http://www.autoblog.com/2007/03/22/k...atform-coming/

http://jalopnik.com/cars/news/franke...eta-246311.php

Well it seems Winding Road has it figured out. The next G6 will be RWD?

 

"Winding Road" and "credible" aren't even in the same dictionary.

 

Wouldn't surprise me if their "source" was this board, actually. I know they've "sourced" stuff off of Allpar in the past.

 

I thought Alpha was suppose to be for Cadillac only?

 

aren't the g6, malibu, and aura supposed to be on the same platform? If so isn't it FWD already?

 

They are currently on Epsilon, but Lutz has wanted Pontiac to go all RWD. Alpha was a brainchild that first saw some light in the Holden Torana concept car. It was smaller then a Commodore, more like a 3 series then a 5 series in size. This has major advantages since Caddy can now have a TRUE 3 series fighter while CTS grows.
This also gives Pontiac a great platform to make several cars, and some on here have even possibly linked the idea that the 6th gen Camaro COULD be spawned off a version of this chassis down the line.
The loss of G6 would be picked up by the intro of LaX to the line up as Wbody is phased out. There has been talk of "Alpha" for at least a year and a half, but it was dubbed "Beta" by a lot of internet sites.
Alpha could be built in Willmington along side Kappa, using parts from there and parts from Zeta.

 

It would be an interesting ride, and as we've been saying, would give Pontiac a reason to exist along side Saturn (that still feels odd to write).

It would also be nice to see G6 finally live up to what we thought it would be all those years ago, when we read about AWD and souped up V6's only to get a slightly less plasticky Grand Am.

 

Nope.

Holden, Pontiac, & Opel (with the possibility of Saturn).

Cadillac may or may not get involved.

This will also likely be the jumpoff point of the 6th gen Camaro in 8-10 years from now.

 

Alpha based G6 would be awesome.

 

That will be odd, and something that I see conflicting in the future...

You have Holden and Pontiac that want to make some cars off of it.
And so does Opel...so when Opel gets it to replace, lets say teh Vectra or whatever it will be called. So, will Saturn get this RWD as well, and then diluting the uniqueness of Pontiac?

 

Would this Alpha be AWD compatible?

If they can keep the price down I think that will make it easier for people to go from their current FWD models to Zeta models as apposed to imports...

It would also allow them some more of that razor thin seperation they like if Saturn and or Saab were AWD and Pontiac was RWD.

 

One of the main points making the case for the Alpha is European sales. The Zeta is too large to be any type of volume player there (or just about anyplace else outside of North America, Australia, and the Middle East). Even Australia is turning away from "large" cars (like the Commodore) towards "medium" sized ones (like the G6 and the Malibu), and long term trends also point to that here in the US.

Wouldn't worry about Pontiac losing any uniqueness. Pontiac is emphasizing performance, Saturn is emphasizing it's Euro-connection by being Opel-USA. There's enough there to serve a small RWD sedan or coupe in 2 very different flavors.