Car electronics failure almost caused my entire family's death

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It's not a funny topic sorry guys. I'm just shocked at the moment. I have a 2007 Saab 9-5 with 2.3T Automatic

Me, my gf and my 7 weeks old baby were travelling on a two oppsite lane road.
There was a slow driving truck ahead of us and I wanted to pass it. I swapped shiftstick to "M" (Manual Mode) and pass the car on 3rd shift. The oppsite lane was empty. Then I wanted to shift it up from 3 to 4 by pressing the "+" sentronic control paddle (button) on the steering wheel. Instead of shifting up to 4, it shifted down to 2 and suddenly decreased my speed. I failed to pass the truck while I was on the opposite lane and suddenly a car showed up ahead approaching towards me. Thank God the truck driver slowed down and let me turn front of him.

The sentronic failure would cause a fatal collision. I still can't forget that horrible night. And sentronic is still functioning incorrectly. Sentronic "-" would volume down the radio, sentronic "+" would shift down instead of shifting up.
The question is, am I able to sue Saab distributor in my country for this?

Thank you all for understanding.
 
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Google it---no joke. See if there are any recalls. I was looking and the only recall I think on your car is a head restraint thing. You may be able to if you can prove it. Get a camera and record your car messing up, make sure your in a safe area off major, slippery, unsafe roads. It must be something with your car, because the Saab 9-5 has had a 5/5 for reliability 2003-2007

http://www.edmunds.com/saab/9-5/2007/reliability.html


Also I saw you had this question on Yahoo answers I suggest you read the manual
Nobody got hurt, there were no fatalities, therefore, no case. Keep this in mind, there are thousands of Saabs on the road, many with Sentronic. If I recall correctly, Saab's sentronic system doesn't incorporate paddles, it uses the gear lever, much like Audi and VW's Tiptronic. Those + and - buttons are for the RADIO volume. How about READING the OWNER'S MANUAL! Besides, if the rpm's were high enough, you would not have to upshift from 3 to 4.
Click to expand...
 
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That's my question on yahoo answers. The answerer is stupid.
 
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My bad it is a bad answer...... Reading the manual

Sentronic, manual mode
Move the selector lever to the M position.
Select a higher gear by pushing the
right-hand paddle on the steering
wheel. Select a lower gear by pushing the
left-hand paddle on the steering wheel.
An example of when you may wish to make
manual gear changes is when overtaking, to
enable you to remain in a low gear for an
extended period of time.
Changes from 3rd to 4th and from 4th to 5th
can be made when the engine speed is
above roughly 2,000 rpm.
If you select a gear that is judged too high by
the system, the selected gear position will
be shown briefly on the main instrument
panel and then the gear that is actually
engage
Click to expand...

Could it be safety thing?
 
I really have no idea about the law, but I'm very happy to hear that you and your family was not hurt!
 
If they didnt have a recall for it then you should definitely sue them.
 
First off, it's good you've got away without any damage.

Second - with barely any knowledge in legal issues - I think you don't have a chance because nothing really happened.
AFAIK "could have..." doesn't mean anything...
 
If its a safety mech you cant sue them for it. It was designed for safety, either they did a bad job thinking of the cons or you just didn't use it right you can't sue them I am almost 100 percent sure of it.
 
Good to hear that you and your family are okay. I don't really know if you have a case to sue, but you should do some research and see if the problem you had is similar to problems that others with the same model and year have had in the past.
 
Cruel Device said:
First off, it's good you've got away without any damage.

Second - with barely any knowledge in legal issues - I think you don't have a chance because nothing really happened.
AFAIK "could have..." doesn't mean anything...
Click to expand...

the general public doesn't know much about law...thats why you hire lawyers...and thats why he can take this to a lawyer to see if he has a case...and most lawyers aren't gonna push for a case if he doesn't have one because if he loses lawyer doesn't make money (or not as much money)

ANYWAY Glad you and your family are safe :O
 
Glad to hear you and the family are ok, thats the important thing.

As for taking on Saab ... it depends on several factors. The laws in your country, the model of the car. The age of the car. Things like that. I am assuming you have a Euro or Asain market Saab which is a very different car from what is sold here in the states. When searching for information make sure not the use the main Google and Yashoo sites based in the states as their information is biased to our products. Use one that ends in the country code for you are a country close to you. That will give you more accurate info on your car and its issues. Also if your really thinking about sueing then you need to talk to an attorney. Only they would know if its worth it or not.

This is just me but I would get rid of the Saab asap and buy something a little more reliable. Hope it all works out for you :)
 
Take the car to a Saab dealership and have a mechanic take it out for a test drive. Explain to them EXACTLY what happened while you were driving so they can recreate the scenario to try and reproduce the effects. Once they do this they can find any problems there might be. Forget suing Saab unless you can prove that they knew about the defect and made the car anyway. Be thankful that you and your family are safe. Mass amounts of money will never, ever, bring back your loved ones.
 
As a law student graduating in May I can give you my input although it's definitely not legal advice ;)

First off, sorry that happened but I'm thankful you and your family are unharmed!

While everyone's first instinct is to sue, most people have no concept of how the legal system works. In actuality, only about 7-10% of cases even go to trial. Most of them are settled outside of court or through a judicially-mandated mediation or arbitration process. The main reason so few cases get to trial? Cost. It costs an incredible amount of money to take a case through a complete trial - we're talking tens of thousands of dollars here. True, you can find some attorneys that will take a case on a contingent fee basis, these lawyers know what they are doing and will only take cases they have feel they've got a high chance of winning (some or all of the amount sued for). Another reason is because of the human element. If a case proceeds to trial the decision will be made by a jury or sometimes a judge - this human element is often unpredictable and many people aren't willing to lay out substantial costs on an unpredictable process. With this out of your way, on to your possible recourse...

What you'd be looking at is a negligence case. To prevail on such a case you'd need to satisfy certain criteria, one of which deals with damages. Without the damage element you have no case. While I understand that what happened may have been terrifying, emotional distress generally isn't considered damage unless it flows from a some physical injury that also occurred. Since, you were physically unharmed it's unlikely you'd be able to prove any legal damages. There are other tort theories that you could possibly look into none of them would likely be worth the effort.

Instead, what I would do is put both the dealer and the manufacturer on notice by sending them a certified letter detailing everything that happened. At the very least they can look into the problem to hopefully save someone else in the future. Unfortunately law is often reactionary and someone has to be killed or hurt until the gears of justice start turning. Best of luck.


Please note this is not legal advice, this is my opinion. If you want to pursue legal action I suggest you find a competent attorney
 
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thanks all. I sent an email to saab saying "you wanna pay or go for the hard way". Saab will fix all the sentronic harness and connections for free...
thanks again.
 
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