Why are they even calling these things SUV anyway? Where is the Sport? When was the last time you see a Yukon, Tahoe, Expedition, Explorer off road. Some of them are even 2WD. Time for a game change GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota etc. get rid of the guzzlers. People who really need to tow will buy trucks they have very nice interior these days.

A unibody Suburban? GM if you do this you just handed Ford a new customer… me.

Hold on there gizmo – not all people who tow can just switch to a pickup to do it. There are many valid reasons to have a vehicle capable of seating more than 6 and equipped to tow more than 5,000 pounds. Yes that market has apparently shrunk quite a bit, but I think it’s still there.

I think what we’re seeing is the people who DON’T need that vehicle switching away towards something they should have been driving all along…

A Uni-body Yukon/”Hoe, sounds very stupid, BUT if its capable of doing what its supposed to do im all for it.

Thank you greedy Oil , and GWB for invading a country that didnt roll over, God help us.

Frylock, GM already makes that BFI Suburban – the Acadia.

400, you back to work any time soon?

Im all for it if they use a all carbon-fiber monocoque.

May 19th injunraiv, and I cant wait.

Use the RWD/AWD ZETA like the GMC DENALI consept did as a bases for the Yukon/Tahoe versions. And keep the Suburban model with a GMC version truck based for towing ect.

Glad to hear your going back to work by the way 400. Like I said, the unions have pissed me off to no end, but I still like MOST of the union workers.

Like I sais before I dont agree with half the **** they do, but I dont agree with 80% of what management does either, but at our plant we have a Plant manager and Asst. manager that act like they actually give 2 ****s about the workers and that makes a HUGE diff.

Don’t you live in NJ?

This move to unibody totally makes sense. SUV’s are like mountain bikes: the vast, vast majority of them are never used for their ostensible off-road purpose.

just make a full size wagon already, based on a large, rwd platform, and make a “Cross-road” version ala Volvo and Audi to appease the dolts who think they need that.

Missouri, aint no guidos down here.

^Besides the wanna be Sopranos that transferred here.

Right, mostly retards.

Missouri? I thought you were calling me a redneck for being from FL. I hate NJ and NY anyway, the rudest mofo’s I’ve EVER met in my life.

howsmydriving,

I have only one problem with that statement. Full-sized SUVs, at least those we commonly see (Not counting Military Hummers and similar machines around the world), have almost no off road ability at all. The big tough truck frame helps them carry their ginormous mass around even over rough terrain but truthfully most CARS made before 1989 have more off-road capability and potential than the vast majority of SUVs and CUVs world have.

Heck AMERCA’s Rally cars, in the same vein as WRC cars with think of today, used to be those big-ass muscle cars we still love so much. The Australians still race such machines in road rally fashion. But they still tend to be 20+ year old frames rebuilt, sometimes from scratch, for racing.

Other than that, I agree with you. The vast majority of SUVs are overbuilt to meet purposes that people simply to not need them for. But this could also mean the end of the SUV as we know it all together in a decade or so.

Anyone remember the Chevy Astro/GMC Safari and FORD Aerostar? Body on frame mini-vans that could to much of the work of full-sized vans but got beat out by car-based mini-vans. The Astro/Safari is my favorite minivan, despite the almost criminal safety record (Worst testing vehicle in the history of the IIHS by far). I got to ride in one with a CHEVY small block V8 and that thing could definitely haul more than ass.

Yeah the full sized SUV is gonna die.

Wow 3 agree that Jersey sucks.

Blakkarr does it really matter what you drive when gas goes up a $1 a month………….

^I saw a show on Discovery last night, in Dubai they are building the World Islands, where do you think that $$$ comes from.

Those Lambdas carry as many people as the Yukon/Tahoes now. Why doesn’t GM consider the current Lambda fullsize? I don’t see a need to change, just keep the Yukon/Tahoes on the truck frame and just adjust the production mix to meet demand.

And Hemi I cant call anyone a ‘Neck being from Missouri, its severly country here, ughhhh. A rude awakening when we moved here from the Motor.

I guess it makes sense, as long as they keep at least one body on frame SUV available. I’m assuming that one they’ll keep will be the Suburban, as that model is used the most by its owners for hauling and towing.

I hope someone wisens up at GM and this middle management sounding idea is forgotten quickly.

The GM full size SUVs are the best in class… changing them to some unibody crap with no relation to the pick-ups would be an engineering, marketing, and sales disaster. People who buy Suburbans DON’T WANT A HONDA PILOT.

This sounds like a replay of the 90s when GM discontinued its body-on-frame passenger cars (Caprice, Roadmaster, Fleetwood), and HANDED the police, taxi, limo, hearse, etc. business to Ford.

400horseSS (#22),

Of course, it doesn’t matter given the crappy mileage even most compacts get, though your figure is a bit of a overstatement, try $0.25-0.55 a month this year.

I also don’t think much can be done on the user end until we see a very focused and obvious effort to field vehicles that average at least 50mpg that satisfy most of the current range of automotive needs and applications. So far that is not happening.

Of course, regulators also need to stop giving “okay signs” to speculators by saying things like “Oil WILL reach $200/gallon in a a year or two”. It just gives permission to cripple the entire world’s collectives economies.

Other countries including AMERICA need to develop more resources and fuel and Alt-fuel supplies. We have huge oil deposits in Alaska and the GULF Coast. We just need to go after them. Make sure the oil companies are kept of a firm leash so that don’t despoil everything but other wise let them at it.

America is to Coal what Saudi Arabia is to oil, we have more of it that any one other country easily, even beating out China. So Coal gasification, turning COAL into Gas is an obvious option.

Also simplifying the gas formulation so several gasoline plants do not have to shut down at once to meet later and limited demand for the dozen or so gas formulations every other state demands. for winter and Summer use. This will stabilize prices by allowing only a few plants at a time to have to make the switch over a more protracted schedule. That one makes too much sense not to cram down some throats.

The government needs to make a stand and just flat out admit, we are at Economic war with countries that have ****ty armies but control energy production. They are already mostly poor so they aren’t going to suffer much more than they already are. But they can manipulate prices by refusing to pump more or deciding to pump less (often in defiance of OPEC), shutting down refineries for “Maintenance” that lasts for years, or agitating existing guerrilla and/or terrorist enemies into blowing up oil plants and so on to jack up prices further.

We need to re-compartmentalize energy production to limit the manipulation of energy by dissident countries (We have our own core energy supply and we sell the excess at global prices), improve the efficiency of that production and usage to better control costs (Nope. CAFE still rules, car fans), and end rampant speculation by the greedy rich who think nothing of what their “slash and burn” economics are doing to the world.

But I figure the world is going to put its collective foot down at some point or the price may reach $200/gallon and quickly collapse to around $60/gallon before stabilizing at around $70-80/gallon. This showing the true cost of supply and demand. But things are going to get worse before that can ever happen and this and other nations need to refortify our energy infrastructures if this is going to never happen again.

No. I am not running for President nor do I work for any of the Candidates.

olds307 (#27),

Somehow I doubt it. GM, FORD, and CHRYSLER will put there best foot forward now that they know they can not afford not to. The Lambdas are a step in the direction GM is, I’ll assume, proposing. They fulfill just about every requirement a large SUV buyer is looking for.

I don’t think All the Full-Sized body-on-frame SUVs will go away but their will be far less frequent. There will be huge advances in materials to cope with the enormous weight of these machines. A comparable car weighs easily 500-1000 lbs less. Even full-sized SUVs and truck will benefit by this. But in the end this is about giving the customer,and not just you, what they want. They will decide based largely on what they need as well. They will stop over-purchasing when the cost of that over-purchase is more than they are willing to tolerate, (i.e. high gas prices and crappy mileage leading to higher cost to operate).

Boner you refer to about GM killing the B-body and G-body cars is indeed one of the biggest mistakes GM has ever made. But the bigger mistake was not having some equivalent follow-up. A next Generation B-body for example. But ALL DETROIT was going for the easy money of Full-sized trucks and SUVs and it has come back to bite them in the ass. Something TOYOTA is starting to learn.

FYI the G-bodies were mostly large RWD Coupes through the late 1970s and 1980s. Exmples include the CHEVY Monte Carlo and BUICK Regal.

Ford is making a similar mistake with their ancient Panther platform cars, basically acquiescing the full-sized fleet market to CHRYSLER’s LY and LX cars. If you live up north you are probably starting to see Charger Police cruisers. I have seen a few high dollar 300 taxi’s and limos in NEW YORK. FORD hasn’t moved yet, out loud, but that need to do something.

Let me add 2 cents of pontification here. First and foremost the price of oil will continue to go up. It may settle for a short period of time at some level, but as long as population rises the demand for oil will grow. Oil used not only to propel Suburbans and Denallis down the road, but to manufacturer tires, gaskets and hoses for those trucks.
GM handed market to Ford of obsolete RWD cars because it had wisdom to realize that if you don’t make money on the product – don’t manufacture it. Can anyone point out the profit Ford gets from police car division? Ford lost 12 billion dollars in fiscal 2006.
Perhaps there is a ray of sanity within GM walls (or perhaps not) by dividing working truck group with dead end products. Suburban was a working implement for a contractor to bring his crew to work 25 years ago not a fashionable tots mobile.

Some really good thoughts here, especially from injunraiv and cookie4me…

GM has always been real hardcore about trucks and truck-based SUVs, if they gave this up it would be another chapter in the Lord-of-The-Rings-Trilogy-sized book of GMs retarded decisions, among others like killing damn near all their legendary names and letting the rest rot away, like the Impala..

The Lambdas are pretty big already, and I’m sure they could make some even bigger CUVs without too much effort, and that would essentially be a unibody Suburban/ Yuon XL.. The Traverse and company already are roughly the size of the Tahoe and the rest of the gang..

I’m sure the demand for real “SUV”s won’t disappear, even if it dips considerably, but with Diesels and a few weight-saving tweaks it would be “halb so wild”.. half as wild, as we say in Germany.

Trust me, Ford makes plenty of money off the Crown Vic, Marquis, and Town Car, development and tooling have been paid for several times over… and further proof that the Panters are a cash cow for Ford is that they’ve been making noises that they’re going to discontinue them since 1994… but they’ve yet to because it’s probably the most (only?) profitable line Ford has!

olds307 (#32),

Then explain the Falcon testers in the US then. FORD is going to to really toss the Panthers pretty soon.

With CHRYSLER’s LY and LX cars and GM about to roll out the ZETA cars, the 30+ year old Panther platform has more than outlived it’s usefulness. After all for over 10 years, the Panther was the only game in town if you were after a large RWD Four-door. That has changed enormously. Hanging on to such a decrepit platform is just stupid in the face of such rising competition.

If you have been looking at FORD’s decision to cut back on Fleet sales which cut into profits, you may see that the need to move on is finally sinking in. Not relying on this they have to have cars that average people, municipalities (The Police, the Government), Non-rental fleets (Taxi companies) will consider over newer more effective machines like the aforementioned LY and LX cars as they are steadily purchased to replace older worn out Crown Vics.

The Panthers are not the only profitable cars FORD makes either. Though not as outstanding as some competitors’ there is still…

The Fusion/MKZ (Easy base hit)
The MUSTANG! (For pity’s sake how can you miss that one)
The Five Hundred/Taurus/MKS (The prior is a bit hard to swing but is so)
The Focus (Especially with current gas price concerns)

No, the Panther’s are going pretty soon, because they will not be at all adequate in the next few years. Once GM returns to fleet sales with their large cars, it is over entirely for the Panther. This because the Panther WILL NOT be the only or only other game in town anymore and GM can really cut sweet fleet deals for Police, Rental, and Taxi.

GM still has the LIMO and Hearse markets, I have yet to see a LINCLON Hearse and I see CADILLAC Limos far more that LINCOLN.

I don’t know where you are but in NYC Cadillac limos are all but non-existant. As much as I love GM, and Cadillacs, even I’ll admit that the FWD Cadillacs are too troublesome for fleet use. The typical Town Car is run to 500,000 miles, beginning life either as a private car or with a luxury limo company, and by the time it’s ready for the scrap heap it has 500-600,000 miles on it, used as ” community cab” complete with a bulletproof divider installed. All in a city with extremely nasty streets with potholes, dips, bumps, and craters.

I’ve yet to see a Chrysler replace a Ford except for the Highway Patrol cars.

And what would be the point? Because they’re “newer”. Believe it or not, newer is NOT ALWAYS better!

And by “outlived its usefulness”, I assume you mean that nobody has any need for a high quality, rugged, smooth, comfortable, well designed sedan that can handle inner city streets as well as it can cruise smooth highways anymore?

Gotta love the NY/NJ comments… Just goes to show that some people like HemiRetard don’t use all-encompassing stereotypes on cars… Just like making comments on cars they’ve never driven, they make comments on places they’ve never been… Ever heard of upstate NY or South Jersey?? Both are as completely opposite to the NYC/NNJ area as such could get… By such logic, FL is nothing but Miami ghettos and themeparks populated by nothing but Cubans in the south, retirees in the middle, and hemi-lovin’ rednecks to the north…

I know it’s a totally foreign concept… but try actually knowing what you’re talking about before you open your trap.

Either way… GM should move the majority of their SUVs to unibody platforms… however, it would be foolish to not keep at least one full-size BOF SUV at the top of the line for both Chevy and GMC… as has been said, while it may be shrinking – there will always be a market for such vehicles… So why abandon it all together?

South Florida is full of Hemi-Loving Rednecks too lol

I’ve seen Jersey, it’s not that bad. Leonia, Fort Lee, those places are really nice actually. And only 10-20 minutes from Manhattan.

Beats the **** out of Tallahassee, or wherever the **** 400horses****edme is from.

^ Hey you jeep driving homo, I live in Missouri, gotta love your weak ass personal attacks step your game up pussy.

They’re thinking ahead and doing what it takes to stay competitive. This would be a good move.

400horseSS,

You inbred ****puddle spawn, If you think that Dubai’s cash comes from oil, think again. Oil income makes up a paltry 7% of Dubai’s GDP, the majority of it comes from exactly what you saw on TV – property development.

Don’t blame the Middle East for oil price increases, blame the man in the curvy office in Washington and his soldier slaughter project in what used to be home to the world’s most ancient cities.

Try forming your opinions from something other than the TV and you might soon stand out as a giant among your nation of tube-glued media puppets.

with love,

^ Calm down bitch, I didnt say all the money I said some, 88% of non-retards know its GWB’s fault.

I am calm baby, probably because I live on a man-made palm island in the Arabian Gulf, with a beach for a back yard and two convertibles in the garage… oh and a refill costs less than $15