Being a vocal supporter of Saab and in the industry as a Sales Manager of a Saab dealer, I often get emails from people who are in need of direction as to where to go with their Saab. I received one such email the other day from a gentleman from Ottawa with a tough one. The Trionic 7 ECU in his 2002 9-3 had been bricked and he wanted to know if we had the tools to reprogram to factory settings. Problem being was that he is in Ottawa and I am in BC so I wouldn’t have the car, just the ECU which doesn’t work for the tools we have at our location as we need the vehicle too.
I was informed that he was going to send the ECU to Genuine Saab as they had the tooling to plug the ECU in without the car and resetting the setting to factory. He had been in contact with Nick at Genuine Saab on November 19th about sending it out and was willing to pay to express it to them and pay for all shipping to ensure it moved quickly. To my amazement I got an email update this morning.
Jason,
Here’s an update to my situation.
Nick at Genuine Saab came through in a big way. I couriered the ECU on Tuesday, they got it Wednesday and turned it around on the same day so I wouldn’t have to wait through US Thanksgiving.Nick loaded one of his own files, and it’s excellent. The car started right away, and immediately settled into a very steady idle. The power delivery is extremely consistent, with no holes or sudden peaks in the torque curve. The car feels about as fast as a stock Viggen, which is great since it was rated at 185hp when new.
I would definitely recommend GS to any Saab owner. Great service, great product knowledge, and a definite passion for the brand.
Bernard
Personally, I don’t really post about endorsing a sponsor or where to take a Saab other than a Saab dealer but this had to be told. Customer service to me is one of the most important parts of meeting the needs of the Saab customer and this has got to be one of the best stories of service that I have heard in a very long time. I was blown away to hear a 4 day turn around actually took place from Canada to the USA and back and even with a USA holiday in those days….. Unbelievable. Bernard, thank you for sharing a real life story of one of the sponsors here and Genuine Saab, thanks for exceeding the customers expectations.
Very nice story, thanks for sharing it Jason! 🙂
You’re welcome. Not enough great stories being shared and knowing the service side of the business as I do, these guys are incredible. This just blew me away how quickly everything was fixed and he was back on the road. Too good to not share.
2 Thumbs up to Nick and GS — Saab Love with American ingenuity. A steady stream of products which enhance , and now that he’s got himself a Turbo X I’m even more excited! Case in point: ‘Sputnik’ coolant overflow — out of metal…puts to bed all those leaky ones/endless recalls associated with stock plastic.
I’ve gotten quite a few products for my ’02 9-3, including a stainless steel exhaust (full), poly bushings, steering rack brace, and a short shifter, and the customer service has been great, just like the products. With the steering rack brace there was a mismatch in parts (it’s a two piece c&c machined aluminum brace that replaces the rubber one around the steering rack), I took a picture and sent it in and Nick didn’t even hesitate, he sent me a new one as soon as he got the e-mail. His only request was that I send back the faulty one, which I did. Not even requiring the old one back before he sent me a new one was truly a big leap of faith that you don’t see from most companies. Also when it came time to install the brace I managed to gub off the bolt that’s welded right into the firewall (how clumsy of me), so I called Genuine Saab up and Nick knew right off the top of his head what size die I needed to re-thread the bolt. If you’re not afraid of going aftermarket upgrades Genuine Saab is truly a great place to go!
Great story! I hope that I can one day tell a similar story…
If we could have that kind of dealers all over the world it would be a great help to sell Saab cars.
I could not believe how quickly my SAAB Aero fuel pump part came recently.
For me, it’s pretty much business as usual regarding my SAAB upkeep.
I found the right SAAB service dealer to go to here in the Northeast U.S.
I will hold on to the AERO for a long time and I look forward to the day I can add to my mini fleet and purchase a NEVS SAAB and I don’t care what it runs on.
Electric would be fine with me.
I am curious as to how his ECU got “bricked”. Was this due to some fault or defect in his Saab or had he been trying to modify his ECU with some unsupported tool (e.g., something other than MapTun, Hirsch, etc.)? I am glad this guy got his ECU fixed by this great service from GenuineSaab, but it would be good to know if it was something others may run into or the result of his own unintentional mistake.
As my girlfriend correctly diagnosed it, it was “shenanigans.”
I was trying to revert back to the factory tune, using a commercial tool. I did this to diagnose a rough-running condition during warm-up when outside temps are near freezing. Long story short, I was trying to eliminate the tune as a variable.
The company that supplied the original tune was supportive, but they are in Sweden. Sending the CPU to them would have meant an extra week of downtime (minimum).
Lesson learned: reprogramming a Trionic CPU carries a risk. There is a non-zero probability that the car will be rendered immobile. It’s still a worthwhile thing to do, but make sure that you have access to other transportation, just in case.
I’ve bought several aftermarket things for my 9-3 from Genuine Saab. No complaints, good products.