GM product shuffle continues, U.S. to miss out on Orlando, might get Beat

The game of musical chairs in the GM product lineup seems to be continuing unabated with the latest casualty being the Chevrolet Orlando. The Orlando won't even be introduced until next month's Paris Motor Show and is still scheduled to go on sale in Europe and elsewhere in 2009. The Orlando was originally scheduled to be built in the Detroit/Hamtramck assembly plant along with the Chevrolet Volt. Those plans have apparently been canceled and it's not clear where the Orlando will be built or why it won't be offered in the U.S. Chevrolet spokesman Terry Rhadigan would only say that neither sales nor production plans for the Orlando had ever been announced for the U.S. In fact, the Orlando to be shown at Paris is technically only a concept for now. Anything beyond that is just speculation anyway. GM is continuing to check out its worldwide product portfolio for cars to add to the U.S. lineup and the Pontiac G3 has already been confirmed. The G3 is simply a re-badged and re-grilled Chevy Aveo and GM needs something much more than that to compete with current and future small cars like the upcoming Ford Fiesta. Perhaps GM will finally bite the bullet and bring the Chevy Beat that proved so popular among auto show attendees in 2007.