Zeta set for 2006 Production

[GMPenguin]

GM's Zeta Steams Ahead Down Under, Quietly! Production in 2006

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THE rear-wheel drive program for General Motors in North America is not dead and nor is Holden?s role in it.

So says Holden chairman and managing director, Denny Mooney, and executive director of engineering, Tony Hyde, in an exclusive interview with GoAuto. Holden says it has a man on the ground in North America working on
GM?s rear-wheel drive strategy and up to 10 Melbourne-based engineers
working on global architecture programs with GM in North America.

?There was a particular sensitivity in Australiaabout some of the comments that came out of North America when they cancelled the Zetabased
products in the future portfolio,? Mr Mooney said. ?That statement fundamentally said that the Zeta program had been cancelled but (GM global
product boss) Bob Lutz has since said that rearwheel drive is not dead in North America and that GM is continuing to work on alternatives.

?The reality is that we (Holden) are part of (the process) working on what those alternatives are going to be.? Mr Mooney said that all that happened was that GM decided to place a greater priority on developing new-generation 4WD wagons, known as SUVs in the United States, and pick-ups ahead of the Zetabased products.

He said that Holden had engineers, including one ?on the ground in the States?, working with North America ?on what these future rear-wheel drive derivatives should be?. He said what they decided may or may not be based on the Zeta platform, which underpins the forthcoming VE Commodore. Mr Mooney added that he was surprised by the reaction ?that this was somehow bad for Holden?.
?The reality is that our future plans were independent of what they were going to do in North America anyway. Our future was not riding on whether they did Zeta (or not),? he said.
Mr Hyde said the VE Commodore development was well under way when the Americans showed interest in the architecture and joined the program.

At this point it became a global architecture. ?The car was three-quarters done when they joined and suddenly Zeta became a global
architecture,? he explained.
?They (GM in the US) had (designed) products off the architecture. Nothing changed from a domestic (Holden) point of view or for the engineers in this building who are still working away doing the Middle East, Korea, China and all
the things we do today.


full Story here....

http://www.mellor.com.au/mellor/enews.nsf/...to_enews286.pdf

[BMWDave]

Its good news that its not dead..hopefully GM will profit from this.