First, I want to again reinterate GM's car approval process (in a crash course kind of way).

General Motors doesn't "approve" a new car till it's actually time to start the money flowing to produce the car. "Approving" a car at GM today has nothing to do with the planning, development, or even prototype testing of the car.

When a car goes up for approval (which can take a couple of days, or even longer), every single little item is gone over. This includes factory layout, number of employees needed & where they will come from, the cost breakdown of every single component in the car, where these pieces will come from (in house, private vendor, another division or department), and a whole host of other mind numbing items that you would never ever consider in your wildest nightmares. In short, when a car goes up for approval, every single bolt in both the car & the plant it's going to be made in is accounted for & priced, competitively bidded on, and justified by engineering that it's needed.

Also included it the presentation is market analysis, data from tests of the vehicle & it's parts, and info from it's styling clinics.

Approval for a particular car IS NOT a 1 or 2 or even a 3 man show. It goes before a board that includes a wide range of people who have various titles. Even if CEO Rick Wagoner wanted a particular car, he is powerless to make it happen unless it passes the General Motors Product Planning Board (which he & Bob Lutz are members of).

But cars do clear hurdles. GM can start a car today for 2008, and it will go through "stages" of approval. It can be approved to move from planning to testing parts on a mule (typically an existing car). It can be approved to move from a styling mock-up to a styling clinic. a basic prototype can be approved, then a more detailed prototype. Studies can be approved to find and design a plant layout to produce the car. Even a concept testing various themes can be approved (sometimes right around the same time final clinics are held). All this before the car is actually "approved".

Although the board can approve or disapprove a car, the board can also send a car back for more work. Perhaps it needs more work on design, or the costs of it's parts don't add up, or perhaps the board decides to put something on hold until a more suitable chassis comes on line for convienence or to save costs.

Certain vehicles are certain to pass the board as soon as all concerns are addressed, especially new versions of existing models known to have a strong market, strong support from key members of the board or heavy lobbying from dealers. At this level, it's diplomatic skills, along with a really phoneminal amount of homework, & an ability to counter any hostile arguement with facts & figures rather than emotion. The board's job is to poke holes in your case, quite simply.



J. D. Powers has a solid reputation within the auto industry. If there is any outside source that has information on future automotive models planned in the future, they are the ones that have it... if you want to share it, unless you know someone in J.D.Powers, or know someone or a business who can buy a copy, it cost's about $50 grand to get your own (it also includes about every bit of statistical information on the auto industry you could ever envision).

You've heard me many time say that to get good information, don't go to the big guys (Bob Lutz's leaks, notwithstanding). Creating a new vehicle isn't a solo act, it involves hundreds of people from the planners themselves, to the vendors & contractors, to the guys who actually put together the factory & the unions who will be working in them. This is all before the vehicle's "approved". This is a great pool to check info, weed out the bad, and find out which info has some meat to it.

The reason I'm saying this is that I've been getting quite a few bits of info since I wrote the "Future Vehicles" article for PHR all told in confidence. Most all of that info, I can't mention till it shows up somewhere else 1st.

Although I still won't go into details about certain things such as the actual chassis & suspension layout or how sigma-lite will be cheaper to manufacture than the CTS's sigma (it's actually pretty ingenious..... no, don't e-mail me asking how, that's someone else's baby), I can post here what J.D. Powers is predicting.

According to them , the Chevrolet Camaro will return in model year 2007, along side the new Pontiac GTO and the Buick Regal coupe.

Other news I think you will be intrested in, there will be yet another "Solstice" type car shown at this years NAIAS, likely to be from Saturn. There will also be at least 2 "Sigma-lite/Opel Insigna" based RWD cars shown there as well. I don't have explicit information as to which divisions these car will be under. I can take a guess (Chevy & Pontiac), but that's is just a guess.

In case you haven't heard, Solstice is going to be built at Wilmington Delaware (unless a problem comes up), and the Camaro/GTO/Regal will be produced in Oshawa, Ontario in Canada (again, unless a problem comes up).

BTW: these cars won't be 2 door versions of sedans the way the GTO/Monaro is.

Remember, you heard it here 1st. That means Motor Trend Magazine should be along any minute to read & take this information, publish it, and say they found it themselves.

PS: To the sources: Thanks!

*re-edited*

 

What will differentiate Camaro from GTO/Regal.......the Chevy cross bar?

 

A few questions......

Is it true that the Camaro will return to a 3 box design? IOW w/ a trunk instead of a hatch-back?

Are T-tops still an engineering problem for this design?

Is AWD still being considered?

Is the seat height near "sedan height" due to firewall / bulkhead dimensions?

Just wondering if these questions are being discused.......

 

Man, C6 body shots and it's a slow week??

 

Sounds like good news, hopefully no problems. So does this mean a 2 door regal coupe as well maybe a la grand national. That would be pretty neat even in the same vein. Sounds like 3 good class of cars all off the same platform, camaro, gto, regal. Cool

 

1. Does this mean that the Saturn L-series (currently built in Wilmington) is going to die? What line will the "sigma-lite" cars replace in Oshawa. Currently, Oshawa produces FWD W-bodies and full sized trucks. Does this indicate a shift to RWD for any of the current W-body sedans?

2. Isn't it a bit late to bring back the Regal name on a coupe? I would think that a version of the "Grand National" moniker would have a lot more market appeal. What are the chances of a GS, GNX or Wildcat moniker?

 

I know, and the ZL1 news.

I'd like to know if the Camaro/GTO/Regal Coupe will all be the same car just with diffferent sheet metal/interiors? or will the Camaro be a different size than the GTO?

I could see the GTO/Regal being stretched 2-3 inches more than the Camaro to provide a bigger back seet. THe Regal coupe would also be a perfect fit for a the suiside door quad coupe in this line up.

 

Good news!!

 

Buick is staying away from the Hot Rod crowd like the plague.

Buick is going towards smooth, powerful highway cruisers with alot of comfort items. The Buick Regal (names can be changed at the last minute) will fill in a void that will put it against a Infinity G35 coupe. "Grand National" (a name associated with NASCAR) won't be comming back simply because that's not where Buick is, or has been since the 80s. They are doing very well.

Wildcat may show up on something in the future, but it will more likely be a "halo" car.

Names can be changed at the last minute, so that's not set in concrete. But there is a reason why the Regal name was dropped from it's replacement 4 door sedan.

 

Thank you, as always, Guion

 

The Wilmington Delaware plant is extremely underutilized, and the Saturn L is going to be replaced by a version of the Malibu soon. There's a good chance the L will be moved (the plant was initially one of the plants to be closed over the next couple of years).

Oshawa plant #1 Produces the Monte Carlo and Impala Oshawa plant #2 Produces the Buick Century & the new Grand Prix

Monte Carlo, Impala, & Century are "W" chassis (scheduled to be replaced over the next year or so. Grand Prix is the new "Mid-Lux" chassis (actually an updated "W").

BTW, some other tidbits about Oshawa: it won a Gold Quality award from J.D. Powers in 2002 for the quality of the cars assembled there.

 

Thanks GuionM. That is some good news. This has been a very good week news now.

 

So... what was the deal with the plant in Michigam being studied for a RWD platform for 2006/7? Is that not happening now, or are there other RWD products that will go there?

 

note to self: Start saving your pennies... NOW!

Thanks gui!

 

Now that's a really good question!

I'll find out as much as I can, and get back to ya.