The Auto Writer

No sooner had Bob Lutz announced a reprieve for the Pontiac G8 in the form of the sedan being repurposed as a Chevrolet Caprice do we hear reports that GM may not be bringing the car to the market at least for the general populace.

Instead, GM is talking about building police variants only of the Holden Commodore and shipping those cars from Australia as pursuit Chevrolets. What this says is that Bob Lutz is quickly finding out that the New GM isn’t the same car company he signed on with nearly a decade ago which may mean one thing – Lutz isn’t going to be around for long as he quits in disgust, which I believe will be sooner rather than later.

Fed GM Influence

Bob Lutz isn’t liked by everyone in the auto industry as some seem him as an opportunist while others think that he could have done much more to influence Rick Wagoner and keep GM from falling into the clutches of the Obama Administration. Some fifty billion dollars later, GM is clearly under the thumb of Barack Obama’s “car czar” which means that decisions made by GM management will need to be run past the Obama appointee before final approval is given. If you think that the feds are “hands off” when it comes to managing GM, you’ve been played the fool. Everything that GM does from this point forward will be scrutinized by Congress and the Obama people.

Not to say that this will be completely a bad thing either. After all, if you’re on the government dole than taxpayers should know what you’re up to in order to get their investment back, at least part of it. But that also demonstrates that GM won’t have the freedom to act independently, which means that Lutz will find that his usual free flying ways have been clipped. Lutz, at 77 years old may be looking to slow down, but I doubt that he’ll be satisfied with being a GM puppet beyond a few months time.

Camaro Manny Tranny Troubles

Lutz has also indicated that the Chevy Camaro Z28 will probably not be built, which puts a damper on the dreams of Camaro enthusiasts. The 2010 Camaro has been a hit for GM since being released this past spring, the first time since the 2002 model year that the iconic Chevy has been produced.

Though selling more units than the Ford Mustang in June 2009, the Camaro isn’t without problems. It turns out that the Camaro SS when equipped with a manual transmission may have a defect that could render the car inoperable. Select V8s are paired with a six-speed manual transmission but it appears that customers are reporting that the output shaft has been failing after repeated hard launches. According to Motor Trend, “The problem appears to occur regardless of whether or not the Launch Control system is activated and is severe enough to immobilize the vehicle. In fact, it’s so severe that GM has put a hold on manual transmission V-8 Camaro deliveries until their engineers determine exactly what’s wrong, how to fix it and how many cars have been affected.”

Soon after the Camaro’s launch this spring, GM issued a recall for 1243 models over an engine compartment short. Between these two problems and GM’s ongoing image woes, the beleaguered automaker is getting some press it really doesn’t want. Then again, much of this is of their own doing which means that when a problem occurs it will need to be dealt with quickly and with the owner’s good clearly in mind – won’t that be a good change from the Old GM?

Source: Motor Trend