New SAAB = SUBARU WRX!!

You mean since the 9000 development? True - and the 9000 isn't a bad car. But that's exactly the point - it isn't a bad car, but neither is it in any way outstanding. Don't misunderstand - I've owned a 9000 (and still do, but it's retired), and they're good cars. But there were many other cars of the same vintage which were as good or better.

Compare this with say the 99T - what else in 1980 was in the same bracket? Not very much.

I won't go on about the C900 because I'm extremely biased there, but I do believe this is a design one-off.

Johannes H Andersen wrote: ::: The 9-3SS uses GM engines throughout the entire range. :: :: The turbo charged engines are heavily modified by Saab and until :: recently unique to the 9-3SS in that form. However, the 175 bhp 2.0t :: 'Saab' version has recently been introduced as a luxury option in :: the (GM) Vauxhall Vectra repmobile.

Yes, first decent engine in an Opel (Vauxhall) in ages. ;o)

Cheers!

The SAABARU thread again - you'd think the marketing folks at GM were poking around for opinion on this one.

My take is that its a bid for the World Rally and/or Paris Dakar in hopes of re-flying the brand in the same way the 99T did back in the late 70's. However even they do pull that one out of the bag - the problem will honestly be that its a still a tarted pony - isn't it?

The vivisection of a Subaru and a SAAB 9-3/5 only further isolates and deludes the brand and the servicing model and frankly if I were one of the current Saturn SAAB Izusu dealerships I would be flipping angry at this as they should see it the same way folks who ran once BSA or, alternatively, Triump motorcycle dealerships in the 70's came to see it. Trident anyone?

If they had any sense left at all, the good folks at GM should have applied the Epsilon platform into an honest 4 wheel drive turbo using a wider flatter 9000 based super wedge lagonda time design. A stand apart GM to compete with VW, BMW and Volvo to go kick some World Rally butt, with an honest GM tag under the hood. Heck, why not peal off a four wheel drive drive train from the GMC truck group, put it on a diet, hook it up with a vette V8, let Scania turbine division have a crack at it and then - really

- stomp the terra?

Putting aside reliable stock 500hp in sub 2,700pd chassis wet dreams for a moment - a high end Epsilon base could perhaps provide what SAAB has always really needed - a common platform with varying grades of chassis and drive train options that can be readily serviced across GM parts catalogue and dealerships. That way the almost razor thin performance spread between the Euro Sport Sedans can be offset by making the SAAB the competitive service and price winner.

And actually - its really too bad if you think about it. Here they spent a considerable amount of investor dough and now they are effectively writing off the provenance of the marque - which in the end is really where the value was.

I have never 'got' GM that way. They don't actually make absolutely rotten machines and often can spit out something really special. Here they have a real chance to actually give the Malibu and the Eon a shot in the perception arm by putting a hot version of the platform out there with a SAAB badge on it and they just give it away to Subaru.

Now brother Grunff and I disagree on the 9000/C900 question - but he's dead right about the 99T. Almost everyone at the time knew it was a Triump block - but - it was the handling package and turbo that won the championship. Here they had a chance to do the same thing with Epsilon. I wonder if GM just doesn't get turbo technology?

Saab had a smaller model - the 96 or 99.

Now that would be cool - a 96 relaunch, complete with Subaru derived

Should I build one? ;-) Need a new demo car.

Do it Matt! It would be *awsome*.

Now that I didn't know "Shudder".

The 9.3 sport sedan does not have a GM engine

And in this day of all the buyouts can make a company remain it's own. I read somewhere that the main reason Porche built their SUV was so their stock would go up and they wouldn't be succeptible to a takeover (ala Jaguar being bought by Ford - although that may not have been a takover, but you get the idea).

In the mcy world, Aprilia purchases their 4-stroke engines, along with many other parts, and concentrate on frames, tuning, etc. This has allowed them to keep going where many other Italian mcy firms have gone away, or been bought merely to use the name. (Although Aprilia is in a bit of trouble for spending so much on racing ;^)

-Steve

Kevin Brewer wrote: :: The 9.3 sport sedan does not have a GM engine

Of course it does. As Saab is part og GM, it's a GM enigine. ;o)

Anyway, the engine is a GM engine modified by Saab.

Cheers!

I am afraid that you are wrong about that! Basicaly it is an Opel engine :o( For some European markets there is even the 1.8i without turbo available :o(((((

"Kevin Brewer" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@enews3.newsguy.com...

gj wrote: :: I am afraid that you are wrong about that! :: Basicaly it is an Opel engine :o(

No, it's not an Opel-engine. It's a British developed GM engine.

Cheers!

In article , snipped-for-privacy@btinternet.com spouted forth into alt.autos.saab...

Do it man, but rather than cut up a real 96, see if you can get moulds of the shell, and make one in pure Carbon Fibre with Lexan windows.

Should be a bit lighter. And just laquer it so the carbon weave shows though, with a black carbon backbox to the exhaust.

more sales good!

the reason to get this car is to make a 2nd gen SAAB designed car from this design.

and to fill a current gap below the 9-3.

It is best for sales to put newest tech on low end model and work way up.

SAAB has done this for years.

Mark Plumlee SAAB of Memphis

Scooby doo, where are you :)