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Is It Time To Revisit a Code 130R Concept?

11K views 71 replies 33 participants last post by  MaxLegroom 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
It's been over 5 years since the Code concept was revealed. It's mission was to be a cheap, fun, turbo four cylinder, RWD car. It had some GM management support, but never achieved critical mass. Also, basing it on Alpha would never have delivered on the promised ~$20K starting price. So there was that.

Is it time to rethink such a RWD car at GM? It's no secret the new Camaro is not doing very well sales-wise, the reasons for which have been well documented here in dozens of threads. As GM continues to move the Camaro's dwindling sales up market, it leaves a big gaping hole in GM's passenger car line up.

Is GM even capable of building and marketing such a product successfully?


Let's hear some thoughts.......




 
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#3 ·
I'd expect something like that would introduced and touted as minimalist and then be mostly loaded with options and variants. Think, Mini Cooper.
 
#19 ·
Offer a small, sporty, RWD CUV. The car market is not the place to be adding new models.
personally I think a SUV would totally MISS the point and is a MARKET that RWD is a NEGATIVE NOT a POSITIVE
SUVs are "family" utility vehicles and making a compact one RWD defeats that purpose because of the LOST room inside and shorter cabin because of the LONGER nose

and for the coupe/hatch market drying up I believe PART of the drying is the HUGE price climb and HOW boring the modern compacts are and how totally USELESS the 86 twins are
the Cobalt SS sold quite well and the fiesta/focus ST are both selling a good numbers

I think monaroSS did a chop of the 130R as a kammback "2DR stationwagon"

but the chassis would be the "million dollar" question
With the exception of richmond's criticisms, this is where my head is at.

Make the Camaro more space-efficient and dollar-efficient, and offer AWD. I'd give it a liftback, considering there's no room in the trunk and less room to get anything into it.

Honda uses a camera on at least ONE side of their cars to improve visibility, and they're like sitting in an aquarium. The Camaro though sticks you with tiny mirrors and slits for windows with no "awareness enhancements" at all? Enhance visibility with cameras on your mirrors, like Honda does with LaneWatch; double it and use both mirrors, though.

Expand the Camaro brand to a crossover. Make it a funky kind of one, and try to market it in the Trax segment as a counter to the funkier Toyota C-HR and Nissan Juke (heading off Nissan with rumors of a Z crossover).

It's not for moms. It's for guys who love cars, aren't able to justify a Camaro, and need extra utility (because the wagon will never resurrect) but want it in a sportier, more masculine fashion.

Take me. If I moved to Philly I'd be stuck with one car. I have a big dog, and he's not fitting in a Camaro, coupe, or sedan. On top of that, let's say I live with a girlfriend or a fiancée and am settling down to start to have a family. I have the dog, the woman, and the expectation of children.

How do I REASONABLY justify a Camaro? How do I justify a car that satisfies my desires unless it satisfies my NEEDS?

I don't, I buy a boring crossover and contemplate suicide as my masculinity fades away sooner than new car smell.

ON THE OTHER HAND: offer a "practical" alternative. If you want to protect the Camaro brand, okay, fine. Limit production as a proportion of sales; this will work if you produce an attractive product at a good price.

Don't tell me it wouldn't work or some other poppy****, because if they're willing to build CAR AFTER CAR AFTER CAR AFTER CAR with models on top of models and no effort to improve or stimulate demand for each, then why wouldn't they take a gamble on a product like I've described?

The only reason would be mental stagnation in Detroit.
 
#13 ·
personally I think a SUV would totally MISS the point and is a MARKET that RWD is a NEGATIVE NOT a POSITIVE
SUVs are "family" utility vehicles and making a compact one RWD defeats that purpose because of the LOST room inside and shorter cabin because of the LONGER nose

and for the coupe/hatch market drying up I believe PART of the drying is the HUGE price climb and HOW boring the modern compacts are and how totally USELESS the 86 twins are
the Cobalt SS sold quite well and the fiesta/focus ST are both selling a good numbers

I think monaroSS did a chop of the 130R as a kammback "2DR stationwagon"

but the chassis would be the "million dollar" question
 
#8 ·
Don't see a market for it.
All you have to do is look at the sales & market penetration of the BRZ and FRS. Their results prove there is no market for a car like the 130R.
 
#9 ·
And yet both Sube and Toyota say they are working on the next gen version.


BTW, I wouldn't think just a coupe would target this market effectively. It might need to be a family of cars, coupe, sedan, wagon.
 
#15 ·
It's been over 5 years since the Code concept was revealed. It's mission was to be a cheap, fun, turbo four cylinder, RWD car. It had some GM management support, but never achieved critical mass. Also, basing it on Alpha would never have delivered on the promised ~$20K starting price. So there was that.

Is it time to rethink such a RWD car at GM? It's no secret the new Camaro is not doing very well sales-wise, the reasons for which have been well documented here in dozens of threads. As GM continues to move the Camaro's dwindling sales up market, it leaves a big gaping hole in GM's passenger car line up.

Is GM even capable of building and marketing such a product successfully?


Let's hear some thoughts.......
Only if the Camaro is replaced with a more expensive product, which I imagine you wouldn't be happy with. I don't see how it would logically "fit" with Camaro unless it were split into two products: a small, $20k "stripper" car, and a larger "premium" car.

I don't think there's enough of a market for both of them or frankly either of them; again, you'd be splitting a single segment with two cars that combined wouldn't sell as well as the original.

People don't want to sacrifice premium for performance. They don't want a $20,000 RWD sports car with a crappy interior and bad performance. They want decent performance and a nice interior at a reasonable price... which ends up looking something like the new Mustang more so than the Camaro.

On the other end of the spectrum, I'm not sure how much of a market there is for a more expensive Camaro. Haven't we tried that already, and figured out this one is too expensive?

I think the only real desire for it would be something more practical than the Camaro, which could be remedied more effectively in two ways simultaneously: a better-packaged follow-on Camaro, and a FWD-based AWD Regal coupe.

Unless there's an industry-wide conspiracy to push for a small RWD car that radically redefines intraindustry cooperation on product with the explicit purpose of re-igniting a love for performance, I don't think it's worth considering.

As you've said, why not focus on making the Camaro a better product? A Camaro with $5,000 worth of incentives is $20,000. Boom, there's your $20,000 RWD turbo 4.
 
#25 ·
As usual, you make great points. A Code type product would have to be different enough from a Camaro where they wouldn't be stepping on each other's toes. It definitely would need more utility and user friendliness.
 
#16 ·
Ok, i'll repeat my self again, they need a 2 door Cruze plain and simple. The Cobalt coupe sold a lot, the new civic coupe sales well too. This is what they need. A small rear wheel drive coupe would be nice and its possible its coming if they being truth full about a smaller rear drive caddy. You have you platform right there. But in the mean time we need a small sporty front drive coupe. Less people are getting married so a personal coupe would do well. Hell make a 2 door hatch it would work too.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Cheap, fun, four cylinder, turbo would be great.

Just don't make it as ugly as that Code 130R thing was.

It would great for the people that want it. But there aren't enough of them. Subaru and Toyota can't move the BRZ and FRS and those are fun, great handling, nice looking cars.
 
#18 ·
Has anyone strolled through a Chevy lot recently? There are great deals on Camaros, obviously driven in part by low sales (also some killer deals on leftover '16 Corvettes).

The dealer in Bluffton, SC has a number of great deals on 2.0s for low to mid 20s. Why build a Code 130R when you have a Camaro with 270HP for that money?

The V-6s start in the mid 20s, with a 1LT coupe at $26k, 2LT coupe at $34K, 2LT convertible at $35K. Most of the V-8s are still kind of expensive. But the cheapest SS coupe I saw was about $35k, which to me seems a hell of a deal.
 
#22 ·
It has always been surprising to me that the Cruze coupe was not replaced. Seemed fairly popular, but they followed Ford's lead I suppose and just went with a sedan and now the hatch.

I'd rather see a Malibu-sized coupe.

Neither will happen.
 
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#27 ·
A cruze coupe and RWD 4 door coupe design would work well with the camaro. Adding a coupe and convertible regal for Buick is also needed to round out its lineup.
 
#43 ·
I thought the Code 130R from 5 years ago was a neat idea. But the more I think about it, the more I think it would have to take on the form of a Countryman or Nomad to be a real product.
 
#46 ·
Cadillac's car in this vaguely defined arena will be a Cadillac Verano, for more money. $25k-$45k with a V, as a liftback, and likely exclusively AWD and definitely only 4-cylinder powered with probably a run-of-the-mill 2.0 and a V with a higher displacement 4 close to nearly 3.0L and over 350hp/lb-ft of torque.

Specific numbers quoted here were 370-411hp and 384lb-ft. Definitely sounds like a neat engine to tuck into GM's arsenal, and again begs me to question why there's still a V6 anywhere when all they need is the small block, Voltec, and a modular engine architecture from I3 to V8.
 
#45 ·
When you can buy a 270 HP Camaro for low- to mid-$20s, you don't need a Code 130R.

I think GM marketing has really fallen down on the Camaro. Yeah, it's got shortcomings in terms of back seat and trunk, but so does the Mustang. That's nothing new. They can get expensive. But you can also buy a 2.0 that's quick and looks and handles great for a very reasonable price.

I think four cylinder muscle cars have a negative stigma from past efforts like the Iron Duke f-bodies and the 85 HP Mustangs from the 1980s. Some informative advertising emphasizing just how good and affordable a base Camaro is might help. I'm not so sure that many buyers are even aware of the 2.0. I've often heard people say that the pony cars are no longer affordable to the buyers that used to buy them. With the 2.0 selling for prices that you'd pay for a Civic, that just isn't true.
 
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#55 ·
Will someone at GM (be it Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick or GMC) build a damn X4 or GLC Coupe competitor? Call those vehicles what you want but the Pontiac Aztek started something that was WAY before its time and THATS where the market is now. I want a small to midsize crossover with RWD and coupe styling. Stop revisiting this Code and Tru subject.
 
#56 ·
Good idea.

Problem is that GM will make it a Chevy, so it will get lost among the other 10,000,000,000 other Chevy products that are offered and never go anywhere.

GM has never figured out that a new vehicle like you propose MUST be offered as either a Buick or GMC product FIRST, in order to create a market for it and set a "value point" so that GM can offer a Chevy variant later and still make money on it.

GM just refuses to understand that they can always offer a Chevy variant of a successful product, BUT Chevy is NEVER the RIGHT brand to introduce it.
 
#69 ·
I think they should do it,,
Theres always market for small economy sporty car,,especialy if its RWD,,
after all ,isnt Miata popular,,how about Honda Civic
Give it enough power call it Chevele and go after Furiously Fanatical rice fans,,
diesel motor option would probably be good also!
 
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