GENERAL MOTORS For car launches, company mulls delays, early arrivals

GM wants to put out Cavalier's replacement a year sooner, GM executives say.
FROM VINDICATOR STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
DETROIT -- General Motors is considering delaying some car launches but wants to move up the arrival of new Chevrolet and Pontiac small cars.
USA Today reported that unnamed GM executives said they want the new Chevrolet small car out in 2003 instead of 2004 and a new Pontiac small car is being hurried to the market as well.
GM's Lordstown Assembly Plant makes the Chevrolet Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire and is vying to be selected to make the new models. GM is considering spending $500 million to renovate the plant.
Opel, GM's European arm, is set to launch a new Astra in 2003, and GM is looking to put out the Chevrolet model the same year, executives said. GM has previously said that its new U.S. small cars will be based on the European models.
Other launches may be delayed, however, Wagoner, GM president and chief executive, told the Associated Press.
"We show a lot of products. Some we do, some we don't do and tough times frankly force you to those answers perhaps a little more quickly in some cases than others," Wagoner said.
Taking a look ahead: The tough times he alludes to have yet to come. Wagoner expects the industry annual sales rate of more than 17 million vehicles to dip to about 16.5 million.
"We don't know when we'll be down," he said, "but we do expect things to ease off some."
Wagoner said while launch dates for products one or two years down the road may have to be adjusted, he was adamant that announced launches of new products later this year such as the Saturn VUE sport utility vehicle and Cadillac CTS entry level luxury sedan are on target.
What is not on target is the bottom line for GM's European operations, which Wagoner says is "dragging us down."
In the first quarter of this year, GM's European operations lost $86 million compared with a $221 million profit for the same period a year ago.
How operations are doing: Meanwhile, GM's North American operations are on the upswing. The automaker was the only one of the domestic car companies to show a rise in total vehicle sales last month thanks in large part to very strong sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles.
The automaker also improved the productivity of its assembly plants, according to the highly regarded Harbour Report released last week, and it scored higher than Ford Motor Co. and the Chrysler Group of DaimlerChrysler AG in the J.D. Power quality study.
Still, Wagoner is not satisfied.
"We've improved a lot, but we still have a ways to go," he said.