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Filed under: Economy , Sedans/Saloons , Paris Motor Show , Chevrolet , GM Click above for high-res gallery of the Chevy Cruze LT The Chevrolet Cruze is three kinds of car: small, American and important. And with the state of General Motors, it isn't even the individual words that mean the most: it's whether The General can combine them into a reliable, fuel efficient and cost effective package. True, we don't get to drive these things while they're parked under the lights, but to have a seat in the Cruze is to imagine a GM that begs the question, "Where was all this before the meltdown?" The studio imagery we've seen so far translates nicely into real life, and the center console looks and feels substantial - in fact, it looks like it could be foreign - even if the silver mesh treatment in the show car was a bit much. The car has a compact yet full-bodied stance, and will probably look even better on the road in a color other than scarlet, and not under klieg...
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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative , Sedans/Saloons , Green , Hatchbacks , Chevrolet , GM Click above for high-res gallery of 2011 Chevy Volt Everyone who has been waiting with bated breath for the past year and a half to see the production version of the Chevy Volt can now breathe a big sigh of relief. After some extremely unflattering press shots shots were accidentally released last week, people were extremely disappointed with what appeared to be little more than a Prius clone. Anyone who spends time photographing cars knows how hard it can be to make them look good and how easy it is to make them look really awful. Unfortunately, those shots that were unapproved and never supposed to be released anyway fell into the latter category. The car that GM rolled out this morning as part of its centennial celebration in Detroit is a much more attractive machine that while different from the concept is still very attractive. Rather than the egg shape look we saw, it's actually much more like...
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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: Hybrids/Alternative , Sedans/Saloons , Green , GM , Holden , Australia Two separate reports out of Australia say that Holden is looking to maximize the Commodore's fuel efficiency in an effort to stoke sales. Both stories quote General Motor's Asia-Pacific vice president, Nick Reilly, but the separate reports, while sharing a common theme, come to decidedly different conclusions about how the General plans to proceed. The first story from the Sydney Morning Herald (thanks Patrick!) cites Reilly as saying that Holden is looking into hybrid technology to power the Commodore. "[It] could be one of the first hybrids that you will see," but Reilly insists that a gasoline-electric Commodore is still a few years out. The second report comes courtesy of Drive.com.au, who also spoke with Reilly and asked if a four-cylinder version of the Commodore was in the cards. "It makes a lot of sense," Reilly said, "and therefore we're probably looking at it...
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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons , Plants/Manufacturing , GM , UAW/Unions GM is still dancing with the UAW over contract issues, now its doing it with local plants regarding items that weren't in the national agreement. However, The General has managed to wring two more days to negotiate before workers at its Fairfax assembly plant in Kansas City, KS, walk out. The 2,600 workers of UAW Local 31 churn out 3,100 Malibus every week. Local contracts -- as opposed to the national agreement -- concern work-rule, seniority and other non-economic issues. The UAW Local says that GM isn't following the blueprint of the national agreement and is pushing for too much. GM says it is negotiating in good faith. And Fairfax isn't the only plant affected. Strikes and idling due to rejected contracts have taken place at GM plants in Parma, Ohio, Lansing, Michigan, and Detroit-Hamtramck. Those interruptions have halted production of the Buick Lucerne and Enclave, Cadillac CTS, Saturn Outlook, and GMC...
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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons , Plants/Manufacturing , Chevrolet , UAW/Unions General Motors has been dealing with a lot of strikes lately. The United Auto Worker union's strike against one of its main suppliers, American Axle, has been reducing the General's inventory of trucks and SUVs for about a month now, and also threatened production of the Chevy Malibu before the automaker found more parts to keep production going. Just yesterday the UAW walked out of GM's Lansing Delta Township plant where the Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn are built. The latter strike is over what the UAW has only referred to as "local contract issues". Whatever those are, they are important enough to come back today and threaten GM with a walk out at its Fairfax plant, one of the two facilities that builds the hot-selling Chevy Malibu. The union has set a five-day ultimatum, and says it will walk out on Malibu production next Tuesday, April 22 if an agreement isn't reached. The other...
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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons , Recalls/TSBs , Hatchbacks , GM , Pontiac , Toyota Joint manufacturing ventures allow both automakers to share resources and platforms, but unfortunately, it also means they share problems. Such is the case with GM and Toyota, whose NUMMI plant in Fremont, California, put out 540,000 Toyota Matrixes, Corollas and 123,00 Pontiac Vibes with faulty bolts that hold in the glass on the two front doors. The 660,000 2003-2004 vehicles equipped with power windows are being recalled after 500 complaints, 36 claimed injuries and one crash (?!) were reported. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is calling for both automakers to recall the affected vehicles and replace the faulty bolts at no charge. [Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Garage , Hybrids/Alternative , Sedans/Saloons , Marketing/Advertising , Tech , Chevrolet If the Chevy Volt were a 150 mpg dairy cow, the General's marketing department would have a hand on every utter. The Volt is still more than two years from production, and the series hybrid is all over the Internet, TV, and magazines. When a vehicle promises as much as the Volt does, though, any update is big news. This time, engineers have come up with a computer algorithm to accelerate battery durability testing. The test increases battery testing from ten years to two by duplicating real-life vehicle speed and cargo-carrying conditions in a controlled environment while constantly recharging the batteries. The next step for the Volt is test mules that can put GM's e-Flex system through more unpredictable conditions like snow storms and Michigan potholes. Since the Volt's 375-pound battery pack resides down the center of the car and beneath its rear seats, GM had some unique...
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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons , Chevrolet , GM , UAW/Unions The five week-old strike at American Axle is finally starting to wear on GM, and the General has decided to move a small but crucial parts contract over to rival supplier Dana to help get its truck plants moving again. The 30,000-unit prop shaft contract for light pickups is considered a small deal, but the fact that GM is beginning to move on shows that the strike, which began on February 26, is beginning to take its toll on the giant automaker. The move is going to anger the striking workers, but it will also likely help get American Axle management back at the bargaining table. Recent events show that still more GM plants are being hurt by the strike, as the plant that builds the Buick Lucerne and Cadillac DTS was shut down last Friday, and Automotive News reports the Chevy Cobalt plant could idle this week. Perhaps the biggest news of all is that GM is running out of rear suspension knuckles for the hot-selling Chevy Malibu....
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Filed under: Car Buying , Sedans/Saloons , Chevrolet , GM The 2008 Chevy Malibu has snatched up awards and media accolades, and JD Power data shows that customers are paying Chevy dealers handsomely to own one. The average transaction price of a Chevy Malibu is $22,358 -- $5,000 higher than the inherently uncool last-gen 'Bu. Twenty-one percent of buyers are also opting for the top-of-the-line LTZ vs. only 5% for the outgoing model. The news isn't all rosy, however, as most of these customers are trading in other GM products to get themselves into the North American Car of the Year. Only 1.4% of buyers traded in a Toyota Camry, 1.3% swapped a Nissan Altima, and less than 1% turned in a Honda Accord. Those aren't exactly the kind of numbers GM will want to brag about, but at least the General is pulling in the equivalent of two Tata Nanos more per car than the last generation model did. [Source: Detroit News ] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons , China , Buick , GM A new, small sub-Lacrosse Buick luxury sedan could fit the bill to meet future federal regulations requiring an average fuel economy of 35 mpg by 2020. If given the go-ahead, General Motors would build the new car based on the upcoming Buick Excelle, itself set to debut in China by early 2009 and thought to look like the car you see above. The Excelle is a small, Toyota Corolla-sized sedan that will be manufactured on GM's new global rear-wheel drive Alpha architecture developed out of Germany. If General Motors decides to proceed with the plan, executives will have to determine what North American plant gets to build it, but its proclivity to be driven by its rear wheels should set the small car apart in a sea of FWD compact sedans. [Source: AutoWeek , Photo courtesy of Sina.autonet.com ] Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons , Buick , Cadillac , GM We're getting a bit tired of trying to keep up with what models GM plans to underpin with a rear-wheel-drive platform. Aside from the upcoming Camaro and the Pontiac G8, no other vehicles have received the divine anointment from the General's higher-ups due to impending CAFE regulations that will supposedly quell any developments on the RWD front. However, The Car Connection has pretty much confirmed what we've already known: GM's plans for RWD vehicles will include both a rear-driven Buick and Cadillac. The new models will share the same Aussie-derived Zeta platform from the aforementioned Camaro and G8, with the rear-driven Caddy expected to replace the aging STS and DTS, and a Buick model taking over where the front-drive Lucerne left off. Until we actually see one of these new models in the flesh (production or concept) we're not planning to hold our breath, but the idea of a RWD Buick seems at least plausible,...
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Filed under: Concept Cars , Detroit Auto Show , Sedans/Saloons , Buick , GM Through the success of the Enclave , Buick has discovered that nicely designed, well-built, high content vehicles sell. Being the first Buick in a long time to log advance orders, GM thinks it might be onto something with the Enclave formula. That recipe consists of bolder styling than past Buicks, with cues coming from the Velite and Riviera show cars. Avoiding retro, forthcoming Buicks promise to amp up the curbside drama with unabashed curves, and a lot of chrome. The Enclave has an interior that was obviously fussed over, too. If Buick can turn out a car using the same discipline that guided the successful Enclave launch, it should be exciting to watch the brand reinflate. Both the Riviera and Velite concepts have striking, tight designs that are nothing like the blobby, amorphous Buicks of the recent past. The Lucerne is a stylistic step in the right direction, and with a new LaCrosse due soon, we might start...
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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons , Wagons/Estates , Plants/Manufacturing , Cadillac , GM , Australia GM believes it has a world-class luxury vehicle in the all-new Cadillac CTS , and the General is shipping the RWD clear across the globe to prove its point. Since 1969, Cadillac has been on the outside of OZ looking in, but an emerging luxury market coupled with part-sharing with Holden makes the CTS a great vehicle to end the 40-year hiatus. The CTS will hit Aussie shores by the end of 2008, with the addition of a 2.9-liter turbo-diesel entering the lineup in 2009. With Australian's love for great-handling RWD sports sedans, the CTS is a no-brainer as the vehicle to bring Cadillac back to OZ. The CTS wagon would likely be a hit down under as well. And if you're reading this GM, we'll take that 2.9L diesel option here in the States, too. [Source: Drive.com.au] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Filed under: Spy Photos , Sedans/Saloons , Geneva Motor Show , Euro , GM , Saturn , Vauxhall Here's what the Saturn Aura Red Line should be, courtesy of Vauxhall. The Vectra is being replaced by an Epsilon 2-based car called the Insignia. The Epsilon 2 will also serve as the basis for the second-generation Saturn Aura. That platform sharing will no doubt be good in workaday trim, but Vauxhall's turning up the wick for the Insignia VXR, and we're crossing our fingers that Saturn is hanging out in the gym with its cousin. The VXR will gain visual horsepower and there will be real output from the powertrain to back up the appearance. A twin-turbocharged 2.8-liter V6 laying down 300 horsepower through the all wheel drive system that debuted with the GTC concept car in Geneva. The suspension will be able to cope with the power by using a revised version of the Vectra VXR's adaptive dampers, and the AWD system carries at least one limited slip differential. A 0-60 time in the...
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