1994-2002 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Seriously, I am not an expert, but my impression is that Saab has been tuning the car since the NG900 came out. I think cars can normally be tuned for two reasons:
1) It was originally underpowered so the automaker could ramp us HP in new model years and/or they wanted to see how it performed (across a wide range of customers/conditions) before increasing rpms/torque/HP. e.g. Passat 2001.5, Audi A4,BMW 3series, Acura integra. For instance, automakers test cars in the North and South of the US but they can't anticipate every situation. Hence the recalls and gripes of every model when consistent failures come up across many users. Starting models at lower horsepower puts less stress on the engine and lets them claim a better MPG, useful for CAFE standards which are not rigidly rechecked with each model year.
2) American cars tend to have power with less effeciency - what 4 cylinder domestic model comes close to a Saab? So there is a lot of room on American cars to make adjustments. Some of these adjustments are also tradeoffs, giving up something (MPG, comfort, snow handling) that the automaker's marketing department wanted for Mr and Mrs mainstream that you (and I) don't care about.
My impression is that the Saab 9-3 has been around for so long and that Saab is relatively performance minded, so that it offers the base and the "tuned" SE. While there are always things you can do to improve/ individualize/ screw-up (or all three) a car, there is little that you can do the Saab that will really get you a MAJOR change in performance. I am not saying the SE is perfect by any means, only that it is pretty close to the best you can do with the underlying design Saab chose to work with.
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