Cant Give it away! Stuff em!

[pauljdh]

So with a really nice, FSH, 2002 Aero saloon and £7K in my pocket off I went to look for a hi-spec diesel estate.

I saw a small handfull of cars, and tbh I was disapointed at the derisery trade-ins I was offered. I was delined altogether once, and then offered 300, 500 and wow - 6-700. Last week I spent £400 on a service and TB - mug - you may as well push it to the dealers with the leather and audio already sold off!

Apparently the "trade" are very nervous about handling SAABs at the mo, continuity of factory support and parts being a concern, that, plus the VAT, inventory, warranty means that even nice, maintained cars are worth bugger all. Big pertol angines dont cut it any more! Cash doesnt cut it either " we make more money out of finance Sir"

The cars I was looking at were 6-9K, the biggest warranty was 3 months so that got me thinking, keep my 7K, fettle mine and build on all the good work Ive put into in in the 3 years of ownership and wait for these dealers to start bleating again about poor sales. I am a realist, I know a 10 year old Aero isnt worth much but Ill be buggered if Im going to give it away - the dealer who offered me 500 told me mine would sell for 1995 on his forecourt! Yes, they have to make a profit, but the whole experience peed me off somewhat.

Anyone fancy a black Aero FSH going cheap?.............

[Audax]

How else can a dealer sell a car without having at least £1000 in the deal? First of all the trade-in price vs. the retail price attracts VAT at 20%, that means 20% of that money is gone from his pocket immediately! Then whoever buys it will want to trade in another car against that, so the dealer will lose a bit more money there. The dealer will have to put an MOT on the car and have it cleaned, advertise  it and cover other overheads. Once you've taken all that out then it's not a huge profit when selling cars, you need to sell one a day or more. If that car came back to the dealer for a single fault then it could blow his entire profit margin out the window which shows why it's worth so little and why they are not bothered about trading it in. How much would you honestly expect for your car with a trade-in? I'm not trying to be difficult but it's the economic truth of buying and selling cars in the motor trade.

[pauljdh]

Completely understand the business model, however, theyre not prepared to offer a decent warranty, (max 3 months), insist their car is the best in the country (condescenfding) and at the keenest price (nieve) with no scope to negotiate, just find it a bit boring to be honest, I know of two estates for sale at dealers that havent been sold after six months so cashflow obvously isnt a problem (yeah right).

My point was that there is no value in older SAABs, the value is massive to those of us who have got one already because to buy an equivalent package today would be five figures. Lets run em into the ground.

[Geoff1951]

...My point was that there is no value in older SAABs, the value is massive to those of us who have got one already because to buy an equivalent package today would be five figures. Lets run em into the ground.

That's my view too, and quite possibly many others on here.

[Audax]

My point was that there is no value in older SAABs, the value is massive to those of us who have got one already because to buy an equivalent package today would be five figures. Lets run em into the ground.

It's not just older Saabs it's all older cars, OK a Saab will have lost more as a %age than some other brands but essentially they all devalue to nothing quite quickly. God knows what will happen with the new MOT requirements coming in January. One of the main reasons I was always attracted to Saab was because they were so cheap, if they'd have held their value better then it is very likely I would have got something else, the depreciation is why I rate them so much 

[banger]

Any more info on new MOT requirements, ie like what?

[Audax]

From memory the changes are airbag and ABS/ESP warning lights are all taken into account, if they are on then it's an automatic fail. As will Xenon headlamp warning lights, if you have Xenons then your washer system must be working for them. Aftermarket Xenons will now be an automatic fail I think, tow bar wiring will be checked to make sure it's working, a missing catalytic converter will be a fail and a few other bits.

[banger]

Thanks for that, means the 9k with ABS warning light wont get through, suspect sensor/wiring. I did google but not alot comes up.

[BOF]

Oh B****r! My '03 Aero has factory xenons, but it was a Cat C write-off and the front bumper on it doesn't have the holes for the washers, so none are fitted. Not been a problem in the three years I've had it, but if you' re right, I'll have to sort something out before next MoT. 

The pipework is still there, though, so can anyone recommend small, neat fixed jets that will do the job?

B.O.F.

Or maybe not...  Just had a look at the new manual online - reason for refusal "A headlamp levelling or cleaning device inoperative or otherwise obviously defective". If none is fiitted, it seems it will not be a failure, so I should be OK.

Are self-levelling sensors still available new, though, and if so, for how long, given SAAB's troubles? (Personally, I think the company will go bust). If not, we all need to hope that our xenon self-levellers don't fail..... The new manual states that it "can be difficult" to determine whether such systems, which "may be fitted", are serviceable or not, and that the benefit of the doubt is to be given. It might be difficult to persuade a tester that removing your sensors means no such system is fitted!

[Steve440]

Wire the warning light circuit so it comes on with the ignition and goes off.

People have been doing this for years with ABS warning lights.

Steve

[phoenix]

Wire the warning light circuit so it comes on with the ignition and goes off.

People have been doing this for years with ABS warning lights.

It's those sort of people IMHO that would do the world a favour by voluntarily removing themselves from the gene pool.

If the ABS lamp is on, it's for a good reason. It might "just" be a sensor that disables the ABS function but it might also be something else like a fault in the valve control body that could seriously imbalance braking, or a lack of system pressure that reduces braking assistance. If you've disabled it because of a sensor, you'll never know when something else is wrong.

[idlerider]

It's those sort of people IMHO that would do the world a favour by voluntarily removing themselves from the gene pool.

Well said ... if a tad harsh. 

[wrighar]

Oh B****r! My '03 Aero has factory xenons, but it was a Cat C write-off and the front bumper on it doesn't have the holes for the washers, so none are fitted. Not been a problem in the three years I've had it, but if you' re right, I'll have to sort something out before next MoT. 

The pipework is still there, though, so can anyone recommend small, neat fixed jets that will do the job?

B.O.F.

Or maybe not...  Just had a look at the new manual online - reason for refusal "A headlamp levelling or cleaning device inoperative or otherwise obviously defective". If none is fiitted, it seems it will not be a failure, so I should be OK.

Are self-levelling sensors still available new, though, and if so, for how long, given SAAB's troubles? (Personally, I think the company will go bust). If not, we all need to hope that our xenon self-levellers don't fail..... The new manual states that it "can be difficult" to determine whether such systems, which "may be fitted", are serviceable or not, and that the benefit of the doubt is to be given. It might be difficult to persuade a tester that removing your sensors means no such system is fitted!

My CS aero has had the SRS light on for 5 years, cange on when a new head was fitted by a saab garage and they could never find the fault....They changed everything!

[Geoff1951]

Re. the Xenon/headlamp washer thing, not the ABS light.

From reading historic threads and manufacturers' spec sheets, isn't it the case that if a car has Xenons then it must also have washers? The seem to
If so, while washers might not have featured in the MOT in the past and therefore not caused a MOT fail, surely logic () dictates that under the new MOT rules then a car with Xenons must have (functioning) washers for an MOT pass?

Or is this something the DoT experts have missed?

Just a thought. Probably barking up the wrong tree. It has been known before.

[Steve440]

I agree about bodging the wiring on the ABS system, I was just saying what was possible.

My 9-5 aero for example has a perfectly good working  headlight system yet the warning light comes on. Self levelling works as it should, they wash as they should and pass the MOT at present because they are at the correct hight.

Potentially my car could fail its MOT next year because of a faulty warning light.

If Saab go down my car will be scrapped because the parts will not be available to fix such irritations.

Steve