Posted on 02/19/2009 5:20:32 AM PST by paul544
The next shoe has dropped at General Motors and it has landed squarely on performance-car enthusiasts. Just when things were getting really tasty, GM has disbanded the High Performance Vehicle Operations unit of the company's Performance Division.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.edmunds.com ...
Dude! Bought a brand new Vette in ‘05? I hope when I grow up I can be just like Da Coyote. : )
..along with the government issued warranty,worked on by the new government employees
There may be a silver lining to this though...
Moving the High Performance team onto the regular production teams might more directly infuse the knowledge of the High Performance engineers than the previous arrangement.
Sure, it puts a big damper on R&D for the time being, but it may not be as detrimental as we think.
That would make me weep.
"Well those engineers are now on core projects. So core product will have performance. Why make it a separate line with ricer bodies? Put the power and handling in a regular handsomely styled car without ricing on top."
I totally agree. Why does "performance" always have to come in "low volume" versions with a "big ol' dealer markup"??
I'd imagine cars with ricer bodies are biodegradable, and therefore carbon friendly. :-)
Those are the only cars the GM made that I know of actual people who really wanted to buy them....
Definitely things I’ll miss, yeah. That probably means the end or nearly the end of development of the Corvette Z60, which is possibly the best sports car GM ever made.
Thanks for the link. Their vehicles may have performance, but their website sure doesn’t.
GM will retreat to producing poorly designed econo boxes that please the government but no one will buy or duds like the new Chevy Volt until it goes bankrupt and is bought by a foreign car company. I personally would like to see GM bought by Hyundai as it would start to bring back good engineering to their products. After more than 35 years of buying Chevies I bought a Mazda and definitely won’t consider buying another GM product.
Figures they'd pull the plug the year I turn 50 and decide to have a midlife crisis.
Thanks, but I have my own auto techs. LOL
Before they destroy our country and our way of life, they need to be "taken care of".
“Does this mean the end of the Corvette? Actually, they get pretty good gas mileage.”
My guess is the corvette will turn into a show car. No innovation, just a fancy body on a sedan chasis.
“GM will not survive as a private company if it does not build cars that sell. That should be obvious to the central planners in Washington as well as GM execs.”
The key word here is PRIVATE. The left has hated American car companies for decades because they continue to build evil SUVs and other cars that people actually want. Now that the greenies have them under their thumb, they are not going to let go. GM will become a facist company (privatly owned, but run/directed by the government.) In return the government will make up any losses.
The is the classic definiton of fascism. And here it is in America.
In Germany it was Volkswagen.
In the U.S. it will be Fubarwagen.
The people responsible for trillions of dollars of debt are going to show the people responsible for billions of dollars of debt how to run things.
I may be able to tolerate this as long as they still sell crate engines and trannies.
I hope someone (hey Rush, Hannity, etc...) starts using the word fascism in relation to what is going on with the auto companies. It would probably be the first time 40 years anyone has used the word correctly.
The bank bailout is starting to have fascist aspects also, but the auto companies is the most obvious/clear example.
As much as the left has thrown the word fascist around, it’s ironic that Obama is actually implementing fascist policies.
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