http://automotive.speedtv.com/articl...formance-unit/

 

Some of the guys that posted below are complete idiots. 4 cylinder firebirds, they never existed, and if they did the mustang is one of the most popular cars on the road and it did come with a 4 cylinder. Im not saying GM didnt have its share of problems but so did every other company. I would rather have a car that has a reliable drivetrain but the door gaps dont line up just right than a car that looks excellent while its at the shop. The fact that GM is dumping their performance division for the time being isnt really a big deal. Its not like there technology is going to disappear, there will still be performance models there just not going to fund the R&D for it right now. To be honest performance and efficiency goes hand in hand if you make an efficient motor its going to have more power. in conclusion BFD

 

For what it's worth, 4 cylinder Firebirds did exist. The 2.5L 90hp 4 cylinder was available in early third-generation Firebirds, starting in 1982.

 

yep, I remember them too...also offerred in Camaros of the same era...DDBS

 

Meanwhile, what's this going to mean for Corvette? Is America's flagship sportscar going to end up sacrificed for the greater good???

I, for one, don't want a "core product".

 

The C6 may have as long of a run as the C3 did. I would guess that techncal advances and R&D would slow down in the near term at least. The current Z06 and ZR-1 - and the next model year or three - are sunk R&D costs and obviously production-ready, so I would guess that GM will build them in their current state as long as people are still buying them.

 

I had one of those high powered 2.8L V6 engines in my 1985 camaro. May as well had a 4 cylinder engine in it. The other day I suggested to a friend that GM could sell the corvette line to a european car maker. I know the purist would loose sleep but think about someone like Porshe getting their hands on the vette. I think it would be interesting to see what the Germans or Italians could do with it. I would rather see that than GM kill the line.

Jim

 

No big surprise here. Every smart company is focusing on core business and keeping expenses down. The corvette will run with little or no changes as long as people buy them. If sales drop so will the product.

Gm has been through this so manys time with the economy. Once things turn around performance will be back, but I bet you won't see much in performance for a while.

Moral of the story, go buy it know, it may not be here later. If you can afford it.

 

They would turn it into a car that nobody but the very rich could afford just like the cars they build now.

Many people buy Corvettes because they are made in the USA. There is a lot of pride involved in a machine that is designed and built here.

Hybrids and small cars will put GM out of business. It's not what people buy from them.

 

I don't buy foreign cars and I wouldn't buy a foreign built corvette.

 

All those people waxing poetic about their 60s, 70s and 80s Japanese cars that were so good need to take off their rose colored glasses and have a real world look at those cars. Particularly the rust. Sure they kept running and got good gas mileage and all the while the body was disintegrating all around them.

It wasn't until the mid 80s that these cars actually got pretty decent mileage out of the body and what helped that? They started using US steel instead of that crap they were making there.

The German cars were for the most part hand built so they should be expected to be better.

Unfortunately, the US auto industry traded quality for high production numbers. I believe the thinking at the time was planned obsolescence will keep them selling cars.

Just my $.02.

cc

 

I wonder if they'll bring the production management in-house. I've read that they tried that in '68 and it lasted exactly one year because the fit, finish and quality went through the floorboards.

 

I worked in the car business for a while in the mid 80's and drove a lot of those little cars. Not only did those early Japanese cars have bodies that were junk, they were uncomfortable, rode and handled like a tin can on a steel wheeled roller skate (remember those?), and they had some of the worst safety records of cars ever built. The Honda Civic which is held in such high regard had the worst fatality record of any car of the day.

The Japanese cars didn't get big here because they were so good, it was just that American cars were so bad in the mid 70' and through the 80's. They had no power, they drank gas, there was no quality control, and they had no style. The Corvette was about the only American car at the time to have any character left in it. That however has changed. Some of the best cars in the world are built in the USA! A lot of these rice drivers just can't get past what happened to US cars back in that period and they can't see what the present has to offer.

 

G'day,
I believe that the Corvette plant will remain open until management in Detroit notice a severe drop in sales. Yjem the manure will hit the fan. As long as there are people like us who love the car, and buy them, the brand should remain safe.

However, one way to see an increase in sales would be to build some Right Hand Drive versions of the current model. Almost one third of the world's population, that's two billion people, live in countries where RHD is the norm. Half of them are in India, which has a "working class" of about 300 million people.

Indonesia has a population of about 180 million, Japan, United Kingdom and Australia about 150 million in total, plus Malaysia, New Zealand, Ireland, Cyprus, many Carribean islands, etc.

As far as I know, Australia is the only RHD country that INSISTS on all cars being RHD in order to register them, the others allow LHD cars to be driven on their roads without the need to convert them.

If though, GM made available a RHD Corvette to be sold at GM, Chevrolet, Vauxhall or Holden dealers in the respective countries, then it would make it a lot easier to drive these cars on the left side of the road. Extra sales would be a certain result.

In a motoring supplement in Australia's largest selling daily newspaper last week, there was a report on a Corvette RHD conversion factory in Melbourne importing a ZL1 Corvette in order to do a RHD conversion. The proprietor said that he estimated the selling price to be about AU$400,000. Currently, one Australian dollar will buy about US$0.65. You do the maths, but that's about a QUARTER MILLION US dollars for a car that sells in the US for around $100,000.

If a current Corvette sells for around US$50,000, or around AU$80,000, then surely GM could sell them in Australia for not much more than that IF they were built RHD in Bowling Green.

To give you an example, a Mazda MX5, or Miata as it's sold in the US, sells for around AU$45,000 and they sell well. A Porsche Boxster cannot be bought new for under AU$100,000 and the hot one is about AU$150,000, and neither is a match for even the base Corvette IMHO.

GM actually make the Hummer H3 in RHD and sell it in Australia, but it's not a match for Jeep, Nissan Patrol, Subaru Forecter, etc. and they're all made RHD.

Why can't GM make the decision to build Corvette in RHD?

They're losing lots of money in potential sales by not doing so.

Regards from Down Under

aussiejohn
6 months to go today

 

A few years ago I was offered an assignment in Oxford, UK. One concern I had was learning to drive a right hand drive car. It was not that I could not learn. I was more concerned that in an emergency situation my instincts would cause me to steer the wrong way. They also drive on the wrong side of the street

Jim

 

The purist would kick and scream and stomp off to their bedroom like a 3 year old who didn't get his way. However, I think it would be cool to see Ferrari TEAM up with GM on the Corvette, keeping it made in the United States. I think moving the line outside of the U.S. would be a horrible move and significantly hurt it, but teaming up with a European car company (I like Ferrari) could lead to some good improvements in the car and alleviate some of the expenses for GM and even help that European company get its market and name in the U.S. (more so than now).

 

Back around '69, someone (Brock Yates?) said in a Car and Driver Corvette 427 road test,
"If the Corvette were built by the dozens in Italy, it would be considered one of the world's greatest cars."

 

Has anyone stopped to consider the fact that more hondas, nissans, and toyotas are made in the USA than fords, dodges, and GMs?



Also, you wanna know what is killing the big three?



The fact that there is a dude named Bob on assembly line 2, who's only education is a highschool diploma, doing a job that a monkey can be trained to do...and he's making 30+ an hour.


Anyone care to explain to me why Bob needs, or deserves, his 30+ an hour to do menial labor? Because he has been with the company a few years is NOT a decent explanation, by the way.


American workers complain about jobs getting shipped outa here....but the reason WHY they are losing their jobs is because....of the AMERICAN WORKERS.


Sorry, I know we are all patriots here, but get this, it's BECAUSE I'm a patriot that I'm saying this right now. Fact is, supply and demand, which is rule 1 of economics, dictates that Bob should most CERTAINLY NOT be getting 30+ dollars an hour, to attach door piece A to the door, and send it on down the line. Fact is, Bob is a dime a dozen. There are 300,000,000 Bobs in this country, and growing. You want to fix the big three, you fix the screwed up unions that are strangling them.

 

There was a time when we needed Unions, that time was past in the 60's. American workers build fine automobiles in Honda, Nissan, and BMW plants...and they do it without a union. I work in a Union factory, and when I walk on the shop floor I am always shocked at how many people are not doing anything, but product still rolls out the door. Thats because on Friday they tell everyone, we need to work overtime on the weekend to get the job done, and then get busy when they are being paid over time, or double time, or triple time on the Holidays.
My car was bulit on a Saturday in May 1970, not sure if thats better or worse then a Friday in May.

 

I own three vehicles. A 72 Corvette, a 86 GMC truck and a 98 Honda Civic. I'd love to buy a good American made vehicle for my daily driver, but if there is a better commuter car than my Civic, I'd like to see it. At 158,000 miles, it runs like new, has had absolutely nothing replaced except the exhaust system, and gets 40 mpg. I've never even had to replace the clutch or brakes. Name an American car that can compare and I'll buy it.