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.
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.
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?
After laying the groundwork with the Securities & Exchange Commission last week, GM formally filed form S-1 with the SEC today for its initial public offering.
In its filing, the automaker did not disclose how many shares will be offered nor what the initial price range of said shares will be. The timeframe for the actual IPO has not been announced, either, though it's thought that it will happen in November or December of this year.
The U.S. Treasury Department currently holds a 61-percent stake in GM, and would sell off a significant portion of its common shares -- perhaps as much as a fifth, reducing the government's stake to under 50 percent. Auto Observer astutely points out, though, that even with a <50 percent stake, "the government would still effectively control GM as any shareholder with that large of a position would."
GM wll sell both common stock and convertible preferred stock in the IPO. A link to the massive SEC filing is below for bedtime reading.
Also worth noting is the careful timing of GM's CEO succession announcement. By releasing the news last week that Daniel Akerson will succeed Ed Whitacre as CEO and board chairman come September 1, the automaker has avoided any appearance of insider shenanigans.
What characterizes a successful launch of a new or redesigned vehicle? Well, according to the top minds at Edmunds.com (parent company of Inside Line), you want to see high profit margins, low incentives, low days to turn (i.e., minimal time sitting on the lot waiting for buyers), strong sales performance versus segment rivals (i.e., market share), a high level of web buzz, and strong (predicted) residual value.
Using a total of 18 factors, Edmunds' data analysts scored all the vehicle launches during the 2009 calendar year as part of the first annual Edmunds.com Launch Breakthrough Awards. A total of 54 vehicles were eligible for the 2010 award. To be eligible, an all-new or totally redesigned vehicle had to be launched between January 1 and December 1, 2009 and had to sell at a rate of at least 100 vehicles per month.
The Chevrolet Camaro took the win, obviously, but click through the jump to see the top 10 scoring vehicles. Hint 1: Seven of the 10 are from traditional domestic brands. Hint 2: There's a Porsche in the mix.
Look for a slew of new or updated models in the coming years and less reliance on trucks, said General Motors Co. today in a marathon meeting with the bank and investment-community analysts GM hopes to convince that the company is ready to have another go at being a publicly-held operation - rather than the "Government Motors" of today that is 60 percent owned by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
GM spoke about future product broadly in relation to how the new metal will boost the company's bottom line, but was short on specifics, saying mainly that GM plans to launch 70 new or refreshed models around the globe by 2014. And perhaps unfortunately for us, a lot of those will be in markets outside the U.S., where GM projects most of its growth in the next four years.
In the U.S., though, expect GM to devote less to trucks ("We cannot rely on the large truck business to carry us in the future," said vice chairman Steven Girksy) and put on a major push to make mid-cycle refreshes (the term "facelift" is falling out of fashion) more "impactful," according to product-development boss Tom Stephens.
And are low-volume, strange-brew cars like the now-defunct Pontiac Solstice in danger at the new GM? Stephens said 80 percent of all GM vehicles will be based on global platforms by 2014. Whether that means for the development of niche cars -- or low-volume, dedicated-platform stuff like the Corvette -- remains to be seen.
Last week, we asked you what you would say to Mark Reuss, President of General Motors in North America, if given the chance. Well, we read your replies and added a few of your questions in with our own. See for yourself what Reuss had to say in our exclusive interview.
