📰 Auto News Due to CAFE, Lutz declares RWD Impala and Monaro dead

[Mook]

[Source: Autoblog]

It's finally (semi) official: RWD cars like a new Pontiac GTO (and Holden Monaro) and Impala are "gone for now." Bob Lutz has been making noises about it for a while, and every announcement gets more and more certain that the front wheels will be pulling more GM cars.

Just a month ago, Lutz told Forbes "That's where the internal debate [on the Impala] is now -- no firm decision at this point, but my guess is that we will come down on the side of the front-drive car." By the time of last week's Detroit Auto Show, Lutz was telling GoAuto "I think the (Monaro/Pontiac GTO) is gone for now.... [T]hat's not the end of the market where we want to stimulate demand. We have to find ways to stimulate demand and desirability in cars that will get us closer to the 35 MPG average."

How will that be done? Perhaps by using the Alpha midsize platform and making CUV's. However, the Alpha still hasn't been signed off on, and won't be until GM figures out what -- and how many -- standards it will need to adhere to when the CAFE tug-of-war ends.

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[Bru]

:wtc:

 

[slowchevy]

damnit .. people still will buy the gas hogs.. they bought the previous impalas, and they were hogs.. i see more new ss' than i see of the v6 trims for gods' sake.

 

[Angus]

don't leave it to the auto manufactures to control how much gas people use... Make the consumers themselves accountable...

 

[Euro]

Bob Lutz is such a moron.

 

[Bru]

Bob Lutz is such a moron.

It's not his doing. It's the new CAFE regulations that make having an 18 mpg, 380 hp Impala not the smartest thing to offer.

 

[LeddZepp8687]

It's not his doing. It's the new CAFE regulations that make having an 18 mpg, 380 hp Impala not the smartest thing to offer.

x2

 

[Euro]

I wasn't just specifying to this topic...I meant in general.

 

[Bru]

Yeah, the man behind the new Camaro, '04- '06 GTO, new ZR1, CTS-V and Volt ... what a douche.

 

[Euro]

I never thought the GTO was a success....and the Volt? lol

 

[Theautoguy]

At least the G8 is on shore now!

 

[Bru]

I never thought the GTO was a success....and the Volt? lol

Fair enough

 

[WhiteDevil]

I never thought the GTO was a success....and the Volt? lol

If it was imported as a HOLDEN and not labeled w/ pontiac I think it would have done alot better on our soil. The monaro is an old namebadge in australia.

 

[tallok]

The GTO would have done better if they didn't market it as a niche car. If there was a V6 offering that wasn't called GTO and the V8 that was called GTO, it would have been a much more accessible car. As it stands, they made it a $30k V8 and that didn't sell so well when people could drop $20k on a V6 Mustang and keep the other $10k in the bank.

 

[Lord Tin Foilhat]

thats fucking stupid