Northstar

Looks good BuddyP, especially considering it's the first time you've entered.

AH-HA said on the old boards that the newer vehicles get the badge, but the old ones don't. GM wants the badges to reflect the new GM. There are actually a lot of vehicles that don't have the badge: GMT800s, GMT360s, CSVs, Rendezvous, Aveo (?), ION, VUE, and others.

As I used to have in my sig: "Good Enough Never Is." However, I disagree with you two about the Hummer thing. That's like saying GM needed to beat the Boxster with the Solstice and still sell it for $20k. That's like saying a Pontiac "3-Series" should be just as good as a BMW 3-Series, but cost half of the price. However, you simply CANNOT make a vehicle as good as the 3-Series, sell it for $20k, and expect to turn a profit; it's just not going to happen. The goal should be to have each and every vehicle be the best in its class. That doesn't mean a $20k Solstice needs to beat a $50k Boxster. That means a $20k Solstice needs to be a $20k Miata. It means the new GMT900 Tahoe needs to beat everything in it's class, but it doesn't need to beat a $70k Range Rover. Similarly, if GM makes an H4 for $20-25k (Wrangler territory) it needs to beat the Wrangler. The Wrangler is by no means a perfect vehicle though. If you expect every vehicle to be perfect, expect ever vehicle to be priced like Cadillacs and BMWs. All you can really ask for is for GM to better what the competition has to offer while asking the same price for the product. I think they may have been talking about the next CTS in the coupe and convert quote. They have already shown they can put coupes and converts on Epsilon (9-3, G6). Overall, a good article and a great read; thanks for posting Josh.

The loss of the Sunfire is no big deal. I'm guess at least half of them went to fleets, meaning GM probably sold no more than 20k/year to consumers, and even those were heavily discounted. I really doubt GM is going to lose any sales by not brining the Pursuit here, because it's simply a Cobalt. If you want a performance compact, the Cobalt SS/SC is waiting for you. Something like a cheap 3-Series would appeal to a totally different market and far fewer sales would be lost to the Cobalt or vice versa.

The new sedan would just be larger on the interior, right? The GP is already close to 200" long, so I don't think it would be bigger than the GP; or did you mean bigger than the G6?

Actually a lot of those make me LMAO. The only thing that would make me mad would be if they did it to something like a Corvette, 911, Ferrari, etc.

mygraphix: Sorry if it wasn't clear, but technically you aren't supposed to have two entries from the same chop. Please pick one of your two chops of the front to enter into the contest. olds: looks good, I was actually thinking about Sixteen headlights but I'll see what else I can come up with. capriceman: If you want you're bonus point, make sure you resize the pic to 768 pixels wide.

The Malibu and G6 could stand to be a bit bigger so that they offer more interior room than they currently do (which is not as much as some competitors). I think Epsilon II will be bigger and thus grant more interior room. AWD is a must, but there are other things that need improvement too. Keeping Epsilon for 16 years like W-Body would be a huge mistake and is the old GM-think. GM should be constantly upgrading everything to keep up with competitors; even already world-class platforms (like Sigma).

The interior is nicer because it's $5k more, but the Solstice's is still pretty good. The Solstice is more driver oreinted that the Sky's as well. I'm guessing the Sky's is like it is so it's easier to make it RHD for the Opel version. GM claims the Solstice and Sky don't share a single exterior body panel.

In the new Autonews, there is a little blurb about a small Pontiac: "Does General Motors' Pontiac division need a small, entry-level car in the United States? Marketing Director Mark-Hans Richer says an entry-level small car is a 'top candidate' on Pontiac execs' wish list. But GM's vehicle line executive for small cars, Lori Queen, says, 'We're not working on that for Pontiac.' Pontiac is well-served by having the Vibe hatchback as an entry-level vehile, rather than entering the crowded small-car segment, she says. Pontiac offers a small entry-level car in Canada called the Pursuit. But Queen says the Pursuit is unique to Canada."

Can we get a count of who is going to enter? So far we have 4 entries, NOS is doing 2, and I'm doing 2, which makes 8. So we need 7 more to get to 15.

I'd go with GP, wheels at the corners, RWD/AWD, HF V6 or V8, and low slung.

I think the size of yours looks find TJ. It's just in the choppin' comps I like to have everyone's the same size; as long as they're not HUGE here then it's cool.

As Bimmer said, you get penalty points for not voting or voting for yourself. In CC3 there will be bonus points for resizing your pic to the right size, as I get tired of resizing everyone's pics that are bigger than the specified width.

Reuters / September 08, 2005 DETROIT -- The head of the United Auto Workers said on Thursday he was optimistic about reaching a negotiated settlement of General Motors' demands for cuts in union health-care and other benefits. But Ron Gettelfinger, president of the UAW, also said GM had more problems than health care and warned that the union may not be able to help "stabilize" the situation at the troubled automaker. "The UAW understands that health-care costs are a problem, not just for General Motors, but for every other American employer," Gettelfinger said in a speech to Detroit area business leaders. "We are willing to continue to work with General Motors within the framework of our national agreement to reduce costs in health care and other areas. We're optimistic that we can find ways to do that," he added. It was thought to be the first time, at least in public, that Gettelfinger has spoken of optimism about talks GM began with the UAW in April to slash some of the union benefits that it blames for hurting its ability to compete with Asian rivals. Gettelfinger stressed that any benefit cuts would be made within the confines of the UAW's existing labor contract with GM, however, meaning that they could fall short of the sweeping concessions the automaker has said it needs to restore its North American operations to profitability. The world's largest automaker, which lost $2.5 billion in North America during the first half of 2005, expects its health-care costs to total nearly $6 billion this year. The UAW is a longstanding advocate of national health care. And Gettelfinger reiterated his union's repeated calls for some form of national health insurance in his speech. Efforts to shift skyrocketing medical costs onto the backs of workers were not the solution to a mounting national crisis, he said. Taking aim specifically at GM, however, he added that it faced a whole litany of problems that had nothing to do with the benefits enjoyed by its UAW-protected hourly workers. "There are some journalists and pundits that make it seem like health-care costs are General Motors only problem. But we don't think it's that simple," Gettefinger said. "Health-care costs alone, for that matter, total labor costs, don't explain GM's (U.S.) market share falling from 41 percent in 1985 to just over 25 percent today," he said. He added that decisions made by GM management over the years, about key issues such as product development and design and marketing, were also factors behind the poor state the company has found itself in. He also cited "bad U.S. trade policy," an apparent reference to the lack of more U.S. barriers to automotive imports from overseas. GM has said its health-care costs work out to about $1,500 per every vehicle it builds and sells in North America, a burden far and above anything it foreign rivals carry. But Gettelfinger said the UAW has worked closely with GM in reining in its health-care costs in the past and credited the union with helping to ensure that GM -- the largest private provider of health care in the United States -- has medical costs that have "increased at a rate below the national average." The UAW said in July that it had hired a team of outside advisers led by New York-based investment bank Lazard Ltd. to examine the company's finances. Gettelfinger said the financial review process was still under way but suggested, in remarks to reporters, that he has no doubt GM faces serious financial difficulties. "Whether or not we can stabilize a situation (at GM) that's deteriorating I'm not sure. We'll just have to wait and see," he said. He gave no deadline for any final agreement with GM, however, and seemed to play down any sense of urgency. "They've got a huge cash reserve," Gettelfinger told reporters. "We have not jumped off a cliff here. We've made that clear from day one."

By Jamie LaReau Automotive News / September 08, 2005 http://www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=13270 DETROIT -- General Motors told dealers Wednesday that it will not extend its Employee Discount for Everyone program beyond September, company officials and dealers confirm. "It's just time for it to end," says an informed source. "We'll focus on our launch products." The source says GM will begin running advertising this weekend emphasizing the program's end date and promoting new GM products and 2006 models. A spokesperson for GM confirmed the program, which GM started in June, will conclude this month. The program includes all 2005 vehicles except the Chevrolet Corvette amd the Hummer H1. It also includes 2006 full-sized trucks and SUVs. Th H2 is the only 2006 Hummer included. But there are other 2006 GM products on which GM offers incentives. "We're moving forward in executing our strategy around the total value promise," says GM spokesperson Deborah Silverman. GM has promoted its version of value pricing as its "total value promise" for its 2006 lineup. It involves setting sticker prices closer to transaction prices while adding more features to vehicles. Dealers say they're glad the employee pricing program is ending because 2005 inventory is low and they want to promote new models. "We can't support that level of sales with this program," says Chris Cerrina, president of Saab dealership Parkfield Motors Inc. in Bergenfield, N.J. "With the volumes right now, I don't think it'd be fair to the consumer to continue it. I'm not upset at all with the ending of the employee pricing." The higher gasoline prices also make it difficult to continue the program, says Gordon Stewart, president of Stewart Management Group in Harper Woods, Mich., which has several GM stores. "It's tough to maintain that profit margin if there's a dent in the SUV market as the market shifts to smaller economy cars," Stewart says. Both Cerrina and Stewart say the employee pricing program was a success. Stewart started June with about 800 2005 vehicles and today has 45 in inventory. Cerrina says he only has four Saab 2005 vehicles left on his lot.

No, they actually announced that they were ending it. Before it was just "ends August 3rd" or whatever. This time they actually told the dealers they are ending it.

They should leave this market to Jeep and do something else for Dodge; I think it looks too similar to the Patriot.

The Torana was sort of it's own platform. It wasn't Kappa or Zeta but a mix of a bunch of stuff I think. Would it be easier to strech Kappa if you were just going for a 2+2 sedan because of the center tunnel being so big?

It's fine since the employees used to get the employee price plus the discounts anyways. It's not like they're giving this to the general public. GM announced it was ending Employee Pricing For Everybody at the end of Sept. anyways.

They may be the same EPA ratings, but reports from owners (Dsuuper most recently) is that they get well over the EPA mileage. Dsuuper said he was getting 40MPG.

Are you positive about the Yukon? When I emailed the Texas State Fair people they only knew about the Tahoe.

Something like this would definetly be near or at the top of my list when it comes time to buy a new car (not for a few years, until I'm through college) and if they could get a turbo 2.4L Ecotec with ~250HP to me for around $27k and close to loaded, I'd definetly buy it assuming I could afford it right out of college. The possibilities on a LWB Kappa are endless. Nomad, Curve-like coupe (maybe Sky but with four seats and no convert?), trucklets, mini sport wagons, possibly a TRUE 3-Series fighter for Cadillac if they spent the money to put the V6 in it. The whole Pontiac small-car line could morph onto Kappa: sedan, Solstice, Solstice coupe, Vibe.

I was wondering the same thing. It's not as if the Aveo is brand new, I was actually thinking it was going to be the new Aveo.

In the new MT, there was a short interview with Lutz as a compliment to the Solstice article. Here's what Lutz said: "If you could have a magic wand and have a four-door version, then maybe strech the architecture and have a sort of a BMW 3 Series, that's what the Pontiac guys want. We have to pick out investments and allocate our engineering assests carefully, but that's their desire." So it sounds as if Kappa CAN be streched, it's just a matter of whether they want to spend the money to do it or not.