General Motors product chief Mark Reuss is ecstatic his new Chevrolet Colorado won Motor Trend Truck of the Year. A fact which is evident in his brief interview with the magazine, where he discussed the possibility of a diesel station wagon and the 2016 Camaro, in addition to his feelings towards taking home one of the most widely publicised awards for pickups.
MT recognized the Colorado as an “honest truck,” which Reuss says is exactly what he and his team were aiming for. GM entered a 2015 Chevrolet Colorado WT, Colorado Z71 and GMC Canyon SLT into the MT’s test, but Reuss says the best is yet to come for the Colorado and Canyon.
“It’s a good value — there is a good price difference between this and a big truck,” Reuss said. “And people are going to really want that. We’re just thrilled. Absolutely thrilled. By the way, you haven’t tested the baby Duramax, and you’re going to really like that.”
When the interviewer brought up the idea of offering a Cadillac station wagon, Reuss said a future wagon “may not be a Cadillac,” which is interesting, because he didn’t say “no” in regards to producing a wagon of some sort. We knew he was into the idea, but it’s refreshing to see it’s still on his mind.
Finally, Reuss discusses the next-generation Camaro. He explains the new car will be much better as the fifth-generation car was “a bit tortured from birth,” due to GM trying to make a Camaro from the Zeta chassis, which was originally developed by Holden for the Commodore. He says unlike the 2015 Mustang, the new Camaro “is not going to be heavier,” than the old car and also alluded to SS, ZL1 and Z/28 performance equivalents.
Comments
It’s all but confirmed the Epsilon II platform will underpin a notchback hatch for Buick and Holden. A wagon variant is something easy to implement if you’re doing all that end-pillar R&D anyways.
The only real question is if it will get applied to the Impala or LaCrosse. I’m leaning to Impala as a means of trying to reboot interest in the car. An AWD Impala wagon would be class-exclusive and steal some Fusion AWD sales.
Plus it would be costly for Ford to answer as they would have to invest that R&D from scratch on Taurus. Dodge however seems interested in reviving the Magnum for Europe.
It would be a bit disappointing to see GM launch a unique car like that, only to be trumped by Magnum with rear-based AWD within a year or two. But that’s the challenge with Epsilon in general today.
Great stuff! Thanks for the info. And I love the idea of an Impala wagon, would love to see how that turns out. Magnum was a beast, and I bet they would make a much better version now base on the cars they’ve been putting out.
I expect the Wagon will be the new Opel/Buick based on the new Monza Show car. It screams wagon with the tail end. Also the Diesel would play well with Opel as the primary market as well as the wagon. A Chevy wagon would end up like the original Magnum where it is here and gone in a couple years.
Also the price of the Diesel would be better suited to a upper level trim Buick more than a Value priced Chevy.
I do agree AWD will be in the mix.
Also this car is going to be larger than a Fusion and more Taurus size. If you are going to do a wagon make it big enough to carry something or people will just buy the CUV that will carry more for less.
The next Camaro will be as much of an improvement over the present car as the C7 is over the C6.
Refinement with the investment of Cadillac in the Alpha will help Chevy much. Also this platform was designed from the start as a Camaro and not a let make it work since it is all we have. This is where the major weight savings will come in. GM has a real edge on cutting weight in new platforms and doing it with engineering and not just expensive materials.
Also they will not be saddled with the notion that they have to keep everything from the show car. While the show car design was great on the turn table it hampered the car some in the real world. This is no longer a factor and they can keep a similar design but yet address the short comings.
I think Ford is in for a real shock on the next Camaro. Dodge so far sound like they are still going to be too big and heavy with their next model when ever they get it here. 2018?
This is a reflection that GM has been well aware of the shortcomings based on very little refinement and competiveness of the Outgoing 2004/2005 Colorado and Canyons, they new a lot was at stake with the 2015 models and knew that based on 10 years of a Luke-warm reception, this time they would have to hit the ground sprinting!
Good Job,
I will have my new Canyon by the summer of 2015!
A wagon that’s cool, GM could offer a wagon and a hatchback for the Cruze and verano in the D2XX, and for the Malibu and Regal as it still exist in the Insigna. A bigger wagon in the Impala and LaCrosse could be very cool and Ford couldn’t follow with wagons in all segments. For Cadillac a wagon for the ATS and CTS will be good to face the Germans. Finally, GM should offer diesel engine not only for a wagon but for all the cars. the same for the AWD.