[doug s.]

"The Wheels Are Off".....
There will be a few less wheels now....off to car heaven...... 

cool - three down, five to go!   

i have never had any fondness for american auto companies.  i have never appreciated their business model.  the feds shoulda never bailed out chrysler in the 70's, unless they got them to agree to make no wehicle that seated less than 20.  we should bail out no wehicle mfrs now, either.  let the market decide.

ymmv,

doug s.

[Bob in St. Louis]

cool - three down, five to go!   

Glad you're happy Doug. Some of us have a family to feed.
But I guess you not having to look so many American cars on the road outweighs that little tid-bit of information.

Bob

[doug s.]

cool - three down, five to go!   

Glad you're happy Doug. Some of us have a family to feed.
But I guess you not having to look so many American cars on the road outweighs that little tid-bit of information.

Bob

bob, on a micro level, i have sympathy for anyone who has their livelihood threatened by economic ewents.  i've been there myself, on more than one occasion.  yust recently, too - i was out of work from august to december in 2008.     but, on a macro level, i don't have much sympathy for inefficient businesses, for businesses that are more concerned about their stockholders than their customers, and for businesses in general that i find destructive to society.  for example, i wouldn't mind if some weapons mfr's went out of business...

ymmv,

doug s.

[drphoto]

Hey Bob, here's the car of interest.



Is this the exhaust for the 6 cylinder? Sorry it's a bit hard to see, but there are dual outlets there.



As newer vehicles have don't have mechanical odometers, I don't know the mileage, probably 130K or so given the age.

The VIN is Y3042722

Thanks for your help. That was a rather extensive list you gave on potential problems, which must have taken a bit of time to type. I appreciate it.

Its probably stupid to even consider this car....but it's just so damn cool! Ok....I have weird taste. I mean how many people get excited about a green station wagon? 

[opnly bafld]

I mean how many people get excited about a green station wagon? 

I did a couple of years ago, it was a green Passat wagon with a m/t.
I was thinking about how much I would enjoy driving it and how awesome the subs would sound! 

Lin

[Bob in St. Louis]

Well Doctor, I wouldn't consider it "stupid" to consider this particular vehicle at all. Especially if you're taking my list into consideration. Any person that deals with ANY particular year/make/model will give you a list just as long. Just different items. You see, ALL cars are pretty much crap nowadays. It's just what boils down to what "flavor" of crap is your style.
I'm a Chevy guy, but ultimately it boils down to who's badge you'd be proud of having in your driveway. Nobody had a "superior" product by any stretch of the imagination. As car buyers, we're all guinea pigs. No manufacturer does enough R&D before releasing these vehicles on the market.

I logged into the General Motors website (because I can remember the password), but I can't recall the Saab password. At work once I'm in the Saab 'area', Windows Explorer allows me to auto-save the password. I can't recall what it is right now. Tomorrow morning when I'm at work I'll check the Saab site and see what's on there for this vehicle.
Sorry about that. 

Yes, this car is a six cylinder (based on the twin tailpipes assuming nobody had diddled with an aftermarket muffler), which means it has a timing belt that should be changed every 60,000 miles.
Find out the mileage for sure (don't guess, you never know). Call the place tomorrow and see what it is.

And yes, it did take me a while to type all that. What made it much worse was the fact I had self medicated a few doses of orally introduced specially prepared barley and hops.
Kinda like now. But hey... it's the weekend. 
Talk to you in the morning when I've got more information.

Bob

[Bob in St. Louis]

Ok Doctor, here we go.
The following list shows the date, mileage, and service that was performed under warranty. The emphasis on "under warranty" means that this list only shows things done at a Saab dealer, and only then things that Saab (GM) paid for. So, if the customer had tires replaced, or an oil change done they won't be on this list even if it was done at a Saab dealer. I don't have access to that (nobody except the performing dealer has that).
So the bottom line is, here are the things done to this car under warranty. My comments in italics:

Date       Miles   Part Description
11/30/05 75174 TIMING CHAIN/BELT - Done at 75K, better late than never. Hopefully the tensioners were replaced too.
09/28/05 73416 THREE WAY CAT. CONV.
10/16/03 47862 COVER/ORING V6 - Presumably for an oil leak
10/16/03 47862 POSITION SENSOR, CRANKSHAFT - This is one of the items I mentioned earlier.
05/29/03 43712 RECALL 15013 - 9-5 WHEEL BOLTS
03/04/03 42499 INFO DISPLAY - This is the S.I.D. I mentioned earlier.
03/04/03 42499 BULB, REAR
10/02/02 31084 BATTERY
10/02/02 31084 RECALL 200 REPLACE AIRBAG STICKERS ON SUNVISORS
09/25/02 36083 ROADSIDE REPAIR COVERED UNDER WARRANTY - No idea. Probably a jump start or flat tire??
05/20/02 30789 HALOGEN LAMP, HEADLIGHTS
04/01/02 28869 WASHER JET
06/25/01 18445 20,000 MILES SERVICE
06/25/01 18445 HALOGEN LAMP, HEADLIGHTS
11/28/00 9346  10,000 MILE OIL CHANGE INSPECTION SERVICE (99-)
11/28/00 9346  T-7 EMISSION RECALL 1950
11/28/00 9346  CAMPAIGN 838 CDC HARNESS
11/28/00 9346  TRANSPONDER - Key fob
05/16/00 2123  1000 MILE 1ST SERVICE (99-2000)
01/06/00 8       STEERING WHEEL - Kind weird to replace a steering wheel at 8 miles. Assume a cosmetic defect??

- Saab pays for the timing belt (the first time around) and the labor. They do not pay for the tensioners and a bit of extra labor for those. I try my best to get my customers to pay the extra for tensioners, idler pulleys and extra labor as we've seen those items come apart before the second timing belt replacement interval at 120,000. It spells doom for this engine if the belt comes off. Most timing belt driven engines are "interference engines" meaning that if the timing belt brakes, the pistons will hit the valves. In laymens terms: You're screwed...Call a tow truck, get your credit card, bend over and assume the position cause this is gonna hurt.
- There have been four recalls, all of them have been performed.
- The title is not "branded". Meaning it's "clear". Not much of a concern, so this is a good thing.
- The original "in service date" was 03/31/00. Since the car is out of warranty this is really irrelevant information, just thought you might like to know it's about to have a birthday. 
- The above service was performed at five different dealerships. Doesn't mean anything so that for what it's worth.

Looks like the crankshaft position sensor and the SID have both been replaced. Not that you should necessarily remove that from the list of things you might have to do someday. Niether of these parts have been improved over the years. Meaning that just like any other car, there are "achillies heals" that will have to be dealt with occationally so if the car has a bajillion miles on it, it may be ready for these to be replaced again.

Overall Doctor, it looks like you've got yourself a winner here. I don't see anything that scares me about the car.
Looks like it's time for a test drive.  aa

Happy motoring.
Bob

[drphoto]

Thanks again Bob, I do appreciate your time. Did you happen to notice where this vehicle came from? Purchased and owned I mean.....not where it was built. 

[Bob in St. Louis]

The site doesn't tell me where it came from, or where it's been serviced. What it does tell me are the dealership ID numbers. For instance, I'm at dealer #1708. Unfortunately, I don't have access to a dealer list categorized by dealer ID (yea, I know...That's silly).
The best I (we) can do would be to do a Google search.

The original selling dealer is #1950.
I did a quick Google search and it's finding things that relate to "1950" as in the year, not the dealer ID. 
I searched for "Saab dealer 2059" and it's seeing the '2059' as addresses and phone numbers. That's not helpful.
I'm sure somewhere out there is a list of dealers by ID, but I can't find it.

The dealer ID numbers that did the warranty services are:
#1950 (original selling dealer)
#2059
#7988
#2080
#2218

Bob

[Bob in St. Louis]

edit; LINK ISN'T WORKING


This place keeps popping up for dealer #1950:


GARTNER SAAB EAST
217 Ogden Ave - Downers Grove, IL 60515

Phone: 630-960-2000
http://saabgartner.ebizautos.com