GM's crisis-mode product plan

Big SUVs have plummeted in popularity in the past year and evidently GM doesn't have much confidence they'll come back. The company recently canceled work on a next-generation "platform" - the basic engineering underlying a line of vehicles - that would have formed the basis of new Chevrolet Tahoes and GMC Yukons.

It's not clear that this means these vehicles will never be updated. For one thing, substantial changes and improvements could be made that are something less than a full make-over. Carmakers sometimes drag products along for many years that way.

And full redevelopment plans could be started up again later when the economy improves. At any rate, the next generation Yukon, Tahoe and Chevrolet Avalanche are, at least, a long way off.

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