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The dust is beginning to settle from recent events at GM: cancellation of the Zeta rear-drive architecture, restatement of the company’s profit outlook, and Bob Lutz’s comments before Morgan Stanley’s Global Automotive Conference regarding the potential elimination of the Buick and Pontiac brands. Though profits are still scarce and Buick and Pontiac have been given a reprieve, many of the Zeta vehicles have been shifted to derivatives of either Cadillac’s Sigma architecture or a revised version of the Holden VT platform. However, those vehicles won’t break cover before 2009. Zeta cars and trucks were scheduled to appear starting in late 2006.

Altering the designs for their new homes is only part of the reason for the delay. GM has publicly stated resources dedicated to Zeta are being redirected to GM’s full-size truck program (GMT900) in an attempt to bring production forward six months. Insiders, however, claim this program will move forward only about nine weeks, and that the real benefit will be gained by mid-size SUVs like the Trailblazer and Envoy. “We’ll push them forward at least six months,” says a product development insider, “which will help cut our incentive exposure and slow their sales slide.” According to another GM insider, Ford’s revised 2006 Explorer is expected to exacerbate the sales erosion begun by the latest editions of the Dodge Durango, Nissan Pathfinder and Toyota 4Runner. “We can’t afford to keep increasing the money on the hood to move them,” he says. “We need fresh products with fewer incentives.”

If gasoline prices fail to decline, or rise even more, the wisdom of this move may be questioned, especially when the Zeta program included crossovers – vehicles more in line with consumers in times of high energy prices – for most of GM’s divisions. To help cut development time, GM will split the what were to be Zeta-based vehicles into two camps. Buick’s and Pontiac’s more expensive entries will use a decontented version of Cadillac’s Sigma platform known internally as “Sigma lite.” Less expensixe others that would have been Zetas (not all of the planned 15 Zeta vehicles will live) will be shuffled to a revised version of Holden’s VT platform that underpins the current Pontiac GTO. Unlike their Sigma-based brothers, these vehicle will not offer Zeta’s AWD capability, but may include short- and long-wheelbase sedans for Chevrolet (Impala and Caprice, respectively), and a pair of V6- and V8-powered coupes (Monte Carlo and Camaro).

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