I just saw it on the news-this cannot make prospective buyers confifdent!
Will they make it…or are they digging the grave?
I owned a Saab. They deserve to go bankrupt continuously.
I just saw that the bankruptcy petition has been rejected. That was fast! :eek:
I’ve got to wonder if the petition was something really pathetically desperate, like “Our plan is to hope like hell that the Chinese deal goes through, and that they don’t come to their senses and run away screaming.”
Is that why I can’t get a new goddamn key??
All of my buttons for my SAAB FAB (yay rhyming!) have fallen off and I can’t get a new one cuz they’re apparently all on backorder. Go bankrupt and get me a new key
The key situation with SAAB is absurd. A spare key costs $200 - it has to be ordered by a SAAB dealership, and cannot be duplicated at a standard hardware or locksmith store because of the special transponders or whatever the fuck the over-engineered bullshit device in the key fob is called. And if you lose the key and don’t have a spare, God have mercy on your soul…because you have to have the entire computer module replaced in order to make a new key. The price? Two thousand dollars.
I have a real love-hate relationship with SAAB. I like my car, a black 9-3 hatchback. It is sleek-looking and very powerful, has unbelievably fast acceleration and an unreal amount of cargo storage in the trunk. It’s comfortable, the interior is very well-made and high quality (a huge issue for me - I cannot stand to be in a car whose interior is made of big, cheep, smooth plastic panels that fall off after a year, and unfortunately this includes MANY new cars today.) It’s just a fantastic car, and while not totally rare, it’s uncommon enough that it gets lots of compliments and people interested in it.
But the over-engineering is incredibly retarded. The radio, for instance - the LEDs on my radio display have faded to the point that I can’t even read what radio station it’s tuned to. I’d like to send it to a shop in another state that I heard will fix this issue cheaply. However, it turns out the radio also contains the car’s “computer” which controls the headlights, the turn signals, and all kinds of other important things. So if I take the radio out and ship it to this shop, my car is essentially unusable for however long it takes until I get it back.
The key, of course, as I have mentioned. Really wretched situation. Why is there so much over-engineered bullshit? Do they think that they’re doing their customers a FAVOR by making the cars such a pain in the ass?
Also: my hood emblem is almost completely worn off. And EVERY other SAAB 9-3 that I see has the exact same problem. Searching online, and looking on forums, apparently this is a hugely common issue with the hood emblems. Isn’t that ridiculous? The rest of the car is so solidly-built and high quality, but the fucking hood emblem - the very badge that identifies the SAAB corporation to the rest of the world - degrades so quickly. So fucking silly.
I’ve noticed the hood ornament issue. There’s a fair number of Saabs around here, and it seems like the majority of them are missing the emblem.
Saab hasn’t got any money, doesn’t make any cars, isn’t paying any wages and has enormous debts. Victor Müller is hoping for Chinese investors, but the grave has been dug since April. The union didn’t file for bankruptcy today, which it should have done when the petition didn’t work out, in desperate hope that the Russian guy (Antonov IIRC) or the Chinese will provide the money, but the last I heard (today) it will after the weekend. It has to, to ensure the members get their money (the employers are the first to get their share when the employer goes bankrupt), but the Saab employers in Trollhättan are extremely loyal and won’t give up their hope.
Saab keys sound just like the keys for any other modern expensive car. BMW, Mercedes, Lexus, Infiniti, Cadillac, etc. Heck I’d bet most Toyota keys are fancy electronic gizmos these days.
The China deal fell through-SAAB is about to become history.
Question: if you were able to buy a New SAAB (at a big discount), how long could you expect to get parts for it?
I’m thinking of going in to a dealer, and making a lowball offer.
most transponder keys now are about that much.
bullshit.
Assuming your 9-3 is post 2003, it has a CAN vehicle network and CAN just doesn’t work like that.
It’s 2002.
No they aren’t. I can get one made at a locksmith’s for $50. And that’s a rather recent quote, within the past month.
and can your locksmith program the new key for you? 'cos if he can’t, it’s useless.
Not unlike the actor, Paul Walker’s, Porsche…