2002 SAAB 9-3 SE review from North America

I suggest you read Saab 9-5 customer service complaints on this site before purchasing a Saab. My daughter bought my Saab 9-3 off my lease. Shortly after, we received an oil sludge letter extending engine warranty. The sludge letter is posted on the Internet. We increased the oil change frequency accordingly and when the engine developed a whine, we took it to the Saab dealer. He said he heard no noise and told us to continue driving it. 400 miles later at 65,000 miles the engine failed. Saab charged me $744 to tear down the engine to see if it was an engine sludge problem. The dealer said there was sludge in the oil, but would not put that in writing and according to the dealer, the regional rep said the failure was a piston failure (maybe due to no lubrication??) and it not covered by the engine sludge warranty. They have not responded too many calls to put the reason for the warranty denial in writing and there is no way to talk to the regional rep. The Saab 800 service line is manned by screeners who are forbidden to put your calls through (per the screener I talked to)

Saab does not stand behind their warranties and their customer service is non-existent.

It is a seriously fun and practical car, but not worth buying another.