general motors
Cadillac Planning New Models to Keep Up With China Demand
Kevin Wale, who head’s up the brand’s operations in that country, said at a recent press conference in Shanghai, that the brand plans to boost production by some 40 percent in the next two years.
OnStar And Cadillac Will Exhibit New Tech At 2012 C.E.S. Show
General Motors is taking their Cadillac and OnStar brand to the 2012 Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. The show, which runs from January 10 – 13, is a hot bed for all the latest gadgets and gizmos and GM wants to take advantage of that by showcasing their latest version of the OnStar system…
Saab Files for Bankruptcy
Saab’s financial rollercoaster seems to have come to what many have speculated would be its inevitable conclusion, with the Swedish automaker today announcing it has filed for bankruptcy with the District Court in Vänersborg, Sweden. The news comes as Saab was seeking to reorganize, with the struggling car maker desperate to arrange funding. The most…
Chevy Cruze Production Halt Continues Due To Supply Shortage
Problems with a parts supplier have caused the GM assembly plant of the Chevrolet Cruze and its identical brother, Buick Verano, to experiences stoppages in the past 3 weeks, one of which was a one-week planned shutdown and another one that wasn’t planned at all. According to GM spokesman Tom Mock, GM’s Lordtown, Ohio assembly…
GM Back in Talks With Lotus Parent Company Proton
General Motors is reviving negotiations that were scrapped back in 2007 with Lotus parent company Proton Holdings, Malaysia’s biggest auto manufacturer. Both brands are looking to form a manufacturing venture in the Southeast Asian country. A collaboration between the two parties would probably be mutually beneficial, with GM getting access to Proton’s production in Southeast…
Chevrolet Volt Battery Issues May Cost $1,000 To Fix Per Car
Nonetheless despite the highly publicized battery fires, reportedly caused by coolant leaking and then crystalizing to cause electrical shorts, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (which reported no fires as the result of its own crash testing) has no plans to change the five-star crash rating it awarded the Volt earlier this year.
GM; Toyota Spend Most Money On Advertising
GM spent some $3.59 billion on advertising last year, an increase of some 11 percent compared with 2009, while Toyota put aside some $2.86 billion.
Chevrolet Volt Fire Solution Expected Soon, Coolant Leak May Be The Culprit
General Motors is moving closer to a solution for the fires that occurred in Volts after crash testing earlier this year. Fox News reported yesterday that, according to an unnamed source, fires sparking inside Chevrolet‘s lauded green car might be caused by coolant crystallizing on the car’s battery after a crash, leading to a short…
GM Efforts Failed To Achieve Profitability For Opel
General Motor‘s European subsidiary, Opel has contributed greatly to GM’s engineering and technology development. Despite this, Opel has had difficulty making profit. GM Vice Chairman and Opel’s supervisory board chairman, Stephen Girsky explained to Financial Times Deutschland, “Unfortunately, our plan for making Opel profitable this year did not work.” Analysts suggest causes for Opel’s unprofitability include…
Chevrolet Volt Battery Issues Growing, Safety Findings May Have Been Suppressed
Joan Claybrook, a former adminstrator at NHTSA believes part of the reason for the delay was the “fragility of Volt sales.” Yet she also believes that “NHTSA could have put out a consumer alert, not to tell them [customers] for six months makes no sense to me.”
Buick LaCrosse GS Will Never Happen Says GM
That said, with the LaCrosse having already received more power for the 2012 model year, in the shape of the 303 hp LFX 3.6-liter bent six engine, perhaps the idea of a GS model with a turbo motor seems a bit superfluous, at least for the time being.
UAW To Picket General Motors’ Orion Township Plant
UAW members are scheduled to picket outside General Motors’ Orion Township Plant today, where the Chevrolet Sonic and Buick Verano are built. Negotiations have stalled between the union and an in-house supplier owned by the Ambassador Bridge’s Moroun family. According to Pat Sweeney, president of Orion’s UAW Local 5960, current LINC Logistics employees make…
Susan Docherty Named Head Of Chevrolet Europe
Susan Docherty, GM’s former US sales and marketing boss, will become head of GM’s Chevrolet Europe division starting on January 1st, 2012. Docherty will be succeeding Wayne Brannon, who will be retiring after 38 years with GM. Docherty, 49, will be overseeing the growth of GM’s Chevrolet and Cadillac brands in western and central Europe….
GM Builds 100-Millionth Small-Block Engine
GM hit a huge milestone today, building its 100-millionth (that’s 100,000,000) small-block engine, 56 years after its first one rolled off its production line. And in something that almost seems planned, the 100-millionth small-block came in the same month GM celebrated its 100th anniversary. Used in GM vehicles around the world, the small-block engine can…
Saab Fans Occupy GM Facebook Page
Even as the Occupy movement is being disbanded around the world, one branch of the movement just had a resurgance, as Saab fans “occupied” the Facebook page of General Motors. Saab fans blame GM for holding up the sale of Saab to their potential saviors – whoever they may be (so far it’s been Russian businessmen, American…
2012 Chevrolet Suburban Rolls Over During NHTSA Side-Impact Crash Test
s While there are merits to the safety benefits from riding in a taller, heavier vehicle, there are disadvantages as well. According to safety evaluations from NHTSA, the 2012 Chevrolet Suburban suffered a rollover during a side-impact crash test. Simulating a passenger car striking the driver’s side at 38 miles an hour, the inertia caused…
Chevrolet Move N300 Van Gets Exported To Egypt As Chinese Kit Car
GM’s Chinese-market passenger van, the Chevrolet Move N300, is suffering from slow commercial sales. Seeing a potential market for export, the ever-so-resourceful American automaker has decided to deliver 5,000 of these Chinese complete-knock-down van kits to Egypt. While Egyptian import duties has made building vehicles in North America difficult, CKD kits (Complete Knock Down) provides…
GM Moves Forward With Opel Restructuring
During a recent statement, Girsky said that “in order to fully leverage [Opel’s] potential we will continue to work on optimizing the cost structure, improve margins and make use of economies of scale within the group.”
Chevrolet Volt Coming To China With MSRP Of $78,300
Reports from the Guangzhou Auto Show state that the Chevrolet Volt has been approved for sale in China with a starting price of 498,000 yuan, or $73, 800 USD. TTAC’s resident expert on China, Bertel Schmitt, astutely remarked that the kind of subsidies we see on our shores for the Volt are “…for made-in China vehicles…
2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco Priced at $25,995
Chevrolet says the ’13 Malibu Eco (which will be available in dealerships during the first quarter of next year), will deliver a projected 26 mpg in city driving and 38 on the open road.
Chevrolet Colorado Will Offer Similar Functionality To Full-Size Truck: 2011 LA Auto Show
Chevrolet‘s new mid-size Colorado pickup will offer most of the functionality of a full-size light-duty pickup without the operating costs, according to Mark Reuss, head of General Motors North America. “You may have 85, 90 percent of what a big pickup will do,” Reuss told Automotive News at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The previous Colorado…
Saab 9-4X May Be The World’s Rarest New Vehicle
An article in Automotive News proposed that the Saab 9-4X crossover may be the world’s rarest new vehicle on sale. Although Saab had planned to sell between 15,000 and 20,000 examples globally this year (with half of sales conducted in the United States), a mere 194 have been sold through October in the United States….
Chevrolet Volt Fires Investigated, Batteries Blamed
A Chevrolet Volt that went through crash-testing at a NHTSA facility in Wisconsin caught on fire three weeks after the test, prompting action from U.S. regulators. While the investigation hasn’t been made public, sources told Bloomberg that the fire was severe enough to damage surrounding vehicles. An incident also occurred at a private home in North Carolina,…
GM Aiming For 10,000 Chevrolet Volt Sales Target In 2011
By the end of last month Chevrolet had sold some 5,003 copies of the car, though with only two months left in the year, it means that in November and December it will have to shift roughly the same amount of vehicles in order to meet the projected target.
