As we headed towards Mosport for the vintage festival last week, it seemed fitting that we were cruising in Chevy’s retro styled HHR. Fortunately, this was no plain Jane grocery getter either. We were headed for some twisties where the turbocharged 2008 HHR SS could get it’s boogie on. With pie wagon styling, substantial chrome wheels and pumping out 260 ponies this machine was just perfect for a dragging the cooler and cameras up for a day at the track, not to mention a few dance steps along the way.

Over the past years, we haven’t owned a car with overly sporting intentions. Reason? Kids. A herd of them. There hasn’t been too many vehicles conceived over the years that are capable of hauling a family of 5 and a bunch of their junk that can do double duty as a weekend warrior. The two jobs have distinctly different needs. Lately though, several automakers have managed to combine the needs of a parental taxi with the wants of an autocrosser.
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Every now and then, manufacturers will hold a ride and drive event for fleet customers to come out and sample their vehicles. It is a convenient way for all the buyers to come out and get a taste of what a manufacturer has on offer. Any time there is a parking lot full of vehicles waiting to be driven, you’ll find the auto scribes aren’t too far away and today was no exception.

General Motors invited a bunch of local journalists out for the day to sample a good chunk of the GM stable. They were nice enough to invite us out a bit earlier than the buyers, so we had a chance to blast through as many cars as possible in a few hours. We were able to spend a bit of time with Chevy’s Cobalt SS, HHR SS, Tahoe 2 mode hybrid and….oh wait. It seems we spent more time talking than driving and only drove the three. That’s ok, as we got some great photos and will have some impressions of these pretty neat cars as the week goes on.

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Pontiac is launching the 2009 Vibe here in Canada with a bit of reality TV style fun. Beginning in a couple of weeks, 4 teams of journalists will be piling in to a bunch of Pontiac’s killer hatch and traipsing around Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in an attempt to become the top team. Armed only with a Blackberry Pearl and the support of their friends. That’s about all organizers have said about the contest so far.

Oh yes, did I mention that The Garage is going along for the ride? That’s right, the good folks from Pontiac have invited me to join in the fun. That means that our loyal legions of readers can follow along online and help The Garage’s team pull out a big win! We will need your help to get to the top.

Keep your eyes on the official challenge website where the full roster of participants will be revealed on March 17th to fans and competitors. Also on the 17th, The Garage will reveal our plans to get all of you involved too!

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A good friend of mine told me about a lunch with Bob Lutz and I have to say I love the way Lutz’s mind works. Not only do we both agree on many points of view but he also has the same strong feelings as I do with regards to global warming. Now here’s a guy who doesn’t hold back when he’s got something to say. Recently he said, “One of the big three will die but not us.” Bob Lutz, General Motors’ vice chairman who made a name developing cars like the Dodge Viper says he loves doing the unexpected and acting “contrary to the conventional wisdom, forcing people to re-think their beliefs.” Lutz is very excited about the fuel efficient Chevrolet Volt which is going to run on a lithium-ion battery. “The Volt thrills me because it’s the last thing anybody expected from GM,” he said at a private lunch in Arlington today.

During lunch Lutz said, Hybrid cars like those made by Toyota “make no economic sense,” because their price will never come down, and diesel autos like those touted by Chrysler are also uneconomic. The only place in Europe that diesel-driven cars are big, he said, is where diesel fuel is half the cost of regular gasoline; in most places there, the costs are comparable and diesel has little market penetration.
Global warming is a “total crock of s#it. I’m a skeptic, not a denier. Having said that, my opinion doesn’t matter. I’m motivated more by the desire to replace imported oil than by the CO2.”

With more and more good-quality cars on the market these days, “you’ve got to look at the business artistically, too. Part of our business is creating blockbusters just like the movie business yet we never think of ourselves that way. A car is an exciting mobile sculpture that you want to own, drive and be seen in. That’s why auto industry comeback stories are always design driven. One GM car that fills that bill is Cadillac’s CTS.”

“The best car dealers will thrive even in a sluggish economy. They’ve got to isolate themselves from the economic forecasts and say, I make my own prosperity. ”

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GM’s Product Czar Bob Lutz told the media who had surrounded him like overly polite sharks looking at a meal that the likelihood that GM would produce a $2,500 car is highly unlikely.

Tata Motors’ new Nano is basically a step above a moped, which is what many folks in India are carting their families around on right now. He also noted he’d like to see which version of the Nano is available for that price, suggesting that the version that was rolled out for the media was going to be $2,500.

He also noted that GM’s Wooling Motors venture in China has been turning out $2,500 minivans and other small commercial vehicles for several years now and that it was ultimately not that big a deal.

Finally, Lutz reminded everyone that in order to develop a $2,500 vehicle for the North American market, there would need to be a demand for a $2,500 new car…or even a $6,000 new car for that matter.

“You can get a seven- or eight-year-old Taurus with 60,000 or 70,000 miles on it for about that much money and will have a lot of miles left on it,” he said after a speech during the Automotive News World Congress in Detroit last week.

Ultimately Lutz reminded us all that basically the way to meet the needs of consumers while achieving government-mandated requirements is not a moped on steroids, but working on a variety of new technologies simultaneously to figure out how best to make everyone happy.

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Speaking to reporters in advance of his keynote speech to the Consumer Electronics Show a few weeks back, GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner denied that there have been glitches in the Volt development program. He said he believes that the company will deliver the plug-in electric vehicle to the market by its target date of 2010 but that there is “plenty of work to do.” The battery system seems to present the biggest challenge for the project.
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Buick marketing maven Maria Rohrer stopped by the radio side to gush about the Riviera concept, one of the most striking at the show. 

An important concept on a few fronts. Buick said goodbye to the Riviera some 8 years ago. A one time mainstay of the fleet, it might be an opportune time to resurrect an iteration of he vehicle while Buick is riding on a somewhat high with the popularity of the Enclave. 
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Ed Welburn stopped by the Motor Trend Radio booth today and told us a story about his career at GM. Ed is the Chief Design Officer for GM and one of the best design minds on the planet. 

It seems when little Ed was eleven he licked the stamp on a letter that he mailed to GM to learn everything he could about being an automotive designer. GM sent him back a packet of information that obviously struck a cord. Ed went on to design school and began a career right out of class with GM, and he has been there ever since. 
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It seems you can’t go a week without hearing about the Chevy Volt. It also seems that GM wants us to forget that this is their second time around playing with batteries.

The EV1 was the first battery operated vehicle produced by GM. The car could do 0-60 in less then 8 seconds and spewed no harmful emissions.
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When Bob Lutz says “make it so”, it happens. So when Big Bob told the media guys to show off the pre production test mule for the upcoming Camaro, the guys went to work over at GM’s Fast Lane blog. One would guess that Bob sees the importance of showing the car off themselves rather than waiting for the spy photos to get in on the action. I know that I’ve been keeping my eyes on the roads around the Oshawa plant for signs of the car, to no avail so far.

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