Delta Dawn: Chevy Gets A New Small Car!
GM's turnaround hoe-down– complete with disastrous May sales numbers– is less than 24 hours away. Ahead of that blessed event, the General's generals are busy shoring-up the company's defenses. Today's preemptive announcement: Chevy's getting a new small car! The General's spinmeisters chose Automotive News [AN, sub] as the PR vehicle of choice: "General Motors will unveil a Chevrolet compact car at an auto show this fall, with production slated to begin early next year, say sources familiar with GM's product program." Whoa! Yes, this pint-sized Hail Mary will be a Delta [platform] queen built in Lordstown, Ohio. The "we don't know if it'll replace the Cobalt" compact car will use GM's new turbocharged 1.4-liter four cylinder global engine– shared amongst Chevrolet, Pontiac, Saturn, Opel and Daewoo. Ever the unquestioning GM shill optimist, AN predicts that "the Lordstown plant could build cars for export." Meanwhile, GM's considering bringing the Beat minicar stateside. Pysch! No really. "It isn't definitively on there as a go product," says AM's editors source, "but there is a lot of inside chatter and it's on the consideration list."
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truthbetold37: That's been the case for the past 15 or 20 years. Same for Ford and Chrysler.
"General Motors will unveil a Chevrolet compact car at an auto show this fall, with production slated to begin early next year..." Excuse my ignorance but how is this even possible? Even if this is in production somewhere else in the world how can it be done so quickly? Announcement to production in less than a year? But if the decision was made a long time ago why wasn't it announced before? Someone please enlighten me ... it seems like things don't add up. Is it just BS baffling brains or are they just changing the badge on the grill?
Oh, great. The Cobalt gets a facelift with new sheet metal and a new name.