What's new at General Motors?
By Kay Bell • Bankrate.com

General Motors has enjoyed tremendous success in recent years with its pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, but has not fared nearly as well with its cars. The company is looking to change that in 2003.

"There's a huge opportunity on the car side of the business," said Robert Lutz, vice chairman of product development and the chairman of GM North America. "GM is taking the lessons it's learned with trucks and is applying those principles to cars ... to produce must-have products with exciting designs and high quality."

To produce "must-have" cars, the manufacturer is looking back to the future. Coming soon to a GM showroom floor are two retro models: a 50th anniversary Corvette and a new GTO. Even Chevy's new car-pickup- truck crossover borrows from the 1940s.

Such stylish blasts from the past fit in well with the company's marketing campaign that invokes the spirit of GM designer Harley Earl, the man credited with creating tail fins, two-tone paint, hidden spare tires, disappearing headlamps, wrap around windshields and tinted glass.

The company also is incorporating some new 2003 looks. There's the Saturn Ion, a new small car it hopes will appeal to the entry-level buyer. At the other end of the spectrum, GM is looking to regain status in the luxury market with the Cadillac CTS, a rear-wheel-drive sport sedan. And the automaker has already unleashed a slightly slimmed-down version of the muscular Hummer.

Old favorites also are getting new looks. Popular standards such as Chevy's compact Cavalier and full-size Silverado pickup truck are buffed for 2003. Here's a closer look at what GM drivers can expect.

Corvette

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Chevrolet
"America's sports car" celebrates its 50th birthday in 2003. The first Chevrolet Corvettes were painted white, ran on six-cylinder engines and came to life during the 1953 model year. Chevrolet celebrates this car's half-century milestone with a 50th Anniversary Edition of the fiberglass-bodied two-seater.

Looking for something more practical, then check out Chevy's popular Cavalier compact. It gets a fresh exterior for 2003, including a restyled hood and grille and new head- and taillights. An anti-lock braking system is now optional, as are side-impact airbags, GM's OnStar communication system and XM Satellite Radio. List price for the front-wheel-drive Cavalier coupe or sedan ranges from around $14,000 to $17,775.

Truck fans will want to check out the tweaks of the 2003 Silverado pickup. It boasts a passenger-sensing airbag for the right front seat and a new center console. The techie trucker will be delighted by the driver information center with up to 34 functions in a modified instrument panel. A Bose audio system will be available, the first such application in full-sized pickups.

And backseat passengers in the extended-cab version will enjoy the DVD-based video entertainment system like the ones available in minivans and some sport utility vehicles. The Silverado starts at just under $18,000 and can run as high as $37,000 with all the add-ons.

In mid-2003, Chevy will introduce its car-pickup-truck crossover, the SSR (Super Sport Roadster). It will have a retractable hardtop roof, a 5.3-liter small-block V-8 engine and rear-wheel-drive. Seen first as a concept vehicle at the 2000 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, expect to see the SSR borrow some styling ideas from Chevy pickups of the late 1940s.

Pontiac
Pontiac, long considered the sportiest of the GM brands, may have lost some of its touted excitement with the end of production this year of the Firebird, one of the last of the old-time muscle cars. The division, however, is hoping to replace that energy with the new Vibe, a crossover vehicle combining the features of a sports car, a sport wagon and a sport utility vehicle. Front- and all-wheel-drive versions will be offered, as will as a GT version aimed at the younger driver. Vibes will go for just over $16,000 up to $19,500.

And by the end of 2003, Pontiac will look to add even more thrills with a revived 21st-century GTO. The rear-drive sport car will have a 5.7-liter V-8 engine, a six-speed-manual transmission and a fully independent suspension. Pontiac will base the U.S. vehicle on a high-performance coupe from its Australian subsidiary, but don't be surprised to see some styling changes before the coupe reaches American shores.

Cadillac
GM also is looking to Cadillac for some 2003 excitement, with hopes high for the new entry-level CTS. The rear-wheel-drive sport sedan will replace the midsize Catera, which has been dropped from the luxury automaker's lineup. Given a three-letter designation rather than a full name, the CTS (or Cadillac Touring Sedan) is considered the first Cadillac to reflect the company's global presence. Engineers used the BMW 528i sedan as a benchmark in CTS development, with testing at the Nürburgring racecourse in Germany.

Produced at a new facility in Lansing, Mich., the CTS is touted by Cadillac as "the first 100 percent application of Cadillac's art and science approach to passenger car design." Among other features, the CTS is the first Cadillac in 20 years to be available with a manual transmission. It went on sale earlier this year at a starting price of $29,350.

Saturn
Another new vehicle GM is depending on to reinvigorate its car sales is the Saturn ION, a small car that will replace models in its aged S-Series, the line that launched the Saturn brand 11 years ago.

Both the 2003 four-door sedan and quad coupe, so named because of its dual rear-access doors, will debut in the fourth quarter of 2002. The dual rear-access doors represent an industry first, an innovation the company hopes will attract the younger, entry-level car buyer. Saturn also emphasizes Ion's "personal accents" kits, which will allow for interchangeable roof rails that are color-coordinated with interior components such as bezels for the center-mounted instrument panel, shifter and heater-air conditioner control panel.

Built on GM's all-new Delta architecture, the five-passenger sedan and four-passenger quad coupe continue Saturn's traditional space-frame construction. The new architecture allows Ions to be substantially bigger than their predecessors, approximately two inches taller and six inches longer. This allows higher seating for front and rear occupants, improved vehicle access and a more commanding view of the road. A wider track (approximately two inches front and rear) and longer wheelbase also delivers a more substantial presence for a small car.

The quad coupe is equipped with "fold-flat" passenger front and rear seats for enhanced functionality to the small-car market. Both models feature significant interior storage, including three bins in the instrument panel, CD storage in the console and map pockets in both the front and rear doors. In addition, the Ion sedan is expected to have the most trunk room in its class.

Ions are priced from $11,500 to just over $15,000.

Hummer
Now for the real "general" in General Motors.

Hummer

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General Motors has owned the marketing and distribution rights to the military Humvee since late 1999. When GM produced the first street Hummer, it was an immediate hit, even though most drivers couldn't come up with the cash to join the elite ownership ranks that include Arnold Schwarzenegger. But that now may change. The H2 has arrived.

Known as the SUV that will fit in your driveway, the H2 is based on GM's full-size pickup-truck/SUV design. It has a shorter wheelbase, sits closer to the ground and is about five inches narrower than its big brother. It also costs about half of the first Hummer produced for American streets, even fully tricked out: $48,800 as a base price; $51,015 for the Adventure Series and $51,015 if you opt for the Luxury Series.

Of course, you get what you pay for and the H2 can only scale a 16-inch wall rather than the 22-inches maneuverable by the larger H1. But the H2 already has a legion of fans among the sport utility vehicle hard core.

Off-road testers report that the vehicle's four-wheel-drive system works in conjunction with a highly developed Bosch anti-lock braking system/traction control system. That gives H2 drivers enough traction on a single tire to move the truck up a 10-percent grade while the other three wheels have no traction. The system also features a TC2 function that allows for more wheel slip in the traction control mode during sand and desert-running conditions.

But just because you're busting across Baja doesn't mean you have to suffer. The transformed military vehicle offers eight-way power seat adjustment with a memory feature for the driver's seat as a standard feature, as are dual-zone heating, ventilation and air conditioning. A standard single-disc, front-loading CD-cassette music center, a nine-speaker Bose audio system with Radio Data System technology and GM's OnStar communication system are also standard.

And because the huge driveline hump is eliminated from the cabin, you can take four friends along in your new H2 instead of just the three passengers that fit into the original street Hummer.

-- Posted: Oct. 1, 2002

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