I agree with both of you fully. When talking with my professor who designed the last impala and last generation malibu, he showed us what he envisioned them to be and his design proposals got chosen, and I know drawings are exagerrated to say the least as I went to a design college for two years and dealed with this everyday, but these were the final drawing persay of production looking cars. He said the main problem and I believe him was the Chassis GM went with at the time and what the bean counters wanted. The track on both cars was too narrow, Chassis was to narrow and this in turn created what once was a gorgeous sketch into an out of proportion, narrow and high disaster.
The problem I believe isn't the designers talent , but instead what the designers are told not to do. It can't be too out-there, or mold breaking, has to look very similar to last generation blah blah blah. I think brand resemblence is a good thing, but let the designers stretch their creative muscle a little more beyond what the corporate money counters want. The new Impala for example is good looking and a decent sedan, but thats it. The G8 is a OK sedan and in my opinion a lazy way to bring back a good RWD pontiac sedan. GM needs to STOP building 3-5 variations of each car, such as the Saturn outlook, Buick Enclave, and now the Chevy Traverse:crazy: Wasn't GM trying to eliminate badge engineering?
Interior problems. I agree with GM also making the interiors look to generic and similar to some of the cheap korean/chinese knock offs. I can gaurantee you GM has the resources/ talent and funds to make unique/high class and class leading interiors, it all comes down to the bean counters though. Interiors on 90% of GM cars have never been up to par with even FORD from the 80s and up. My question is what happened to the very very unique interiors, heck exteriors of the 50's,60's,70's? I know some were boats to drive, but dam& they looked good and they had character.
GM should seriously drop SAAB, sad to say but maybe even Buick that brand has been tarnished since the late 70s and the Enclave isn't an excuse for things getting alot better, Hummer? great profits , but needs alot of updates. GM should keep Chevrolet, Pontiac,Cadillac,GMC and Saturn.
Chevrolet-CORVETTE,CAMARO,MALIBU,IMPALA,TAHOE,Suburban and Silverado
Pontiac-G4= small rwd compact car,G8,new GTO,G9-sporty Cross Over
Cadillac-CTS, ETS=7 series competitor,RTS=Rollsroyce, Bentley competitor
LTS-bentley coupe competitor 100k dollar range.
GMC= Colorado=small truck,Sierra=VERY construction site orriented with features not available on Silverado. More HD and stronger and more of a work truck , not all around truck like silverado, BIG trucks like the Top Kick, and possibly Semi's.
Saturn-Scion brand competitor= Aura-base compact car,Orion-small tall wagon-XB thing,Venus-base volkswagen polo/rabbit convert car.
Plutanium-Small, bold cross-over SUV.