Date: Wed, 13 Nov 2002 07:48:26 -0800 From: "pablo" <pablonopsamlyhombreNOSPAMnet> Subject: Re: Saabs is Saabs
"Andrew Stephenson" <amesnopsamrak.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:1037198416snznopsamrak.demon.co.uk... > > Bravo. The funny thing is, if we look back through the history > of engineering... VW Beetle, the Austin Mini ... The VW Beetle was an engineering feat in the 1930s. It was *not* a well-engineered car in the 60s and 70s anymore. There were far more durable and better engineered cars around - the fact so many of them are still around is a testament to their owners' dedication and the fact it is easy to fool around with the simple layout. My mother had a beetle, and it was a dog with fleas - she was not the one to enjoy working on her car, and thus the car was always broken. Same with the Mini -my sister had one-, which was *not* a durable car, and required careful care for it to not fall apart. Let's not glorify those "engineering achievements" of the past too much - if they were on sale today, only die-hard-fanatic would dare touch 'em with a long pole. You want unexciting econo-box, and Nissan or Fiat will give you far better cars than the ones above ever were. If you want engineering achievement, you have to come up with better cars than the ones described above - their redeeming quality was $ - they sold by the tons, and it's only today they have graduated to affordable classics. Back then, they were mass production cars that were not particularly well-engineered for their time. Saab better stay away from being too utilitarian. You have to design in some passion into cars that cost over $30k. If buying a car was just an equation of good mechanical design, we'd all drive unexciting $12k boxes. As far as I am concerned, and for the period I can remember, Saabs have offered a different proposition. While well-built, to claim they were at any point in time superior engineering products compared to other leading brands is to distort facts. They have always been good cars, and their owners deemed them superior - which as a rule all owners have always done, and will always do. The golden age of a brand mysteriously coincides with the model year of one's own car in too many owners' eyes... The success of BMW does *not* rely solely on good engineering and utilitarian appeal. Please. It relies on brand management in spades. To claim BMW are honest-to-earth car engineers that got lucky is ridiculous, and Saab better not be that naive if it wants to be around in 10 years. You want to manage a brand only based on building solid cars, go manage Lada. Even Toyota and Nissan are getting away from that. ...pablo
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