I bought my daughter a 2005 Saab 9-7x. She had the car over 2years. We paid $1000 for suspension on work and $100 for oil change. She has not kept up her car and now because she drove the car without repairing brakes we have been told the front brakes caliber so came apart. The both back brakes are cut into the rotors and the master cylinder is messed,up. On top of that she might need a brake booster and her brake sensor light is on. Total brake work and master cylinder plus bleeding brakes ($1,650) plus brake booster ($450).
Is this too much to sink into a 10 year old car? We paid $7500 for it
If you are going to drive your cars into the ground, at least drive Fords or Chevy’s…They are at least much cheaper to fix if you stick with the basic models…
Depending on where you live, there might be better options for your daughter than owning a car…
The rest of the car is probably in bad shape as well. I would not repair this car further and have your daughter take a car care course from the AAA or similar organization before buying her another vehicle. Driving with bad brakes is deadly.
If the car is a 6 cylinder all the parts you mentioned total app. $263.00 at Rockauto . I didn’t check prices if it’s an 8 cylinder . Have a friendly neighborhood mechanic ?
@sgtrock21@Caddyman this is a rebadge of a glorious Chevy trailblazer with massive depreciation nothing special in parts or swede about it.
I’d fix it as none of repairs you list are extraordinary for a 2005 or neglected vehicle. Good luck on adjusting behavior, only requiring her to pay repairs will make her likely realize but not my kid.
You will not likely care for the following comment but your daughter is an accident waiting to happen. Maintaining a car even half decently is cheaper than a funeral service.
Some additional thoughts.
How does your daughter feel about the car? This might depend on her age and personality, but is she unhappy with the Saab? Her feelings about the car may determine whether it is even possible for the Saab to be worth keeping for you/her.
It might be better to figure out your best exit strategy from the car (based on resale values) and figure out an alternative car.
“Saabs were referred to as S.O.Bs in the service department for good reasons.”
When my brother picked up his son’s Saab from Henry–his trusted (and extremely honest) mechanic after yet another repair job–Henry said, “There’s just one thing that I don’t understand about Saabs”.
My brother asked, “Really, what’s that, Henry?”
Henry’s reply was…Why they manufacture the damn things!
All joking aside, as was already noted, this particular “Saab” is indeed just a rebadged Chevy, so the repair costs really shouldn’t be as high as Saab repairs normally are. In this case, the problem is the girl who owns the vehicle, and in view of her approach to maintenance, she is probably one of those people who should just not own a car.
My son doesn’t understand the workings of an automobile. I finally convinced him to find a good independent shop and let them do the maintenance. He takes it in on a regular basis and follows their recommendations. My suggestion for the OP is to put the daughter’s vehicle back in safe condition, help her find a trustworthy shop, and then insist that she bring it in for service servicing on a regular basis.
Yeah, that’s too much money to put into a car to enable your daughter to continue behaving this way. Sell the car “as-is” and buy her a bicycle. She and everyone else on the road will be much safer.
Your daughter needs to learn the importance of proper maintenance to keep her car safe. Clearly, she has yet to learn that. She’s a very unsafe car owner and just might kill or maim herself or someone else if she continues her behavior. Don’t enable her.
OP does not say whose name the car is registered to but if it is the OP they need to repair this vehicle or take it away from the daughter because she is probably going to drive it.
Get a second opinion on the brake repairs. The cost is high enough that you should get two or three estimates. Make sure they quote with Chevy/GMC parts, not Saab parts. The cost may be lower.
@Eddiepooh, does your daughter live at home or on her own? If at home, you may need to keep up with the car yourself. You could turn it into an educational session with your daughter by having her with you when you check the fluids, filters, brakes, etc. If she gets proper training, she might be better about looking after the car.
I would get another estimate, tell me you didn`t take it to a dealer.The thing you should know about dealers is that if a part is even slightly worn and not in assembly line perfect condition they want to replace it and they always replace it with another overpriced factory made part.
Ive always felt that in the long run its cheaper to repair a car than to buy another one.
Personally, I don’t think that SAAB comes across too bad although the driver might.
Brakes are a normal wear item and so are suspension components. Most suspension wear is the result of road conditions and/or environmental conditions.
There is nothing mentioned there that points towards it being a lousy car.
For what it’s worth, when I worked as a SAAB mechanic in a multi-line dealer (VW and Honda also) I enjoyed working as the lead SAAB tech and the reason why?
There was very, very little warranty work on premature complaints and things such as scheduled maintenance, clutches, brakes, etc paid very well. The latter of course is not a sign of a crummy car.
There were more warranty complaints rolling in every week on Hondas as compared to the SAABs and the Honda warranty total was roughly the same percentage wise compared to the VWs.
I just look at them differently as my sample size involves more than one or two cars.