Lutz: No Beat for US, Cobalt not near EOL, CUVs on the way, Aura stalled

[JVal14]

Originally Posted by megeebee

You KNOW this?

Cobalt Replacement? Chevrolet Cruze: A new name and a new design for an all-new car
Chevy Cruze to receive Turbocharged 1.4L engine, 40 MPG

I'm not saying I hate the Cobalt; I have considerable appreciation for it. I'm saying the general public doesn't like the Cobalt as much as they like other compacts. GM rushed the latest trucks and SUVs to market, yet they won't figure out a way to get the Cruze here, and possibly lead the segment that is the fastest growing in America? They're making it hard to cheer for them when they continue to shoot themselves in the foot.

[Ambalanche]

1) I thought Lutz said some time ago after they initially wanted to bring the Astra (or was it the Corsa?)to the us but it wasn't compliant that All new cars were going to be able to be sold in any market anywhere. What happened to that? Are the triplets not new products?

2) The problem with waiting for the Cruze and Insignia is that GM NEEDS to be on the cutting edge, not playing catch up like they always are. Remember, the Cobalt was considered a great car....for a year before the new Civic came out.

3) The crossovers, like many have said, that ship is sailing, yes, the replacements for the current products are needed, but that is all they have for the short term. Personally, I would rather have a competitor to the Mini Cooper and Fiat MiTo than the Beat, IE a small car with a high-quality interior with looks and performance. I believe people will pay for a high quality, fund to drive small car with looks and performance! Get with it GM!!

[Glass Half full]

Originally Posted by zete

Here's my take on the Cruze/Cobalt thing. Lutz is ensuring they don't pull an Osborne.

For those of you that don't know about Osborne, here's a short summary. Osborne built what may well be the first portable PC back in the early 80s. They sold like crazy -- for a while. Then the head of Osborne decided to tell everyone about the GREAT NEW OSBORNE coming out soon. Sales of the available Osborne came to an abrupt halt as everyone awaited the new Osborne. Osborne went bankrupt as their sales dried up.

Now, if Lutz goes and says that the new Cruze will be out next year and will get 40+mpg then who is going to buy a Cobalt? They'll wait or, if they can't, they'll go buy a Civic or Corolla. Lutz has no intention of killing off sales of the Cobalt, which a pre-announcement on the Cruze would certainly do.

Pre-announcing the Volt has no impact on Volt sales. Pre-announcing news on the Camaro, ditto. But for the Cobalt it would be instant death. Better to claim it's not coming and then deliver it to dealers late next year as we all expect.

As for the move to crossovers, that's a smart move and necessary. Not everyone wants or needs a sedan.

I do hope the news re: Pontiac is more in line with truly moving them to niche RWD status.

All the points you mentioned above would mean GM is thinking more than a month into the future, something GM is not used to doing.

As much as i would like to agree with you, GM is not the kind of company with a good track record of keeping their mouth shut. And its hard for me to believe that Lutz is any bit concerned about losing Cobalt sales.

[fp115]

Originally Posted by Ambalanche

1) I thought Lutz said some time ago after they initially wanted to bring the Astra (or was it the Corsa?)to the us but it wasn't compliant that All new cars were going to be able to be sold in any market anywhere. What happened to that? Are the triplets not new products?

2) The problem with waiting for the Cruze and Insignia is that GM NEEDS to be on the cutting edge, not playing catch up like they always are. Remember, the Cobalt was considered a great car....for a year before the new Civic came out.

3) The crossovers, like many have said, that ship is sailing, yes, the replacements for the current products are needed, but that is all they have for the short term. Personally, I would rather have a competitor to the Mini Cooper and Fiat MiTo than the Beat, IE a small car with a high-quality interior with looks and performance. I believe people will pay for a high quality, fund to drive small car with looks and performance! Get with it GM!!

Most of those are answered in my previous post...

Originally Posted by fp115

To some extent I agree with the move. Firstly lets remember that GM is a strong performer all over the world, however decreasing in the US. GME is in dire need of a new entry level product, more so than the US. The Cobalt can tough it out an additional year as Bob said for the simple fact that North America does have an entry level vehicle and is still growing in sales. The Cruze is not a NEED in the US as much as it is in Europe where if GM does not do something quick it may end up like the US, but till this time they are still profitable. Waiting till June 2010 is not the end of the world and with the new Cobalt XFE, its enough to make the Cobalt survive for an additional 6 months alone.

Micro cars are not a very large market in the US, there is no huge growth spurs for them in North America. The market is only about 20k annual sales, simply a niche market. Scion for example is unable to stay in business because microcars do not sell as well as they want them to in North America. If you look in regions such as Europe and Asia, these models sell and although not in huge amounts, much much better than North America. It is more important for GM to focus on those markets rather than North America with the Beat in order to ensure their success there. It will take GM about 2 years more to bring the Beat to the US if the growth spur would change to double digit increases to which it has not. These cars cost companies lots of money, Smart cannot service the vehicle and offset additional maintenance costs to their customers every 6 to 8 months.

3 - GM is NOT focusing on cross-overs, it will have more cars than crossovers coming. The only thing Bob said regarding crossovers which GMi and the media have played with the words are that crossovers will be emphasized instead of SUVs. GM is still on track for a very early and all new next generation Aveo. It will be as much as a knockout as the Cruze is. With all the cars coming to the market if GM wants to put some money on CUVs they can go ahead. But just so you know the SRX's electronics are solar powered and the powertrain is a plugin hybrid. The Saab focuses on a quirky and yet very innovative powertrain (in the direction of biofuels).

[unkillsam]

Originally Posted by Quickening

GM wants to fail. The beat was a brand new concept last year and they designed so it can't pass NA crash laws? That is just idiotic. Even when the Beat debuted people were mad about gas prices, and now they are even higher!

Cruze needs to be here yesterday, they are just giving everyone else time to catch up to it by delaying its entrance here. Especially now that they have let go some information about its performance, the other automakers can leap frog it before it even shows up in our showrooms. And why would we be getting a different interior than we already saw? I thought GM was suppose to be saving money and not making two different interiors for the same car, one for Europe and one for here.

So Saturn isn't bringing in the volume, maybe if you gave them the Insignia that might help. Delaying the Insignia isn't going to help bring people into the show room either and the Aura sales will continue to dwindle against the Malibu and other competitors.

Pontiac should get a new G6 before Saturn get's another brand new car. The only thing that pontiac has that's new is a inefficient G8. Everything else is 3 years old or worse.

[fan]

It has been announced that 18 out of the 19 new vehicles launches would be cars and crossovers.
Does that mean that GM will launch a Ridgeline type vehicle afterall or the 19th would be Silverado hybrid?

[fp115]

Originally Posted by fan

It has been announced that 18 out of the 19 new vehicles launches would be cars and crossovers.
Does that mean that GM will launch a Ridgeline type vehicle afterall or the 19th would be Silverado hybrid?

I believe it is the H3 SUT.

[gaffo]

I'd like to say a few things here. Firstoff I see alot of folks here really don't know what a microcar is. SCION has never ever offered one single Microcar. In fact the Smart Car (which is just a boutique item and not a prectical car due to high initial markup of 1.5x (think Mini)) is the first microcar offere here in the United States since the last production run on the Honda600Z in december of 1972. Yes 0.6 liter 2-cylinder air-cooled, 1300 lbs car. A car alot like the Smart in size - but 500 lbs lighter and a hell of alot cheaper.

Now: the Scion Xa is an SUV compared to a Microcar. I drive a Yaris (exact same size-frame and wieght of the Xa - it is a Sub-compact or Class-B. NOT a Class-A: which includes only microcars. In fact a fully restored Fiat600 - (same size and type of engine as that Honda600z - but in the back like the old Beetle) turned in front of me a few months ago and I felt like my Yaris was the biggest SUV on the planet. My car was twice as huge in all dimensions/wieght/engine etc...

Here are Micro-cars - modern ones - you will notice one thing NOT ONE IS OFFERED HERE:


http://jalopnik.com/394184/2009-ford-ka-revealed

http://www.motorauthority.com/news/h...t-gen-ford-ka/

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/au..._the_open.html

we (rather THEY HAVE MANY MORE - we have none) have many more that just the KA.


subaru r1
http://wizvax.blogspot.com/2006/09/n...r1-and-r2.html


citreon c1
http://www.citroen.com/CWW/fr-FR/RAN...rs/C1/default/

peugeot207
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_207

the one I WANT - the Speedino
http://www.qdoscars.co.uk/chatenex.htm

nissan micra
http://www.zercustoms.com/news/2008-Nissan-Micra.html

toyota aygo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Aygo


............................

there is a rumour that Ford - MIGHT be smart enough to offer their KA here - Fiat is smart enought to want to offer their Fiat-500 (same car basically) and may join with Ford to do so. Ford needs to get a clue and offer their own version the KA to Americans.

http://thescooterscoop.blogspot.com/...e-as-ford.html

if Ford does not step up - then Fiat will - and if they don't then Toyota will with their IQ

http://consumerguideauto.howstuffwor...-toyota-iq.htm

Oh ya - unlike the brainless dingbats at GM (namely the incompetent CEO), Toyota designed the IQ from the start to meet US crash protection even though they had NO INTENTION TO OFFER IT HERE. - BUT, since these last 6-months of high gas prices and the latest GM offering of a white flag of surrender, Toyota IS reconsidering (and since they had the brains to design the thing to be US friendly all they need to do is load up a boatload of em and float them over - right now).

GM can bite me, they have no respect for folks like he who want a SMALL - AND I MEAN SMALL DAMMIT! - car.

I don't care if they go belly up anymore.

I do hope at least FORD HAS THE BRAINS TO OFFER THE KA - soon.

..............


If they do they will "clean up" the whole segment, and if they don't Toyota will be more than happy to remove two American Dinosaurs from the Earth with their IQ.

..................

and finally - a Hybrid SUV is alot like one being sort-of pregnant or saying a gal has a small-bigg butt. it's laughable. There is no cure all. there are not going to be God-like Hybrids or Electric cars to save us from ourselves in the next 5-yrs. (try 50 yrs........get real).

and only a moron would buy a 40,000 electric car to save money on gas instead of buying a 13k gas microcar. (unless you plane on keeping that electric car of yours for 250 yrs!).

Physics people. These means small cars get better mileage. you will NEVER get that big car up to the 40-50 mpg, never. So wake the hell up. if you hate small cars, lose wieght so you can fit in one, or stop crying about gas prices.

out of this whole long thread, only Ming "gets it".

- end rant.

[newdude]

hey, maybe GM will start developing trucks again after seeing oil close at $129.29...

[paul8488]

Originally Posted by gaffo

I
peugeot207
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peugeot_207

Just a tiny point... the 107 is the Peugeut baby, not the 207. It's the same as the C1 and Aygo. Otherwise I agree with you... people think that the Yaris and Aveo and Fit are microcars... but the Beat is even smaller than those.