Back in June 2012 I posted an article https://www.saabsunited.com/2012/06/the-high-mile-club.html from Paul at Saab vs. Scepticism and many of you contacted him with your high miler Saabs.
This week he had an email from a gent here in the UK who had just turned 333,333 miles in his Saab 900S. The other great thing about this story is that those miles have all been done by the same owner from new.
Please visit Pauls site for the bigger story.http://elevencreative.wordpress.com/2014/04/17/333333-miles-one-happy-owner/
333k is a great milestone. I’m at 167k miles on my 07 9-3, but I bought with 40k on it. I’ve driven 3 Saabs for a total of just over 300k miles.
Nice story and perhaps makes the following forgivable for a vehicle with 333k miles on it- but why oh why, couldn’t Saab design and manufacture (or contract out the manufacture of) an emblem that didn’t flake/wear off so readily??? Of the four Saabs I saw on my drive into work today, 3 were missing their emblems. 75% of them – terrible for a semi-premium marque. BMWs are the only other vehicle I have seen this on, and it is much, much less of an issue. Of the 25 (yes 25) I came across over the past two days, only 1 showed a little wear.
I can add that MG and Ford also have badges that become a chromed version.
I have never seen a Ford with this disease, but to be fair, don’t spend much time looking at Fords. One could expect this from them however, not from Saab. I now have a NG9-5, which I am told, was cured of this affliction. Time will tell. Would be nice to get 333k miles out of it.
My first 9-5 in ’99 was sold to a former work friend in ’03. He posted on Facebook a few months ago that it was time to sell the original Bäverbil with 300k miles. Was a great car for him and his family and I was happy to introduce him to the brand.
My ’93 BMW is on its original emblem—-fading maybe, showing wear and tear up close, looks fine from a distance. My ’04 Saab is on its second front emblem and it’s starting to dull—-maybe I should coat it in something clear that will keep it intact? The rear emblem is failing, flaking/peeling. It’s very frustrating to buy “entry level luxury” and have a pesky issue like this—but if it’s the worst thing that happens, I guess I can accept it. But it does make the marque appear to be a pretender and not a contender—-to people who are not “car people” and see this on used models, parked cars, etc. It gives an impression of shoddy quality.
Is the fading badge issue caused by brushes in car washes? My badges have been fine as car has never been treated to a mechaniclal car wash. I seem to remember Saab has given away free badges at various stages of it’s impending bankruptcy probably as cars start to look a bit rough with polished badges.