Why the number 9?

I've wondered this for a while now.
What's the signifigance to the number 9 in Saabs naming convention?
All their cars seem to feature a number 9 in the title....900, 9000, 93,
95.....

In article <pdXHh.31991$OK6.21219 (AT) newsfe4-win (DOT) ntli.net>,
Fat Sam <samandjanetknox (AT) tessco (DOT) net> wrote:

I've wondered this for a while now.
What's the signifigance to the number 9 in Saabs naming convention?
All their cars seem to feature a number 9 in the title....900, 9000, 93,
95.....

Originally:
Because the first SAAB car design followed on from the SAAB 91 Safir
training aircraft in their list of design projects, and as such became the
SAAB 92.

Later: It becomes a recognisable "tag" for a SAAB. Other makers do the
same. All three-figure numbers with a middle "0" are trademarked by
Peugeot, which is why Porsche were forced to re-label their 901..

--
Andy Breen ~ Not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Feng Shui: an ancient oriental art for extracting
money from the gullible (Martin Sinclair)

"Fat Sam" <samandjanetknox (AT) tessco (DOT) net> wrote

I've wondered this for a while now.
What's the signifigance to the number 9 in Saabs naming convention?
All their cars seem to feature a number 9 in the title....900, 9000, 93,
95.....
switch on nerd mode

I understand that the first saab Car was labelled the 92 because the vehicle
design which had made production prior to this ( a civilian aircraft) was
designated 91

From then on, the model nos. grew by 1
92
92b
93
94 - think this was the design code for the Sonnet 1 (2 seater sportcar)
95
96
97- think this was the design code for the Sonnet 2 (sport coupe)
98 - design code for an updated 96
99

and then I guess they thought the no. 9 was so integral to the range that it
was better to with 90, 900 and 9000 than to continue to 100

With the 9-3 and 9-5, the 3 indictes that it is a bmw 3series class vehicle
and the 5 indicates bmw 5series

in article espfmc$eic0$1 (AT) osfa (DOT) aber.ac.uk, Andrew Robert Breen at
azb (AT) aber (DOT) ac.uk wrote on 08/03/2007 17:04:

Later: It becomes a recognisable "tag" for a SAAB. Other makers do the
same. All three-figure numbers with a middle "0" are trademarked by
Peugeot, which is why Porsche were forced to re-label their 901..

I know this is true, so it make you wonder how SAAB got to use 900 moniker
for (x0x) for nearly 20 years.

Paul

1989 900 Turbo S
http://saab.go.dyndns.org/

In article <C215FDDC.7B02%pjgh (AT) blueyonder (DOT) co.uk>,
Paul Halliday <pjgh (AT) blueyonder (DOT) co.uk> wrote:

in article espfmc$eic0$1 (AT) osfa (DOT) aber.ac.uk, Andrew Robert Breen at
azb (AT) aber (DOT) ac.uk wrote on 08/03/2007 17:04:

Later: It becomes a recognisable "tag" for a SAAB. Other makers do the
same. All three-figure numbers with a middle "0" are trademarked by
Peugeot, which is why Porsche were forced to re-label their 901..

I know this is true, so it make you wonder how SAAB got to use 900 moniker
for (x0x) for nearly 20 years.

Apologies - should have been "three figure numbers with a middle 0
/only/', as I gather Pug hadn't annexed numbers with a terminating 0 - I
have no idea why, incidently.

On thinking about it, the Pug-getting-all y0x numbers dosn't fit with
Bristol marketing the 400-409 series, which must have overlapped with the
Pug y0x series by the end. Maybe Pug were unwilling to offend a firm which
had attack aeroplanes in easy reach. Come to think of it, that may explain
the SAAB 900...

--
Andy Breen ~ Not speaking on behalf of the University of Wales, Aberystwyth
"When I was young I used to scintillate
now I only sin 'til ten past three" (Ogden Nash)

On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:54:45 GMT, Fat Sam <samandjanetknox (AT) tessco (DOT) net> wrote:

I've wondered this for a while now.
What's the signifigance to the number 9 in Saabs naming convention?
All their cars seem to feature a number 9 in the title....900, 9000, 93,
95.....

Saab numbered their models sequentially. So the Saab 91 was the "Safir"
(link here: http://www.fcfk.com/safir/ ), the next thing on the design
board was the Saab 92 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_92 )

Once they got into cars, they reserved the 2-digit 9x range for them.
The 99 turned into the 900. By then marketing folks were in charge
rather then engineers, so it got a bit wodgy and we ended up with 9-3
and 9-5 which have only vague meanings relative to the original naming
scheme.

Dave Hinz wrote:

On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:54:45 GMT, Fat Sam <samandjanetknox (AT) tessco (DOT) net> wrote:

I've wondered this for a while now.
What's the signifigance to the number 9 in Saabs naming convention?
All their cars seem to feature a number 9 in the title....900, 9000, 93,
95.....


Saab numbered their models sequentially. So the Saab 91 was the "Safir"
(link here: http://www.fcfk.com/safir/ ), the next thing on the design
board was the Saab 92 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_92 )

Once they got into cars, they reserved the 2-digit 9x range for them.
The 99 turned into the 900. By then marketing folks were in charge
rather then engineers, so it got a bit wodgy and we ended up with 9-3
and 9-5 which have only vague meanings relative to the original naming
scheme.

Yes, I do believe that the marketing people looked at the BMW models and
said: This 9 competes with the 3 series so let's call it a 9-3. That
one competes with the 5 series, so 9-5. If not intentional, what a huge
coincidence, eh?

--
-Fred W

Fred W wrote:

Dave Hinz wrote:
On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:54:45 GMT, Fat Sam <samandjanetknox (AT) tessco (DOT) net> wrote:

I've wondered this for a while now.
What's the signifigance to the number 9 in Saabs naming convention?
All their cars seem to feature a number 9 in the title....900, 9000, 93,
95.....


Saab numbered their models sequentially. So the Saab 91 was the "Safir"
(link here: http://www.fcfk.com/safir/ ), the next thing on the design
board was the Saab 92 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_92 )

Once they got into cars, they reserved the 2-digit 9x range for them.
The 99 turned into the 900. By then marketing folks were in charge
rather then engineers, so it got a bit wodgy and we ended up with 9-3
and 9-5 which have only vague meanings relative to the original naming
scheme.


Yes, I do believe that the marketing people looked at the BMW models and
said: This 9 competes with the 3 series so let's call it a 9-3. That
one competes with the 5 series, so 9-5. If not intentional, what a huge
coincidence, eh?

The new naming 9-3 and 9-5 is a bit ugly IMO, it doesn't even match what is
written on the cars, that's more like 9 with a smaller 3 or 5 hovering above,
easily seen as 93 and 95, or perhaps it is 729 and 59049? Hence, total
confusion. Added to that is that 900 and 9-3 models straddles between
different shapes.

johannes wrote:

Fred W wrote:

Dave Hinz wrote:
On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:54:45 GMT, Fat Sam <samandjanetknox (AT) tessco (DOT) net> wrote:

I've wondered this for a while now.
What's the signifigance to the number 9 in Saabs naming convention?
All their cars seem to feature a number 9 in the title....900, 9000, 93,
95.....


Saab numbered their models sequentially. So the Saab 91 was the "Safir"
(link here: http://www.fcfk.com/safir/ ), the next thing on the design
board was the Saab 92 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_92 )

Once they got into cars, they reserved the 2-digit 9x range for them.
The 99 turned into the 900. By then marketing folks were in charge
rather then engineers, so it got a bit wodgy and we ended up with 9-3
and 9-5 which have only vague meanings relative to the original naming
scheme.


Yes, I do believe that the marketing people looked at the BMW models and
said: This 9 competes with the 3 series so let's call it a 9-3. That
one competes with the 5 series, so 9-5. If not intentional, what a huge
coincidence, eh?


The new naming 9-3 and 9-5 is a bit ugly IMO, it doesn't even match what is
written on the cars, that's more like 9 with a smaller 3 or 5 hovering above,
easily seen as 93 and 95, or perhaps it is 729 and 59049? Hence, total
confusion. Added to that is that 900 and 9-3 models straddles between
different shapes.

BTW, an exercise for all of you (not too difficult). Prove that 9 raised to an
odd positive power will always have 9 as the last digit.

johannes wrote:

Fred W wrote:

Dave Hinz wrote:
On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:54:45 GMT, Fat Sam
samandjanetknox (AT) tessco (DOT) net> wrote:

I've wondered this for a while now.
What's the signifigance to the number 9 in Saabs naming convention?
All their cars seem to feature a number 9 in the title....900,
9000, 93,
95.....


Saab numbered their models sequentially. So the Saab 91 was the
"Safir" (link here: http://www.fcfk.com/safir/ ), the next thing on
the design
board was the Saab 92 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_92 )

Once they got into cars, they reserved the 2-digit 9x range for
them.
The 99 turned into the 900. By then marketing folks were in charge
rather then engineers, so it got a bit wodgy and we ended up with
9-3
and 9-5 which have only vague meanings relative to the original
naming scheme.


Yes, I do believe that the marketing people looked at the BMW models
and said: This 9 competes with the 3 series so let's call it a 9-3.
That one competes with the 5 series, so 9-5. If not intentional,
what a huge coincidence, eh?


The new naming 9-3 and 9-5 is a bit ugly IMO, it doesn't even match
what is written on the cars, that's more like 9 with a smaller 3 or 5
hovering above, easily seen as 93 and 95, or perhaps it is 729 and
59049? Hence, total confusion. Added to that is that 900 and 9-3
models straddles between different shapes.

Really interesting stuff guys. Thanks for all the replies.

Particularly interesting what you said Johannes, about the 9-3 and 900.
I have noticed that it's quite remarkably difficult to tell the difference
between an early 9-3 and a late 900.
Is it effectively the same car, but Saab just decided to re-badge it?