I think I should preface this post with details about how I came to purchase my Saab and why I selected Saab in the first place.

Prior to moving over to my Saab, I’d been driving GMC Yukon XLs for 5 or so years. Upgrading every 6 months or so because I had a really great contact who could get this done for a very small premium. It was worth it to me because Yukon’s have a very good resale value in Montreal and the trucks were notorious for small things becoming large annoyances. Cracked windshields (I’ve replaced more than a dozen over 5 years), rattling in various places and I needed to offload the trucks because of the mileage.

After driving a Yukon XL for years, paying the gas premium (large truck, large appetite for fuel) and annoyed by build quality issues, I decided to start looking for something better. I started at Cadillac looking at the DeVille DHS, the Lincoln LS (owned one for about a year prior to this), Acura TL and mid-range BMW and Mercedes Benz. After test drives, talking to sales reps, more test drives and pricing, it really came down to 2 cars. The Saab 93 Aero (performance tuned version) or the Cadillac DHS. After driving a land yacht (Yukon) for years, I wanted something smaller that I could park with ease (on the street and in underground garages). The DHS was just too long for one person, so I decided to snag the Saab.

So I did the deed with a gentleman named Rejean at Saturn Saab West Island in Montreal. Rejean was exceptional. Knowledgeable, exhibited patience and was willing to work with me. So after a few hours of negotiation, we were done. I got the car at a price I wanted and the dealership managed to make money. The car was delivered less than a week later and I’ve been driving it since very late July/2006.

The car was in amazing condition when it was delivered. The car had almost all the options I wanted. A few options that weren’t available include: Power folding side mirrors, auto-dimming side mirrors, OnStar, North American mobile phone capabilities, a decent navigation system (stock nav is beyond pathetic), integrated satellite radio and missing a full spare. A lot of these really annoyed me. How can a car manufacturer of today omit the abovementioned options?! Regardless, I decided I wanted the car and would deal.

Everything went well for the first 8k KMs or so. After that point, a few things started to reveal themselves. The dash is a lot of hard plastic on hard plastic. So when you go over bumps, the dash has a plastic squeak. The doors have components in them that rattle (when going over bumps or when the stereo is at higher volume with bass). The passenger door speaker seems to be shot and when you start the car in the extreme cold (-10 and below C) the car emits a high pitched tone from the dash. Being as busy that I am, I wasn’t in the mood nor did I have the time to take the car to the dealership for repair.

16,000 KMs roll around and the car tells me it needs servicing. The manual says this is a standard service check including oil change and once over on the car. I also needed winter tires, so perfect. I’ll kill two birds with one visit to the dealership. I called the service center, played phone tag for a few days and finally got everything booked. Told them I needed the 16,000 KM servicing, I needed 4 Toyo winter tires and explained my annoyances and asked that they be investigated and repaired under warranty.

A week later I’m at the service center. I’m 10 minutes early and they take my car right away. Before leaving I decided to grab my laptop because I thought it would be 45 – 60 minutes to have the servicing done. I was pointed to the not so comfortable waiting room and started the wait. Fortunately the dealership had decent wifi, so I could actually get some work done. 3 hours and $1,700 later the car was mine again. Those high performance winter tires cost a fortune.

On my way home, I have a what the f*ck moment. All of the warranty issues that I asked the dealership to address were not taken care of–not even close. And it was obvious that they didn’t even take a look because every single issue was still present. I’m annoyed at this point but I don’t have more time to waste at the dealership, so I put things off.

I just hit 25,000 KMs in just under 6 months. I love the car, but I’m annoyed by these seemingly small issues that haven’t been repaired under warranty. I am also annoyed with the features that are missing from my model (every single option available). I have a service center visit around 36,000 KMs. I hope the dealership has their crap together at that point and takes care of my very specific issues.

I’ll continue the updates at every service interval.