Independent repair shops can have their own set of frustrations

Becoming a Saab mechanic via Subaru is the last thing I ever envisioned. But thanks to two new used cars, my face is now a familiar one at the parts counter of my local Subaru dealer.

My wife and I needed to replace a leased car. But we decided — like a lot of other Americans — that because of the uncertain economic and employment conditions due to the pandemic, we'd stay off the car payment bandwagon. The plan: Just pay cash for a decent used car.

But the used-car market lately has been like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland. Crazy prices are being asked for worn-out, rusted jalopies with mileage deep into the six figures. Nevertheless, these cars are selling fast.

Like a gambler at a horse track, I got pretty good at handicapping the used-car ads. After filtering out the junk with salvage titles, rust holes big enough to drop a wallet through and misleading mileage claims (50,000 miles on the engine, 258,000 on the chassis, for example), there were not many cars with potential. Good ones offered for reasonable prices by private owners got snapped up quickly and likely ended up at buy-here, pay-here car lots for thousands more.

One quiet backwater of the used-car market offered a glimmer of hope: dead brands. We looked at Saturns but eventually settled on the Saab 9-2X, a sporty, compact all-wheel-drive wagon made in 2005-06 by Subaru. The 9-2X is essentially a more luxurious version of the Impreza, a car with a five-star safety rating.

The little Saab (dubbed a "Saaburu" by its fans) checks all the boxes: The drivetrain has proved durable and reliable. Standard awd adds a modicum of safety in the snow. There's plenty of cargo room. And, most importantly, parts support is outstanding.

Service, however, is another story.

The first 9-2X we bought came from its original, senior citizen owner. She took excellent care of the car and had the paperwork to prove it. I counted 22 receipts for oil changes. The biggest mishap in her tenure with the car was hitting not one but two deer one snowy evening in 2017 on a country road outside Detroit. That took out both front fenders, the hood and front fascia, all of which were replaced with new parts and new paint. The car looked and drove fine and, for $4,000, seemed like a bargain — even with the interior reeking of cigarettes, 103,000 miles under its wheels and a big service coming up.

The 105,000-mile recommended service is extensive. Subaru suggests replacing the timing belt, all related pulleys and tensioners and the water pump. This is a job I could do but decided against. It requires special tools. Also, my unheated garage is not a comfortable place to wrench in the fall. And many former Saab dealers now selling other brands, I learned, continue to offer service and parts a decade after the last Saabs rolled off the assembly line.

My first call was to a former Saab dealer close by that is now an official service center. But I was told they wouldn't work on the car because it wasn't bought there. The next option — a Subaru store. The service writer there told me his store could do the job, but if any check-engine lights were triggered, his techs could not read the codes. The Saab version has a specific computer Subaru scan tools cannot access. Also, the $1,700 estimate was a little too stiff.

I priced the parts online and found that Aisin makes a $214 kit that uses the same parts with which the car was built. I called an independent shop close by that wanted $1,400 to do the repair but couldn't do it for a month. I asked what brand of parts they would use and how much they cost. I was told parts were about $500 and the brand has components made in China. The Saab 9-2X forums warn against using anything other than original equipment parts because of quality issues.

I joined the Greater Detroit Saab Club on Facebook and asked for recommendations for local shops that work only on Subarus. I ended up taking the car to a one-man shop. The owner, a certified Subaru technician who builds high-performance motors, said he would install the parts I bought and just charge me labor. That sounded great, but it turned out to be a disappointing experience.

The timing belt job was done correctly and quickly, but the other jobs I asked for were not done because he forgot or didn't feel like doing them.

I wanted the brake system to be flushed, all fluids in the transmission and two differentials changed, and a new set of spark plugs installed. Worse, the car came back with a damaged hood.

I bought a Haynes manual, watched some YouTube videos and ended up doing the rest of the maintenance myself.

We liked the 9-2X so much we bought a second one — a minty fresh black turbo model whose single owner amassed just 29,102 miles in 15 years. That car needed a new set of front brake pads, all its fluids changed and some other minor upkeep I did myself. This 9-2X Aero — essentially a Subaru WRX — will be used sparingly because low-mileage survivors have become quite collectible.

The 9-2X is fairly easy to maintain, and parts are available online through my local Subaru dealer. And from now on, I am probably the only one who will touch a wrench to them.

Dealer service departments catch a lot of grief for high labor rates, selling unnecessary work and other issues. Well, I found out the grass isn't necessarily greener at independent shops, where a whole different set of things can go wrong.