They're starting to sound
like DaimlerChrysler's SMART division. Pontiac's on-again/off-again GTO is allegedly back on track for 2008,
and will likely be built on GM's Zeta platform alongside the 2008 Chevy Camaro, AutoWeek reports. The
announcement overturns the news that the GTO's successor had been cancelled due to GM's need to reorganize its
priorities.
“The reason we said it was canceled is because that way our people would put their pencils down,” AutoWeek quotes GM's design czar Bob Lutz as saying at the Geneva Motor Show. “In GM if you say something is deferred, then people keep working on it. We really needed to get that message through to everybody.”
Other vehicles on the Camaro's Zeta platform will be the successors to the Monte Carlo, the Impala, a new vehicle called the Buick Statesman, but not the Firebird, according to Lutz.
[Source: AutoWeek]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Finished.Law.School @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:05AM
Can someone translate what Lutz is trying to say? It sounds like bullshit to me but I may be misunderstanding him.
Is he just attempting to cover for another stupid GM decision?
distantbody @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:11AM
Buick Statesman? You mean a rebadge of the GM-Holden Statesman!?
Koba @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:26AM
AS long as they can keep those new models priced right (unlike Chrysler's cars), it should be no problem selling them. GM really needs to get back to what it does best, and a FWD V8 is not it.
Gardiner Westbound @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:30AM
“The reason we said it was canceled is because that way our people would put their pencils down,” AutoWeek quotes GM's design czar Bob Lutz as saying.
Sure, and Elvis is alive and well and living in Toledo.
Hank @ Mar 3rd 2006 7:52AM
What rear drive Chrysler isn't priced right? The 300? For price/competition it's a bargain.
Jason in Boston @ Mar 3rd 2006 8:17AM
Sounds like a fun competition to me: GTO, Camaro, Challenger, and Mustang. Ok, then let's have Toyota deliver a RWD V8 Celica, Honda a RWD V8 Prelude, Mitsubishi a RWD V8 Eclipse, Hyundai Triburon V8 RWD...and Nissan, Kia, Scion, Saturn, Caddy, Buick can all join in winning "The Pony Car - 21st Century" award. Ahhh..things that dreams are made of.
Koba @ Mar 3rd 2006 8:42AM
Uh, when the 300C starts around 33k, that's NOT priced right, not when I can get a Crown Vic for 21k (is the 300c 12k dollars better, I seriously doubt it). And, BTW a full size sedan just isn't right without a V8.
Billy Ray @ Mar 3rd 2006 8:59AM
And GREAT JOB, GM, having the GTO keep that GRAND AM look! Maybe Oprah can give some of these away on her next philanthropic mood-swing.
Drysdale @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:08AM
Why not bring back the most popular chevys ever built, the '55 bel aire sport coupe and the '57 bel aire hardtop. Maybe for the engine guys, the '57 widow maker 150 business coupe (no back seat, just a floor)
Barbara Lacy @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:09AM
Back in 1966 and 1967 I owned two GTO's. The 1966 model was the 389 with tripower, positraction rear end and 4speed on the floor. It was red with a white vinyl top. It was by far the fastest car I ever owned. It was also beautiful. That car is a classic now. I paid $2,700(plus or minus) for it. I also had a 1967 GTO with 400cu inch engine with dual carburators and a four speed. It was black and a convertible.
The GTO that they have brought out now is not close to a comparison of the beautiful muscle cars of the 1960's. Mustang finally got it right buy making the new Mustang look like a 67 or 68 Mustang...It is beautiful. I also owned a 1970 Dodge Challenger........now there is a great possibility they will make a new one that looks like the 1970.
The American car makers are going under because they are not designing cars the way the public wants them. All the cars look the same out there on the road.....I could name the year of a car and model when seeing them on the road. They were unique. Todays cars are just copies of the Japanese cars. Lets stop trying to follow the Japanesee style and bring back the American style only better...and keeping the price within the range of the Japanese cars we would sell a lot more American cars. Bring back the 1957 Chevy convertible, or the Corvette mucsle car.....the Barricuda, Camarro, Chevelle, Impala, Monte Carlo....only retro them to their original popular models...Make US cars in the USA and show the world that we still can make interesting and unique cars...where is American Pride?
Puff Chippy @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:16AM
You can buy a Charger R/T today for less than $29k. I know because I did. The Crown Vic Sport stickers for over $31k, not that it's even in the same league or anything. Name another rear drive 350hp sedan that costs less.
FM @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:40AM
“The reason we said it was canceled is because that way our people would put their pencils down”
Huh? What it needs it a redesign if the goat wants to live.
Michael Karesh @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:42AM
If he's saying 2008, then Edmunds really was full of it when it reported 2010, and the Camaro lovers frothing at the mouth were actually right.
As for Crown Vic vs. 300, you can quickly generate a thorough price comaparison here:
http://www.truedelta.com/input.php
But they're really not in the same class. Ask any cop who trades his Crown Vic for a Charger. Chrysler's going to OWN that market within a year or two.
Michael Karesh @ Mar 3rd 2006 9:50AM
I spoke too soon. Should have read the source article first. They mean fall of 2008 as a 2009.
bigMIKE @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:08AM
I'm sorry, but did Lutz just confirm the Camaro is being built? Didn't actually see a quote from him on this? Did I miss some news?
dude @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:24AM
Yet another great move by Grand Mess. Gee let's call the Pontaic twin of the Chevrolet Camaro a GTO which has absolutely no fan following instead of a Firebird which has a large fan following. Sounds like another brilliant idea by GM.
David @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:30AM
I don't understand why GM is even keeping Pontiac around. The current GTO looks nothing like a performance car so cut your losses. GM started pushing the Chevy SS vehicles again a while back, and doesn't SS stand for super sport? Pontiac is trying to be the sporty/performance division...why? And why in the world would GM bring the Solstice, just to also introduce the same car in a...Saturn? How many would care if there was no Pontiac? Just get rid of it and move on.
Bryan R @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:30AM
Wait, does that last line mean that the Firebird isn't going to be built, or just that it won't be built on the Zeta platform? Regardless, awesome news, maybe with the new GTO they will manage to keep all of the performance and give it a better looking form.
NEBTEK2002 @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:53AM
As a Buick fan disheartened by the make's loss of exclusivity, I hope that the new Buick Statesman gets not only a non-Nash name, but a Buick-exclusive engine, as well.
The present "modular" inline GM, currently available as a 2.8l 4, a 3.5l 5, and a 4.2l 6, could surely be used as the basis for a 5.6 l return of the Buick straight 8.
Just as Buick was for many years the only volume producer of overhead valve straight 8s (even the great Packards were flatheads),Buick today could have the only production DOHC, variable-valve-timing-equipped inline 8 in the world.
Talk about exclusivity!
In honor of Buick's being the first car to have a 2-door hardtop ( a model year ahead of the Caddy Coupe de Ville) lets have a new Riviera true 2-door hardtop based on this new chassis, as well as the sedan.
RossL @ Mar 3rd 2006 10:54AM
>> “The reason we said it was canceled is because that way our people would put their pencils down. In GM if you say something is deferred, then people keep working on it. We really needed to get that message through to everybody.”
What Lutz is really saying, of course, is that no-one's really in control. The huge bureaucracy keeps lumbering on ... hundreds of little fiefdoms heading off in different directions ... senior management needing to play silly semantic games to try to exert some measure of authority, however feeble.
Who was it a few years ago who said that the only way to save the behemoth that is GM was to break it apart into smaller, more nimble companies under separate ownership, and let them duke it out?