I have been doing alot of reading lately, and after attending LAIAS I have come up with some questions.

The new small RWD platform people have been discussing. It will be targeted for Pontiac and Holden. Will/Could there also be a Cadillac? The 3 series competitor we have been asking about?

I already know this will be a big no, but I thought I would ask this anyway. Because there is a RWD and AWD 3 series, is there any possibility for AWD in this new platform?

If this platform is supposed to be full of 4 cylinders, will the Cadillac get a V6? Has GM explored a small V8? I think the small V8 could fit better in Cadillac's lineup, but then again if the 3.6L can do the job... I just wonder what people will think when you can get a car like the Aura with the same 3.6 that you can get in a sport CTS.

I think my biggest question here is......WHERE IS SAAB?

They had the 9-7x, 9-2x, 9-3 aero, 9-5 aero, and AeroX present. When will we see any redesigns? There is virtually no talk ANYWHERE about Saab, have we forgot? do we not care?

I have to be honest, at one point, I thought Saab could still fit in with GM, but now I am not so sure. Now that Saturn is placed higher in the market, and their supposed "import fighter," where does Saab actually fit?

There is one dealership within 2 hours of me(the only, I should say), and they move NO product, and generally will try to NOT sell a Saab. They have nothing but problems with them, and have trouble getting parts. If Saab is such a significant part of GM(as stated by people when Jerome York was on GM's board and wanted to cut Saab) why are parts hard to get ahold of? Maybe they aren't, but the people I spoke to were pretty straight up about it.

Major problem that GM has had, is obviously product overlap. How can they possibly make Saab a viable brand without causing overlap with the likes of Pontiac and Cadillac? I have read of people that think Saab should be an overseas only brand. Would this be a bad thing?

I also want to post something about Cadillac and the second round of their renaissance. But I don't think it is quite necessary yet, until we see the new CTS roll out, and we can legitimately call Cadillac a contender, in every faucet from design, to build quality and performance. (I know we will, just don't want to get ahead of myself here)

I hope I can get answers to some of these questions, because alot of times I have a tendency to ask questions that frankly nobody cares about. Sorry

 

The 9-5 will be the first Epsilon II car. And the 9-3 will likely move over to the new global compact RWD structure that Europe/Daewoo is developing. The 9-4x will be shown this year, it is a Epsilon/Theta hybrid chassis crossover (Caddy will also get the BRX for Europe on this chassis.) The next 9-5 is supposed to be a sedan/wagon version of the AeroX concept. Though I doubt the canopy top will even be considered for production.

SAABs main market is Europe they account for something like 40K sales in the US per year but have a total global volume higher than Caddy, if I recall correctly. SAAB also, for better or worse, is considered a premium European brand and will continue, in the European market, to be thought of as on Caddy level.

I personally think SAAB could be pulled out of the US and sold only in Europe with the dealers getting Saturn dealerships within the next couple of years without to much complaining. I think GM would on the whole be better off.

 

Cadillac will most definitely be part of this program. As far as powertrains, the focus is to package this architecture around 4 cylinders. Things may change later, but that's what's happening now.

Forget the V8 on this one, however.

 

Saab has never been big in the USA. Why now do they have to have a full product line. GM needs to concentrate on making Saab good in Europe. I'd like to see Saab have there own platform and make many cars off it. Just like Cadillac and Holden do.

 

I am not hung up on V8 at all. I think the ecotec is extremely capable. But I hope atleast a V6 can make it into the Caddy version.

I was actually unaware there was a rwd platform being developed over there. Interesting!

I am confused why they would dump any resources into Saab here in the U.S. when they have a brand in Buick that has 3 models, one of which in the lacrosse I think is a great car, had it made its debut in 1997.

 

Sorry, I had my wires crossed I meant FWD.

 

I figured you meant FWD. Were you saying on top of EPII and "gamma" I believe the other small new one is?

 

Well, Volvo (Ford) sells ~140K cars a year in the US. Audi sells ~80K (and you could probably add Passat and Tourag in that category as well). And BMW of course sells something like 250K/year here.

Saab is really under-performing that whole lot, so there's lots of potential there to double or even triple sales if GM ever gets the product together. I'm also not convinced that you could replace a Euro marquee with Saturn successfully. At least not now.

 

I don't think to many people would compare SAAB and Volvo or many of those other European manufactures and expect SAAB to compete on volume, given they have 3 vehicles (9-3, 9-5, 9-7x). And the 9-7x is a rebodied Bravada so that doesn't really could does it? The 9-3 and 9-5 can't possibly compete with the S40, S60, S70, XC90, and all the other models that Volvo sells in the US. And truth be told it just won't. GM will keep SAAB a limited line and not a full line manufacture and therefore could not possibly have the volume of any of those other brands. That being said, in Europe those 2 models do pretty darn well for their markets. If SAAB got a FWD 1 series competitor, a redone 9-3, the upcoming 9-4, and the EPII LWB 9-5 they could do very well for themselves in the US. Wagon varients of all the cars and the 9-4 car based crossover could all do very well in both the US and Europe. That is the maximum number of cars that they need. Otherwise they compete with GMs other brands. And the 1 series sized car should be a Europe only because cars that small in the US don't sell that well.

 

Yeah -- that's basically my point, they could easily double sales if these cars are executed well.

And my gut instinct is that customer overlap with Saab/Cadillac/Saturn is actually a lot less than GM's traditional brands -- there's certain customers that are realistically only going to buy a Euro nameplate.