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South East Saab

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east south
10K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  fliptopbin 
#1 ·
Hi folks,

Heard a few whispers about Rowan @ SES being a good egg, any good stories (or otherwise)? I could do with somebody local to me for a few jobs.
 
#6 ·
I've just got Rowan at South East Saab to replace the exhaust manifold gasket on my 9-5 (turned out to be a cracked stud causing the leak), and to give the car a general checkover (few other bits turned up, like non-Aero spark plugs fitted etc etc ).

Very impressed with the excellent service and prices, and Rowan's considerable knowledge.

I will definitely be using SES again for servicing and any other work. :thumbsup:
 
#7 ·
how did it go - any recommendations[/b]

He still has it! The deal was he would fit it in around other commitments, and he has had a look over and given me a list of jobs that needed doing. I authorised them but I gather he has been very busy.

He said he would be getting it done over the Easter weekend - I hope so as I want it for the London to Brighton run next Sunday and I am missing my car at the moment, not seen it for 2 months! :eek:
 
#8 ·
I have known Rowan since the 'dealer' I bought my 9k from used him privately to fix a few problems, several years before he started SES, and I have used him since. I have always found him very helpful and knowledgable (he was a top technician at Saab City), and they tend to carry a larger stock of parts than the local main dealer who never has anything in stock. I have always been able to get parts there. They do get very busy but can normally book work in. Try the T28 loan car, lost a little of its edge since he changed the turbo but still flies!
 
#10 ·
Thought I should update this old topic.

As said, I originally dropped my car off at SES for a gear selection problem in mid Jan and asked Rowan to give the car a good look over. He said he was very busy and wouldn't have a chance to look at it for a while - fair enough. Heard back a couple of weeks later and he made his diagnosis, complete with a list of other jobs to do which I authorised. Turned out some of the parts had to come from Sweden so that took a while, but then unfortunately things went a bit wrong. It seems he was very busy and unfortunately my car seemed to come bottom of the pile. I suppose my main issue was that countless deadlines were missed and promises broken. I never had an problem with waiting for the work to be done, it was just that I was promised the car back time after time only to be told he hadn't got round to it or something had got in the way. This was incredibly frustrating as I kept reorganising things to free up time, and often only got last minute notice that it wasn't ready and meant I missed out on 3 separate meets that I wanted to go to. It was hard to understand why it still wasn't ready 10 days after saying he might have it ready "late tonight or tomorrow morning".

The most annoying thing was that the original problem wasn't sorted when I eventually got the car back after nearly 3 months - I ended up taking it to my usual garage (WMSS) to sort it. All I can assume is that Rowan was too pressed for time to give it a proper test drive.

I have no doubt that Rowan is an excellent mechanic and knows c900s inside out, and the work he did on my car seems of a high quality and was reasonably priced. However, it caused me a lot of grief and a lot of stress with the not knowing and I have to say that I couldn't recommend him in all conscience unless I had a cast iron guarantee of when I would get it back.

I've spent a lot of time on this post and nearly deleted it as I didn't want to be unfair, but I think in the interests of balance I should post it. I've tried to be as objective as possible, it ended up as a rather disappointing experience for me - although I should point out that all the work seems to be of a very high standard, just the timescales/promises and not solving the original problem. A real shame because I think it could have been so different.

Mods, if you think this is out of order please feel free to modify or delete.
 
#11 ·
south east Saab Chapman way Tunbridge wells ,is by far the best people i have found to work on my many saabs.whether it be my classic t16s,viggen or my 95 particularly Rowan just seams to know all the models inside out and is always willing to go that extra mile to fit you in for service or sort a breakdown prob out many thanks Rowan and your great team
 
#12 ·
Rowan recently did some work on my 9k Aero, and I was very pleased with his work. He is very busy and not always fully on top of admin so I do suggest setting a firm collection time/date. His Saab knowledge and willingness to listen to problems is very good.

He fixed a suspension noise that another well regarded inde in Slough had twice tried to repair only to effectively tell me it was not fixable, and this after billing me for some significant time trying and TWICE stripping out a butterfly bush bolt.

My speedo died, I swapped a replacement in a the recent Kodak meet, turned out it was also bad, Rowan found another one and after two tries managed to calibrate it correctly, again something I was told elsewhere was not possible.

He sorted out a whole bunch of other non-stardard small problems with my car, top guy would strongly suggest people give him a try.
 
#13 ·
Hi folks,

Heard a few whispers about Rowan @ SES being a good egg, any good stories (or otherwise)? I could do with somebody local to me for a few jobs.[/b]
Update: Apparently Rowan is returning to his native Australia and has (recently?) sold the business http://www.southeastsaab.co.uk/, which is now called Saab Spec http://saabspec.co.uk/. Does anyone know anything about/have experience of the new owners?
 
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