DSkippy

http://www.thecarconnection.com/blog/?p=759

[quote]General Motors has been forced to rework the investment case for the Chevrolet Camaro in the wake of new fuel-economy rules adopted this past December.

The Camaro will still be built, but higher-end V-8 versions likely will be priced higher than expected. As for other planned GM rear-drivers–a new Chevrolet Impala, Buick LaCrosse and the replacement for the Pontiac G8 due this spring–all have been dropped along with a new V-8 engine GM was contemplating building.

“You can’t kill something that was never approved,” said one GM official, who asked for anonymity but who confirmed the rear-wheel-drive projects are now dead.

Stew Low, a spokesman for GM of Canada, said the Camaro project is safe and is moving forward. The GM of Canada plant in Oshawa, Ontario outside of Toronto should be ready to build the first Camaro late this year, Low said.

Buzz Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers union, said that GM is spending $2.5 billion in Oshawa - including $435 million from the Ontario and Canadian federal governments.

“We anticipated that would be followed by other rear-wheel-drive vehicles, but the money they spent on the plant makes it a flex plant, so you can build both front-drive and rear-wheel-drive in the facility,'’ Hargrove told reporters in Canada.

Only a proposal for new ultra-luxury rear-wheel-drive Cadillac seems to still have a chance of making it through GM’s product development process and into production. Even that project, though, may well depend on how the Environmental Protection Agency writes the rules enforcing the new fuel-economy standards.

The death of the other rear-drive GM vehicles also has implications for the final pricing of the Camaro when it goes on sale next year.

Last year, GM vice chairman Robert Lutz had told TheCarConnection.com that the rear-wheel-drive platform developed for the Camaro would support other vehicles as part of GM’s effort to make the project financially manageable. Spinning more vehicles from one platform spreads the costs around and is the most efficient and effective way for GM to use its available capital, Lutz has said.

As part of global product strategy GM plans to use fewer but more flexible platforms that would accommodate a wider range of vehicles and vehicle designs. Specifically, the new Camaro platform could be used for other rear-drive vehicles, Lutz said he said before the fuel-economy debate had heated up in Congress.

Part of the reason for the delay in moving forward with the Camaro project revolved around extending the utility of the fundamental architecture so it could serve as the platform for other vehicles as well, he said.

The new fuel-economy rules, however, have basically forced GM to reconsider its extensive plans for rear-wheel-drive vehicles. Rear-wheel-drive trucks and SUVs are safe for now because the new federal rules will allow some wiggle room for trucks. GM, though, is not in a position to absorb the roughly 1-mpg fuel-economy penalty that comes with building rear-wheel-drive passenger cars, GM insiders said in the wake of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

However, GM’s decision to scrap the other rear-drive models is putting an enormous cost burden on the new Camaro.

GM officials are saying they should be able to recover some of the investment costs in the new rear-wheel-drive platform by selling the vehicles in places such as Australia, the Middle East and China. Australia, however, has a new government that takes global warming very seriously. China is imposing new fuel-economy standards that are as tough as those found in the United States and one of the largest vehicle markets in the Middle East, Iran, is off limits to American car companies.

Nevertheless, GM desperately wants to price the new Camaro competitively against vehicles like the new Dodge Challenger and particularly the F

Paladin06

The new muscle age, will be much shorter then the first.

DSkippy

A final coupe de grace. OR people will embrace new ways to go fast.

Justinec101

Was about to post the same article. . .

I think the most interesting part of this is that now the camaro doesn't fit in with GMs plans and is going to cost more because of it. Meanwhile chrysler is still moving forward with their LX/LY/L-whatever platforms and can always fit the challenger in. And if gm does make a hybrid camaro, dodge already has the hybrid hemi ready to go to compete. With challenger production in full swing and the mustang getting a facelift right when the camaro hits, combined with the camaro's higher price, I have a feeling dodge and ford are going to be in the lead.

1 Bad Mirada

what happens to oil prices when there are reports of shortages? the price goes up...

now, there are rampant reports about V8s going away amidst a terrible market...does anyone see my point here?

people are freaking out about how CAFE is going to ruin the auto industry. the mustang has kept ford alive for 40+ years...its not going away due to some new restrictions. i cant believe that seemingly everyone is so convinced that cafe is going to bring an end to powerful gas powered engines, especially considering the new technology alloing performance engines to get good mileage. amandas grandfathers 300c got up around 30mpg on a long highway trip...

mopar2ya

and... I saw a post somewhere here from a member talking about his 36 mpg Plymouth Horizon... and, I used to have a '93 Geo that got 45 to 50 mpg... and, the '04 Neon I'm currently driving has never gotten less than 32 mpg on a tank of gas, pretty much exclusively 10 mile round trip a day to work and back non-highway miles. Chrysler or any other company just needs to buck up and start working on these types of cars for those mileage minded folks and soon we could be seeing 100 mpg low HP cars. I've read elsewhere that current efficiency of internal combustion gasoline engines in cars is about 15% of the fuel being used as energy, not sure if that's accurate. If it is though, there is a tremendous amount of room for improvement. The "technology" exists... if they build it, people will buy in a heartbeat. Combined Average Fuel Economy for the company goes way up, and the manufacturer can continue making a certain percentage of Muscle Cars and Trucks. Everybody is happy.

Anyone have a solid argument why this isn't already happening?

RLSH700

A hybrid muscle car will not go over. That is like trying to get a person who likes steaks to eat veggy burgers. It won't happen. They will subsitute to chicken first (diesel).

Patrick, I realize that the 300C most likely can get 30mpg when driven correctly as I have been able to do over 32mpg with E10 with my car that was only rated for 26mpg, but if I'm not mistaken the issue is that the cars are judged by the "offical" EPA ratings. My question is what happens when the car companies are not able to meet the CAFE standards.

The fact of the matter is the demand for V8 cars is there, they are just afraid of the Gov't regulations. My theory is continue making the muscle cars until you can't sell them. That way people will be burned out on them (if that is possible).

cncpt2prod!

Full combustion engine only for me. Doesn't matter what the fuel is.

DSkippy

The Horizon was me. Loved that car. As for these mileages....the thing that blows me away is diesel. Europe has cleaned up they're diesels and turbo charged them so their performance is passable. One of my favorite all time Magazine automotive ads was the Ford Escort Diesel, where it read "The Ford Escort Diesel gets better than this import (Featured a Toyota) and below it "and this one" (featured a Honda) and even this one (featured a Kawasaki...that's right a motorcycle)" I thought who ever figured this one out was almost as smart as the engineer who put the engine and car together on paper.

Anyway, if they could do that in the mid 80's....Uhmmmmm....it's only been 20 years and we've got computers handling spark now....come on status quo folks....

btw if I remember correctly, the MPG on the escort was 48. Cleaner, turbocharged diesels...why not. I'll even put one in the trunk of my Chally!

RLSH700

Considering the popularity of diesels in trucks, I don't see why clean diesel's wouldn't catch on. Dodge stopped offering their V10 and just used the Cummins finding that enough people were satisfied with the Cummins that they really didn't need the V10 anymore. The other big block gas engines haven't had that much effort put into them either. The diesel Liberty sold over double what they originally anticipated. The demand for used Volkswagen Jetta diesels is pretty high. I think a considerable number of people are already sold on them, they just need to learn to offer them again and this time make sure the offerings aren't junk (cough GM cough).