Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragoneye
hmmm...not suprising after reading the reasoning. I believe this was Bob Lutz second product for GM (after the GTO). Like somebody said - they were probably intended to draw eyes more than anything - they're not awfully practical. But they didn't say they're gone for good: 'Shelved' means they're holding it for a better day. They could simply go on a 2-3 year hiatus. Alpha has to be coming (as in: not shelved) - you can't have a totally RWD-absent lineup. So they could come back, and be cheaper to build this time around.
When you're looking to save money, the first place you start is to plug the leaks where you're loosing cash needlessly:
From the ground up Kappa cars are costly; starting with the frame no less. The Kappa architecture is hydroformed as part of the fabrication process to achieve the dimensions and frame rails needed. Many of the body panels (namely the hood, deck-lid, and fenders) are hydroformed as well. Hydra-forming is a costly fabrication method, particularly for vehicles that have such low starting prices and low volume to boot. Add on the fact that the Kappa vehicles are largely “hand built” cars (at least by today’s standards); it becomes quite evident why GM will likely never get a return on investment with the Kappa products.
Is it really that suprising that these are being pulled? Holy cow!  Even if they were FWD, they'd be axed!!!
Besides, once the labor deal kicks in in 2010, and they start making a few bucks on CARS...I really think GM will begin to spend money on more fun cars - like they started to a few years back...before this ugly conglomerate of problems fell on all the automakers.
Not quite.  |
I wouldn't hold my breath on Alpha. Being RWD it will surely get 1 mpg less than a similar FWD architecture, and you know GM just can't stomach that. As has been said plenty of times, GM really wanted to cancel the Camaro and G8, but they were too far along. Anything else that has such an evil layout as RWD will not be tolerated.
It doesn't much matter if they're practical or not. GM is selling a ton of them, and demand is still strong. That's despite having inferior steering feel, inferior handling, and a cheap interior. They annihilated Mazda's far superior (in all areas but looks) car in sales. Now imagine if they made it competitive and figured out how to build it at a reasonable cost (hint: hydroforming and hand building are not part of that equation) it would be an unquestioned hit for GM. This concept really isn't difficult. As Jeremy Clarkson described it, it is as simple "as beans on toast".
But why would GM go through that effort when clearly what they need is another class leading, selling-like-hotcakes Aveo rebadge. And of course, they've only given Lambda to 4 divisions. They're only half-way done there. And the Malibu/Aura has only been done twice. They have tons of models left to rebadge before they can even think of making a new car.
What GM needs is cars that truly inspire, like the days of Motorama. And I'm not saying to go retro. The Motorama cars weren't retro. They looked nowhere but to the future. Until GM can look ahead and design vehicles that truly tap into the market ahead of us, they'll be stuck cloning vehicles to simply chase the market that's already slipping away.