BREAKING NEWS: GM Disbands its High-Performance Vehicle Unit!

"The team could be reinstated once GM is back in the black."

In other words, never. It's a shame that they're killing off most of the few decent models they had.

This is a sad day. I was planning on getting the cobalt ss replacement when it hit the street.

For those who don't read the articles and only read the comments, they are not going to stop selling Corvettes, ZR1's, Z06's, CTS-V's, Cobaltt SS's, etc. Only that future models will not have performance enhancements.

This is lame, but does make sense from a business standpoint. Those high performance models don't sell in enough volume to justify the costs associated with them. I'm sure that third-party tuners will fill in the gap here though.

I'm still surprised they'll keep the Buick brand. According to figures in the New York Times, they aren't selling that many....overall, they sold slightly less cars than Cadillac.

I understand they want to cater to different markets with Buick, but at this point I think it's really expendable considering the seriousness of their financial situation.

I agree with paranoyd in that Buick should be dropped. GM needs to trim all the excess fat it can. A volume brand and a premium brand, and maybe a dedicated truck brand? are all that's needed. That means Chevy, Caddy, and maybe GMC. The more brands GM carries means what little resources they have left must be spread even thinner.

I agree with paranoyd and ive posted this before actually but apparently GM still hasnt gotten the picture. They DO NOT need Buick,Pontiac,Saturn,GMC. I'm sure alot of you will argue they just spent a bunch of money re-establishing Saturn a few years ago and they succeded but its time to cut the fat and thats really what they are. Saturns are re badged Opels. Pontiac when GM bought it was supposed to be a performance oriented brand well...i hardly call a mini-van and a station wagon performace vehicles and the G5 and G6 are the most boring and bland vehicles i have ever set my eyes on!!! And GMC is just another truck brand like why on earth do they have GMC and Hummer? GMC's are basically the same as chevy's!!!! At least Hummer has a unique style not this homogenized trend that has hit the automotive industry lately. Hummer also carry this stigma of Machoness and he must be rich if he can afford a Hummer. And thats the way it should be. I believe Chevrolet should be soley responsible for developing all cars and when i say cars i mean cars not trucks. Trucks should be developed by Hummer only and have some rebadged for Cadiallac with nicer materials of course. Same chevrolet ie:
Cadillac=Chevrolet/Hummer with nicer quality materials and more technological features.

I though Buicks were popular in China. Oh well, GM=SHITE

...but GM is probably the only kind of car Americans will be able to afford once the banks and assorted crooks are done raping the economy.

OMG OMG OMG NO

Buick is a huge brand in China, they are right to keep Buick as that is a profitable brand there. Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC in NA. GMC is mostly geared to the industrial/construction, and fleet, so I understand why they kept it as well. GMC is a decent cash cow for work trucks, with Chevy trucks for the normal consumer.

Losing Saturn and Hummer was expected. Saturn was a lost cause even with the revamp. I mean Saturn offered 1 car for like 10 years. Even though their current line up is pretty nice, you couldn't save Saturn. Hummer... should have stayed military. And Pontiac, other than a car here and there, is a rebadged Chevy. Turn it into a niche, or axe it. A niche brand with Solstice, and maybe 1 or 2 other performance/style cars down the road would work well.

Sounds like they are wanting to play the Honda/Toyota card.... Don't really know how well that will work out for them. Honda/Toyota both have strong sales based on previous years of dependable cars, GM umm not so much. Not saying the current cars aren't vast improvements, they are, but sometimes it's to little to late.

While Buick has been a huge brand in China, their hold on that market is starting to decline, in part because the Chinese economy has slowed down. However, the bigger reason is that China's own auto brands have finally, or very soon will, be a viable alternative. Let us not forget that Companies like BYD are beginning to ramp up production (not development!) of electric vehicles there. When push comes to shove, I'm confident that two things will happen: 1) Chinese will buy Chinese branded vehicles, and 2) they will opt for smaller and cleaner cars. People who can afford the large Buicks will continue to migrate to Mercedes or Lexus.

The same thing would happen here. Do you think the Prius would be as popular had there been an American alternative 10 years ago?

GM still has the habit of making counterintuitive decisions that continue to contribute to their self-destructiveness...they haven't learned anything. Throughout the last 20 years they've killed models as soon as they mature into desireable products, while keeping the most bland vehicles that conform to the central corporate model. Examples:
- Replacement of the top-selling midsize cars in the late 80s with the dismal front-wheel-drive platform that no one ever liked.
- Killing of the full-size Impala SS in the mid-90s.
- Killing the Firebird/Camaro and not replacing it until the second muscle car era was already over (sorry, 2010 Camaro, but it's too late.)

I guess this means no Z28 Camaro?

Here's are my 2cents regarding some of the posts above:
1. GM should probably drop the Buick brand in the U.S. and keep it in China. GM already have foreign-only brands like Holden and Vauxhall

2. Caddy should still have performance versions. The elite luxury makers do (BMW -M, Benz - AMG, Audi - S, Lexus - F)

3. GM's Hummer has nothing do to with the Humvee military vehicles. AMG General makes the military vehicle. GM just purchased the rights from AM General to use the "Hummer" name.

The only GM cars that people want to buy are the high performance ones. This is what happens when government gets leverage on you. Morons even dumber than the ones running GM start dictating terms based on their personal agendas. This is appeasement not something financially motivated.

No aftermarket tuner is going to build you a complete car like the ZR1. Sure they’ll make it faster and maybe even handle better but it will rough around the edges and cost much more.

Ha ha ha! I have the last Cobalt SS. America sucks @ss!

The Cobalt, HHR and Colorado (I didn't even know they made a sporty version of it) don't mean shite. Honda, Toyota and Nissan don't have any extreme cars like the Cobalt SS...which don't turn a profit to pay for their R&D, production and parts suppliers costs.

On the other hand, Cadillac NEEDS halo models. They've came a long way in the past few years, and to dump their "V" models is idiotic. I mean, when I open an issue of Road&Track and there's a Caddy in a comparo with M5's, AMG's and Audi S models that's always a good thing for any company (even if the car gets bashed for a cheap interior).

So Noya what do call the GT-R to me it's an extreme version of the G37. IS-F is the same wouldn't you agree?

Those Hi-performance versions are what lead to things like variable valve timing and direct injection that make their way down to the cars the general population purchase. They represent the bleeding edge of progress. The R&D is pricey but that trickles down to lower end models over time. Think about it if you subtract the R&D cost out of the ZR1 it cost about $30k more to produce than the base vette, which would be a $30k+ profit on every unit purchased.

In the late 60’s American car manufactures built the best cars on the planet. This was a direct result of their efforts in racing. When the focus changed in the 70’s they rapidly lost ground and the Japanese established themselves as the leaders of small reliable autos. The best solution for America may just be to establish a racing series devoted to efficiency and go from there.