[JerseySaab]

Ten months after filing a lemon law case for my 03 Linear, I finally settled with Saab two days before my court hearing. The final count for my car, which I had to sell immediately as I waived all rights to future claims as part of my settlement, was something like 35+ days in the shop for just over twenty issues, including some repeat performances for a few issues.

I will miss my Saab as it was great when it didn't have problems, but at the end of the day its not worth driving a car that needs non-routine dealer service every 1-2 months. I'm really not sure why Saab decided to play hardball with me and force me to endure a protracted lemon law case. Perhaps its part of their strategy to have customers give up and go away by dragging things out. There are probably enough bad 03s out there that it would be a major financial hit for them to do anything more than to stonewall customers until their state lemon law window runs out. Or, perhaps they truly think 20 issues and 35 days at the dealership in less than 25K miles isn't an unreasonable imposition on a customer.

It's quite a bizarre business model. I truly think for another $500 +/- per car Saab could get the reliability up, build brand loyalty, increase sales (that's supposedly their goal) and avoid having to discount every car by thousands of dollars to sell them.

 

[johnc_22]

Did you have the launch package '03? That one seems to pop up as having more problems than any other 9-3SS, a rush job for sure.

I agree - spending just a bit more on these cars to remove the potential of interior squeaks and rattles AT THE FACTORY would increase many drivers' satisfaction with their cars. Then again I just read that GM reported that it lost an average of over $2K per car that it sold recently.

 

[needashower]

Rant

You guys make it sound like all the 2003 cars are plagued with problems, when this is far from reality. I for one am happy with mine after 30,000 miles. Anyone reading these boards needs to understand that the vast majority of 9-3 owners are happy with their vehicles.

 

[wassallj]

You guys make it sound like all the 2003 cars are plagued with problems, when this is far from reality. I for one am happy with mine after 30,000 miles. Anyone reading these boards needs to understand that the vast majority of 9-3 owners are happy with their vehicles.

35k miles on my 2003 Linear w/o launch package. It has probably been the most reliable car I have ever owned so far.

 

[JerseySaab]

Did you have the launch package '03?

I'm not sure what constitutes the "launch package". I don't have any paperwork that refers to this and the dealer didn't mention it at the time of my original purchase. My build date was February or March 2003. The car came with OnStar and some other features that were dropped, I think, for MY 2004. OnStar was actually my first issue with the car as the hardware module was defective and had to be replaced. It took 3 trips to the dealer to finally get it straightened out. The dealer basically had my car in the shop for roughly the first 8 days that I owned the car.

 

[SwizzDrums]

It had to be launch package car. All lauch packaged '03's are troublesome cars. They do run, dont get me wrong, but you'll have to take it to shop more often than not. I've been in shop over 20x as well but now that I have 46k, I'm just gonna trade the sucker in when i get closer to 2 year mark. And get me an 05. 2003 Launch package is a car u just cant keep past warranty.

 

[JNGold]

You guys make it sound like all the 2003 cars are plagued with problems, when this is far from reality. I for one am happy with mine after 30,000 miles. Anyone reading these boards needs to understand that the vast majority of 9-3 owners are happy with their vehicles.

Same here. Most problems cropped up and were taken care of during the first 6 months (knock-on-wood).

 

[gjdavies]

Makes you wonder whether the Launch spec vehicles were pre-production.......

A theory:

Saab had so much interest in the original 9-3SS prior to Launch that it decided to sell the Launch vehicles that it had it had in stock. At the end of the day, these vehicles were the first off the line, and had the teething troubles to go with it.

Some evidence:

You can actually tell the difference in quality in some parts, particularly the SID binaccle. Also, the higher than average failure rates really speak for themselves.

Unfortunately, Saab did wht all companies do these days, cut corners to get a product to market. Hopefully we will see the quality increase now we have some Opel quality processes to fall back on.:roll:

(in fairness, lately Opel products have been well built...)

 

[brucec32]

35k miles on my 2003 Linear w/o launch package. It has probably been the most reliable car I have ever owned so far.

Right near 50,000 miles now on an '03 Launch pkg and though it had a blown fuse that required a tow the first month we had it, nothing too serious since. Did have a pass side door lock and window switch quit working. That was quickly fixed. None of the squeaks and rattles I'm hearing about, either. Not perfect, but the car has been about as reliable as I expected from a European model. Oh yeah, the onstar module did fail after a couple of years. But since we didn't use it anyway, it was no big deal. They ordered a new part and installed it and it was fine. We worked all these "failures" except the tow into the reg. maintenance visits, so it wasn't a real hassle.

Dealers in some cities are so small (tucked inside other GM dealerships) that it makes you wonder if they're planning to bug out soon.

 

[XC_Rider]

Squeeks and rattles

I think squeeks and rattles are in the majority of the cars. It's just that not everyone can hear them. I took a couple friends on a road trip this weekend and we started talking about the car. One was interested in buying one and I explained to him all of the details. He asked me what I didn't like about it and my answer was the squeeks and rattles. He immediately said he didn't hear any... I put my hand up to press on the plastic panel in front of the sunroof switch to stop one of the rattles. He didn't notice any change!!! :roll:

I would Lemon Law my car too, but I had gone beyond the mileage limitations before I got irritated enough to look into it.

 

[koolestj]

How late can I lemon?

My car is 03 with launch package. It has 20k miles.
I have a lot of problems with rattles and all sorts of noise.
It's been in the shop a lot - do you think I can lemon it?