From CNN, long but a good GM read
From CNN, long but a good GM read
December 13, 2005; Posted: 12:11 p.m. EST (1711 GMT)By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com staff writerNEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - There was a time when a big Chevrolet wasconsidered cool. With fins, chrome and lots of style and flash, 1950smodels like the Bel Air were made to be noticed."Chevrolet used to be the exciting affordable car," said Jim Hall withthe automotive marketing consultancy AutoPacific.Chevrolet is still affordable. But exciting? Not quite.Today's Chevrolets, even executives at General Motors will admit, do notinspire pounding hearts and raw desire. The brand's most successfulproducts, its SUVs and trucks, dazzle only through sheer size. Evenotherwise good cars, like the Impala sedan, have the visual excitementof a decent sport coat.Now GM is looking back to the 1950s for inspiration as it tries torecover from declining market share and a seemingly unbreakable relianceon cash incentives to sell cars.Not that future Chevrolets will necessarily sprout tail fins or dozensof pounds of glittering chrome, but they won't look like every other caron the road."For a while there I think there was a feeling that people who boughtChevrolets cared about a lot of things but they didn't care a lot aboutdesign," said Tom Wilkinson, communications director for GM design.Eye-catching design has certainly worked for the Chrysler Group ofDaimlerChrysler. Cars like the Chrysler 300 and Dodge Magnum sell wellwithout heavy incentives. Both cars are proportioned to look as if theycould have driven straight out of a comic book.But, those cars are not intended for mass appeal. They are designed forstrong appeal among a relative few. The same can be said for GM's Hummerand Cadillac divisions, which have also used a more radical designapproach to appeal to those who really want to stand out in a crowd.But what about a car like the Chevrolet Impala, one of GM's most popularcars? Hundreds of thousands of Impalas are sold every year to consumersand fleet buyers like police departments. Are those buyers likely towant flash and style in their big family car?"Something that's well designed doesn't have to be radically designed,"said Wilkinson.The changeExpect the change to start in the next couple of years.While no images of the vehicles have been publicly released yet, a lookahead at upcoming Saturns and a look back at the classic Chevys of the1950s gives an idea of the sort of thing Wilkinson is talking about.And, some experts say, it's just what Chevrolet needs in an era whenbuilding better cars just isn't enough.Saturn, GM's youngest division, has always been known for a kind andgentle dealership experience with no-haggle pricing. It has never beenknown for particularly desirable or interesting automobiles.Saturn's new line-up of cars, beginning with the two-seat roadstercalled the Sky, followed by the Aura sedan. The Vue SUV will also get anew, futuristic look and Saturn will be introducing a larger crossoverSUV as well. Saturns are going to start looking very interesting. Muchof the vehicles' design will be shared with GM's European Opel brand.The designs will be edgier and more artful than American buyers are usedto seeing from GM.Chevrolet will get things rolling with its own version of the Aurasedan, said Hall, who was treated to a peak at the new Chevrolet sedan.He called the new Chevrolet design even more striking than the Saturn.The Saturn Aura shares its engineering underpinnings with the currentChevrolet Malibu. The next generation Malibu will be much moreaggressive-looking, said GM's Wilkinson, who allowed that the currentMalibu is "kind of blah."Still, improved appearances won't be enough to succeed. Cars like theChrysler 300 and Dodge Magnum, rear-wheel-drive cars with extremelypowerful optional engines, are also fundamentally different fromfunctionally similar vehicles in their price ranges. Also, from thestandpoint of driving dynamics, they perform better than most cars theycompete against.Meanwhile, Toyota and other Japanese competitors are seen as havingbetter quality and long-term durability than the Detroit-basedcarmakers. Although GM can legitimately claim to have narrowed the gapin quality against those competitors, that's been a tough sell withconsumers."There's a lot of sour past experiences that the domestics are going tohave to get through," said James Bell, publisher of the automotiveconsumer guide IntelliChoice.Better design could be enough to get buyers to consider a GM vehiclewhen, in the past, they would have gone with a Toyota or Honda as,simply, a safer bet."It's a question of who's got the right car at the right time," saidBell.
Re: From CNN, long but a good GM read (MiVibe-ToolGuy)
Our Michigan economy needs the change a lot sooner though...
Re: From CNN, long but a good GM read (MiVibe-ToolGuy)
Quote, originally posted by MiVibe-ToolGuy »Our Michigan economy needs the change a lot sooner though... let your congressman know http://edworkforce.house.gov/d....htmlgood article. only so many people want or can afford trucks and big SUV's. they won't even tell us what the trucks looks like we are building next year.only that the chevy and GMC are going to look different from one another. less interchangable body parts.
Re: From CNN, long but a good GM read (scherry2)
Your first hand knowledge scherry2 is interesting...My poor wife works at a GM account as a contract and they are all looking over their shoulders since no one really knows what GM's next move is. Scary! She is currently trying to get out of the contract world like it did. She also told me she read an article that said the Mich economy will most likely not turn around for 1-2 more years and this was a low we have never seen before!