The curious case of the GM handled Saab 900

[andrew e]

 

G.M. were keen to bring the fight to B.M.W.'s door...

 

...even if those doors were bringing G.M. to Trollhattan

 

 

BUGGER.

 

 

 

[r.welfare]

Excellent! Where did you find this?

[M'coli]

Indeed - I was thinking we needed a Saab thread starting. Nice one!

[andrew e]

In a readily available Saab book on the 900 launch

 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAAB-900-Anders ... 3907150309

[Shep Shepherd]

It's amazing how Cavalierish those prototypes look, especially the white one in the final picture!

[andrew e]

Some more on those doors...

 

 

 

Saab handles! Hurrah! Note the wheels - maybe a nod to a Calibra floor pan (Thanks to Robert) rather than the Vectra/Cav as I assumed.

[fiatdaft]

Cav turbo had those wheels aswell.

[Cavcraft]

It's amazing how Cavalierish those prototypes look, especially the white one in the final picture!

 

This. The front is frighteningly early Mk3-ish.

 

Also what FiatDaft said, though (sadly) those wheels are mostly found on 'Redtop C20LET' converted Corsas that are still logged as a 1.2 these days.

[Shep Shepherd]

Incidentally, is the GM900 Cavalierish to drive? Not that being Cavalierish to drive is a bad thing, you understand

[Mr_Bo11ox]

GM deserve such a shoeing for their efforts with SAAB. I believe BOB LUTZ goes off on one in his new book about the 'doctors, architects and intellectuals' who profess (or professed) to be SAAB lovers, who raved on about how great SAAB was but then never bought the cars, specifically the GM-based ones.

 

hardly surprising when you see these snaps, it looks exactly like a fuggin Cavalier. you can imagine late in the day someone saying 'Jeezus man, we've got to do something to make it less obvious.... how about some new doorhandles?'

[ashmicro]

[Rod/b]

The MARINAFLAP truly is the doorhandle of CHAMPIONS.

[jnoiles]

I believe BOB LUTZ goes off on one in his new book about the 'doctors, architects and intellectuals' who profess (or professed) to be SAAB lovers, who raved on about how great SAAB was but then never bought the cars, specifically the GM-based ones.

 

That and a lot more. His ranting about the "oddball" Saab mistake and the difficult and expensive Opel engineers is bad enough. But his constant whining about the liberal press and their love of Toyota and hate for all things American made could fill a book by themselves. Reading it I was struck by a) how much the American car industry so richly deserved its public humiliation (and then some) and GM Does Not Understand Europe.

[Rod/b]

I think it just goes to show how far a lot of Corporate America's heads are firmly lodged inside their arses, in as far as how self-interested and inward looking it is. They don't understand the wants and needs of the average non-US consumer yet continue to insist that their subsidiaries operate along their operating models, with disastrous consequences.

 

Awaits some sort of pro-America, yee-haw, yankee-doodle rant from Team Bore...

[eddyramrod]

America seems to be like Britain, where a large and vocal chunk of the population jump on any bandwagon that looks like it might denigrate their homeland. Do Germans do this? I doubt it. Japanese? Not on your nelly. Strangely, side-by-side with this attitude in America, you also get the flag-wavers, loud and proud. Not a fashionable attitude in GB, for at least 40 years. Globalisation, sadly an economic necessity, completely fails to include national requirements; it's one-size-fits-all, when one size clearly doesn't. Putting a Vauxhall badge on an Opel seems to work, I don't know how; putting a Saab badge on it doesn't, does it?

 

Mind you: Cavalier mk2/Cadillac Cimarron? I would!

[dollywobbler]

They don't understand the wants and needs of the average non-US consumer...

 

Given the hiding they've been given at home, I don't think they necessarily understand the wants and needs of the average US consumer either. It's exactly what happened here really. British manufacturers failed to deliver what was really needed - which was fine when there were no imports. The floodgates open and it turns out that the foreign lot are better at designing cars for the British market than the British are.

 

America has had plenty of warning though - starting with the Datsun 240Z really. Now there was a signal of intent! None of which has anything to do with Saab doorhandles. Sorry.

[M'coli]

I think that's because we've seen the Opel/Vauxhall twins as competitors for the same market sector since the 60s or 70s; since the late 70s only the badge has seperated them and hence why the Opel name was phased out when the Manta went out of production. Popping a Saab badge on an Opel Vectra, fitting the Saab engine and moving the ignition switch to near the gearstick does not make it significantly different to the Opel for the traditional customers. What it does do however is to slash the time taken to produce the car by roughly 70% and introduce it to many other aspirational customers, especially those who believed the press stories about Saabs not being properly prestige cars because they didn't have a V6 engine.

Having owned a classic 900 and a Cavalier back-to-back I can testify to the quality of the Saab - you can see why they cost so much more and why they took so long to piece together.

[Rod/b]

I think that's because we've seen the Opel/Vauxhall twins as competitors for the same market sector since the 60s or 70s; since the late 70s only the badge has seperated them and hence why the Opel name was phased out when the Manta went out of production. Popping a Saab badge on an Opel Vectra, fitting the Saab engine and moving the ignition switch to near the gearstick does not make it significantly different to the Opel for the traditional customers. What it does do however is to slash the time taken to produce the car by roughly 70% and introduce it to many other aspirational customers, especially those who believed the press stories about Saabs not being properly prestige cars because they didn't have a V6 engine.

Having owned a classic 900 and a Cavalier back-to-back I can testify to the quality of the Saab - you can see why they cost so much more and why they took so long to piece together.

 

I reckon the most amount of time screwing the C900 together on the line would have been spent in getting those 9" long screws that hold the dashboard together in place. I took them out on mine to do some behind dash fiddling and I could never get them back in...

[Shep Shepherd]

In a readily available Saab book on the 900 launch

 

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAAB-900-Anders ... 3907150309

 

Just ordered a copy, as the photos you have posted from it have got my Saab sense tingling

[scooters]

I got a hard time at work the other day- a colleague was banging on about UK industry and manufacturing not getting enough government support - I pointed out that he was a hypocrite as he had just taken delivery of a new 3 Series as a company car and that if he really cared about manufacturing in this country then he should have chosen a model of new car manufactured in this country - a CRV,Jag or a land/range rover - even a BMW Mini!

 

prick said this whilst munching a coissant made with French flour and wearing Italian Shoes and suit!

 

He probably even uses train coaches made by Siemens!

[chaseracer]

...Globalisation, sadly an economic necessity, completely fails to include national requirements; it's one-size-fits-all, when one size clearly doesn't...

Eh? A contradiction, shirley?

 

Though Ash is right - this did make a fine effort at world domination in the field of shite-access...

 

Mind you: Cavalier mk2/Cadillac Cimarron? I would!

Me too. Or a gen1 Isuzu Aska...

[Shep Shepherd]

Me too. Or a gen1 Isuzu Aska...

 

 

One of the nicer variations on the GM J-car theme, I think, although the Holden Camira had its moments. I wonder if any found their way over here? I understand that they were available in Ireland for a time.

[Futuramic]

Me too. Or a gen1 Isuzu Aska...

 

 

One of the nicer variations on the GM J-car theme, I think, although the Holden Camira had its moments. I wonder if any found their way over here? I understand that they were available in Ireland for a time.

 

Presumably that's a Senator A underneath?

 

I wonder if they did a V8 version? Although I suppose the Commodore cornered that market.

[Shep Shepherd]

It's actually Cavalier/Ascona-based; Look closely at the glasshouse and doors

 

The Holden Commodore was based on the Senator A. Ditto the Chevrolet Senator, which was a South African market variant:

 

 

 

How nice are they?

[M'coli]

Damn, beaten to it! I was going to say:

No, it's a Cavalier/Ascona (look at the rear doors) - except for the estate: the Cavalier estate was built from kits of the Holden Camira wagon.

[chaseracer]

...the Cavalier estate was built from kits of the Holden Camira wagon.

There's a precedent here. The Viva HB 4-door was a Holden design and kits were sent over from Oz to be nailed together in Luton.