With all the talk of new car models coming out, I think a worthy discussion is in order on its life span.

GM is typically going to design a world class car, take 3 years to bring it to market, then build the EXACT same car for about 7-10years. During that 10-13 year life span, it will go from world class to class clown. Why??? and is this being addressed in our new GM ?

 

if ure wondering why they go down in their class over the years, its because other car makers would have produced newer more technological cars during its life time. Then GM does it back to them with the next gen.

If ur wondering why they dont change cars over the years... they often do. Granted its not a whole new car every year, but they add more options or give it a facelift every few years and maybe even new engines.

 

I think they are starting to bring the life cycles of cars down at GM...

Grand Prix went 7 yrs... 97-03, Same with Malibu... Grand Am went 6 (99-04)...

I agree, though, they need to chop down these vehicles sooner, or they do become 'dinosaurs', but it looks like they are making progress here.

One thing, though, GM MUST start with more frequent, or in some cases, ANY, mid-model freshenings... Grand Prix, Malibu, and Grand Am, all mentioned above, did run their complete life cycles virtually unchanged visually....

IMO, If a car has a typical 8 year life span, if should:

Debut. 2 years later, a mild freshening, 4 year into the life, a major facelift, 2 additional years, another mild freshening, then 2 years later, an all new replacement...

I'd even REALLY like to see the return of the days where some little details changed from year to year where you could tell a 97 Corvette from a 2004 Corvette aside from the wheels (or even a 200 Corvette from a 2004 Corvette WITH the wheels ), but sadly, those days are gone. Maybe things will get better though.

 

I don't know what's different today, but in the 50's and 60's the cars changed every year.

 

I agree 100% here. Visuall changes are a must, even if its just little details i.e. grills/ tail lights.

 

I'd also like to see a new interior go in after 3-4 years. '05 TrailBlazer should get a new interior and the Mustang should have got one in 1999.

 

It was once said on here that GM has a tendency to run models into oblivion with virtually no updates other than minor cosmetics and convenient powerplant "upgrades". They are then left with a vehicle that is for all intents and purposes obsolete in the market and change the name for the new model so as not to be plagued with the stigmas of the old model.

Cavalier ring a bell anyone??

I think C5 is a great example of what they should do. They designed a world class car that stayed fresh throughout the course of its life and then freshened it significantly enough to call it a redesign when they could have easily ridden the car for another 5 years in its current form.

 

I disagree, the Vette went from 1997-2004 with NO exterior or interior updates/changes. I don't count the Z06 as freshening, although that helped keep the C5 Vette spot light. The base model visually didn't change at all (not that that was a bad thing b/c the C5 was gorgeous) the only upgrade to the engine was the 5hp bump in 2001.

 

I agree totally.

Take the C4 vs the C5 visually as far as visual changes go:

84: New.
85: New L98 motor, can tell from an 84 by the engine based "TUNED PORT INJECTION" as opposed to "CROSS FIRE INJECTION"
86: Center of wheels went from Black to natural. Addition of CHMSL.
87: Center of wheels went from nautural to grey.
88: New Wheels.
89: 17" wheels became standard, making the 88's standard 16"ers a one year wheel.
90: Wheels without caps, deeper look. New interior.
91: New front fasica, rear fascia, side gills, body color side moulding, new logo, new wheels.
92: LT1. New exhaust tips.
93: Wheels are polished.
94: Interior freshening.
95: New side gills.
96: Black painted area between side marker lights and turn signal lights/fog lights become body color.


C5:

97: New Car.
00: New wheels, polished exhaust tips.
03: Silver toned emblems for anniversary. (one year only)

That's it.

Now, the changes on the C4 were minor, but at least they were there, and you can tell ANY year from ANY year stock. The lone exception is an 88 with the optional 17" wheels vs an 89, but if it's a manual, you can tell by the 4+3 vs the M6...

Anyway, they can do more, and they SHOULD do more... ESPECIALLY on cars like Corvette and Camaro, where style is everything.

 

I'm a firm believer in a 5 year product cycle.

It's not my money, but I think you get to charge more while the product is new, and keep improving at the same time.

 

Strictly speaking Chevrolet here (although all GM brands acted accordingly); well into the seventies there were major changes to the bodies of Chevelles and Impalas that occurred every two years with different front and rear end treatments every year. This seemed to change as models were earmarked for retirement, only to be given extended lives. 77 era Impala/Caprice were to be discontinued in the very early eighties if I rememeber correctly - but sales dictated that they lived on. Same can be said for the post 80 freshening of Monte Carlo another name that was to go away a couple of years before it actually did. Front wheel drive models were to take over but... the old guard held on until the 91 restyle of the Caprice, then sales tanked, never to recover... not that GM wasn't making any profit on these cars.

Such changes (I believe) were originally driven by the notion of built in obsolesence as a means of growing new car sales from year to year. The costs associated with such wholesale freshening across the board have since skyrocketed and now we have very little freshening up between major changes. If I recall when GM switched to SMC and RIM body parts - Camaro/Fbird and Saturn one of the advantages was supposed to be ease of making changes to the cars styling - we all know that this never really materialized.

In the end a four year cycle is probably long enough. Anything afterwards and your product gets dated quickly, especially since the Japanese imports (ie. Honda and Toyota) are on a four year cycle and are constantly pushing newer, better product.

 

I remember that being said quite often when the 93 Camaro debuted...

I did never materialize, and what a mistake it was.

At least Saturn used it to a degree, and did update the low end car's styling somewhat frequently when it was around.

 

On a related note, the Ford FiveHundred isn't even out yet, and Ford is already working on a restyling for it!

-J.Mays

http://autoweek.com/cat_content.mv?p..._code=07241485

 

well, it looked better as Passat. Ford took the top half of that and added it to a taurus body... There is your 500. Big friggin deal.

 

500 is on a Volvo platform.