http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Toront...69589-sun.html

A DECISION by General Motors Corp. to retool its auto platform lineup won't throw a monkey wrench into plans for an ambitious $2.5-billion upgrade at GM's Oshawa car plant. On Monday the corporate parent of General Motors of Canada said it was ditching plans to introduce a rear-drive "Zeta" platform to the North American market in 2008.

The "Zeta" architecture, as the underpinnings of cars are called, was expected to be used in an array of vehicles, including the Pontiac GTO, according to industry analysts.

SPECULATION OF U-TURN

GM's decision to pull the plug on "Zeta" caused some speculation that the automaker is doing a U-turn on its plans to steer the Oshawa plant to rear-drive production.

But General Motors of Canada spokesman Stew Low said the decision to go ahead with the $2.5-billion upgrade -- which includes $435 million of government financial help -- was not tied to production of "Zeta" platform vehicles.

"It never was announced publicly as a platform for the Oshawa car plant," said Low. "Those two events are not linked at all."

Low said the $2.5-billion upgrade will create a flexible manufacturing facility that will allow the automaker to quickly respond to shifts in public driving preferences.

"You're hedged against whatever consumers want," said Low. "It gives you the flexibility to go with convertibles, wagons, rear-drive or front-drive. It kind of gives you the best of everything."

GM currently has three flexible manufacturing plants in North America -- two in Michigan and one in Kansas.

NO DECISION YET

Traditional plants require expensive, time-consuming retrofits, making it difficult to accommodate new vehicle lines.

Low said a final decision hasn't been made as to what vehicles will be produced at the upgraded Oshawa plant, or when the conversion will be complete.

Meanwhile, the Chrysler Group announced yesterday that it would spend $506 million US in two suburban Detroit plants to upgrade the facilities to flexible production.

"These two plants will be on the leading edge of our strategy to become a fully flexible corporation," Tom LaSorda, chief operating officer of the Chrysler Group, said in a statement. The two plants, which are both in Sterling Heights, employ more than 5,000 workers.

 

So they are making it possible to switch stuff around quicker so that if the need to put Sigma or something else into the factory they can do it quicker. I see this as a good thing.

 

Zeta isn't the RWD chassis going to be built in Oshawa.

There's something else.

 

Exactly what do you mean by .

 

I wonder, with the whole CAW situation, the loan from the Canadian government, the news about zeta, the timing of this latest announcement about a huge investment in Oshawa just a few months before GM might possibly be able to talk about Camaro. It's starting to look like the next Camaro might be built in Oshawa.

 

is it sportbikey.

 

It seems happy not bikey.

Sounds as if a fraction, maybe one hidden in team Corvette, has been working on a skunkworks project in their free time. I can't wait to read Scott's book in a few years.

 

Cryptic bastard....
3 billion was given to Caddy to get Sigma done...
2.8 to retrofit some new RWD chassis.
half could be to Sigma, half could be to Chi? Chi goes to #1, and Sigma goes #2?