on it. (25mpg around town and 35mpg on the highway)! Am now looking at a CPO 9-5….I know, I know…
I think CR recently rated Saab 9-5 as above average in reliability, or am I am confused? I owned a 9-5 for 2 years, not the most reliable car but certainly not even close to its unfortunate reputation.
My mom has a 2007 Saab 9-5… it has not had any issues since new. (12K miles)
I think things got mixed up here a little.
In fact, DEKRA does not provide statistics about “reliability”. DEKRA is one of the organisations that examinate the technical state of cars in Germany on a regular basis. In these examinations, the Saab 9-3 was best of class in the categories up to 50.000 and up to 100.000 kilometers.
This means that the 9-3 has a very solid technical basis with little serious problems.
It does not – however – mean that there cannot be a few – or even a lot of – nasty little things bothering the owner, like rattles and squeaks and electronic failures – which is what most people think of when it comes to reliability.
DEKRA does not examine these items and therefore the DEKRA result does not say much about “everyday reliability”.
ADAC statistics do say more about such problems, but you have to bear in mind that many car companies have their own mobility teams out there and therefore many cars that break down never see ADAC people. Saab is a small company and if a car breaks down, they call ADAC and their cars go into ADAC statistics.
Many Saabs do not give the owner any trouble – and some do exactly that – and that’s what they have in common with many cars – or most. Even Toyotas.
Yours
saabista63