I'm a little reluctant to write this review, as the President is a former neighbor of mine and a wonderful individual. I have also done a fair amount of business there over the years with both personal and business vehicles and have had good luck.
Not so much with the Saab 9-3 that was driven by both of my children. There was a pattern of poor performance and subsequent hiding of what went on that went beyond simple frustration. Two of the incidents were fairly minor, but one was egregious - it created a safety issue with the car not to mention a large unnecessary expense.
My experience over 3 visits with a 2003 Saab 9-3:
The first was to replace a battery - simple, right? The car was dropped and picked up by my wife. A couple of days later I decided to take a look at the battery. I found that the wrong one had been installed. The new one was about 2/3 the size and they had to severely strain one of the cables to make it fit. Anyone could see it was the wrong battery - but they decided who cares we'll make it fit.
I brought the car to the Hanover, MA store and was greeted by the Manager - Eric. I explained my situation and he told me flat out that it was the right battery. I repeated it was not. Finally, I convinced a greatly reluctant Eric to view the battery himself. He did and agreed it was the wrong battery. It was replaced, without an apology I might add. I imagine they have a rookie mechanic on battery changes - but no one is checking the work?
Next trip was for tires. As is typical tires include mounting, balancing, and a four wheel alignment. We were charged as such. Two plus years later I'm having my local Saab mechanic look over the car as it's traveling out of state to be used by one of my college students. He finds that the bolt that holds the control arm to the frame was torqued off the car when it was last aligned. In fact, it could not have been aligned at all. Worse yet, with no nut to hold the bolt in place there was potential for the control arm to let go of it's attachment to the frame, causing the wheel to literally fall off the car. Essentially the mechanic assigned to do the alignment snapped the bolt and decided he didn't want to get into fixing that. So he just took it off the lift and declared it finished. Strangely the manager (Eric again) didn't seem to think it was odd that there was no computer alignment printout as there always is. There couldn't be because it was done. Of course we were still charged the $99 for the alignment. While being fleeced for a job that wasn't done is bad enough, leaving the car in a potentially dangerous condition is criminal. My kids drove this car for two years before we discovered Sullivan's "oversight". As the car was not aligned - and only made worse by snapping the bolt, the new tires wore prematurely. They needed replacement in 11,000 miles instead of the usual 45-50k. Essentially I got 20% of the use that I should have received.
When I presented this to Sullivan (and manager Eric...again) I was met with excuses, dissembling, and defensiveness. I was told that the car never would have left the shop in that condition as all jobs are checked over. I reminded Eric about my battery that left the shop obviously wrong. If that happened so could this. I asked him why, since he was the manager the day of the tires and alignment, he did not check over the mechanic's work nor wonder why there was no computer alignment printout as there always is. No answer to that one.
Eric offered to make the necessary repairs but I of course was unwilling given the track record. I did allow them to do the alignment after the bolt was replaced by my mechanic. As for the tires I received a lousy $137. Eric blamed the premature wear on Dunlop - which is 100% wrong. He gave me some vague excuse about Federal law only allowing Dunlop to give a credit on two of the tires as the other two weren't quite worn enough to warrant a refund (I guess I should have kept them on another 3-4,000 miles he seemed to infer.) Since the wear was from the fictitious non-alignment Sullivan ought to reach in their pocket and credit me the 80% of the tire cost that I lost. - fat chance with that. Eric could not have cared even when I reminded him how much business I do with the company (especially professionally) and that two personal cars are due for tires soon ($3000 or so). Apparently saving the missing $300 that I should have received is more important than that future work. Fuzzy math I guess...
Finally, on a recent trip there to replace a headlight bulb they broke the retaining clip and failed to repair or replace or even notify. And there's the theme - do a poor, incomplete job and try to sweep it under the rug.
I'm waiting on Corporate to call me as I write this...As of now I would go someplace else to get your car fixed. I simply can't trust this organization for even the simplest of repairs nor with the safety of my kids. read more
