Future SS Vehicles

Although GM has put the Zeta platform on ice, we can confirm that engineers and product planners in Detroit continue to attend meetings at which Zeta-based vehicles are an agenda item. And Zeta's demise would certainly come as a shock to GM's Australian subsidiary, which will begin to roll out its all-new Zeta-based Holden range next April.

GM has been rushing to pull forward the launch of its next-generation full- and midsize trucks, diverting money and engineering resources away from the U.S.-market Zeta programs. Why? Because trucks are GM's highest-profit products, and the slowdown in truck sales in the first quarter of this year has been bad news for a company whose bottom line is already under siege from billions of dollars in health care and legacy costs.

Next to a new range of trucks, GM's bean-counters see a range of rear-drive Zeta-based cars as relatively small beer in terms of volume and profitability. But even as Bob Lutz ordered teams to stop work on all U.S. Zeta programs, he left the back door open: "We remain committed to developing RWD, premium, high-performance, affordable vehicles," he blogged on March 21. "Perhaps even a few with a trace of nostalgia baked in."

While Lutz's March memo to GM vehicle-line executives states "...we are canceling all vehicles planned off the Zeta architecture" the backchat out of Detroit is the programs are actually on hold, but with a hard deadline for a final go/no-go decision. The proposed launch dates for the cars affected--Buick Velite sedan and convertible, Chevrolet Impala and Chevelle, and Pontiac G8 (a Bonneville replacement)--have therefore slipped, some to as late as 2010 or 2011. It's believed the next-generation Pontiac GTO may be pushed back a year, possibly showing as a 2009.

What's not in doubt, however, is the launch of GM's Australian-made Zetas. The all-new Holden Commodore (codenamed VE) and long-wheelbase Holden Statesman (codenamed WM) models will make their debut April 2006. Early VE Commodore prototypes, known internally as Gamma-build cars, were run down the Holden assembly line in Adelaide, South Australia, in January, and mechanically correct mules were caught testing in outback Western Australia in late April.