AutoNews Europe Article - 9/23/02 - future Alfa platform in danger?

["Paul Begemann" <pbegem@domain.elided>]

Saab: No Premium architecture

Automotive News Europe / September 23, 2002

Saab has decided not to base any vehicles on the General Motors-Fiat Premium
vehicle architecture, suppliers involved in the project told Automotive News
Europe.

Saab was expected to use the Premium architecture for the replacement for
the 9-5 sedan, most likely to be a crossover vehicle.

The Swedish company, which is owned by GM, instead will shift to a GM U.S.
platform for that vehicle, the sources said.

Alfa Romeo remains the only brand within the GM-Fiat alliance that still
intends to base new models on the Premium architecture.

The Premium project, which was created in late 2000 as the first common
vehicle architecture between GM and Fiat Auto, progressively lost potential
brands and products.

In the preliminary studies, Cadillac and Lancia also were supposed to use
this architecture, as were Opel and Fiat for some niche vehicles.

But Cadillac walked away because it wanted to return to its rear-wheel-drive
roots before the Premium team was installed in Gothenburg, Sweden. Lancia
withdrew soon afterward in favor of the less expensive Epsilon platform.

Meanwhile, Saab has developed a four-wheel-drive version of GM's
front-wheel-drive Epsilon architecture that could be used for Opel and Fiat
niche models.

Fiat dropped the Premium project because the four-wheel-drive Epsilon is
less expensive for a sport-utility.

Saab's walkout threatens Alfa Romeo's use of a Premium architecture that is
progressively losing volume - and therefore economy of scale for the
suppliers involved.
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