Saab Complaint

How many phone calls did you make to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which overseas tires? Did you call their hotline and file a report? Did you visit a regional office?

you search for the tire -- by tire make and model -- on NHTSA's website tosee if other problems are being reported?Did you fill out a complaint form at NHTSA?Ford didn't just decide on their own to recall the Firestones. They were toldto do it by NHTSA. NHTSA found out about it from complaints filed by consumers.NHTSA tells auto and tires makers to do a recall.Have you been to Tire Rack and checked out tires and read reviews to see ifothers are having problems with the same tire? much research on the car and potential problems did you do before youbought the Saab? Acting like a twit in a newsgroup accomplishes nothing. If you're so concerned about this "major design flaw" why haven't you taken real action?

snipped-for-privacy@madmousergraphics.com

design, print design, photography

Is it only buyers of Saabs who are supposed to go to all this trouble before they criticize the quality control exercised by the manufacturers of the vehicles they own?

In fact, I think most buyers of cars, when they consider the many, many alternatives facing them, take a very much simpler route. They just consider the popular reputations of different cars. That's one reason why people in the U.S. buy Japanese cars in large numbers, and why they are suspicious of Saabs. They don't want the hassle of contacting NHTSA, or any of the other of the suggestions above. They just want cars that seldom go wrong, and that are cheap to fix when they do go wrong.

I think that when you use a word like "criminal" and assert that Saab is aware of a dangerous situation and go on accuse of a cover-up akin to the Ford Explorer/Bridgestone example, you are drawing an extremely thin line between what is "libel" and what is "fair comment."

After spending a good 20 minutes reading all of these posts (and that's 20 minutes I will NEVER GET BACK), I think I might find it funny if MB and Saab ended up in litigation. It would at least add to entertainment value.

That's not meant to offend MB, who obviously has, in his mind, a very real issue he's dealing with.

RiCK

in article 3f5bbe40$0$32488$ snipped-for-privacy@dread16.news.tele.dk, Henrik B. at saab@tdcadsl_nospam_.dk wrote on 08/09/2003 00:24:

I bow to your greater knowledge Henrik. So the truth is that Saab produced a car with an excellent safety standard from the start of the 9-3 and 9-5 series and it keeps on getting better.

One of the tests that are carried out by EuroNCAP is the effect on the pedestrian should you hit one. While being safe yourself, not killing someone you run into is also a good thing.

Cheers all,

Paul

Paul Halliday wrote: :: I bow to your greater knowledge Henrik. So the truth is that Saab :: produced a car with an excellent safety standard from the start of :: the 9-3 and 9-5 series and it keeps on getting better.

You're absolutely right. I have no doubt that in two years time, when Folksam again points to the safest cars, the Saab 9-5 will win. Although cars as the Laguna got 5 stars way before the Saab did. Also, when EuroNCAP made the first crashtests with the Saab 9-5, it passed the side-impact test, even without having side airbags!

Cheers!

The reason the 9-5 did not get five stars the first test was that it did not have an enough irritating system to force the wearing of the seatbelt. For people that always use the seatbelts a four star car might be more safe than a five star car.

I think that when you use a word like "criminal" and assert that Saab is aware of a dangerous situation and go on accuse of a cover-up akin to the Ford Explorer/Bridgestone example, you are drawing an extremely thin line between what is "libel" and what is "fair comment."

After spending a good 20 minutes reading all of these posts (and that's 20 minutes I will NEVER GET BACK), I think I might find it funny if MB and Saab ended up in litigation. It would at least add to entertainment value.

That's not meant to offend MB, who obviously has, in his mind, a very real issue he's dealing with.

RiCK

Goran Larsson wrote: :: The reason the 9-5 did not get five stars the first test was that it :: did not have an enough irritating system to force the wearing of the :: seatbelt. For people that always use the seatbelts a four star car :: might be more safe than a five star car.

I know, I know, but the fact is, that the Laguna STILL gets 5 stars without audiable/visual beltwarnings, whereas the 9-5 "only" gets 5 stars (new rating), due to the extra beltwarnings! I do however believe that the Saab

9-5 is a safer car as the Laguna - which will show i 2005, when Folksam again publishes their safety-ratings.

Cheers!

Stop re-posting my posts!

Stop posting in the Toyota newsgroup.

Does it? I've heard that they do not award five stars to any car that does not have an obnoxious safety belt warning system.

Shit happens, I know a bloke who was involved in two fatal train incidents - one a fire and one a crash in which 31 people died, I was only involved in the latter.

Tyres blow out, windscreens shatter (been through 3 of those in another car, two in a fortnight!)

I've also had to repair washer bottles on both my Saabs on consecutive weekends. Can you imagine being without washer water, that can be really dangerous if you can't see where you're going and it's clearly Saab's fault for mounting the things on those long rods that flex the tank.

David.

I feel a class action coming on...

OOOh, yeah. I had a washer fluid reservoir melt on my Sonett III. Of course, the aftermarket exhaust that I put right next to it may have been a contributing factor, but it SHOWS a TREND, right?

My first 900 was involved in an accident, where a taxi drove right into the front right wing at 30mph. The taxi was written off, but I was able to drive home - *but* the washer bottle disintegrated. Coincidence?

:)

Too right, Saab were irresponsible in not fitting a heat shield to it just in case anyone did as you did.

My insurance company loves the Saab. They dropped my rates by $200 a year from the Lincoln Mark VIII when I bought the 9000CS. I had five tires blow out on the Mark in a year. Of course I put 50,000 miles on it in that time, too. All at Interstate speeds and all at 4:30 p.m. or so on a Friday afternoon in godforsaken parts of the country. For a while I was running a Firestone, a Michelin, a Goodyear and a Bridgestone since those were the only tires I could find when I needed them. Was in Ohio for the weekend, 900 miles round trip. The Saab is the least stressful car I've ever driven.

snipped-for-privacy@madmousergraphics.com

design, print design, photography

Just about every time I get in my car, since the first blowout.

No I don't.

I think it is strange that you think this response is an adequate reply. Do you understand why it isn't? I'll be glad to explain it to you if you don't.

Johannes, you are the biggest disappointment to me in this thread. Really.

I have established and re-established in this thread, that my tires WERE NOT UNDERINFLATED. Read my posts.

*******

My tires are not under inflated now, nor were they before I made my abbreviated trip on Friday.

I check inflation carefully, nearly every time I get in my car. I really do, especially after my first blowout last March. They slowly but regularly lose about two pounds of pressure, and I inflate them to 32 psi immediately. I even carry a can of pressurized air in my trunk for this.

Johannes, I had a problem. A real problem. It was and is serious. It involves Saabs and Michelins. It might affect other owners of similar late-model Saabs. It doesn't involve my termperament or intelligence or negligence. Deal with the problem and stop looking for excuses.

*******

I am relatively happy to hear that my problem is unusual, but I suspect that the Nat. Highway and Traffic Administration is keeping only spotty records on this right now -- and remember that it is easy to miss tracking an issue in a complex product that might happen in only one in a hundred units, and then actually occur as a problem in only one in a hundred or so uses of those products.

mb