Automotive News is reporting what many have suspected is going on at GM for awhile now. They are freezing all product development for 2009 and 2010.

R&D, design and engineering will stop. Products already too far along to halt will be released as planned including the Camaro, the Volt (we'll see) and CTS variants. Redesigning the Corvette, fullsize trucks and SUVs, the rollout of the Cruze, new midsized sedans, everything is in limbo.

Auto show presence is also going to be scaled back. Anyone who was at the Dream Cruise this year could see that in stark contrast to years before.

All in the name of trying to save every penny and avoid bankruptcy. GM's condition is critical.

 

Do you have a link to this? I'd like to read more. This is sad news though...

EDIT - Nevermind, I should never be too lazy to search... I found it.

 

Yep, it's sad to understand the condition GM is really in today. And be old enough to remember the great history GM has had.

They have made mistakes. The future GM, if there is a future, will be much different than ever before.

I think GM and Chrysler will become one company. It's very hard to get anything bought through GMAC credit. They aren't taking any more debt on for a reason.

GM's new logo - GM is Crying

Jakes Dad

 

^^^ it is sad but let's just hope there is a future no matter how bleak, as long as they can hang on for 5 more years I think they'll make it. but it will be a rough 5 years.

 

how can they survive without bringing out new vehicles?

 

Wow!

Corvette - we have the new ZR-1
Impala - everything from 30 mpg econo family car to a 5.3
Malibu - new in 2008 -
Cobalt- changed the SS from supercharger to turbo
new unit coming soon
HHR- now offered as a truck even a Supercharged version
Aveo - New for 2009

Trucks - Trailblazer is going
Equalbox is going
Traverse - new for 2009
Tahoe - It's even green
Susburban - sam old same old redesigned 2007?
Silverado - new for 2007

I respect your opinion. Please back-up your post!

Jakes Dad
Colorado - same old same old b ut it get a V8

 

Scary stuff, since this is GMs future. If GM is going down we all are all going to be in a much worse situation than we are now.

 

I wish every car and truck were two door, RWD, 600 hp. @10K

I've read many times GM isn't building what Americans want. In reality, this is what America bought in 2007 according to Forbes.

F-150 588K down 12.5%

Silverado 526K " 2.4%

Toyota Camry 398K up 6.4

Honda Accord 322K up 10.4%

Toyota Corolla 317K down 4.0%

Honda Civic 278K up 2.2%

Impala 270K up 12.6%

Nissan Altima 239K up 26.6%

Dodge Ram 214K down 29.3%

Honda CR-V 184K up 34.9%

If we were running GM what would you build?

Jakes Dad

 

My wife needs a new car soon, I started looking at the Traverse yesterday. The Chevrolet web site SUCKS. Took nearly a minute to load the Traverse page on a 3Mbit DSL connection, and they don't have a low bandwidth version available.

All that, and nowhere did I see / could I find the powertrain specifications on it (engine displacement, transmission). Cupholders sure, but nothing on the engine. Go back to the main page, oh wait, gotta reload the whole stinking flash page again. I gave up and found what I was looking for off-site.

Maybe they could save some money by firing their well paid web programmers and bring back some old school HTML folks that can make a reasonable web site.

 

All of the GM websites are garbage compared to their counterparts. The Chevy site is probably the cheesiest of them all. Marketing departments are out of touch with reality some times.

 

Must be a user error on the website.. NO problems here, checked on two laptops and two desktops. Took all whole 20 secs to load even with the flash intro. Again you are using DSL

 

[QUOTE=Jakes Dad;10383567]Yep, it's sad to understand the condition GM is really in today. And be old enough to remember the great history GM has had.

I think GM and Chrysler will become one company. It's very hard to get anything bought through GMAC credit. They aren't taking any more debt on for a reason.

Just read another story that there is going to be a major announcement on the GM/Chrysler merger right around election time (Nov.4th). Right now I guess GM is looking for $10 billion and a promise not to dissolve Chrysler completely in order to get the loan/bailout approved...

 

The Traverse is assembled in the old Tennessee Saturn plant. Has one basic engine - Indeed it's the 3.6 with 281 or 288 hp.

I assume it's identical to the Saturn whatever as well as the Buick but don't tell anyone. It's got the new Chevrolet nose. From our seen one you've seen them all design team.

Jakes Dad

 

i asked a question. feel free to answer without sarcasm. i still think its a bad idea to halt future products. in case you didnt notice GM isnt doing well right now with its current lineup. but neither is anyone else.

 

Sucks to hear, but they will pull out of it.

 

While I agree with you that the website sucks, it wasn't any harder than clicking one of the three "traverse models" buttons to find powertrain information at the very top of the list.

 

All I can say is Im not surprised. This is what happens when a car company completely looses touch with their potential buyers. They have been a step back for so many years ago that this news is just the logical ending. I think in the future GM will go away and only Chevrolet as a company will remain.

 

cadillac too but that might be it in NA.

 

The decision makes sense given their condition and what the auto market is likely to be for the next couple of years. Hopefully development will kick in to bring fresh product on line just as the auto market begins to recover.

In the meantime, they may need to go bankrupt ... probably the best thing that can happen for the long haul.

 

It's sad to see GM go. Had to sell my GM stocks last week.

The only way they're gonna survive our current situation, is if American buyers finally realize that it's better for us to spend $22k on an American car than to send $20k to Japan. Sometimes you've gotta suck up your personal loss for the gain of your country. At this rate, we may as well hold up a white flag for Japan to come take over. Our people have no loyalty to ourselves, or they're just plain ignorant.