New Compact Minivan for Chevrolet in 2009

Opel Zafira with Chevrolet badge

by Frank de Leeuw van Weenen
November 12, 2007 3:54 PM
Filed Under: American, Chevrolet

Based on Opel Zafira

Small 7-seaters are selling well in Europe and Chevrolet wants a piece of the action, but GM has signed a deal with UAW to build a seaven-seat vehicle at their Hamtramck, Mich. plant for export. So GM will start building an Opel Zafira based minivan for the Chevrolet brand in the States and export it to Europe, and people wonder why GM is doing so poorly. The codenamed MPV-7 will succeed the poor selling Venture minivan (Opel Sintra in Europe) which was discontinued in 2005.

Saturn will be featuring a seven-seat minivan in its line-up in due time, but that will be exported from Europe. "It could be for Saturn, but the first product is for Chevrolet," a knowledgeable source told Automotive News.

The Chevy minivan will be boxier and more masculine than the sleek European designed Zafira and feature a unique interior. The new car will be smaller than the Chevrolet Traverse, and a sibling to the Buick Enclave, Saturn Outlook and GMC Acadia.

Source: Automotive News (sub req)

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Comments

radmeister

November 13, 2007 12:17 AM

if honda and hyundai wanted to take their minivans and mix them into 1 they couldnt do a better job than this POS. What a waste of valuable funding, they should have spent the $$ in extra RD in a segment they are making profits in.

ntangled

November 14, 2007 12:58 AM

Typical...why does the US get the shaft on cool designs? The Nissan X-Trail & Qashqai and Ford Mondeo are just a few examples. Now this? Who decided that Americans should settle for frumpy overweight products when Europeans get all the good stuff? I was mad enough that most of our vehicles don't have amber rear signals like the rest of the world...now it seems that the cars themselves are better everywhere else. Just look at the non-Mazda 3 version "new" Ford Focus. They had the chance to make it great but cheaped out. I say if GM had their biggest corporate loss in history last quarter, they might want to rethink some of their strategies (I do like the new Malibu, however!).

NaBUru38

November 16, 2007 11:55 PM

"Boxier" than the Zafira is close to nonsense. Unless they head into Ford Flex' direction. Oh, that's nonsense too.

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