I hope Viva is just a concept name…..

i concur

They should call it Nova and try to sell them only in Mexico and Latin America.

They should build a small car on a shortened GMT900 platform and call it the GMC Stillborn.

Small cars only make up about 17-18% of the US car market. What GM needs to focus on is cars in general. I’m glad to see GM take small cars seriously but I think most people will be more Enticed by cars more in line with something people think American cars should be.

Front engine, rear drive, AWD available, up to date tech, more than good power and good F/econ, high levels of quality, reliability, and design are a given. These are things that Detroit lavished copiously on their trucks and SUVs and let languish on their cars.

Hopefully DETROIT will take the hint and put as much interest into their cars as they did their trucks and SUVs.

So in other words you would like the to assemble BMW’s Blakkar. Not going to happen with GM fwd is a cheap way for them to build cars. Unless you are willing to pay for the rwd and latest technology that BMW already uses.

He doesn’t wan’t a Bmw Tox… If he did he would have mentioned handling or driving pleasure. FWD is more than enough for americans.

ToxicNut,

Actually they are called the Zeta and Alpha platforms for GM. The Zetas have compared well even against BMWs, matching them in performance but I would have to come back in a few years for quality. The funny thing is that most people don’t get is that they are paying a premium on cars like a BMW or MERCEDES simply to get the badge. The tech is cheap, besides I would not expect things like navigation systems, which cost almost the $2500 some options lists say they do, and a few other things, when I’m buying a good quality, RWD performance capable car for under $40K.

You look at a car like the new CAMARO or the MUSTANG and to get a BMW or MERCEDES that is even half as capable you will pay more than $10K more to start and no one except “brand whores” will say they are not that good. Of course, if having you butt massaged is that important to you then I would hope you can pay that much extra for something most people either do not want or don’t care enough about to ask for. The Tech is not that expensive either. I have no idea why you would think that it is. You can have a car that does only a few things very or extremely well for a reasonable price (typically what buyers want from an AMERICAN car), or everything half-@$$ed for a reasonable price, or everything well for a very high price. I don’t need a features list ten pages long, a page of really good stuff is fine.

The standing joke is that the most expensive part of a PORSCHE is the badge on the hood. It isn’t an actual perception or aura of quality, but the services besides, including regular “refits”, the scheduled replacement of normal wear and tear parts and fluids. Most forget or do not even know that GM, FORD, and CHRYSLER have this as well, particularly for their luxury marks and higher value vehicles. Thus BMWs and MERCEDES, and most luxury marks, seem more reliable, they are just fixed before something can break.

But I think you are generally right, GM is running around like a headless chicken again making totally mindless decisions not building the cars they are literally just sitting on that would sell in vast numbers and make them huge money. Two things they really need right now. FWD may be cheap but it not what the AMERICAN people want or expect of an AMERICAN car company. The sooner DETROIT snaps to and does this the better off they will be.

FYI, I type so much because I’m predicting some of your most likely ill-considered retorts and lame questions.

^As a mechanic, I can tell you that theres nothing outstanding about the quality or reliability of Mercedes or BMW. Mercedes historically have been very well made and engineered, but since the mid-90s, while trying to compete with Lexus and the other Japanese “luxury” brands, have lost their way.

GM cars are extremely high quality and well engineered. Right down to the lugnuts, it’s obvious to see the amount of thought and engineering that goes into about every aspect of a GM vehicle. Of course this isn’t obvious to the Average Joe sitting behind the wheel of a 02 Cavalier staring at the sea of cheap looking black plastic that is it’s dashboard, and that’s part of the problem with people’s perception of GM, while everything “behind the scenes” is innovative (occasionally to a fault, such as the printed circuit board “ignition wires” on the Quad 4), what most people see and feel, is sometimes just barely acceptable, such at the J-body interiors. The Cobalt, which is probably the overall best small car available today, corrected that tremendously, and anyone that has anything bad to say about the Cobalt obviously never drove one.

FWD is not what america wants? give me a break. 90% of Americans have no idea which end is doing the work. Yes a few gearheads care but they are minimal.

Do an analysis of under $30k cars and tell me the percentage that are RWD. I would guess it would be under 5%. IF there truly was a clamoring for RWD cars they would be built.

BLAKKARR- What you fail to see is that the 18%will eventually (maybe next year, maybe in three ) become 40%.America cannot avoid what has happened in the rest of the world.YOU WILL ASSIMILATE.

Spg900,

I do see it but what the vast majority of people fail to see is, AMERICA is a big car country. We want them big, that’s just the way we are. Compacts are fine until you have a real life. Then that Civic starts to look a bit beneath you, especially when you are stopped at a light next to a towering Pick-up truck or just a longer more stately Family sedan. For most people Compacts are a starter car or a car you buy because you DO NOT care or can not buy anything else.

The biggest issue facing the AMERICAN driver is to or not to go smaller, that is regression not progression to AMERICAN car buyers, but how we propel the cars we actually do want. I already signed off on V8s a couple of years back, but you know I would not be shocked at a 400+hp V8 getting 40mpg in the next five years or so. Still I think Serial Hybrids like the CHEVROLET VOLT the FISKER KARMA, which by the way is larger than a PRIUS, are the direction of the future.

People will get over themselves and embrace the “go” over the “noise” when their desire for a big car is matched with their need to avoid high fuel costs. Fuel prices are another animal.

The technology exists and what is needed it the will to implement it. But only time will tell.