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Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing , GM , HUMMER HUMMER's up for sale, and General Motors is looking around the house for other items to include in its yard sale. During a presentation to Deutsche Bank, GM's powertrain plant in Strasbourg was added to the For Sale listings by Treasurer walter Borst. Together, the HUMMER brand and the French transmission plant could bring up to $4 billion. GM's likely not done raiding the attic, either. A list of other salable assets is currently being drawn up as The General continues attempts at righting its ship. A selloff of HUMMER probably doesn't mean much for the brand's lineup in the immediate future. A new owner would be purchasing the name moreso than the GM truck-based H2 and H3. New models based off some other architecture will take a considerable amount of time to work up; it'd likely mirror what's going on with Land Rover and Jaguar under Tata's ownership. [Source: Inside Line ] Read | Permalink | Email this ...
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Filed under: Etc. , Buick , Cadillac , Chevrolet , GM , GMC , HUMMER , Saturn In a move that might frost your cupcakes, General Motors has dropped the heated windshield washer fluid option on all models. The feature was a big part of Buick advertising in the recent past, but GM has either not had enough takers, or there are issues with the OEM for the system components. Either way, you're going to have to chip the ice off the windshield of your brand new Traverse the same way we've done it since the invention of the wheel: cold, freezing, wet, and swearing. In all honesty, heated washer fluid is better in theory than in practice. It may help a little bit, but the windshield has a lot of "thermal inertia" and the glass is what really needs to be warmed up. Those of us who thought we were smart wrapping the washer fluid line around a radiator hose back in the day discovered this, and now it seems GM has found out the same thing. Maybe Tata could hook The General up with...
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Filed under: SUVs , GM , HUMMER The HUMMER brand isn't exactly sterling here in the States due to high fuel prices and its standing as the poster vehicle for green groups trying to save the environment from the evils of CO2 emissions. That's probably the biggest reason GM is looking to offload the brand , and while it doesn't seem likely that anyone would want the marque, there are interested parties. According to GM's Middle East Managing Director, Terry Johnsson, one group is a pair of Arab investors. The Middle East has been a player in the automotive landscape over the past few years, as the region is rife with cash and oil and has growing transportation needs. Arab investors were 50% of the Aston Martin sale in 2007, and Abu Dhabi's investment group purchased 5% of Ferrari in 2005. Many of the early suitors for the HUMMER brand have since decided to bow out . Whether the final buyer is Tata Motors, investors from the Gulf, or some yet unknown party, the General...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Buick , Cadillac , Chevrolet , GM , HUMMER , Pontiac , Saab , Saturn Wow, there are some great deals to be had at the moment from General Motors. Not the least of which is on the Corvette, specifically the Z06 model, which we've had nothing but good things to say about, even at its $72K asking price. Now that GM is offering all of its models at employee prices, that cost drops by about ten grand! A Z06 for $62,653? Yes please... if only our meager blogging budgets would allow it. Similarly, a Caddy XLR-V can be had for $84,771.80 -- about a $15,000 discount. Need an SUV? May we suggest a Hummer H3 for about $23K? Those in the market for a luxury sedan could certainly do worse than a Cadillac STS-V for $66,640.88 after some $14K in savings. Of course, practical shoppers can take five-grand off their Saturn Aura XR sedan and end up paying just $21,634.28 for the privilege. We're having way too much fun with this and there is plenty of other news we need to...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Marketing/Advertising , Buick , Cadillac , Chevrolet , GM , GMC , HUMMER , Saab , Saturn It is no secret that the automotive industry is hurting for sales to close out 2008. Over the past few months incentives have been thrown out left and right to draw in more buyers. The deals have not done enough to bring folks into the showroom, though. With all the media talk of bleeding Detroit, consumers know that the domestic manufacturers have been holding out on their best offers. Perhaps the memory of 2005's employee pricing incentives has kept many waiting on the fence. With 2009 models heading to dealerships as we speak, General Motors is hoping to end the stalemate. It will be testing the waters of employee pricing yet again beginning Wednesday, August 20th and running through September 2nd. The employee discount program will apply across all 8 GM brands. Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealers will mark down 91 percent of their inventory on all 2008 models, along with...
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Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing , GM , HUMMER , Saab General Motors CEO, Rick Wagoner, mentioned in passing that several parties have expressed interest in purchasing HUMMER and that GM is moving as quickly as possible to seal the deal. "We have some interested buyers," Wagoner told reports while attending the opening of a new GM engineering and development center. The sale of HUMMER would help fund GM's attempt to boost liquidity to the tune of $15 billion by the end of 2009. Other brands could be cut or paired down, but Wagoner insists that Saab will continue to soldier on. "Saab is a critical part of our European portfolio and has the potential to be quite a good moneymaker for us." He went on to say that the next Saab will be built in North America, although it wasn't divulged what model would be produced or where. [Source: Reuters ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Concept Cars , Economy , Sedans/Saloons , Plants/Manufacturing , Crossovers/CUVs , Chevrolet , GM , GMC , HUMMER , Pontiac , Saturn , Opel , Vauxhall General Motor's car czar, Bob Lutz, sat down with the little people of the blogosphere after GM's announcement that it would be reducing white collar expenditures by 20-percent, cutting truck production and eliminating retired health care for salaried workers over 65, all in an effort to boost its liquidity by $15 billion by the end of 2009. Maximum Bob addressed questions about GM's entire brand portfolio, saying, "Pontiac will be nourished with products" and confirming that GM is in talks with financial institutions about HUMMER, and that, "If we could sell the brand, we'd be interested in doing that." Predictably, much of the conversation centered on fuel efficiency and the General's plans to address the growing demand for miserly transport in the U.S. Lutz made it clear that "as...
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Filed under: SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , GM , HUMMER It's no secret that GM is looking to sell or kill its once valuable HUMMER brand , but the big question now is whether the General will do the same with other brands. Unfortunately for GM, there isn't much to be gained from either killing or selling most brands. Saturn, GMC, and Pontiac are all US-only brands that don't exist without Chevrolet, and the bow-tie is GM, so it's safe as can be. Buick is a Chinese gold mine, so it's off the market. Selling Saab, Vauxhall or Opel likely wouldn't result in the kind of cash the General is going to need going forward, but at the expense of losing its European market share. Killing any brand, as GM already knows from its experience with Oldsmobile, would result in lawsuits from dealers and a dip in sales, which the General can hardly affort. What is likely to happen is that GM will take the same road Chrysler is already traveling by cutting overlapping models. Do we need a G5...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Buick , Cadillac , Chevrolet , GM , GMC , Pontiac , Saturn During a dealer teleconference today, General Motors announced it would be launching a zero-percent financing sale beginning tomorrow, while simultaneously raising the prices of its 2009 vehicles. The "72-hour sale" will run from June 24th through the 30th, and will offer customers 0-percent interest rates for 72 months on most Chevys, Buicks, Pontiacs and GMC vehicles. So far, there's no word on whether the offer will extend to Cadillac and Saturn. GM will also offer $500 in "bonus cash" to buyers who opt to purchase GM products outright rather than leasing them. At the same time, the General is going to be raising the prices of 2009 models by an average of 3.5-percent "across the board," something that was bound to happen, according to Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of vehicles sales, service and marketing. On the production front, GM will be adding a third shift...
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Filed under: Car Buying , SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , Etc. , GM , HUMMER There's no official obituary for GM's HUMMER brand yet, but haters are lacing up their dancing shoes while lovers wring their hands. Dealers with HUMMER franchises have a lot of skin in the game, so the uncertain future is bound to give business officers ulcers. Not willing to wait around to the bitter end, Milwaukee's Bergstrom HUMMER is planning to move into the same space as the group's Chevrolet store. The HUMMER-specific Quonset hut style dealership building will be toned down and pressed into service as an outlet for Certified used GM vehicles. Other HUMMER dealers across the nation are staring down the same conundrum, being on the hook for that big, rugged showroom, test track, inventory, and staff, while the parent company looks to clamp off bleeders. Some might follow Bergstrom's lead and shove the big trucks into a corner of a showroom dominated by a more stable brand, while others are shipping...
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Filed under: Buick , Cadillac , GM , GMC , HUMMER , Pontiac , Saab , Rumormill This has been a big year for GM's organization alignment, with President Fritz Henderson opening up about the brand issue snafu and the appointment of four brand czars . HUMMER was meant to join forces with Cadillac and Saab in a premium channel, but while HUMMER is still in the family, it's apparently been put out on the lawn . GM Inside News (GMI) reports that GM is treating HUMMER as a goner, saying that the H4 program is on life support for handover to the next buyer, and the H3 GMT-700 program is kaput. The bigger hearsay is that GM's board is considering euthanizing GMC or Pontiac. Those two brands were to be aligned in a brand channel with Buick (PBG). Getting rid of GMC could make some kind of sense, since it's entirely brand-engineered vehicles with some of the worst mileage numbers in the fleet. Shunning Pontiac would be a surprise to us since the Solstice and G8 have given it a nice...
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Filed under: Recalls/TSBs , Safety , Chevrolet , GMC , HUMMER Way back in February, the NHTSA began investigating certain full-size trucks and SUVs from General Motors for the possibility of their engines spontaneously combusting, even when the ignition key is in the 'off' position. At that time, the investigation covered some 423,000 vehicles, and GM seemed pretty confident that the issue would not be widespread. Yeah, it appears as if the General was a little off in that assessment. The engine fire issue may now affect about 2.7 million vehicles, including all of the latest Chevrolet, GMC and HUMMER full-size models. A preliminary examination of the electric systems throughout these vehicles is being conducted at this time. Depending on the results of the NHTSA's 'Engineering Analysis', a recall could follow. So far, there exists 41 reported cases of non-crash-related underhood fires, with 16 of those supposedly with the ignition turned off. Check after the jump for...
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Filed under: Concept Cars , Coupes , SUVs , Etc. , GM , HUMMER , Saab Today is a movie day, it seems, and once again, it's General Motors in the thick of things. Via HISSTank comes a new set of photos from the G.I. Joe movie set. There, we see a couple of the modified HUMMER H2s that will be used, as well as the Saab Aero X concept. No word on which character's driving the latter. Storm Shadow, maybe? At least it'd match his threads. As for the HUMMERs, they are apparently equipped to traverse hedgerows . At least that's what we gather from those tacked-on rhino-style bumper mods. See more pics at HISSTank and mourn with us for the wholesale destruction of our childhood memories. [Source: HISSTank ] Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Motorsports , Trucks/Pickups , HUMMER The famous Baja 500 begins today in Ensenada, CA, and one of the more interesting dirt racers discovered by our friend Mike Levine at Pickuptrucks.com is the Tundra D-Cab PreRunner from TForce Motorsports . It looks good, has ridiculously huge King off-road racing shocks, and it's owned by former Indy 500 champ Danny Sullivan, but that's not what makes this rally racer unique. Power for the PreRunner comes from none other than GM's LS2 small-block. TForce crew member Matt Riggle told Levine that the team chose the 375-hp, 400 lb-ft powerplant because of its reliability, as well as its ability to run on regular Pemex gas that's much cheaper than facing fuel. For the record, Toyota does not sponsor team TForce or its hopped-up PreRunner, but you can imagine that choosing a GM engine over one by Toyota because of reliability isn't exactly what the folks in Aichi, Japan like hearing. [Source: Pickuptrucks.com ] Read | Permalink...
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Filed under: SUVs , Etc. , GM , HUMMER Click the image above for more pics With the rise in fuel prices in recent years, the HUMMER brand has been the poster child for gas-guzzling. For some, however, the rugged vehicles represent a dream come true. The husband-wife art duo of Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom wanted to make their own H3, and they used $35,000 in worthless lottery tickets to get the job done. The couple's work of art is called "Ghost of a Dream," and the idea behind the name is that people often dream of buying a new car when they're scratching off their tickets. The final H3 Lottery Edition looks incredibly true to life, and it includes windshield wipers, tires, tow hooks, and all its body panels made entirely out of lottery tickets. The rims are plastic molds lined with coins that represent the principal tool people use to scratch off the tickets. Even if the final work of art doesn't end up in a major gallery any time soon, at least someone has finally...
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