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Date: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 09:34:09 -0500
From: Bob  <uctraingNOSPAMersnopsamanet.com>
Subject: Re: Convince me!


On Mon, 13 Jan 2003 22:41:49 -0500, "The Conquistador" <ConqueringHeronopsamiron.org> wrote: >"Style" to me is elegance with an edge... A car that elicits "ooohs" and "aaahs" >looking at it, an interior that wraps around you and says, "You're home, take your >coat off and stay a while". A car that stands out in the sedan crowd. A car that >*looks* fast. A car that makes guys say, "I want one of those", a car that makes girls >want to sit down and take their clothes off. ;-) With the Saab, you'll need to buy the 9-3 convertible and/or Viggen to get their clothes off. >In truth, I grade the Jag at the top of the list style wise (because the BMW 3 series >coupe is out of consideration being RWD only), but the Saab is mighty close. The new >9-3 sedans are, IMHO, a thing of beauty. And "style" (or lack thereof) is why the Audi >was dropped from contention. A very personal choice of course. If the Jag was an E-type, we know what car would win. The 9-3 convertible is close second. The current Jag is (unfortunately) "less than distinctive", IMHO. >I mean both, when it comes to performance. I want snap-your-neck (as much as I can >get, anyway) dead-stop acceleration, but I also want to turn corners at high speeds, >both under power, and under braking conditions. I'd prefer a bit of oversteer to a >tendency to understeer, unless it's *very* consistent and predictable understeer. And >I have little tolerance for torque-steer. I want to be able to drive the car *hard* >and have it beg for more. Stoplight to stoplight performance, and acceleration at >highway speeds are about equally important. Welllll, I think you're looking to buy a car and modify it. None of these cars will really do that off the dealer's lot. You can come close with a Saab Viggen. That will buy you the "looks" you want, along with the performance. I think you'll still need to but a LSD to get rid of any tramlining (what some folks think is torque steer) as well as the "Viggin Rescue Kit" from Abbott. Alternatively, you could buy a "normal" 9-3, chip it, change springs, bars, shocks, etc and build an even better machine. I like the "build it yourself" approach myself since you can design in as much performance as you want (whilst trading a bit of "ride"). I don't know that you can do any of this with the "new" 9-3 as parts to modify it will probably not be available for some time. You mentioned snow... the Saab is the hands down *winner* in snow. Trust me, it's unstoppable. You can tow out stuck SUV's if you put snow tires on. Without snow tires, you're still way ahead of the crowd. >Comfort is nice too. Especially since I have 4 kids. ;-) >I drove in a 2002 9-3 sedan, and power doesn't seem to be an issue. I'd be willing to >bet that little turbo 4 would keep up with 5.0 Mustangs. That's good enough for me. No problem at all. Where a Saab really shines is with mid range torque. It will out pull most cars in the mid range. A 5.0 mustang is probably going to beat you off the line though, it's simple physics. >How have you found your Saab to be in the reliability dep't.? Everything I hear is >either a laundry list of "Saab (sob) stories", or "I've put 200,000 on it and I'm >ready to put another 200,000 on it". There seems to be little in between! They are reliable. But, that's "European" reliable, not Japanese reliable. If you want Japanese reliable in a car that has everything _except_ the looks and snob appeal, buy a Nissan Maxima. If you need more status, pay thousands more for an Infiniti and get the same thing with extra padding. Bob

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