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... but that may be related to differences in our car buying habits... I completely recognize I'm SAAB's worst customer: we own 3, and the newest is a 2004, bought this year. All 3 cars are fantastic. I do buy new parts even for the old ones, so SAAB makes some $$ from me. Fundamentally, I'm too financially conservative to spend that much money on a rapidly depreciating asset...
It is interesting to me how many former SAAB buyers have switched to Kia. Kia/Hyundai have long been copying features from other manufacturers + they have been a bit quicker than others to get on this recent turbo bandwagon. With their success over the past few years, they're starting to develop their own styling (though I find it gaudy, it is at least distinctive + will appeal to many) + the quality + safety seems to have improved significantly... eg hdli numbers for Sonata have gone from absolute bottom of the barrel for a car that size (>75% worse than the average car) to average. Any relatively modern Saab (or Volvo, or Audi, and many Subarus actually) get hdli numbers roughly 50% better than average. Why? A difference in philosophy: designed to be safe in the real world, vs designed to get good crash scores at iihs for marketing purposes.
All that is to say that the veneer of the current crop of Kia/Hyundais is thicker than the Amante... but to me it's still a veneer. What's unfortunate to me is the new car buying public don't seem to share my taste + values (eg who thinks about how well a car holds up to rust if they're leasing?), but such is life.
Just yesterday my neighbour with a Hyundai + a Suby was looking at the baby car seats in our 9-5 and his comment was "that is a *nice* car"... as in, "now that I see it up close, that really is in a whole different league"... but I can see how others might make the switch to Kia... just not for me... if I'm forced to jump ship, it will most likely be to another euro brand... and that shouldn't be for a long time, even if Saab failed today...
James...
posted by 67.158.71...
, Sat, 3 Sep 2011 21:00:39
, Sun, 4 Sep 2011 07:20:05, Sun, 4 Sep 2011 13:02:42
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