Top Gear this Sunday

[Flibster]

I've seen a couple of photo's of Saab's that have been in accidents where every panel is bent and battered, wheels ripped off and so on. But every window was still intact. Thats one hell of a good safety cell.

[Matblack]

What DOES the extra button do?

[volospian]

Originally Posted by Matblack

What DOES the extra button do?

As far as I know, it is exactly what it says, an extra button. I think they were an option so that you could add an extra "custom" feature like, I dunno, spotlights or something. I don't think, by default, it actually did anything, it was just an extra button.

It may have allowed a SAAB optional factory feature, but I think it was just a button you could buy that fitted the blanked out dash holes so that you could add aftermarket stuff yourself and make it look like a factory fit, so you didn't have to drill holes and fit odd shaped switches. Instead of stocking a whole range of buttons for every possible option, it just said "extra".

On the car Clarkson was driving, whatever it was supposed to switch on had probably been fitted and subsequently removed by previous owners.

[Nutcase]

Pretty much on Chris' car, the one they used, it would've switched the rectangular driving lights that were originally dealer fitted (chris' has round ones now). On the later 2 doors that had dealer fitted water injection it switched that on and off.

[volospian]

Originally Posted by Stan_Lite

I've seen evidence of this quite a few times. I always wonder what sort of people take seriously opinions espoused by 3 man-sized children who make a living from driving sideways around a track in expensive fast cars and smashing things up.

That's the trouble with shows (and magazines) like TG. They try to be funny. It's not amusing to say "well, this car shares some of the same components as this car over here, as almost all cars are built to a more cost effective platform style process nowadays, VAG, GM, Ford, they all do it" It's possibly funnier to say "meh, it's a just a x... in drag... with funny cross eyed headlamps... like this [close up of Clarkson crossing his eyes and pulling a funny face]"

And to be fair, it's not really Clarksons fault. As you say, his job is to entertain. He'll happily admit (indeed he has done on several occasions) that he makes most of his stuff up on the spot and often cannot even remember the other car he's comparing this particular model to.

I've got one of his books made up of his newspaper articles over a year or so and he states "a Saab engineer once told me the maximum power you can put through FWD system is x" however, he uses this quote about 3 times and each time the power figure the Saab engineer apparently gave him is different, ranging from around 170hp to 200hp or so, depending on the car he's reviewing at the time.

Yet still people listen to what he says, and spread it around as though it were the answer to life, the universe and everything.

[A Place of Light]

Originally Posted by volospian

And to be fair, it's not really Clarksons fault. As you say, his job is to entertain. He'll happily admit (indeed he has done on several occasions) that he makes most of his stuff up on the spot and often cannot even remember the other car he's comparing this particular model to.

I think the exact quote from JC himself was "I don't do facts, I do opinions ".
Sadly, most people don't seem to comprehend this.

[Del Lardo]

Originally Posted by volospian

Now Saab have gone to the wall and some of that "rebadged vectra" nonsense bandied about by these idiots is to blame.

Pretty interesting report on what else what to blame though strangely no mention of Top Gear

[volospian]

Originally Posted by Del Lardo

Pretty interesting report on what else what to blame though strangely no mention of Top Gear

No specific mention of TG, but that's not surprising as nobody is going to name individual people or programs as directly responsible for the demise of a car manufacturer. However, there is plenty of talk about "press coverage" and its impact upon sales...

A new 900 was developed and launched in 1994, based on GM’s Vectra platform. .... The Vectra of the 1990s was not well received..... Initial sales volumes were encouraging, enabling Saab to post a small profit in 1994, its first since the GM acquisition. However, negative press coverage eventually took its toll on sales of the 900. ... Saabs were frequently referred to in the motoring press as 'quirky', and were particularly liked by those in the
creative professions, academics and the like. Even by the time GM found a buyer for Saab in 2010, this not-always-positive image had not dissipated:

'[The sale of Saab ensures] that sherry-sipping Shakespeare scholars in American faculty lounges can continue to buy their car of choice – at least for a while'.

The 9000 replacement, the 9-5, was introduced in 1997 and was also built on a Vectra platform. Like the 1994 Saab 900, this did not help the reputation of the vehicle, with a perception amongst purists that the new models were not ‘real’ Saabs....

[Dazzy_G]

We lost a big contract doing Connected IVI with Saab when they went bust That was interesting work as well!