Drew Dowdell

I put the "who is reading this thread" back on.

that should be all fixed as of now. the table repair that I was trying to hold off on doing until this weekend forced my hand this morning.

It's been loading snappy for me lately, but I'll keep an eye out for it. Our server utilization is pretty low.

Escape has some potential, but he likes the looks of the Buick. I'm not sure he has seen the new Escape.

What Omega buys you that would be difficult to do with Alpha is width. We know very little about Omega at this point, but it wouldn't need to be as flexible as Alpha (not a huge draw for Roadmaster Wagons these days), thus less expensive to build. It would just need to be amortized across multiple brands.

I can see:

Cadillac ZTS

Buick Park Ave (at least in size) also sold in China

Holden/Chevy Statesman/Caprice

Opel Omega (limited possibility here, that market is dead in Europe)

There is even a case to be made that Omega is an outgrowth of Alpha in the first place, but different enough to warrant its own platform name. That would reduce the costs of the platform and allow the relatively low volume vehicles listed above.

well don't look at a new Impreza.....hunted one down today and MY GOD are they ugly and cheap inside........

na, he wants to "sit up high" but it can't be a big vehicle.

If it isn't the Encore, I'm going to end up having to find a cream puff Suzuki X-90

Oh Lord.

What's wrong with that?

Well aware, but they are often solved in similar ways. Things that shouldn't collapse in a crash are the same things that shouldn't flex under high torque loads. GM used a lot of very high strength lightweight material in the car. My guess is that a Camaro built on this frame will go down in weight from the sedan. As it is now, the sedan is already the same weight as a V6 Mustang and only 100lbs heavier than the 4-cylinder Genesis Coupe, and 200lbs lighter than the Infiniti G-Coupe... all vehicles that I'm sure are being bench marked against. In my mind, that give GM a fantastic amount of wiggle room.

I think Camino is talking more about the stress the power of a V8 could put on a frame. To that I would reply that GM had to design the thing to meet ever increasing crash standards in the first place, so the frame has to be pretty strong already to meet that standard. Probably more so than what the V8 requirement would be.

It absolutely has the ability to exchange sub-frames.

still missing pics of this in the garage

No more CR-Vs in this household. He is actually rather smitten with the Encore right now because it has every attribute he really wants. Good fuel economy, AWD, decent interior space but not a huge vehicle for him to wheel around. Most importantly, heated seats and a touch of luxury.

He wouldn't drive the Terrain when we had it here 2 weeks ago. To him, it might as well have been a Yukon.

... it was a joke at your computer's expense.

If it can fit the DOHC 3.6, it can fit the LS-series.

and there is no way Chevy will build a Camaro that doesn't have a V8 available.... not yet.... not with Ford and Hyundai upping the V8 war in their sport ccupes.

Could there be a Camaro with a turbo 4? Sure, and I think there should be one made.

Also remember, Alpha is where the next CTS goes. So that means it needs to be able to handle being built into a CTS-V

I think that is your sound card screwing with you.

PCS did say that the Alpha was going to be the Epsilon II of RWD. Only... it looks like it is even more flexible size wise.

Hopefully..Epsilon II so far has only 2 wheelbase variations..107.x and 111.x, both pretty short.

Not just wheelbase variations, but also body styles. Epsilon has been a sedan, coupe, wagon, 5-door hatch, soft top convertible and hard top convertible and been sold in every division except GMC. I think that widespread use is what PCS was referring to.

I shut it off during the database problems we had over the weekend. I'll turn it back on once I'm convinced we are stable

PCS did say that the Alpha was going to be the Epsilon II of RWD. Only... it looks like it is even more flexible size wise.

I have to say, the ATS just grows on me more and more.... and I liked it to start with.

uhm... the ATS will be out in Summer?

Yes, but I meant further models...

Camaro, a Buick (Riviera on Alpha), Buick (something big on Omega), the Cadillac ZTS (as we are calling it around these parts) on Omega, the 130R is still in the realm of possibility.

uhm... the ATS will be out in Summer?

Very interesting...well, we know GM is going to want use the Alpha platform for more than 1 model. I wonder if there is a business case for a Buick Alpha. It's nice to imagine a future where GM invests in more RWD models and not just an endless flow of FWD models...

No need to imagine. The next two platforms coming out are RWD.

Doesn't feel it.

I drive Albert's '04 CR-V all the time. Sitting in the new one feels like a full size class larger.

I stand corrected. The CR-V hasn't actually grown at all in length... it just feels like it has.