Why the number 9?

#11

Fat Sam wrote:

Quote:

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?

There were a few other changes, but the sheet metal was essentially
untouched. Here:

http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/models/1999/

--
-Fred W

#12

"Andrew Robert Breen" <azb (AT) aber (DOT) ac.uk> wrote

Quote:

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...

Hehhehehehee!

--
The DervMan
www.dervman.com

#13

johannes wrote:

Quote:

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.

Try typing "9" followed by "^" followed by "5" and you will get 9^5 in
most news clients (I use Thunderbird), a bit more realistic than the 9-5
notification

--
th

#14

th wrote:

Quote:

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.

Try typing "9" followed by "^" followed by "5" and you will get 9^5 in
most news clients (I use Thunderbird), a bit more realistic than the 9-5
notification

In the days of mainframe computers, it was quite common to use large numbers

for their naming. There were IBM/360, Univax 1100 and Unisys ES7000, all to
be outdone the fictive HAL 9000 from the film '2001'. Possibly, some of
the glamour of the computer industry (at the time) rubbed off on the naming
of cars, such as my CSE 9000 :-)

#15

th wrote:

Quote:

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.

Try typing "9" followed by "^" followed by "5" and you will get 9^5 in
most news clients (I use Thunderbird), a bit more realistic than the 9-5
notification

9^5

(from Thunderbird)

--
-Fred W

#16

Fred W wrote:

Quote:

th wrote:

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.

Try typing "9" followed by "^" followed by "5" and you will get 9^5 in
most news clients (I use Thunderbird), a bit more realistic than the
9-5 notification

9^5

(from Thunderbird)

Sumbitch, it worked. It just showed the three characters when I was
typing it in.

--
-Fred W

#17

Fred W wrote:

Quote:

Fred W wrote:
th wrote:

snip

Try typing "9" followed by "^" followed by "5" and you will get 9^5
in most news clients (I use Thunderbird), a bit more realistic than
the 9-5 notification

9^5

(from Thunderbird)

Sumbitch, it worked. It just showed the three characters when I was
typing it in.

:-)

--
th

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Why the number 9?

Saab Saab Automobiles Discussions (alt.autos.saab)

Re: Why the number 9? - 03-09-2007 , 09:42 AM

Re: Why the number 9? - 03-09-2007 , 10:48 AM

Re: Why the number 9? - 03-09-2007 , 12:45 PM

Re: Why the number 9? - 03-09-2007 , 02:13 PM

Re: Why the number 9? - 03-11-2007 , 05:36 PM

Re: Why the number 9? - 03-11-2007 , 05:50 PM

Re: Why the number 9? - 03-12-2007 , 01:24 PM