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I hope he kept the rusty 900!
I think it depends on *what* someone is looking for.
We pay cash + keep them until the wheels fall off. So from a financial perspective, repairs are fairly easy to take. I can't buy a new econobox for twice what we paid for our 2004 9-5. And it is basically a new car. There is a new(ish now) Civic in the extended family and it cost almost 4x (after tax) what the 9-5 cost (after tax)... and it has about the same hp (with less torque) as our 2.1L NA 1993 900s... and no leather seats... and a sea of grey plastic inside... and there's a dozen (in your colour) in every parking lot... the civic is a nice enough car, but really the only advantage over a base c900 is the fuel economy (which is outstanding - they average 40mpg!) and perhaps reliability (though even under warranty, they pay more for maintenance than we do - I could change out a c900 tranny for what they paid for a muffler + a mid-pipe)... it's also already had (minor) rust repair (under warranty)... never mind more expensive to insure...
It's true that the features of cheaper new cars have become competitive + in some cases exceeded those from 10-15 years ago, but that doesn't alone make them better or even equal. The example I like to counter against is the Hyundai/Kia syndrome: they copy design elements + features from higher end brands to paint (an ever thicker) veneer over their (formerly vastly inferior) basic economical transportation + undercut on price. I'm amazed how many people have switched from a Saab to a Hyundai/Kia. The former owner of our 9-5 did also! At 6 years + 80k on the original suspension, sure a new Sonata might feel a little newer + tighter. Probably has more airbags + a better iihs score. Might hook up easier to an iphone. In real life, the 9-5 is safer (vastly better hdli numbers), will take longer to rust + fall apart (my neighbour is doing rust repair on his 2006 Hyundai + was amazed how easily they rust: bubbles all around the edges of the roof even!)... but for the new car buyer (or more likely leaser), not much of this matters anyway: the car is disposable... and that is why that segment of the car buying public is lured away from euro cars: it's hard to shell out a lot of $$ for a disposable item (with perhaps better long term prospects) when a cheaper one has the same features...
What we get from buying a SAAB is we are buying into the value set of the engineering staff. And imho their value set reflects my values better than the Koreans' (do you design for real life safety + happen to do well on iihs tests, or do you design to the iihs test + have barely average, or in the past terrible, real life safety?)... It is as true today as it was 30 years ago... it's just harder to market the differences because the gap has narrowed somewhat...
so... I suppose if I was looking for the newest features or M3 "superiority" bragging rights, I agree with Ezra's pov: cutting edge is a moving target. But to be honest, I enjoy driving the old 900s every bit as much as the 9-5, especially around town, and I'd take any Saab over any of the rentals we've had over the past few years...
James...
posted by 67.158.6...
, Wed, 14 Sep 2011 06:06:55
, Sun, 18 Sep 2011 21:13:04
, Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:23:12, Thu, 15 Sep 2011 07:18:43, Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:05:37, Wed, 14 Sep 2011 02:08:01, Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:53:56
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