Got a unicorn for the family - 2010 SAAB 9-5 content

I have been wanting to get a third vehicle for a while, being able to work on something without a time crunch would be nice.

Last Friday I ran my usual CL searches and came across the car below. It is a 2010 9-5 Aero and the price the dealer was asking was almost too good to be true so on a whim I sent it to my wife and asked if she wanted to look at it after work, fully expecting her to say no. Well, she said yes so i left work early and went to check it out. Because of the price I was expecting it to be crap but to my surprise it was really nice. Was not leaking anything, the dealer had not cleaned it up at all, and it drove and shifted well so it came home with us on Monday.

It has 117K miles on it and there are a few things that will need to be fixed/updated but it one heck a $5500 car. The front bumper needs repaired and painted and some lights need changed out with LEDs so as to not damage some very hard to come by housings but all in all a really nice car.

It is a little scary knowing that there are parts on the car that are NLA, but hey everyone needs a little excitement in their lives.

My plan is to use this to track my attempt at fixing up the bumper, something I have not done before and then to just record how it holds up.

I think there were a very good looking car. I remember back in the day, a bosses, boss who lived in Metro DC bought one new, before the bankruptcy announcements. I never liked her and I hope she paid full dollar for it and lost her ass.

Wiki says 11,280 units sold world wide. I'll bet that translates to less than 5,000 to the US.
You mention that some parts are NLA. I think the real issue is that some parts were NA (Never Avaiable) as new replacement parts. Seems like a good car to have a parts car for.

You want really rare?
Saab 9-4x. Wiki says 614 made world wide.
The Saab variant of the Cadillac SRX.

I think those are dead-sexy cars. I wish you the best. Can we have some interior shots?

There was a Sportcombi prototype. Some must have been built but none came to the US.

Beautiful!

The '10-11 9-5 wagon is gorgeous. Or maybe it's beauty is enhanced by its unavailability. Anyway, I still want an Aero sedan and hope to one day join you in owning one. Please keep us updated.

My work mate has the same silver 9-4x pictured. She was in an accident 3 years ago, and is still waiting on some parts. GM says they have them, but can't find them ever. It is a great little SUV. They also have a 9-5x from earlier.

The Boston, MA area was a great market for SAAB, and I still see lots of rare and cool ones on the roads. Heck, my hometown had a SAAB dealer that was functional until the end, and that's where the 9-5 that is sitting in my yard (that I completely forgot about until right now) came from! I used to work in Quincy MA (just south of Boston) and there was a nice dark blue 2010-11 9-5 AWD that I would walk by in the parking lot every day. They are unique and striking cars, even now. There was also a 9-4X that I would see on my commute every day. Good luck with the build!

Man, I thought my 2005 9-2X was getting rare. Really interested in more details on the bumper repair!

I really like some of the Saabs from the end of the line. There's a 9-5 like your silver one that I see in traffic here in CT now and then. Really pretty cars.

I will post pics of the inside once I get a chance to detail it this weekend and get some close up shots of the bumper cover. The interior was panned when the car was new for being bland but I think it is very tasteful but that some of the material used is a little cheap feeling.

According to this site: eSaabParts.com there were 3419 of the NG 9-5's imported and only 650 some 2010's. In this article: How I Made This Saab 9-5 SportCombi Prototype Road Legal the guy says there were 18 of the SportCombi's auctioned off. The story is of him getting his car deemed road legal in Sweden.

Of course last night I went to pick up the car from my wife and when I stared it the CEL was on. After saying a few choice words I stopped at an Advance Auto that I had some light to pick up from and had them pull the code. The code pointed to the EVAP purge valve not working. The part was only $35 or so but I figured I would see if I could clean it out anyway. Pulled the valve, sprayed brake cleaner in it until the fluid came out clear. After cleaning I could make the valve rattle a little by shaking it so i put it back on, cleared the light and went for a spirited drive. As of 3pm today the light is still off so here is hoping its good.

Man, that is dead sexy! Subscribed

I like SAAB's...... subbed!

Never been a Saab fan, but that is a sharp lookin machine:)

Well Friday morning at about 1 am this whole thing took a turn for the crappy. At about 1 am my wife comes storming into our bedroom yelling " Someone is taking the car" , referring to the '10 9-5. I try waking up and processing what she is saying at the same time while heading downstairs toward the front door. We get outside and sure enough there is a tow truck with the car hooked up in the middle of the street and I must have had a look of WTF on my face because the tow truck driver comes over to me and starts to explain what is going on.

He says that they are repossessing the car and shows me a bunch of paperwork. While I am talking to the driver my wife goes back in the house to get the key for the car and to call the police. The story from the driver is that the dealer I got the car from used rubber checks to buy this and about 40 other cars from an auction house so the dealer never really owned the car and the auction house is taking back all of the cars including mine. The city PD shows up, runs the temp tag on the SAAB, it does come back as being stolen and with that the reality of being out not only the car but also the money we paid the dealer starts to sink in. After taking pictures of all of the documents that the driver had and writing down the auction company name they tow the car and my wife and I go back inside for a night of no sleep.

The next day I drove out to the auction house and at that point things started to be a little less crappy.
We can buy the car from the auction company for what the dealer owes which is like $60 less than we paid for it. Ohio also has a thing called the Title Defect Rescission Fund which in a nutshell say that if you buy a car from a dealer and they play games with the title or do give you a title within 40 days the AG will investigate and will refund the purchaser the price of the car plus tax title and license fees. I submitted a complaint to the AG on Friday so that process is started. In addition, when my wife called our Insurance company to remove it from our policy the agent said that since we had a valid registration and a bill of sale they may be able to cover the "theft" so we started that process and should know something this week.

At this point, as long as the AG office looks like it will pay out we are planning on getting the car back, but good lord what a mess.

edited for spelling

Wow! Hope it all works out for you!

Wow!

WTF that is insane....... Hope that it works out for you.

Glad it isn't worse.

Crazy.
In Ohio all my life and I had not heard of that fund. Interesting.
Crazy to have the Repo experience.

Some thoughts:

AG may get you your money back but not get you the car back?

Auction house may sell you the car for $60 more, sound good but if they have damaged the car in the process of towing it or storing it you may get back less car. On top of that, you have dropped insurance on the car so no insurance claim if the car is returned to you damaged/dented??? Maybe?

You can insure a car you don't own. Might it be wise to reinstate the policy until this is all over?

That's insane. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other victims burn down the dealership with the GM inside.

Best of luck.

I don't understand how they can go straight to towing a car in someone else's possession. Pretty shady all around, how did the auction house procure your information and the car's location? This all sounds like it was to take place without any police involvement if the auction house and tow driver had their way. If you do buy it from the auction house you should be getting the car at the price the dealer got it for especially with all the trouble and with a discount for the evap part/work.

As much as I hate them, you might want to at least see what lawyer says about something like this.

This whole thing still blows my mind. Anyway I will attempt to answer your questions.

John: Yes, the AG will refund the money but not the car, that is up to us to work out with the auction people as far as I know but the AG office has not gotten back to me yet so that may change. When my wife called the Insurance company our agent suggested keeping the car on our policy until State Farm decides if we can file a claim or not. When I talked to the auction people they said I could buy the car for what the dealer owed so it would be a little less than what I paid for it. I will definitely check the car over before plunking money down on it again.

sswitch: The dealer was one of those small corner places and the guy and the rest of the cars on the lot are gone. The place has been around for at least 7 years, I googled it before going to look at the car so I have a feeling something happened in the guys life that he suddenly did this.

jere: I agree to a certain extent about the shady nature of the repo. If my wife had not noticed anything we would have had no idea what was going on. From the repo guys point of view I can understand trying to minimize interaction with the possessor of the car but its not like we were missing payments or anything. If we buy the car a second time it will be for what the dealer paid for it, with tax and everything about $100 less than we paid the dealer.

In reply to Aaron_King:

Oh ok I was thinking the dealer got it for way less than they sold it to you for. Were the two connected somehow as a franchise or something? My understanding is most used car dealers buy auction cars at 50-75% of what they sell them for

In reply to jere:

They are not connected. My best guess is that the Dealer knew he was not going to actually pay for the car so whatever he sold it for was 100% profit.

Wow that is very messed up! Hoping it works out well for you (not sure if the best case would involve getting the car back or not at this point ).