Quote:
Originally Posted by syr74
I worked in the auto industry for a long time and my money says GM could have built ever Cobalt as an SS, with a few deviations in standard equipment, and still spend less money building the thing than Honda spends building the Civic. Cobalt is an older design and was engineered to be inexpensive from the outset. One engine offering would drastically simplify the production line, further reducing costs, and the relatively massive rebates the Cobalt effectively came out of the starting gate with told you that GM priced this car in the old school, domestic manner of 'ask way too much for it and then rebate it back down to reality'.
I agree that nobody looking for a Corolla is going to buy a Cobalt, but then I would argue that none of them will buy the Cruze either. The best strategy for GM and Ford is to appeal to those folks not enamored with the status quo IMO.
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That may be true, but you have to wonder...If all Cobalts WERE SS's, regardless if they were cheaper to make, would they really profit as much and sell as many as they do? It seems one of the biggest audiences of Cobalts are high school kids or freshly graduated. I'm not sure exactly what the prices of insurance are like for a Cobalt SS, but I've heard they're insane. If insurance is as bad as I've heard, I'm sure a lot of those high school kids wouldn't be able to afford one anymore, dropping sales drastically. The ones that could still afford one would probably be spoiled rich kids that treat their car with little respect and have little respect for anyone else on the road. Let's face it, teenagers are maniacs behind the wheel of a semi-powerful or more car, not to mention everyone else since they'd be so easy to come by, and insurance claims would go up, raising the price for everyone, allowing even less young people (the majority target from what I've seen) to get one. But that's just my opinion.