Everyone keeps talking about one or the other, why not sell them both & the Malibu? Chevrolet sells 3 sedans in the Middle East one of which is the Lumina (G8). Simply by dropping this car they are losing 3k sales a month at Pontiac. It will cost them nothing to develope since this car already exists in other contries. All they have to do is build it!

"But Chevrolet already has several sedans. How many sedans do you need to cover the waterfront?"

They currently have 2, he says nothing about one or the other. My interpretation is he believes what they have covers the market, but they are still discussing it.

 

It's amazing how many of you will complain about what GM builds when only a handful of us on this ENTIRE forum will actully go out and buy one. The rest of you will just admire it by reading a Car and Driver. That is not what GM needs, they need cars that sell to the other 99% of North America....and the Impala does that great...

 

Is it known how many Impala sales are fleet vehicles? I find it hard to believe that so many people actually pass up the Malibu and other vehicles for the Impala. After all, plenty of police, taxi, and rental companies use the Impala, but I can't think of any Malibu patrol cars or taxi cabs. At the dealership I work at we are barely moving Impalas, while the Malibus seem to sell at a decent pace.

 

I said in this thread that if they sold it as a Lumina, they might have something. But it makes zero sense to sell it as an Impala.

 

That's interesting, because when I think of the 'Lumina' name, personally, it conjures up memories of milktoast FWD sedans and dustbuster minivans.

 

Seems to me that the positives far outweight the minuses here. Sell it as a Chevy "whatever" and you get retail sales to those folks that want a full-size rear-drive sedan (which GM won't have when the G8 is gone), as well as a built-in police/taxi fleet vehicle. All the infrastructure is in place to import these cars already; they have the capacity ready and waiting in Oz; the DI 3.6/6-speed auto combination should improve mileage and would be a no-brainer for police use. These cars are built hell-for-stout and would seem custom made for heavy fleet use. Big back seat, huge trunk and, best of all, it's ready and waiting!

 

routesixtysixer, St. Elizabeth doesn't have the needed capacity to build enough vehicles that the Chevrolet brand could sell. A whole shift was added for GTO then later G8. I am pretty sure that even with the slow down in global sales the plant doesn't have the capacity to build 70-100k vehicles for Chevrolet.

 

They wouldn't need to sell 70-100K. If they sold the G8's 35K/year target without a lot of incentives that would be good enough.

 

To me, I don't think Chevrolet has had a flagship sedan since the Caprice left in 1996. And in doing so has left a huge whole in the lineup. Impala is more of a "cheaper" sedan and has never had the content of what Caprice had. By comparision think of Toyota Camry and Avalon.
I'd love to see the Mid-East Caprice come here. A perfect example of a modern mid-lux large sedan.

 

An LS3 version of this vehicle would be high on my list.

 

 

If they simply added the new, rear-drive "whatever" sedan, that is, not use it to replace Impala, then I would guess quantities around 35-50,000 per year would be sufficient. This would be even better if/when the current Impala is replaced with Epsilon II version. That's my thoughts, anyway.

 

I still dont know why Caprice is not used??

Its known as a big RWD sedan to many still..

 

Like some have said, they would like it to be a caprice. I am ok with that too. It just can't be an Impala.

 

I thought that the "next Impala" would be based off of Alpha. But plans change daily. Who knows.