I wrote about Saab 9-5 reviews a few days ago and in that post, I wrote the following:
“Saab’s reliability also needs to improve” – I’ll challenge that in a post coming soon and I’d love to see WhatCar to back up their statement with facts.
This is the post I was referring to.
Given the language constraints, I’m not totally up to speed with what these ratings represent. But from what I can tell, they combine two separate reliability surveys, one by DEKRA and another by TUV. They are published by ADAC-Automarxx, which is effectively the German Automobile Association.
We covered the 2008 ratings back in the Trollhattan Saab days. These are the latest tables, compiled in June 2010. I’ve got three tables to share. The first of these is for vehicles with up to 50,000kms on the odometer.
Click to enlarge.
You can’t do any better than that, can you?
The second table is for vehicles with between 50,000km and 100,000km on the odometer…. click.
OK, so they can do better there as they’re only in second place on that table.
Finally, a table ranking all brands across the various ranges and vehicle classes. Click.
So, across all applicable ranges, Saab are placed in the top four in the very tough German market. (There were no Saab rankings for vehicles 100-150K).
English publications seem to be giving the Saab 9-5 low marks for perceived reliability (I say perceived as this is a brand new car, so how can they tell?) when the data seems to point that Saab is quite possibly at the other end of the reliability table.
Saab did have some reliability issues when the Saab 9-3 SS range was a few years old. But that was 3 or 4 years ago. Saab’s ratings have consistently climbed the tables ever since – both in this German survey and US-based surveys as well.
I’m not sure what data the English are relying on, but it definitely seems at odds with other recent data. I think they should spell out the reasons for their ratings if they’re going to pan the 9-5 for it. People are relying on reading these road tests and Saab are relying on the road tests being accurate, too.
If they can back it up, then fair enough. But this data seems pretty conclusive to me.
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With thanks to the guys at Saab Club Polska for the tables.
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