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Filed under: SUVs , Plants/Manufacturing , Cadillac , Chevrolet , GM , GMC The full-size SUV's future is on shaky legs and now, reports have surfaced that General Motors has killed the next generation Tahoe and Yukon 'utes, just weeks after announcing it would shutter its SUV plant in Janesville, Wisconsin. Of course, if that pair is buried, the Suburban and the Cadillac Escalade that use the same platform must also come to an end, at least in their current form. Past reports indicate that the ultra-lux ride from Caddy will move to the Lambda platform for its next generation. The Tahukon pair had been slated for a redesign in 2011, and since that's reportedly not going to happen, the duo's future is definitely in question. GM will probably keep churning out the current version until it's no longer profitable to do so. These days, any story about the General would be incomplete without some mention of Chrysler, and this one's no different. America's number three...
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Filed under: SUVs , Plants/Manufacturing , Chevrolet , GM , GMC General Motors has announced that it wil close its SUV plant in Janesville, Wisconsin by the end of this year in response to the woeful market for utility vehicles. The plant produces the GMC Yukon and Chevy Suburban and employs 1,200 UAW workers. GM was originally planning to shutter the plant sometime before 2010, but deteriorating market conditions have expedited the plant's demise. The news comes only one week after the General announced that it would be closing its Moraine, OH SUV plant early, as well. Some analysts think GM could pull the plug on its Oshawa truck plant and Mexico facility in Toluca early too since truck sales are down as well, as GM has already announced that those plants are slated for closure. GM top dog Rick Wagoner stated last week that some stamping facilities could also face closure to help align production capabilities to demand. [Source: CNN Money ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: SUVs , Hirings/Firings/Layoffs , Chevrolet , GMC , Saab , UAW/Unions Looks like that Moraine, Ohio plant that was going to be shut down next year is actually going to be shuttered on December 23rd, just in time for Christmas. This is the plant responsible for production of the GMC Envoy, Chevy Trailblazer and Saab 9-7X. The General had already slowed the plant to just one shift as SUV sales, particularly sales of old SUVs like these, continue to tumble, but the plant was expected to remain open until at least early next year. On Friday the remaining 1,100 workers were gathered and told of the revised plan. The closure isn't a total surprise, as General Motors had already announced that the Dayton-suburb plant would be closed so the company could focus more on production of small cars. That initial announcement seemed to indicate a 2010 closure, but the company has continually revised the closing date until this most recent word came. Moraine is one of four GM plants that...
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Filed under: SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , Green , Chevrolet , GM , GMC Click above for high-res gallery of the 2009 Chevy Tahoe XFE Remember earlier in the year when Chevy quietly added the 36-mpg XFE model to its Cobalt lineup? XFE stands for "Xtra Fuel Economy" (should we tell them they spelled "Extra" wrong?) and means these vehicles have been equipped with some easy fuel-saving technologies to eek out as many miles per gallon as possible. GM announced today that the Cobalt XFE will be joined by XFE versions of the Chevy Silverado, GMC Sierra, Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon for the 2009 model year. The General already offers hybrid versions of its full-size SUVs, which are also joined by hybrid versions of its half-ton trucks for 2009, but the XFE models will continue to be powered by a flex-fuel version of the company's 5.3L gasser V8. It produces 320 hp/340lb-ft in the Tahoe and Yukon, and 315 hp/338 lb-ft in the Tahoe and Yukon. All are rear-wheel-drive only and mated...
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Filed under: Car Buying , Trends , Hybrids/Alternative , SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , Green , Chevrolet , GM , GMC , Earnings/Financials click above image for a high-res gallery of the Chevy Tahoe 2-mode Hybrid We've been waiting for General Motors to step up to the plate with its own incentives now that Ford has offered employee pricing on its F-Series trucks and Dodge has offered $2.99 fuel to go along with its various incentives for the Ram. It seems that GM has finally anted up and increased the incentives for the Silverado, Avalanche and Sierra trucks, along with the Tahoe, Yukon, Escalade and Suburban. The pickups all get $2,000 in customer cash to go along with an extra $3,000 if you already own a GM product for a total of $5,000 total off the sticker price. Those shopping for an SUV will even get an extra grand. In what may be an even larger sign of the times, for the first time ever GM's hybrid Tahoe and Yukon get $4,000 off, but only if you already own a product from the General...
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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative , SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , Plants/Manufacturing , Chevrolet , GMC , HUMMER At the General Motors annual meeting in Delaware today, CEO Rick Wagoner will be publicly announcing the latest restructuring round for the beleaguered automaker. In response to plummeting sales of large trucks, GM will close down four more North American Assembly plants by 2010. The plants in Janesville, Wisconsin, Oshawa Ontario, Moraine, Ohio, and Toluca, Mexico are already running reduced production schedules and will cease operations entirely as products are discontinued or shifted to other plants. The Janesville plant builds medium trucks and SUVs while Moraine builds the old body on frame Trailblazer, GMC Envoy and Saab 9-7x SUVs. The other plants build full-size pickup trucks. The closures affect 10,000 employees at those plants. Those that aren't among the 19,000 who are taking buyouts will be offered transfers to other locations to fill spaces vacated by the departing...
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Filed under: SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , Crossovers/CUVs , GM , GMC , Callaway When the current GMT900 SUVs hit the market in 2006, gas prices were already near $3.00 per gallon, but the super-sized transports sold in prodigious numbers anyway. The reasoning from the General and its customers was that there were still people with big boats or trailers to tow, and unibody CUVs just aren't up to the task. In the two years that followed, gas prices have gone from pesky to pandemic, and buyers are leaving their body-on-frame SUVs by the thousands. The General isn't blind to the trend, and a report from Bloomberg says that GM may be ready to take the drastic step of separating the platforms of its trucks and full-size SUVs by 2012. The move is extreme because SUVs and trucks have saved development time and money by sharing a platform for many decades, but with such a dramatic shift away from the handy but fuel-thirsty rigs, GM has little choice but to think of alternatives. A unibody Tahoe...
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Filed under: SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , Plants/Manufacturing , Chevrolet , GM , GMC , UAW/Unions General Motors has informed its dealers that production of some of its 2008 full-size trucks and SUVs has been halted due to the ongoing American Axle strike. The affected vehicles include the GMC Yukon, Denali, Sierra heavy-duty regular and extended cab, its commercial-duty pickup and variants of Chevrolet trucks and Tahoes. According to the General, a basic lack of parts is the reason for the stoppage and dealer orders for the week of May 8th and May 15th have been cancelled. While a lack of production is bad news for any automaker, we can't help but think that it couldn't have come at a better time for the General as SUV and truck sales are down overall. [Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: SUVs , Recalls/TSBs , Safety , GM , GMC You might remember a bout of fires consuming a handful of Ford trucks, SUVs and cars that was due to a faulty cruise control switch that could ignite even if the vehicles were parked. General Motors is apparently having a similar issue, and although it doesn't involve the same cruise control system, the potential outcome - a car fire - is the same. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into the 2007 GMC Yukon after two of the SUVs caught fire while parked in the owners' garages with the ignition turned off. The issue could affect some 423,000 vehicles, but according to a GM spokesperson, the automaker doesn't think it's a widespread pattern or trend. The NHTSA will have the final word on that, we suppose. [Source: Detroit News] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Car Buying , SUVs , Trucks/Pickups , Dodge , Ford , GMC Using a formula that takes into account what a buyer actually pays for a vehicle, J.D. Power APEAL Survey results and the Consumer Reports Owner Satisfaction Survey, Forbes has come up with the 15 vehicles for which you'll probably pay too. The most overpriced vehicle will cost you $7,158 more than it should. For some reason we couldn't see the 15th and final slide, so all we can tell you is that the 14th most overpriced vehicle will run you $2,447 extra. The number one slot is held by the $37,105 Dodge Ram 2WD Laramie MegaCab, and the penultimate place was occupied by the $27,470 GMC Colorado. The list is dominated by domestic trucks and SUVs -- the only car on the list is the Mercury Grand Marquis (over by $6,480), and the only import is the Nissan Quest SE (over by $3,441). All of them are long in the tooth, on their way out, or about to be replaced. So if you're in the market for any of them, it's buyer...
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Filed under: SUVs , Crossovers/CUVs , Chevrolet , GM , GMC , Misc. Auto Shows Okay, the Automotive News story we were tipped on earlier is now out, and we can clarify the details about the upcoming 2009 GMC Terrain. As initially reported, the Terrain replaces the Pontiac Torrent, which gets laid to rest as Pontiac becomes car-focused once again. The news is that Terrain will be a new vehicle roughly sized the same as the Jeep Liberty, and probably not the exact truck you see above, from the sound of things. It'll join a new Chevy Equinox also built atop the updated Theta platform, and the GMC will have unique sheetmetal that's said to be "bolder" than that of the Chevy. Look for pricing to be in the same ballpark as the Equinox, which will start in the $22,000 range. The Terrain (and presumably the Equinox) will be built at the CAMI plant in Ingersoll, Ontario. So, while the new Terrain will share a name with the Antara variant being sold in the Middle East , it sounds...
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Filed under: SUVs , GMC , Pontiac Click image to enlarge var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/autos/2009_GMC_Terrain_replacing_Pontiac_Torrent_in_the_US'; With the Torrent dropped from Pontiac's long-term plans as the brand returns its focus to performance-oriented cars, GM appears to already know how and where it'll replace the small SUV. The answer was unveiled back in November when GMC introduced the Terrain in Kuwait. Like the Saturn Vue , the GMC Terrain is essentially a badge-engineered Opel Antara; and now the Terrain is coming to the US, according to an Automotive News report that's set to hit the wires tomorrow. Due as a 2009 model, the Terrain will be GMC's first foray into the compact SUV segment. As you can see above, the division's branding looks right at home on the Vue/Antara bodywork. The long-in-the-tooth Chevy Equinox can't be hanging around much longer, either, and while GM has denied plans to do so in the past, we've got to believe the...
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Filed under: Car Buying , LA Auto Show , SUVs , Green , Chevrolet , GMC click above image for a high-res gallery of the Chevy Tahoe 2-mode Hybrid Over the past several months, General Motors has been trotting out its new full-size hybrid SUVs at every press preview and auto show telling us all about how great they are. More recently the automaker told us that the official fuel economy ratings from the EPA had come in at an impressive 21 mpg city and 22 mpg highway. The one thing GM has declined to discuss, however, was how much the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid and GMC Yukon Hybrid was going to cost the consumer. Until now that is. The Two-Mode hybrid Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon now have their official MSRPs, with the rear-wheel-drive Tahoe hybrid starting at $50,490. At the high end, the all-wheel-drive GMC Yukon tips the price scales at $53,775. So far we don't have an exact standard equipment list for comparison against the regular 5.3L SUVs, but a rough estimate would put one of those in the...
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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative , SUVs , Chevrolet , GM , GMC Hybrid vehicles still don't make much sense for automakers. The cost of the technology is more than what consumers are willing to pay and in many cases the fuel-saving benefits can be achieved with a simple diesel motor (at least in Europe). Because of this, coming up with the right sticker price can be a major stumbling block. Price it too high and no one will want to buy your hybrid, but discount it too much and money will be lost on every model sold. GM got into a spot of bother recently when alleged prices for its new full-size hybrids SUVs were released on its website last month. The problem was that the listed prices "were too low" according to GM spokesman Terry Rhadigan. The Chevy Tahoe 4-Door two-wheel drive hybrid was listed at $47,915 and the four-wheel drive was listed at $50,720. The GMC Yukon two-wheel drive hybrid came in at $48,370. The 'correct' prices are scheduled to be announced next...
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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative , SUVs , Green , Chevrolet , GM , GMC click above image for new pics of the 2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid Finally! For months and months we've been hearing that the upcoming two-mode hybrid SUVs from General Motors will have...
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