Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 08:55:46 +0000 From: C Sutherland <cggsnopsam.freespam.demon.co.uk> Subject: Re: Best built recent Saab?
In article <3DCD9E3C.5030507nopsam.com>, Grunff <grunffnopsam.com> writes >pablo wrote: >> I perfectly understand if others sense for aesthetics and passion >> runs differently, but don't try to overdo it and claim all old Saab's are >> better cars than the Saab's build today. They're not. They're undoubtedly >> more *legitimate* and *pure* Saabs for those who care about such things, but >> they're not "better" by any rational technical benchmark. They were built in >> worse plants, and designed with access to worse tools, and within finacial >> constraints that in the end threatened Saab's very existence. > New Saabs may be 'better' than the classics but they're not so good to drive and don't have that indestructible feel. In my first 900turbo I was in a pile up with 3 cars totally wrecked (and I mean terminally mashed) piling into me. The Saab took a sizeable thump but didn't have a mark on it. The financial constraints were Saab's problem. I read somewhere that one of GM's priorities was to reduce the huge number of man hours it took to build a C900 by about half for the new model. I like to think that the C900 took ages to build. It feels like it did and anyone who's owned one knows what I mean. The best bit used to be that few people knew how good those oddball Saabs were so you could pick up a storming used 900T16 that would last for years and years for absolutely peanuts. Alas no more. The supply of good late C900 turbos in UK has just about dried up apart from highly priced specimens. The turbo 9-3 doesn't light my fire and I can't afford a BMW so I've just bought a used 9-3 Tdi for practical reasons, (fuel economy). I might as well have bought a Vectra but my wife wanted the Saab for badge snobbery and the price difference was not great. There's nothing seriously wrong with it but I don't think I'll ever respect it like I have the 900 T16S aero which preceded it. Obviously I accept as a diesel that it is relatively slow but the handling is soft and the steering does not have that enjoyable direct feel which despite the size and bulk allows you to point the C900 with great precision. The 9-3, unsurprisingly, is much like the GM car from which the floorpan is derived in fact. Life moves on but the old 16S battlewagon will be much missed. Chas > >These days, Saab make cars that are perfectly nice, but have >nothing to distinguish them from the rest of the market. If >I was about to buy a new car, and had to choose between a >9-3 and a Vectra, I'd be a fool to pick the 9-3. The only >things the 9-3 has over the Vectra are minor styling >differences and a nicer interior. Is that worth the extra >money? No. > >-- >Grunff > -- C Sutherland
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