Saab 9-3 1.8t

[carrera]

Daft question time.

Why the 1.8t description when it has a 2.0 engine

I was today years old when I discovered this 

[sgould]

It was aimed at the fleet market.  You needed a car that was demonstrably lower grade than your boss.

Even stranger, the difference in price, when the NG9-3 was launched, between the 150hp 1.8t and the 175hp 2.0t was £1000.  Our local dealer, now long gone, told me that they sold more 195hp Hirsch upgrades for £895 on the 1.8t than any other UK dealer, because they explained that you got 20hp more than the standard 2.0t and saved a few quid.

[carrera]

Thanks, so was this a UK only market specification, or did they pull the same trick elsewhere?

Looking through brochures I seem to remember the 2.0t and Aero engines being referred to as being larger.

[sgould]

No. The original range was 1.8i.  It was sold with no rear ID badge and had a 122hp non-turbo Vauxhall engine (Simtek?).  The the 150hp 1.8t.  The 2.0t and the 210hp Aero with the bigger turbo.  There was the 2.2 diesel.  The 1.9 diesel and the 2.8 V6 came later.

[Audax]

A lot of manufacturers do this, BMW did the same thing with a 2.0 turbo engine which was badged as low as 1.8 and as high as 2.8!

I'm thinking that badging it as 1.8t helped differentiate it in the market, they had an issue as they had a 1.8i which was a 1.8 engine, then a range of a 2.0 with a small turbo and lower tune and a 2.0 with a small turbo and higher tune and a 2.0 with a really big turbo which is a bit of a mouthful compared to just badging the range: 1.8, 1.8t, 2.0t and 2.0T. 

The reasoning why you segment a market like this is part of marketing science: https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_developing-new-products-and-services/s05-03-second-degree-price-discrimina.html

Most people buying cars have basically zero knowledge of anything mechanical, so it's easier to just badge it how they will perceive the range to allow people to quickly attribute value to the product.

[carrera]

Ha, got it thanks.

I found the 1.8 XE normally aspirated engine in WIS (cunningly not in the 4 cylinder petrol section) and then found a 2005 brochure with the engine listed as a 1.8i

Previously I was looking at a convertible brochure, which only appears to have the three B207 options listed

I keep looking at lime yellow convertible opportunities and routinely dismissed the 1.8t badged ones, when the reality is that the 150hp can be easily upgraded to 175+ hp.

Is the B207 engine more limited in capability than the B205 engine. I have done a map for the glacier blue 9-5 which yields ~ 230 hp according to the Trionic Tuning T7 software, which is similar to Karl's Noobtune map

[carrera]

Most people buying cars have basically zero knowledge of anything mechanical, so it's easier to just badge it how they will perceive the range to allow people to quickly attribute value to the product.

Friend of the family's friend was having a discussion about pertol prices a couple of years ago. She used a credit card in her fathers name for filling the car. When asking why she always went to Morrisons for her fuel for a C1 she apparently commented that it doesn't cost much to fill her car up as it's only a 1 litre