I have a 2006 SAAB 97x with 100,600 miles. It is a rebadged Chevy Trailblazer/Envoy vehicle. It was my first venture into a “domestic” vehicle and after a 11mos, i an thinking of selling it. In short. I love the car, while gas mileage is not exceptional, the vehicle is sporty, low, wide, comfortable, rare and i get lots of complements. A real cool guy SUV. Im not cool so i enjoy the attention.
The problem is that I have had to take it to the dealer like 5 times, in 11 mos. for a variety of maladies and my wife is concerned that maybe we should be rid of it before something big happens (tranny/engine). My extended warranty lasts until January 2012. Major Repairs in my 11 mos of ownership (Fuel sending unit, $500. stabilitrak kicks in on dry pavement, ($150 but did not fix and), wheel bearing ($400+), rough idle/freeway cruise (cannot fix). other assorted items some of which could not be fixed. I also notice that it can burn qt of oil every 1000 to 1200 miles which seems high but the dealer says is “normal”.
By contrast, I have owned like 4 toyota’s , a honda, and a nissan with similar miles and have never had these constant types of issues. I have owned my 2006 avalon and have only put tires, brake pads in 3.5 yrs of ownership.
Am i being paranoid, I just want to avoid some marital discord because if this thing blows an engine, or some other big 4 figure repair, i am screwed big time at home… also, I am upside down on the vehicle 3 to 4k in part because i bought an extended warranty for it … (BTW, they haven’t paid for squat)!!!
It’s a GM and only a SAAB skin deep as you know and should have parts and service aplenty to keep it going for a lot less than you can trade in for. You will loose a lot if you try to get back into a comparable Toyota or the like at this time. Unless you can afford to take the loss now, I would start saving for a new car and keep it. If it’s well maintained the major components should last long enough. IMO, you overpaid for all those complements. I’d live with it for now. It’s not that old and make a wiser choice next time around when you have to. The money you have put into it pales in comparison to the payments on a new car regardless of how reliable it proves to be especially since you have committed yourself to the extended warranty.
How is it that the “extended warranty” did not pay for repairs, and yet you are still planning on keeping the truck until this (so far) worthless warranty runs out?
If I were you I would raise heck with whomever denied these warranty claims. Be very polite, calm, and businesslike, but DO NOT take no for an answer.
Believe it or not there are vehicles that CAN’T be fixed. It all has to do with availability of parts.
Many years ago Mazda was having some major problems with the heads on their pickups…I knew at least one guy who had to junk his pickup because of the head. There wasn’t a new or used (that worked) to be found anywhere. He looked for over 2 months.
“Believe it or not there are vehicles that CAN’T be fixed. It all has to do with availability of parts.”
That is true for most Saabs now because of the company’s liquidity problem. But the OP said it is a rebadged Trailblazer. Maybe a Chevy dealer could fix it. About the only things Saab on the truck should be a little fascia and maybe some interior features.
If you like the sporty, low, wide and comfortable type of suv, look at the Mazda CX-7. Even with the turbo 4 cyl engine and AWD, it gets better mileage than your SAAB(17/24 vs 14/20). If you go with the new engine and FWD, you can get 20/28
Speaking only from financial perspective; if you sell the car, do you still have to buy another to replace this? If so, you are already going to start at minus $4K, not smart.
If you can ditch it and use the other cars, then it might not be bad, pay it off and save for your next car. Otherwise keep this and maintain it and drive it until the wheels fall off. I am not saying this is a good car, but a sedan would be much lighter and will have somewhat less wear and tear, so not a fair comparison. I would also get on with the warranty company before it runs out, have them fix all the problems, also document these so if they do an half a** job, then you can extend the warranty for that item.
Everything on the SAAB except the design cues, are GM. Even though some of the specs. are different concerning clearance, handling etc. It was executed with GM parts. If a dealer from GM/Chevy can’t repair it, they can’t be trusted to repair any other of their failed past models. With GM having ownership at least in part of SAAB and the Blazer being the base till 2009 for this SAAB line, what’s the problem ?
The Blazer was never my first choice, but it has been functional and contently owned by many over the years who drive them for many years/miles successfully. Keep it and relish the complements from the unknowing…that’s why you bought this faux pas to begin with.
So you’re paying a little extra in repairs, take some solice in your contributions to the retirement funds of the American auto workers who built this foreign car.
all good comments. a couple extra points. 1) Clearly it does not make since to trade a car on the off chance it might have an issue. But my significant other is not a finance major so trying to rationalize keeping it is a didlfficult thing to do. I would get the I told so from her if something big happens. But the 1 qt of oil every 1000 seems excessive to me so I wonder if this is a sign of possible early ownership failures. Since it was a 3 yr old car with 80k+ on it, I negotiated hard and got it from a dealer for abt 12700 plus a another 1400 for the extended warr. So I don’t feel I over paid.
as for the warranty, thisone is from Easy Care. It is a midlevel option and allegedly covers powertrain, ac systems, etc, but the speciifc named part must fail for it to be covered amd the list isn’t as long asit could be. I could have bought their bumper to bumper plan but it it was just shy of $3000 so that seemed excessive.
all and all this was as close to an impulse purchase as I have ever done. Now I know why I am normally methodical.
I really wish that the Federal Trade Commission would take action to shut down the scamming companies that sell these worthless extended warranties.
Most of the regulars on this board know that these aftermarket/third-party warranties are essentially worthless, but apparently there are lots of unsuspecting folks nationwide who are wasting their money on this type of scam, despite the fact that there has been some publicity about the true nature of these fly-by-night companies.
While the OP made a couple of bad decisions in choosing this particular model and buying that worthless third-party warranty, at least he didn’t succumb to the temptation to buy their worthless gold-plated $3,000 warranty!
Unfortunately VDC, there is little the Feds can do when a contract is legal, binding and has all the necessary info written in. You can’t legislate against reading comprehension on the part of the buying public. Some people do trust auto dealers beyond what they should. Most of our automotive profit, as well as the profit from Best Buy are based upon these scams. They are all avoidable by those who take the time and effort to read.
Maybe the car itself is not the problem as much as the use the prior owner (or owners) put on it and/or the locale where the car came from.
Odds are this oil consumption problem was due to neglect prior to your purchasing it and things like wheel bearing failure can easily be caused by road salt, driving through deep water, etc.
(Sometimes when the local news is on and a reporter fresh out of journalism school is standing on the side of the road in waders doing a report about flooding rainfall watch all of those vehicles in the background. You will see them plowing through foot deep water andbearing seals, and a plethora of other parts and ponder how much of that water and gunk is creeping into suspension components, wheel bearings, etc.)