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Car companies are in business to make a profit. They figure out what they think is the least they can give the customer at $x price, and still keep him/her willing to come back. Not too different from what most other business entities do. There are a few exceptional companies out there, some build cars, some build houses, some provide services. For the exceptional service, they charge a premium, and again somebody is happy to pay that premium. BMW will never sell as many cars as Toyota, but they will sell enough to maintain a profit that is acceptable to them while producing a premium product. Unfortunately, (for us as car nuts), most people buy cars based on price. One of the easiest ways of reducing price, car manufacturers have realized, is to base multiple models off the same platform. It's not just in pressing floorpans that the economy is achieved it's in the multitude of components that are attached to that platform that can now be shared. In our increasingly cost competitive world, this is a necessity, especially for smaller manufacturers, such as SAAB. In my opinion, it is better that SAAB exists as a company and continues to produce cars, rather than cease to exist. Much as we all love the uniqueness of our cars because they were originally designed by aeronautical engineers, a car company is not really a good fit in the portfolio of an aircraft company. Cars are high-volume, low-profit per unit. Planes are low-volume, high-profit per unit. If you have spare (human) capacity in your aircraft division, in the 1990's or later, there are more lucrative options open to you than putting them to work on cars. It's not post World War II Europe any more. (Rover/MG/Austin/Leyland/Morris/God knows what else were owned by British Aerospace prior to BMW and look what happened to them.) The reason we find ourselves in this situation today is because of decisions made 20-30 years ago. Tipo Quattro was very successful for all parties, and having driven all four variants, I can tell you no two are similar. You do not exit the SAAB thinking you were driving anything else. (somebody who knows very little about cars might think it was German...) You definitely would not think it was Italian! The Croma, apart from being fast in Turbocharged form, is a piece of junk. It feels like an oversized Uno or Ritmo. The Thema did look like a Volvo to an extent, as somebody has mentioned, but it certainly did not drive like one. Or last like one. The 164 lived on it's sleeve more than any other, was better built than any Alfa before it, and did not even look remotely like any other Tipo Quattro. Its looks were so far away from them, it could have more easily been confused for a Peugeot 405 or 605! Maybe we don't need to worry so much about platform sharing... if you want more proof, go drive a Saturn LS. Then get back in your 9-3 and drive home... maybe component sharing is not that bad...
The fact is that every time a new model is designed, there is a certain amount of wheel re-inventing that gets done. No way around it, unless you want to carry over defunct technology. I dont care if my 9000 has the sme wiper motor, or floorpan, as some other car on the road. Ferrari has been raiding FIAT's part-bin since the 1960's, and some of those cars have still been unique and changed hands for seven figure sums. Yes, I lament the loss of individuality in cars, many European econo-boxes are virtually indistinguishable form one another. Not everybody on here is a BMW fan, but we do have to give them credit for surviving into the 21st century as an independent manufacturer, still producing great cars. (some of the people who buy them are another matter!) Porsche remains independent, partly because the Piechs (for which read Volkswagen) allow it to (how independent is that really? Porsche hasn't had a works entry at Le Mans since Audi started going there...), and it produces only two models, which share many components, and I need a second glance to tell them apart a lot of the time. I hate to say it, but I think some of the decisions SAAB took as long ago as the 1960's are coming back to haunt us now. And have been for 10 or more years. And remember, the 99 started life using Triumph engines...
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