Josh: Do a search on Carl Peter Forster, contact any sources you have, and then get back to me.

I'm willing to bet that you won't like what you find.

 

well, I guess if anything this may have a positive net effect on G8 sales, though with a name like G8 and outdated Ponitac nose taped onto a nondescript albeit handsome shape....the proposed Impala had a better shot.

The elephant in the room is the FLEET % of the current Impala. Everyone calls it volume leader this, best-selling that....Camry has a fleet percentage of 15%, Accord has only 3% of its overall sales to fleets, Impala has a whopping 57%.........that means only ~120k of its sales are in the hands of the buying public. that's less than a third to what the volume leaders at Honda and Toyota are doing.

 

What about the police/taxi market? GM seems to have pretty much abandoned this market to Ford and Dodge. I would think that an economical rear-drive, full-size sedan could capture a majority of this market, especially with relatively cheap, powerful LSx powertrains. The G8 is, styling- and marketing-wize, not a volume model. There is a huge market that will not be attracted to the G8 as they are selling it. Chevy could sell alot of these VE's styled more conservatively and appointed more classically (re; Holden Commadore or Statesman). No, they won't sell 300,000 a year, but I think they could sell 150,000 profitably. And, FWIW, I drove a new Malibu. It's nice, but seemed quite a bit smaller than my wife's 06 Impala. I know it doesn't seem to be on paper, but sit in one and tell me it's big enough to take the place of a car the size of the current Impala. Sorry, don't think so.

Edit: As I suspected, just checked and Impala (as compared to new Malibu) has almost 3-inches more front shoulder room and almost 5-inches more rear shoulder room.

 

I thought that the Impala was too far along to be canceled now. I thought that the name game was the problem, not the car itself. The RWD impala will remain, while a FWD car is set to go for Impala due to its popularity?

As for Police, the NYC uses the Impala, as do a lot of local towns around me. Chargers I see for high speed pursuit cars on the parkway/turnpike, but the CV's still rule the roads.

 

Big Al,

The last I remember, Lutz said the Camaro was too far along, but the Impala was in danger.

 

Only a small step up from selling to Avis and Enterprise I would imagine. The fact that GM is now pushing the police Tahoe as a worthy pursuit vehicle tells me they haven't been serious about the law enforcement market in some time.

 

What happens when/if the new and larger Malibu takes 100,000 of Impalas sales?

Impala sales for 2007 will be about 310,000 while Malibu will be under 150,000. I could easily see those numbers switch come 2009 model year.

 

GM will realize that it ****ed up again...

 

Then you design an even larger FWD Impala.

Again, at the risk of being flogged, I don't think "large sedan" necessarily has to equate to RWD.

 

The whole purpose for the new bigger Malibu is to fill the current FWD Impalas spot. The W-Body Impala is on its last leg and will soon be replaced, I still hope with a RWD replacement. The Malibu was designed to take the place of the current Impala and should sell at Impalas current numbers or so GM hopes. I still think the new Malibu is a bit short on size, its long enough, but it seems a bit narrow, compared to other cars in its class. The new RWD Impala would move upmarket a bit with Avalon, 300, etc.

 

But 300HP + usually does. Could GMs new 400tq 2.9L diesel V6 even be used in a FWD car?

 

Well crap, I thought we were getting an American Impala once again... oh well...

 

Perhaps not the way things are headed (remember CAFE, gas prices and all that other stuff).

I'm just saying maybe GM isn't as stupid as we all kneejerked to think. The only desireable RWD family sedan that is reasonably priced next to FWD competition are the Chrysler LX cars. While they have been popular, they certainly aren't the type of product that has saved an "operationally bankrupt" Chrysler. Throw in the fact that you've already got a RWD Pontiac sedan coming.......

 

That's true, but a big chunk of that fleet business is "buy american" commercial/government not rental. GM needs to have a product in that market, or the sales will just go to Ford or Chrysler.

As for taxis, IMO the days of the Crown Vic are going away. NYC is moving to hybid Escapes or something, and here in San Francisco the most common cabs are old Camrys and Siennas.

Also, this means that Chevy and Pontiac will have unique products and not just rehashes of the same car, which is a great step forward for GM brand management.

 

It's pretty unlikely they could do it, just due to the transmission. Though they might be able to fit the 4T80 transmission in a bigger Impala, it still doesn't have the torque capacity to handle that 2.9L. I honestly think they'd need a serious intervention by the tranny and engine TCM/ECMs to handle such a configuration. That or go AWD or RWD. Though I don't know if the newer 6 speed FWD trannys can handle more torque than the 4T80.

You should see what all 325 ft-lbs of LS4 can do to a FWD car, let alone a 4T65-HD. It brought in a new definition of torque management.

Having lived in Europe for 3 years, and seen what GM and others can do there. I know they have the ability to do a RWD + Diesel engine that would be decent in mileage. Question is, can they make it cheap enough?