Engineering:General Motors J platform

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J-body
Vauxhall Cavalier.jpg
A 1987 Vauxhall Cavalier, the Vauxhall version of the GM J-body.
Overview
ManufacturerGeneral Motors
Production1981–2005
Body and chassis
ClassCompact (North America)
Mid-size (Global)
LayoutTransverse front-engine, front-wheel drive
Body style(s)2-door convertible
2-door coupe
2-door notchback sedan
3-door hatchback
4-door sedan
5-door station wagon
5-door hatchback
Chronology
PredecessorGM H platform (RWD) (North America)
SuccessorGM2900 platform (Europe)
GM Delta (North America)

The General Motors J platform, or J-body, is an automobile platform that was used by General Motors for compact cars from the 1982 to 2005 model years. The third generation of compact cars designed by GM, the J-body marked the introduction of front-wheel drive for its compact model lines, simultaneously replacing the rear-wheel drive H-body and the European U-body platforms, the latter being a stretched version of the original rear-wheel drive T-body. The J-body was marketed as a world car, with GM brands selling versions of the platform in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan; in markets outside of North America, the model line was packaged as a mid-size car.

Outside North America, the use of the J platform was phased out after the 1980s in favor of the Opel-based GM2900 platform. In North America, the introduction of the Saturn S-Series would lead to the consolidation of the J-body to the Chevrolet and Pontiac brands.

Following several major revisions, the J platform remained in use into the 21st century; in June 2005, the final example (a Pontiac Sunfire) was produced. Introduced by Saturn for 2003, the GM Delta platform is the fourth generation of compact cars from General Motors.

Background

The design of the J-car began in 1976.[1] Originally, the J-car was only intended for the Chevrolet and Pontiac brands, but soon thereafter Oldsmobile and Buick were added.[1] At the time, GM-controlled divisions in different parts of the world manufactured totally different rear-wheel drive C-segment cars – the Chevrolet Vega in America, the Vauxhall Cavalier/Opel Ascona in Europe, the Holden Torana in Australia and the Isuzu Florian in Japan. It was decided that a common replacement would be developed to eliminate duplication of engineering effort and ensure parts interchangeability – a practice known as badge engineering or platform-sharing. In November 1979, subsequent to the second fuel crisis and only 14 months before the cars introduction, it was decided to create a Cadillac derivative as well. Aside from a hefty price tag, the hastily developed Cimarron had little to distinguish it from the other J-car offerings.[1]

In continental Europe, the car was sold as the Opel Ascona. In Britain, it was known as the Vauxhall Cavalier. Irrespective of badging, European production of the J-body occurred in plants in Germany, Belgium, and Britain.[2] It was generally well received but was narrowly beaten to the European Car of the Year accolade by the Renault 9. The Vauxhall Cavalier version was particularly successful in Britain, where it was the second best selling car in 1984 and 1985 and managed around 800,000 sales across a seven-year production run.[3] At the time, it set new standards for performance and economy in this size of car in Europe; for instance, the 1.6 petrol engined Cavalier for the British market had a top speed of 105 mph, compared to the 101 mph top speed of the 2.0 petrol engined Ford Cortina – its key competitor for a year until the Ford Sierra was launched in 1982.[2] Due to the exterior dimensions, and the engines offered being in compliance with Japanese regulations, the platform was classed in the favorable "compact" designation allowing the Isuzu Aska to compete with other Japanese made products sold in the domestic market at the time. Isuzu also supplied kits for Holden's J-car version, the Camira.,[4] whilst correspondingly - Holden manufactured the GM Family II engines installed in J-body cars manufactured worldwide, and also the station wagon bodywork for the Camira was supplied to Vauxhall in the UK for its estate version of the Cavalier II.

The fourth character in the Vehicle Identification Number for a J-body car is "J".

MSRP North America (1982 top trim package sedan before optional equipment)[5]
Model MSRP
Chevrolet Cavalier CL $8,137 ($21,557 in 2019 dollars [6])
Pontiac J2000 LE $7,548 ($19,997 in 2019 dollars [6])
Oldsmobile Firenza LX $8,080 ($21,406 in 2019 dollars [6])
Buick Skyhawk Limited $7,931 ($21,012 in 2019 dollars [6])
Cadillac Cimarron $12,181 ($32,271 in 2019 dollars [6])

Development

The platform received two major cosmetic redesigns, in 1988 and a more thorough makeover in 1995, along with major powertrain revisions. The 1995 makeover was only sold in North America, as General Motors subsidiaries in other countries had replaced it (mainly with cars based on the GM2900 platform). This makeover had originally been planned for the 1992 model year when work begain in 1988, but General Motors' bad finances forced them to postpone it twice.[7]

A variety of convertible versions were developed as well, from fully official to purely aftermarket. In all cases, final assembly of convertibles was subcontracted by General Motors; in North America by American Sunroof Corporation (ASC); in Brazil by Envemo and Sulam, and in Europe by Keinath and Hammond & Thiede (de). Hammond & Thiede's version originated with the Karosseriefabrik Voll, which was taken over by H&T in 1985.[8]

Models

Over its 24-year production run, the GM J platform would be sold under 16 different nameplates (five under the Pontiac brand alone). During the 1980s, a version of the J platform would be marketed by every division of General Motors in North America (with the exception of GMC).

Over 5.8 million of the original (pre-1995 facelift) J-cars were sold in North America.[7] Approximately 10,150,000 GM J platform cars were sold across eleven marques on six continents from 1982 through 1997.[5][9][10][11] Consequently, it is the fifth best selling automobile platform in automotive history.

Vehicle Name Years Produced Body Styles Notes
North American-market nameplates
Buick Skyhawk

1987 Buick SkyHawk Custom.jpg

1981[lower-alpha 1]–1989 2-door sedan
4-door sedan
3-door hatchback
5-door station wagon (1983–1988)
The 1989 Buick Skyhawk would be the last Buick sold with a manual transmission until 2011.
Cadillac Cimarron

Cadillac Cimarron 2 -- 07-01-2009.jpg

1981[lower-alpha 1]–1988 4-door sedan The Cadillac Cimarron shared most of its body panels with the Chevrolet Cavalier, becoming one of the most infamous examples of automotive badge engineering.
Chevrolet Cavalier

1st Chevrolet Cavalier sedan.jpg '88-'91 Chevrolet Cavalier Wagon.jpg 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier coupe -- NHTSA.jpg

1981[lower-alpha 1]–2005 2-door sedan
2-door coupe
2-door convertible
4-door sedan
3-door hatchback
5-door station wagon
Longest-produced and best-selling J-body.
Oldsmobile Firenza

Oldsmobile Firenza.jpg

Oldsmobile Firenza Cruiser Station wagon (4899054495).jpg

1981[lower-alpha 1]–1988 2-door sedan
4-door sedan
3-door hatchback
5-door station wagon (1983–88)
The Oldsmobile Firenza is the shortest-produced version of the J-platform in North America.
Pontiac J2000

Pontiac 2000

Pontiac 2000 Sunbird

Pontiac Sunbird

1987 Pontiac Sunbird Safari hf.jpg '91 Pontiac Sunbird Convertible (Cruisin' At The Boardwalk '12).JPG

1981[lower-alpha 1]–1982 (J2000)

1983 (2000)

1984 (2000 Sunbird)

1985–1994 (Sunbird)

2-door sedan
2-door coupe
2-door convertible
4-door sedan
3-door hatchback
5-door station wagon
Pontiac Sunfire

Pontiac Sunfire convertible.jpg 2003-05 Pontiac Sunfire Sedan.jpg

1994–2005 2-door coupe
2-door convertible
4-door sedan
The Sunfire replaced the Sunbird as part of a major redesign of the J-platform for 1995.
  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Across all US brands, introduction was in spring 1981 but the launch versions were all advertised as 1982 model year cars.
Global-market nameplates
Chevrolet Monza

Chevrolet Monza 2.0 SLE 2-dr.jpg

1982–1996 2-door sedan
4-door sedan
3-door hatchback
Produced in Brazil, the Monza is a version of the Opel Ascona.

3-door hatchbacks have different (more upright) rooflines than the North American versions.

Holden Camira

1987 Holden JE Camira SLi 2000 sedan 01.jpg

1982–1989 4-door sedan
5-door station wagon
The body of the Camira station wagon served as the basis for the Vauxhall Cavalier wagon in the UK.
Isuzu Aska

Isuzu Aska Irmscher Turbo.jpg Chevrolet Aska 1.8 Limited 1984 (16844179981).jpg

1983–1989 4-door sedan The Aska was sold as a Chevrolet in South America, and briefly as the Holden JJ Camira in New Zealand.

Opel Ascona C

Opel Ascona C front 20071004.jpg

Vauxhall Cavalier Mark II

1986 Vauxhall Cavalier SRI.jpg

1981–1988

Opel: 2-door sedan
4-door sedan
5-door hatchback

Vauxhall: 2-door sedan
2-door convertible
4-door sedan
5-door hatchback
5-door station wagon

The Ascona/Cavalier are badge-engineered vehicles, with the Opel sold in continental Europe and the Vauxhall sold in Great Britain.
Station wagon body panels are derived from the Holden Camira produced in Australia.
Toyota Cavalier

Toyota Cavalier 1.JPG

1995–2000 2-door coupe
4-door sedan
In a trade agreement between Toyota and GM, the Cavalier was imported into Japan in return for the USDM Geo-division cars for Chevrolet.
Toyota Cavaliers are right-hand drive with other detail changes to meet Japanese regulations.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Keenan, Tim; Smith, David C. (October 1994). "Anatomy of a car launch: GM's J-cars: New in '82... and alive in '95". Ward's Auto World (Ward's Communications) 30 (10): 38. 
  2. 2.0 2.1 Hayward, Matthew (June 28, 2011). "Vauxhall Cavalier Mk2: Vauxhall's new pragmatism...". AROnline. http://www.aronline.co.uk/blogs/cars/vauxhall/cavalier-vauxhall/the-cars-vauxhall-cavalier-mk2/. 
  3. "Previous winners". Car of the year. http://www.caroftheyear.org/previous-winners/1982_1/coty. 
  4. "GM ties with two Japanese car makers". Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Tokyo): 1. August 18, 1981. 
  5. 5.0 5.1 Flammang, James M. (1999). Standard Catalog of American Cars 1976-1999 (3rd ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87341-755-0. 
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". https://www.minneapolisfed.org/about-us/monetary-policy/inflation-calculator/consumer-price-index-1800-. 
  7. 7.0 7.1 Keenan & Smith, p. 36
  8. "Die erfolgreichste Variante: Hammond & Thiede, bzw. Voll" (in de). Ascona-Cabrio. http://www.ascona-cabrio.com/hammond.htm. 
  9. "International 1st Gen Jbodies – First Generation Forum". j-body.org. http://www.j-body.org/forums/read.php?f=28&i=13246&t=13221. 
  10. "Overview". Ascona. http://www.fortunecity.com/silverstone/toyota/29/main2e.htm. 
  11. "Chevrolet Monza". Chevy Wiki. February 9, 2009. http://www.chevy-wiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chevrolet_Monza&oldid=10326.