Lutz: No Beat for the U.S., smaller CUVs on the way, Insignia stalled
by Damon Lavrinc on Jul 15th 2008 at 11:53AM 
General Motor's car czar, Bob Lutz, sat down with the little people of the blogosphere after GM's announcement that it would be reducing white collar expenditures by 20-percent, cutting truck production and eliminating retired health care for salaried workers over 65, all in an effort to boost its liquidity by $15 billion by the end of 2009.Maximum Bob addressed questions about GM's entire brand portfolio, saying, "Pontiac will be nourished with products" and confirming that GM is in talks with financial institutions about HUMMER, and that, "If we could sell the brand, we'd be interested in doing that."
Predictably, much of the conversation centered on fuel efficiency and the General's plans to address the growing demand for miserly transport in the U.S. Lutz made it clear that "as fuel costs in the U.S. begin to resemble those in the rest of the world" it will be easier for GM to realign its products on a global scale.
[Photo: David McNew/Getty]
So what about the Chevy Beat? The subcompact hatch is slated to arrive in Europe next year as the Spark, replacing the vehicle that shares the same name. However, GM didn't intend for the Beat (or Spark) to be offered in the U.S., so it doesn't meet federal safety and crash standards. It would take too much money and about two years to bring the Beat up to snuff for sales in the U.S., so Lutz conceded that it wouldn't be coming to the U.S. until the next generation arrives... whenever that is.
In more unfortunate news, the Chevrolet Cruze, set to debut in Paris and with sales beginning next year in Europe, won't be replacing the Cobalt in the U.S. anytime soon. Lutz maintains that the current Cobalt is "no where near the end of its life-cycle" and that it's "finally coming into its own" in the U.S. market. When the Cruze does debut, expect an interior that's a cross between the Cobalt and the Malibu, and powered by a turbocharged 1.4-liter four-pot that will get 40+ mpg.
When asked about Saturn, Lutz was insistent that GM "likes the brand," but is concerned that the franchise isn't generating enough volume. While earlier reports suggested that Saturn would short-cycle the Aura and replace it with the Opel/Vauxhall Insignia, Lutz says that it won't be coming forthright.
When the 2008/2009 show season ramps up, expect GM to debut several new compact crossovers that are significantly smaller than the Lambda CUVs currently on sale. Lutz wouldn't elaborate on what brands would be getting these new cute 'utes, but expect them to span GM's portfolio.
On a completely unrelated tangent, Lutz divulged a few tidbits about his personal rides, which include a Saturn Sky Redline, an Aura and four (count 'em, four) Segways. Go figure...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
Vintage 11:56AM (7/15/2008)
No beat!? Hahahhaa. God. It's like he's trying to make GM fail or something.
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EVan 12:10PM (7/15/2008)
Beat shmeat.... The loss of the Cruze until 2010 is the larger dose of bad news.
The Cobalt styling looks old as dirt. How about updating the Cobalt AND bringing over the Cruze AND keeping the Aveo around.
If we can have a dozen variations of an SUV over here I'm sure the General can manage multiple small cars.
P.V. 12:15PM (7/15/2008)
@EVan:
Why would you rather have the Aveo than the Beat? The Aveo doesn't give great fuel economy, it has terrible crash safety ratings, and the quality and reliability are horrendous! The Beat should definitely be able to exceed the "standards" created by the Aveo for a GM subcompact.
why not the LS2LS7? 12:26PM (7/15/2008)
I agree the Cruze not coming until 2010 is the bigger problem.
I don't agree the Aveo is horrendous in quality or reliabilty, nor to I assume a new car made and designed by the same people as the Aveo is going to be any different in quality or reliability.
I do prefer the Beat on looks though, so I'd like to see the Aveo replaced.
Red 12:28PM (7/15/2008)
As sad and as ridiculous as this statement is......
...I am actually obliged to agree with you. *sad face*
Whoever didn't put this in the product pipeline and signed off on yet another brand engineered SUV should be fired, taken out to the yard and shot with a BB gun. It's one thing to produce what's profitable when you know beyond any doubt it's going to be profitable. It's another thing to completely lack the foresight that your company will inevitably go through some hard times, particularly when you've gone through this before, and not take preemptive measures to make sure that doesn't happen. There's absolutely no excuse for this. The triplets were unveiled April 2007 at the New York International Auto Show so that people here could decide on what they liked (remember www.vote4chevrolet.com?). NOW we're figuring out that none of them were apparently either destined for production or destined for the US because it'd be "too costly" despite being built upon GM's global mini architecture? None of them were designed here (all designed in South Korea) to, according to the press release, "help Chevrolet determine U.S. market interest in the minicar segment, and which design/capability package resonates best with potential buyers."
"Hey, let's tease our customers by showing them the concept they actually voted on in the next Transformers movie along with another of the triplets that'll more than likely never make it, get everybody riled up and pull the rug from under them! Wouldn't that be fun?!"
Um. I guess that made sense to somebody. *shrug*
geo.stewart 12:35PM (7/15/2008)
no Beat, no Cruze,...
Why ANY car company doesnt develop global platforms now for mainstream vehicles is beyond me.
I get big US cars and kei cars being largely geographic but a subcompact, a compact? sheesh.
Somehow I thought he'd be taller.
Red 12:44PM (7/15/2008)
How did I not see the Cruze tidbit the first time around? Oy...even worse than the decision not to bring the Beat. The last gen. Cavalier lasted how long and they're doing the same thing to the already fairly out-dated Cobalt? It hasn't exactly set sales on fire. The mechanicals are pretty spot on, but it could certainly use a freshening up at the least.
And they're still building more crossovers and not filling orders for small profitable vehicles? lol....good grief.
Gregg 12:51PM (7/15/2008)
The Beat was designed when they were thinking it was too small for the US market. Americans have only themselves to blame. The F150 was still by far the best seller up until the last few months. GM has money troubles and is trying to raise cash. The decisions they make now are between a rock and a hard place. Delaying the Cruze here is a big disappointment, but GM can look at the figures and see that Cobalt sales are up, and still trumping the "redesigned" Ford Focus (and Ford seems pretty pleased to be soldiering on with that mess, given its own sales increase). Expect more disappointment in the short term from the big 2.5. They took their good natured time getting into the present pickle. Getting out is expensive, time-consuming and full of potholes.
Chemayo 8:07PM (7/15/2008)
No Beat?? Then why did GM agree to feature the car on Transformers 2? And no Cruze anytime soon? The Cruze is the best opportunity for GM to fight the Civic and Corrolla. GM has done it again, they let their "Bean" counters ruin their future. Now I wish that GM would go bankrupt and out of business!
The Talking Hamburger 7:44PM (7/15/2008)
@ P.V., who wrote : "The Aveo... has terrible crash safety ratings..."
------------
Not true. The Aveo gets 5-stars for driver side front crashes, 4 for the passenger side. In side impacts, it gets 4 stars for the driver side, only three stars for the passenger. It has a four star rollover rating that equates to only a 13% chance.
If you're going to trash the Aveo, trash it with facts and not your un-truths and opinions.
The Talking Hamburger 7:47PM (7/15/2008)
In such a haste to respond to P.V.'s claims, I neglected to include the link proving my complaint:
http://www.safercar.gov/portal/site/safercar/menuitem.db847bd57e3dc1f885dfc38c35a67789/?vgnextoid=c95df2905bf54110VgnVCM1000002fd17898RCRD
montoym 8:11PM (7/15/2008)
Honestly after looking back, the Beat news should not be a surprise.
Read this AB post from the LA Auto Show, http://www.autoblog.com/2007/11/14/la-2007-chevy-beat-concept-tops-public-polls-and-will-go-into-p/
Quote - "Well, more than 1.8 million people worldwide voted on GM's online survey, and one has beaten down the competition. At the 2007 LA Auto Show, Bob Lutz announced that a vehicle based on the Chevy Beat concept will go into global production outside the North America in mid-2009. Production will begin in South Korea where the car was originally created at GM's design studio in Bupyeong. GM is still undecided as to whether the Beat will be eventually sold in the United States."
Doesn't sound like it was ever planned as a US market vehicle. Not to mention that 1.8 million votes worldwide is pretty pitiful. Even if it were 1.8 million votes in the US it would still be considered unremarkable. How many people vote on American Idol each week?
What confuses me most about it, is that they had the triplets at 2 US Auto shows(New York and LA) with no intentions of actually bringing them here. But again, the story and press release states that it "initially" won't be offered here, not that it will never be.
spots 8:12PM (7/15/2008)
NO BEAT??? WTH am I gonna replace my '99 Metro with NOW???
Anytime I might have ever thought that GM was going to turn the corner and start using some common sense, they prove me wrong.
At this point, they deserve to go out of business- even AMC and most of the other independents weren't THIS blazingly stupid.
dm789 3:36AM (7/16/2008)
Yes he want to bring the company down....
Torrent 11:58AM (7/15/2008)
NO BEAT? WHY DO I EVEN LIVE?
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P.V. 12:02PM (7/15/2008)
+1! I feel your pain...
anti-believer 12:04PM (7/15/2008)
GM will never learn.
More utes?
No Beat? Well, it's not like it was going to ever be better than the Honda Fit.
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Rainy99 12:06PM (7/15/2008)
Amazing! That's what we need, more SUVs. Are they NOT listening to the buying public? I do NOT get GM at all.
..this is going to get very interesting.
P.V. 12:09PM (7/15/2008)
GM, like Toyota, seems intent on saturating the CUV market by filling every single possible niche in the market (and then creating some). At least they aren't doing it in the same brand like Toyota is.
Let's see: Chevrolet Equinox, Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Terrain (if it's still in the plan to replace the Pontiac Torrent), GMC Acadia, Buick Enclave, SAAB 9-4X, Cadillac SRX (well, there aren't any other Sigma-based CUVs), Saturn VUE, Saturn Outlook, am I missing any?
Torrent 2:22PM (7/15/2008)
CUV's. Not SUV's. The CUV's, I would expect to have a Hybrid option- like the Escape and Mariner by Ford.