The stated 4 core brands for GM are Chevy, Cadillac, Buick, GMC. All other spending on product development for the other brands will be suspended.

Buick, will essentially share it's design language and products with Opel.
GMC, will sell rebadged Chevys.

So it seems that essentially ALL spending on new product development goes to Chevy and Cadillac.


What does that mean to us?

Chevy and Caddy will share Alpha.

Caddy gets it's CTS coupe and wagon, Lambda Escalade and Theta-esque SRX.

Chevy really will need a polished Gamma product, and hopefully the Cruze won't disappoint. And I wouldn't let Malibu get too old either. And I figure Volt will proliferate to other brands. And sooner or later next gen developement of the Corvette will have to begin.

 

So, will Cadillac now begin to progress again with uniqie-to-Cadillac products (Like the Sigma platform was doing) and not rebadges of Corporate platforms like the upcoming VUE based SRX?

If not, won't that make Cadillac essentially "rebadged Chevys" as well?

 

As far as the SRX, Cadillac will use the "Theta Premium" architecture. What makes it "premium" compared to other Thetas, like the Vue? I have no idea.

Sigma carries on as an exclusive for Cadillac. But Chevy gets Alpha as part of the business plan to reduce costs for the program.

One wild card here is, who will replace Taylor as Cadillac's general manager, and what will his vision be for the brand.

 

I have no idea what makes a Toyota into a Lexus or a Volkswagen into an Audi... but the formula works. Chevy could easily be a donor vehicle for Cadillac and the two entities could easily retain the expected values/qualities.

 

Why are both Chevy and GMC trucks needed?

 

I guess my line of thinking is that Cadillac is and/or should be on par with BMW and M-B rather than Audi or Lexus...

It looked like they were taking gioant strides toward that, but some of their future product has me potentially concerned.

 

I guess the short answer is that GMC makes a profit, for very little additional investment. It also brings in buyers who wouldn't necessarilly buy a Chevy.

 

I think in certain cases, it can be done - if done carefully.

 

What lower brand is BMW sharing platforms with?

 

BMW only has 2 architectures. One for the the 1/3 series and one for the 5/6/7 series. The crossovers use these too. They are shared with no other brand.

Of course BMW's other brand is Mini.

 

My thoughts exactly

 

 

So I guess that means Pontiac and Saturn are toast??

 

I think that GM has demonstrated it has absolutely no discipline to do this correctly.

 

Hopefully that first Chevy Alpha is a Camaro.

I have no problem with platform sharing with Chevy, but I don't like that Caddy is getting FWD platforms. Using Theta Premium and Lambda mean the Cadillacs need to be AWD only.