Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2002 14:50:18 -0800 From: "pablo" <pabloATsimplyhombreNOSPAMnet> Subject: Re: Best built recent Saab?
"Grunff" <grunffnopsam.com> wrote in message news:3DCD5609.4070505nopsam.com... > > What is the point in ending up with a load of different cars > which are targeted at different segments of the market > purely based on the badge they carry? I think you know the answer. In some cases, the branding is overdone, in others, it is quite acceptable; and in many cases, people aren't aware of it. As long as the car appeals to me and the result is good, to be honest I don't care. Why it's OK for a vendor to stretch the *identical* platform over a range of $30,000+ (like the BMW 3 or 5 series), but it is not OK for a manucturer to use leverage basic compents in different brands I fail to comprehend. The Audi TT is a great fun car choice for its target audience, not in spite but probably *because* the Golf underpinnings. The car would not be built if that was not the case. So this platform stuff results in more choices, and I for one welcome that. Those who hold on to more romantic notions of car brands and are forever nostalgic of the good old days, of course, will never accept it. I do have different vehicles for differnt purposes: the Saab's my everyday car. Sure, I like it and all, but it has to be eminently practical, reliable and a rational proposition. A 20-year old Saab convertible would not live up to that, even though some in here claim it was oh-such-a-better-built car. To me, old Saab's are not "sexy" enough to feel passionate about them, sorry. I perfectly understand if others sense for aesthetics and passion runs differently, but don't try to overdo it and claim all old Saab's are better cars than the Saab's build today. They're not. They're undoubtedly more *legitimate* and *pure* Saabs for those who care about such things, but they're not "better" by any rational technical benchmark. They were built in worse plants, and designed with access to worse tools, and within finacial constraints that in the end threatened Saab's very existence. I do have a collectionist car I do feel passionate about. It is a highly irrational car, and instills highly irrational sentiments in me. The manufacturer has been acquired by another company - one that is sure to produce better cars by any engineering benchmarks, but I will most likely not want them. But at least I do not make the old cars' supposed superior engineering an excuse. ...pablo
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