Saabaru

On my jog today, I saw one in the lot at the local Saab dealer, so I stopped to look and to read the sticker. I think it was the "aero" version. I did notice two things: First, it is not turbo- or super-charged. Second, the sticker says "Made in Japan". There are no significant non-Japanese parts. Maybe the trolls from Trollhattan took a sled up and over the pole? Seems to me that if I want a Subaru, I'd do better at a Subaru dealer.

OTOH, I really do miss Japanese workmanship. Aside from having to replace crumpled sheet metal, I almost never had my Hondas in for service. So far this year, I've put about $900 into my 99 9-5. Ignition cassette, brake pads, new battery, A/C leak (so far unresolved), leaky oil seal, plus 3 headlight bulbs. I love my Saab but the next car will most likely be another boring Honda.

I wonder what they mean with that. AFAIK it will not even be sold in Europe.

-------- MH

"MH" skrev i en meddelelse news:ce8n1a$hmd$ snipped-for-privacy@news1.tilbu.nb.home.nl...

Luckily not.....

Cheers!

No turbo -> not the Aero version. Turbo and hood scoop (for intercooler) -> Aero version.

... and in the UK Subarus get excellent reliability reports by their owners ... why buy a SAAB and get unreliability.

Well, I'll attribute most trouble with recent Saabs as being related to GM roots.

I know this may be seen as US bad, anything else good but while this is sometimes true design and manufacturing wise- I know the US has been catching up quality wise. In part due to healthy competition.

TBerk

My wife's '99 Nissan needed a DI coil, brakes, a battery, two headlight bulbs in two years. It was an individual DI coil, so that was cheaper, but it needs a knock sensor - $200 in parts with 4-5 hours of labor to replace it.

Japanese doesn't necessarily mean "never in the shop". Also, Subaru did not exactly have a stellar reputation for quality a few years ago. I haven't checked lately.

Subarus are great cars, but if I wanted one I'd go buy one, if I buy a Saab, I want it to be a Saab, which sadly you just can't buy new anymore.

Troo dat.

Putting the "Aero" tag on a Subaru is a crime against aesthetic reason.

They are Subaru parts cars. In a little while it'll be easy to upgrade the girlfriends Impreza with leather interior from a Saabaru donor.

TBerk

What puzzles me is why did Saab chose Subaru? Perhaps someone misheard the CEO's instructions: "Hey James, put this grille on our new small Saab are u free to play golf tomorrow?"

I just drove a 9-2X Aero this weekend and it's nothing to write home about. I'd heard Saab/GM was anxious to make deals on these and get them sold but there were no deals other than 0% finance. As for the ride itself, it's ok and does get up and go but the interior is quite cheap. It's a step up from Subaru but still feels like you're in an entry level jap car...my 90 Civic Si had a better interior. The price is steep, once you add one of the option packs you are up to $29,600...$31,200 if you add both packs. Now, for that price you can get a real Saab 9-3 Arc. I was looking for a ~$20k car and thought if there were good deals on the 9-2X it might be worth it....I'm picking up a 01 Viggen on Monday:)

I saw a 9-2 sitting on the dealer's lot today as I drove by. It looks like a Yugo from the side. I'd go with the Mazda3 rather than buy something that ugly. It's looking like the 9000CS is going to go for 300,000 miles.

snipped-for-privacy@madmousergraphics.com

They picked Subaru because GM owns 40% of Fuji Heavy Industries, which *is* Subaru.

message news:... [...]

GM only owns 20% of Fuji Heavy Industries.

But GM owns 44.6% of Daewoo, 41.5 of avtoVAZ (Russia), 12% of Suzuki.

But none of those sell well in the USA except Suzuki... and they don't have much of a reputation. At least Subaru is "not a bad" car. Still far from Saab though.

It would have ben nice to see Saab engineers collaborate with the Japanese and produce a supercar with the best of both European and Japanese technology and ingenuity. But, that would be making an assumption that GM wanted to actually produce something great - they just want a car to meet a marketing derived need and care little about what counts with us aficionados.

Daewoo is quite common in the UK. They used to be a joke as they could clearly be identified as Open/Vauxhalls of the past generations with some amusing body modifications that wouldn't fool anybody. However they now have their own distinct range of cars. Or maybe I have been fooled :-)

The Vauxhall TV ad was the most annoying ad campaign with this famous heroic US actor (What's his name, somebody might know). He presented the new car as something very special out of this world with nothing left to chance, no corners cut blablabla...

Seems kind of ironic since as far as I know you can't even buy a Vauxhall over here.

I'd have to agree. I don't think I've even heard of any being imported.