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It was only as I wrote the header for this post that I realised it was only Tuesday. I think it’s going to be a long week.
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I’d like first to sincerely apologise to the organisers of the newly formed Saab Club of New Mexico. I received an email a few weeks ago about them and I meant to post on site that their first meeting would be on December 13th.
Given that it’s now December 16th, it seems a little redundant for me to mention it, but at least you now know that they exist, and if you’re in the area you can make contact and talk amongst yourselves about how sloppy I am with notifications. Or much more preferably, talk about your Saabs.
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So many jokes about this headline and so little time.
In case you haven’t been keeping up, Washington is poised to provide some loan monies to distressed Detroit automakers. It’ll probably be just enough to tie them over until it becomes B.O’s problem.
Washington is poised to make those loans, but it hasn’t happened yet and won’t happen until Dubya gets back from overseas. I’m sure the suits at GM hope that with the extra pair of shoes he picked up in Iraq, he’ll make it back a little quicker.
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For those of you who were hoping that either Fiat or Peugeot-Citroen would pick up Saab if they’re sold off, it looks like they might be busy enough picking up each other.
From Reuters:
France and Italy are considering a potential tie-up between automakers PSA Peugeot-Citroen SA and Fiat SpA, Milano Finanza newspaper said on Saturday.
The report comes just days after Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said the Italian company needed to find a partner to survive the crisis besetting the car sector.
We are quite a ways behind in our screenings of Top Gear here in Australia. Last night they drove the Alfa Romeo 8c Competizione, which Clarkson referred to as being poorly made and using a few other negative descriptors (concluding that it didn’t matter because in the end, it was 12 feet of pure automotive art).
Yesterday I was reading an old review of a Peugeot 207 diesel and the reviewer called it one of the worst constructed cars he’s ever seen.
An interesting marraige, then.
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I know there’s only a few of you, but for those amongst you consider yourselves Saab Sonett enthusiasts, there’s a new site you should bookmark right now.
It’s called SaabSonett.org and I’m quite sure it’s going to be one of the best Sonett resources out there.
It’s not huge, but given that the Sonett is one of those cars that is difficult to find information for, I think this will prove to be a very popular site amongst its audience.
There’s an illustrated parts guide online, as well as a bunch of downloads.
The site was built by Kriss Motors, who are dabbling in electric cars, too. An interesting bunch. Electric Sonett, anyone??
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10 responses so far ↓
1 Kroum
// Dec 16, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I’m here til Thursday. Try the fish! – SW
2 Jono
// Dec 16, 2008 at 1:38 pm
any type of sonett would be better than none
3 Ken H
// Dec 16, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I will have to disagree about the 207, because it is simply a very good small car. It has a firm but composed ride, and feels very solid. It has a very high ncap score too, so it is probably quite safe.
We have the petrol, but knowing that PSA-diesels are amongst the better I find it hard to believe the diesel can be so bad.
4 swade
// Dec 16, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Ken,
The writer said that the drive was actually OK. Quite good, in fact. This review was from a guy who buys the cars and then writes about the ownership experience so it was a recent review about a car that was a few years old. His main complaint – and quite a strong one – was in the build quality, not the drive or the engine. His contention was that the car was designed to be quick and cheap to build, and hence felt cheap inside and many components were falling apart in terms of interior trims and fixtures.
5 ctm
// Dec 16, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I case it hasn’t hit everybody yet… Saab sale in Europe was down 45% in November (total market down 26%). YTD, Saab is down 21%.
Will they make 90,000 cars this year?
6 Rune (the other one)
// Dec 16, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Everybody gets five stars in the NCAP tests.
Is the 207 a continuation of the 206 and 205?
In that case… RIP.
http://folksam.se/testergodarad/bilen/valjrattbil/hursakerarbilen/1.25619
gives the 205 and 206 a red dot, meaning “avoid unless you are suicidal”. I find it strange that they, all of a sudden, produces something that deserves a good safety rating. (It is still too early to say how it performs in real-life accidents, hence folksam.se only shows the NCAP rating for the 207)
I continue to believe that many of SAABs problems stems from poorly designed NCAP tests. (Rollover safety? Moose safety? Whiplash safety?)
7 Ken H
// Dec 16, 2008 at 8:49 pm
swade, the writer in question must have bought a high mileage car or a poorly maintained one. The 207 is a fairly new model, so can’t be age for sure…
I know exactly what 207 is like, as we own one.
The interior is not German soft touch and could be scratch-prone, but there is nothing suggesting bits will start falling off soon. I will let you know when the first bit falls off, ok?
Rune, as you saw I said “it is probably quite safe”, because I don’t think a high ncap score equals high safety. But I am convinced that any car with a high ncap score is not unsafe.
Enough Pug’s now, ok?
8 swade
// Dec 16, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Ken, I apologise. When I wrote that piece I was writing from memory and I got the marque right but the model wrong. It wasn’t a 207. it was a 2003 model Peugeot 307.
Here’s the link.
9 albert
// Dec 16, 2008 at 9:24 pm
If it’s about the 307 the writer is quite right.
We operate a whole fleet of these things. And although I always say it is the best service car we ever had, they are terrible. Lots of little build problems. Lights never work all together, rear top brake light falls off, rear brakes get stuck. Those kind of things. Even a renault Megane has fewer problems.
10 ctm
// Dec 16, 2008 at 11:49 pm
The 207 was the best selling car in Europe last year with almost 440,000 sold.