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So a couple of weeks ago, we took a look at the models with the highest proportion of male buyers. The list was pretty much a supercar orgy, packed with the kind of six-figure sports cars that make financial sense only if your name is Mark Cuban or Kobe Bryant.
It got us (and you) wondering what things look like on the humbler end of the spectrum, so we decided to put a price cap on that sucker and do another list focusing on those vehicles favored by guys who are regular Joes.
Take a look at the 10 cars with the highest proportion of male buyers and you'll find that many have certain things in common. We're talking phallic, fast and pricey -- these are the models that fuel the fantasies of car-obsessed 14-year old boys, and ease the mid-life crises of affluent 50-year-old men.
General Motors today announced that they would discontinue funding for the Heartland Institute -- a conservative think-tank that rejects Global Warming. The Heartland Institute aims "to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Such solutions include parental choice in education, choice and personal responsibility in health care, market-based approaches to environmental protect, privatization of public services, and deregulation in areas where property rights and markets do a better job than government bureaucracies."
Now they'll have to do it without$15,000 annually from the General Motors Foundation. GM bowed to pressure from environmental groups including Forecast the Facts. Forecast the Facts said in a statement, "We applaud GM's decision and the message it sends: that it is no longer acceptable for corporations to promote the denial of climate change, and that support for an organization like Heartland is not in line with GM's values. This victory belongs to the 20,000 Americans, including 10,000 GM owners, who demanded that GM put its money where its mouth is on climate change and sustainability."
The Heartland Institute had contributions of $6,000,000 in 2010.
This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who's been following GM closely. In an intervie, Dan Akerson said that GM was being run under the assumption that climate change was real (that it was man made was implied). See that clip after the jump.
In an effort to further confuse expand the GMC brand,GM has just announced that the Terrain crossover will be the latest thing to roll out of GMC's doors with the Denali logo.
"Denali is growing fast," said GM in a statement. "With seven different models, sales for this brand within a brand increased 79 percent from 2010 to 2011. With this in mind, the decision to create a more-upscale Terrain was an easy one."
The new upscale Terrain gets dual-flow dampers, body-colored front- and-rear fascias, body-colored rocker panels, new headlight design and, of course, chrome on the grille and anywhere else they could shove it. On the interior there is a new "Soft-touch instrument panel with French stitching," leather wrapped steering wheel with mahogany wood accents, Denali logos and sil plates, eight way power seats.
This new Denali also ushers in the new 3.6-liter V6 that cranks out 301 horses and 272 pound-feet of torque. The outgoing 3.0-liter V6 made 264 horsepower and 222 pound-feet of torque and propelled the SLT version of the Terrain to 60 in a leisurely 8.0 seconds. The Terrain Denali can also be ordered with the wildly popular 182 horsepower 2.4-liter Ecotec I4. While this engine took even longer to hit 60 (9.4) it was preferable to the old V6 in terms of drivability and fuel economy. Also, on the I4 equipped Terrain Denali you get 18s (and presumably more sidewall) instead of the 19s.
Pricing on the 2013 GMC Terrain Denali were not announced.
What would a Chicago auto show be without a good old midcycle refresh to talk about? Well, GM's Lambda crossovers have been kicking around for awhile now, so it was high time for a nip here and a tuck there. The first to go under the knife is the 2013 GMC Acadia.
Besides an improved six-speed transmission, the Acadia is mechanically unchanged. The 3.6-liter V6 still produces 288 horsepower and its enormous crossover body can still seat as many as eight people. The styling has been updated, however, with a more upright grille that evokes the GMC Granite Concept from last year's Detroit auto show. I think it works, especially in comparison to the Terrain. And what new design would be complete without the ubiquitous LED running lamps? They're even standard on the base model.
If you've got a spouse and a bouncy castle full of kids, the siren call of a minivan can be a tempting one. Still, minivan ownership need not be as inevitable as some would have you believe.
There are few cars from this era that I covet more than the 1991 GMC Syclone. It's fantastic. Look at it! Not only is it visually spectacular, but it's fast, too. The pushrod 4.3-liter V6 was turbocharged to 280 horsepower -- a figure that is widely considered underrated. It's so cool we even gave it the number 7 spot in our feature of the 25 best V6 powered cars.
As good as that engine would have been in an S10, adding AWD really pushes this truck over the top. Without it, hellooo burnouts. You might as well be driving a Grand National...not that there's anything wrong with that. Hooked up to a light truck with all-wheel-drive, this thing was capable of sprints to 60 in the low 5s and quarter-mile runs right around 14-flat.
It turns out that Jay Leno feels the same way about the turbocharged pick'em'up. He bought one new and still keeps it in his epic collection. The video is long (10:53) but worth it even if you're not a big Leno fan.
Getting a good deal on a used car just got a little easier thanks to GM. Not only will the company continue to offer a two-year/30,000 mile standard vehicle warranty on any CPO vehicle-- GM calls it Chevrolet / Buick / GMC Certified Pre-Owned Vehicles-- but starting Sunday, buyers will get two years of standard free maintenance. Dubbed "owner Care" this includes oil changes (based on a vehicle's oil life monitor system), tire rotations and multi-point vehicle inspections. The Cadillac pre-owned plan is unchanged.
"Customers demand more value for their money, and we have responded." said Jennifer Costabile, General Director of Marketing and Sales Support, GM Fleet and Commercial Operations.
This is a nice treat for people who are price shoppers and on the fence between a reasonable used GM compared with something else. Or someone who just really wants this 2011 Chevy Corvette Z06 being sold as used for $77k with 48 miles on it.
We were a little bit surprised to hear GM was even building trucks in Shreveport anymore, but it sent out a release today declaring the plant's temporary shutdown. Maybe it's just practice for when the plant officially shutsdown for good next year. I mean, how old are the Chevrolet Colorado/GMC Canyon twins now anyway?
GM didn't specify which parts are in short supply in its release, but the two mid-size trucks both offer a 5-speed Aisin manual transmission. Seems unlikely there are enough orders for those to cause a plan shutdown, so we're guessing the trucks use additional foreign sourced parts in there somewhere.
This heavily camouflaged prototype caught testing recently in the Detroit area suggests that GM is hard at work on its next-generation Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon full-size SUVs.
Now this might seem like a misguided strategy in the face of rising gas prices, but let's not forget what happens the second those prices level off. Yeah, people start buying big vehicles again, probably because they like them better than small ones. But who are we to judge.
General Motors' 2010 earnings report came out today, and the good news is that the automaker in which we still hold a 26-percent stake made a $4.7 billion profit in 2010, its first profitable year since 2004. The slightly less good news is that GM's least profitable quarter of 2010 was the 4th quarter during which it made only $510 million, grimly hinting as so many other economic indicators have that the recession is still going. Also notable is the fact that the Opel division was a drag in that quarter, losing $568 million.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-110201-monster-snowstorm-2011-pictures,0,6718278.photogallery
E. Jason Wambsgans for the Chicago Tribune
Inside Line (and the internet come to think of it) runs thousands of photos a week of cool cars. These are our favorites.
If we missed any, let us know....
You've seen how the 2010 Dodge Ram 3500, 2011 Ford F-350 Super Duty and 2011 GMC Sierra 3500 HD stack up to one another in our Heavy-Duty Truck Comparison Test. Now here's a look at how well each engine puts its stuff to the pavement -- rather, the drum -- as we recently spent some time on the dyno rollers with these trucks.
What did we learn? Hit the jump.
No, this isn't a toothy new GM auto-show stand. It's a $750,000 antenna testing facility at GM's Milford, Michigan Proving Grounds that the General created along with the data-transmission tech company SATIMO and claims is the first of its kind. The SATIMO Arch shots signals at vehicles from 103 separate probes on a rotating platform in an effort to make sure calls to OnStar don't get dropped when driving through a sketchy coverage area or that GPS and XM satellite radio signals don't get lost.
As more content is beamed down to vehicles from the "cloud," the weak link is often cellular and other signals. GM claims this sort of testing, which was first performed on the 2011 GMC Denali Yukon, helps the automaker develop antenna designs and placement that can keep data flowing even when the signal fades.
While this is great for when you're suffering from bad cell service out on the road -- and have an OnStar subscription -- it doesn't do much good for drivers of non-GM vehicles with Bluetooth connected phones. And we don't predict that phone car cradles will make a big comeback.
This is Dan Akerson, CEO of General Motors. By all accounts he's a brilliant guy. You don't get to his position in business if you're not. Unfortunately he didn't have any experience in the automotive industry prior to being handed the top job at GM and it's starting to show.
In a recent article for Businessweek, David Welch outlines Akerson's changes so far. Most of them revolve around elevating marketing within the company. "Dan finds it very important that we become consumer-centric and make the company more of a marketing organization," said Joel Ewanick, GM's new Global Chief Marketing Officer, and an Akerson appointee.
This may sound innocuous to the average business magazine reader, but anyone who follows GM will recognize this as a disaster in the making.
It takes a lot to make a ford Raptor seem demure and rational. This GMC Sierra All Terrain HD does it, though.
This massive GM, set for the stage at the 2011 Detroit Auto Show, features a 6.6-liter 397 horsepower Duramax turbo-diesel V8 with 765 pound-feet of torque. The transmission is a six-speed Allison 1000 unit.
The Sierra All Terrain concept is shorter than a traditional HD Sierra, but features upgraded suspension with three-inches more clearance, a wider -- 73 inch -- track, front and rear jounce shocks, electronic disconnect stabilizer bars, composite underbody protection, 35" BF Goodrich tires on 20" rims and Fox shocks with remote reservoirs in the wheel liner.
Do we expect this to hit production? No. But this is said to foretell the future styling direction of GMC's truck line. That said, BUILD IT. Ford did.....but Ford didn't include Ram Boxes like GMC has here.
Planning to watch some football tomorrow? You'll be seeing this 60-second commercial quite a few times then. This is the final cut. There is no voiceover.
More Volt Hybrid / EV drama for some Friday fun! Okay, there's not a lot of drama here, but if you, like me, miss college lectures, you should get a kick out of this GM Voltec powerflow demonstration. It's a neat piece of animation that shows the working of an incredibly tricky bit of tech. (Seriously, any of you kids seen a blown-out schematic of a planetary gearset? Whoa....)
You'll note that the combined ( gasoline engine--gasp-- + electric Motor ) returns 10-15% better fuel economy on the highway. That's not a smalll percentage for a vehicle that should see mid-30s.
Oh, fine, there we'll add some drama here, but it's after the jump and after the video.
OnStar has been on a technology tear to keep up with the demands of the always-connected car consumer as well as its crosstown rival Ford. OnStar's latest tech update may be to add a Facebook feature that lets subscribers use voice commands to update their status.
Certain smartphone-addicted drivers want to keep up with every tweet and Facebook status update from behind the wheel, and automakers are trying to figure out how to offer them these features, without incurring the wrath of Oprah and other auto-safety advocates or causing carnage on our roadways.
Bloomberg reports that an OnStar spokesperson wrote in an email this morning that the company may allow users to verbally update their Facebook status via the system and also receive "news feed" updates from Facebook. Bloomberg also said OnStar is working on a way to allow drivers to receive text messages and have them read aloud as well as respond with canned replies a la Sync.
Ford's Sync system offers some of the same features as OnStar, including 911 Assist and Vehicle Health Reports, except for free. But Sync relies on a Bluetooth-connected cell phone rather than electronics embedded in the vehicle. Mercedes-Benz and Lexus have also recently debuted new telematics systems and services, and OnStar has been keeping up by offering apps and other enhancements.
Expect more news from OnStar in the next week or so: In a recent CNET interview, company president Chris Preuss said the telematics service will undergo a "relaunch" on September 15 so that it's "better all around."
Do you even remember the GM Performance Division? It was responsible for building cars like the CTS-V and ZR1 when times were good. Then, of course, times got bad and the place was gutted.
Well, times are uh...better, so GM has brought GMPD back. It has named former Chevrolet boss Jim Campbell to Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. According to Automotive News, Mr. Campbell plans to focus on small cars like the Cruze and upcoming Aveo.
Campbell also noted that most of his energy will be directed at the Cadillac and Chevrolet divisions, so there are no Regal Stage 3s in the future.
Given this new attention to compact performance, which engine/car combination would you like to see most?
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