Not true AT ALL.

 

Was just about to post this myself!

Zeta is going to spawn many exciting....very exciting models for the U.S. market.

 

What I meant to say is that Zeta 2 is in no way watered down compared to Zeta.

 

Like Charlie & Jason said.... it's hardly going to be watered down.

It's going to still be a highly modular (and adaptable) chassis, and still have a pretty impressive suspension. It's just going to be more cost effective for GM to produce, and more adaptive to things here in North America (where just about everything is sourced out, unlike in Australia).

 

If you have watched the Holden doco I posted up a while ago they show how Holden operates. For e.g. Holden construct the doors in the factory then just bolt them onto the car. Same for the dash. It is assembled in the factory then installed into the car. Same for the front section of the car. It is assembled in the factory then bolted to the car.

As guionM has pointed out the US factories don't work this way.

 

aaahhhhh!!! Thanks....never quite figured out in the past what it meant when the original Zeta was undoable in NA. This explains it much better.

 

Just out of curiousity, wouldn't that make the car cheaper to build?

 

I imagine in smaller numbers it would be. However, when you're going to be selling as many copies of the chassis as GMNA is, my guess is that it'd take more space than what's available at Oshawa.

Just an (uneducated) guess.

 

Wow I like it

 

Not here. Not anymore.

Why?

There would have to be extra workers hired to make these things. These workers would be paid the same as workers on assembly lines, would have identical retirement benefits, and medical coverage.

In other countries.... say Australia, for instance.... there is a national health care system, so there isn't a burden on the company. There is also a National pension system (not quite as good as most European countries, but better than ourSocial Security... and unlike ours, it's fully funded as far into the future as can be seen).

Also, take in to account that unlike most other countries, Australia has a bit of a shortage of workers.

Holden (as well as Ford Australia) simply hires workers it needs, & pay the going wage. Here, it's cheaper to go to a private company with specs and a negotiated price, have them do the design and engineering work, and either have them or another company assemble the parts. The pressure is now on the private company, not the automaker, to keep cost down. All the ways you are thinking of are all the ways they are probally using to keep things cheap.


The original Zeta was engineered by Holden with Holden systems in mind. GM would have had to outsource alot of those systems, and the companies that GM outsourced to would have to essentially re-engineer these items, and that's what started driving Zeta's costs into the stratosphere. Much like crYnOid indicated, all the modular systems for Holden are done at the plant. That wouldn't be the case here. So instead of re-engineering the wheel, GM-NA is creating a Zeta system that's friendly with how US automakers do business.

Where the big problem is going to come is in the next edition of Zeta. GM currently plans to have a standard RWD structure early next decade that will replace what is being done in Australia. The problem is Australia doesn't have anywhere near the subcontractor base that American makers enjoy here, so again, that's going to create problems unless sub assemblies are exported from here. That's not going to fly with Australia's unions and manufacturers.