GM’s W platform was with us so long that it’s almost hard to remember how genuinely new and different it seemed back in #1988. The W underpinned many cars over the next 28 years, finally fading away at the end of 2016 when the old Impala Limited, a fleet special based on the ’06 Impala, went out of production. The #Wbody, which back in 1988 (and into the early 90s) was called the #GM10, was a mixed bag for GM - it provided plenty of black ink and produced a few interesting cars - but it also happened to be symbolic of GM’s dysfunction in the late eighties, and produced lots of forgettable vehicles that did little to help its reputation. The first GM10 car to debut was the #PontiacGrandPrix in October, #1987. The old rear-drive GP was a traditional and good car - particularly it’s final act - the Nascar-born 2+2 #Aerodynamic coupe - but dated. Sales of the RWD G-body #GP trailed off after 1984. The new car was a whole different animal - aerodynamic and modern - front drive, discs all around, independent suspensions. GM bet big on the GM10 - more than $6B (in 1980s $$) was spent developing and tooling up for the cars, and the Buick Regal and Olds Cutlass Supreme followed the GP in quick succession - coupes only. Not debuting sedans for another two years was only one of the mistakes GM made with the rollout, itself complicated by issues stemming from GM’s 1984 Re-org. Coupes had been volume sellers on GM’s mid-sizes into the early #1980s but the market was rapidly moving away from coupes by 1986 - what GM needed was a Taurus, but it also didn’t want to cannibalize sales of the A-body cars (at Pontiac, the 6000). In using a common platform, the knockout styling was genuinely unique to each car, but the new tech and good looks (which produced amazing looking #Nascar stock cars) hid tepid performance and handling - earning the cars lukewarm reviews. Although there were standouts like the ASC Grand Prix Turbo, arriving with a new 3.1 V6 in 1989, they were the exception. Sedans, and a Chevy version - the Lumina - debuted in 1990, and the GM10 car weren’t bad sellers - but never came close to GM’s expectations, and by the early 90s were often fleet fillers.
