GM seeks Honda, Toyota buyers

DETROIT, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- When you think of small mid-size, Honda and Toyota, not GM, come to mind and General Motors doesn't like that.

The world's largest automaker this week announced plans to introduce 10 new or redesigned vehicles with at least 15 different body styles through 2005, beginning with the 2004 Chevrolet Malibu.

GM also will roll out fresh models of the Pontiac Grand Am and Grand Prix and the Buick Regal -- a convertible version of the Grand Am is in the works -- all built on the mid-sized Epsilon platform.

The Opel Vectra and Saab 9-3, which went on sale in Europe earlier this year, were the first cars built on the new platform.

"It's a segment where we have lost ground in recent years but it's exactly where we intend to make our stand -- beginning now," said Bob Lutz, GM's design guru and vice chairman of North American operations.

While GM captures 30 percent of the large vehicle market with its wide selection of Buicks, Pontiacs and Cadillacs, it has steadily lost ground in mid-sized cars to Japan, Korea and Germany's Volkswagen. GM's overall U.S. market share was about 28 percent this year.

"We made huge strides with our trucks," Lutz told Thursday's Detroit Free Press. "Now, we must make the car side of the ledger positive."

GM's own market research found that only 11 percent of Honda Accord, Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima buyers bothered to consider a GM product.

The new Chevy Malibu, billed as GM's long-waited Camry fighter, will be built at a plant in Fairfax, Kan., and sell for a base price of around $17,500.

GM's no-hassle Saturn unit plans to replace the L-series and Buick plans a new mid-sized model in late 2005.

In other auto news:

Ford dealers are offering big discounts to move discontinued luxury cars and trucks off their lots. The Detroit News said Lincoln is offering a $6,754 cash rebate on Continental sedans and a $7,500 rebate on remaining Blackwood pickups, an upscale truck originally sticker priced at more than $50,000. Ford announced it was discontinuing the Blackwood in June and about 1,000 remain unsold.

J.D. Power and Associates said GM is offering similar fire-sale discounts on Cadillac Eldorados, Oldsmobile Silhouette minivans and Chevrolet Camaros.