Chevrolet piqued the interests of many young, somewhat cash-strapped car enthusiasts when they pulled the veil from the Code 130R concept at the 2012 North American International Auto Show. General Motors’ product chief Mark Reuss was one of the program’s biggest supporters, however he confirmed the program was officially dead during an interview on the floor of the New York International Auto Show last week.
Back in 2013, Reuss went on record on saying that a “really nice, light, rear-drive car that’s inexpensive,” would be a “huge win” for Chevrolet,” however he admitted in New York that such a car usually sells in paltry numbers, which prompted the automaker to kill the program off. He said they looked to the market performance of similar models from rival automakers as proof of this, like the Subaru BRZ and Scion FRS.
Small rear-wheel drive cars, while fun, have year-in and year out proven to be an ultra-niche product and typically don’t make automakers very much money. Sales of the FR-S and BRZ were strong out of the gate in 2012, however sales of the two slid 23% and 13%, respectively, in 2014. There’s now whispers the model’s consistently sliding sales figures could lead to its premature demise, which seems like it would be enough to scare Chevy away from the segment.
We’re disappointed we won’t see a cheap, light sports car from Chevrolet, but hardly surprised. Customers who were crossing their fingers for a production Code 130R may find an ample substitute in the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro, considering it will be a touch smaller, lighter and more efficient than the fifth-generation car it replaces.
Comments
This car would make more sense as Pontiac… And if the Dodge boys are smart enough, they could bring something like this for the next generation Dart.
Oh Stop and stop it now.
#1 Pontiac is gone
#2 There is no business case to bring back the investment of a new platform for a low volume car like this Chevy Pontiac or what ever.
#3 Chrysler/Fiat are about broke and need a partner if they want to be around in 10 years or so, All their division have made the lowest quality models out there and they need a Dart that can be competitive with the leaders in the segment not a RWD performance car. If they can get a decent small car then they can look to do a low volume performance car.
This is not anything new. Mark has said this before and the first clue was when they put the Turbo 4 back in the Camaro.
The main issue is GM would have to make a new platform to do this and if they can not leverage it out over more models just one Chevy is not enough.
A car this size may be back in play later if GM has more plans for a platform this size but one car is not going to do it as you would be lucky to sell 60K units. Toyota and Subaru have already canceled their Convertible due to poor sales and are now looking to do a higher performance model to look for more sales.
I would be all over this car but there is just not enough parts of the puzzle to make this one work at this time. GM seldom throws away Ideas so it could come back at a later time again.
As much as I’d like to see it, it would be nearly impossible. Unless you had really good advertising and product placement in things like shows and movies anyway. I can see it maybe being successful if it were marketed in a way to be seen as a Corvette Jr possibly. Honestly, I thought the concept car was ugly. If it looked like it could have been the spawn of the Stingray, it might have been more appealing.
One can always dream, though.
And yet Cadillac is preparing a RWD car smaller than the ATS. Perhaps it’s a price point issue.
And then there may be a better chance at a buisness case.
Some time you just have to wait till the plan comes together.
GM would think that 30K is a reasonable price point. It is not.
Notice that the latest mustang generation has almost the exact same headlights as this 2012 concept. ring any bells?