[Eric in the Ozarks]

A lot of this has to do with CAFE, put in since Jimmah Cahtah's days. Its cost GM millions in profits on bigger cars and prevented them from exploiting their best brand; Cadillac.
If I were at GM and faced with this predicament, I would have the engineers design a light, tube frame Caddy with aluminum skin and a smaller version of the Northstar engine. This is not rocket science.
Why does every American car have to weigh 2 or 2 1/2 tons ?

[09Patriot]

they weigh so much due to federal regulated standards. take the Dodge Neon, fairly light weight, it was replaced with the dodge caliber heavy hog. I am told for the neon to meet the new standards it would weigh as much as a caliber. here is another case of the fed gov screwing over car makers.