280 Bhp in Saab 9-3 from next year.

No surprising. Six cylinders is becoming the norm and the expectation in the premium class. However, the engine alone doesn't make the car, as has been shown with the Jaguar X that has been a big flop. Jag owner Ford is closing a historic Jag plant in Coventry. Apparently, people look through the skin of the X type and see a Ford Mondeo.

Saab will have to be careful the same doesn't happen with Saab, but the issue will only be confused with coming upmarket GM/Vauxhall/Opels. The new Vauxhalls may be quite well engineered cars, but the giveaway is their body design; somehow they don't look European enough with far to much chrome and some exaggerated rear end details. They really look like dull repmobiles trying hard to be flashy.

"Johannes H Andersen" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news: snipped-for-privacy@ezouvwnmzusxsizefitterzxursaxzoe.com...

I doubt whether this is true. People are normally not so much concerned about platforms upon which cars are based. Particulary if the platform offers such a good handling capability as the one the Mondeo has got. Its much more the engine which makes people thinking about family similarities. From this aspect it was probably not wise to use the 2L 130HP Diesel from Ford in the X type.

Agree. The Vectra offers a lot of place for the given size, Saabs 9-3 can not compete on this at all. However the present Vectra offers much more the phenotype of a shrinked actual US full size car than that of an European midclass car. Unfortunately this seems to be the new stiling of the entire Opel/ Vauxhall line. I wished GM would have given them the allowance to design their own car arround their own engine and body technic.

But the segment for the X type already has established contenders, that means that the X type really had to be very special to compete. It was probably down to marketing problems. Jaguar desperately tried to tempt young executives with this car, but the wouldn't shift their beloved BMWs. Yes, the Mondeo is a wonderful designed car, but with a mass produced feel; nothing welcomes you when you sit in the car.

Is it going to have the same rubber timing belt interference design as the GM V6 engines in the previous GM Saabs? The timing belts that cost $1,000 to replace every 30,000 miles. They would probably make sure they use the DI cassettes that burn up every 30,000 miles as well. And then wonder why people aren't repeat purchasers of the GM Saabs.

I hope I am completely wrong, but then this is GM . . .

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As I understood it, it's gonna be a Saab developed engine, which probably means chains. :o) And yes, a DI - or rather two. But then again, the are getting more and more durable. Besides that, they're nowadays making single modules for each cylinder, meaning lower costs for the owner, should the fry...

Cheers!

As a newbie Saab ( 9000 ) owner I like the idea of chains. My previous GM/Vauxhall ( also made as Opel ) Cavaliers ( Ascona / Vectra ) loved to destroy timing belts just as you thought it was time to replace them !

Decades ago I owned a Rover 2000 TC ( P6 ) with duplex timing chains. Nice reliable things. :-)

The DI cassette is frankly great - as long as is doesn't break ! Changing plugs was never so easy before !

Graham

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I like chains too - and so does Saab. For the past 3 decades, the Saab-engines have had chains. Not until recently, when they started to use Opel engines (urgh!), did they get belts. But I'm sure new developed engines will have chains, as more and more carmakers use chains e.g. Ford, Toyota a.s.o.

Yes, the DI system is great. All in all the Saab enginemanagement is probably the best in the automotive world, and has been for over 10 years. The other makes are first starting to use DI-systems now. And if you think Saab have had probs, try asking VW-owners. :o) Btw. The new BMW M5 will, according to BMW, have a newly developed sparkplug system, where the plug is used as a sensor - yeah right!

When might we see the electrically-operated valves? This has been touted as the next great thing and obviates the question about which kind of timing "chain".

There's also been talk of a combined starter/alternator incorporated into the flywheel, possibly operating at

Perhaps there should be electric all-wheel drive and eliminate the power trains as well...

I would expect pneumatically operated, electrically controlled valves first. They have proven to work quite reliable in F1 engines , even at very high revs, als long as you have pressure in your tank. And a tiny pump instead of the tank would solve this problem even in presence of small pressure leakages. Furthermore this would increase the power output of the engine by 10-20 Hp, since you will save the driving power for the entire valve train.

Car industrie is about to turn back the amount of electronics you will find in our present "modern" cars. Electronic systems have significantly reduced the overall reliability of the car In the meanwhile you may find as much as 50 DC motors in a upper midclass car, many of them are processor controlled and tend to fail.

In fact the only problem in my 91 9000 Turbo comes from the throttle motor system. It has allready been changed once, but the error causing the TCS light to turn on has returned. I am happy with it, since a permanent traction controll in a turbo engined car doesnt make sense at all. And in the 91 cars there was no way to override the TCS.