Kavmerica.com

GM recently announced a new partnership with Segway under which they built a new concept people mover the “PUMA”.  With any luck it will hopefully never see production.  One look at this bizarre vehicle will have you wondering what they are thinking.  An informal survey on CNN.com showed that over 70% of the people polled said they wouldn’t be caught dead driving around in it.  The PUMA is designed to be piloted around cities and is not intended for highway use.  Although it is capable of traveling 35mph.

Considering GM is on the verge of bankruptcy one has to wonder why GM would even contemplate such a vehicle.  Concept vehicles have their place and in many cases they stir up some positive PR for the company.  However, in the case of the PUMA it just goes to show how out of touch GM has become with their consumer.  They are designing concept vehicles which have no future, hopefully zero possibility of being built, and that give GM an even worse name.

Would you buy a PUMA?  It’s estimated that it will cost 1/3-1/4 of the cost of an average car.  Considering it is exposed to the elements and can not be driven on the highway the PUMA is nothing more than a toy really.    The average cost of a new car in the US is $28,400 dollars.  So 1/3-1/4 of that would be $7,100-$9,500.  Unless you’ve got money to burn this isn’t the vehicle for you.  For most people $9,500 will pay for a lot of cab rides around the city.

It is unfortunate that GM has fallen so far out of touch…

GM's Next Failure?