Chicagoland

If it was 1985, and trucks were only 30% of the maket, then yeah. But at the same time, the coupe market has shrank and 2 door buyers want more style like a Mustang. A lookalike FWD coupe would sit in rental lots in FL, not sell.

The new Buick Invicta or Roadmaster? Or is it a new 'Saturn Cutlass'?

Actually should read: Loss of 40K money losing cars to high risk creditors. Pontiac should not compete with Chevy. It's not 1971, where B-O-P dealers demand badge engineered Novas or Vegas and steal Chevy customers. Aftetr they do, then there are no new Chvy customers. The old "I want a B-O-P since it is a better brand" doesn't cut it now with a majority of the parts shared. Pontiac should offer car with some value, and not just cheap knock offs.

GM has mode no announcement for any return of nay Chevelle. Only a "four seat coupe", which may be called the same as that old Chevy F body car. And btw, the Chevelle car line back in the 60's and 70's was not just 2 door 'muscle cars'. The SS396 and SS454 were the special models of the Chevelle line, which actually included 4 doors and wagons. Most maybe had 2 barrel carb small V8's and were family cars. But there was a big aftermarket, where any V8 Chevell could be turned into a 'muscle car'. Anyway, more than likely the Camaro name will come back on any 2 door, and it will probably be a Holden GTO twin.

OK, the Century and Regal NAMES were cut, not the mid sized Buick W body car line. It was RENAMED LaCrosse with the new styling. Late model Regal sales were so low, they should have just called it "Century Regal", and combined the numbers. Fact is when GM had all these car names that C&G misses so bad, market share dropped. Trying to keep all these names, when they are really the same car, wastes valuable development cash. Maybe they should have just kept calling the mid-sized Buicks "Special" as it was in 1961?

People in their 60's this decade are different than previous years. They have no loyalty to big full sized sedans like Grand Marquis, and get trucks, convertibles, and minvans. Point is that some may cry that there are "Buick trucks", and "Where is the new Roadmaster?" Reality is that 50-60 something buyers today are not interested in 1970's style land yahcts. The Lucerne and upcoming Lambda crossover is more in tune with buyers tastes.

In '59, the LeSabre was the low trim line of the Buick line up, not the whole full sized line. Other trim names were, Invicta and Electra. Then LeSabre and Wildcat were B body, different trim 1962-70, then LesSabre/Centurion from 1971-73. Electra was the C body. LeSabre then was the whole B body name starting in 1974, when the the Centurion name died. Then swtiched to FWD H in 1986.

The worst Pontiac rebadge car was the 1981-87 T1000, the "Ponti-ette". The 2nd was the 83-84 Parisiennes, with the exact same sheet metal as the Caprice. Why spend extra for it over the Chevy?

"Where the heck did Le Sabre, Regal, Roadmaster, and Century go? . . . You know, all those cars that people liked and bought? . . . You killed them?" Buick is not a "car company" it's a marketing division. And the marketing heads there don't decide to "kill" cars. GM brass does. And LeSabre was not "killed", it was renamed Lucurne, and the Regal/Century were merged into one car name too. 92-96 Roadmaster never sold as well as some think, mostly to old ladies, and the "enthusiasts" online here bought them used years later.

"the most popular make of used car we sell is? It starts with an O and was uncerimoniously dumped " That was "O's" problem, popular used, but not new. Loyalists "smartly" bought used rentals to save money, but now look where O is? Anyway, to those that flat out called the HHR a "flop", what to say now?

And not so much bean counters as there are too many at GM who are just there for a paycheck and discounts on new cars.

Well, again, when any all new RWD, US made GM cars are in showrooms with MSRP stickers then I will believe it.

Buick (and Pontiac) will never be a full line brand again, with a version of every body/platform GM sells. Also, having one car with two different names, like Century/Regal is a by gone practice too. Only if by some miracle, GM gets back to 50% market share, will there be "7 unique Buicks" for sale.

If there is a Camaro concept at NAIAS, then it will be like 2009 when it's is sold. The Solstice took that long from concept to market. And what plant/platform is it going to be made? Zeta for NA is still dead, like an old SNL joke. "Roadmaster comes stateside". From Australia? Maybe for China, will "real Americans" buy it? There were lots of rumors that never came to be, like 2005 Camaros and even the 2005-06 ""Chevelle" based on the GTO. Rumors are just that, Rumors, not planned products.

It's for those that still think Pontiac makes all their own cars separate from the rest of GM. JK The Pontiac/GMC dealer network still has a lot of clout, so GM has to give them rebadges.

It is too new to tell, but it is not going to flop IMHO. Those that dismiss it as a "PT look alike that will flop" are people who don't drive more than two in a car, and think every single vehcile should be a sports car.

At the time it was considered ugly, Ford passed Chevy for #1. And again, Impala was a trim level, not the entire full sized line from 1958-85. Big Chevys were exciting and popular after the '59 body was toned down, and then in the 60's they reined. The huge B bodies in the early 70's lost sales to Cutlasses and other smaller cars. But the 1977-78 came back to #1, only to decline in the 80's.

Some will say "yeah I'd get a brand new Camaro if they still made 'em", then end up getting an old one anyway. Biggest competition to any new Camaro is the big after market for restored 69's.

Where will the "Zeta Camaro" be made? Australia? What US plant can make Zeta? Beliee it when there are cars with Monroney labels on them. (MSRP stickers).

VW motors once went into '78-?? Omnis and Horizons, so it's not the first collabertion.

Chrysler and Mitsu were both wokring on the new platfrom, but now Mitsu is out of it.

Was there ever a plan like that? Ep II will offer AWD, and no RWD cars until maybe CY2009. No Chevy RWD mid sized "Chevelle" or "Caprice" car line is under consideration, other then the on/off/on "Four Seater that may be called Camaro". And, who really thought GM was going suddenly to switch back to Body On Frame RWD cars? I mean really, do you know what is going on in the new car industry?? The Aussie based Zeta is unibody and any other new RWD cars would be, also. Accoding to news reports today, GM is pouring cash into trucks, Sport Wagons, Sigma II, and Epsillon II. See www.automotivenews.com

Did any of you Astro fans buy them brand new?

One thing that younger car fans have to understand is that until 1986, the full sized Chevy names were really trim levels, not the whole lineup. (One has to have lived then to fully understand) People are talking about "past Impalas", and forgetting that the Biscayne, BelAir, and Caprice, along with Impala SS were the same basic car. Before the first Impala, in 1957 it was 150, 210, and BelAir. 1958 on, is well known. The full sized cars used to be considered "standard cars", and the line was "The Chevrolet for 19xx". When the b bodies were donwsized in 1977, the ad campaign was "The New Chevrolet", meaning the new standards. Since the 1986, then Chevy called them all Caprice, and used the modern day letter code "LTZ", or suffix "Classic Brougham". Point is that comparing past Impalas to now is like comparing the 1966-77 Chargers to the 2006 version.

It's great that GM can make appearance changes after two years. Compared to some looking the same for nearly a decade [Corsica]