Whatever else you can say about the Chevrolet Corvette, it isn’t a halo vehicle. Yes, it beats the Hell out of anything in its class and out bang-for-the-buck’s the big boys. But there’s not a single enthusiast driving around in an Impala SS thinking, "Oh yeah — I got the same AC vents as a 'Vette." In terms of appearance, the Avalanche resembles the Corvette about as much as Paul Giamati looks like Keira Knightley. Contrast this with the Porsche Carrera GT. Despite the astronomical price gap between the GT and an entry level Boxster, the family face is intact and the underlying product philosophy is identical: speed, handling, fun. That’s why it’s time for GM to use “America’s Sports Car” as the basis of an entirely new division– with Nissan.
Here's my pitch: merge The Jackal’s finest whips with Rabid Rick’s meanest metal. Pull every Nissan and GM two door with a powerful front-mounted engine driving the rear wheels into a new Nissan/GM performance division. Sitting atop the heap: the 7.0-liter Z06. Even without considering the stroked, supercharged 650+ HP "Blue Devil," the Corvette has finally surmounted its “also ran” status to achieve respect and admiration (unlike, say, the Aveo). If ever a car deserved its own brand, if ever a model possessed the gravitas needed to carry a new company on its broad shoulders, it’s the Corvette.
Half a rung below the mighty Vette: Nissan’s GT-R (nee Skyline). The upcoming Japanese supercar may lack the Vette’s historical importance, but its gonzo performance rep would give the new division added glory. And it would provide an answer to Porsche's exhaust-fed, AWD Turbo. A low-weight two-seater with 450hp driving all the wheels and a Nürburgring-fettled chassis equals major craziness. In fact, the GT-R might deliver enough performance to rival the Z06. Hang on; two cut-price uber-cars on the same team competing in the same niche? Damn straight.
This is where the new division would have to be smart. They mustn’t neuter their model lineup to fit some rigid stepped marketing strategy, Zuffenhausen-style (i.e. the most powerful Cayman has less power than a stripped 911). Let all the division’s cars be their own mighty selves. With both the Z06 and the GT-R in the same showroom, GM/Nissan would offer performance-minded consumers a one-two punch that few contemporary carmakers could counter. The rest of the sports car ratpack would have to take the threat seriously.
Of course, the tricky part is deciding what to sell further down the food chain. The Chevrolet Camaro and the Nissan Z are natural enemies– unless the Z is re-fashioned to resemble a baby GT-R. Nissan’s versatile FM platform is already set up to handle four wheels a 'turning (think G35x and FX). Re-engineering the Z to put power at all four corners wouldn’t require a major investment. A $30k AWD Z could do some damage to entry-level Boxster and Z4 sales. But wait! There’s more! The new division could bring out a twin-turbo Z, cranking out 350 to 380hp, stoking fond memories of Nissan’s early 90’s whip. It could be the ultimate budget supercar– or at least throw down the G-force gauntlet to the nutso Mitsubishi EVO and Subaru WRX STi.
The Camaro is less complicated proposition. GM/Nissan’s boffins could wedge an unadulterated, unmolested and unrestricted LS2 engine into a stretched FM chassis (M45 showing the way) and stick with the prototype's show car good looks. A 505hp LS7 powered line-topping Camaro would follow quite nicely, thanks. A $40 -$45k bitchin' Camaro ain't gonna cannibalize Corvette or GT-R sales any more than Boxsters and Caymans eat 911 orders. Furthermore, while no Shelby GT500 customers would seriously consider a Z06, they’d be all over a Camaro with a Z06 engine.
To round out the new Corvette Division, GM/Nissan would of course need a variant of the "Hey, that looks like fun" Solstice GXP, both in hardtop and convertible form. If they added the normally aspired Solstice into the mix, the performance brand’s lineup would run the gamut from $20k entry level cars to world-beating supercars. Two of them. Hell, the new division could go for broke (hopefully not literally) and bring back the mid-engined Fiero to take on the Lotus Elise.
For the next 90 days, Rabid Rick and The Jackal are obliged to explore possible “synergies” between the two car making, continent-straddling giants. Instead of nudge-nudge wink-winking about “unused plant capacity” and pretending that the UAW doesn’t exist, these two [non-Nissan] titans should stop playing kiss – chase, combine forces and create something world class. Separately, GM and Nissan both make great sports cars. Working together, they could make the best. Forget all that talk about corporate synergy. What these companies need is sinergy. A brand new Corvette Division would provide the sex-on-wheels halo both companies need.
Are you starting the Jonny Lieberman Sanity Watch? RF, it’s time to come up with a catchy nickname for your intrepid scribe.
While I admire your outside-the-box thinking (not so much “outside the box” as “what box?”) I can’t for the life of me see how this would help either company. Maybe it is just a lack of imagination on my part, but on the list of things wrong with GM the inability of the Corvette to cast a halo over the Cobalt et al has gotta be low on the list.
Oh, and RF’s podcast with the Porsche guy indicates that Cayman sales are, indeed, eating into 911 sale (unless I misunderstood).
Sports cars (no matter how good they are) will not save GM. The best thing Ghosn could do for GM is remove the current management structure.
I think Mr. Lieberman is writing tongue-in-cheek or otherwise in jest. The first clue is in the title, i.e. SINergy. After reading through his article of outlandish proposals, synergy is the last (and the least apt) word that would come to mind.
Without making any generalizations about the respective target markets for the Skyline GT-R and the Corvette, let me just point out that there is little overlap between the two.
Re: Dean’s point about halo’s, that’s certainly true in a well-informed, logical world. But then again, a good number of GM buyers purchase their vehicles believing that they (the vehicles) are somehow “related” to the machines driven by their NASCAR heros. So I can see them buying a Cobalt thinking this was made by the same “fellahs / folks” who built the Corvette, the lack of familial resemblance notwithstanding.
While sports cars may feature in marketing, they are a very small part of the profit equation for GM or Nissan. What GM and Ford need is focus on their volume sellers – using some imagination to create uniquely American quality products that stand out and not try to out-bland theCamry.
They need to get their over-production under control so they can meet demand rather than exceed it and they need to get their staff benefit costs under control sp they don’t face a $1,500 disadvantage against other brands.
Neither Nissan nor a large range of sports cars can achieve that.
I would agree with Dean regarding the second paragraph. Since the first one was tongue-in-cheek, I’ll just chuckle…
Johhny, it’s a neat idea, but why? Unless GM were to spin Corvette off into it’s own single-car dealer showroom network, there’s some real concerns with the plan.
Why would you want to tar the Z with GM’s quality rep? Beyond the ‘Vette’s tendency to go cabrio without driver approval, the design/build quality isn’t horrible. Sadly, nothing else you’ll walk by in a GM showroom has that going for it. Especially the sales force.
As JSForbes mentions, a sportscar, no matter how good, will not save GM. (Unless of course, it was cheap, light, and handled well.)
What I’m really having trouble seeing is how this benefits either party. I don’t think you’ve proposed anything that Nissan can’t execute on it’s own. Why would they want to step into the corporate-culture-cluster-f*** that is GM? Nissan has it’s own lineup revision to focus on.
Further, GM’s people have proven that they can’t get their own house in order – you wanna give them another bright, shiny object providing more distraction from the task at hand?
I just don’t understand.
Hmmm,
I don’t disregard the proposal out of hand, but on its face it seems silly. I don’t think it’s entirely absurd, though, as the others do.
It’s a fact that a sports car will not save GM, but a merger/joint effort could work. I generally think that any merger/buyout/invasion could work, it all depends on how it’s handled. AOL/Time Warner could have been brilliant, but the guys running the maneuver screwed the pooch. Nissan/GM could work, it really could.
The problem is that GM would have to cut loose some its own brands to make room. GM is already competeting with itself on most fronts, the last thing it needs is more sailors on the boat.
I think what really kills the idea is the utterly stunning amount of work that would be required. Millions, perhaps billions in marketing, redistribution, rebadging, hiring, firing, and the ever important stroking of executive egos.
I think it would be far easier to move the Vette away from the Chevy brand, and just call it the Corvette. While most Vette fans already do this, any ad stresses that the Vette is from Chevy. I don’t think this helps Chevy, I think it hurts the Vette.
Move the Corvette into a position as a semi-independent entity, then use the Vette’s platform to create a cheaper Pontiac sports car. It’s already got the Solstice at the bottom end, put one more in the middle, perhaps with a catchy name, fiery name, and you’ve got all angles covered.
I’m not sure I like the idea of another Camaro. I guess they could use it to connect the Vette with the Chevy brand, but it would be tough. Regardless of these details, rearranging extant brands and platforms is a much better, and far cheaper, option.
This is the worst idea I’ve ever heard. How could you believably sell an American sports car with Japanese technology. And what would Chevy do without the Corvette and all the sports cars going to this new brand? Chevy would lose any identity it ever meant.
I think the last thing GM needs is another brand. They should rather slim down their brands and thereby (re)create new(/old) family values.
Jalopnik calls me Loverman. Though “Farago’s Bulldog” has a certain charm and ring to it.
Couple points — major one first: We are limited to 800 words per rant/review. Obviously, I would love to be able to explain that the above rant is a “what if GM and Nissan/Renault merge?” scenario — although I was hoping it would be obvious.
As far as sports cars not helping companies… Ford Mustang, anyone? Going with that, the most profitable carmaker in the world is… Porsche.
I know, I know… beat Camry and Accord. Guess what? Nissan sure hasn’t been able to. Hell, the Altima is better than the Camry and nearly as good as the Accord, yet it remains firmly in third place. And the Impala is in what, 11th, out behind the Hyundai.
Why not stick to what they are good at? The Z has always been better than whatever sportscar Honda or Toyota tries their hand at. The Corvette has always blown away the Mustang/Mopar product.
Anyhow, my piece wasn’t about “saving GM” — rather it was, as I said, a what if scenario for when these two suckers merge.
Nobody is hankering for an Impalla SE-R.
AWD would make the Z heavier, which is very bad because weight is its primary problem. The resulting car would be slower, worse handling, and more expensive. No, I like my Z the way it is, and actually the rest of the lineup should be more like mine… under 3200 lb, with no electronic nannies. Another downside to AWD is more complexity, making it harder to work on and less reliable. Yes, I said reliable. Not everyone keeps their sportscar as a garage queen. Mine has been a great daily driver, with 40,000 miles now and nothing replaced but windshield wipers, fluids, and tires. If you’re going to change it give me less weight and more power and then leave it alone. :)
lzaffuto,
So, maybe Nissan could borrow tech from the ‘Vette and shave a few hundred pounds off the porky FM chassis?
I just want Jonny to share his drugs.
Claude — Never!
so then the coalition is happening?
My 2 year old identifies every car with a shiny reflecting bowtie from his carseat’s vantage point as a ‘Vette.
Corporate identity for GM therefore works….on two year olds.
Naming every Chevy a ‘Vette earns little Kevin of course a lot of knuckle sandwiches from his exasperated “wiser” 6 year old brother!!!
I think Jonny shared his drugs with Bob Elton, along with the GM paycheck. This is a sad day for TTAC.
My drug of choice, right out of the article: Mmmmm………. Keira Knightly………….mmmmmmmm.
Well there are two interesting cases in automotive history where companies tried to save and/or reinvent themselves with a performance-oriented automobile: Studebaker and Nissan. Admittedly, I am old enough to remember when Andy Granatelli made headlines – at least in Studebaker ads of the time – for setting a slew of records in Avantis, Hawks and Larks – the last two with engines one could also have found in the Avanti (289 cubic inch mostly, although Andy and his crew stroked one to 303 cubes and bought two superchargers on it). I will further admit that when I was just 13, I tried to get my father to buy an Avanti but he responded with, “$4,000 is just too much for a car!” (That’s how long ago it was, a few short months ahead of the Kennedy assasination.)
Studebaker failed for a variety of reasons, which would make a post in itself. It was a combination of things – union troubles in’62, problems with the car’s rear window popping out at speed – but mainly people didn’t want to buy a car that they felt would soon be an orphan, with all the attendant problems of parts and service, let alone trying to keep a warranty going. (Did they even have them in 1963?).
Flash forward to 1999, and Nissan, while not quite in the same dire straights as Studebaker, was no longer in the same lofty perch they’d been in the 1980s and early ’90s. They’d quit making the Z car in 1996, partly because it had gotten so pricey it outgrew its core group of enthusiasts; and partly because some of the boy (and) girl racers moved to mid-size (and larger) SUVs for their kicks.
But Mr. Ghosn came aboard and there was a project going to bring back the Z car. He kept it going and used the same platform and much of the bodywork to reinvigorate Infiniti also (with the G35 coupe and sedan). It helped to have the world class and award-winning – one of Wards Engine World 10 Best engines for 11 years straight – QV6 (3.5 liter) in the family.
The new Z car ensured that Nissan just wasn’t a “cheap car for students” (with apologies to the new Versa, which is an inexpensive car, not cheap, from what I gather). Nissan became a name with some cache.
I don’t know if Jonny – sorry to have misspelled your name in recent posts – is serious about what he wrote. But call me crazy too – hey, just like that pop diddy I hear on the radio these days – I think he’s onto something. If things do come together, maybe Mr. Ghosn will tap this site (perhaps while on one of this many half-way ’round the world flights).
I have to disagree with one thing: the Solstice should have a supercharger option. Some guys from The General ran an Ecotec with a blower in a ’32 Ford street rod at Bonneville last summer and did pretty well. I’m hoping there will be more from yours truly about the Pontiac Solstice at this site, very soon.
GM needs help is so many other areas, but not here.
Funny thing is, one of the few things that GM has proved to be quite competent in is the ability to produce great high-performance cars. GM has more legendary names (Impala, GTO, Chevelle, Corvette, Trans Am, 442, Camaro) than anyone else. The LS2 and LS7 engines are just killer. The supercharged 3800 is a winner as well. And GM can build suspensions and brakes with the best of them.
That’s what has always been so maddening about the General. They can build great cars…when they want to!
One of GM’s problems is that they want to be all things to all people. The result is that people don’t identify you with anything. That may not be so bad when you are on top, but when you are trying to lure people back into the showrooms, it hurts a lot.
Ahh…what a pleasant fiction this is! Dazzle us next with a sordid tale of Volvo’s R series slaying the giants of M5 and AMG! Where for ars’t thou scandalous tale of woe begetting woe in the house of Chrysler, where’st their very own ugly daughter Sebring is’t be betrothed to many a sightless knave? (okay, so that dragon hath already been slain)
Seriously, shouldn’t GM just be trying to do this on their own? Why do they need Nissan? Shouldn’t Pontiac be their performance brand? Aren’t they headed 2 steps toward this with the GTO and Solstice, only to take two steps back with the Torrent? GM Needs to ditch the complacent, spineless leadership and make a bold move similar to what J-Lib is musing here, but on their own. If it’s a partnership, they’ll never make it out alive.
Claude — I understand what you are saying.
Hell — I say so right in the first paragraph — the Corvette and the Chevy Brand just don’t make sense.
But, Hummer is a really good brand, a focused brand. As is Cadillac (and still improving). Why not a perfromance division, headed by the Corvette?
And no, not Pontiac.
I was at a Chevrolet “Rev It Up!” event this past weekend. Essentially, we got to bomb around some autocross tracks in Chevy SS products. Actually, the Corvette (thankfully) doesn’t have a Gestapo badge but it was there nonetheless.
Anyhow, I drove a 400 hp Vette, and then a 390 HP Trailblazer SS, a 303hp Impalla SS and a Supercharged Coblat SS that pumps out 205hp.
One of those things is not like the other. And then we got strapped into a Z06… as Farago would say, “Fuhgetaboutit.”
The Corvette has nothing to do with Chevrolet, save the cheap buttons above the steering wheel.
Since GM has been claiming Pontiac as their performance division, why not just move the Corvette over there? If people don’t really identify the Corvette as a Chevrolet, it doesn’t seem like it would be a problem if it where the Pontiac Corvette. Then axe the Camero, and make it a Pontiac Firebird instead. Then axe the rest of the Pontiac lineup, and be left with the Solstice, Firebird, and Corvette, and your golden. Now you’ve got a real performance division, and you didn’t even have to come up with any new products.
Oh, and good call on the Fiero. Add that in there too.
I think one of the best ideas is one that was noticeably absent in your article. The Nissan Silvia/240SX.
Imagine a sub-3000 lb RWD Nissan chassis, combined with GM’s LSx engine. And if they can keep the car close to it’s original 50/50 weight distribution, all the better.
It’s not like people aren’t doing this already…
http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/showthread.php?t=447175
-Dustin
Hey, call the hardtop Solstice a 240SX, what do i care?
Hutton: unfortunately GM has so badly frittered away Pontiac’s brand with a seemingly endless procession of ugly, overly plastic-clad front-drivers. The Solstice is a step in the right direction, but I can’t be the only one with a Pavlovian Pontiac = fugly response.
I think if you tried to call the ‘Vette a Pontiac there would be a rebellion among fans of the car.
Why not just spin off Corvette as a brand. Rename the current ‘Vette and then bring over the Solstice as the Corvette Solstice. Then kill Pontiac altogether.
Corvette Solstice…
No, that sounds good.
Why not spin the Corvette into its own brand.
Name the Halo car C06/C07/C08 etc.
Corvette Firebird.
Corvette Fiero.
Corvette Solstice.
And kill Pontiac. That’s how to use your Halo car as a Halo.
Man, every time I see a Fiero, I think how GM totally missed out on killing the Miata before there was a Miata.
Didn’t they make a movie outta that… or was that Corvette Summer??? ;)
I'm really digging the "Corvette as a brand" strategy. And yeah, you guys are right, kill Pontiac. The Pontiac brand has no equity anymore. The whole idea makes perfect sense. Which is precisely why it could never happen. I think a logical rename for the Chevy Corvette could be the Corvette Stingray. And a Corvette Firebird should mean that there is NO Camaro for Chevy. No rebadges. That would just open the floodgates for GM to pull some sacrelige like a Corvette SUV and Corvette "Crossover" inevitably cloned from some Saturn or something.
I drooled over Corvettes since age 4 and was fortunate enough to buy my first brand new Chevrolet Corvette 4 years ago at the age of 32. After reading this with all the comments, all I can think is "yuck." I personally like the fact it's a Chevrolet although not all Corvette owners feel that way. There may be many rational arguments for doing something with the Corvette "brand," but I think GM places an icon at risk by doing something crazy with it. Through better and worse, the Corvette has survived more than 50 years inspiring devotion as an American icon arguably rivalled only by Harley-Davidson. GM needs to safeguard that very carefully in my opinion.
I think it was Motortrend… years ago they ran a story (an April Fools prank) about how the next gen Vette would be a front-driver with a 145hp 3800 V6. Supposedly to compete with the success of the Ford Probe.
The mail they got in response was hysterical.
The Chevy Cobalt is a Cavalier with a different name and body panels. The Pontiac G6 is a Grand Am sans horrid body cladding that took years to finally drop. What do both have in common?? Cars that have cheap plastic interiors, lackluster performance, and shoddy build quality. GM…when will you learn that simlpy re-naming crappy cars and tacking on new body panels a new car does not make. Yes, the $50k+ Corvette is dramatically different than anything else in GM’s lineup in terms if quality, performance, etc. but you need to be competitive in the $15-$25 range(which you are losing to Altimas, Accords, and Tiburons).
Seeing Nissan bring back a proper 240sx would make my naughty parts tingle. I owned a 1990 Champagne Gold hatchback w/ manual door locks & windows, auto trans(I know), and cloth interior. She was called the Golden Nuggett and was 11 years old when I sold her. (Sigh)
I saw a soulstice in person not too long ago. Despite glowing reviews I’d read about it, it still looked like a pile of jelly beans that were stuck in a microwave. The quality of the interior plastics was terrible in my opinion, with unfinished edges on plastic lids and mismatching textures. The Z in comparison, while it does have a minimalist interior and maybe cheap in some places, it doesn’t *look* or feel nearly as bad.
There’s probably a decent market out there for a sporty fixed roof car in the same price range as the Miata/Soulstice/Civic Si/VW GTI range. People my age (~21) don’t like miatas and soulstices because they look like molten bars of soap or a giant jelly bean. A RWD 4-seater 2-door coupe with a trunk would be a great way to bring a lot of young drivers into the fold and they could graduate to one of the larger cars as they have kids, etc.
I think car companies generally avoid coupes because they tend to “age” rapidly in relation to other vehicles such as sedans and trucks. Remember how long the 1999 Mercury Cougar was cool? Not very long. The styling got really old, really fast.
A few years ago, Mazda briefly considered selling a naturally-aspirated 200 horsepower version of the 3rd generation RX7 in the US for around $20-25,000. I wish they had…