Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2007 18:36:36 -0400 From: Fred W <malt_houndnospamo.com> Subject: Re: Why the number 9?
th wrote: > johannes wrote: > >> >> Fred W wrote: >> >>> Dave Hinz wrote: >>> >>>> On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:54:45 GMT, Fat Sam >>>> <samandjanetknoxnospamco.net> wrote: >>>> >>>>> I've wondered this for a while now. >>>>> What's the signifigance to the number 9 in Saabs naming convention? >>>>> All their cars seem to feature a number 9 in the title....900, >>>>> 9000, 93, >>>>> 95..... >>>> >>>> >>>> Saab numbered their models sequentially. So the Saab 91 was the >>>> "Safir" >>>> (link here: http://www.fcfk.com/safir/ ), the next thing on the design >>>> board was the Saab 92 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_92 ) >>>> >>>> Once they got into cars, they reserved the 2-digit 9x range for them. >>>> The 99 turned into the 900. By then marketing folks were in charge >>>> rather then engineers, so it got a bit wodgy and we ended up with 9-3 >>>> and 9-5 which have only vague meanings relative to the original naming >>>> scheme. >>>> >>> Yes, I do believe that the marketing people looked at the BMW models and >>> said: This 9 competes with the 3 series so let's call it a 9-3. That >>> one competes with the 5 series, so 9-5. If not intentional, what a huge >>> coincidence, eh? >>> >> >> The new naming 9-3 and 9-5 is a bit ugly IMO, it doesn't even match >> what is >> written on the cars, that's more like 9 with a smaller 3 or 5 hovering >> above, >> easily seen as 93 and 95, or perhaps it is 729 and 59049? Hence, total >> confusion. Added to that is that 900 and 9-3 models straddles between >> different shapes. > > > Try typing "9" followed by "^" followed by "5" and you will get 9^5 in > most news clients (I use Thunderbird), a bit more realistic than the 9-5 > notification > 9^5 (from Thunderbird) -- -Fred W
