hyperv6

I think you have nailed it's fate with this one. I even expect the changes to the body of the Buick to be more than mild. These things are old in todays market terms. While they may not replace the platform I am sure the bodies will see major changes. The loss of the Saturn will bring the GMC close to the others.

It could be that these pickups are expected to be the cash cows of the near future with ever-rising gas prices? Look how many people are abandoning the large car segment for mid- and compact-sized cars... could be that it's expected that many full-size pickup purchases may become mid-size (compact) instead... sort of like those going from a LaCrosse to a Regal (or Regal to Verano). This may also open up the market in 5-10 years for the return of the true compact pickup (i.e. S10-Sonoma-LUV pickups). I expect a smaller full size truck at some point and I hope GM gets back to the original size S-10. That is what they really need now as that is what helped the Ranger. It made it cheaper to buy, cheaper to run and that is what was missing from the Colorado. As it was the old Colorado was priced to the point you would be a fool to buy it over a full size truck. GM discounted the Siverado's enough to make the better value if MPG was not a factor. The Colorado MPG was not all that much better either.

To fill an empty Silverado it takes over $100 I have done it. No one said it would take that much to fill a smaller truck and that is what makes it more appealing to those who can no longer afford the large truck that they could hardly afford drive in the first place. Credit card or not people have x amount of money to spend on gas anymore and too many times they bought the wrong vehicle for their economic needs. It is the same principle of using regular gas in a GM performance car vs premium when it is only recomended vs required. Yes you save a couple bucks but if you can't afford that why did you buy the performance car in the first place? GM uses the Premium Recomended as a marketing ploy to keep buyers from rejecting the purchase of a performance car because the premium is required. Yes people are idiots and you need to sell down to them at times.

We have had them here for about 2 weeks. The key here is everyone does not want large cars anymore. The reason many older people drive large cars is the fact that is all that you can buy luxury in. I think the key here will be price and better than average MPG. This car will appeal to younger buyers as they will not have to have a major car payment to have a comfortable car. It will appeal to older people on fixed incomes that their 401ks are not paying what it once was. Counter to some comments the Economy as a good while to recover and that is if all goes well. This is not a it's all better in 6 months deal. That means cars that present great value will be popular. Hyundai are good cars but great values. If GM can offer great cars at good values they can win back buyers. The Verano offers just this. I think once the 2.0 Turbo arrives as well as the 2.5 this car will take off.

I am going to take a wild guess and say it will be price with the say something like the Tacoma? Since they have not shrunk this truck I ponder if Ford [New Ranger] and GM may move offer them as a light half ton at some point for more MPG that they need to find. Ford kind of did this at some point with the F100 back in the 80's. It was lighter and cheaper but got better MPG and was a good fit for those who do no heavy hauling. With it to the point now where it cost $110 to fill up a half ton truck it could show some appeal to the truck buyers who like light hauling but hate the high cost to drive.

I read a GM press release today that covered these cars. GM for the most is looking to the public to see what they want to see in a new car. I think both cars are for the most just a bunch of ideas pulled together to see what people like and don't like. I think based on what I see and the comments of GM that the 130 is just a bunch of ideas and see what sticks. The 140 I think is an idea of what if we made the ELR show car into a Chevy and sold it cheap with a lot of features. At this point I don't see either going production even as at 85% of what we were shown. As for popularity I have been reading many comments and they each have their fans and detractors. I have been see about a 33.5% like, 140 33.5% like 120 and 33.5% hate both on these cars. GM is going to twitter with the public on these cars and see what works and what does not. Parts of these cars may show up some where at best. They plan to do this this year so you may want to watch when they do this to add your 2 cents. The key here is GM is fishing as the interiors of either car is only rendered in 2D so they have not even gone to the point to finish an interior yet. So at this point no matter what car you like don't get upset if it does not see production. We can argue all day here on these but more than likely we may see the nose as a new face of Chevy or the tail of the car as a new Camaro at best here but only time will tell. These cars were for feed back and to get people talking. At this point I think they have done this well. It has been a while since GM just has thrown out ideas like this. Many of the recent cars just went to production as they nearly were in show trim. Few of the cars were just done for styling fun and feedback.

I expect at some point they will make it look more like a SUV/truck again. Right now it has a strong SUV /Minivan look to it. It is one of the few that really pulls it off well but I suspect they may move more a truck or rugged look to it. They have done this with the Terrain.

There are many tranny issues on many GM cars of this era if someone has messed with the programing. Some tuners like to leave the full power on at the shift points and it can lead to tranny failure in many cases. Leaving the full power in at the shift points picks up a lot of easy performance but if you drive it hard it kills the tranny,.

I would like to see them keep the size but do a ATS like weight reduction to the vehicle. This thing is just flat heavy and could gain a lot with the loss of a little weight. I would like to see a more modern Granite like nose and headlights on this. The Terrains grill to me looks cheap and when you open the hood it feel like the cheap plastic it is.

We sell a lot of performance parts for these. Most owners are pretty happy with them and they don't see any wide spread issues. I do see a lot of these crashed as I think some people buy these are not ready for this kind of power. The main complain I hear is I wish it got better MPG but they are willing to put up with is as that is just the cost of a heavy vehicle with a lot of power. I had considered one too but gas had just spiked and I was looking to improve my daily driver MPG. I would say you may have a good one here if it has few repairs and is not modified. Most cases buying a modified one is a risk because you never can tell the quality of the work and the abuse the car had. These things are like Vettes they either are really in good shape or abused to death. Mobil One should be fine. Look at the oil cap and it may state to use it on the cap. Most of GMs performance cars use Mobil One.

Lets hope he has instilled a lot of his thinking in those he will leave behind.

It does look like this. I wonder where the 130 was styled or where the designer was from? With Chevy and Holden becoming more and more like one I wonder if this had any influance.

I think what would convert me to a fan would be to add a little more C pillar and cut the quarter window down in length. I think a 70 Chevelle C pillar sweep would look great on this car. The back light vould remain where it is. It may hurt visiability some but that did not stop the CTSV coupe from holding back on styling. The Chevy grill since the redo on the Malbu really has the 1970 feel to it from Chevy. Too bad they can recreate a modern take 70 1/2 split bumper RS option like nose. It would be fun to give the customer the choice of nose they want on the car again.

I understand your thinking here but it is a stretch. Having been involved with lot of older 30's and 40's Chevy Ford Coupes I just don't get this vibe. These cars had larger tails and larger trunks than the 130. Now if they had taken a HHR and choped it down to a 2 door with a large rear trunk I could see it. I see a lot more 1985 Grand Am Coupe or BMW 1 series in the 130 than I do any romantic image of a vintage business coupe. But that is just me. I still think they were fishing on this car to see what we like or dislike. It is not a car I would think Wellborn would let out into production as is. I may be wrong but will just have to wait and see. It was just nice to have two coupes as a suprise at the show. I do expect elements of this car to show up in new products. The fender bulges the nose and the tail each have elements that could show up easily in a Camaro or larger second coupe.

Thanks for the info. I suspect the C7 is more evolved C6 for the most part. The mules show some change but nothing radical in Chassis size. Have you seen one? If you have whats up witht he tail pipes? It looks like some have two pipes open and two dummy pipes. Other mules I have seen look like all 4 are functional. I did see the 7 speed in the one already but they are not showing enough to tell much more. A non Alpha Vette would be good news for the Alpha Cadillac Roadster as we would not have a repeat mistake of the XLR. They were just a little too close in the gene pool. I expect with Chevy going global they would expect more exports and more sales overseas. This may account for the narrower track.

I have read a while back that the new Vette could show up on the Alpha as this is not an new Idea. It seems like something that could be done easily on several levels and when I saw the weight I thought that it might not be a bad Idea. Also GM is said to be considering a small roadster for Cadillac? on the same platform. Not sure where this one came from or where it might go. With the Vette it is hard to make a call as often many of the ideas leaking out are just ideas that lead no where. Often the ideas come from GM engineeing, Chevy and the Vette team. After they all get passed down often many of these ideas get killed or are stillborn. This is how the midengine comes up every time,. What we do know is the new cars wheel base is changed just a little and the track is more narrow. The Mules are using the C6 body with the new car under it. Some have 4 tail pipes functional and I have seen some with 4 pipes but only two open. The Alpha so far shows it could do the job if called upon. It is a very flexible platform. light.If it is to handle as well as many claims on the ATS it will be still be a stiff and solid platform. We also know the Cadillac already has a 5 link rear that I am sure could adopt the buggy spring for the purist. The real key is if this platform is good enough it will help secure the Vettes place to continue. While it is favorite son the Vette it still does not get a free pass anymore with GM nor has it for a while. sharing some parts will help keep the car profitable and safe. The Vette is to Chevy like the Goodyear blimp. It is a great ambassador for the company but they could easily live without it if needed in the eyes of some. Look at how many for years now have argued the Vette should be split away from Chevy. The other question is if used will the Alpha be used on the C7 or C8 as they claim the C7 is going to be a short term car and there will be major changes coming on the already started C8. It will be interesting to see what rumours and it is nearing time for Motor Trend to do their 4 page spread on all the claims of the new car and thier often underestimated conclusion. This one may be fun to watch.

I have looked at more 3/4 shots of the 130 and the nose is more curved than it shows in many other photo's. That is a good thing. The rear I still am not too excited yet. I am not hating the roof line but the the rear looks much too short for a the green house. I think if they put a longer rear on this car It would improve the area where the roof, trunk and quarter panel meet. This is what made the Chevelles work is they gave the rear window room to flow into the trunk and down to the rear. As it is the 130 has too short of a trunk and a cut off rear and it looks like they ran out of money and time to finish it. I would reshape the quarter window. It look a little large for the cars size. It would be nice to shrink the quarter window and then wrap the rear window ala 1977 Imapala coupe. I look forward to seeing this car in person before I make my final call.

The list left off te Series III SC engine the 260 HP version. Today the 3.6 would be the direct 90 degree replacment but it is hard to compare the two engines. The 3.8/3800 engine was like the LS v8. It went farther and did more than was ever expected by everyone including GM. But Time did finally catch up to it. Dome years they were great and some versions from some years are better left forgotten. Back in the 70's the 3.8 was like a Vega. It did do a lot of things wrong but it kept on running most of the time. I remember a guy in School that has an Omega with one. It had a bad timing chain that he refused to fix. It sounded like a Diesel but the damn thing never broke. Others like to spin bearings from some years. But over all it had a good run. I think the hallmark of this engine was not that it was a perfect engine but the fact it was very adaptable to so many versions and vehicles over the years. Turbo's, Supercharged, Compact cars, Cadillac used em you name it they were used in ways most V6 engines never would have been used. Even Honda had one in the SUV they got from Isuzu. I look forward to seeing GM put this kind of effort into new engines that will advance things even farther now. Just seeing what they have done with the Eco makes me wonder what all we will see in the new V6 engines.

It is a shame but on the other hand with sales as low as they are now on the C6 it needs something to increase interest for one more year. I was expecting a boost in ZR1 power too but it looks like it is not to be yet.

Women generally don't want wagons. They want to sit high. That's why there is a CR-V and not a Civic wagon. Women purchase 55% of the vehicles out there, but they control over 70% of the purchases. Buick clearly knows who is wearing the pants in a majority of families with regard to vehicle purchase decisions. Women want a vehicle that drives like a car, looks like a truck or SUV and has the untility of a Minivan with out being a Minivan. Make it look like a car and they will move away fast. It does not have to be a real truck or SUV but it has to look like one. I see this trend moving to men too anymore. The wagon died a long time ago in most of their eyes.

I would not get too worked up yet. I get the feeling this will be here but as a Chevy. They said that it was not right for GMC not GM. Just as the 2 new coupes at Detroit popped up out of no where we have yet to see all they are working on yet. Just as some pissed and moaned on the ATC convertible now world is they are looking to do a small roadster on the Alpha to replace it. I am sure there is more to this than just GMC losing this vehicle. It would be easy to add this to Chevy as they need something this side of the Nox. Chevy never replaced the HHR. The HHR sold well at Chevy and I don't think it would have sold half as many at GMC. It also fits Chevy image a little better. I love GMC and buy GMC but they are not of the trendy image. Also there are many more Chevy stores to make it easier to sell.

This one is more for Europe and China as they like the smaller SUV/CUV. It will not hurt here as small CUV are the rage right now. When we see new models we need to look at them globally and not just as North American buyers. If they are to make it globally they need to give them what they want too.

The Verano will get the 2.5 along with the 2.0 Turbo.

I really think this would have been easier to make this a Chevy but I liked the thought of GMC having a new wider range of products to set them appart.

The Opel to me is like you took a Mini and Golf an mixed in Some GM. It has elements of each and is an original GM car. If it is better car than the Golf it could be around for a good while. Most of the new Buicks models are done to remove the gray from men and bring in younger women. It's kind of like the hair stuff they sell to remove gray in mens hair. The Opel has hit a styling that really looks good on a 3 door car. Tha is not an easy task.