According to autoweek.com "GM has said the production plan for the Solstice is 100,000 units, 20,000 over five years. The car will be built in GM's Wilmington, Del. plant. "- http://autoweek.com/cat_content.mv?p..._code=06505324

They stated that the hydroformed chassis actually get too expensive if production increases over 20,000 units a year.

Does this mean the Nomad, Solstice coupe, and etc are all on hold as long as demand for Solstice convert and Curve coupe are strong?

Are they planning on killing off the Solstice convert after 5 years?

 

Maybe they are limiting production to 20k units of the Solstice so GM can build other models at that plant in similar numbers (ex. Nomad, Curve). What is the normal unit production for that plant? What else is built at that plant right now, if any?

 

The Saturn L-Series is currently being built at the Wilmington plant until the switch to the 2006 Solstice and Curve. Their were a total of 64,957 L-series built their in 2003 and 81,172 in 2002 but the L-Series has sold very poorly so I assume that the Wilmington could have buit at least 150,000+ car if demand warranted it.

I wonder if their is a Saturn Labor Union contract that requires a Saturn to be built in Wilmington plant and this might explain why GM is building the Saturn Curve along side the Solstice.

 

Keep production low, make the car more collectible.

 

So the Curve is more than just a concept, and is being moved towards being a production vehicle?

 

A Saturn derivative will be built on Kappa. The curve showcar is NOT the production model.

 

The Wilmington plant's capacity is in the 200,000-250,000 range. The possiblities on the space frame are endless. (hopefully at least one mid-engine out of this, the tranny is in the right place for it).

 

I was driving home for X-mas and listening to the news station in Philly. They were interviewing a Union rep I think and mentioned the Willmington plant. He said that GM had promised the Solstice and future derivatives there....INCLUDING A CHEVY.


Wonder why the frame rails get more expensive if they manufacture more...

 

I think it's a great idea.

Keep supply low and demand high. They'll sell every one they build.

I feel one of the reasons the Fiero died was because the market was innundated with them. In '84 and '85, those cars were everywhere. The novelty wore off, sales nosedived, and the car was axed. There were other reasons, also. But the numbers built was a big factor.

Every niche car needs to keep their production numbers low.

 

Yeah...there was the fire thing too. That didn't help.

When I mention Fiero to someone I usually get "You mean the car that caught fire?"

 

Since I believe Kappa was designed from the get-go as the lower-volume, low-cost niche platform for many divisions this shouldn't come as a big surprise. I think it's good. Solstice may only get 20,000 units a year but if the Nomad and Curve are also done on Kappa you're looking at 3 times as many stylish, niche cars....and it keeps demand and "coolness" high for all three high. I much prefer this strategy to the pump-out-as-many-as-you-can way the PT Cruiser went.

 

Man GM can always find a way to screw up a good thing. After hearing the Solstice was good to go I was so happy. Now I hear this all I can say is WTF. They are in the buisness of selling cars yet limit the production. How can making less = cheeper?!?!?! I see the point if they are making a few different style cars on the same platform but dont see the reason why they cant make as many as possible.

As always if its low production and desireable they will be up up and away on the sticker price. The Mustang is looking better and better GM.

 

So will the Saturn look like the VX Lightning?

 

yeah, except people are not going to be put on a waiting list and wait 2 years to get their Solctice. Pontiac isn't Ferrari, they can't afford to "keep it collectible". They need to sell cars. So what they need to do is sell as many of them as the market demands for as long as the market demands, because otherwise what's going to happen is GM will sell out their 20k of Solctices for 2 years and the sales will still nosedive after if sales are to be novelty based. the reason for this is because those who wanted one and were patient enough to wait around will have gotten their Solctice in the first 2 years.

my hunch is Solctice isn't going to be novelty material, but it is in just as fickle a segment. its a sports car and sports cars are not a highly repeat buyer segment like mid-sized sedans or something. so by default sales will slope down after the first couple of years.

so my point is, GM should be making as many of them as they can sell for as long as there is demand, because you can't "roll over" demand from year to year. its either there, or it isn't. and once it begines to wane GM will need to do something else to the car to re-invigorate it.

 

Well... they sell about 20,000 miatas a year, so GM doesn't seem too far off the mark. Besides, better to have them sell better than expectations than overstate the business case and end up with a "failure" *cough* 4th gen *cough*