I agree, there are plenty of other manufacturers that can build efficient RWD cars. GM needs to stop making excuses. FWD is fine, RWD is fine too – they ought to be selling a mix. They could capture more of the market that way.

What I see / hear is GM making huge sweeping statements that are just untrue. The statements match their marketing plans (steering a portion of the consumers GM’s way) but don’t match reality.

For me a couple of examples would be electric vehicles and diesels. Yes it works b/c GM did it. Toyota did it and they still have examples running around in CA with HUGE miles on their batteries. Another would be diesels. Americans don’t want diesels GM tells me. The truck guys like them despite the higher purchase price and Americans would like them in their cars if they had refined diesels as found in good European cars such as BMWs, Mercedes, Audi, and VWs. The kind that isn’t found in domestic trucks and don’t clank and rattle like a freight train locomotive/dump truck/bulldozer.

No Camaro for me. I have bought imports for nearly 20 years and they are going to have to build an import style vehicle to get me to buy a “Detroit-child” again. The Astra looks promising and the newer Focus might get my attention. The HHR might as well. I ALWAYS buy used so we’ll have to see how well they age. What we are working towards is a very short commute (less than 10 miles). I’d like to have a full electric compact car that we could use to commute together with. A plug-in electric would do the job too. A used Mini may be the car we choose and I’ll give the used Astras a look too. We’re aiming for a turbo diesel wagon for the garage for weekend and travel use.