Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric SS
ATS and CTS do not have the legacy that the Grand National name has. Plus the CTS is not the same price point as the ZL1 and the ATS is not an LT4 powered car. Last I heard the ZL1 is selling pretty darn good. Tell me that if they made same amount of these per year as they are planning on making of the ZL1 of these per year, sold it at the same price point, and named it the Grand National it wouldn't sell the same number as the ZL1?
EDIT: And I'm talking about if they made this INSTEAD of the ZL1 like the article is talking about. NOT if they made the ZL1 and this Buick.
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Part of the reason for why the ZL1 is priced where it is is because it mostly shares a body & interior with the SS & LT models. Over the run of the 6th gen, there will probably be something like 400,000 cars produced that share nearly all their bodywork.
Tooling up for a total production run of maybe 20k Buicks over 5 years (peaking at 5 or 6k in the first year, then tapering off quickly) means that each fender, each door skin, each roof panel carries 20 times the tooling cost. That drives up cost, which means that either content needs to be sacrificed to maintain the same pricepoint (reducing desirability) or pushing the MSRP up (which also makes fewer people want to buy it).
So you can't get a Grand National on its own, built just like the ZL1, at the price of the ZL1. You'd have to give something up in there. Something that either reduces is appeal, or forces it to compete more directly with other cars in the GM lineup.
Also ... wouldn't a Grand National use the LF3 (from the CTS-Vsport) instead of the LT4? Seeing as the car was famous for its turbocharged V6, seems like a reincarnation of it aught to also have a turbo6 under the hood. And if you'd rather the turbo6 be the LF4 (from the ATS-V), I'd say keep that for the GNX.