General Motors puts Rear-Wheel-Drive Models on Hold!

[Nowhere]

az, cheap rear-engined (ok, not exactly what you've asked for...) "four" seat car: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polski_Fiat_126p (you can hop through the border to get one for a price of good dinner )

edit: BTW, didn't Wartburg fit that description?

[cjolley]

Doc, the 2007 Saturn Vue Green Line SUV is the most mild hybrid vehicle for sale on the market.
Five years after the first hybrids were introduced?

They are going to have to come up with better than that to convince me it isn't still the same old GM.
Something real, not auto show material.

[Dr Mordrid]

Vue is a stop-gap. So is the 2-stage hybrid (Yukon etc.) GM acknowledges this by the very existence of Volt.

Show cars often have fake resin components or adapted parts.

Volt is real. I've touched it. It's the future and they plan on using it in almost every passenger class and likely trucks too.

Really big advantage: it decouples the power system from the drive system. Yank out the I/C and replace it with a gas turbine, fuel cell or Mr. Fusion and the drive system couldn't care less as long as it gets enough volts/amps.

This will make changing power systems as the tech comes along duck soup.

[cjolley]

They've had lots of "innovative" cars like the Chevette and Fiero. Sigh...

I hope you are right, but the flow of history is against them.

[Gurm]

AIEEEEEE! I don't want to even THINK about the beating the suspension would take with a wheel that heavy!

[Dr Mordrid]

If you look at the unsprung weight of a motor + alloy wheel vs. the unsprung weight of an old stamped & welded steel wheel, it's almost a wash.

As long as the total unsprung is <30kg it's no biggie anyhow, and this can be minimized by putting a smaller motor in each of the 4 wheels. Result: 4WD, usually considered a benefit.

In return your get a traction/stability control device with precise control over each wheel's output, perhaps the most effective regenerative braking possible and a lower center of gravity.

The only place you'd notice a negative difference is if you were running pro races/rally's, and even there the TSC/lower CG would negate much of it.

[az]

I'm telling you, active adaptive suspension!

[Dr Mordrid]

Yes indeed, and Electronic Stability Control is mandated in the US by NHTSA as of September, 2011. Not the "full package", but a start.

That with wheel motors could make for some interesting cars.