According to an unconfirmed source close to the Saab and BMW discussions, both automakers have come to an agreement in which BMW will supply engines to Saab. Saab is said to be purchasing BMW engines to use in their upcoming 2012 9-3 model.
Officially both companies have not announced or confirmed anything, but the source says that news of the pact will be announced on the 29th of September, which is just before the Paris Motor Show.
According to a statement by Spyker, parent company of Saab, they confirm “that talks are ongoing and will give further details once a final agreement has been reached”. Spokesmen for BMW and Saab both declined to comment. Obviously hot on everyone’s lips is Saab’s new MINI rivaling 9-2 model.
According to the same source, they have been allowed to use the Mini Countryman’s platform for the new Saab car. Along with this, they are in talks about buying BMW’s refined diesels. There is also word that Saab plans to tap into BMW’s Efficient Dynamics initiative.
We’ve only got a few days to wait to confirm the legitimacy of these claims, but if you think about it, it does save a lot off your R&D budget by just buying engines from a reliable source. Who better to buy it from than BMW? We will keep you updated as and when we hear something substantial.
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i dont think bmw wd want to sell cheaply either , thy wd want their engines and transmissions to be exlusive to them and to those small scale supercar manufactures(mclaren f1,morgan,and few others use bmw engines)
bt again , it wd be such a selling point if anycar has a bmw engine
but they did do a collaboration with psa group. they needed a mass manufacturer to bring down the cost of their fwd prince engine for the mini. i’m not thoroughly convinced of that engine’s reliability though. it may have won awards before but engines aren’t tested for awards for months and run on a daily basis.
to digress a little, i wonder how are engine of the year awards done. i don;t think they take reliability and day to day use into the equation. most probably, only how powerful it is, how economical it is, how much torque for the given cc and maybe how it is when driven. but i think the point they ignore or rather find it impossible to judge is reliability and running costs… and this needs a long term test to verify.
Ssangyong have Mercedes engines, didn’t help them from bankruptcy…
Yeah. But Ssangyong’s designs are terrible. Except for Rexton. Rexton is (was?) cool :cool:
agree!!
PakAbu,
Yes correct but not all models. But if you own this car, you will bankrupt too. Check the price of the fuel injector and gearbox which are known as trouble parts..My good friend sold his Rexton after using it for 3 years with 50% value.
But for Saab potential buyer it is a good news atleast if she goes bankcrupt in future you have parts to get your car moving.
theres more progress in SAAB in few months under spyker compare to when it was under GM’s ownership…
Hope it works well, a facelifted 9-5 with a beemer’s engine is a tempting prospect…
i’m not a fan of the prince engine but you’re right. there is a whole lot more progress at a really faster pace these days at saab than when gm was running the ship. but as the saying goes, a large ship needs lots of crew, plus the captain of course to agree to turn that ship before that ship can turn and even if they all did agree to turn, it would take ages due to the sheer size. think titanic!
cheers to spyker’s small yet dynamic team running the show now.
“… save a lot off your R&D budget by just buying engines from a reliable source. Who better to buy it from than BMW?”
Reliable source, maybe. Reliable engine, err… probably not.
May I know why u said that?
reliable engines? seeing the prince engine’s reliability does not provide a lot of confidence. still, saab’s expertise is turbocharging and hopefully, if they use the prince or whatever turbo engine from bmw, they will be able to engineer a whole lot more reliability into it.
for a newly resurfaced brand like saab, reliability issues can really kill it off again.
Are you referring to the Prince engine in the Pug 3008 which overheated in the 1st episode of Amazing Race Asia? :-D
that’s not the only example. even minis with the same engines have almost similar complaints. but i think the 3008 event was just an unfortunate incident. well stuff happens.
I know it sounds good on the outside.. but this spell the end of the LPT engines.. oh no…
who knows, saab may tune down those engines for better reliability and we could still have LPT engines ;)
Probably the main reason is, SAAB wants to cut back on engine development cost to meet the increasingly stringent emission regs. And instead divert/focus some of the resources to fund new chassis development for new models. SAAB is pretty tight, as everyone’s knows.