2010 GMC Granite Concept, this car's dimensions were close to that of a Honda Fit and had a modular design, being able to turn into a pickup, it had a turbocharged 1.4 liter Ecotec engine that pushed out 138 horsepower and was linked to a 6-speed automatic

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Honcho_47@reddit

Keep in mind that’s probably the same 1.4 turbo in the Cruze that eats turbos valve covers crank seals intakes etc.

Other than that power plant I’m on board

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_badwithcomputer@reddit

Turbo 4 cylinders are a recipe for problems.

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GTS250@reddit

Not true. There's bad and there's good turbo 4s. GM just made a really bad one

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Naturally aspirated gasoline engines will always beat turbocharged gasoline engines for longevity and reliability. The fundamental problem is that trying to get a tiny engine to put out HP and torque numbers comparable to a big engine over-stresses it, and it ends up beating itself to death far earlier with far more potential points of failure.

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PvtSatan@reddit

Not quite. You can absolutely build incredibly durable turbocharged gasoline engines. The issue is cost. It is much more expensive to use forged internals and higher steel, nickle, etc content blocks and heads, than the cheap fuckin cast parts that'll last 250k miles in a naturally aspirated engine.

Even taking your argument at face value and ignoring my counterpoint, you're still incorrect. The drive by big manufacturing to eke every fucking dime out of a product has resulted in any engine having reliability problems. Neither GM, Daimler, nor Ford can build an engine worth any more fucks than the shitty little 1.4 turbo Eco that we're all here shitting on. Everyone forgot how to build lifters, rollers, or chains, and may the gods help you if your automatic has more than 6 speeds (or less than 2).

Direct Injection has destroyed engine reliability, particularly in turbos. But holy shit I'm writing a novel I'm out.

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blumptrump@reddit

4 in a row dont go

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Drzhivago138@reddit

Boomer/10

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_plays_in_traffic_@reddit

no doubt. a while back i got to work on someones eg hatch that ran 8.5 quarters and that wasnt even anything special back then.

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PhantasmologicalAnus@reddit

Why?

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SjalabaisWoWS@reddit

It's GM, can't expect quality from them. But this looks really cool nonetheless, a shame they didn't dare making it. Wouldn't have needed the modular gimmick.

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TheAmericanIcon@reddit

Hey I used to sit by one of those tires at work. They made prototype tires to go with the prototype car.

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kurtthewurt@reddit

How did you manage to recognize the tires? By the weird tread pattern?

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TheAmericanIcon@reddit

I looked up the concept car when I saw the tires. The name was on them. Also that tread pattern was super recognizable, even if I didn’t know the car it went to I’d probably still recognize it. There was also a second one of these made for Cadillac I believe, around the same time for another concept car. I’ll have to look that one up.

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PinkFloydBoxSet@reddit

I want someone in the auto manufacturing business to explain to me why we get all these cool ass space age interior components in concept cars and when it hits production we have the same shit we've had since 1994 but with an iPad glued to the dash where the AC controls and radio use to be.

GIVE ME THE FUCKING UFO SEATS.

Assholes.

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kurtthewurt@reddit

You can get the UFO seats in a Model X, but then you have a Model X, which isn't a great place to end up.

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PinkFloydBoxSet@reddit

You also get gull-wing doors.

That car is a shining example of cool ass shit wasted on an absolute rolling trash heap.

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tomato432@reddit

practicality, these pretty ufo seats wouldn't be as comfortable as the armchairs they've been using for decades
because you're removing the B-pillar you must either treat the design like a long door coupe or reinforce the hell out of the rest of the frame

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PinkFloydBoxSet@reddit

The kitchen table chairs they use now aren't comfortable either.

If its going to suck, at least make it look cool.

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Drzhivago138@reddit

Since 2004 the SuperCab has had a B-pillar inside the rear clamshell door to help with side impact safety. But it's still not as rigid as a permanent B-pillar, and from personal experience I can say it's not as quiet either.

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kurtthewurt@reddit

I'm not understanding how it converts into a pickup truck. There's no cut line in the C pillar, there's a gas cap where the split would be, and the rear doors have framed windows and hinge out from the C pillar.

Maybe there was just a pickup version they showed?

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ScottaHemi@reddit

I forgot about the granite pickup!!!

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l1thiumion@reddit

I’ve seen worse

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AcousticOnomatopoeia@reddit

But it had an Ecotec...

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tomato432@reddit

do you know how little that narrows it down, the ecotec name refers to 11 different engine families

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Lamborghini_Espada@reddit

I can see this with different badges as an Opel Meriva in an alternate universe.

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habes42@reddit

This is most likely a concept that was turned into the Chevy Sonic in production.

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Thomas_633_Mk2@reddit

Yeah I was about to say, this type of car has existed before and likely will exist again in the future

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Automatoboto@reddit

listing specs for show cars is kinda funny.

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Fiempre_sin_tabla@reddit

And because we live in this time line and not that one, we get the Cybertruck and the Hummer.

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lavavaba90@reddit

Gm had some great concepts back in the day, this, the chevy code 130R and Tru 140s all would have been cool cars.

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Funny-Ad-3710@reddit

Build it now!

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warrensussex@reddit

GM actually built this, but they called it the Chevrolet Sonic. You could even get it with a 6 speed manual.

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Drzhivago138@reddit

They do look similar, but the production Chevy Sonic was slightly smaller, on a different platform, and was already greenlit by the time the Granite Concept came out.

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puddlepunk@reddit

Maybe you could build either a 4 door or a truck on the same chassis, but I don't think the above car could be turned into a truck without a lot of work with a sawzall. We're a bit short on pixels, but I don't see a horizontal break line behind the rear doors for the top of the pickup bed, along with no evidence of a seperation point for the back of the roof. And where would you put all these spare parts and panels if you could re-arrange your car? Odds are you'd just end up carrying them around in the bed.

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Drzhivago138@reddit

OP is confusing two different models. This is the Granite concept that debuted at the Detroit show in January 2010, while the Granite CPU concept was the pickup that came out at LA in November.

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SharkBaitDLS@reddit

This would rock as an EV since it wouldn’t need the engine bay taking up space.

Although I guess at that point it’s kind of just reinventing a Telo.

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stinktoad@reddit

Slate launches this year, pretty much this as an ev

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SharkBaitDLS@reddit

I still think the Telo is the closer analogue. The Slate barely has a cabin at all.

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floppydo@reddit

Way bigger though isn't it?

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stinktoad@reddit

Yeah but not like way bigger

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drums_addict@reddit

Where does the concept car go after it's shown? Are they destroyed or is there a warehouse somewhere full of them?

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Custombi@reddit (OP)

Sometimes both, some get destroyed sadly (prime example is the Nissan Bevel, which was crushed at a scrapyard a few years ago) and some are stored in warehouses, given to museums, or auctioned off

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