vainerb (AT) yahoo (DOT) com wrote:
Model? Engine? Symptoms? I'm beginning to suspect that you're just trolling.

vainerb (AT) yahoo (DOT) com writes:

For a vehicle less than 4 years old, that's an awful lot of money to be
paying for something which is basically only just 'run in'.

I own a couple of early 80's Saab C900's and if I was going to spend $2000
(even if was US$2000, not A$2000), I'd be getting massive value for money.

My most expensive repair to date was when the old starter motor developed a
broken armature winding and short-circuited the entire starting circuit back
to the auxilliary relay. That cost me almost $1500 but most of that was the
labor cost, not the parts cost.

Replacing all the fried wiring took the longest (well over a whole day of
shop time), and I had to get their auto-electrician to come to my place a
few weeks later after one of the replaced wires came loose again, which
ended up being a shoddy install job. 8-)

If I'd just bought a Saab in 2001, I would not be happy about having to
spend $2k so soon on what sounds like fairly trivial tasks.

The worst part of it all with newer cars (not just Saab's) is that with all
the electronic controls, you can't do much yourself without access to the
fancy computer diagnostic tools to work out what the on-board computer
management thinks is wrong first. 8-)

GM forces dealers, repairers, etc. to pay huge amounts of money for
diagnostic info for all the on-board processing modules so I'm guessing that
your mechanic is trying to pass on the high costs involved with having all
the right service tools available but I still think you're being massively
overcharged unless something really major has needed work since the car
isn't far out of it's warranty, at least I'm assuming it isn't anyway.

Regards,

Craig.

PS. Interesting to see in a local paper yesterday that GM has been rated
the worst of all the top-6 global vehicle makers for reducing pollution. The
article notes that GM's very poor performance is because of higher demand
for it's trucks (ie. F-series, etc. which are appearing here too - sign),
and larger vehicles seem to have a lot less effort put into pollution
control design than smaller vehicles.

--
Craig's Saab C900 Page --> http://lios.apana.org.au/~c900 Sydney, NSW Australia
Craig's Saab C900 Workshop -- For all Saab C900 Enthusiasts world-wide!
http://www.saab900classic.net http://www.saab900.org c900 (AT) lios (DOT) apana.org.au
Come and explore our site, and check out our web-forums, mailing list, etc.

Thank you for a detailed response. It seems that car repair is not as
expensive downunder. If I had known that this SAAB would need so much
repair and what it will end up costing me I wouldn't have bought this
car in the first place. From what you said I suspect that repair and
maintenance costs on a new SAAB might be just as high. For these
reasons I'm seriously considering getting rid of it.