The truth about GM’s car-makers, both the pared-down American concern and the newly-devolved bits on this side of the Atlantic - is that they have already designed and are well advanced with producing many of the cars that will be needed for tomorrow’s market. The US company’s new financial freedom, afforded by this Chapter 11 bankruptcy, will allow the company to build cars on a similar cost basis to the US-based Japanese for the first time in decades.
Meanwhile, great GM cars from the pre-bankruptcy era must never be forgotten. Just because market conditions have changed is no reason to forget some of its glorious muscle cars, leader of which (for me) was the Pontiac GTO of the late ’60s. Follow that, if you like, with the original mid-’50s Chevy Corvette, a car so brilliant in concept (leave alone the fabulous styling) that survives today as part of ‘America’s Sports Car’ and will undoubtedly endure. Rivalling those, in my mind, is the new Chevy Volt (first production versions next year) that will excite with its great styling, versatility and the radical answer to tomorrow’s transportation problems.
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