GM abandons high-performance vehicles and operations

Published February 19, 2009 by Zane Merva

GM is shuttering its high-performance vehicle development unit and “re-deploying” its highly specialized engineers to other parts of the company. The move comes as the company sets in motion an aggressive plan to keep the company alive. “All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold”

The unit creates low-volume, high-performance products such as the Cadillac V-Series line, the HHR SS, Cobalt SS, Hummer H3T Alpha, and V8 Chevy Colorado.

Company spokesman Vince Muniga states that the high-performance unit could be reinstated in the future. “All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold,” Muniga said. “The engineers are moving into different areas of the organization, and they will work on Cadillacs, Buicks, Chevrolets and Pontiacs.”

“All high-performance projects are on indefinite hold,” Muniga said. “The engineers are moving into different areas of the organization, and they will work on Cadillacs, Buicks, Chevrolets and Pontiacs.”

Our take

Great- General Motors, a company in dire need of exciting cars, is walking away from its most exciting products. We can’t help but think this will backfire. Lets hope the Corvette and Camaro do not suffer from this- but they most likely will. Truly sad.[see update below]

Update – 12:11pm 2/19/09

I’ve just got of the phone with Vince Muniga. He emphasizes that no current production models will be affected by this announcement. None of the vehicles mentioned above will see their production lives cut short either. Camaro and Corvette are independant of the high-performance operations. As a self adminted car guy, Vince expressed this was a tough decision and not something GM wanted to do.

Source: Automotive News