IMPORTANT NEWS: National Electric Vehicle Sweden has agreed to buy the assets of Saab Automobile and the sale is expected to be finalized during the summer.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

My trust in my new Saab took a hit - But now it's back

Today I went to wash my car. After the car was sparkling clean, I was ready to leave the wash bay. I sat in, pressed in the clutch and pushed down the start button. Nothing happened. I pushed the button again. Still nothing. The only bright symbols on the dashboard was the parking break icon and the engine icon. By this time I was getting a bit bewildered. I got out of the car and tried to lock the car hoping that locking the car would turn off and reset all systems. But the car couldn't be locked. Standing outside my car I noticed that the car decided to turn on the lights. I got back in and tried to start it again. No reaction. But now there was some message about the remote key. I was too confused by the whole situation to notice exactly what the message said before it disappeared. But the message made me suspect that the immobilizer was stopping me from starting the car. I decided to pop up the hood and see if I could disconnect the battery and thereby reset the car. But I did of course not have the needed 10 mm wrench to unhook the battery's ground cable. By this time there was a queue forming behind me, so I asked the next in line if he could help me push the car out of the wash bay. When we got the car outside I got back in and sat there for a few seconds. Then suddenly all the LCD-screens went black. I pushed the start button. Brooooom. It started! And I drove off.

This experience took a chunk of the trust I had in my car. And it was really bad advertising for Saab that I couldn't start my brand new car and we had to push it out! I hope I'll never need to experience that again. But just in case, I will keep a 10 mm wrench in the clove compartment.

Update: But now the trust is back. Why? Because I got two good advices in comments :)