GM May Cancel Plans to Replace Van Nuys-Built Sports Car Line
General Motors officials are reportedly mulling whether to cancel plans to develop replacements for the aging Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird sports cars, which are now built in GM’s Van Nuys assembly plant.
An industry trade journal reported Monday that GM is concerned that tougher federal emissions standards, as well as more stringent fuel economy regulations, may make it more difficult to sell high-performance cars in the future. As a result, GM may kill the proposed all-plastic versions of the sports cars, which had been scheduled for introduction in 1992 or 1993.
The report marked the first time that a top GM executive has publicly admitted that the future of the sports car program was in doubt. Such a move would raise further doubts about the future of the Van Nuys facility, which now employs more than 4,000 hourly and salaried workers.
Speculation has persisted for years that GM plans to close the plant as soon as production of the current Firebird and Camaro models comes to an end sometime in the early 1990s.
But GM officials have hinted that Van Nuys may close even if the replacements for the sports cars are produced. The new cars, industry observers have suggested, could be built in an idle plant in Pontiac, Mich., where another all-plastic model, the Pontiac Fiero, was built. If the replacements aren’t built, GM would continue producing the current cars until sales fade out, which is expected to occur in the early 1990s.
Stuck at ‘Phase Zero’
In an interview with Automotive News, Lloyd Reuss, GM’s executive vice president for North American automotive operations, said the development of the new plastic-bodied sports cars has barely gotten off the ground.
Reuss told the trade journal that the new cars are stuck at “phase zero” in the development process, adding that a plan to drop the cars from GM’s lineup “has to be an option.”
Dee Allen, a GM spokesman, confirmed Monday that the Camaro-Firebird program remains at “phase zero,” GM’s term for early conceptual planning. He couldn’t comment on plans to kill the program but did concede that it is falling behind its initial timetable for development.
He also said a decision hasn’t been made yet on where the proposed vehicles might be built.
Van Nuys, one of only two auto assembly plants left in California, has been struggling for years because of the gradual decline in the popularity of the existing Camaro and Firebird. At the end of June, 460 workers at Van Nuys were laid off when production levels were indefinitely scaled back at the plant.
Van Nuys has just resumed operations after an extended summer shutdown to reduce dealer inventories of unsold Camaro and Firebird models.
