good read

 

Where's Threxx or Redzed? I think they should read this. Then print it out and hang it on their refridgerator and read it once a day.

Nothing against you guys personally, but it's honestly the truth.

 

I wish he would stop telling us how great his company is and just put out a vehicle I would actually buy.

 

I thought maybe this would pertain to the Camaro.......

 

GM has done wonders improving quality on their existing cars.

Now, GM's getting away from the "cheap look". Design that may be assembled well, but has inferior materials or looks like design went the cheap way, especially on interiors.



BTW: If you want to see a glaring example of Bob Lutz influence in design (this was just recently pointed out to me) look at the Solstice and Sky.

The exterior of the Pontiac Solstice was done before Bob Lutz even got to GM. The Pontiac Sky was done completely under Bob Lutz reign, in which he (and Ed Welburne, who also got into his position as design chief late in the game) were on the job, and influenced design direction. Ditto the interior (which amazingly uses the same setup and parts.

 

I always thought that the Solstice was Lutz's baby, or did he just ram-rod the Solstice though to get the Sky though, too?

 

Guy,

Are you sure about that? I could SWEAR that I remember reading about the Solstice when it first came out as a concept. How some designer won an internal contest, or sketched it on a napkin or something, and Lutz saw it and pushed it, and it got rushed as a concept car to show up at the show. Had suspension based on the IRS in the AWD minivans and Rendezvous, stuff like that.

Anyone else remember that?

And remember peeps, Lutz isn't the actual designer of the "Lutz era" cars. He influences them, and points out things he doesn't like (or likes), and he clears up roadblocks so the designers can do their thing. But he doesn't draw the cars himself...

 

That's what I was thinking as well Joe. I thought I remember reading that he asked the designer to build the prototype from scratch and witihin 3 months got the deadline for the auto show. The show car was using a modified Delta platform I believe and parts raided from the bin. I'll try to pull some articles about it if I can find them.

 

If I remember right..... Mr. Lutz did indeed ask for some designers to come up with something exciting and fresh...

Solstice was already drawn up, or at least partially so, on paper.... but the designer (name escapes me at the moment) decided to go with it for his entry.

Mr. Lutz picked it from the designs presented, and began pushing it through...

 

I can't remember the whole thing but I believe it was Franz Von Holzhausen who has since left GM for Mazda. Here is some info.


http://cardesignnews.com/autoshows/2...-solstice.html

 

This ruined the entire article in my eyes:

The Bataan Death March was a terribly cruel and indefensible event. However, its use in this article is unjustified and does an injustice to the memory of those involved.

What has changed since then?

 

You have the story exactly right, it was designed by fritz with Uncle Bob pushing his baby through to production.

The Saturn Sky was already a concept with a different body than what will be produced. The new sky has some style-too bad it doesnt have an engine to match its looks.

 

That's how I remember it also. BTW, here's some trivia.

Although advertised as a modified Delta...the donor car was a used up Cavalier. Add one Rendezvous IRS and diff, CTS brakes, Sube steering, sawzall, arc welder, etc.,....and voila.......

 

No kidding - talk about over-the-top. Henry Ford printed excerpts from "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" in the Dearborn Independent, received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, and his portrait hung in Hilter's office. Do we want to bring that up when discussing domestic cars? Let's not go there.

Japan is now a free democratic nation that's also a strategic ally of the US. Contrast this with China, where GM's investing a big chunk of change. Given those facts and many others, it'd be unwise to try to play up the patriotic angle too much when comparing Toyota to GM.

Also interesting is that Toyota's plant quality, and worker safety is brought up in this article. Will the same people who blame GM's problems on the UAW use these same points when arguing against Toyota?

With regards to fuel economy, Toyota publishes the EPA fuel economy for the Prius. They are required by law to publish that number. I cannot and will not speak as to whether their intentions are honorable. I can say that every window sticker I've ever seen includes a disclaimer regarding the EPA figures, and if the supposedly "technically superior" Prius owner can't read, then hopefully someone can do a podcast on that concept for the hybrid community.

 

Last time I saw the something, and this does go back year or two, the Matrix ranked a lot higher. But, as has already been pointed out, the Vibe is built in California, the Matrix in Canada ... and we all know about Canadian (think Oshawa) quality, eh!