17th Jul 2014, 06:59

"Golly! What did you expect from a 13 year old car?"

I think, this question should be rephrased - What did I expect from 13 year old SAAB?

Indeed, silly me. Expect reliability from Saab? Gosh, I'd have to be a total loony to expect that.

I stupidly expected it to take me from point A to point B, without megabucks having to be spent on it. But, in vain.

Let's compare Saab and Eunos:

As an "in between car", when Saab failed, I bought a 1997 Eunos 500, that is an even older, 17 year old car, but the same mileage of 97,000km.

As I only paid few hundred dollars for it, compared to $3500 for Saab, I must admit I totally neglected it. Not even a vacuum clean or wash, and surely, no service - no oil, no filters, no plugs change. Tyres were new when I bought it.

Now, I put 14,500 km of a mountain road trips on it. Twisty, narrow, steep horrible mountain roads. With the loaded trailer! (had my bikes on it). Sometimes tow a boat. More than one year of use.

Result: Faults - NONE. Breakdowns - NONE. Tyres - worn, need new, but this is a combination of my driving style + mountain roads.

There was not a single time during 16 months everyday use when the Eunos let me down.

Now, I must admit - this is NOT what I expected from a 17 year old car. I expected it to break down (maybe once or twice) and use some oil. But it did not. It only used 800g of oil in 16 months and 14,000km. What a bummer.

I am sure, Saab would do much better, wouldn't it?

17th Jul 2014, 16:05

Good gosh! You can't blame a manufacturer for the issues of a 13 year-old car. I purchased a 2003 Saab 9-3 Convertible with 30,000 miles, off lease, and kept it for 5 years, and other than replacing the power antenna under warranty, had no issues with it. It was a wonderful car.

Please don't blame Saab for your buying a 13 year old one. I wish they still made the 9-3 Convertible, I'd buy another in a minute.

26th Aug 2015, 07:27

Yes, my friend had a work van, a Toyota Previa where the transponder key was a terrible plastic design where the stress point had a screw going through it, and it would break every few months, and had to be replaced.

26th Jun 2016, 07:56

Holden Commodore transponder on a Sunday afternoon... actually it was something to do with the actual car receiver which chose to go become dead at a remote spot whilst Trout fishing... $600 NZD later with a new car receiver and key.

As far as slagging euro cars against Japanese, I reckon for every euro car friend that has a major problem, then I would have about 3 with as bad if not worse problem Japanese cars... Somehow they don't feel so passionate about repairing them... maybe because they aren't really interested in cars. There are more Japanese cars on the road and also at the wreckers because of the cost of repairs, which means cheaper 2nd hand parts locally... but the Internet takes care of that these days. My Renault is probably cheaper than an equivalent Japanese car due to the Internet... I don't even bother looking for parts locally... except for brake parts like pads / rotors etc. Get them from the UK or from wreckers in Oz. All the so called problems that I have had with my 2002 Renault Laguna have been ridiculously cheap to fix and a great learning experience... Easy cars to fix actually and a really commonsense design.