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Spied! Some Damn Purple MPV

Newbiewar

By Newbiewar
in General Motors

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Newbiewar Newbie

Newbiewar

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http://news.windingroad.com/body-stylesmar...ral-motors-mpv/

General Motors tipped its hand about an upcoming seven-passenger MPV in the labor agreement it drew up with the United Auto Workers in 2007. Now the spy shooters of Brenda Priddy & Company have come across the first fruit of that agreement with these images of a new MPV mule out and testing.

The vehicle appears to be built on GM’s global Delta chassis, which is an excellent indication that the MPV will be offered in many markets, and under the umbrella of several of GM’s brands worldwide. Priddy expects that the vehicle will be built domestically at the Hamtramck, Michigan plant, though much of the R&D work was likely done at the facility in South Korea.

The new hauler will most likely end up in the hands of Chevrolet, with Opel and Daewoo also being logical recipients. Have a look at Priddy’s handiwork in our gallery below or click through the jump to read the spy shooter’s impressions of the new MPV.

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pow Newbie

pow

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Nice. Minivans aren't dead, and this can keep them alive here in the US. Sure, it's smaller than our current offerings, but perhaps this will start the downsizing phase. It looks quite a lot bigger than Zafira or Mazda5, more like a Galaxy/S-Max or Previa/Estima?

Edited by empowah
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ZL-1 Newbie

ZL-1

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Posted (edited)

If the Insignia is any indication, Opel's styling is becoming rounder. The thingy on those pics looks pretty angular. Chevy DeltaII MPV?

EDIT - I think I see some Traverse on what we can see of the headlights, but given that this is shaping up to be one $h!ty day, it could be me hallucinating.

Edited by ZL-1
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Robert Hall Veteran

Robert Hall

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ohh my bad, but still how does a chassis, of the hhr, support 7 people? the hhr really doesnt fit 5 and if they are going to stretch the platform why not use epsilon

Maybe 7 Europeans..they are generally smaller than bloated Americans.. :)

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Chris_Doane Newbie

Chris_Doane

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Whatever it is...it's testing inside GM's Milford Proving Grounds. As you can imagine most vehicles that test inside GM's Milford Proving Ground are uh.....GM cars. When Nissan or BMW use Milford, it's usually quite obvious.

That combined with our knowledge of the forthcoming Chevy MPV7 lead us to believe that's what we saw.

This purple thing may actually be a Roewe.

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Chris_Doane Newbie

Chris_Doane

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whats Roewe? the chinese company?

Right. It's the company the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation created to build the MG Rover cars.

SAIC is partnered with GM so its possible a Roewe could be testing inside Milford. Why the hell they would come this far for R&D is another question. As far as I can remember, Roewe has never been spotted testing in the U.S.

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  • 2 weeks later...
thegriffon Newbie

thegriffon

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Those wheels definitely look Rover/Roewe:

roewe-750.jpg

Some parts of it make me think Citroen C4 Picasso... but maybe that's just a coincidence.

02picasso_m.jpg

No, the C4 Picasso is just another of the numerous Zafira clones (not all of which offer three-row seating) that have emerged since Opel blew the doors off the C-MPV segment with their revival of the 7-seat C-MPV (the Japanese [mitsubishi and Nissan, I think the former was sold as a Dodge] were first in the early '80s).

The wheels don't appear quite the same as the Roewe 750, and I do recall similar wheels on GM products. The FlexDoors are uniquely GM, and the rear styling, though hardly unique, is similar to the Traverse. Is PCS implying that it is a Chinese model or not? I'm sure he can't say if it really is a Chevy.

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thegriffon Newbie

thegriffon

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ohh my bad, but still how does a chassis, of the hhr, support 7 people? the hhr really doesnt fit 5 and if they are going to stretch the platform why not use epsilon

A: By stretching the wheelbase to over 2.7 m (actually slightly longer than the Vectra sedans). There are bigger vans riding on much shorter wheelbases (OK they are obsolete Mazda and Mitsubishi models with the engine under the front seats, but they are still being built—Dodge sells one in Mexico). The 7-seat Chevy Captiva crossover has a similar wheelbase, as do other 7-seat D-segment wagons.

B: It doesn't fit 7 adults. It's a family car, you can fit maybe 5 adults plus 2 kids, more than enough for a young family on a budget. Also it is cab-forward, so the cabin is even longer than a wagon with the same wheelbase (like the Astra Caravan), and the Zafira is fairly long for a compact, if not as long as the Captiva. It works well enough that there have been numerous copies (VW Touran, Corolla Verso, Renault Grand Scenic, Mazda5, Citroen C4 Grand Picasso, Kia Rondo etc.).

C: Delta is cheaper than Epsilon, no IRS for starters.

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pow Newbie

pow

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No, the C4 Picasso is just another of the numerous Zafira clones (not all of which offer three-row seating) that have emerged since Opel blew the doors off the C-MPV segment with their revival of the 7-seat C-MPV (the Japanese [mitsubishi and Nissan, I think the former was sold as a Dodge] were first in the early '80s).

The wheels don't appear quite the same as the Roewe 750, and I do recall similar wheels on GM products. The FlexDoors are uniquely GM, and the rear styling, though hardly unique, is similar to the Traverse. Is PCS implying that it is a Chinese model or not? I'm sure he can't say if it really is a Chevy.

Which GM vehicle do you recall with similar wheels? Aren't those just regular sliding doors... there might be a track below the rear glass. For sure it doesn't look very Opelish. Joint venture?

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Oracle of Delphi Newbie

Oracle of Delphi

Posted
Posted (edited)
Some parts of it make me think Citroen C4 Picasso... but maybe that's just a coincidence.

02picasso_m.jpg

gmdeltampvhlzo8.jpg

To me I see shades of the old Dustbuster minivans that were produced in the 90's at the Terrytown plant in NY. I think it's that large vent window just before the door that does it for me.

pontiac25rb6.jpg

Edited by Pontiac Custom-S
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Guest aatbloke

Guest aatbloke

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Whatever it is...it's testing inside GM's Milford Proving Grounds. As you can imagine most vehicles that test inside GM's Milford Proving Ground are uh.....GM cars. When Nissan or BMW use Milford, it's usually quite obvious.

That combined with our knowledge of the forthcoming Chevy MPV7 lead us to believe that's what we saw.

This purple thing may actually be a Roewe.

What Car? magazine in the UKrecently reported these pictures as indeed being a new Roewe MPV.

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Guest aatbloke

Guest aatbloke

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whats Roewe? the chinese company?

Roewe is a brand named owned by SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation), which partnered with MG Rover as was to develop the replacement for the Rover 45, which was dubbed RDX60. The design of that car was pretty much finalised before SAIC pulled out of the venture and MG Rover folded, but SAIC carried on by itself with the project which eventually became the Roewe 550. SAIC themselves did not have access to the Rover name as Ford bought the rights to the name to stop any possible competition or confusion with Land Rover, which was a subsidiary of Ford at the time. Therefore SAIC developed the Roewe name instead.

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Guest aatbloke

Guest aatbloke

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Which only means that's what they've read elsewhere the same as you have. It's not an expert opinion based on facts you're not privy to.

I'm relaying is the story recently reported in the UK press on 2 May; I'm not myself publicly confirming that the car photographed is categorically a Roewe. Hopefully this clears up the misunderstanding.

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Guest aatbloke

Guest aatbloke

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No, the C4 Picasso is just another of the numerous Zafira clones (not all of which offer three-row seating) that have emerged since Opel blew the doors off the C-MPV segment with their revival of the 7-seat C-MPV (the Japanese [mitsubishi and Nissan, I think the former was sold as a Dodge] were first in the early '80s).

The wheels don't appear quite the same as the Roewe 750, and I do recall similar wheels on GM products. The FlexDoors are uniquely GM, and the rear styling, though hardly unique, is similar to the Traverse. Is PCS implying that it is a Chinese model or not? I'm sure he can't say if it really is a Chevy.

Here in Europe the Nissan Prairie was generally regarded as kicking off the modern C-segment MPV genre in 1981, and subsequently introduced to Europe in October 1982 at the British Motor Show at the NEC. It was followed shortly afterwards by the Mitsubishi Space Wagon and Space Runner which I believe were also marketed as Dodges in North America. The car hailed with revitalising the genre in the 90's was the Renault Scenic in 1996 (despite initially only being a 5-seater), followed a couple of years later by the more versatile Vauxhall/Opel Zafira.

Edited by aatbloke
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  • 1 year later...
RjION Newbie

RjION

Posted
Posted

I guess we were all wrong... it's the Luxgen MPV from Taiwan, based off of the previous-gen Renault Espace. It uses a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine with 220 hp. Saw a few in Taipei, and it's a pretty good looking MPV.

luxgen7_mpv20090819212103015625.jpg

GoodLooking/MPV is an oxymoron

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