GM Style? What a Concept

General Motors Corp., once a leader in automotive style but resigned for the last three decades to producing largely ho-hum vehicles, is designing a comeback.

The company that put helped put fins, fastbacks and full-size sport-utility vehicles on the map--but then sank into an era of boxy econo-sedans and look-alike brands--now brags about its corps of orange-haired, body-pierced designers and shows off concept cars like the Pontiac Piranha, whose tautly stretched skin and zip-out colored-cloth interior coverings were inspired by a lightweight backpacking tent.

GM is staking its future on a promise that no fewer than half the vehicles it introduces in the next five years will feature cutting-edge design, establish new categories and be packed with technology.

That word comes directly from the corporate policy makers and bean counters high atop GM’s world headquarters in downtown Detroit’s Renaissance Center--a nicely symbolic locale from which to rekindle the spark that once drove the company.

The proof, of course, is in the production, and it will be a few years yet before all of what GM promises will arrive in showrooms and motorists will be allowed to vote with their car-buying dollars.

Analysts at Merrill Lynch & Co., in fact, issued a report last week saying GM will be the least competitive auto maker in the U.S. during the next five years--in part because of a stodgy lineup.

But the old-economy behemoth--which maintains a precarious perch atop the Fortune 500--has provided a strong indication of its direction in a world increasingly dominated by new-economy notions and high technology. GM has unveiled nine concept vehicles at major auto shows this year in Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, New York and Geneva--and executives say that as many as five of the concepts will be put into production by 2005.

That’s likely to be good for GM.

“The American public is hungry for good design, and GM has been watering down design and trying to appeal to everyone for ages now,” said Mark Dziersk, president of the Industrial Design Society of America. “But that’s the old model, and it won’t work anymore.”

As differences in quality and reliability among automotive brands fade, “then given a choice, all other things being equal, people are going to choose great design,” Dziersk said.

“Companies like GM need to find courage to pursue it.”

GM has, says Ed Welburn, director of the Corporate Brand Character Center, the company’s central design studio, in Warren, Mich.

“It’s a very exciting period around here right now,” he said. “We’ve got this tremendous support” to push the envelope in developing products. “Our objective is 50% innovative vehicles, and the leadership of the corporation is firmly behind us.”

That support was made clear in G. Richard Wagoner’s address to the troops last week as he became GM’s new chief executive officer. Product innovation is the direction the company must take to succeed, he said.

Not everyone, of course, is persuaded that GM has found the right combination. But even skeptics give the company big points for owning up to its past problems and working to create an environment in which designers have at least as much to say as accountants and marketing executives.

“This is the beginning of GM trying to find its own design voice again,” said Eric Noble, president of CarLab, a Santa Ana-based automotive product consulting firm. “I don’t think the concepts they’ve been showing demonstrate that they’ve found it yet, but it’s great that they now understand that design is critical.”

One of Noble’s reservations is that “it’s hard to see any family resemblance” among the concepts.

Indeed, other than engines, wheels, suspensions and other under-the-skin components, there is no common thread linking a group of vehicles that range from the jewel-like Buick LaCrosse, a homage to French designer cars of the late 1930s, to the geo-mechanical GMC Terradyne, a heavyweight pickup that appears to have been machined from a block of steel.

But the lack of familial traits is, itself, part of GM’s overall design: The company no longer wants its Buicks to look like its Oldsmobiles to look like its Chevrolets, says Frank Saucedo.

The designer was hired away from Volkswagen late last year to head GM’s new advanced-design studio in North Hollywood--a complex whose very location, executives assert, underscores GM’s determination to trample tradition and bring new ideas into the company.

“Quality is something that must run throughout all GM products, and there should be a family identity within each brand--but not one shared by all the brands, or else we’ll be cannibalizing customers” from one brand to another, Saucedo said.

To be an auto industry leader today means “we must create rather than react, in design and function,” said Larry Burns, GM’s vice president of product planning and research and development.

“We hadn’t been doing that in the past,” he said. “We lost our edge” in the 1970s and ‘80s, when the company was consumed by the energy crunch and competitive-pricing challenges from Japanese auto makers.

And GM’s “significant financial mess” in the early and mid-’90s diverted attention from innovative products, Burns said, noting: “We needed to make sure didn’t miss on the important core products,” such as SUVs and full-size pickups.

“When you are in a jam,” he said, “you cannot be as bold and risk-taking as we can be now, when we are in healthy financial shape.”

To show off its new direction, GM recently gathered its concept vehicles at its proving grounds in Milford, Mich., and opened them up for close inspection:

Saturn CV1

The boxy Saturn CV1 isn’t ugly, although “sleek” isn’t a term that would apply either. The slab-sided vehicle is clearly a minivan, though one packed so full of function it takes several tours, inside and out, to grasp it all.

Key components include hinged rear doors that fold in the middle to create a gaping opening for easy access; storage spaces everywhere, some with adjustable shelving; run-flat tires that eliminate the need to fuss with a spare; raised seating and a tall greenhouse to provide SUV-like visibility; a flat floor and tall roof for tons of space inside; and a pair of jump seats that flip down from the backs of the front seats and boost capacity to seven occupants.

Oldsmobile Profile

The Profile plays on Oldsmobile’s design themes to present what the venerable brand calls “the evolution of the sports sedan.” Its rear quarter-section has lines reminiscent of classic touring cars, including the Porsche 928; its front end and side profiles use cues from the new Olds Aurora.

Inside, a sleek dash is packed with “telematics,” including an Internet Web server that provides access to voicemail and e-mail. A voice-command system runs most controls, including the sliding rear doors and a rear hatch that gives the vehicle the storage capacity of an SUV.

If Oldsmobile survives rumors of being folded into GM’s Saturn unit--and maybe even if it doesn’t--the Profile could be in play in a few years.

Buick LaCrosse

Although unlike anything GM has on the road today, the LaCrosse abounds with Buick styling cues, including the kicked-up fender line over the rear wheel (think 1966 Riviera) and the teardrop-shaped portholes on the front fenders.

It also features pebble-textured leather club seats with foot rests for the passengers; voice-controlled operating systems; a heads-up display that leaves the dashboard clean of all gauges except for an enameled analog clock in the center; and a sleek roof line that slides apart and hides away to convert the sedan into a car-styled pickup capable of handling oversize cargo.

Hauling it all is a 4.2-liter, 265-horsepower V-8--the first in a Buick in several years--hidden under a unique side-hinged clamshell hood. Its complex bodywork makes the LaCrosse an unlikely candidate for production, but look for many features to show up on other Buicks.

GMC Terradyne

The Terradyne is likely to be one of the concepts to hit the streets as a production model. GM’s all-truck division is looking for ways to distinguish its products from Chevrolet’s, and the sharply chiseled Terradyne does it in spades. GMC calls the style “industrial precision.”

The truck has a composite cargo box with integral side storage compartments hidden beneath the exterior skin; an on-board generator and a variety of electrical connections to handle power tools, compressors and computers; and a “megacab” that seats five and is outfitted with a mobile office and multi-position rear seats. The 6-foot bed has a sliding section that extends it to 8 feet.

HummerH2

GM’s first go at styling a Hummer since acquiring the maker of giant “civilianized” versions of the military’s principal people mover, the Humvee, has resulted in a pleasantly contemporary version, in two-thirds scale, of the original.

The four-wheel-drive HummerH2, which GM has already slated for production in 2002, seats five and gives occupants plenty of elbowroom while still permitting them to talk without the aid of megaphones--a problem in the king-sized H1 model.

Chevrolet SSR

On the other end of the scale is the SSR--a two-seat pickup whose metal convertible top, 6.0-liter V-8 and hot rod styling enable it to live up to its initials, which stand for Super Sport Roadster.

Chevy heard so much positive feedback from the concept showing that it has reportedly asked an outside vendor to bid on building production versions. Styling cues include a twin cockpit interior that has been a symbol of Chevy since the initial Corvette.

Chevrolet Traverse

The Traverse, the only Chevy car among the concepts, is an effort to reinvent the family sedan, says Christos Roustemis, senior creative designer on the project.

“We borrowed ideas from the ’55 Chevy for entry room, seating and cabin space,” he said of the almost SUV-like vehicle.

The Traverse, in fact, blends attributes of car, truck and SUV, and company executives say it hints at the future brand style for Chevrolet, whose trucks sell far better these days than its cars.

To keep the Traverse from looking too much like a truck, though, designers gave it a slight notch-back to mimic the trunk lid of a standard sedan. On this vehicle, though, the rear window lifts like a hatchback and the rear fascia folds down like a pickup truck’s tailgate. Interior appointments include the Chevy twin cockpit and rear seats that fold away to create a flat floor with enough space for a full sheet of plywood.

Pontiac Piranha

Pontiac’s Piranha concept is the least likely of the bunch to become a production car but the most likely to provide a batch of parts and design themes that will show up on other models. And look for the Piranha name to surface on a future Pontiac--it is too cool to pass up.

The car seems to be a modern interpretation of the lightweight dune buggies that abounded in Southern California in the 1960s and ‘70s. Features include small rear doors that ease entry into the coupe; a cloth interior, including the dash cover, that can be zipped out to facilitate cleaning and changes of color and pattern; a roof rack that stores in the rocker panels; and a removable cargo container accessible through a rear tailgate.

Cadillac Imaj

The flagship of GM’s concepts--and of the Cadillac line if a version goes into production--is the Imaj, designed at GM’s European satellite studio in Birmingham, England, and first shown at the Geneva Auto Show in Switzerland earlier this year.

The vehicle takes Cadillac’s “art and science” theme to the extreme--one competitor says it looks as if it was never touched by human hands. GM says it has “unmistakable Cadillac styling” and tells the world that the owner needs only to please him or herself.

The rear seats recline and are equipped with “infotainment” systems; the roof includes remote-controlled louvered glass panels for ventilation; the rear doors open from the center post to provide a gaping entryway; and the vehicle is equipped with all of GM’s safety, handling and security technology.

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Times staff writer John O’Dell covers the auto industry for Highway 1 and the Business section. He can be reached at john.odell@latimes.com.