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At best, speculation. But that's fun, too Posted by Ari [Email] (#2847) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Ari) on Wed, 22 Sep 2004 10:17:02 In Reply to: So how come they stopped making the 6 cyl?, Dennis, Tue, 21 Sep 2004 13:38:28 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
I'm standing by Dean's approach of too many engines. Yes, you see many engine variants in Europe, but that's because engine size and type kick off many tax issues in Europe. You can greatly impact the price of the car (overall) to the consumer that way.
The US has no such tax structure, other than indirectly in gas tax. However, every engine type coming into the US needs to be certified. And that certification cost money. Also, for every engine type there has to be manuals, training, spare parts on the shelf, many indirect but very real costs.
Those are the costs- what are the benefits. As was mentioned, a V6 was introduced on the 9000 because as a near luxury vehicle (anything running $37K list in 1995 is near luxury), the marketers didn't think enough folks were looking at Saab if they only had a four. Some folks didn't even look at a car without a V6 (or V8). So this was an attempt to break into that market.
Nowdays, Saab has 4-cylinder engines more powerful than the 4, and quite frankly, quieter. My assumption is that they figured that the 'Gotta Have a V6' market wasn't big enough to justify the carrying costs of the engine. Since the V6 was marketing, they've decided to push Saab's sportyness and technology, and that's 4-cylinder turbo across the board.
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