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, Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:53:04
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Not sure exactly which CR book Mike is looking at but the fall 2006 "Ratings and Pricing Guide" from Consumer Reports shows black marks for the 2004 models for electrical, brakes (probably rotor replacement at 30k), power equipment (probably related to electrical), body hardware (door handles?) and electrical only for 2005.
That said, you really need to know how to interpret the black marks. They represent problem responses from the survey that "exceed 3%" of all response on that model/year. For me, that's not a very useful measure (is it 4%, 15%, or 60%?). I would like to see the actual numbers since that would provide much more useful information on the prevalence of problems and better insights to buyer risk.
I've come to the conclusion that SAAB has some quality control issues that allow a certain % of problem cars out onto the market so most are great but a few are lemons or need extra work. To top it off, some dealers (not a condition limited to SAAB by any means) have lousy mechanics that probably exacerbate rather than fix problems.
On edmonds, out of 80+ user reviews for the 2006 approximately 6 or 7 suggested a number of visits back to the dealer to fix problems while the rest are great. That's about 7%. (Are you feeling lucky?) Looking at the Volvo S40, for comparison, there are no strongly negative complaints (thus, its not just the nature of BB's to field the strongest complaints). So obviously there is some small % greater risk of buying a lemon than models rated < 3% and its up to the buyer to decide how much risk is right for them.
If you want relatively less risk then buy a honda civic (yes...boring). You may still be replacing the rotors at 30k for the civic however (at least a friend of mine did) ;). I might also add that CR chose to put the added statement under "new car prediction"..."much worse than average". Somewhat disturbing statement for a potential new buyer to read but I would rather see the actual numbers than rely on their interpretation (since "average" can be pretty good these days).
Pat
posted by 129.162....
, Thu, 28 Sep 2006 16:53:04, Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:36:12
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