To burst a bubble here....
Additional rear seat space in cars like the ATS isn't because "
Chinese like to be chauffeured around"......what is every family in China a rich family where everyone has someone to drive them around and the family crams in the back seat?.... Sounds ridiculous doesn't it??
Chinese like larger back seats the same reason Americans tend to like bigger cars: more room.
Look how many people even here have complained about the ATS' back seat (or the pre revamped Malibu, or the old Ford Contour). While there is a significant number of people here in the US to still sell cars with ...."intimate"...back seats, the Chinese car market isn't as forgiving to this when it comes to sedans. Here in the US, we want pickups with a large towing capacity, in China they want back seats that real adults can fit into.
Sure, cars like the large Buick Roadmaster or even 5 series BMWs and the like will often have drivers, but cars like the ATS are going to more likely end up in the hands of rich professionals who are likely to drive themselves (and have clients or family in the back).
Let's not go back to Camaro wheelbase speculation...we did this on 2 threads already.
Wheelbase on
ANY Alpha based GM product does
NOT signify any wheelbase on the next Camaro. Wheelbase is easy to change. The Challenger's wheelbase is different from Chargers'. The current Camaro's wheelbase is different than the Chevy SS sedan/Commodore and both are different than the wheelbase on the Caprice?Statesman. Ford had seemingly dozens of wheelbases off of the Fox platform for each car that was based on it, and the Alpha is even more adaptable to various proportions let alone wheelbases than any of those cars.
Wheelbase means nothing. With the next gen Camaro's proportions being similar to the current versions (front wheels positioned as far ahead of the passenger cabin as possible) you probably aren't going to have the conventional proportions (including the wheelbase) of any other car.
Just the same, does any of this really matter if the car looks good and is sized right??
There was a mention of why GM spent all of the engineering resources and money to make a long wheelbase version of the ATS that might not sell well in China. I am thinking the engineering hours might not go to waste and this could be the wheelbase of the Camaro. Right in between the ATS and CTS wheelbase, makes sense to me.
No...there was no mention of GM spending "
all these resources and all this money" making a LWB ATS.
Reason? It doesn't take a lot of resources to stretch a wheelbase....in fact, it's very simple... either stamp an insert or stamp a floorpan and roof top that's a few inches longer.....oh, because it's RWD, you'll need a slightly longer driveshaft.
Whether your talking pickup trucks, SUVs, limos, or Cadillac ATS' or any automotive platform.....changing a wheelbase is nothing. Probably costs as much as a good quarterly advertising campaign.
I do wonder how it handles. They could add another vehicle based upon the ATS-L
Handles probably not much different than the other ATS.
As for putting another vehicle on the ATS-L......why?