GM builds best small cars in world ...

[jrockb4]

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?A.../606180301/1148

A great article about GM Brasil and the cars they have available. Including CUV's, and small pickups.

I drove those vehicles and walked away from the GM of Brazil test track wondering aloud how a global car company filled with so many demonstrably talented and intelligent people could do something so dumb as to keep some of the best small vehicles made anywhere out of a market that's clamoring for those models.

[Sixty8panther]

In 2001 when I visited Slovakia to see my relatives

we had a rental Opel Astra 1.6 5-dr. What a great

car. Worlds better build quality and fit & finish over

the J-bodys we still had in the USA.

[loki]

cool article, but the title....? "GM hids fuel-efficient small cars and trucks -- in Brazil"

hids....hmmmmm.... oh HIDES!!!!! oh yeah!

[longtooth]

Seems like they're consciously restricting their efforts to compete effectively in the subcompact class as with the Cooper Mini, the 'ota Yaris. Seen the "New" Aveo? To describe it as ugly is being kind.

Often, at work, I'll discuss with my superiors why we at GM don't seem interested in making sure that everything we produce isn't top shelf quality and class leading. I'll sometimes get the 1000 yard stare as a response to my queries, as if I'm reminding them of something uncomfortable. In March of '05, Mr. Lutz visited our assembly plant (Doraville, GA), and paraphrasing him, he said we'd "gotten the short end of the stick" with the mini-van to "cross-over" make over. Lovely, so the vans come down the line, we spend unbudgeted $ to make 'em right, and as a result, the product is the ugly step-child of GM, now that Baltimore MD is shuttered. Madness.

[ZL-1]

American buyers are not ready to embrace small cars, IMO. I think the average American consumer will go for a Hybrid or a mid-size car with diesel engines before he/she goes for a smaller size class.

[longtooth]

American buyers are not ready to embrace small cars, IMO. I think the average American consumer will go for a Hybrid or a mid-size car with diesel engines before he/she goes for a smaller size class.

To differ, until fuel supplies stabilize, and until multiple alternatives become mainstream (perhaps 20% of all sales and rising) the small car wave's yet to crest IMO.

[Dsuupr]

I think we are ready for high gas mileage, low power GM cars. I wouldn't have been apposed to getting a smaller engine in the Cobalt for better gas mileage.

[CARBIZ]

GM is not the only one guilty of doing this. Ford makes a cute little car called the Ka, which I saw everywhere in Brazil last year.

Friends of ours in Sao Paulo bought a Chevy Astra - what a great car, and not much smaller than the Malibu, really. Everybody drives a manual shift down there, even the buses! But then gasoline was R2.36 a litre when we were down there (about R9.50 a gallon) and I don't care about the conversion to U.S. dollars because Brazilians get paid in "reals" and a secretary down there would make about R18,000.

Brazil has also done something else wonderful - most of their vehicles are "flex-fuel," which means they will run on ethanol. Brazil's ethanol process is more efficient than ours, yielding 1.6 units of energy for every 1 unit expended; as compared to corn's 1.3. Of course, Bush has blocked Brazil from exporting ethanol to America.

It would be a huge boon to Brazil's economy (and yet another nail in ours) if GM started exporting some of these great vehicles here. The Chevy MOntana is much better looking than our Colorado.

[RJB]

I think everyone is ready for these small cars. Toyota and Honda are already pushing these cars into market. The Honda Fit is a prime example. GM needs to do this before the press jumps on them again and says their behind-AGAIN!!

[thegriffon]

So why is GM showing it's Brazilian small cars to American journalists?

[Matt276]

UAW won't let em in probably. What a shame. Those cars are so much better than the Aveo. Same league than the Yaris/Fit.

[rkmdogs]

  It would be a huge boon to Brazil's economy (and yet another nail in ours) if GM started exporting some of these great vehicles here.  The Chevy MOntana is much better looking than our Colorado.

Not a nail for the General if he would bring in this truck! Don't know about the

Montana, but this is the current offering in Brasil, one of 3 models. And you are right, it sure beats the hell out of the Colorado!

[CARBIZ]

I don't know what that truck is, but that isn't the Montana I saw in Brazil last year. The truck you have pictured I did see as well, and it looked like a thinly disguised old style Blazer.

The Montana that Chevy sells down there is a small truck, 4 cylinder, flex-fuel. The ones in Sao Paulo (richer area of the country) were all decked out with alloy wheels and tonneau covers; in the north they were more spartan.

If I could figure out how to post pictures on this thread I would post some cool pics of a Montana I snapped in Sao Paulo. I also took pics inside a Chevy store in Sao Paulo - they had a 2003 (used) Chevy Omega (rebadged Catera) selling for $R65,000. OUCH.

[pow]

Not a nail for the General if he would bring in this truck! Don't know about the

Montana, but this is the current offering in Brasil, one of 3 models. And you are right, it sure beats the hell out of the Colorado!

It's an S10 with a different front clip.

[Guest YellowJacket894]

Of course, Bush has blocked Brazil from exporting ethanol to America.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I can't wait for that dumb son of a bitch to get out of office.

Senior Bush es muy loco, mis amigos!

[longtooth]

It's an S10 with a different front clip.

that's 4 sure. old designs find life elsewhere it seems. presumably it's the toast of Sao Paolo.

[CARBIZ]

Not really. Whereas the Tahoe is sold down there as the Grand Blazer, at R2.36 a litre, there aren't many takers.

But that is an interesting point: GM sells state of the art Opel-based products down there AND the dead heads that are discontinued here.