tasteful mod or Chavscum got too wealthy?

I've been slain on 1 point out of 3. Egads! They still weren't weird and they still weren't Swedish. Anyway, that's only 20 years so so in fact you are entirely wrong.

Yes I'm still sure.

Douglas

You have odd definitions of wierd, then.

Flat-4 engines, inboard discs, transaxle gearboxes etc. all a bit 'eccentric' if you think about it. That's before you start on the interiors.

Saab have had 2 models in 20 years, so, yeah, they're one behind ;-)

Ahhh, good point.

Hmmm. Pah, if we're talking about weirdness like that I find that the Frogs beat the shit out of the Wops and the Swedes with 1 hydropneumatic front-wheel hand braked behind their backs. I think Alfa learned all they know about flat 4's and inboard discs from the french.

My mum had a GS. To replace the downpipes you had to remove the cylinder heads. THAT's weird.

And transaxle gearboxes aren't that weird, lots of manufacturers have used them.

I'll concede a weirdness point on rust though. French cars started to not be built of rust before Italian ones. (c;

I think Wop interiors make sense if your inner leg length is the same as the circumference of your left bicep.

Argh, you've done it again, stop changing the goalposts!

Douglas

[...]

[1]Sud platform a: Alfa Sud b: Sprint Veloce c: 33 [2]Transaxle Alfetta platform a: Alfetta b: Guilietta c: GTV d: 6 e: SZ/RZ f: 75 [3] 164 FWD platform a: 164 [4] Nissan Cherry a: Arna

That's not less than 4, and that's just introductions. :)

A

Biggest failing on the 900's box isn't actually breaking (at least on a standard car), it wear and tear, after 100k mile plus in 20 year, mine would occasionally pop out of 1st and 2nd, so had some selector/pinion wear and that normally happened at slow manouvering speed, usually when turning, so might have actually been assisted by a worn (although not bad enough for the MOT) engine mount, other than it was fine. No whining in the higher gears, no crunching, didn't leak any oil, or look particular burned or contaminted by bit chunks of teeth after changing.

Those that were use in rallycross tended to wear the synchros unless if they were retro fitted with a 4 speed standard or dogbox. The 4 speeds actually allowed better pull because each gear could be held longer, but left left motorway cruising to be stupidly high revving, if you wanted gears small enough to be useable arround town and other medium speed driving.

Very true, the Saab aircraft actually uses a Volvo engine now.

Just developments of the same platforms as they were too poor to develop anything that was really new. A bit like the Saab 99/900, really.

Or, if it ain't broke, and it works fine, and sells, why try to fix it.

I don't see a problem with it. Then, I have no taste as far as the looks go.