Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:42:06 GMT From: johannes <johsnospamfinospamtter.com> Subject: Re: Why the number 9?
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.
