Buick to go back to rwd

http://autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=101452

"General Motors' next rear-wheel-drive premium vehicles will expand Buick's product line significantly and give consumers more options - sporty cars and comfy sedans.

Michael Simcoe, GM's new executive director of body frame integral design, says the automaker's new Zeta architecture will extend Buick's product portfolio.

"We will play at both ends," Simcoe says. "We can have prestigious luxury and prestigious sport."

Within two years, Zeta will debut on a Buick sedan. A coupe and possibly a convertible will follow.

Simcoe says Zeta, which will be engineered by GM's Australian subsidiary Holden Ltd., will be a key component in GM's overall strategy for global products.

Simcoe should know. Before being appointed to his position on Aug. 1, Simcoe was executive director for design in GM's Asia-Pacific region. He was responsible for the design strategy at GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. and Holden.

Zeta is an evolution in the way GM thinks about product development, he says.

"Zeta is the classic case of GM seeing an architecture around the globe," Simcoe says. "The way it used to work was if it wasn't North American, it wasn't appropriate.

"But there is a lot of potential there with Zeta. There is freedom to do more."

As such, Zeta will offer that freedom to GM's product planners."We are getting encouragement coming from all sides to do as much as we can with it in terms of flexibility," Simcoe says. "That means more variants and more ability to move up and down when it comes to price."

Zeta will debut with Pontiac in the next-generation GTO - but the design won't be retro, he says.

"I wouldn't want retro," Simcoe says. "What the market wants is something that will stand out."

GM uses the term architecture to signify a common set of components, performance characteristics, a common manufacturing process, a range of dimensions and connecting points for key component systems."

The future rwd Buick might get styling from the 2004 Buick Velite concept.

http://www.fast-autos.net/buick/buickvelite.html

http://www.fast-autos.net/buick/velite13.jpg

Good find!

The new Lucerne pulls a little bit from the Velite as well. The grille is most noticable to me.

A RWD park avenue replacement that looks similar to the Lucerne will be an awesom car.

oh no

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0503/21/A01-123402.htm

This is the key

"The retreat from Zeta could delay the introduction of GM's new rear-wheel drive passenger cars by at least a year, Phillippi said."

Crap, if the next PA was supposed to be RWD, we're stuck without a flagship car for another year.

GM reverses course, says revised version of Zeta rear-drive architecture is back on track

Automotive News

9/12/05

DETROIT - Six months after General Motors halted plans to use its Zeta rear-wheel-drive car architecture in North America, the company has revived the program.

In an interview with Automotive News last week, Jim Queen, GM's vice president of global engineering, said a revised version of Zeta is back on track.

Engineered at GM's Holden subsidiary in Australia, Zeta was expected to be the basis of the next-generation Pontiac Grand Prix and GTO; the Chevrolet Impala, Monte Carlo and a new version of the Camaro; and other vehicles. Vehicles in the program were expected to debut as early as 2006.

Queen did not discuss vehicles on the new version of Zeta or timing. Some vehicles that could be in the Zeta program include the next-generation Pontiac GTO as well as a Chevrolet coupe and sedans. They could debut by the 2009 or 2010 model year, say one company source and one industry analyst.

Queen said initial plans for Zeta stretched the architecture beyond its limits for some North American vehicles. "We needed to reassess and reconfigure the program," he said.

"As we started counting who was in and who was out of Zeta, we realized too late" that Zeta would not work in North America, Queen said.

Part of GM's reasoning in slowing Zeta's development was to focus on pulling forward its full-sized SUVs and pickups. GM's next-generation SUVs will debut early next year.

At the time, GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz wrote on GM's FastLane blog that GM had "canceled & plans to build rear-wheel-drive vehicles off the Zeta architecture."

"But that does not mean we've canceled plans to build rear-drive vehicles altogether," Lutz wrote. "We are simply reallocating resources (human and financial) to pull some other programs ahead and get other vehicles to market sooner."

The revised Zeta program is being developed in GM's Australian engineering center. The vehicle line executive on the program is Gene Stefanyshyn, the former vehicle line executive for GM's Epsilon, or mid-sized cars, in North America.

A GM spokesman said no product plans have been approved and that GM still is studying design themes, performance characteristics and variants for Zeta vehicles.

GM uses the term "architecture" to signify a common set of components, performance characteristics, a common manufacturing process, a range of dimensions and connecting points for key component systems.

Good news

Buick should make a big sedan before the end of the decade with rwd and awd.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v259/alex1217/GM%20Concepts/NewBuickUltraConcept2.jpg

More news

It talks about a Camaro concept which can be seen at this link: New Camaro concept (http://www.theraceforum.com/index.cfm?form_topic_id=3303&form_cat_id=13)

Camaro tops GM's rwd list; Buick Velite concept, Pontiac GTO and Impala also possibilities

By RICK KRANZ | Automotive News

1/16/2006

DETROIT- For General Motors Vice Chairman Robert Lutz, the Chevrolet Camaro concept car tops the list of possible vehicles in the automaker's lineup of mid-priced to premium-priced, rear-drive cars for North America.

GM will select vehicles for the program within six months. Production will begin in 2008 or 2009.

Speaking of the Camaro he drove onstage last week at the Detroit auto show, Lutz said, "I know where it fits in the overall enthusiasm ranking. If it was a question of what would you like to do, I would obviously do this one first."

But, he added, "We can't always follow our enthusiasm. We have to do what's right for the business."

GM will weigh the Camaro, as well as the next-generation Chevrolet Impala and a Buick sedan in the rwd car program. The Buick, Chevrolet, Pontiac and Saturn brands are under consideration for rear-drive models.

"We have a big plan for rear-wheel drive," says Gene Stefanyshyn, vehicle line executive for what GM now calls its global rwd architecture. GM previously called the architecture Zeta.

GM needs to fill the rwd gap between its small, sporty rwd cars, such as the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky, and rwd luxury vehicles such as the Cadillac CTS, STS and SRX.

The company delayed plans for mid-sized rwd vehicles last year. Meanwhile, competitors have scored strong sales of rwd cars such as the Ford Mustang and Chrysler 300.

GM is confident that the Camaro will appeal to baby boomers who remember the original. But will it appeal to younger buyers?

Lutz enthusiastically supports the Camaro concept that he unveiled Jan. 9 during the Detroit auto show.

If produced, the Camaro would feature a standard V-6 engine and one or two V-8s, Lutz says. It would be priced competitively with the Mustang.

GM revived its rwd plans late last summer after halting efforts to develop North American vehicles on Zeta last winter. Last winter, GM executives said that the initial plan for the Zeta vehicles was not workable but pledged to develop a new strategy.

Possible Zeta vehicles included the Buick Velite concept, Pontiac GTO and Impala.

Stefanyshyn would not reveal the entire lineup under consideration but said the next-generation Impala "is a possibility."

GM's styling studio has prepared both rear- and front-drive versions of the next Impala, according to an industry source who did not want to be identified.

The engineering of the new group of vehicles will be handled by GM's Holden subsidiary in Australia, which built the Holden Monaro that is the basis for the current Pontiac GTO.

The architecture will debut in the second half of this year on a redesigned Holden model. GM also is considering a rwd model for China.

Stefanyshyn was named vehicle line executive for the Zeta architecture a year ago. After the program stalled, he canceled plans to move to Australia. Now that the program has been revived, he will relocate to Australia in February and restart the vehicle development program for North America.

GM vehicles on the global rwd architecture will have long wheel-bases and short overhangs. All-wheel drive will be available. The Camaro and Velite, a convertible concept introduced at the 2004 New York auto show, demonstrate the possibilities for the architecture.

Stefanyshyn says the global rwd architecture can be used for a wide range of vehicles. Vehicles will be assembled in Australia and North America.

But Opel no longer is considering such a car, says Hans Demant, managing director of Adam Opel AG.

Says Demant: "It is just too big" for Europe.

A rwd Buick might be called the "Statesman."