Lutz Chimes in on the Chevy Beat: 4 Years?

[D C]

Originally Posted by zete

edit: And if Lordstown is going Gamma that means they can build the Aveo, Corsa, and the Beat, if I'm not mistaken, as they're all on Gamma and the new Aveo is due out next year, so the factory will have to be retooled to handle the new platform.

Of course, I may just be utterly confused.

I think you're mistaken. From what I gather, the Beat is 2 steps below the Cobalt, and Gamma is one.

[ColoradoZQ8]

Yeah, sometimes I think they should call the company General Slow-tors.

The Volt seems like its taking forever too.
Its looks like the Chinese have already scooped the idea of plug-in hybrids from GM.

Just discovered this moped on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GO-HY...mZ150265597457

Sounds very Chevy Volt-like:
Plug in Gas-Electric hybrid scooter..... They claim its capable of 235 miles per gallon. That's pretty impressive, if true. At $1000 -- its cheap enough that I might even consider testing the waters.

[T-Type]

Originally Posted by zete

If it's due out next year in Asia how hard would it be to tool up here? That's the question and is that what's going to happen at Lordstown?

The question to ask is 'is this car designed to meet US regulations?' It wouldn't be the first time that a car could not be brought to the US because it couldn't meet regulations. If the answer is yes, then tooling it up for the US would not be a significant problem. If the answer is no, then that 2012 date sounds reasonable. In other words it would be the next generation car.

I would bet that the car is sellable in the US. However we will have to see what the answer is.

[plane]

Originally Posted by ColoradoZQ8

Yeah, sometimes I think they should call the company General Slow-tors.

The Volt seems like its taking forever too.
Its looks like the Chinese have already scooped the idea of plug-in hybrids from GM.

Just discovered this moped on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/GO-HY...mZ150265597457

Sounds very Chevy Volt-like:
Plug in Gas-Electric hybrid scooter..... They claim its capable of 235 miles per gallon. That's pretty impressive, if true. At $1000 -- its cheap enough that I might even consider testing the waters.

[stevecmh]

wtf.

way to be super late GM .. AGAIN

[jwrebholz]

Not fast enough. We need this thing yesterday. Stop screwing around and BUILD IT.

[2002 Caddy]

Originally Posted by T-Type

The question to ask is 'is this car designed to meet US regulations?' It wouldn't be the first time that a car could not be brought to the US because it couldn't meet regulations. If the answer is yes, then tooling it up for the US would not be a significant problem. If the answer is no, then that 2012 date sounds reasonable.

No, a better question would be why isn't the car designed to meet US regs? and once we get the answer to that one the next best question would be...

Why does it take GM almost 4 years to "fix" an existing car to meet them?

It is clear that the New Corporate moto that Rick and Lutz are using is called "catch-up" or "follow the leaders"... but please, come on now... If you are going to play catch-up at least be in a postion to bring a car to market in months not years...

[T-Type]

Originally Posted by 2002 Caddy

No, a better question would be why isn't the car designed to meet US regs? and once we get the answer to that one the next best question would be...

You're assuming that it is not designed to meet US regs. I don't think we know that yet. Unless you have some info?

Originally Posted by 2002 Caddy

Why does it take GM almost 4 years to "fix" an existing car to meet them?

That's not unusual for the car world. To properly validate a design for production takes years. The more complicated the change, the longer it takes. Look at the Camaro or Volt. Don't you think they would be selling them right now if they could?

[FireFox89]

I thought with the bob and rick era ushered in, we were going to get rid of the "gm adjust to the market like a lumbering dinosaur" mentality that good ole' roger smith had in the late 80s to i believe 00-01.

These triplets should be hitting the market NOW. GM should of penned a plan after A (ahem gmt 900) and if plan A failed, had a plan "B" in place to flex those truck lines/plants into cobalts, the triplets, and astras.

[FireFox89]

Originally Posted by T-Type

You're assuming that it is not designed to meet US regs. I don't think we know that yet. Unless you have some info?



That's not unusual for the car world. To properly validate a design for production takes years. The more complicated the change, the longer it takes. Look at the Camaro or Volt. Don't you think they would be selling them right now if they could?

Thats totally true about the manufacturing process (4 yrs Pontiac Solstice, 4-5 years Nissan GTR). If they did have the camaro and volt lines going, they would be selling every last one to dealers to generate the much needed revenue in this time of bad.
Then thinking too after gas initally spiked after katrina, and seeing how gas spiked, gm should of at least had a strategy in place.
Note that I said "strategy" because all the r&d and money at the time was wrapped up in the release of the gmt900's, future malibu and cts. Gm had a few years to react instead of having the blinders on until now.

[footney]

Here are my predictions:

2009, Chrysler will file for bankruptcy in 2009. FIAT or a Chinese company will acquire all of its assets, including the dealer network.

2010, GM will file for bankruptcy; it will close just the Hummer brand. However, mismanagement will persist because it will fail to realize that GM needs to shutter even more brands in NA. Toyota, Honda, and Ford or GM will be the top three automakers. Yes, GM will fall to third in the NA market--fourth if its fleet sales are excluded

2011, Based on sales of the Fit, Civic, and the diesel version of the Accord (Honda rightfully did not chase the "Hybrid" fad), Honda will be the number one in sales in the NA market.

[plane]

Rather than posting a factual response that includes references,
I think that I shall simply throw out a well-worn but nevertheless useful metaphor.
For everyone distraught over an unconfirmed rumor that has
several times in this thread alone been shown to be untrue,
please ignore this post and continue to run around in circles shouting
"oh noez!".

[2002 Caddy]

Originally Posted by T-Type

You're assuming that it is not designed to meet US regs. I don't think we know that yet. Unless you have some info?

No, no inside info... But if you assume that GM senior management is competent... it doesn't take a Harvard MBA to figure that a small super efficient car would sell a ton right now. Everyone is rushing into this market.

If GM could, they would be rushing too. If this car does meet US reg someone needs to be fired for not ALREADY having this car at the dealerships for sale.

Originally Posted by T-Type

That's not unusual for the car world. To properly validate a design for production takes years. The more complicated the change, the longer it takes. Look at the Camaro or Volt. Don't you think they would be selling them right now if they could?

Its definitely not unusual for the GM car world. Ya, look at the Camaro... It has taken GM over 4 years and the car still isn't in the show rooms... How long did it take Chrysler to bring us the new Challenger? Less then 3 years. They started After GM committed to the Camaro and their car is on the streets.

The future of the Volt scares the crap out of me... We are betting the farm on this car... just like we did on big trucks 5 years ago. And yet Max Bob is still giving press releases about the "thermal events" of the Lithium batteries. At this point in the development GM should be picking the color of the seats... Not "forging a head hoping the batteries catch up" (another Lutz quote)

Maybe Lutz is trying to psyche-out the compeitition... and maybe the car is super close... Lets hope... We needed the Camaro 2 years ago, we need the Beat and the Volt NOW.

[paul8488]

Originally Posted by Smoothcat

While these cars have been successful to a degree, I have to wonder if there are enough people willing to buy an even smaller car to warrant a stronger push to get these built?

GM wonders too... that's why they're going to let another manufacturer beat them to the punch and create the market for these things.

[mbukukanyau]

If this is true, I for one hope it is not; GM is run by a very stupid board.