Ever since General Motors cut ties with its Pontiac brand, Chevrolet has done its best to encompass three pillars: performance, mainstream vehicles and capable trucks. We’ve argued about Pontiac’s death in the past, but as Chevrolet works to become more of a mainstream brand, additional performance offerings may hurt its “family car” image.
Over at Fiat-Chrysler, executives are working to ensure Dodge fully encompasses its performance roots. Next on its list is to transform the Dodge Journey from a mediocre front-wheel-drive crossover to a performance CUV. According to Fiat-Chrysler Authority, Dodge plans to move the 2019 Journey onto the Alfa Romeo Giorgio platform, which is used by the Giulia sedan and Stelvio crossover. Dodge has promised a performance crossover in the past, and the Journey seems to be the brand’s answer.
This means we can expect not only Alfa Romeo’s 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine but the brand’s 505-hp 2.9-liter V6 to power a Journey variant in the future, too.
Chevrolet, on the other hand, has played it safe with its crossover offerings. The Trax, Equinox and Traverse are all fine vehicles but hardly offer true sporting intentions. Chevrolet could have used its upcoming Blazer to reincarnate a little bit of performance, but instead, it’s likely to be a mid-size crossover based on the GMC Acadia’s platform.
Are performance crossovers an important segment? Maybe not in the market’s grand scheme of things, but M-division BMW crossovers, AMG-derived CUVs, and Audi Sport utility vehicles have no issues finding driveways. With Alfa Romeo credentials, the Journey could be an American stab at a booming segment.
Comments
The problem with the Journey being an American stab at being a performance SUV is that the Journey is not American. That being said it sure would be nice if GM joine the performance bandwagon across the board. Every one can’t afford or want a Camaro, Corvette or Cadillac just to get a little performance in their vehicles.
First world problem would be that vehicle should not be called “Journey”. It needs a different name other than “journey”. Who wants to be called journey in a performance crossover
GM should put the TT V6 under the hood of the GMC Acadia.
The 3.6TT NOT the Cadillac Specific 3.0TT though.
Why not? Chances are the Arcadia drive train can’t even handle the 3.0 let alone the 3.6.
GM is turning into the American Toyota.
Nothing special to offer (other than the Camaro, Corvette, and a few Cadillacs), bland generic styling, no performance. They’re totally just playing it safe. Too safe.
I’m not sure GM builds anything I want other than the Corvette.
Aside from Camaros and Corvettes, all other GM performance cars (i.e. Chevy SS, Cadillac V models) are relics of the Bob Lutz era and appear to be on the way out — unless they find a high-ranking executive who cares once again. So the good news is you can still get nice high-performing toys, but the bad news is somewhere GM has lost interest in practical performance vehicles.
If I were to guess where priorities are, I’d say
1) It’s probably a higher priority to move the standard product somewhere above mediocrity
2) It’s probably an even higher priority to improve margins on those standard products
I’d really like to be proven wrong on this, but nothing indicates otherwise.
Your absolutely right. Under the lovely Barra leadership GM is turning into a soccer mom loving company with all its CUVs and SUVS. Cadillac is barley moving the needle and currently in disarray. And like you said Camaro and Corvette are the only little excitement GM has. You cannot even buy a Chevy or Buick without that awful non- defeatble Stop-Start garbage. And I don’t want hear how seamless and unnoticeable it is when there is a huge long running thread right here on GMA with tons of complaints and people saying its the last GM they will buy because of it.
FCA while they have plenty of problems of their own at least they try to keep things interesting on the performance front. And I am not by any way saying I am a FCA fanboy even though I have had a few Chargers, I have been waiting for GM to bring out something interesting that I can afford.. And all we get are tons of crossovers. The only car GM makes right now that I would want is the CT6 which I will try to get next year if money allows.
Barra would assert that we live in a soccer mom world. That this is how Toyota became #1.
GM has four brands that are all too similar. Chevrolet need not become too generic during an era when automotive design has become more and more sporty–Optimia, Maxima, Mazda sedans, Civic.
Economic pressure has pushed people towards sensible vehicles. GM needs a modern-day sports vehicle for milenials that captures the excitement once felt by boomers when they drove the Camaros and Firebirds of yesterday. Maybe Journey can do it!
What you appear to not understand is boring average cars are where the profits are made. Toyota and Honda both make as bland as a car as you will find but that is what people want and what makes money and what drive higher stocks for more profits.
Toyota has gone to the top making blan$ while GM made bunch of cool cars like the Typhoon, Syclone and others yet they went bankrupt.
I would love a Malibu SS with AWD and 330 HP but that is not going to make money and they really need to continue making the Bu better till the Boring one out sells the boring Toyota.
Remember if GM can gain in profits it opens the doors to these marketing image cars once the extra money rolls in. It is kind of like doing your home work before you play. It sucks but that is how success is made.
Chrysler on the other hand has a cool engine that they slap in a bunch of over weight out dated platforms. Sure it generates a lot of excitement in the media but the rest of their models are fading away and at the rate it is going the brand will end up rebodied a Fiat cars ad they go bankrupt again as no one wants them outside of Ram and Jeep.
The performance market is weak and fragile right now. It is also very expensive.
Bit on the other hand a boring Malibu is almost 300 HP and the Regal is over 300 HP. How long ago were we excited to have 225 HP in a Z/28?
Also 300 hp Sucks. My HHR SS was a wonderful engine with the GM tune and 23 psi. Boost. The car was fast if you could get it to hook up. The weight transfer unloads the nose and it was very hard to hook the tires up. I had spun the tires and set off he traction control all the way up to over50 mph.
AWD is required for real performance on a FWD platform and you need a good one. Ford has done this $42,000? They also have to sell them globally to get any kind of volume.
GM is not playing it safe they are only building models that will make money.
The Syclone was cool but they sold very few of them and did not make money. The same for many other models. For them to make money at low volumes will require higher prices. Just how much are you willing to pay?
GM needs to focus on improving their core models and products. Moving 15,000 SS Malibu’s is one thing but not moving a larger number of LT models is total failure and a problem that is more important to fix.
How many times do you guys need to see the repeated failure before you learn? GM finally learned after getting bailed out.
Now if GM can do a FNR-X like model and add performance to its CUV like model with a Camaro overtone you just might have a great car that sells in good volume while making a buck and fitting into the CAFE needs.
Performance is drying due to market conditions and due to consumer preferences. I make a living in the Racing performance industry and we hav3 had to change our approach to thins as it is not like it once was.
Time for the piss and moan club to really get a grasp of what is going on out there.
I want performance as much or more than you as I make my living there and it is my true love. But I see how the world really is and the 1980’s are long gone. So are the 60’s and 90’s. There are few youths who are replacing the older hot rodders. Been to a cruise in lately? I have and at 50 years old I am the kid. Walkers and even wheel chairs make the event more like a nursing home with street rods.
You want more cool cars cheer for GM to become the best at boring vehicles and then that will pave the way to the fun cars once the money comes in and the stocks go up,
What you appear to not understand is boring average cars are where the profits are made. Toyota and Honda both make as bland as a car as you will find but that is what people want and what makes money and what drive higher stocks for more profits.
Toyota has gone to the top making blan$ while GM made bunch of cool cars like the Typhoon, Syclone and others yet they went bankrupt.
I would love a Malibu SS with AWD and 330 HP but that is not going to make money and they really need to continue making the Bu better till the Boring one out sells the boring Toyota.
Remember if GM can gain in profits it opens the doors to these marketing image cars once the extra money rolls in. It is kind of like doing your home work before you play. It sucks but that is how success is made.
Chrysler on the other hand has a cool engine that they slap in a bunch of over weight out dated platforms. Sure it generates a lot of excitement in the media but the rest of their models are fading away and at the rate it is going the brand will end up rebodied a Fiat cars ad they go bankrupt again as no one wants them outside of Ram and Jeep.
The performance market is weak and fragile right now. It is also very expensive.
Bit on the other hand a boring Malibu is almost 300 HP and the Regal is over 300 HP. How long ago were we excited to have 225 HP in a Z/28?
Also 300 hp Sucks. My HHR SS was a wonderful engine with the GM tune and 23 psi. Boost. The car was fast if you could get it to hook up. The weight transfer unloads the nose and it was very hard to hook the tires up. I had spun the tires and set off he traction control all the way up to over50 mph.
AWD is required for real performance on a FWD platform and you need a good one. Ford has done this $42,000? They also have to sell them globally to get any kind of volume.
GM is not playing it safe they are only building models that will make money.
The Syclone was cool but they sold very few of them and did not make money. The same for many other models. For them to make money at low volumes will require higher prices. Just how much are you willing to pay?
GM needs to focus on improving their core models and products. Moving 15,000 SS Malibu’s is one thing but not moving a larger number of LT models is total failure and a problem that is more important to fix.
How many times do you guys need to see the repeated failure before you learn? GM finally learned after getting bailed out.
Now if GM can do a FNR-X like model and add performance to its CUV like model with a Camaro overtone you just might have a great car that sells in good volume while making a buck and fitting into the CAFE needs.
Performance is drying due to market conditions and due to consumer preferences. I make a living in the Racing performance industry and we hav3 had to change our approach to thins as it is not like it once was.
Time for the piss and moan club to really get a grasp of what is going on out there.
I want performance as much or more than you as I make my living there and it is my true love. But I see how the world really is and the 1980’s are long gone. So are the 60’s and 90’s. There are few youths who are replacing the older hot rodders. Been to a cruise in lately? I have and at 50 years old I am the kid. Walkers and even wheel chairs make the event more like a nursing home with street rods.
You want more cool cars cheer for GM to become the best at boring vehicles and then that will pave the way to the fun cars once the money comes in and the stocks go up,
You may not like the truth but sitting here in denial is a path to failure.
To the others the FWD can take a lot more power. The old 4 speed transaxle would take 315 ft lbs the six speed even more. Now getting the power to the ground is another issue with fwd.
FWD suck for power and performance and only RWD and AWD can fix that and out side of truck there is no cheap way to fix it.
Chevrolet can give the upcoming misize SUV another name, and rebirth two real off road crossover based on the same platform of the Colorado, one smaller the Blazer and one bigger with a tree row the TrailBlazer. The two offered with a ZR2 variant.
GM does not have a strong enough front drive train to handle ,High Hp and big torque, higher than 270 lb, even with all wheel drive ! That is why, just about all high performance vehicle at GM are rear wheel drive .
Remember the Typhoon , that was a hot little GMC at the time .
I think there is a market for a high performance SUV it may not be a huge one but GM would not have any trouble selling one if it was done right .
If Cadillac can take an LT4 and stuff it into the engine bay of a CTS then surely they have the engineering know how to build one hot little SUV .
I read an article recently calling GM’s SUV’s appliances , like a washer and dryer . They work well for the segment they are aiming for but lack any kind of excitement because it’s as if GM just wants to fit in and not take to many chances in their designs . The closest their SUV’s will come to off-road is probably a gravel road in the country .
Sadly the new Blazer sounds like just another face in a crowded field . Chevy is to mainstream but could GMC bring back a Jimmy with an updated Typhoon .
It’s going to take an executive to come up with a business plan that they would have to sell to management . GM has a huge parts bin to pull from . But do they have the guts to build something exciting , maybe Cadillac has something in their plans .
“Remember the Typhoon , that was a hot little GMC at the time”
Fetishizing old nameplates will not save GM. They seldom resonate with the majority of consumer, nor will regurgitating them magically make them appear in their minds.
How many Typhoons did they sell. How much profits did it provide?
4697 over 3 years. Just how much money did they make?
2995 Syclone were made one year.
HHR SS sold no more than 5000 units per year for 3 years.
Cobalt SS did better but once it was done right with the 2.0 Turbo sales tapered off.
SSR 24,112 over 3 years.
Sorry but these are not good numbers compared to the old cars like the GTO and Chevelle SS that could sell 50,000 to 75,000 units a year over and above 225,000 regular production units.
General Motors could make their 650 horsepower LT4 supercharged 6.2L V8 an option in every CUV that equipped with a 3.6L V6; but the number of people who would opt for the engine might be very small and insufficient to offset the development cost involved as it’s like all the people who scream about wanting a better environment and angry that Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris Climate Accord.. yet despite all the screaming, Chevrolet only managed a high of 2,107 units of the Bolt EV for August 2017 as you would think sales would be closer to the Toyota Camry’s sales of over 37,000 units.
You get it plus one!
Should change the title to Dodge IS getting a performance rwd CUV. It’s being built along a midsize, rwd (you read right) Avenger replacement but don’t expect them to come soon, more likely MY 21′.
BRING BACK THE “SS” TRIM!!
Chevy needs to go back to a sport trim level, the RED LINE won’t cut it. Super Sport is the way to go.
Please.
No SS unless it can turn stop and go in class leading fashion.
The red line is not performance does not claim to be performance but does reap more profits easily.
I think it is a new segment that will do well. I’ve long thought that performance rwd compact sedans like an ATS with a Chevy badge could do well, and I see this junior Durango SRT will quickly become its own niche
LEts see here, Dodge Journey hellcat? Dodge Journey Demon? Sounds good right? LOL