Unclassified problem on the 2008 Saab 9-5
Only 4 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When unclassified problem gets reported
There are 9 reports of unclassified problem on the 2008 Saab 9-5, 4 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 41,550 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 40,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 85,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
The 2008 saab 95 passenger air bag turns itself on and off while a passenger is sitting on the seat while driving. It supposedly is set for 90 lbs pressure but my wife and children are over 120lbs. You must pull yourself down while sitting in the seat to keep air bag functioning. My wife sat in other 2008 95 saab's and the same thing happens. They have a faulty switch on that seat for the air bag sensor. *tr
I have a 2008 9-5 saab and the passenger airbag turns itself on and off while someone is sitting in the seat and the car is moving. The sensor is supposed to be set to turn airbag on for 90 lbs but my wife and kids weigh about 120 lbs and the only way to keep the airbag sensor on is to pull yourself down in the seat and hold on. I have notified saab about this issue and they cannot fix nor do they seem willing to try. My wife sat in other 2008 9-5?s and had the same problem at the dealerships and they witnessed the problem so it is not just our car. I hope someone at saab/gm will take this up and get it fixed before someone is killed or hurt due to faulty airbags on all 2008 9-5 models! The problem is that the sensor is located such that the weight of the person sitting in the seat is distributed away from the sensor and the ?repair? Noted in their manual does not work. They do not have this problem in their other line of cars as they have different sensors. The local dealership notified me that they know gm also has this problem in their line of vehicles with the same sensor/seat probe. I hope by getting this information out to…
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 saab 9-5. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 16v063000 (air bags); however, the part for the repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The contact stated that the air bag warning light illuminated. The approximate failure mileage was 97,000. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. Vin tool confirms parts not available.
Also reported on the 2008 Saab 9-5
Airbag inflator rupture
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 9 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 9 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does unclassified problem happen on the 2008 Saab 9-5?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2008 Saab 9-5?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed