sungfw wrote:I'm sorry that I failed to specify that the citation of Michael Jordan Lincoln Mercury Nissan as a multi-company dealership was intended solely to illustrate via a single example that such dealerships do, in fact, exist, not as an example of makes that would potentially be partnered with Saab. I sincerely apologize for failing to make that clear, and will take pains to make my intention clear when citing examples in the future.
You were perfectly clear, but you were trying to make the point that even though the OP has a relationship with a dealership that sells Saabs, that doesn't mean the previous cars his family had purchased/serviced there were also Saabs. I simply pointed out that, for the most part, most Saab dealerships are exclusively Saab...when they're not, you almost always only see Saabs paired with other similar "upscale" imports (if you don't believe me, go to
www.saabusa.com and search for dealerships in your area)...so, even if his family had purchased other makes from that dealership, they were likely other similar type imports. Besides, the OP confirmed that the other vehicles were, indeed, Saabs.
sungfw wrote:It is a truism that if one is more likely to receive a less biased answers from those who have no direct vested interest in a question than from those with a direct vested interest in the question.
Even if a person already has a relationship with the local dealership, it's in the dealership's direct financial interest that that person buy one of the cars the dealership services rather than a competitor's car, so while the dealership may steer you away from a particular model or particular models, it is unlikely that it will warn you off the entire lineup.
Car owners, OTOH, are significantly less likely to have a direct vested interest in whether or not someone else buys the same make of car that they own, nor are they likely to have a direct vested interest in someone else's maintenance and repair costs.
In light of that, even if the OP generally trusts his local dealership, it is in the OP's interest to seek information from Saab and Audi owners that will either corroborate or refute the dealer's answer.
Apples and oranges...my quote about the vested interest of the dealership was in reference to a mechanic at that dealership helping the OP decide whether a specific car was worth buying or not. In that case, one would need to be wary of the mechanic's motivations since it would profit him/her to get a "questionable" vehicle in the hands of a future repair customer. If you don't think this happens every day in the real world, you should come work with me for a week...even in the parts business, I see this happen often.
I stand by my contention that the original question, about maintenance costs of Saabs and Audis, could be best answered by a dealership that services those vehicles frequently. A smart consumer might call the parts department of the dealership and get some prices on regular maintenance items for various models (or even look them up on the internet, since many parts stores now offer such a feature online).
OTOH, a random poll of "folks" out here on TubeNet only gives the OP a few examples and not a broad understanding of maintenance costs. Let me illustrate further:
TubeNet poster #1 once owned a Saab 900 turbo that he still thinks was the best car he ever owned. All he ever did was keep the oil changed every 5000 miles and it purred like a kitten for 200,000 miles.
Tubenet poster #2 thinks you should buy an American car because the damn Europeans are stealing all our jobs, and the Euro is destroying the value of the American dollar.
TubeNet poster #3 currently drives a 2003 Saab 9-3 with a V6. She is on her third transmission, and the car has an annoying squeak that three mechanics haven't been able to find.
TubeNet poster #4 posts a joke about his Hummer and a picture of food.
I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Trusting a multi-thousand dollar vehicle purchase to advice gleaned from strangers on a message board devoted to the tuba is folly. Getting advice on forums devoted to Saabs and Audis is a better idea, but still shaky ground, IMO. The best unbiased information, as MaryAnn pointed out in this thread, is found at the library (and online?) via Consumer Reports.
It is also a truism that one must consider the source, biased or not, when considering advice.
