15 GM vehicles to be launched in the U.S. by 2010

What do they mean by "launched"?

Does that mean "discarded" or "thrown over-baord"?

This is good for GM. Hope Americans buy these cars.

Too many models.

GM needs to build less models and build each one better. BMW refines the same model over many years, this is a good strategy.

Spending Millions to develop many new shapes is not the answer.

Ford will likely do better with only 3 brands.

Ford if you are on a budget, Mercury if you want to look professional and not look like a miser, but still save a ton of money, Lincoln if you want Flagship opulence.

That said, GM's success story is Cadillac. I'd rather be seen in a Cadillac Seville STS than an Acura. Northstar engines are well respected. Buick has promise as well.

GMC should be the only truck line. Buick should be GM’s car and crossover. Saturn and Pontiac are superfluous. Chevy should be a few Fleet vehicles of Minivans and utility only, plus the Camero.

The 70s idea of many models is no longer sustainable. Put more R&D into a fewer number of vehicles. R&D for things like Diesel, Hybrid, paddle shift-manual-gearboxes and 8-speed autos is the way of the future.

The PBS Frontline special on GlobalWarming was interesting. The Chevy Volt wasn't working the day they filmed. GM asked Frontline to speed the film up to make it look like the car was moving faster than 5 MPH. Frontline being the most respected show on television would never do such things.

How will the Chevy Volt pull hills in Pennsylvania, if it can't even accelerate in a Parking lot? Time to develop Hydrogen and give up on the plug-in idea. Plug-in means we will need to burn endless amounts of Coal for electricity.

The Volt looks good, but that is about the beginning and end of it.

Kaner when was it a good idea? The majority of americans cant afford an unpractical hybrid in the first place.

I feel like this past year has been a lot of hype on new GM models (mostly Volt, and a bit of the Cruze), but we haven't seen anything yet (nor are we close to. The Cruze - 2010. The Volt, 2010 or so as well). I don't know who publishes the press releases, but after a certain point, people get tired of waiting.

Anyway, like TheSailor said above... let's see what happens first (and hopefully their is a come back, because their new models are quite promising) before talking about 15 models.

Autos in the Northeast are prone to electrical problems because the road salt corrodes copper wiring and ground points, the temperatures freeze the electrolyte if the battery falls below 12 Volts.
Electrical problems are illusive and very expensive to repair.

I imagine one of these batteries will be a few thousand dollars to replace if you don't vigorously maintain them.
Let’s face it, people have gone maintenance-free these days.

Just look at how those electrical fans fail these days. Years ago the fan was attached to the crankshaft, and lasted the life of the car, nowadays heat, contaminants, oil, Coolant exposure makes them fail prematurely.

You never heard of replacing a fan years ago, now it is a common problem.

Mechanical devices tend to be more robust and less problematic as opposed to electrical devices.