general motors
GM’s Next-Gen Full-Size SUVs Due Out in 2013 With a Hefty Price Premium
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GM’s big SUVs harken back to an era of conspicuous consumption, when $2-a gallon gas and a lingering nostalgia of 15-foot-long American cars flooded the industry. But if the Volt is any indicator, the era of big, cheap Suburbans and Tahoes might finally come to an end with next generation trucks. To meet new fuel…
GM Investing $331 Million in Arlington, Texas Plant to Build Next-Gen SUVs
The latest in a growing list of investments, General Motors has announced a $331 million cash infusion into its Arlington Assembly Plant in Texas. The plant currently builds GM’s SUV lineup, with models including the Chevrolet Tahoe, Suburban, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade. The funding will go towards new tooling and equipment for the facility…
UAW Wants Seats On Big Three Boards
UAW President Bob King is angling for seats on the Big Three’s respective Boards Of Directors, and will likely use this as a negotiating point when contracts are discussed with automakers this summer. “I believe there should be workers’ representation on all boards,” King told The Detroit Bureau, arguing that German car companies employ the…
GM Adds Two Shifts, 2,500 Jobs To Detroit-Hamtramck Plant to Built Malibu, Impala
General Motors will be adding two shifts and 2,500 hourly and salaried jobs to the Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant to build the new Chevrolet Malibu and the next-generation Impala alongside the Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera electric cars. Additional shifts and a $69 million investment in equipment have been made to support the next-generation Impala. In…
What Could Have Been: Pontiac Was to Get a Sporty Offering Based on Cadillac Architecture
As for Pontiac, it’s this one that he laments the most. Not only did GM’s sporty division already boast a great lineup with cars like the G8 and the Solstice, but before the decision was taken to shutter the brand, Pontiac was also working on another sporty, rear drive offering, likely based off the Alpha...
Chevrolet Volt Production Increasing By 1,000 Units Per Year
Chevrolet‘s popular Volt is getting a production boost—GM is increasing annual production from 15,000 to 16,000 per year. GM is gearing up to build the European version of the Volt: of this new 16,000-vehicle figure, approximately 3,500 will be sold in Europe as the Opel Ampera. About 2,500 jobs are expected to be added to the…
GM Alpha Platform Goes on a Diet
As a result, new powertrain ideas, weight saving composite materials and a re-think of suspension design are just a few of the options being considered.
Toyota Could Slip to Third in Global Sales Race
Due to the fallout from the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Toyota execs have admitted the auto giant is likely to cede the title of the world’s largest automaker to General Motors. But according to a new Bloomberg report, things may be worse than that, with Toyota poised to slip to third in the…
Bob Lutz: General Motors “In Good Hands” After Restructuring, Regrets Death of Pontiac
Outspoken curmudgeon and former GM badass-in-charge Bob Lutz has been popping up from retirement, serving as a consultant to General Motors and Lotus. And his former company’s bankruptcy restructuring left the company “in good hands,” he said. Speaking at a conference, Lutz said that the outsiders who served as CEO and CFO during the two-year restructuring…
General Motors Named Innovation Leader by Patent Board
The announcement comes on the heels of news that GM recently received more patents for clean energy technology last year than any other organization, based on findings from the Clean Energy Patent Growth Index.
El Camino “Very Unlikely” Says GM Marketing Boss
Perhaps you’ve read the incessant chatter about the return of the Chevrolet El Camino. Well, it’s not going to happen. Thank God! Last week General Motors Chief Marketing Officer Joel Ewanick joined Twitter and said (loosely speaking) that if 100,000 people commented on a Jalopnik post, then they’d revive the classic badge, allowing us to…
Chrysler To Invest $843 Million In Transmission Plant, 9-Speed Automatic To Be Built
Chrysler announced an $843 million investment in its Indiana transmission plant as it prepares to build a 9-speed automatic transmission front front-drive vehicles. The announcement comes on the heels of General Motors announcement of a $2 billion infusion into a number of plants, including $200 million for upgrades to its Toledo, Ohio plant to build…
Detroit Automakers Close in On Pre-Recession Employment Numbers
GM plans to ramp up Volt production in the next few years, from the current 10,000 cars per annum to 25,000 – CEO Dan Akerson says he’d ultimately like to see more than 100,000 Volts roll off the assembly line, though recognizes that any increases also hinge on battery production.
General Motors To Spend $2 Billion On Factory Upgrades
General Motors will invest $2 billion across 17 plants, as the company retools existing plants to build new products and hire more workers. GM confirmed that their Toledo, Ohio plant would receive $250 million in improvements and create 250 new jobs. CEO Dan Akerson didn’t announced which plants would be infused with new capital, but the Detroit-Hamtramck…
OnStar Launches Vehicle Compatibility Tool for ‘For My Vehicle’ Rearview Mirror
This gives uses the chance to enter in information regarding their vehicle, such as make, model and year to see if the FMV can be made to work withe their car or truck.
General Motors Workers Suing Union, Company Over Pay Dispute
A group of 28 workers at General Motors’ Lordstown, Ohio plant are suing both GM and the UAW, claiming that they were wrongly classified as temporary workers, resulting in a 40 percent pay cut. The workers were hired in 2006, fired in 2007 and then re-hired 6 months later. The workers say they were classified…
MG Anticipating Benefits From Partnership With General Motors, SAIC
MG Rover may have been able to retain much of its British character after being acquired by Chinese automaker SAIC, the company’s tie-in with General Motors may see the next generation MG Rover products use GM technologies, including platforms. The Roewe 750 sedan, formerly based on the Rover 75, may be based on the Epsilon…
GM ‘On the Offensive’ As Spending on Lobbists Spikes
As the government’s ownership of General Motors decreases, spending on lobbying officials has spiked. According to data from lobbying disclosure forms, GM spend almost $3.6 million in the first quarter of this year, double what it spend in back in 2009. Last Fall the Treasury reduced its share of GM from 61 percent to under…
General Motors Executive Calls Nissan Leaf “Single Purpose Car”
With the Nissan Leaf beginning to outsell the Chevrolet Volt, the competition between the two is heating up, and General Motors North America President Mark Reuss had some not-so-nice things to say about the car when asked for his thoughts. Reuss said that the Leaf was “…has a finite range and requires infrastructure and charging…
Rick Hendrick Builds His Own Corvette Engine
Even though owners are themselves putting together these engines, once assembled, each of the LS7 and LS9 motors in the program, is still backed by GM’s 5-year 100,000 mile warranty, just like any other.
General Motors Posts $3.2 Billion Profit
General Motors cruised to their fifth straight quarter in the black, announcing a gross profit of $3.2 billion, helped along by a sale of GM subsidiary Delphi for $1.6 billion in March. In a prepared statement, General Motors CEO Dan Akerson said “GM has delivered five consecutive profitable quarters, thanks to strong customer demand for…
GM May Reduce Production Of Pickup Trucks
General Motors Co. may reduce production of pickup trucks after inventories rose last month. GM’s truck inventory rose to more than 275,000 at the end of April working out to about 111 days of supply, according to Don Johnson, GM’s vice president of U.S sales. GM dealers had about 264,000 trucks on their lots last…
Chevrolet Needs 100,000 Hand Raisers For New El Camino
For the record, 100,000 units is about what the current Toyota Tacoma sells each year in the US and to be fair represents rather high volumes for a niche vehicle. And in fact the best sales total the original El Camino ever managed, was 64,960 units, back in 1979.
Feds Probe GM SUVs for Faulty Fuel Gauges
Those findings registered over the weekend brings the total number of complaints so far to some 668 and NHTSA is investigating a whopping 865,000 vehicles regarding this problem.
