well, chrysler is down....

well looks like the pentastar is done for.

i just hope the pensions of the workers and their healthcare that was PROMISED TO THEM IN A CONTRACT is still respected.

as for restructuring.

screw marking fiats as chryslers, just bring them over as fiats, and just make Jeep and Dodge Trucks, maybe keep the 300 around. but lets face it, as a whole the chrysler car line up sucked.

Sebring
Avenger
Caliber

etc.

so i hope they will be ok.

Buy a Chevy, prove you're an american.

So its a sad day when, Pontiac, Saturn, Opel, and Saab all get the big ugly axe. so what is GM going to do with its Four Core Brands? (Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac). i cant tell you what they are going to do, but i can tell you what they should do.

GM needs to get away from each brand having a complete model line and look at GM as the manufacturer instead of each brand, aka, no badge engineering and creating different cars on different platforms. for instance, the Pontiac G6 and the Malibu should never exist. perhaps if Pontiac had build the G6 with rear wheel drive it would have been a better seller. so here is what the model line-up should look like

Sub Compact : Daewoo.. err Chevrolet Aveo. Chevy will need create a much better car in this segment because Ford will have the market cornered with the Fiesta, i say bring back the Nova name plate and make a GOOD sub compact. Priced $9,500-12,000 depending on options

Small Sedan/Coupe: Chevrolet Cruze. this appears to be the small car GM has needed for a long time it shares its platform with the new Astra, with a 1.4l Turbo motor it should prove to be a fun, economical car to drive, i hope the 1.9l TDI euro motor will come stateside, also should GM find it important to put the 260hp LNF turbo ecotec in it for the people who still have a pulse. best part is, its built in Lordstown Ohio. Priced $13,000-20,000.

Small hot hatch: Chevrolet Astra. PLEASE OH PLEASE bring the new Astra state side. don't fuck it up by diluting the suspension, GM needs a competitive hatchback. Drivers love their Subaru and Honda hatchbacks so why cant they like GM ones too? This one should also have the LNF turbo motor. priced $14,000-22,000

Budget Minded Mid-Sized: Chevy Malibu. this car sells, don't fuck it up. (if you're going to replace it, do it with the Opel Insignia) Priced 18,000-26,000

Budget Minded Full-Sized: Chevrolet Impala. PLEASE KILL THE W-BODY the world does not need another non-descript FWD fullsized barge. the fact that you put an SS badge on the front wheel drive impala and Monte Carlo is an affront to real SuperSports the world over. its really simple what to do for the new impala, take a Holden commodore, rip the Holden badges off and put a Chevy badge there. let the G8 (the best car general motors has built in decades) live on as an impala. Priced 26,000-30,500

Sports-Coupe: Chevy Camaro. after 4 years this car better be a hit. please offer an both a Z/28 option (supercharged LS9) and a T version (LNF turbo 4 pot) priced 20,000-38,000

Hybrid: that Volt thing. its still vaporware. the volt will most likely be the last nail in the coffin of GM not the savior it so badly needs.

Corvette: gotta have it.

and we're done with Chevy Line Up. (what no trucks or SUV's you say... we'll get to those later)
(just so were clear THE HHR IS DEAD)

On to GMC
see, trucks bother me, real trucks are supposed to be bare bones work trucks, not multi media infested, leather seated luxury cars with a self image problem.

so each of the trucks i am about to detail will have two model designations W/T and L/T (work truck and luxury truck, i don't know about you but i would laugh at any man driving a luxury truck)

(oh yeah, all Chevy trucks are dead)

GMC S-15, lighten the canyon up a bit, and put a N/A or Turbo 4 cylinder in it, call it a day.

so we have the GMC Sierra 1500 with two engine options, 3.6l DI v-6 (306hp) or 6.0l V-8 (360hp) and you can get a manual trans in any truck you want. obviously work truck gets you crank windows and a rubber floor mat, L/T gets you wood grain and a sat nav system

Sierra 2500 gets the same treatment only with 6.0l v-8.

3500 and up really aren't consumer cars so we can leave them as is.

downsize the Yukon slightly, offering the 3.6l DI v-6 and the 5.3l v8

there wont be two trim levels for the following
OK the Acadia gets replaced with the GMC Traverse

then we keep the GMC Terrain

and GMC is done.

next stop. Buick.
and you're asking yourself why didn't Buick get cut instead of Pontiac, one word China, for some reason China loves Buick, and with the Chinese auto market expected to grow, Buick is one to hold onto. but what models should the US get?

before we get into Luxury cars, let me give my spiel about about "luxury" it used to be a car with power everything was luxury. adding power windows, locks and seats to a car was a good way to jack the price up while still maintaining profit margins, then they started putting all the luxury stuff standard. so we have to re invent luxury with innovations that make driving and life easier. what if you could connect your blackberry to your car and have a conference call on the way to work, or a heads up display that not only shows your speed, but your stock ticker info, and contact information that you can scroll through to call? i work at a company that prides itself on making things easy, and thats what business people want, is easy.

Mid-Sized Personal Luxury Sedan: Buick Lacrosse. after being a perennial disappointment the new lacrosse is shaping up to be something cool, AWD and a 280 HP v-6, sounds like we could be seeing a LaCrosse GS, or just call it the Buick GSX, Buick needs a halo car to build some excitement with the youth.

Personal Luxury Crossover: Buick Enclave, hey i think its ass ugly, but it sells.

Fully Size Personal Luxury Coupe: Riviera, yes, bring the big riv back. put it on the G8 platform with completely different sheet metal and get a blown northstar or LS motor under the hood. if Pontiac is dead, GM still needs to appeal to drivers, and Buick as a small market badge should be able to make this happen.

that's all for Buick. three models, three totally different cars.

now its time to roll in a Caddy.

Small Luxury Car: Cadillac GTS based on a slightly bigger Solstice/Sky sub frame in coupe/sedan form. the GTS will compete with the BMW 3 series and Mercedes C class. to really stick it to BMW the GTS-V will have a 600 HP supercharged LS9 and the lower optioned cars will get the 177hp N/A motor and the 260hp LNF motor 28,000 - 67,00

Midsized Luxury Car: Cadillac CTS. dont change a thing. and make sure the coupe comes out. keep the V series around for fun. $30,000-75,000

Fullsized Luxury Car: Cadillac STS. ok even i am a bit guilty of badge engineering, again this car will be based on the G8 - Zeta RWD platform. engine options range from 2.0 Turbo to 7.0l 505 hp v-8 $45,00-90,00
(the northstar is dead btw)

and we're done. 20 cars all of them specifically different and almost no overlap. though they all share one of four motors, the 1.6 and 1.4 l versions of the Ecotec, the 2.4 and 2.0 turbo versions of the ecotec, the 3.6L DI v-6 and the LS series 5.3/6.0l motors.

i really wish i could justify a new Monte Carlo, but there just isn't a market.

in short, GM needs to stop competing against themselves. i could even see dropping the buick nameplate in the US, leaving three brands with distinct messages, Chevy, the every mans car. Cadillac, your bosses car, and GMC the cars you use at work.

now, to be perfectly honest, GM cant do this alone. i dont think they can survive without government intervention, and i dont mean aide, either congress needs to Tarrif new forgien cars or offer 5 or 10 thousand dollar vouchers for american built cars to jumpstart their business. the extreme on the other end, its simply treat imported cars the way they treat ours. put a tariff on the car that is 90% of the MSRP. some people will try to tell you that toyota and honda are more american than chevy, chrysler and ford. i will say this once, "foreign products built in the United States only builds foreign profits."

Buy a Chevy, prove you're an american.

Edit: Whoops, forgot about the decadance of the Escalade, yup we're keeping it.

The Laziest Design Team Ever...

So the folks at porsche unveiled their newest version of the Boxster at the LA Auto show...

What an aesthetically underwhelming car, i know that when you have a classic design shape you dont stray from it, but sweet Jesus, the guys in Stuttgart haven't changed a thing in sixty years. granted, they did so some work on the car that you can really see till you pop the trunk, (dont get too suprized the engine is still in the wrong place) a 3.2l direct injected six cylinder in the top of the line S model is good for 310hp, a significant improvement from the old boxsters, maybe, finally the porche boxster wont the be the most overpriced and feature poor version of the fun two seater sports cars, but is it me, or do all porsches look like VW beatles, especially the boxster? the engineering department also upgraded the gearbox in the boxster, i would guess mainly to harness the 310 hp made by the new six, but this gearbox also provides better fuel economy. why couldnt porche build a car with as much aestetic innovation as mechanical innovation? i mean have you seen the Panamera, what kind of sweet, sweet, german beer were the boys in germany drinking when they came up with that monstrocity? i mean i thought i would never see a car that made a Chrysler Crossfire look pretty...

no more cars named after native americans please.

In order to start this blog on the right foot, i feel i must start with one of the ugliest cars of all time ever. The Pontiac Aztek

Just look at that. When it was released in 1999 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, it was ugly, and because it was so eye bleachingly ugly it drew attention. General Motors mistook this attention for people liking it. i hope congress thinks of one thing when considering the twenty-five billion dollar auto bailout for GM : someone at GM had to think it was a good idea, not just a good enough idea for a concept, but a good enough idea to build millions of, and then sell at a loss after no one wants them.

good god, it looks like one person was assigned to each part of the car, like one person was assigned to the headlights, another to the doors, the next to the wheel arches and grill.

and someone thought it was a good idea. perhaps that what we are looking for in Detroit. Not leadership, not budget control, just some good ideas.