Pontiac G8 may be built in the U.S.
The Pontiac G8 seems to be exactly what the American public is yearning for - a rear-drive sedan with great looks, a V8 option, and an affordable price tag. One Autoblog staff member, who shall not be named, may even border on obsessed with the total package that is the G8. The potential demand of the G8 could very easily approach that of the Charger, which sold over 114,000 vehicles in 2006. There is one problem, however. At this this time, GM is only planning on delivering between 30,000 and 50,000 G8s from Australia. Supply could potentially fall well short of demand, creating price premiums at dealerships. Between GM, the dealers, and customers, only the dealers win there.
If the G8 were the only Zeta-based RWD vehicle slated to be built, Holden would have to pick up production somehow. With the Camaro and Impala coming online in the next couple years, however, a shift to North American production seems to make a lot of sense. Luckily for customers here in the US, GM decided to start sending G8s over from the outback in 2008 instead of waiting for a North American plant to be ready at a later date. Only one year until we can finally stop saying that we wish GM would give us great products like the Commodore here in the US.
Follow the jump to check out the Autoblog video of the G8 unveiling in Chicago
[Source: AutoWeek]
Get a WordPress.com Blog_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg "2011 Audi A8: Live from Miami")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
James 7:40AM (2/14/2007)
Great. There goes the superior build quality that the Holden factories will give the G8. Count me in for the first blindfold comparison of an Aussie-built G8 and a US-built G8...
*j*
Reply
Dave 7:58AM (2/14/2007)
#1 You are actually upset that jobs are coming to this country? What kind of scumbag are you?
Reply
LaughingTooHard 12:41PM (2/14/2007)
I am sure that blind test will be just as easy as a US built Camry vs a Japanese built Camry. Ah, we once again see that people are so easy to blame anything with the "American Made" tag line on it.
All the cars made in the US are made the same way they are everywhere else. BMW or Mercedes, along with GM and Toyota use new technologies. Not some guru to inspect the car as every screw, nut and wire is attached.
GM and Ford have been saddled with old plants with old techniques. Thus new cars that put together the same way the old was were.
When GM brings the platform here. They won't use a big hammer and duct tape to get it on a old X-car assembly line. They will bring the robots, tools and techniques they use in Australia.
Please tell me that supposed to be a joke right?
Reply
chris 8:09AM (2/14/2007)
I think the average buyer of the car is far more concerned with a quite possible decline in quality with an American-made G8 than they are about some random person's job.
There's only one Holden factory by the way. Well, there's the actual car factory in Adelaide and an engine factory in Melbourne, but the latter doesn't count. The fact that they only have one factory that can only manage a maximum of 150,000 cars a year is why the G8 and eventually the Monaro (which will piss off Australians even more than the recent GTO pissed off Americans) will be built in America/Canada/Mexico/Wherever.
Reply
CR 8:02AM (2/15/2007)
It's not the workers that build the car that will be the problem, it any cost cutting measures that the U.S. factories use in regards to meterials while building the car. Look at the BMW Z4, Mazda 6, Toyota camry, X5, ML and RL Benz all built in the USA all pretty good cars. The companies worry more about investors than customers and that is not how people build cars. Cutting costs for investers bottom line on their portfolio is like McDonalds starving cows and expecting to get the same amount of hamburgers...well I guess its not but you get my point.
Great car if cost cutting measures don't apply, make the interior quality mirror a VW Passat and you have a winner also build it in Detroit.
Reply
FrankTheCrank 8:31AM (2/14/2007)
Paint me a socialist!
But don't you think these multinational companies that are based out of the US should spread the wealth a little?
What was ever wrong with making sure that the workers got a good paying job with decent benefits? Congress seems to take care of their own.
Ross "the nut" Perot was right.
Reply
P to the C 8:54AM (2/14/2007)
If you think the workers have the largest impact when it comes to build quality you don't know much about designing and manufacturing cars. It's the design itself and the manufacturing techniques that determine build quality, but it's easy to understand the confusion since GM told us for so long that the reason they made sucky cars was because of the Evil Unions and Lazy Socialist Workers. Fortunately most people today see that GM was just looking for a scapegoat and found the American public very willing to drink their kool-aid and vilify their neighbors. After all, it couldn't be managements fault their cars weren't any good.
Reply
Lithous 8:57AM (2/14/2007)
Follow James' link, he is not American:
"And as much as I love Montréal, I am realising that this province is not for me. But what I have yet to discover is whether I have the same feelings on the national holiday of Canada. Am I incapable of ever detaching myself from my British identity, or have I just not found a suitable destination for hypothetical emigration?"
Anyway, the article hints at U.S. production but no one at GM mentioned anything about the U.S. specifically in the article so it is just a wish (for some of us Americans) more than anything. I don't understand the following quote from the article though:
"It is highly likely that as we move to higher volumes for the global rear-drive architecture, we will begin to produce" in North America, said GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. "Importing from Australia at this point is a transitional phase. It permitted us to get the car quickly and for a minimum of investment."
Why isn't the "in North America" in quotes or at least brackets? Just strange way to quote someone.
"I think the average buyer of the car is far more concerned with a quite possible decline in quality with an American-made G8 than they are about some random person's job."
Yeah right. As if 99.9% of all Americans think Australian products are of the highest quality. Most Americans couldn't name an Australian product. Unless of course you an American or foreigner that just thinks all American products suck and then you just assume Australian products are better.
Maybe the Spring Hill plant would be a good place for it (I doubt it though).
Reply
JRB 9:05AM (2/14/2007)
I would not be suprised if this car is produced in Canada at GM's Oshawa plant where the new Camaro and (likely) the new Impala are going into production - so I would add G8 to that list.
Those concerned with quality: don't be. I know the stigma with NA manufacturers still lingers, but if this vehicle is built in Oshawa (which I suspect it may), that plant has had some of the best (at times the best) production quality of any of GM's plants.
It seems as though the new "muscle" era is going to be getting its supply from Canada. The Charger, Magnum and 300 models, PLUS the new Challenger are being built in Brampton, ON (Canada). Add to that possible Camaro/Impala/G8 lineup coming out of Oshawa, ON, Canadians will see many more transport trucks and rail cars with these new generation RWD cars on their way to customers everywhere.
Reply
Lithous 9:05AM (2/14/2007)
"But don't you think these multinational companies that are based out of the US should spread the wealth a little?"
Um, every other industry is doing just fine at that. Kodak cameras made in China and "Designed in Japan". Motorola phones made in china. Etc. etc.
I think the total opposite is the case, don't you think Americans deserve some jobs since we helped make those U.S. based multinationals.
Reply
Talis 9:09AM (2/14/2007)
Lithous, you hit the nail on the head, thank you.
The rest of you guys are just stupid. If it is the American worker who is the cause of poor quality producs why, then, are more hondas, and toyotas, and BMWs being built on American soil? If it is cost cutting by the factory, then it will not matter what country the car is built because the cost cutting come from above the factory...
As far as the UAW is concerned, it is not the current cost of labor that killed GM Ford and Chrysler Group, but long tearm health care costs. That is a problem on many fronts, and the Govt, the health care comapnies, the union, and the manufactures needed to get together and all on the same page. It would seem as thought they did and (for today anyway) the union point is a mute point.
Reply
The other Bob 9:25AM (2/14/2007)
There was an announcement last week that GM was considering retooling the Lake Orion, Michigan plant to make it more flexible and build more cars than just the G6. It was also announced a few months back by Lutz that one Zeta car would be built in the US.
The new Lansing Michigan plant, which currently builds the new GM crossovers, is also extemely flexible and capable of building just about anything. Since Spring Hill is about to start building the same platform crossovers too, Lansing could be a candidate for any car in GM's portfolio.
Reply
Edmund Dantes 9:33AM (2/14/2007)
I think most Americans will assume this is US built car because it's a Pontiac. Most Americans never heard of Holden or know it's owned by GM. The bloggers here are the exception.
Reply
Mike 10:05AM (2/14/2007)
One blink, one blip, one stumble, one spike in fuel prices and "the new "muscle" era" will be over before it ever gets started.
Reply
bob h. 10:09AM (2/14/2007)
I am a car guy...Bob Lutz is a car guy..
You social engineers worry about how to spread socialism or whatever..
My interest in the G8 is not where it is made or if the workers have Hillary's health care but rather it brings GM back into the current market...
I don't see it as a be all end all car..it has many design glitches and cliches..but fit and finish is good maybe better than good...It has performance features that are really good...it is a major step in being offered real competition to some of the European cars..that car people love.
Those of you who love the econoboxes form Asia with copycat styling...well this may not be the car for you. For Car Guys this is a great step in the right direction.
Good Luck GM
Reply
Tal 10:12AM (2/14/2007)
In response to #1's statement, I believe the combination of statements of #3 , #4 and #6 may give the best reasons there is a perception of poor quality when talking about American built autos.
Perhaps quality won't be an issue by the time the
G8 begins production in the U.S. or somewhere on North American soil. I certainly hope the same or BETTER quality built G8 will be from a U.S. factory.
But, definitly,
There is a stigma attached to "American" brand automobiles. There is a discrepansy regarding "quality" when comparing an American brand vs a "foreign" brand no matter where it is built.
Sadly there has been a plethora of documentation backing the superiority of foreign quality vs American quality over the past three decades(at least). Foreign built increased quality, reliability and functional ammenities. American built went the other direction UNTIL the last couple of years. A turn around seems to be taking place in SOME segments of American brands.
Whether it be design, management, workers , unions or any other reason, American owned auto manufacturers must turn in the right direction in order to produce vehicles that are equal to or superior to any other world manufacturers or they will crumble.Sad for the American auto worker.
To American Brands:
We will spend our $$$ where we get the most for our money.We are the consumers and we will dictate which companies live or die. It's your choice(s) as manufacturers whether you build what we want(quality, reliability,efficiency,comfort, durability, excellent design,etc) or what you want us to have. We believe you all have shoved inferior, crappy vehicles down our throats long enough. Til you create an exceptional track record, we will buy what is the most reasonable purchase for our households.
Reply
torpeau 11:12AM (2/14/2007)
GM, Ford and Chysler are victims of their past success. Because they were run well enough to stay in business a very long time, they have accumulated many retirees and older workers and those pension and medical costs are significant.
Management detertmines quality. Given the choice, most workers will choose to do a job right rather than one with shoddy workmanship. You would think that US automakers would figure out that products that are perceived as having low quality are hurting them.
Consumer Reports really downrated the Sebring and the G6 and fit and finish were factors.
Reply
Jim 1:14PM (2/14/2007)
Funny how even Australia is now considered to be some auto manufacturer power house that rivals the USA. I don't agree, I think we can build the car just as good as anyone else. They will have the same quality standards, so the product will be the same.
I just wish it could get here sooner... Should have been done long ago.
As far as the price of fuel hurting the sales, I think the Active Fuel Management engines have gotten the difference between a compact and the mid size cars so close, that a few MPG (even 10) different probably wouldn't change my mind. With that in mind, make the G8 with the Chevy Volt technology and I'd probably get that.
Reply
TriShield 2:42PM (2/14/2007)
The car isn't a hit yet, this is GM's contingency plan in case they sell out this rebadged Holden.
Shifting production is not going to create any additional jobs in the US or at GM's Canadian plant that is being tooled to build variants of the new Commodore. That plant has immense capacity and GM wants to fill it.
This is not exactly good news for GM's Australian plant, and may not be good news for us either. Their Australian operation is counting on building this car there and exporting it to the US to keep their plant at capacity. It will be interesting to see how GM solves this problem on both sides of the Pacific.
The other issue is if the car is built here it's likely going to lose many of the unique parts (especially inside) that make it such a nice vehicles. It has it's own stalks, switches, stereo-head unit, grained leather, etc that are all from Australian suppliers. GM will likely use existing US parts to replace them which will take much of the richness (and uniqueness) out of this car.
GM builds two Opel chassis in the US, the Epsilon and Delta. The cars they build on top of those chassis leave much to be desired compared to their Opel counterparts assembled aborad. The Epsilon is the Malibu, G6, and Aura. The Opel Vectra is more unique looking inside and out. The Deltas built here are the Cobalt and G5, which are pretty nasty compared to the Opel Astra.
I actually hope the volume stays low on the G8 so it retains it's exclusivity and Aussie uniqueness. I'm not holding my breath for a US-engineered Impala atop the new Commodore's guts.
Reply
TriShield 2:51PM (2/14/2007)
Yes, the US can assemble a car but it's always been hit and miss. The US-assembled Camry isn't well made at all.
http://blogs.edmunds.com/roadtests/category/cat.2007ToyotaCamry
I've also noticed the same type of quality issues in US-assembled Acura TL vs the imported Acura TSX.
Again, my hopes are not high for the building the Commodore in the US. They will likely ruin the Astra when the shift production here too.
Reply