From the Toronto Star:

GM opens door to Camaro
Jan. 10, 2006. 07:43 AM
TONY VAN ALPHEN
BUSINESS REPORTER


DETROIT - The Chevrolet Camaro muscle car could be coming back but General Motors Corp. won’t be building it in Canada again.
GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz raised a sensitive issue when he said yesterday that if and when the auto giant decides to rejuvenate the venerable sports car, assembly would not be in Canada, where the company produced it for several years until 2002.

“I’m afraid not,” Lutz said about a possible return of Camaro production to Canada.

Moments earlier, GM unveiled a silver Camaro concept model with considerable fanfare at the North American International Auto Show here. It included a drum corps leading a parade of vintage, growling Camaros, dating back to the 1960s.

Declining sales of the aging Camaro killed production and more than 1,000 jobs at GM’s assembly plant in Ste-Thérèse, Que., in August 2002. GM tore the plant down in 2004.

Lutz also said yesterday that the auto maker is moving quickly to turn the company around and, reiterating what chief executive Rick Wagoner has said, there are no plans for a bankruptcy protection filing.

“I don’t care which junior analyst on Wall Street or two years out of Harvard B-School says — `Oh, well, General Motors inevitably headed for bankruptcy’ — Well, you know, our view of that is, that’s a crock. It’s not going to happen,” Lutz told reporters.

Also yesterday, Wagoner told the Bloomberg news services that GM would cut its losses dramatically this year, having lost $3.8 billion (U.S.) in the first nine months of last year.

``We have a very aggressive plan to get the business turned around,’’ Wagoner said. ``Everybody at GM is absolutely focused on executing our turnaround plan.’’

GM shares gained yesterday, rising $1.61, or 7.7 per cent, to close at $22.41 after Goldman Sachs Group raised the company to ``in-line’’ from ``underperform’’ and said a bankruptcy protection filing was unlikely any time soon.

The possible return of the Camaro and assembly in the United States will likely upset some members of the Canadian Auto Workers union, who received assurances in 2002 that GM would not build the car somewhere else later.

At the same time, CAW president Buzz Hargrove said GM never made any formal written commitment regarding future production if the Camaro returned to the market.

“We’d be trying to get it produced here now, but so would a lot of other plants,” he added. “Right now, we’re looking for two products to keep the Oshawa Number 2 plant open.”

Lutz acknowledged the end of the Camaro is a “sensitive” issue in Canada and added there was some understanding that GM would not revive it in another plant.

But Lutz told a crowd of reporters that market conditions and needs have changed over time and GM will probably make a decision within six months whether to re-introduce the Camaro and production elsewhere.

Lutz, GM’s design guru, said he personally would like to see production of the rear-wheel drive, four-seat Camaro in its new form, which features a long hood, short deck, wide stance, four-wheel independent suspension, six-speed manual transmission and a 400-horsepower V8 engine.

“I get money in the mail,” he said about Camaro buffs willing to make deposits on the sports car in the hope of a return. “It’s like a cult following out there.”

GM started work on a Camaro concept car more than a year ago, in view of interest and the nameplate’s strong brand.

But Lutz stressed GM has a lot of other production priorities, including new cross-over vehicles.

``I think we all want to do it, but we have to do the numbers,’’ he said about the need to make a business case for a relaunch. He said GM would aim for annual Camaro sales of about 150,000.

Rival DaimlerChrysler AG also revived the Challenger sports coupe as a concept vehicle at the show. It is already building the four-door Dodge Charger, another nameplate from the past, in Brampton.

At its peak in 1994, GM’s assembly plant in Ste-Thérèse produced 192,054 Camaros. But production began sliding and in 2000, the plant produced only 77,300 vehicles.

Lutz said the Camaro had “lost its way” by compromising on design, including room for passengers.

Peter Kennedy, assistant to CAW secretary-treasurer Jim O’Neill, said GM said in 2002 it would not build the Camaro elsewhere and that helped the process of negotiating a special closing agreement for workers at the Ste-Thérèse plant. It also removed an obstacle at triennial contract negotiations at GM later that year, he noted.

“Otherwise, it would have been a major issue at the bargaining table,” Kennedy said. “The thought of moving Camaro production elsewhere was a sensitive issue then and it would be one now.”

 

Rock on!!

 

Yes!

 

Thats f'n awesome, made me laugh out loud

 

I would have thought they'd want to produce something front wheel drive in stead of a Camaro. It seems to me to be a safer bet. I figure people will always need front wheel drive.

 

Leave now please........ what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

 

Daaaaaaammmmmmmmnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Duuude! Thats not gonna happen! That was a serious thought back in the late 70's and early 80's prior to the release of the 3rd gen Camaros. Market research showed then, and also when Ford went against the research and introduced the Probe as a Mustang alternative/replacement anyway, that "ponycars" made for the USA market must be rwd. Probe was supposed to be the Mustang for the 90's; where is the Probe now? Why do you think Caddy is now back to rwd on all its cars, Chrysler has turned around, and why BMW and Mercedes benz never left...

 

Lutz was vehemtly (sp?) on the offensive regarding bankruptcy. He said to me:

"I've seen near bankruptcy when I was at Chrsyler and this is far from near bankruptcy."

I laughed out loud at the Harver B-School graduate remark, it was quite pleasing to hear.

 

As the music blared and Bob Lutz drove the concept through the stage smoke, while revving that sweet Chevy smallblock through the dual Flowmasters......that's what I was thinking too.
























NOT!

 

I think he meant the product to be built in Canada....not the Camaro.

You need to relax!

 

Take it as a grain of salt, but I've already heard rumors floating that Lutz already gave the green light for the process to begin immediately after the autoshow, and that some people will be travelling immediately after the show to start the process.

 

What a way to welcome somebody new to the board. Don't you think it would be more helpful to expain the reasons why front wheel drive is not the right direction instead of personally attacking somebody.

 

Buddy, its a quote from Billy Madison. I apologize to the new member, I should have put it in parentheses and made sure he understood everyone understood I wasnt serious.

 

FWd. WHAT?