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Automotive News & Views GM News, New Models and Market Share
8456 messages, Last post on Nov 26, 2009 at 4:07 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: cooterbfd (Jul 08, 2009 2:20 am)  Your link isn't working for me but Motor Authority quotes Wards quoting GM that one is in the works. There's one in China I guess. The Fusion hybrid does look nice. It's a bit pricey and you lose the trunk pass-through because of the battery pack behind the rear seat. Nice mpg though, and the reviewers like driving it better than the other hybrids. GM News is thin this week. There is this for those heading out on your summer vacation: Cadillac Ranch 
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Replying to: xrunner2 (Jul 08, 2009 6:07 am) If they can make it to break even, maybe they can actually get to the point of making money on small cars. This is an important thing to accomplish.
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Replying to: bpizzuti (Jul 08, 2009 9:25 am)
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Replying to: carstryke (Jul 08, 2009 12:41 pm) |
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I've read about it somewhere (MT or CD). Cadillac is going to offer new models and revise some older models: 1. a Lexus ES competitor by the name XTS 2. The next CTS is gonna be smaller to better compete with class leaders 3. Escalade is also going to be smaller 4. One flagship model to replace both STS and DTS. My predictions come true 
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Replying to: carstryke (Jul 08, 2009 12:41 pm) ***** The last manual transmission available in a larger or midsize car was in 1987 IIRC, as a special order option on the Buick Regal/Century. Usually this was an option on a Grand National, but it could be ordered for a standard car as well.)remember seeing the order sheet in 1986 when I was contemplating a "sleeper" Regal with the Grand National engine and manual. No emblems, interior, or hood changes though. IIRC, only a couple of hundred of these were ordered and still command a decent price if you can find one. Then it was automatics and front wheel drive since then. This also coincides with their loss in market share. People don't *like* front wheel drive as a rule. They get it because it's "practical" and "the norm", much like how minivans are. So the loss of a manual as an option plus RWD placed GM right in the middle of the "rental/commuter box" category for many people. And the Japanese makers were the best at this segment at the time.
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Replying to: plekto (Jul 09, 2009 2:24 am) Another useless statistic...for the 1976 LeMans, I found this quote... "Only 8.5 percent of all LeMans intermediates got the Six and 99.8 percent were automatics." Now, I don't quite know how to read that...whether 99.8% of ALL LeManses were automatics (I suspect this is the case) or 99.8% of all 6-cyl LeManses were automatics. The base transmission back then was a 3-on-the-tree. However, you could get a 400 V-8 with a 5-speed manual...that must have been fun, considering the era. I believe there was also a package where you could get the Olds 260 V-8 with a 4-speed? In 1977, 99.4% off all LeManses were automatic. I didn't realize you could still get a Regal with a stick by 1987. In looking through the EPA's data, the last most recent year they show a stick shift in a GM intermediate is 1981, and there it's only offered on the Malibu with the 229, or the Century/Cutlass/LeMans with the 231. The Monte Carlo, Regal, and Grand Prix aren't shown as offering it. However, is it possible that if they build few enough of a certain combination, the EPA just doesn't test it? The EPA's online data only goes back to 1978 (although I've heard that fuel economy in the window sticker actually first started showing up for 1975). It doesn't show any GM full-size cars in 1978 offering a manual shift. I think they actually made the automatic standard in the big cars sometime between 1971-76, but I'm not positive. In a somewhat bold move, when the FWD GM-10 coupes came out for 1988, the Cutlass Supreme and Grand Prix were offered with a 5-speed manual, mated to a 2.8 V-6. I doubt if very many sold, though. When that hot 3.4 V-6 came out, you could also get it with a 5-speed, at least up through 1993 I think.
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Replying to: plekto (Jul 09, 2009 2:24 am) |
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Replying to: andre1969 (Jul 09, 2009 4:04 am) Andre, This is how I remember it as well - the last g-body to have a manual was the malibu and that was with the 229 and was early & rare. IIRC the owners manual for my '81 Calais listed a 4-spd option, but again, that was only for the 231. If pletko is correct and a couple hundred g-body Regals were built with a manual I wonder what trans they used because it definitely wasn't the T5 nor Doug-Nash 4+3 because those things were hella weak and I know it wasn't a T-56 because you would've been talking firewall / floor surgery as well as other system changes and it wasn't even out yet (believe it was intro'd for the '89 or '90 model year Corvette). Chevy was already miffed that GNs were eating Corvettes for dinner at the time (and I won't even get into the GNX). Also, like you stated EPA wasn't going to let that fly, plus the certification $$. And I'm sure one of us car nuts would've known about it. As far as the "sleeper" Grand National all I know was the T-Type.
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"The "new" General Motors that emerges from bankruptcy by the end of this week may well usher in the event with a new logo -- one that is green instead of blue." GM Logo May Turn Green (AutoObserver) 
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