My biggest financial mistake? That’s an easy one to answer. I reckon it cost us thousands, lots of wasted time and hassle. It was a hard lesson to learn and I do hope I haven’t just repeated the mistake.
It was in about 2001 that I treated us to a Saab car. It was just like the one in the photo above and exactly the same colour, which I liked. You see I had been having some ankle problems and the previous car, a Volkswagen, simply aggravated the discomfort (it was all about the ergonomics).
The car we went for was a three year old with about 60,000 miles on the clock. It had a full dealer service record and in tip top condition, so it started off well with us. The dealer was local and very charming, especially charming as they gradually took more and more of our money to keep it going.
Although I can’t remember how long we had the car for, we drove it up to 180,000 miles. It was a Saab 9-5 base model with an automatic gearbox. The dealer had even tarted it up with a retro fit wooden dashboard. All very nice but pretty pointless when you’re broken down on the side of the road.
At the time it seemed by far to be the nicest car I’d ever owned. It was so comfortable and I could stretch my ankle out very nicely, so it was comfortable to drive. The seats were lovely, as far as I could remember. Rachel quite liked it but was always a bit concerned at the cost – she was ahead of me on this.
I had never had an automatic car before and adapted very easily – I think I am made for driving laid back cars! It had climate control, a built in stereo CD with steering wheel controls – these were all new to me at the time. My employer even installed a mobile phone kit. Within a year we took it to France on holiday and the air conditioning was wonderful, again another new feature for us.
It was also seemed very FAST and rather THIRSTY. The motoring press were a little unsure at the time, saying it was a bit “too Vauxhall” and the chassis was dated, leading to iffy handling.
Back then with petrol costing about £1.00/litre I could live with the fuel consumption at 28 to 30mpg and since I had no idea what our previous cars did, it didn’t spook me too much. At least the fuel tank was quite big, so I didn’t need to be constantly topping the fuel up.
So what went wrong?
In a word, lots.
Every routine service at the main dealer seemed to cost £500 as they would always seem to find something else that was not working, worn out or had fallen off. Every MOT was a time when I was held to ransom. They would go through the car with a fine tooth comb. I remember once they charged me quite a lot to replace the front indicator bulbs as apparently the yellow coating was starting to fade but the new ones looked the same to me.
After a few years I noticed the oil consumption was increasing and I even had to keep a can of oil in the boot so away from home it could easily be topped up. Then there was a certain amount of smoke that always seemed to be coming out of the exhaust. It was the turbo which had worn out, apparently a common problem, despite regular servicing. £ouch.
Not long after the turbo had been replaced, a gearbox fault developed. To this very day I remember the car breaking down in the most inconvenient place, near a busy T-junction in Wheathamstead, Hertfordshire, while on my way to work. I had to cancel all my meetings that day and waited for ages for a breakdown lorry. Another time the car broke down on the M1 and I had it taken to the Saab garage and left right outside their gates (it was late evening). Stroppy phone calls followed. Now I can’t even remember what that problem was. A further breakdown happened just after the previous repair when a spanner had been left in the engine bay.
I can still remember a man called Bob who worked on the service desk in the main dealer. We seemed to know each other so well we were on first name terms. He was older than me and I always remember looking through his thinning hair at the moles on his head.
It was when he said the “gearboxes aren’t the strongest in the world” that my heart sunk. Why didn’t they tell us this when we bought the car? Stupid question really. It cost a lot of money to have a refurbished gearbox and it was never the same. In the end we gave the car away and it kept someone mobile for a few years before it was eventually scrapped.
It was switching to Toyota and Honda which was a revelation. While they are a tad boring, they have proved to be extremely reliable. We have now moved up the scale in progressing to a Lexus, a kind of posh Toyota and hopefully just as reliable.
As I have sat here typing this, I do hope it’s not a case of dej-a-vu with buying a large three year old saloon with lots of gizmos. At least they say Lexus are excellent for customer satisfaction and they’re guaranteed for ten years, so hopefully I haven’t just made my next biggest financial mistake.
Am I alone with having a money-pit of a car?
My second biggest financial mistake? Watch this space, I might do a blog post about this. Actually I can think of a couple more!