Morgan Stanley Auto Product Guidebook Reveals GM Future Product Onslaught

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

As a journalist, if you ask an OEM rep about any given car’s redesign or next generation, you’ll undoubtedly be met with a terse “we don’t comment on future product plans”. But if you’re an analyst? Different story.

Yesterday, Morgan Stanley was kind enough to send TTAC a copy of their US Auto Product Guidebook. This 88 page presentation is packed with all kinds of charts, graphs and qualitative information designed to help educate investors about car companies and the product they sell. If you’re a TTAC industry nerd, this is like getting a copy of EVO magazine’s Car of the Year issue.

Within the Guidebook, there was plenty of information on GM’s upcoming product offerings – stuff that’s usually speculation and conjecture in the autoblogosphere and the buff books. But we have reason to believe that Morgan Stanley’s chart is accurate. This is the bank that rolled out New GM’s IPO, and counts Opel head Steve Girsky and GM CFO Dan Ammann (who advised GM on its 2009 restructuring) as alumni.

Among the products listed in the report:

Buick: A Verano hatchback is apparently due this year

Cadillac: A redesigned SRX is due in 2014 and a Fleetwood – possibly the Ciel/S-Class fighter – will bow in 2015

Chevrolet: For 2013, the Orlando will apparently debut, though we’ve seen no movement on this so far. A “small SUV”, possibly the Trax, is set for 2014, while the Volt CUV is back on for 2015.

GMC: Tumbleweeds

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • Speed3 Speed3 on Feb 13, 2013

    And Turbo Buick hatch just sounds so right.

  • Amca Amca on Feb 13, 2013

    If the Verano hatch looks anything like the Opel Astra hatch, it's a remarkably sexy little car. I've seen the Opels in Europe, and they look like perfectly crafted little eggs. I like 'em. And PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE call the big Caddy a Fleetwood!

  • Patriotic_wish Patriotic_wish on Feb 14, 2013

    A couple of thoughts about GM bashing. My first car was a 1972 Chevy Impala, which I dearly loved. My second was a 1977 Olds Cutlass, which I loved more. My father was a GM loyalist who thought anything Chrysler made was assembled from spare parts left over from Nash. Then came the 1982 Camaro that he bought for Mom. It would stop if you took a quick left with the AC on. The rear-end howled. The transmission imploded. Did I mention that it would stop if you took a quick left? After five or six trips to the dealer, we were told...believe it or not...to leave the AC off (when turning?????). The lemon law process was a nightmare, so ultimately Dad swallowed hard, took the hit, and bought Mom a 280Z. Dad then bought a mid-1980s Cadillac. It had some kind of gas saving fuel management set-up that didn't work. Ultimately traded for a late 1980s Cadillac that had electrical problems. It took a decade and probably $25,000 (1980s dollars) of excess depreciation to break my Father's loyalty. I think the anger at GM comes from a sense of betrayal. People like my Dad trusted the General, believed in the company and its products, only to be saddled with substandard products and arrogant, dismissive attempts at repair. It was like finding your wife of twenty years in bed with another man...the disappointment and hurt may NEVER go away. I bought my father a 1994 Lexus LS that he had until his passed in 2009. Thought it was the best vehicle ever made. Never gave him any problems. Today there isn't a GM product anywhere in my family, near or extended. It's sad, but hardly inexplicable.

  • Patriotic_wish Patriotic_wish on Feb 14, 2013

    The issue, to my mind, is one of expectations. When Hyundai first came to the U.S., its cars were crude and cheap. People who bought them may have hoped for better, but did not bring generational loyalty to the table. As Hyundai has got better over time, people have been pleasantly surprised. It's like the skinny girl with acne that you knew as a freshman who blossoms by her senior year... To stay within my salacious metaphors, GM was the beautiful homecoming queen, who you worshiped from afar, who when you FINALLY managed to get a date, turned out to have a terrible personality and bad breadth. My Father spent years working his way up the ladder of GM products, aspiring to the aforementioned Cadillacs. By dashing those expectations, GM lost a customer (and his extended family) probably permanently. Think about it this way, if Cadillac was supposed to be the finest product GM made...and it proved awful...how insane would you have to be look at a Buick or a Chevy? GM's marketing paradigm required Cadillacs to be superior to Buicks which were supposed to be better than Chevys. The "corporate" products that came to fore in the 1980s (and successively) made a mockery of this stepladder (and the customers who believed in it). Is it repairable? Probably. I'm pretty excited about the C7. But I would never buy a first year GM anything...at least not for transportation purposes.

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