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Hi Guys,
As an audiophile -- my obsession before finding Saab -- this discussion of whether Saab is a sports car reminds me of the eternal debate amongst the audio purists. Many in high end audio argue, or hold the belief that convenience and common sense features (remote control, balance control, tone controls) are anathema to a true high end component. This hair shirt sort of mentality that one must suffer or give up features when dealing with the state of the art or cutting edge components just doesn't make sense logically, and is being phased out over time. For instance, in the world of Mark Levinson and Krell, remote controls were something begrudgingly offered to customers only recently, and the ball park prices of their individual components rests in the $5k to $15k bracket (that's per component!). And low and behold sound quality didn't suffer.
Now take Saab for instance. I'll grant you that like most car manufactuers, not all their models are sport cars. The Chevrolet Cavalier is not a sports car, but the Corvette certainly is. And to be honest, when I drove a stock 93 for a week it bored me to death, but this would be painting the whole works with the same brush, and would not be fair to Saab. But to argue that the stock 900 SPG, 9K Aero, 95 Aero and Viggen aren't sports cars because they're not stripped down performance only machines like a Ferrari Dino doesn't add up. We should be objectively judging them by how these models perform: killer torque, high bhp, awesome acceleration, tight handling, and not dismiss them because one can also take the kids to soccer practice in the back seat.
To dismiss something out of hand because it doesn't represent one's purist beliefs is snobbish and naive. And hey, with that attitude, one may miss a lot of good wine bargains by only drinking Chateau Neuf du Pap. I ask: Why not have the best of both worlds? Thanks to my 94 Aero I can :-D
Just my $0.02 Canadian,
Bill
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