GM disbands unit that creates high-performance vehicles
Jamie LaReau Automotive News February 18, 2009 - 5:05 pm ET
DETROIT -- General Motors, focusing on mainstream products in a battle to survive, has scrapped a unit that produced high-performance vehicles.
GM today disbanded High Performance Vehicle Operations, which is based at the company's suburban Detroit technical center, and redeployed its engineers, said spokesman Vince Muniga.
"All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold," Muniga said. "The engineers are moving into different areas of the organization, and they will work on Cadillacs, Buicks, Chevrolets and Pontiacs."
The unit created low-volume vehicles for GM's divisions designed to appeal to enthusiasts and bolster the company's image. Products included V-series Cadillacs and the Chevrolet Cobalt SS, HHR SS and a V-8 version of the Colorado.
Muniga said there are no plans for high-performance versions of upcoming cars.The move is in the spirit of GM's viability plan delivered to the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday. In the plan, GM said its future-product focus is on fuel- efficient cars and crossovers. It also pledged to increase its current offering of six hybrids to 14 by 2012 and to 26 by 2014. GM also boosted its request for federal aid by as much as $16.6 billion.
The High Performance Vehicle Operations unit could be reinstated once GM regains its financial health, GM's Muniga said.
"These guys are pretty good at what they do," Muniga said, "They are moving into different areas to work on core products."
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Hillar
1970 LS4 (eventually an LS5) Laurentian 2dr hdtp -and a bunch of other muscle cars...
I don't think this is all that bad for the die hard enthusiasts. When there were very little muscle cars built in the mid 70's and 80's more home built cars were done. Those that own them now and factory muscle cars will see the car prices stabilize and hopefully increase. GM has to pull out all the stops to get the bail out money and survive.
I have to agree with Al, there was no Cobalt SS or Colorado V8 in my future. For goodness sake a standard Cadillac CTS has more Horsepower than 95% of the muscle cars built back in the day a CTS V is just plain overkill.
I bought an 08 HHR SS for the wife. The 2 litre turbo puts out 260 hp. Gm just put out a tune for this that puts out 290 hp and 315 lbs of torque. This has full warranty , rated at 41 MPG. Un real for a 4 banger. I priced out the new Colorado with the 5.3 but ended up buying a full size Seirra at about $3500 less. Keep wondering if GM will be around to cover warranty on these vehicles.
You say you like to read... http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=la_B005CYH5ZC_B005CYH5ZC_sr?rh=i%3Abooks&field-author=Doug+Boyce&sort=relevance&ie=UTF8&qid=1433396335
Guess I should have scrolled down a little further, I see this has been posted already. Still a shocker none the less.
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You say you like to read... http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=la_B005CYH5ZC_B005CYH5ZC_sr?rh=i%3Abooks&field-author=Doug+Boyce&sort=relevance&ie=UTF8&qid=1433396335
