Quote:
Originally Posted by MikesZ
The platform that would need to support it would drain resources from other, more important/profitable products. Chevy doesn't need specialty products beyond Camaro and Corvette. Or do you think those should suffer just to support a low-volume RWD sedan? Or should Tahoe suffer because some GM'ers can't give up on the Holden RWD sedan? Or how about Silverado? Should GM go less-than on that to make room for a RWD sedan that couldn't crack 40K units per year last time around? Think about it...
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Its not going to be a specialty product though. If Dodge can manage 100k Charger and 300 sales, GM should be able to accomplish at least as many. And the G8, while not selling well overall, came close to its sales targets while in a down market. And if they cancel the Impala and replace it with a RWD Caprice, I would not be surprised to see 200k sales per year, for that one vehicle and at least another 100k total for its cousins around the world.
To my knowledge, GM doesn't exactly operate on a fixed R&D budget. They don't spend $5B/year regardless of the number of vehicles it gets spread across. Its perhaps $1B per vehicle platform spread over a number of development years. So it wouldn't be stealing money from other areas, the idea (particularly within the new GM) is to make everything stand on its own. If it can't pay for itself, it won't get the green light.