[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by stovt001

I wouldn't hold my breath on Alpha. Being RWD it will surely get 1 mpg less than a similar FWD architecture, and you know GM just can't stomach that. As has been said plenty of times, GM really wanted to cancel the Camaro and G8, but they were too far along. Anything else that has such an evil layout as RWD will not be tolerated.
Now hang on a minute. I think you're taking that bit about the Camaro and G8 out of context a little bit. Whoever said they wanted to cancel them? I remember the interview where they said the Camaro is far enough along to escape review...but you make it sound as though they wish to kill every performance car they've got. I'd be confident even the Camaro would have passed a "product review". The mpg was about the Impala - a 250+ car a YEAR platform...switching to RWD would have deterred buyers, and yes cost a mpg or two...in a vehicle of that volume, you need to be careful.

EDIT: And I'm confident in Alpha's introduction not being too hampered. They only have four RWD platforms currently. Sigma, Kappa, Zeta, and the Y-body (Corvette). Two of them are stupid-expensive, one of them is unique to a single vehicle and not very adaptable - and the last, most versatile platform (Zeta) is on the large side of the scale. They need something to compliment Zeta, which would be Alpha. But more than all of this: Cadillac needs an 1-series/3-series fighter....they have nothing near that class right now; and Sigma cannot shrink down that small.

It doesn't much matter if they're practical or not. GM is selling a ton of them, and demand is still strong. ((Are you sure of that? LINK They sell approx. 20,000 a year each, and that's a declining number.)) That's despite having inferior steering feel, inferior handling, and a cheap interior. They annihilated Mazda's far superior (in all areas but looks) car in sales. Now imagine if they made it competitive and figured out how to build it at a reasonable cost (hint: hydroforming and hand building are not part of that equation) it would be an unquestioned hit for GM. This concept really isn't difficult. As Jeremy Clarkson described it, it is as simple "as beans on toast".
I have no idea why they decided to build the car the way that they did. I'm not defending that. But now they must make a choice: continue losing money on a mediocre-selling car? Or shelve it FOR NOW, let the G8 become Pontiac's attention grabber - and stop losing money. The business decision for this move is what I'm defending.(to a point)

But why would GM go through that effort when clearly what they need is another class leading, selling-like-hotcakes Aveo rebadge. And of course, they've only given Lambda to 4 divisions. They're only half-way done there. And the Malibu/Aura has only been done twice. They have tons of models left to rebadge before they can even think of making a new car.
Now you're just ranting...

Give it a year or two. Hopefully, by 2010, things will start to turn around as far as business goes; and after all these cuts, and cost trimmings, etc - GM will be lean and fit for another series of great car introductions. What they're doing now, and what they've been doing is trying to ensure their survival to that point...surely you'd not rather see them die in a blaze of 'glory', than adapt to the market.