Owners of Saab vehicles, including the 9-4X crossover, have been put on ice.
Saab owners had better keep their fingers crossed they don’t need warranty service or repairs – at least not for the time being.
In the wake of the parent company’s decision to file for bankruptcy in Sweden this week the maker’s U.S. subsidiary has said it will not honor warranty claims – at least not for the moment, pending advice on how to proceed from Saab’s Swedish bankruptcy trustees.
Meanwhile, a well-placed Saab corporate source, asking not to be identified, claimed that one of the reasons for the company’s ongoing financial problems was the fact that General Motors had so far failed to reimburse the company for warranty repairs on vehicles sold while Saab was still a GM subsidiary.
For the moment, “All warranty coverage (no matter when the vehicle was produced or sold) is now being suspended until we have further direction from the (bankruptcy) trustees,” Saab USA spokesperson Michele Tinson told TheDetroitBureau.com.
Even those older GM-built models are facing delays, and should a customer have an immediate problem, Tinson said, it will be “up to the discretion of the dealer” to decide whether to provide covered repairs or to charge the owner.
All vehicles that been sold with a Saab warranty are impacted by the development, including the current 9-3 and 9-4X, as well as current and previous-generation Saab 9-5 sedans.
All 2011 Saab models were sold in the U.S. with 4-year/50,000 mile warranties that include roadside assistance. The vehicles also were covered by 3-year/36,000 mile no-charge scheduled maintenance.
Further complicating matters, the carmaker has advised U.S. dealers that it will stop processing charges submitted for reimbursement on warranty-related claims. Roadside service vendors will also be cut off for reimbursement on towing and other charges.
Meanwhile, Saab’s U.S. dealers have also been advised to notify potential buyers that any remaining Saab vehicles will be sold “as is,” without any warranty coverage.
There is a silver lining for customers who bought a Saab prior to February 2010, when General Motors sold the automaker to Dutch-based Spyker Cars – now Swedish Automobile.
“In the event Saab cannot or will not fulfill its obligations to administer the warranty programs with its U.S. and Canadian dealers through Saab Cars North America or otherwise, GM will take necessary steps to ensure that remaining warranty obligations on Saab vehicles marketed by GM in the United States and Canada will be honored,” the maker said in a statement issued Tuesday,
GM estimated there are 48,000 vehicles in the U.S. that would be affected by this news, all 2009 models, with 9,000 more in Canada – where a “handful” of 2010 Saab models were sold.
After struggling for nine months to resolve its worsening financial crisis, Saab filed for bankruptcy in Swedish court, Swedish Automobile announcing it would complete write off its investment.
CEO Victor Muller, however, expressed some hope that the Saab enterprise could go forward despite the impending liquidation, and Swedish government officials on Tuesday noted that they had already heard from a “number” of potential buyers of Saab’s remaining assets.
Muller has blamed GM for the collapse of Saab, noting the U.S. maker effectively blocked a potential sale of the Swedish carmaker to the Chinese automaker Zhejiang Lotus Youngman. GM, in turn, noted that it had no interest in providing its intellectual property to a Chinese company that would, in turn, become a competitor to GM’s own Chinese operations. General Motors is the largest automaker in the booming Asian market.
As for claims that GM owes money to Saab, spokesman Jim Cain countered that, “They owe us a ton of money” for a variety of things, including the 9-4X crossovers being built at a General Motors plant in Mexico. “That dwarfs what we owe them.”
The final figures might have to be calculated in court. The question is whether recent Saab buyers will have to sit on the sidelines in the meantime.