16th Sep 2004, 15:50

I have a 1999 9-5 and although it has been somewhat reliable in the 3 yrs I have owned it (bought it off 2yr lease), it definitely has a couple of annoying problems. The headlights keep burning out and I have had to replace each at least twice. And, the taillights have each been replaced at least once. More annoying, though, the engine noise is very loud. Sounds like a tank next to my wife's van.

26th Oct 2004, 16:36

I have experienced the same lack of customer service. I have had numerous problems (it's been in the shop 10 times in the past year) with my car. Not only can I not get anywhere by contacting Saab customer service, neither can the dealer. The Saab rep will not respond to the dealer nor offer any assistance. This company is headed down the toilet due to a serious lack of customer service.

15th Nov 2004, 13:24

I'm glad to see that my front end toe problems and Ignition senor switch problems are not unique. Misery loves company, but I still have to shell out the money for a fix. I'm at 75K miles on a 2001 9-5 and things are literally falling off. the ABS sensor went south recently. the catalytic convertor went south a day after the ignition switch died. the dealer said this was common. Oh, don't you love that. The good news was that it was covered by the 8 year 80K mile warranty. considering I'm 5K away from the 80K I'm wondering what else is just about to go wrong.

I like the car when it runs it just has a money drain problem.

18th Nov 2004, 09:26

I've had numerous problems with my 1999 9-5. Dealership is very nice, but the car is costing a fortune to repair. Now out of warranty and Saab USA wants nothing to do with the problems despite many of them occurring within the warranty period. Car at 73K and now neeed to replace a/c compressor, rear shocks and transmission modules. In warranty have replaced master break cylinder, front electronic panel and various others. Still have electrical problems, lights blow frequently. Nice to drive, expensive to run.

8th Feb 2005, 15:14

I've got a 2002 9-5 with less than 20 thousand miles. In the Spring and Fall when it rains and the temp is around 60 it won't start. Once the temp rises and the sun comes out, it dries out and starts. I've called roadside assistance more times than I care to mention, but the dealer can't find the problem, although the tow truck drivers say it happens with Saab all the time. Anyone else with this problem? Resolution?

31st Mar 2005, 20:54

I leased a 2001 9-5 and I absolutely loved it for so long. Same problem, it hit 53K miles and the ENGINE BLEW UP!!! Saab will do absolutely nothing for me and says I have to buy a new engine for the car b/c it is out of warranty. (4800 for the shell and 7800 for a brand new engine) Their customer service is absolutely shoddy. I leased the car because I thought it would be a reliable car and it has been NOTHING, but trouble after it hit 40K miles. Then, most recently, a porter loaded the car onto a tow truck and dented the whole back end. They didn't realize the guy that I was having it delivered to has worked on my car since I started having problems with it, so he knew the condition of the car and when they dropped it with the dented back end, he told the tow truck guy that the back end was not dented in like that. The tow truck guy said the porter at Saab dented it and told him there was already minor damage on the back end and not to tell anyone. LIKE I WOULDN'T NOTICE THERE IS A HUGE DENT ON THE BACK END OF MY CAR. So, now, not only did they deny me any help with the engine b/c my miles were 53K, but they further damaged my car and are trying to get out of it!!! I'm furious and I will never lease/buy another Saab again.

12th May 2005, 22:35

I got a 2004 9-3 Aero and just loved it, that is until all the problems started happening. In one year I had about 7 visits to Saab. My problems, many of which could not be solved simply because they could not be reproduced at the dealer were the following. Some were fixed, but have continued to come back.

1. Problems with the pinch protection. This is the mother of all annoyances. I have had to bring the car in 3 different times due to the window suddenly deciding that it thinks it has something preventing it from closing. Twice it has been fixed on either window, and now it has returned. The first time it happened I was driving at 8000 feet in snowy weather in lake tahoe.

2. Problems with electronic key locks. Probably twice a month if not more, the key-lock system completely fails. When it does the only way to get the locks to work is to manually insert the key, put in the ignition and start the car. Because it intermittently happens, saab could / would not do anything.

3. On-star failure. Several times I have had errors indicating an onstar failure which goes away. When I bring it to the dealer they say no codes in the system.

4. Gear-shift malfunction. Stupid error pops up saying gear-shfit malfunction, performance has been reduced. This happened twice.

5. Worn bearings on the ties. This one was really serious. Apparently my car had factory-defect bearings which were so worn, that in the Saab tech's words, the tires could have fallen off on the highway.

Now the actual problems are only the first major pain. The real pain starts with dealing with customer service. I can't tell you how frustrating it is when you get a 40,000 car to hear that it's not their problem because the techs can't reproduce it.

Furthermore, I went to Saab to try to get some resolution to these problems. Initially I was asked flat out what I wanted. I said I want a different car because this is ridiculous. They sounded very optimistic and went through their legal team to pursue my claim. The final answer was that because the techs can't reproduce my problem there is nothing they can do.

Well they definately lost a customer that I can tell you. And all their advertising about the driving experience etc. I can tell you it sucks if you are one of the many who fall into having all the problems that I and it appears many others have.

--Glenn.