West Seattle Auto Repair

photo courtesy of fotothing.com It’s winter and the the conditions are ideal for a day of skiing. Fresh powder, sunny skies, and 20 degree weather. You pack up your Saab 9-5, make the drive to the mountains and park for the day. Or, you drive to the grocery store on a freezing morning, park your car in the lot and spend about 30 minutes shopping for the week ahead. In both of these examples the parking brake is set while the car is parked. Either of these scenarios will most likely have the same outcome if you are a Saab 9-5 owner. You start your car to warm it up, release the emergency brake, put it in drive, hit the gas and……nothing. Your wheels are spinning, you are skidding as if you left your emergency brake engaged. What is going on? Your e-brake is frozen. If you are in freezing temperatures, it is not advisable to set the emergency brake on your Saab 9-5 when you park. The brake cables have a tendency to freeze and t ... read more

Since it has been almost three years since we last posted about Saab’s bankruptcy issues and the fear of parts unavailability, we thought you might be curious about what the Saab parts market looks like today. You might assume that it could be difficult, or in some cases impossible, to get a vehicle part. However, Saab Automobile Parts North America (which emerged from the car manufacturer’s bankruptcy) is stable and actually thriving. That’s good news because while the company itself may have struggled, the cars they built are holding strong and we love them. A recent search pulled up almost 400 cars for sale in Washington statealone and there are reportedly more than 450,000 Saab’s in the United States still on the road. Of course, the number of the departed company’s cars on the road will shrink over time but for now, your car will have its needs covered! For more information on the current a ... read more

photo by flicker user BigMarx SAAB Automobile Parts of North America, the original equipment manufacturer and supplier of SAAB parts, has really stepped up availability and distribution. As little as 3 months ago, we had about 30% success rate in receiving parts ordered. Now we can now get nearly 100% of all parts we order. This is a very encouraging turn of events! If you tried ordering an ignition key or other previously hard to find part and were told that it was not available, call us again! It may be available now

Be careful with your late model SAAB keys (1999 and newer)! Treat them like gold! Should you lose or damage your old keys, we currently do not have a source for new ones. We are hopeful that these keys will eventually become available again and will let you know when that happens. For now, ebay and craigslist are your best bet