Lutz Puts Stake Into Reanimated Pontiac G8's Heart
After a surge of hope from fans of rear-wheel drive family sedans, General Motors has unequivocally squashed the rumors - some of which stemmed from high ranking company executives in public interviews - that the Pontiac G8 would live on in Chevy guise. GM vice president Bob Lutz was forced to do an about-face and take back the announcement he had made in a web chat earlier in the week regarding the continued production of the G8 platform.
Calling the Australian-derived sedan (built using the same bones as the Holden Commodore) 'too good to waste', Lutz boldly asserted that Chevrolet would revive the Caprice name and attach it to the large four-door automobile. While the initial statement was received in some quarters with incredulity - after all, GM had repeatedly made it clear that not a single Pontiac product would survive the liquidation of the brand, long-term - Lutz's standing at the company lent it all the weight of an official pronouncement.
The last Caprice to have been sold in North America bowed out after 1996, and although the name was retired on this side of the Atlantic a similar vehicle is currently offered in the Middle East as the Chevrolet Lumina, also using the same Holden chassis and drivetrain. These facts added additional plausibility to Lutz's words.
Unfortunately, Lutz rescinded his statement on the GM FastLane blog a few days later. The reason for eating his words? According to the post, Lutz said that the company was unable to make a 'business case' for a Caprice sedan in the current Chevrolet lineup. This is almost word for word the same rhetoric which has been repeated time and again by GM brass when questioned about the possibility of a return to their high performance, full-sized sedan roots. This practice has been adopted with some success by Chrysler, as the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300C remain two of the company's few bright spots despite overall tepid sales.
Lutz went on to clarify that GM would be restricting their rear-wheel drive focus to the Cadillac CTS, along with the Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette sports cars. Each of these vehicles is available with a V8 option, although only the Camaro could be considered affordable. It appears as though General Motors is content to limit their high performance, rear-wheel drive platforms to limited production models and halo vehicles. While it is true that bread and butter cars are what ultimately pay the bills for major automakers, the potential to reach into a market currently underexploited by Chrysler and completely untapped by Ford might be too tempting to ignore. Given the current flux at the company both in terms of personnel and product lines, it would not be surprising to see GM change its mind yet again in the coming months as they further examine the market viability of a powerful family sedan.