General Motors has a new – and all-too-rare – hit. But far from solving the embattled carmaker’s problems, the popularity of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro muscle car highlights the dilemma confronting the Detroit manufacturers over their vehicle development plans.
GM has so far taken 18,000 firm orders for the Camaro, enough to justify adding a Saturday shift over the summer at the Oshawa, Ontario, plant where the car is built.
Most of GM’s other North American assembly lines are due to extend their normal summer shutdown in a drive to bring down swollen inventories. GM has made a nod to fuel efficiency by building a six-cylinder version that achieves a creditable 29 miles per gallon.
Even so, the Camaro does not exactly fit the ­eco-friendly image that politicians in Washington – who now have effective control of the company – are pushing GM, Ford Motor and Chrysler to adopt.
A cornerstone of Chrysler’s court-supervised restructuring is an alliance with Fiat that will bring a stable of small, European-style, cars into North American showrooms.
Gary Dilts, senior vice-president at JD Power, a consultancy, defends GM by observing that “it’s a big marketplace and [GM] has to cover it”.
But Mr Dilts, a former Chrysler executive, also criticises the car industry’s long incubation period for new models, typically 4-5 years. Once the process is underway, carmakers have little leeway to take account of changing consumer preferences.
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