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Haven’t been posting here for quite a while, but since I promised to keep everyone posted about my gearbox ... here it goes for those of you with a good memory!
I had the transmission shift fork changed in the manual gearbox of my 2000 9-5 Aero after some rattling noises at approx. 10K miles (i.e., warranty work). This was after someone else had been driving the car like a Formula 1 car, but with a cold engine — at least that's what I think must have been the case. The original posts are here:
http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/bb/9-5/index.html?bID=895
http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/bb/9-5/index.html?bID=1180
In October 2002 further work was carried out on the gearbox as a goodwill intervention (dealer’s idea whilst servicing the car – but since it was for free, why not?).
Exactly one year ago (April 2003) the gearbox broke down. I was driving on the Autobahn at a steady 130 km/h when suddenly the gear stick jumped out of 5th gear and could not be re-engaged; the other gears could be engaged but with a metallic rattle. As I was working in Frankfurt at the time I had the car towed to Saab in Frankfurt. This was a few days before the car was three years old (NB: the warranty in Continental Europe for a 2000 Saab is a measly ONE year).
After inspecting the car at length the Saab tech in Frankfurt said that the gearbox as well as parts of the clutch had to be replaced – total cost € 2337! He strongly suggested to me that I requested a full or partial goodwill reimbursal upon my return to Luxembourg; as the car was less than three years old there was a fair chance of success...
In June I was back in Luxembourg and I went to my regular Saab dealer and explained the matter to them. They took copies of the invoice and said that they would take care of contacting the importer. During the following months I telephoned the dealer numerous times in order to find out if there was any news; eventually I was asked to fax a copy of the invoice once again as apparently the paper work had been lost! Finally, at some time before Christmas I was told that my claim had been rejected.
A couple of months ago, I was browsing some European car chat sites, and several people mentioned that they had had problems with Saabs but "luckily Saab are generous with goodwill interventions after the warranty has expired". With this in mind I decided to send an e-mail directly to Saab in Sweden.
Already the following day I got a reply from the importer in Brussels: They had NO REFERENCE of my request (so it would seem that my dealer had been BS’ing me all along!), but they were entirely willing to open the case and discuss it with their warranty department and technical inspector.
A few days later their reply came that "despite the expiration of the warranty period as of April 20th 2001" they would take the invoice concerning the replacement of the gearbox at their charge and "this intervention has to be considered as a goodwill gesture without any legal acknowledgement".
Anyway, yesterday I received my 2337 euros and my faith in Saab has been – more or less – restored. I wish the same could be said for my dealer!
So to everyone out there (especially those of you with one or two year warranties) if something goes wrong with the car that shouldn’t be a problem for another several years, make sure that you ask for some goodwill – and don’t take no for an answer!
Regards,
Caspar
2000 9-5 Aero, 5-speed (back on track)
posted by 158.169....
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