9-3 Airbag Recall

So, I have a letter telling me that the replacement airbags are available. Only problem is the listed Saab Service Center in Lubbock, TX is refusing to do warranty work for Saab. If I had a Saturn, they would replace the airbag for GM. Available other Saab Service Centers are in New Mexico and Dallas-Ft. Worth, TX. Driving distance to Scoggin-Dickey in Lubbock is 4 miles. Driving distance to the other 3 Service Center are between 277 and 298 miles. Question is: how much standard time would be charged to replace the airbag as a service charge and would this expense be less than my travel expenses? That assumes I can have a replacement airbag shipped to me or Scoggin-Dickey. One way travel time would be about 6 hours. A round trip would be tough to do in one day.

GM still owned Saab up to the 2009 model year. So you would think they are responsible for those Saabs. The 2010-2011 model years are the ones that are not covered by GM.

And especially because it is an important faulty safety item than can cause injury and death. So it is not warranty work but a safety recall. Perhaps contact GM and/or Orio and see what they say? The steering wheel and airbag are used in other GM cars as well so perhaps a GM dealer can do the replacement.

I called the Orio airbag recall line and was told the nearest Saab Service Center to replace my airbag would Smart Motors in Santa Fe, New Mexico 277 miles away. At one time I had my wife's 9-3 serviced in Dallas, but her car is in Florida now. So, I will if I have to go to Sewell in Dallas to replace my airbag. My wife's airbag has already been ordered in Florida. My other option would be to drive my 9-3 to Orlando. Sort of depends on how many vacation days I want to take to get my airbags replaced.

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Originally Posted by 100%Saab

I called the Orio airbag recall line and was told the nearest Saab Service Center to replace my airbag would Smart Motors in Santa Fe, New Mexico 277 miles away. At one time I had my wife's 9-3 serviced in Dallas, but her car is in Florida now. So, I will if I have to go to Sewell in Dallas to replace my airbag. My wife's airbag has already been ordered in Florida. My other option would be to drive my 9-3 to Orlando. Sort of depends on how many vacation days I want to take to get my airbags replaced.

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Contact Viking Automotive in Houston Texas - talk to them over the phone. Maybe they can help.

http://www.vikinghouston.com/

Houston is 500 miles from Lubbock and Dallas is 300 miles. From an online "educational" video with the right tool it took 12 minutes to get the 9-3 airbag off. A trained Saab Service Tech shouldn't take more than 2 hours to replace the airbag unless someone knows something I don't. At say $80 per hour that would be maybe a service charge of $160. Does that sound about right? Yes, I know the airbag recall replacement is at no charge to the owner. A out of pocket service charge is still probably cheeper than taking 1 or 2 "paid" vacation days, driving 600 miles round trip, and paying for a motel room. Additionally there are a lot of side issues.

So I received the airbag recall post card in the mail on Thursday mailed from GM with Saab's name on it and with the GM recall website listed. The card directed me to go to the Lubbock service center which I did on Thursday. On Friday I was informed Saab would mail the airbag to Lubbock, TX. There is still a payment issue, but it looks like GM is paying Orio (Saab) to replace the airbag or maybe the money is coming from Takata.

Airbag #1 in Texas replaced today.

Got my recall letter in the mail and it told me to contact my authorized Saab service center, but it didn't name one. Went to Google for Saab service my area and the local Cadillac dealer that quoted me $300 to turn off my daytime running lights will be doing mine the week after next. From the service writers effort to make it as inconvenient as possible, there is no doubt in my mind that they didn't want the job. Can't hardly blame them, hard to make a profit on what the factory pays the dealers for recall work.

Airbag #2 in Florida replaced today.

My airbag recall came to my house, this recall came to my email
https://youtu.be/Jm-GH4GHqtE