Rochester, N.Y. – If Saab had been a club, Catherine Eckert would have been a card-carrying member. “I haven’t looked at any other kind of a car in over 20 years,” she said.
So, in 2007, when she needed a new car, she bought a Saab.
On top of the bill, she added an extended warranty. “Thinking this would be very helpful if I ran into major problems,” she said.
Last month, the Saab came down with one of those major problems. “It was dead as a doornail, nothing would happen,” Eckert recalled.
She took it into her dealership, Dorschel, for a fix. The very day her car was in the shop, Saab declared bankruptcy, a move that prompted a call from Eckert’s mechanic.
“He said, ‘Right now we can’t fix your car,’” she said. She says she was told the part her car needed was now unavailable and her warranty had been suspended. “There are no guarantees at this point from what I understand.”
Jerry Elman, owner of Schoen Place Auto, which specializes in Saabs, says Eckert’s case is not isolated.
“The warranties are void and there are a lot of implications that affect Saab owners,” Elman said.
General Motors, which owned Saab before selling it off two years ago, has promised to honor warranties on cars bought prior to 2010, but Elman says that, along with Saab’s claim that parts will be available, is an empty promise.
“The dealer network is basically gone, so all of that has pretty much disappeared,” he said.
He recommends Saab owners not do anything rash, suggesting bankruptcy court may address these issues.
Meanwhile, Eckert’s car remains parked her garage.
“Nobody seems to be doing anything to take care of any part of this,” she said.
13WHAM called Dorschel on Wednesday afternoon, but did not hear back by end of business day.
