Why is this surprising? People elected a "green" President. OF COURSE gas guzzlers would be symbolically eradicated. GM is at the public trough and Obama knows the American Public are tired of private company bailouts.

As long as Green is the thing and companies are getting Tax Payer money..Performance vehicles will cease to exist. In the 70's it was about fuel consumption not Tax Payer bailouts. This is a lot different. It will be a long time before performance cars come out that have more than a 4cyc and a fart can.

 

Indeed.... Thats what happens when American Idol mentality elects a President.

 

Problem:
GM builds too many inefficient vehicles (not just GM's problem, BTW)
Cause:
Trucks and performance models sell, and are more profitable.
Effect:
GM (and the other two) appear to build nothing but gas guzzlers.
Truth:
All three automakers have a wide range of vehicles, but since their home market favors large vehicles the lineup is biased towards them. When fuel prices rise, and new car shoppers feel the pinch, they turn to manufacturers that can bring in small cars developed in their home market. Many buy the hype that domestics have nothing to offer, so they write them off without looking.


Ugly truth:
Now that sales are down across the board, it's not just big nasty SUV's to blame. However, we are entering a phase of government controlled manufacturing. Soon all we will be able to buy is a modern version of this:


Welcome to Amerika!

 

Here's an article out of today's Detroit Free Press: Fuel economy, high-performance cars can work together. Nice reference to the HHR SS

 

Not all of us...looking for a smallish fuel efficient utility vehicle led me logically to the HHR.
I guess I'm looking for the same attributes that many Gen Y'ers are looking for according to surveys. Changing tastes in vehicles were recognized at an issues particularly for the domestic manufacturers long before the gas crunch, according to a number of surveys.
Cadillac realized a few years ago about the issue of much of their customer base aging out, and not drawing in the next generation, and pushed their image away from staid old luxury barges. Most of the products aimed at the younger generation fall far short, had this been addressed, GM may have been better positioned to weather this change in preferences.

http://industry.bnet.com/auto/100052...ting-to-gen-y/
http://money.cnn.com/2003/07/28/pf/a...cars/index.htm
http://www.drivingtoday.com/kpix/new...ing/index.html

 

Good story to a point.

Mark seems to not understand the 60 people from the division producing a few limited editions has been moved to all the divisions to continue their work.

In place of a handful of performance models GM will apply their talents and skills to all the platforms where they originate in development.

GMPD has only taken what they were given and made it better. Now they will workj on cars like the Cruze before they come to market.

GM state plain in their press release that these engineers are still with GM and will be working on all platforms.

Imagine if the guy who did the HHR SS suspension had the HHR in development. Think how it would have been if the LS and LT drove more like a SS to start with. Granted the LS would still not be a SS but better steeing feel in the electric steering and better springs and dampers would go a long way to improve the overal quality of the HHR ride and handling.

What the HHR is now is good but the little detail could make it better. That is where GM needs to go to compete world wide. Good enough is not longer enough.

 

 

Some of this I can get behind but...the rest?
Hmm
The real problem is not really Pres. Obama's election. It's that the voters, both in 06 and in 08, decided they wanted a Congress, the majority of which is liberal and varies from simply "left" to "radical left." That's going to shift our social and economic systems more to the "European model" and that will, as said above, force a "green revolution" on the U.S.

As for the statement: "Obama knows the American Public are (sic) tired of private company bailouts."

Obama knows this?

What evidence is there supporting that?

In fact, the evidence points to the opposite, ie: he has no idea what the American People feel on that issue or...he's just ignoring it.

 

Well the GM Performance Division is not dead!


Per Super Chevy Magazine the division is still up and running building show cars.

The onlyu thing they did was the people who worked on the production cars were placed directly into the production car programs and will continue their work on the development of these new cars.

The Performance Division will concentrait on building race and show cars.

The bottom line is the same people are doing much the same work. While we may not get a new SS emblem cars for a while we should get better tuned cars with some options that will make them fun to drive.

Just to note there were no SS models planned in the near future anyway. SO we really did not lose anything. The Camaro is already out and the CTS V coupe is still coming.

This was more a big to do about nothing to make the goverment happy if that is possible.

 

Listen, I've been looking on line and the slightly used Camaro's and Vette's are being bought up from what I can access. There are plenty of after market mods available.

Now for the CTS-V... which is the one that I prefer, there are more than a few available at a decent price from the 04 - 05's.

I am fortunate that I have the 5.3L block in the truck because it is the most versatile.