As if selling a quirky Swedish brand wasn't hard enough, Saab dealers will now have to do it with a smaller powertrain warranty. Effective immediately for 2009 models, all powertrain warranties on Saab vehicles will be reduced to four-years or 50,000 miles. Most media outlets, including Automotive News, are reporting that Saab's current warranty is seven-years and 100,000 miles for its powertrains, but that's inaccurate. Saab's powertrain warranty has the been the same as the rest of GM's brands since they were all increased in September, 2006 to five-years or 100,000 miles. So the new Saab powertrain warranty lops one year and 50,000 miles off the old one. The brand will keep its free scheduled maintenance offer for three-years or 36,000 miles, however, to remain somewhat competitive with other entry-level luxury marques. GM noted that no other brands are reducing their warranties, just Saab, so you better hope your brand new 9-3 was built on a Wednesday.[Source: All Cars, All the Time]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kumail @ Jul 28th 2008 3:29PM
oh well, saab was never on my list anyways
TriShield @ Jul 28th 2008 3:30PM
So when will GM cut Saab completely like HUMMER? When will they cut their other all fuel-guzzingly, truck brand GMC?
Gstill @ Jul 28th 2008 3:33PM
This seems like the right move to make on a struggling brand. I'm sure the quality will be increased, so the need for a 100K warranty is unnecessary.
tom @ Jul 28th 2008 8:10PM
LOL, yeah I'm sure.
Seoultrain @ Jul 28th 2008 6:30PM
umm, riiight... Because shortening a car's mileage warranty by half will inspire these bean-counters to put more money into Quality Control.
MachinaDC5 @ Jul 28th 2008 3:33PM
I have a special place in my heart for the 9-2x. Otherwise I think they offer some really cool cars, just none that meet my specific demands. Good styling these days, though.
azzo45 @ Jul 28th 2008 4:51PM
I wish others did... I'm trying to sell one & am taking a bath financially. Better looking than the Subaru but resale not as pretty!
:( :(
Seoultrain @ Jul 28th 2008 6:45PM
azzo, I'd love me a Saabaru, as would many, but the car hardly exists anywhere. Nothing on my local craigslist, and only a crashed one on ebaymotors. Nearest on autotrader is 700 miles away (from Seattle). There's gotta be someone who wants your car, especially if it's an Aero manual.
azzo45 @ Jul 28th 2008 7:20PM
2006 92X Aero 5 spd. manual... the only bad thing, cloth seats (a B*tch to keep clean) & its ext. color is red (looks better in black or silver ,IMO). 19,000+ miles.
I'm also in metro Detroit & times are tough. With the Detroit 3 advertising K-Mart level deals for NEW stuff... not good. If I was in Colorado or the Pacific N/W I 'd be good!
Seoultrain @ Jul 28th 2008 7:37PM
Nice car, mate. I'm curious as to why you want to sell. It's decently fast, very practical, and not a maintenance black hole or a gas hog.
I guess if you need to sell, you need to sell. best of luck finding a buyer.
CORVETTE ZR1 @ Jul 28th 2008 3:35PM
Saab... is cool but... why dose it matter how long the warranty is ? Saab's last for ever... ive seen a guy with 300k on his... and its still runing good to this day...
From My Cube @ Jul 28th 2008 3:58PM
clearly you dont know that "Volvo's are born from space shuttles" and that "Saab's are the retarded cousins only born from jets"
Name that craigslist post!
2007RC46SP2 @ Jul 28th 2008 4:04PM
i thought he ^ was leaving.
Itsuru @ Jul 28th 2008 4:57PM
He's trying to gain some crediblity back, leave him a week or so and he'll be bragging about more cars he supposedly owns.
azzo45 @ Jul 28th 2008 4:58PM
Those are actual Swedish Saabs... not rebadged Opels or badge engineered GM platforms.
That's what I don't get about GM's cut in warranty... the 97X, & 93X has the guts of cars & SUVs that still carry the higher mileage warranties.
Perhaps I'm missing something?
KT @ Jul 28th 2008 3:44PM
I'm sure the reduction is due to higher warranty costs. They wouldn't be doing it for the fun of it. They probably did some research and determined that at X mileage the warranty costs increased to the level they were losing too much cash.
It's a money thing...remember they have to come up with ways to save/generate $15b in a short time period. I believe this is just one of the first places they found where to cut to save cash.
jason @ Jul 28th 2008 3:59PM
The saab with 300k is either a rare anomaly or a saab that was made in the early 90s or earlier that was more saab than GM.
I have had saabs new and old, and the saabs made in the late 90s and newer have the saddest build quality /quality control I have ever seen. Some parts will look like well engineered part, but those are fewer and fewer replaced by parts seemingly made by mexicans with dremels, for ridiculous part runs . The saabs I owned had some crazy premature failures and the newer the saab I bought the more prevalent they became. They say Saab owners are future Toyota owners. I opted for a Kia Optima this time around, and I am very reliably happy with it.
jason @ Jul 28th 2008 4:04PM
The V6 motors (not sure if they are still currently produced) while fun were particularly bad for reliability. Around 100k miles damn near every part will be shot, the internal parts are so poorly finished that most saab forums you will read nothing but horror stories about bearing failures and such.
Brandon @ Jul 28th 2008 4:06PM
I have no faith that GM has or will properly manage Saab. As a brand, it's never been a huge seller. But it always had its identity, usually (as in this article) described as "quirky", much to the delight of the car's admirers (myself definitely included). But since GM snapped it up, it's been little more than a repackaged Opel/Vauxhall. The 9-7X? Jeez, what an embarassment. GM oughta do themselves and Saab a favor and let the brand go. Maybe Saab's management team (a la Harley Davidson) can then take over and make something with it.
Steve @ Jul 28th 2008 4:26PM
Saabs with 300k miles were actually Saabs, not rebadged Chevy Trailblazers, Opel Vectras or Subaru WRXs.
I am unclear as to how much an extra year of warranty would be so problematic cost-wise for a semi-luxury brand with theoretically greater profit margins. Fact of the matter is that GM needed to cut costs and continues to destroy Saab at the expense of its other worthless brands. Is Buick really worth saving?
As a former owner of a 900, its sad to see how much GM can ruin the Saab brand. As a current 9-2x owner, I'm always amazed that GM had to mark down the price to 2/3 the comparable cost of the identical WRX. Maybe if GM preserved the value of Saab, they could cover the cost of the warranty.