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What is a 'platform', really?
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Posted by LeoNL [Email] (more from LeoNL) on Wed, 12 Oct 2005 08:48:28 Share Post by Email
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I've been wondering this for a while. For instance the Epsilon platform, which the 9-3 shares with e.g. the Chevy Malibu. They look kinda similar in size and proportions, but where is the platform?

As an outsider, you'd picture the 'platform' to be the chassis, engine, transmission, etc. on which different bodies are built. My neighbor is restoring a '29 Reo; the body is still on 2x4s in his garage, but he's driving the 'platform' around in his backyard from time to time.

I don't think GM has a plant that cranks out Epsilon platforms that are shipped to the different factories to be finished off as Chevy's or Saabs. I'm an engineer, though not in the automotive industry, but from what I've heard auto makers have moved from the idea of a self-supporting chassis with a separate body built on it since the 1930s. The idea being that you can achieve the required stiffness with much lower weight if you make the body an integral 'hull' (for lack of a better word; sorry, english isn't my first language), rather than having to put steel beams in the chassis. Just picture, a flat sheet of paper cannot even support it's own weight when supported on the ends, the same piece of paper rolled in a tube can. This is also why convertibles weigh more than the same model sedan.

The last production car to be built with a self-supporting chassis was to my knowledge the (original) VW beetle (that design dates back to the 1930s). This is, by the way, why the beetle was the favorite platform for the buggy.

Also I keep reading that Saab have re-engineered the chassis on this or that model, even the 9-7. So I don't think the chassis is part of the platform.

The engine? Transmission? Some engines are shared between GM models, yes. Transmission, maybe. But there's got to be more to the platform than just the powertrain, if only to justify calling it a 'platform'.

For the rest there are probably other parts or design features shared between different models, such as brakes, suspension and what more. But I figure many parts are obtained form 3rd party vendors anyway, and I figure that more parts and design features are shared between the 9-5 and the 9-3 than between the 9-3 and the Chevy. Am I wrong?

So, where is the platform? Can someone help me out?

Leo

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