I’m starting to think that GM ‘can’t find it with both hands’. There was a commiitment to the Hamtramck team to build this in 2Q09. There was also talk of bring over the Opel Zafira (built in Poland or belgium) over for Saturn. I guess their luck with the Astra told them why bother. These would be the MPV – based models discussed last year. I guess since gas is only $3.50 and not over $4 the marketers don’t see any demand for a low-priced (under $30K) 7 passenger vehicle. Leave the market to the Mazda% and Kia Rondo. Let everybody else move up to the Lambda models.

Check out Plan B – bringing over the daewoo Rezzo. Now that dog won’t hunt.

LLN should have quit production of this new site layout…they could learn a thing or two from GM.

This is just getting rediculous.
Daewoo? honestly gm, honestly

really…

Now think about it kids- is this really the wrong thing to do? Detroit is never going to catch up to the Japanese, Europeans, or Koreans for that matter, when it comes to small cars. They just don’t know how. The only one that ever came close was the Neon, but we all know how that little saga ended. So fine, let someone or somewhere else build them for you. Ford’s turning to Europe, Chrysler’s turning to Nissan, so what is so wrong with GM being in bed with Daewoo? It’s hardly the same operation that gave us the Nubira and Lanos in the late 90’s, and not many people are going to argue that Korea still can’t build cars.

I applaud GM. It’s all about identifying your strengths and weaknesses. Face the facts: GM never could build a small car worth a sh*t, plain and simple.

Dumb Move

I’m not sure I understand the timing of this story.. Chevy is about to unveil the Orlando show car, which looks like a direct replacement for the HHR and is also supposed to be built on the Cruze platform. I think GM has decided to build the very CUV-looking Orlando in the US instead of the more European-styled Opel Zafira-based micro-minivan they originally planned for Saturn and Chevy, since it looks like Saturn won’t be getting it after all.

as i said on the G3 post… the sedan Aveo is MUCH better looking & has better quality build & materials than the Aveo5 and the 5 is way ugly. the sedan is a rebadged daewoo and judging how much better IT is, maybe the idea of the Rezzo isn’t all bad. but thats weird they scrapped this so soon to launch.

There’s no more than a grain of truth at most in this WSJ report, which reveals the reporter’s gross ignorance more than GM’s product plans.

1.) The Orlando is the MPV7 mentioned in last year’s UAW documents, and always has been. A total revamp of a product design as LLN implies does not happen overnight like this.

2.) GM did not intend to sell the MPV7 in the US, just build it for export. That was rumored to change only recently as high gas prices made compact MPVs emulating GM’s Zafira far more popular in North America.

3.) GM Daewoo has capacity constraints after several years of double digit growth in exports. This is why GM is building new plants and forming production alliances all over Eastern Europe and Central Asia to meet demand, and why the Orlando was to be built in NA to begin with. Importing a vehicle from Korea is not an option.

4.) The Orlando replaces the Daewoo Rezzo/Tacuma (aka Chevrolet Vivant), so there is no “other” vehicle to import anyway. This is it.

5.) Since it is not an SUV, but a compact van, and was not intended to be sold in the US, it is not an HHR replacement. There is a new compact SUV coming, but it is not based on Delta (Global Compact Car), but Gamma (Global Small Car).

6.) Saturn was expected to get a larger MPV/MAV based on the lwb Theta platform, not the Zafira. This project may have been canceled, perhaps prescient given declining sales of existing models in the midsize segment such as the Renault Espace.

GM may have decided not to build the Orlando in Hamtramck (perhaps to make room for expanded Volt and Cruze production), but they are still building it.