FenwickHockey65's Great Thread of GM Knowledge

[90503]

I've been looking at Impalas a little recently....I think the 2018 Impala just showed up on the Chevy web-site...(The 2017 is still there as well)...not sure what that's all about, but no matter...It's around for '18 at least...

The full size sedan is awesome....The bigger the better....and it is bigger than Malibu, but not by much...However, an inch or two in headroom and legroom as well as more cubic feet in cabin and trunk space is very noticeable, at least to me it is...Still on the fence about front wheel drive...I think I could live with it, no biggie...

Impala, not Malibu, is Chevy's flagship car. I hope they keep Impala alive.

Impalas are beautiful cars, and well priced....Next 20% off MSRP on remaining '17s, and I'm all in...

[FenwickHockey65]

Impala will be around until past 2020.

[chvyman]

I got my '16 LTZ with 20% off last june, love it.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

http://www.autoblog.com/2017/07/28/g...ns-evs-coming/

JDN confirms what we've known/expected: ATS/CTS/XTS get combined into one tweener CT5, one smaller subcompact-compact sedan (CT3?) beneath, XT4 compact CUV in the near future, XT6 three row CUV in the works.

Farewell ATS. A good car at a bad time.

[FenwickHockey65]

http://insideevs.com/exclusive-next-...ick-crossover/

Reported Bolt EV-based Buick CUV in the works.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

http://insideevs.com/exclusive-next-...ick-crossover/

Reported Bolt EV-based Buick CUV in the works.

Well, if they make it look like a normal crossover instead of ... whatever it is that they did on the Bolt, it might just do well.

[camaro2lt]

Fen what is your take on the future of GM having less assembly plants throughout the U.S. With SUV's killing the sedans do you see a possibly maybe two-four years from now of plants shutting down and everything being made in lets say 3-4 assembly plants. I just can not justify all these assembly plants cranking out hundreds of cars per day and with slowing sales on the horizon and a huge build up of inventory. In my opinion even with the plants being at idle I do not see the inventory levels declining as GM is anticipating.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by camaro2lt

Fen what is your take on the future of GM having many different assembly plants throughout the U.S. With SUV's killing the sedans do you see a possibly maybe two-four years from now of plants shutting down and everything being made in lets say 3-4 assembly plants. I just can not justify all these assembly plants cranking out hundreds of cars per day and with slowing sales on the horizon and a huge build up of inventory. In my opinion even with the plants being at idle I do not see the inventory levels declining as GM is anticipating.

Crossovers need to be built somewhere too. And when a plant needs to be retooled to build something new, there isn't a whole lot of difference between setting things up for a brand new sedan and a brand new crossover.

[90503]

Would they ever decide that perhaps the market and demand for sedans is over and not worth all the back and forth to try and get the crumbs of a dying market?

Chevy, Buick, Cadillac all trying to figure out what might sell while not taking sales away from each other, much less winning against competitor's makes. If SUVs and Crossovers and Trucks are it then someone has to throw in the towel and call it quits in the traditional sedan market...

It would be nice if everything sold like hot cakes all at the same time for everyone, but it seems there is too much production capacity to go around....If all makers think their model will sell the most, it won't happen no matter how good the product is....Just rambling....lol...

[FenwickHockey65]

Originally Posted by camaro2lt

Fen what is your take on the future of GM having less assembly plants throughout the U.S. With SUV's killing the sedans do you see a possibly maybe two-four years from now of plants shutting down and everything being made in lets say 3-4 assembly plants. I just can not justify all these assembly plants cranking out hundreds of cars per day and with slowing sales on the horizon and a huge build up of inventory. In my opinion even with the plants being at idle I do not see the inventory levels declining as GM is anticipating.

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Crossovers need to be built somewhere too. And when a plant needs to be retooled to build something new, there isn't a whole lot of difference between setting things up for a brand new sedan and a brand new crossover.

What DG said. Plus GM is planning on adding quite a few more CUVs, particularly over at Cadillac, so plants will be busy for some time.

Originally Posted by 90503

Would they ever decide that perhaps the market and demand for sedans is over and not worth all the back and forth to try and get the crumbs of a dying market?

Chevy, Buick, Cadillac all trying to figure out what might sell while not taking sales away from each other, much less winning against competitor's makes. If SUVs and Crossovers and Trucks are it then someone has to throw in the towel and call it quits in the traditional sedan market...

It would be nice if everything sold like hot cakes all at the same time for everyone, but it seems there is too much production capacity to go around....If all makers think their model will sell the most, it won't happen no matter how good the product is....Just rambling....lol...

I don't believe the sedan market will ever completely die out, but it's definitely in a decline right now. But wait and see what happens when fuel prices hit $3/gallon again, suddenly that 50+ MPG Cruze Diesel will start looking really attractive to consumers again. While I agree that GM needs to trim a few passenger cars from the lineup (we really don't need both Spark and Sonic right now, pick one, CTS/XTS are currently cannibalizing each other, both plus ATS will be replaced by CT5), I'm hoping they'll be ready to jump right back into that mix if need be.

[KMPrenger]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

http://www.autoblog.com/2017/07/28/g...ns-evs-coming/

JDN confirms what we've known/expected: ATS/CTS/XTS get combined into one tweener CT5, one smaller subcompact-compact sedan (CT3?) beneath, XT4 compact CUV in the near future, XT6 three row CUV in the works.

So CTS is a bit smaller than XTS right, and of course its larger than ATS.

So doesn't that pretty much mean that CT5 will be roughly the same size as the current CTS? That's what I'd expect.

So what does this mean for the next gen Camaro? I can't think of any other platform that would be suitable for the 7th gen, so does that mean the next Camaro might actually increase in size again? If they stick with Alpha, I don't see GM keeping around different various of Alpha (long wheel base and short) just for the Camaro.

Very interesting.

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Farewell ATS. A good car at a bad time.

Yep

[lbls1]

Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla; Hyundai Elantra; BMW 3-Series; All are thriving. Ford Fusion, Mazda 6, Kia Optima.

C'mon GM, take off the gas mask and the blinders. Get in there, put in the work, and make your products better. The sedan market is still thriving IMO.

[camaro2lt]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

What DG said. Plus GM is planning on adding quite a few more CUVs, particularly over at Cadillac, so plants will be busy for some time.



I don't believe the sedan market will ever completely die out, but it's definitely in a decline right now. But wait and see what happens when fuel prices hit $3/gallon again, suddenly that 50+ MPG Cruze Diesel will start looking really attractive to consumers again. While I agree that GM needs to trim a few passenger cars from the lineup (we really don't need both Spark and Sonic right now, pick one, CTS/XTS are currently cannibalizing each other, both plus ATS will be replaced by CT5), I'm hoping they'll be ready to jump right back into that mix if need be.

I do not see Gas going to $3 gallon in a while but it could happen. Lets say that it does and all these people that bought trucks and SUVS go and trade in for small sedans the amount of trucks on dealer lots will be insane and kill the residual values even more than what they are now. I think a lot of people will have negative equity or not as much as they thought when they go and trade in.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by lbls1

Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla; Hyundai Elantra; BMW 3-Series; All are thriving. Ford Fusion, Mazda 6, Kia Optima.

C'mon GM, take off the gas mask and the blinders. Get in there, put in the work, and make your products better. The sedan market is still thriving IMO.

Year over year sales figures don't care about your opinion. Sedans and other cars, on the whole, are doing worse now than they were before. The Camry & Accord are no longer the best selling vehicles at Toyota & Honda. I believe that honour passed to the Rav4 & CR-V several months ago.

Declining sedan sales doesn't mean the cars aren't good. Just that people really, really want crossovers. I don't know why people want crossovers that badly, but they do.