shocking loss of faith in venerated institution

College roommate Pete is losing faith in Saab automobiles. This is shocking. He's been driving them his whole life, and once worked as a Saab mechanic. He can take everything apart, and put it back together again, and routinely gets 250,000 miles out of a car. As his Saab has one more year left in it, he's entertaining a vairety of options, including a used 3-series BMW station wagon or a Volvo V50. When Pete was a mechanic, he used to say Saab was a great car with some fun characteristics. Volvo was a great car with no fun. Since then, Volvo seems to have increased their fun coefficient and Saab's appears to have plummeted. Some of the Saabs suffer from a condition called "oil sludge" such that the oil heats up, coagulates, and the engine siezes. Not fun.

Used cars offer significant savings, but you have to know what you're looking at. And it's best to have all records. Even Pete, with all of his experience, has had some adventures in car buying that were a challenge at best and an expensive diversion at worst.