Chevrolet Kills Off Fleet-Only Captiva Sport
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General Motors has announced it will no longer sell the U.S. version of the Chevrolet Captiva Sport crossover. The Captiva was revived as a fleet-only Chevrolet model three years ago after being sold in North America as the Saturn Vue from 2008-2010.
Jim Cain, a spokesman for GM, told Automotive News the final U.S. Captiva Sport was built in August. The model will continue to be built at GM’s Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico for the Mexican market and export.
Chevrolet believes the 2015 Trax subcompact crossover will fill the gap left by the departing Captiva Sport. With a full SUV lineup, consisting of the Trax, Equinox and Traverse, the demand for the aging Captiva will be minimal.
The Captiva Sport was originally put on sale as a fleet-only model three years ago to curb fleet sales of the Equinox, which was in short retail supply at the time and still remains in high demand today. GM sold the most Captiva Sports in 2013, moving 47,600 units, and has sold 35, 275 through to October of this year.
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That’s the last of the Delta I / Theta I / Epsilon I family of cars in the United States. Ironically the W Body lives on in the Impala Limited. W outlived them all.
The W it’s a durable platform that has made some attractive, quality cars. GM goes through platforms fast. At Chrysler, an upgraded W would be used for new vehicles.
An that’s the problem. Nobody wants a car who’s underpinning are 20+ years old. They want the best, especially if it’s a luxury offering.
For example. Every Escalade generation was built upon a new platform, whereas every Navigator since 2007 can be traced back to the Ford P2 platform from 2004; the Navigators T1 platform is a variant of the P2.
While I’m at it, the C7 is underpinned by the Y-body; a platform introduced in 1984 along with the LA summer Olympics, the original Macintosh, and Reagan’s re-election.
There it goes with Trax resale value
I do not see issues with resale as they will either limit the numbers sold to fleet or they will limit the option packages to specific packages.
As for the W body it has had it’s time but it is to the point it is used up. Today cars need to be lighter and stiffer and the hard points on the W platform were limiting factors as far back as 2004 as it prevented Lutz from doing what he really wanted in the car. Example the 2005 Lacrosse was the best he could fix the Buick when he really wanted the Lacrosse like we have today.
While the W was a good car they all have their time and companies need to move on.
As for the Y body it is understandable when you average at 20,000 cars or even less per many of the years of a model You just can’t redo it completely as often as you like when you are going bankrupt. I think we will no longer see the long run of the Corvette anymore as GM now has money and the regulations will demand some major changes to the car in the next 10-20 years.