Many of the pieces in the scrap bin don’t look like scrap because they may have small flaws are were made while testing a new die, GM spokesman Tom Wickham said. Photos by Bryan Laviolette

By BRYAN LAVIOLETTE
FLINT – Making a factory landfill free is obviously a great for the environment, but apparently, it’s good business as well.
John Bradburn, who is in charge of GM’s efforts to improve it’s environmental footprint, said that the company’s efforts have added $2.5 billion to its bottom line since 2007.

Flint Metal Center Manager Amy Farmer announces that the plant is the latest GM facility to go landfill free.

Laviolette is editor of Michigan wllz, a site for Michigan automotive and travel enthusiasts.

I used to laugh at the folly that was General Motors. Time after time, GM would follow a familiar pattern with ground-breaking products.

- Some of GM’s best and brightest come up with a ground-breaking new product, something that truly could change the automotive industry.

- Bean counters force the designers and engineers to cobble the thing together with parts-bin pieces and then push them to get it on the road before it’s ready.

- Continue fine-tuning the vehicle after it has gone on sale, essentially turning customers into final development engineers.

2011 Chevrolet Volt

It’s been a familiar pattern for the company since the days of the Corvair right up to the Pontiac Solstice. Aaron Severson has written a very good history of the Pontiac Fiero that shows just how GM found itself in such a predicament.

http://jalopnik.com/5501545/pontiac-fiero-the-definitive-history?skyline=true&s=i

The Fiero could have been a great idea. The unique structure made it one of the safest cars – in a crash – of its day, despite it’s small size. Danger from engine fires was another story.

But saddled with an inferior suspension, antiquated engine, and not given enough development time and money, the first Fieros were awful. Then, just as GM had developed the car to a point where it was competent, they killed it.

Now, GM is on the verge of introducing another revolutionary product, but this one is no boutique sports car. This time, GM’s entire existence is riding on the company’s latest Big Idea.

If the Chevy Volt works like it is supposed to when production begins late this year, it will completely change the way this country operates. Think that is an overstatement? Hardly.

The Volt promises to deliver up to 40 miles of gasoline-free driving after a full charge. After that, a small gasoline engine will power the car, giving it the range of your average modern car, about 300 miles.

For most people, that 40 miles will be enough take them to work and back plus a few errands. Plug it in at home overnight and you’re good for another 40 miles without the gas engine. Most people will be able to get through their entire work week without the gas engine firing.

There have been other electric vehicles that could do that. But here’s the magic of the Volt: On the weekend, let’s say you want to go up north. A full electric vehicle will be of no use because of limited range and the extended time it takes to recharge. But with the Volt, once the battery is exhausted, the gasoline engine is ready to take over, giving you all of the range of a typical car. When it gets low on fuel, pull into a gas station in fill ‘er up, just like a regular car. Drive some more. Repeat.

Change the world: What if people across the country switched to a Volt or one of the vehicles that will GM will develop using the Voltec system? Dependence on foreign oil would go down. We could reduce the amount of the stuff we have to suck out of the ground in places where the people don’t like us.

But to make it happen, GM has to convince the public that they’ve got it right this time. This can’t be like GM’s ill-fated diesels of the late ’70s. It can’t be another Fiero where the public has to endure three years of additional development with them as the guinea pigs.

The Volt is an entirely new kind of car. GM has to get it right or the public might not accept the new idea of extended-range electric vehicles.

Cristi Landy, Volt Product Marketing Manager

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Make no mistake, General Motors officials believe the Chevy Volt will change the world when it goes on sale late this year.

“There is a strong desire to go to electrically driven transportation,” said Cristi Landy, GM’s marketing manager for the Volt, speaking to Michigan wllz via Skype from the floor of the Washington Auto Show.

While fully electric vehicles might be the goal, GM and many others believe the driving public isn’t ready for them, mostly because of “range anxiety.” Most electric vehicles have range limited to about 100-200 miles, then require as long as 4 hours to recharge. That’s fine for commuting to work, but not very useful for a trip up north.

GM: Volt performance will not suffer once battery is depleted

But the Volt suffers from no such range anxiety. Company officials expect the Volt to be able to travel about 40 miles — enough for most people to drive to work and back — on battery power alone after getting a full charge from a standard wall outlet. After the Volt’s battery is exhausted, a small gasoline engine will kick in to power a generator, providing electricity to drive the car. The gasoline engine will give the Volt a 300-mile range. At that point the gas tank can be refilled, giving the Volt another 300 miles of range.

Landy admitted that one of the biggest challenges for GM is educating consumers about how the Volt, which GM calls a extended-range electric vehicle, works. She admitted that many people don’t know that the Volt will have a gasoline engine.

“It’s a common misconception we’re constantly battling,” Landy said.

Perhaps more than any new vehicle since the dawn of the automotive age, GM will have to do a lot to educate the public about what the Volt is and how the E-REV system works.

“We have a huge challenge,” Landy said.

Fortunately, GM officials know they have a passionate contingent of potential buyers who have driven other electric vehicles such as the GM EV1, Toyota RAV4 and Mini E.

“They see the Volt as a better solution,” Landy said. Those early adopters are probably the Volt’s best ambassadors.

So what does the future hold for what GM calls Voltec? Where might the technology show up next in GM’s lineup?

“The plan for General Motors is to continue Voltec in other vehicles,” Landy said. “We’re talking about a lot of things.”

A vehicle similar in size to the Volt would be the easiest, she said. But bigger vehicles are also possible.

Many observers at the North American International Auto Show earlier this month were disappointed that GM did not show a production version of the Cadillac Converj, an E-REV concept that GM introduced at the 2009 show. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told a group of analysts that GM planned to build the car, but Cadillac officials said later that a decision had not been finalized.

DETROIT — Maybe last year’s show set this year’s up for a letdown.

At the 2009 show, General Motors went on the offensive with major announcements about its plans for a battery research facility, Chevy Volt production plans, partnership programs with battery manufacturers and a new Cadillac concept using the Volt’s technology.

It was exciting because GM, facing the toughest trials of its existence, went on the offensive and actually wrested the fuel economy lead away from Toyota.

But on Monday, Toyota and Ford went on their own offensives. Jim Lentz, head of Toyota’s U.S. sales arm, said that the company planned to develop a “family” of Prius hybrid vehicles. It also announced that there are eight new hybrid models in the pipeline and that the company plans to increase global hybrid production from 530,000 in 2009 to 1 million within the next couple of years.

Lentz went on to say that the company is approaching what it calls “sustainable mobility” with a four-prong approach that includes the company’s hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fuel cell vehicles and battery electric vehicles.

Toyota has already announced a new plug-in Prius that the company will build in limited numbers later this year. Lentz also said that the company plans to market a fuel cell vehicle by 2015.

So what was on GM’s agenda regarding fuel economy? GM showed production versions of the Chevy Spark and Cruze, vehicles it has shown previously. It also showed a sporty concept of the next generation Chevy Aveo and of course the Volt.

It also showed an urban utility vehicle concept for GMC called the Granite,  a Denali version of the GMC Acadia and a Buick Regal called the GS.

As for big announcements about advanced powertrains, GM officials didn’t offer much. It still has a press conference scheduled for Tuesday to talk about plans for Cadillac, but no major announcements on fuel economy are expected.

At last year’s show, GM showed the Cadillac Converj concept using the Volt’s high-tech powertrain. Some had hoped that GM would announce that the Converj was a go, but right now, all that is expected is for Cadillac to show the CTS-V Coupe.

Ford also stepped up with some major announcements. The Dearborn automaker announced plans to invest $450 million and create 1,000 jobs to build lithium ion batteries for hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

“This investment underscores how serious we are about delivering a range of electrified vehicles to customers — including hybrids, plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles,” Bill Ford Jr., Ford’s executive chairman, said in a statement.

The driver of a UPS truck flashes a "Hey Good Looking" sign at the pre-production Chevrolet Volt during an engineering test drive along I-80 near Toledo, Ohio, Oc 13. (Photo by Jeffrey Sauger for General Motors)

DETROIT — General Motors wants everyone to know the Chevy Volt won’t suffer any loss of performance when it switches from battery power to its gasoline engine.

GM expects the Volt to accelerate from 0-60 mph in 8.5 seconds. But Car and Driver magazine’s Tony Quiroga wrote in April that the Volt would not be as quick after its battey was depleted.

What isn’t yet clear is how the Volt will behave when the battery is depleted and the gasoline engine kicks in to provide more juice. In this so-called range-extending mode, the electric motor will be limited to the power provided by the 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine under the hood. The gas engine is never used to charge the battery; the engine turns a generator that directly feeds power to the electric motor. If the engine is revving at 2000 rpm and making 25 hp, the electric motor will be able to make only 25 hp. If more power is needed, the gasoline engine could conceivably run at its power peak at a very high rpm. Taking the point further, if the gas engine is rated for only 100 hp (our estimate of its power output), the 149-hp electric motor will be able to make only 100 hp. The upshot: The Volt will be quicker running on battery power than it will be when the gas engine is providing the electricity.What isn’t yet clear is how the Volt will behave when the battery is depleted and the gasoline engine kicks in to provide more juice. In this so-called range-extending mode, the electric motor will be limited to the power provided by the 1.4-liter four-cylinder engine under the hood. The gas engine is never used to charge the battery; the engine turns a generator that directly feeds power to the electric motor. If the engine is revving at 2000 rpm and making 25 hp, the electric motor will be able to make only 25 hp. If more power is needed, the gasoline engine could conceivably run at its power peak at a very high rpm. Taking the point further, if the gas engine is rated for only 100 hp (our estimate of its power output), the 149-hp electric motor will be able to make only 100 hp. The upshot: The Volt will be quicker running on battery power than it will be when the gas engine is providing the electricity.

“There’s no degradation in performace,” said Rob Peterson, communications manager for the Volt, while showing car at The Business of Plugging In electric vehilce conference last week.”That would be death to electric vehicles and death to the Volt.”

Peterson said that while C/D’s calculations about the relationship between the electric motor and the gas engine are correct, the magazine didn’t account for additional power from the battery once the car has switched to its gasoline engine. Peterson said the battery will get some energy from the gas engine and regenerative braking, but it will not get enough power to revert to using battery power alone.

“We want the driver of the vehicle to arrive home with an empty battery as often as possible,” he said.

Peterson and other executives at the conference excitedly described a recent 1,200-mile, multi-state drive of eight Volt development mules.

GM plans to begin production of the Volt in late 2010 as a 2011 model. The company has promised that the Volt will travel up to 40 miles on battery power after a full charge. After exhausting the battery, the gasoline engine generator will power the car, giving it a range of 300 miles.

While GM has not finalized prices, it expects it to cost about $40,000. A $7,500 tax credit will soften that price.

Gov. Granholm wants electric vehicle companies to locate in Michigan

What if the price of gasoline drops below $2 per gallon? Electric vehicles of all stripes no longer look very appealing. But if gasoline prices increase to $5, consumers will be stumbling over each other to get them. If you’re an automaker, not to mention a supplier, how do you plan how many to build? They might as well throw dice.

Bringing cost certainty to fuel prices would help the automakers make reasonable product plans.

So here’s an idea to do it:

This proposal would use a flexible tax to maintain fuel prices within a range that would be set by a government board.

As an example, gasoline is about $2.60 per gallon including state, federal and local taxes as of this writing. If the board set a target price of $3.50, it could authorize an additional tax of 90 cents on each gallon.

Next summer, as the economy rebounds, let’s say the price of gasoline jumps to $4.25 per gallon. The board would use proceeds from previous low points in the market to pay to reduce the price back to the target of $3.50. The board would allow the price of gasoline to fluctuate in a range of 50 cents to allow for price competition, regional differences and day-to-day ups and downs of the fuel market.

The board could also raise its target price incrementally with plenty of advance notice. Right now, consumers find out that gasoline has climbed over $4 when it’s time to visit the corner gas station for a fillup. But this program would allow consumers to know when prices were going up and by how much.

In a way, the plan is similar to what many consumers do when they opt for the budget plan for their heat bill. Instead of bills that fluctuate between summer lows of $20 per month and $250 per month in the winter, they opt to pay a set amount each month, so they pay $100.

Without cost certainty, automakers and all of the others planning for the electrification of the vehicle are spending development money on something that the public might not want or need. Sure, General Motors is about to introduce the Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric vehicle with it’s promise of unprecedented combination of fuel economy and range, but if the price of gasoline drops to $1.50, GM could lose hundreds of millions of dollars on its investment.

In fact, David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, agreed with the premise.

“We have to have reasonably stable fuel prices or we will have an ongoing disaster in the auto industry,” Cole said.

Who is going to buy a Volt, which will be more expensive than similar-size cars, if you can fill the tank of a regular one for $25?

In fact, John Lauckner, vice president of global program management for GM and the father of the Volt, said that even today’s fuel costs could cause problems for the Volt.

“At the cost of fuel today we’ve got a lot of work to do to make them cost competitive,” said Lauckner, speaking at the conference at the MotorCity Hotel and Conference Center. He said he would not call for a new gas tax.

Establishing this sort of program would take true leadership from Congress. Many people would complain that the government couldn’t be trusted to spend the money as intended.

For that reason alone, it’s unlikely to happen.

2011 Chevrolet Volt

FLINT — Cynics all over the Web wonder if the Chevy Volt will be able to deliver on the incredible promises General Motors has made about the technology.

But company officials believe they are creating the technology that will power the vehicles of the future.

The media was invited to attend a celebration at Flint Engine South where the Volt’s 1.4-liter four cylinder engine will be built alongside a turbocharged variant of that engine that will power the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze.

“This is going to change the country,” said Duane Zuckschwerdt, regional director for Region IC of the United Autoworkers. “This is the future.”

If the Volt can deliver on GM’s promises, Zuckschwerdt might just be right.

The Volt is an entirely new kind of car, called an extended-range electric vehicle or E-REV. It will have a 16 kilowatt battery capable of powering the car for up to 40 miles, allowing most owners to drive their daily commute on battery power alone. Plug it into the wall socket at home and drive to work and back. Repeat.

But battery-powered cars are not new. Where the Volt breaks new ground is it will also have a gasoline engine to generate electricity once the drive battery is exhausted.

Consider a possible scenario. You live in Troy and all week you make your normal commute to and from work in Pontiac, running a few errands along the way. Your commute is 15 miles each way, so you’re driving on battery power alone. The gasoline engine never even starts.

But on the weekend, you decide to head up north to Traverse City. In an electric car, you’d better plan on stopping every 100 miles or so — for eight hours each time — to recharge the battery. Or you could bring a really long extension cord. But in a Volt, you’d be able to make that trip as in any other regular gasoline- or diesel-powered car. The first 40 miles of the trip would be on battery, then the gasoline engine would kick in, giving the car a range of 300 miles. Stop at a gas station, fill up and you’re good for another 300 miles, just like in a regular car.

The key to the system that GM calls Voltec will be expanding its availability to other types of cars. GM has already shown a Cadillac with Voltec at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Expect more E-REV news from GM at the 2010 show. Such announcements could include new battery technology allowing for even greater electric-only range or scaled-up versions of the technology allowing for use in bigger vehicles.

As the battery industry ramps up for large-scale production, expect vehicles such as the Volt to become more common. Within 10-15 years, it’s possible that several types of vehicles, from crossovers to pickup trucks, sedans to sports cars, could offer E-REV as an option.

Zuckschwerdt said that the most important message is that the Volt is being created right here in Michigan.  And Flint, where GM was founded 101 years ago, will be at the forefront.

“My message today is be proud of this community,” Zuckschwerdt said.

Flint Mayor Dane Walling is heeding that advice.

“This is a great day,” Walling said. “I know that Billy Durant and Louis Chevrolet are up there celebrating.”

DeLorean Motor Co., has this image at the top of one of its Web sites promoting what it is calling the DeLorean Solstice.

Call Michael J. Fox, DeLorean might be back in the business of making new cars. And the car? A redux of the Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky, which ended production in July.

The Deleware News Journal reported Sunday that DeLorean, now a Texas company that sells parts for the defunct sports car and also makes new versions of the original, has toured the Wilmington, Del., plant where the Solstice and Sky were made. To read the story click here.

DeLorean Motor Co., which was purchased by entrepreneur Stephen Wynne in 1997, wants a new product to resurrect the name. Wynne told the News Journal that the company has shown a slightly reworked version of the Solstice and received an encouraging response.

Deleware economic development officials are also showing the plant to other potential tenants, including India automaker Tata and Fisker, a new company that is set to introduce a extended-range electric vehicle late this year. Fisker is developing a second car, that presumably could be made in Wilmington.

OK, so anybody can draw up a couple of sketches and throw up a Web site. The question will be whether Wynne can get the funding for such a massive undertaking.

Wynne’s plans have to start with the car and the basics are fairly good. The Solstice is among the most beautiful automotive designs to come out of Detroit in decades.

So, if the Solstice is so good, why did General Motors kill it when it decided to close the Pontiac brand?

The Solstice suffered from ergonomic issues that turned off buyers. Problem no. 1 is the balky softtop that is difficult to fold and takes up virtually all of the already limited trunk space. The only place to stick a cell phone or wallet is a small pocket on the front edge of the driver’s seat bottom. Noise, vibration and harshness is severe.

The bottom line is that a reintroduced Solstice would have to address those issues or the Mazda Miata will continue to eat it for lunch on the showroom floor. The Solstice has always been absolutely beautiful, but beauty isn’t enough to sell cars.

DeLorean was started by renowned GM engineer John Z. DeLorean — who ironically started the musclecar revolution at Pontiac with the original GTO — in 1975. It built 9,200 DMC-12 gullwing sports cars before going bankrupt in the mid ’80s.

Later, Fox turned the DeLorean into a cultural icon in the “Back to the Future” trilogy of movies where the car became a time machine.

Expect smaller Hummers such as the HX concept introduced at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit once Chinese heavy equipment maker Tengzhong completes its purchase of Hummer from GM.

At least Hummer didn’t end up with the same fate as Saturn. And isn’t that funny: The brand known for big, lumbering in-your-face SUVs lives on — with Chinese ownership — while the brand that was supposed to revolutionize American small cars is out. Funny how things work out.

On Friday, Sichuan Tengzhong, a Chinese company that makes dump trucks and other heavy equipment, and GM finalized details for the Chinese company to assume control of Hummer. This sets up a fascinating situation where a Chinese company will finally have an avenue to enter the U.S. market, something long sought by other Chinese vehicle manufacturers.

But how to make it work? The days of monster SUVs on every street corner are likely over. And good riddance. Seriously, how many times have you seen a suburban soccer mom (to be entirely fair, there are plenty of soccer kid-toting dads as well) driving one of these beasts — by themselves — on their way to work.

To make it work for the new automotive reality, Hummer will need to go green.

There’s nothing wrong with the Hummer style. People love it and for good reason. The vehicles strike a chord with car lovers because they are so recognizable. People either love ‘em or hate ‘em, but almost everyone knows what they are.

The key will be scaling down that look to something that works in this new, environmentally conscious world. Will there be a place for the gargantuan H2? Sure. The slightly smaller, but still huge H3? Most definitely.

But the key will be vehicles that we’ll call the H4 and H5. While the H2 and H3 will continue to sell in small numbers, their smaller brethren will be the volume models the brand needs to survive. The template for these type of vehicles have already been set.

Jeep’s Compass and Patriot were marketing genius. Take the Jeep look and apply it to a small vehicle that underneath is basically an econobox.

There are plenty of people who love the Jeep look, but have no need for a real Jeep’s capability. Ask someone who owns a Jeep Wrangler if they ever take it off-road. Most will tell you no. But they want the look. Call them posers if you want, but these people are interested in telling the world that they live an adventurous lifestyle, even if they don’t. Why not build cars for them?

It’s the same with Hummer. Only they have to execute it better than Jeep did. Those Jeeps, while spot on in terms of market, are not well done. Their cheap interiors miss an opportunity to further the marketing concept and their exterior designs are lukewarm interpretations of the Jeep theme.

Hummer has a chance to bring its over-the-top exuberance to vehicles that have all of the look, but none of the bite of a true off-road vehicle.

H4 — Hummer should build a vehicle similar to the Ford Escape or Honda CR-V. They key will be giving it a rugged style with such styling cues as plastic wheel well surrounds, integrated push bars and grille guards, tires that seem to look like knobby off-road tires, but really are low-lowing resistance rubber for on-road fuel economy and extremely short overhangs. The H4 would come standard with front-wheel drive, but there would be an optional off-road package, including all-wheel drive, that would give it the chops do some light rock hopping. It would be based on a unibody car platform, which would increase interior space and minimize weight.

Inside the H4 would continue the theme with beefy grab handles, metal-look trim with exposed screws and tough-looking fabric.

H5 — The H5 would be about the size of a jacked-up Mini Cooper. Essentially, this would be a economy car dressed to look like a miniature SUV. The keys are short overhangs and other Hummer styling cues as described for the H4. All-wheel drive wouldn’t even be available and there’s no off-roader’s option either.

Why build them? Hummer needs volume vehicles to spread out marketing and other costs. It will also need some fuel economy vehicles to meet government standards.

Hummer’s brutes will remain popular. In fact, the company’s new owners might even be able to expand the brand to more parts of the world. With the U.S. military driving its military-spec Hummers in far-flung corners of the globe, the brand enjoys consumer awareness few vehicles can match.

So the Pontiac G8 will live on in America after all. Well sort of.

Chevy has announced plans to sell the Caprice police cruiser, which is a modified version of the car sold here as the G8. The vehicle will be available only to police departments starting in 2011.

General Motors announced plans in spring to discontinue the year-old G8 when it phased out the Pontiac brand as part of its  bankruptcy restructuring.

GM’s decision to bring back the car as a Caprice police car raises the possibility that GM will also revive plans to sell the car to the public.

The G8 has continued to be a hot topic in Internet chat rooms and enthusiast publications. Many G8 enthusiasts thought GM should simply rebadge the car as a Chevrolet and continue production.

In fact, Bob Lutz, now in charge of marketing for GM, said within hours of the announcement that he was not going to retire from GM that the G8 would in fact continue as a Caprice.  Much to the dismay of auto enthusiasts, Lutz was forced to retract that statement within days, causing many pundits to wonder if GM CEO Fritz Henderson had made a wise choice in “unretiring” Lutz.

One concern is that the Caprice, like the G8, will be built by GM’s Australian affiliate, Holden, so exchange rates and transportation fees could make costs uncertain.

Of interest, Ford recently announced that it would stop building the Crown Victoria, which had been the vehicle of choice for most police departments since Chevrolet dropped its last Caprice model in 1996. Ford has promoted its Taurus for police duty, but police departments generally prefer rear-wheel drive platforms — such as the Caprice — to front-wheel drive.

Chevrolet made the announcement at the annual International Association of Chiefs of Police convention, in Denver. The Caprice PPV will be available for ordering next year and will hit the streets in early 2011.

“We asked for a lot of feedback from our police customers, which helped us develop a vehicle that is superior to the Crown Victoria in key areas,” Jim Campbell, general manager for GM Fleet and Commercial Operations.

Vice President, Global Chevrolet Brand Brent Dewar added, “Along with Impala and Tahoe, the Caprice PPV gives agencies a greater range of choices for police and special service vehicles that are all available from Chevrolet.”

GM worked on developing the Caprice in key areas specifically for police duty, containing modern equipment and features:

• Powerful 6.0L V-8 with fuel-saving Active Fuel Management technology and E85 capability delivers expected best-in-class 0-60 acceleration (sub six seconds) and top speed; a V-6 engine will also be offered, beginning in the 2012 model year
• Optional front-seat-only side curtain air bags allows a full-width rear-seat barrier for greater officer safety
• Two trunk-mounted batteries, with one of them dedicated to powering various police equipment
• Designed for five-passenger seating, meaning the upper-center section of the dashboard can be used for equipment mounting without the concern of air bag deployment interference
• Compatibility with in-dash touch-screen computer technology
• Special front seats designed for the long-term comfort of officers whose car is their effective office, including space that accommodates the bulk of a typical equipment belt

The front seats are sculpted to “pocket” the equipment belt, which greatly increases the comfort for a great range of police officer sizes. The foam density of the seatback and cushion insert surfaces are designed to conform to the shape of an equipment belt’s various items, too, allowing the officer’s back to rest properly on the seatback surface.

“The Chevrolet Caprice PPV’s seats represent a revolution in comfort and utility for officers who spend long hours in their car,” said Bob Demick, lead seat design manager. “The shape also enhances entry and egress, making it easier for officers to exit the vehicle quickly. The seatback bolsters, for example, have been purposefully contoured to help pocket the equipment on the belt, which includes the gun, Taser and handcuffs, which rest comfortably in the sculpted lower bolsters. That also increases the longevity of the trim cover surface.”

Along with comfort, the materials used in the seats were also carefully selected. High-wear materials were chosen to stand up to long hours of everyday use, while breathability, long-term durability and ease of cleaning were also important criteria.

Engineers worked on several iterations of the seat, testing a couple of versions in the field to get real-world feedback from police officers, who used prototype seats in their cruisers for a month. Their input helped determine the final design.

Class-leading space

The Caprice PPV is based on GM’s global rear-drive family of vehicles that also underpins the G8, as well as the Chevy Camaro. It uses the longest wheelbase of the architecture – 118.5 inches (The G8 rode on a 114.8-inch wheelbase) – along with a four-wheel independent suspension that delivers responsive high-performance driving characteristics that are crucial in some police scenarios.

Caprice PPV’s long wheelbase also contributes to exceptional spaciousness. Compared to the primary competition, its advantages include:

• A larger interior volume – 112 cubic feet – than the Ford Crown Victoria, including nearly 4 inches more rear legroom
• The barrier between the front seat and rear seat is positioned farther rearward, allowing for full front-seat travel and greater recline for officer comfort
• At 18 cubic feet free space (beyond battery located in trunk), the Caprice’s trunk volume is large enough to accommodate a full-size spare tire under a flat load surface in the trunk storage area.

The Caprice’s 6.0-liter V-8 is rated at an estimated 355 horsepower with an estimated 384 lb-ft of torque. It is backed by a six-speed automatic transmission that is performance-calibrated for police duty. Additional, police car-specific powertrain and vehicle system features include:

• High-output alternator
• Engine oil, transmission and power steering coolers
• Standard 18-inch steel wheels with bolt-on center caps
• Large, four-wheel disc brakes with heavy-duty brake pads
• Heavy-duty suspension components
• Police-calibrated stability control system
• Driver information center in the instrument cluster with selectable speed tracking feature.

A host of complementary features are also offered, including special equipment packages such as spotlights; lockouts for the power windows and locks; and an “undercover” street-appearance package. Good luck making an “undercover” version of a car which is only available to police departments in this country.

To enable more room for interior equipment, the standard radio can be relocated to the trunk, allowing for an in-dash, touch-screen computer to be used.