GM Shelves C7 Corvette...
The new C7 body style Corvette anticipated to be released in 2010 (not the supercharged "ZR-1") has been shelved "indefinitely" indicating a 2014 release at the earliest. This is a blow to GM, but may open up their Corvette market niche just enough to sell some GTM's into
From today's "Autoweek Daily Drive" email comes additional grim GM news:
Sinking feeling: GM cost-cutting efforts
By BOB GRITZINGER
Now comes news that GM is, in fact, shelving virtually all product development efforts for 2009 and 2010, all in the name of keeping enough cash on hand to pay the bills. As with the Corvette decision, it all seems shortsighted, as though GM is making a move to save itself in the short run for a future where--because of a lack of new product--its likelihood of survival is tentative at best.
So what comes next? A good guess is that the next big announcement will be the retirement of GM vice chairman and product czar Bob Lutz. Give Lutz credit for keeping GM alive and on the upswing (at least on the product side) thus far, but like Wallace, why would Lutz stay on with zero dollars for product development in the foreseeable future? Lutz, famous for his "Sez Who?" stickers which questioned everything GM was doing wrong when he came on board, doesn't strike us as the kind of guy who likes to take "sorry, we can't afford that" for an answer.
And then what? Can GM's excellent design and product-development staffs survive another round of bean-counting and brand management by people who wouldn't know a good car or truck if it plowed into them in traffic while they were checking their stock prices on their Blackberries while driving into GM's headquarters?
Yes, it turns out the C7 news was just a harbinger of bad news. The iceberg metaphor is apropos, considering GM often is considered as hard to steer as the Titanic, and just as likely to plow into an obstacle as it is to make its way clear. Without product development, GM may be able to float for a while longer. But it will take good products to save the ship from sinking.
