So back in 96 GM killed the B-body to build more SUV's in their texas plant. IS this right? Well gas is $2.60 a gallon and will go back over $3.00 a gallon again for a little while with Rita coming through. I am gonna guess the we will never see gas for under 2.00 ever again. The Large SUV boom is dieing. GM will soon intro the new 900 platform Which may or may not sell good at first and then sales will slide. My guess is that it will be half of what ever it peaked at before the gas crunch.

Doesn't this open up space at the facility that was once home to the RWD cars?

Will this effect the chances of a future large rwd car program?

 

First of all, gas is already over $3 a gallon here in California. (Can't figure that one out because we still haven't dug into our reserves after Katrina... ) Secondly, it won't matter one damn bit.

In the 1970s when gas prices skyrocketed, everyone rushed out to buy economy cars and sold their big American V8 gas guzzlers. But that was when we were only getting 8-10 mpg from our large V8 cars. With advances in automotive technology things have changed. The new 2006 Impala SS with a 303HP V8 and DisplacementOnDemand is supposed to get 28 mpg. That is a far cry from what we got in the 1970s both in terms of fuel efficiency and performance. Furthermore, europeans have been paying 2-3 times what we now pay for gas for a long time; yet BMW, Mercedes, etc still make V8 RWD sedans.

I think we will see some influx of "green" vehicles that are more environmentally friendly especially out west where all the tree huggers live. However, I don't see it as a deathblow to V8 American sedans, nor do I see the SUV market drying up any time soon.

 

Diesel...... It didnt go up much thru all this (katrina ect...) Its under 2 bucks a gallon in some places around me.

Hybrid..... The large SUV market should shrink, but not as much as some think.


Rita.... If Rita hits Galveston/Houston you will see another gas price hike for the time frame of about a week. The joke down here is that Rita has no beef with us Texans its coming for the refugees.... All jokes aside we are preparing for the worst down here.

 

Regardless of fuel prices, there will always be a market for large sedans. Police, taxi, and livery services all use them, and the 300 has proven that the market still exists outside of fleet sales. Lots of people need 5-6 seats, and a trunk that can hold a good bit of stuff. Not a lot of those people need that vehicle to be 2 feet off the ground, and capable of going off-road, and I think alot of those people are realizing that.

 

Malibu should be the 3/4 size fwd car for Chevy.
Impala needs to be a rwd Charger type car. Yes, the new Impala SS is nice, its very fast, it'll outrun my 96 ImpalaSS, but tell me it has the attitude and presence of the Charger and 96 Impy , nope, the fwd kills the image. The Impala has the image of a camry now, not an American muscle sedan.

 

....and the advatange of said scenario is........ Camry outsells everything else built.

I'm all for a nice Chevy muscle sedan. By all means. But you still need volume sales.

 

Point taken. But how many '96 Caprices and Impala SS sedans were sold? Compared to how many Camrys? The Impala will likely outsell the entire LX lineup (300/Magnum/Charger), as will the Accord, Camry, etc.

I do see your point, though. Making the Malibu the direct Accord/Camry competior (right now it more or less is, but the Impala is used to flank it) and making the Impy more like the Charger does have its appeal. BUT, they would likely lose a lot of volume on the Impala if they went that route, and they'd have to make up for it on the Malibu. The Impala (and the Lumina before it) has always been the competitor for the Camry and Accord, along with the Intrepid and Taurus. The Camry and Accord keep getting bigger (after the LH cars forced the Impala and Taurus to get bigger), and so does the Malibu. There would have to be a reshuffling of the volumes to do what you are saying. Would be cool if it could be pulled off. I think the Malibu would have to be made more premium in LT/LTZ trim to go after the highest level Camry and Accord. Supposedly the upcoming Malibu is doing just that. It will be interesting to see how that pans out. Perhaps if the volume is there, a rwd Impala could see the light of day down the road.

 

The Malibu without the chrome bar acutally looks really good. Its unfortunate that GM didn't realize that when it launched. The MAXX looks as good as any sub-$30,000 wagon on the market.

 

The sad part about this is, 2006 will mark 10 years since Chevy has had a RWD 4-door sedan. First we heard about importing Holdens as Chevy Caprices then that was axed, and for years now we've been hearing about development of a new RWD chassis. Then suddenly out of nowhere DCX pops out some impressive RWD cars. I wish GM could have done that, a few years ago.


On another subject, I think Pontiac needs a RWD performance/sports sedan, something with the performance levels of the CTS-V, but with a Pontiac price.

 

I would settle for a AWD side saddle V8 Impy and Monty. The Ford 500, Fusion, all Volvos ect. have AWD platforms. Why not GM?

I sat in a HHR the other day and was very impressed at the content you get for the money. It was a well put together car. It seemed like it should cost 5k more than it does. My only complaint.... Why did they put the window switches at the bottm. You sit to up-rite. its a awkward reach. Thats my only gripe. Everything else was sweet. My #2 choice for a cross-over. My number one is the Subaru Turbo Forester

 

I'd love to know what makes more total profit - Chrysler's LX platform, or the Impala SS (hell, toss in the rest of the W-cars while we're at it). Selling a lot of cars is nice, but making money on them is even better.

The full-size SUV craze was the result of manufacturers seeing an opportunity in the market and capitalizing on it. For all the complaints about how the Big 3 don't market their products well, it was actually a stroke of genius at the time. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have the same mindset right now, preferring to attack Honda and Toyota head-on instead of finding a potential opening in the market and exploiting it.

 

1. SUVs, Trucks, and Crossovers still command most of the new car market, so don't think it's dying just yet.

2. It wasn't till gas went over $2.50 that big rigs hit a speed bump.

3. If you can afford a $40,000 Tahoe, I seriously doubt you're going to change your lifestyle because it costs you an extra $5 to $10 per week to fill up your tank.

4. Don't count on Arlington Texas to ever make cars again in our lifetime.

 

I'm sure but which are you saying makes more money? The LX cars im assuming as its carrying DCX right now.

I don't see why the arguement is still being made a powerful RWD car can't be a volume car, one again the LX cars... True enough they revived the market and then largely filled it, but I think with the popularity of these cars the rwd/fwd markets will be more even. There is certainly room for more than one attractive money making sedan in that vein.

I mean LSS are the new SUVs anyway. :blah: makes me not want one...


No not really..

 

GuionM gas is still over $2.50 a gallon everywhere, so isn't that speed bump permant? Its gonna be over three dollars a gallon locallly in a day or two. I dont know how long its gonna sty that high but when it does retreat what is the new level gonna be? I am guessing 2.50 per gal until it goes up again next may.

I know that people who can afford a 40K SUV have a little money laying around but if they are driving a 2003 model the price of filling up has just about doubled since they bought the vehicle. $1.50 vs $2.50+

The media outlets have been talking about the sagging sales and droping resale valve of large SUV's. I think its down 10% over the same time last year. Anyone else think that Large SUV sales slide to 50% of the previous highs? I think there wll be a large move to the large car market. Is GM gonna miss the boat like they are on the sold out hybrid market?

BTW diesel is 2.79-2.85 here. I think I am gonna start the 6 cylinder duramax for the 1/2 truck suv market petition.

 

By Sunday/Monday you should see $5 a Gallon gas for a little while. Rita is supposed to knock out 1/4 of the US refinery capacity.

Im Borded up but staying. I'm inland a decent amount in North Houston.

BTW- Diesel in Houston has only gone up 20-30 cents. Its cheaper than regular around here.