Saab Down

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8421007.stm

Pity, I quite like them. Never owned one, of course...

Oh. There's your problem, right there!

 

I was just reading that.

Shame, they made some great cars over the years.

--


Nige,

BMW K1200S
Honda Transalp XL600V
Yamaha R1
Range Rover Vogue

 

We've owned two and considered a third before buying the Subaru, but
they haven't made a really new car for maybe two decades.

Oh, and the local dealer didn't seem to take me seriously as a potential
customer either.

 

s/new/good/ - the later ones are pretty much all based on GM platforms
and that's not for the better.

The prices for the 'real' SAABs (before the GM takeover) have been going
up for a while now. Go figure.

That clearly doesn't help.

 

Of course, based on a Vauxhall floorpan...

 

That's not the whole story, though, is it. No-one wants to buy them.

 

I stiill have a yen for an old beetle-browed 16v Turbo 900.

 

SAAB down, no loss, they were money pits, 'orrible things, unreliable junk.

 

That's the point. They're no longer a distinctive car maker. Haven't
been for years.

It's like Citroen in the 1990s: they lost all the quirks that made
people buy them and started making anonymous EuroBlandBoxes. Xsara,
anyone? At least Citroen are building interesting cars again

Subaru seems to be going the same way, which is a bit of a bugger since
I've decided I really, really, *really* like their own interpretation of
what (of all things) a diesel estate car should be[1]. The new one just
looks like a late-1990s Vauxhall.

[1] In short, a belting 150bhp flat-four diesel that's as smooth as
cream, permanent four-wheel drive, little touches like frameless door
windows, individual styling (nobody would ever call it pretty) and
utterly fabulous quality.

 

I've had eight 1x 9000, 5x 900, 2x V4 96 - all pre GM though.

 

Doesn't everyone. They are a bit silly in price now, and basically
primitive.

--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2 GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

In the ad, it says something like 'Sticks to the road because of the
flat four diesel'.

Is there any physics behind that that anyone can think of, or just
marketing crap?


--
Catman MIB#14 SKoGA#6 TEAR#4 BOTAFOF#38 Apostle#21 COSOC#3
Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright (Remove rust to reply)
116 Giulietta 3.0l Sprint 1.7 GTV TS 156 V6 2.5 S2 GT 3.2 V6
Triumph Sprint ST 1050: It's blue, see.
www.cuore-sportivo.co.uk

 

Lower roll-centre or something.

 

Not that pricey - 16v non-turbos are only a couple of hundred and the
turbos can be picked for less than a grand.

The one I'd like is a pre-85 (pre facelift) 8v turbo hatchback, supposed
to be fairly brutal.

 

When I last looked about 6 months ago, ones worth having were a lot more
than that.

I've had one in the past, by modern standards they're quite mild. They
still have a little of that old school turbo lag but not as bad as some
of the 70s ones.

 

A year or so ago, yes. But you'd struggle to get a decent turbo for a
grand now.

<looks out window at black 3dr T16>

 

Haven't reay followed this from the antipodes but do they still build
aircraft?

 

That's what I had, with a slightly tweaked wastegate. The way it took
off when the turbo eventually kicked in was quite staggering.

 

The car division split from the aircraft division a long time ago.

But Saab still do built aircraft.

 

Two-stroke?