Saab/Alfa yes, Peugeot no

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

James Montebello, responding to Tony Sims' mention of the Saab/164 connection,
wrote "I believe the 164, the SAAB 9000, and the Peugeot 406 are all the same
platform.  I think an earlier Euro-only Alfa (the 156?) was also built on this
platform."



Not quite. There was initially a joint-development project initiated by Fiat,
in which Fiat, Lancia, Saab and Alfa would develop a basic platform in this
size class, with the understanding that each would go its own way in the end;
Peugeot was not involved in any way, although the visual similarities of the
two Pininfarina designs, Alfa and Peugeot, have contributed to the idea,
previously published on the digest, that Peugeot was involved in the shared
platform development. They were not. The resulting Fiat and Lancia designs
remained closely associated through the entire platform, power train,
suspension, and basic body structure; both the Saab and the Alfa departed
substantially from the Fiat/Lancia version and from each other. Fiat did use
the "PRV" V6 engine (a joint project of Peugeot, Renault, and Volvo) in some
Lancia Themas before switching to the Alfa V6 for that application, and
Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and Lancia crossbadged a minivan which had a mainly
French-developed hull with Fiat input mainly in the powertrain, so there is a
history of Peugeot links to Fiat and to Pininfarina, but not to the T4 chassis
which resulted in the 164, Saab, Croma and Thema.



John H.
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