Let me be BLUNT here. The Camaro group had to prove to upper management the car would sell if built. If you visit any of the Fbody enthusiast boards you will see a huge crowd waiting and salivating for it. Will it sell enough to cover costs? Beats me.

Go back a few years and try and remember the cancelling of the Vette. If you don't know about it I urge you to read "All corvetes Are Red". What they did then and what they are doing now is no different. In fact what the did then was design and prototype a Vette in secret by "borrowing" money from other car programs... they were sneaky at everything they did. if they hadn't we would not have the Vette we have today.

As for the 8 year hiatus.....it's a thorn in my Side especially knowing Scott Settlemire for years. if ford can continually make the Mustang and make money off of it, then why can't GM?

Politics is a huge part of it.

 

No problem, let me also be very blunt: Unfortunately times are much different now and instead of GM being concerned if someone is going to salivate over a Corvette or a new Camaro they need to be absolutely sure that the models are viable meaning popular and profitable. Their very existence is contingent upon that - there is absolutely no room for the games that ingenious individuals were previously allowed to play when money was freely flowing. Absolutely everyone has to be focused and on board with the program/corporate strategy. Sad as it is we are talking survial or death of the company itself, not the continued existance of a particular muscle/sports car.

 

One thing that seems to be missing in this conversation is how the all-new Mustang in 2005 brought the muscle coupe market segment back to life. I bought my Z28 new in March of 1998, the first year of the LS1 in the Fbody. In the years that followed, I watched Chevy and Pontiac marketing go from advertising the Fbodies regularly in 98, to zero by the end of 2002, the last year they made them. The philosophy at GM at the time seemed to be that the bean counters and stockholders at the General were unhappy at the low sales numbers of Camaros and Firebirds (and most sporty coupes in general) and so they just let the two models die.

Fast forward to 2005 and the new Mustangs hit the showrooms. That changed everything. Once they saw how well the new stangs were selling, GM reacted to that and developed the new (retro?) Camaro. Well it takes quite a few years to develop a model, as we all have watched the new Camaro morph from concept drawings to show car concepts to the car that will be selling next year.

Yeah Cole, it's just too damn bad that it took so long to get the new Camaro to market, and now the car industry is in the tank and so are the customers who who buy them. But back in 2002 I don't think anyone foresaw how the new Mustang was going to revitalize the market.

 

Do you offer a newsletter? I would like to subscribe.

 

You bet !!!

Although I believe the Corvette people did a hell of a job with the ZR1, I really don't believe it was the appropriate time to introduce a limited production $115 K vehicle. And I would bet they wish they had the couple hundred million they spent developing it.

No wonder GM is giving special discounts to NASCAR and celebrity people who purchase them.....but boasting rights are expensive.

 

They could become priceless.

 

I think the problem for years has been the corporate stategy. If they simply focused more then the Vette team would not have had to sneak around. The Camaro team has not had free flowing money, it has been well regulated. I have said from the start since I've seen the new public version of the camaro that it's a few years late. It's extremely risky for them to try an introduce it into this kind of market. In fact, with the current cash flow I'm surprised they are still going to bring it to market. What I don't know is which losses will be deeper, making it now or killing it off.

Unfortunately the GM management has missed the boat to many times in the past 10 years. I know loyal GM owners that have given up and will never go back. GM has not bothered to show the public they have a direction to go in. That's a fatal mistake.

 

The Camaro was a fine Idea when the car was started but who knew Gas would spike to $5 and then the Economy and Auto Market would crash 5-6 years ago when the work was kicked off?

As for coming out with it Scott Settlmire pretty much said last summer it was coming out no matter what since it already was ready to be built and already paid for. The challange now is to get it to sell. The Gas price hurt but could be over come but the economy will be very hard to overcome. Also when they started the CAFE standards were not what they are today.

The die hards will buy the first ones but after the first year?

The things that hurt GM were put into place 40 years ago and are slowly being undone. The worst thing Rick Wagoner has done is making the changes so slowly and not standing up to the system at GM as much as he should have, but that is easy for me to say. He is in a system that has never been very accepting to change.

Bob Lutz has pointed out to the press some of the issues he has had to face and fight internally at GM.

He asked the designers why they could not do the industry standard of 3mm door gaps. They told him they could. He then asked they were not doing it and the reply was we were never told to do it?

GM has many great engineers and designers that were not empowered to to what they could do. They were always held back and engineering was done through accounting.

Also many of the past CEO's would never stand up and face the board like they should.

Roger Smith tried to shake things up but left things half baked and those who followed never followed thought. Robert Stemple could not deal with the politics as CEO and just got mad at everyone and they showed him the door.

Jack Smith saw market share drop and did not react by eliminating models or divisions when he should have.

In 1970 the UAW 67 day strike GM flinched and gave them the sun and the moon. They are still working to take back some of what they gave away.

At GM conformity was everything and rebellion was frowned upon.

If you what a first hand knowledge of how they used to be at GM in the 60's and 70's read the book "On a Clear Day You can See GM" Written by John Deloren. He lays it out and shows how if you messes with the good old boys they would beat you down for being different.

I also learned this first hand as a Great Uncle who what like a Grand Father to me was part of the Good Old Boy System at GMC for almost 40 year. As one of the chief designers and engineers he was one who did his job and learned not to buck the system. This system worked till he retired in the early 60's but failed GM when compitition became tougher. What scares me now is how he never saw the flaws in the system as he was a part of it.

Today they have begun to make things smaller and imporve cars by empowering the people who design them to do their jobs and build cars like they should be built.

Each line has slowly been revamped and as it is replace the new cars Lutz has over seen has been a marked imporvment. But it take time and money to fix things like this as each platform replacment is in the Billions and at least 6 years min in the making.

The first Lutz cars like the Lucern, Lacrosse, GP and G6 were so far along he could only fix a few small things. The lacrosse was sent back for a new body as the designe was so bad. I have only seen ne photo and it was horrid.

Now cars like the Aura, Malibu, HHR, and a few other cars were the first step at a improved cars on old platforms. THe new cars on the Delta 2 platform are just to arrive. The new 2011 Lacrosse, 2011 Chevy Cruze and Opel Insigna are all world class clean sheet of paper cars. FWD AWD 6 Speed Direct Injected 4 and six cylinder cars.

The present Malibu is on par with Honda and Toyota but the new one due in 2012 will surpass the preset car by a wide margin.

GM is close to the tuning point and had the money to get their 8 months ago but when the sales of the trucks stopped with gas prices and then the car sales stopped with the Economy the time line was cut in half or more.

They also had hoped to get the the $500 Million in UAW give backs in 2011 with the way it was going to work.

The thing for all of us to keep in mind the product we see today was the work and planing of 5-10 years ago. Many of the cars being replaced were the work of the company under Jack Smith in the 1990's

As GM will continue we are just now seeing the work of Lutz in the new CTS and Enclave. Even the present Malibu is just a patched up older car but it shows what GM could have done 10 years ago when that platform arrived.

Lutz also has faced a shortage of money in marketing the cars. How can you sell so many models and not market them? Lutz has fought the system with Wagoners help on this and has only won on some models like the Malibu but not enough like the Aura or Astra. Ever notice most Saturn ads are for the entire line up and not one model?

Wagoner has done a good job but he needs to fight the system more and not be the good boy scout. He needed to stand up to the system. Most comapanies are lead and should not self leading as GM.

Either way the system is changing because it has to and GM will be leaner and smaller so it should help them work on their core buisness that is building cars. The shame is it took so long and so much was lost along the way.

 

it's things like this that irritate me most. And it's why GM is failing so.

The cogs turn slowly at GM. It's to bad.

 

Things are not 100% fixed but they are changing fast because they have to.

All is not lost as GM will remain but the look of the company will chance. In some cases for the better and some ways somewhat painful.

It has been sad for me to see Lutz come in a fight GM to get changes that needed to be done. He still gets shut out on some things that need addressed.