a decent paint job! AWD and more power!

 

No your list was pretty much a realistic one. Some of the other wants just are not doable in a less than $30K car.

The last one is open to what plant it was built at and the deal with the UAW that was made. Some plants could have added a great cost to them.

Today many of the plants local UAW leaders know they can be shut down fast so they are a little more willing to deal now vs back in 2003 for the 2005 launch.

The Lordstown plant took big cut 2 years ago to get the Cruze. Back 6 years ago they would have never took a lesser deal. The US plants are waking up and learning they have to compete if they want to stay open. IF not they can be shut down very easy.

Small cars are low profit and hard to make money with large legacy cost. Honda and Toyota can do it because they are either non union or have little legacy cost associated with their plants.

I would not be surprise if the HHR could have not been built at the Mexico plant at the time of start up the car stood a very good shot of not being built. Time back then were a little different.

On the converse trucks are so profitable they can build them about anywhere. Sold in great volumes and sharing so many parts make them easy to make money with.

The changes with the locals is one reason why the Aveo will not be built in Mi vs Korea. Things are heading in the right direction now lets just hope they get stronger and keep moving back here.

 

is quality control. My car is going back to the dealership for work again this week. Unfortunately they are always intermittent issues so nothing is getting fixed.

 

I feel your pain. I have been dealing with a intermittent turbo problem for 10 months. After bringing it back to the dealership for them to tell me they cannot recreate the problem or to make a minor adjustment and call it fixed I finally talked to the service department manager and dealership owner. Allegedly they are going to set me up with what they called a "Black Box" so that I can plug that into the car and it can record all data from the engine. They said all I need to do is hit a button when the problem happens and it pulls the data from the computer like 30 seconds before and records until it is prompted to stop.

I work in IT for a living and I understand what is like to deal with intermittent problems so I have tried to have patience with this issue and the only complaint I have which I told the Service Manager and Dealership owner is the two times I brought it in with the problem happening I was told they were too busy to have a mechanic plug in a diag computer and go for a ride. Hopefully the black box will shed some light on the problem when it happens next otherwise I am going to have to demand that it be diagnosed at that minute next time I bring it in with the problem.

 

..... Keep it in production longer....

 

For the autos: having a gear indicator in the dash or at least make the one in the console readable during the day. Ditto on the speedo and tach readability issues too. Ugh! Small, easily and cheaply resolved design issues that nonetheless can drive you crazy everytime you're behind the wheel.

 

I came from the gigantic speedometer in my Grand Prix to the tiny one in the SS. It took a lot of getting used to.

 

Dual exhaust.... a real SS has dual exhaust.

 

I definitely agree with you on that!! Now, even the upper-level Impala LTs have dual-exhaust.

 

No ****. Single exhaust in a 4 banger is only good for 8.9 @156 1/4 mi or so http://www.posracing.net/files/8secslip.jpg

My 290 HP 14 second HHR definitely needs to breath more

590whp through a single 5" exhaust http://www.posracing.net/RWDTalon.html
.