GM
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GM is now less than a month away from its June 1 restructuring deadline imposed by President Obama’s auto industry task force, but any signs that it’s on the path to becoming viable may be a little hard to find considering the carmaker has just announced a $6 billion loss for the first quarter of 2009. Once again citing global economic pressures and low sales as the primary reasons for the loss, GM is using the result to highlight the importance of its most recent viability plan in turning around its fortunes. "Our first quarter results underscore the importance of executing...
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GM CEO Henderson says Corvette is safe despite restructuring
When General Motors disbanded its High Performance Vehicles unit in February, a ripple of fear shot through the automotive press over the future of the Corvette. GM was quick to quell the concerns, however, and today GM's CEO Fritz Henderson has again spoken directly on Corvette's secure future...
Nelson Ireson -
Report: GM to move Astra to Buick with Saturn out of picture
Many have wondered what will happen to all the new Opel products being brought to the U.S. now that Saturn is facing sale or termination in the next few months. The answer may lie in a new report that the Astra - built by Opel, sold in the U.S. as a Saturn - may be branded as a Buick in North...
Ralph Hanson -
Saab open to Fiat takeover
The last thing we heard about Saab was that the struggling General Motors division had up to 20 interested buyers and a May 20 deadline to restructure under the guidance of Swedish courts. Now it’s been revealed that Saab is open to talks with Fiat, which is currently eyeing a takeover of...
Kenneth Hall -
2010 Chevy Equinox to get 32mpg highway rating, beats Honda and Toyota
Chevrolet revealed pricing for its all-new Equinox crossover earlier this month, and now it has released the expected fuel efficiency rating for its four-cylinder model. Set to go on sale across the U.S. this June at prices starting from $23,185 (including a $745 destination charge) for the...
Ralph Hanson -
Ford's image improves by staying above the fray, says study
It wasn't so long ago that people were deriding Ford for mortgaging the Blue Oval itself, key investors were dumping shares into the open market and the company was forced to sell off its stake in Mazda. But now a study is saying things have turned around, with Ford's image improving in relation to...
Nelson Ireson -
Fiat has confirmed that it wants to acquire General Motors' European operations and to do so the Italian auto giant may form a new company to combine its Fiat car brands (Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo) along with Chrysler and any acquired GM entities. The information was revealed in a statement issued by Fiat’s board on Sunday, which also stated that the new company would earn more than $106 billion in annual revenues and become the world's second-largest auto group after Toyota. Fiat's board "expressed its full support” for the initiative which will begin in the next few weeks with an...
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Hennessey upgrades Cadillac CTS-V to ZR1 spec
Texas-based tuning firm Hennessey Performance Engineering (HPE) has announced plans for several highly modified Cadillac CTS-V sedans that the company plans to launch later this year. Dubbed the ‘V’ series, the uprated cars will offer outputs from 610hp (455kW) all the way up to 800hp...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Pontiac G8 may live on as police squad car
General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson has confirmed that the Holden-sourced G8 will die out along with its adopted Pontiac brand at the end of 2010, but the sporty sedan may live on in the U.S. at the hands of local police squads around the country. The G8 is essentially a rebadged Holden Commodore...
Jeremy Weber -
Cadillac to replace BLS with global model based on Epsilon II platform
Cadillac knows its future lies in small cars, especially if it wants to be considered a global player, but GM’s financial woes means the company has had to pare back some of its more ambitious plans. In the latest viability plan, GM CEO Fritz Henderson revealed that Cadillac would have to...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Poll: most Americans will buy a new American car within two years
Despite the troubles in Detroit and Washington for U.S. carmakers, almost three-quarters of the buying public say they'd buy American - and over half of U.S. consumers are in the market for a new car within two years, according to a recent survey. The news is a glimpse of silver lining in the cloud...
Kenneth Hall -
Chevrolet releases more details on Corvette Grand Sport
The Corvette Grand Sport is back. Set to roll in later this year as a 2010 model in both coupe and convertible bodystyles, the new Grand Sport combines the standard Corvette LS3-based powertrain with widebody styling and a race-bred suspension, and gives Corvette fans a new performance option...
James Martinez -
General Motors revealed in its latest viability plan that it will cut more than 21,000 jobs and reduce its total number of assembly, powertrain, and stamping plants in the U.S. from 47 last year to just 31 by 2012, but the company is still in talks with Toyota about sourcing a new model to replace the Pontiac Vibe. The compact hatch is essentially a rebadged Toyota Matrix and is built at the shared New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in California. Speaking with Automotive News, Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson said GM is in talks with Toyota and NUMMI itself to determine another...
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GM to drop Pontiac by 2010, trade majority stake to U.S. Treasury
It’s official. Pontiac will be phased out from General Motors’ portfolio by 2010 as revealed today in the carmaker’s updated Viability Plan, designed to speed the restructuring of its operations in the U.S. into a leaner, more customer-focused, and more cost-competitive unit. The...
Jeremy Weber -
Chevrolet Corvette gets launch control for 2010
Chevrolet is planning a series of updates for the Corvette for the 2010 model year, with changes affecting the entire lineup, from the base model all the way up to the scorching ZR1 supercar. First and foremost is the introduction of the Grand Sport Model, which returns for 2010 with widebody...
Ralph Hanson -
Fesler-Moss accessories line for Chevrolet Camaro announced
Fesler-Moss may be relatively unknown in tuner scene but its two individual constituents, Chris Fesler and Jon Moss have been involved in the aftermarket segment for quite some time. For those who don’t know, Chris Fesler is the man behind Fesler Built, a vehicle customizer and manufacturer...
James Martinez -
Buick reveals Business MPV concept in Shanghai
We've seen some amazing concepts from Buick unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show in previous years, and this year was no different with the release of the Buick Business concept. Unlike the handsome Buick Riviera Concept we saw at Shanghai a couple of years ago that was built in collaboration with...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Obama's task force orders GM to convert all of its debt to equity
The U.S. government may soon become a substantial shareholder in General Motors if a new plan to convert all of GM's debt to equity goes forward. On Friday, President Obama's task force on the industry ordered GM to prepare a plan to convert all of its debt - about $48 billion in total - to equity...
Nelson Ireson -
This Saturday at Long Beach, Corvette Racing will mark the end of an era with the final U.S. appearance by the Corvette C6.Rs in the GT1 category for the American Le Mans Series. The series will give a send-off to the GT1 Corvettes in a special post-qualifying ceremony in the Long Beach winner's circle, showcasing the championship-winning Corvette C6.R race cars and the production GT1 Championship Edition Corvette they inspired. Later on this season, Corvette Racing, the most successful sports car team in ALMS history will begin its transition to a new global GT class based on current GT2...
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GM says Pontiac and GMC are safe, updated restructuring plan coming tomorrow
General Motors is currently seeking a buyer for Hummer, is looking to sell a stake in Opel, plans to cut its ties with Saab, and is open to almost anything with Saturn, but despite the drastic moves the auto industry task force established by President Obama is still seeking more. After rejecting...
James Martinez -
Bondholders consider increased debt-for-equity-swap as GM bankruptcy looms
GM's decline over the course of this year wasn't enough to convince bondholders and the UAW to grant any concessions, but recent reports that the carmaker was in precautionary preparations for filing a Chapter 11 may have galvanized action on the part of the bondholders. Allowing GM to go to...
Ralph Hanson -
Expert predicts next GM subsidiary to fall will be Holden
The continuing downfall of General Motors in recent months has led to some serious scrambling at the carmaker’s subsidiary brands as each struggles to keep its head above water as the ship goes down. We saw it first with Hummer, which GM decided to offload as far back as the middle of last...
Kenneth Hall -
Docherty: Pontiac decision may have to wait until next year
As General Motors prepares for its June 1 bankruptcy-or-viability deadline, the decision on what to do with Pontiac is sitting on the back burner. In fact, dealers may have to wait until next year to find out what the General has in store. Or so says Susan Docherty, vice president of GM's...
Nelson Ireson -
Cadillac exec confirms sub-CTS model and STS/DTS replacement
In late 2007 Cadillac general manager Jim Taylor revealed that the current STS and DTS models would be dropped at the end of their respective product cycles in favor of a single luxury sedan. While General Motors’ financial woes led many to believe that the new Caddy flagship model had been...
Ralph Hanson