Saab Pulls The Plug On Repairs

Saab owners receive two pieces of bad news today: Their allegedly "iconic" and "quirky" brand that supposedly embodies everything that is good in Sweden, turns out to be a dud. It landed with a thud at the very bottom of the Consumer Reports 2012 Car-Brand Perception Survey.

Probably more disconcerting to a Saab owner: Repairs that are more complex than the exchange of wear parts have become next to impossible, because someone at Saab literally pulled the plug.

"Currently, workshops can only perform very limited repairs, because online access necessary for work on on-board computers has been switched off."

So says the usually reliable and well-informed Kfz-Betrieb, the German magazine for professional automobile workshops. Without such online access, anything that is more complex than changing a brake pad will become either an ordeal, or impossible.

In a modern car, even something as simple as replacing a lost key becomes unmanageable when the electronic umbilical cord to the factory is cut.