K2XX and B-Platform

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVMib1T4T4

Specialized 2-door anythings are dead unless you’re willing to pay a huge premium (Camaro/CTS) or have them sold alongside conventional cars at a loss (G6 sedan vs G6 coupe).

The B-bodies were crap and have been fully supplanted by Zeta. Body on frame construction is wholly inferior to unibody and the B’s are unable to meet today’s safety and rigidity requirments. Doing so would cost millions and millions to re-engineer them to do so. Also, the demographics have changed and there are no people who want to buy them and pay for their poor fuel economy.

You can hope/wish/pray all you like. You’re powerless and at the mercy of cold, eyeless numbers on a balance sheet that ultimately decide whether your automotive wishes come true or not.

I don’t understand why @truck451 comment is laughable enough to post a video. I agree with a lot of what @truck451 is saying.

Diesels:
Diesel engines should be available in the new Suburbans and Tahoes. I have a neighbor who bought a Suburban new in 94 because he needed the room for his kids. Once a month, he drives three hours one way to a cabin he owns up north and comes back with a 18′ trailer loaded with wood. His job is one town south of where he lives and ends up putting between 250-300 miles on his Suburban every week just going to work. He claims he can get 25 mpg out of that 6.5 diesel. When it came time for him to buy another rig he ended up going with a 15 year old ‘burb because he couldn’t find what he needed new.

Two doors:
I don’t have much of an argument for a revival of the full size Blazer other than the fact that k5s still have a huge following that rivals that of the Jeep Wrangler. Plus two doors always look better than four doors and make a more appealing platform for a performance/sport truck. (I.E. that Lingenfelter Silverado from a few months ago)

B-bodies:
While I agree the unibody trumps body-on-frame construction, I must disagree about the poor fuel economy statement. I averaged 22-23 mpg with the LT1 powered ’94 Caprice wagon I had. I can not consider that poor economy by any means.

I agree with @truck451 wish for a diesel; in fact, the entire lineup (Suburban/Tahoe and SIlverado 1,500) should offer a diesel… like the 4.5 Duramax that’s unfortunately been shelved:

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2010/06/breaking-4-5-liter-duramax-rumor-bunked/

As for two-door SUVs, the only possibility of that happening is with the new TrailBlazer… which itself may not even be coming to the States, even though I don’t think it’s a bad idea to make it available in North America:

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2011/11/chevy-trailblazer-to-us/

But if it’s such a big deal to even bring the new Blazer here, a two-door variant ain’t gonna happen… and neither are the old-school body-on-frame Caprices (even though I appreciate late-model Caprice Wagons). The only thing that will be body-on-frame nowadays are trucks and full-sized SUVs, and even the latter are being replaced by unibody vehicles (Traverse).

@Cactus:

The laughing part was for everything BUT the diesels. Notice I never addressed them; I feel better, more powerful, more fuel efficent diesels will have a place in K2XX’s.

That, and I feel J Jonah Jameson’s laugh is rather timeless and invaluable when confronted with weak arguments.

2-door SUV’s, with the exception of the Wrangler, are dead. The Wranger is in the same unique position as the Chevy’s “goldilock” Astro was; It really does have that small segment of compact 2-door SUV’s all to itself. Mind you, Jeep has expanded into other products that aren’t available in 2-door configurations, and even the Wrangler has a 4-door variant, but all those are engineered as dictated by market demands.

Furthermore, you can’t make the core argument for a full-size 2-door SUV on that “it looks better than a 4-door”, OR try to hang everything on wheather or not Lingenfelter gives a care and decides to breath on it. What you’re asking for is to take a niche product of a full-size 4-door SUV line, and hope that in the few thousand of those sold each year, a few dozen pass through the hands of Lingenfelter. That’s not a business case, that’s just a malformed dream that needs to have the fluff boiled off of it.

@Grawdaddy

Personally I found the act of posting that video in this particular thread to be flat out rude. Now I will admit that it pissed me off a little bit and lured me into a thread I wouldn’t normally have replied to.
Yes, you did not mention diesels in your reply but it should also be noted that I started my two-door argument by stating that it was weak and it is clearly opinion based.

That being said, I don’t believe anyone can disagree that a two-door vehicle generally looks sportier than its four-door counterpart.

The Lingenfelter comment was merely meant to illustrate that there is still some life in the sport truck segment.

I think it is highly unlikely the 4.5L will ever see the light of day, and the same goes for a 1500 series diesel as well. The economics of owning a diesel have changed dramatically over the last 5 years. A 1500 diesel would not be much less expensive than a regular 2500HD with a 6.6L Duramax, and probably wouldn’t offer much in the way of fuel savings over the larger truck. Diesel is finished. Too expensive to buy, too hard to clean up, expensive fuel, don’t last any longer than a gasoline engine, very complicated and expensive to repair.

@Cactus:

“That being said, I don’t believe anyone can disagree that a two-door vehicle generally looks sportier than its four-door counterpart.”

That may be. Personally, I find the CTS looks infinately better looking than the CTS coupe.

Consumer trends, however, say otherwise. Appearence doesn’t rank as high as practicality and utility; something that coupes were never strong in and where sedans are.

As for the sport truck segment, well it’s a niche of a niche market. Factory sport trucks sales are too small to care about putting R&D money into (someone in the forums thought GM needed a Raptor compeditor), and whoever has to money to pay Lingenfelter to breath on their truck should have better used that money on a sports car in the first place.

K2XX such as K2XC (Silverado); K2UC (Tahoe); K2XG (Sierra); K2UG (Yukon) are set (as of now and of course timing of rollouts change with the wind in this industry) are set for CY2013 production (some in 2014/5)….and even K3 models for 2019 are all slated to receive the SB Gen V 5.3L V8 configurations.

@motownjoe:

Can I ask where you’re getting all the new platform names? I gotta see the whole list of them.

@grawdaddy concerning your comment
“whoever has to money to pay Lingenfelter to breath on their truck should have better used that money on a sports car in the first place.”
some people dont want a sports car but love to go fast. also a lingenfelter truck is epic for epic sake. i’d love to embarass a sportscar in a truck the looks you get are pricless

“i’d love to embarass a sportscar in a truck the looks you get are pricless”

$120K for a “sport truck” just so you can look at faces?

I mean there is wasteful, and then there is just plain stupid.

Also, the word “epic” doesn’t mean anything anymore.

Maybe having a sport truck is an American thing, Graw. It’s always cool to surprise people who have underestimated you. $120k cool? Maybe if you do it enough. 😉
Plus, maybe some people like to haul a load to the job site, haul a few people to lunch and then haul ass in the evening – a multipurpose vehicle, if you will. 😀

graw i believe you misunderstod that “epic” comment i meant it in it’s original form i know kids use it too much now but it still means ‘of unusually great size or extent’ I happen to have a truck that im gonna make into a sport truck. not on the level of the lingenfelter but it’tl still embarass some mustangs and chargers thet we have here
brian it is a north american thing as i am canadian B-)

@chevytothemax. Good to know some Canadians like to have that kind of fun as well. I thought I read elsewhere that you were planning to put a 383 stroker in your truck. Sounds sweet. Good luck to ya!

GMC SYCLONE OWNS YOU ALL! EPIC LOLZ EPIC LOLZ!!!11

~~~

Take that, Lingenfelter! I could save $100K right there…..if I was okay with the challenges of a well-abused, 20 year old sport truck.

@brian-e yes i am planning on that thanks for the encouragement

@grawdaddy lol yeeeeeesssssss syclone all the way man