General Motors Straightline Archives

Yep, ol' Ed is just a regular guy.

Honorable Mentions:

"So, how YOU doin?

"What brand should I kill next?"

"What a coincidence- I don't know anything about building cars either!"

Categories: Caption Contest,General Motors

GM's newly appointed CEO chats up some employees at one of GM's plants in Flint, Mi.

Care to guess what they talked about?

And don't forget about our long-term car caption contest.

Categories: Caption Contest,General Motors

Quite an interesting January as the domestics gained while there were mixed results for imports. You might have heard about that Toyota recall thing? Yeah, that news dinged Toyota's sales a good 16%, could be even worse in February if the situation doesn't improve.

On the flip side, both Ford and GM improved their year-over-year sales in January. Credit some of those gains to incentives designed to get the attention of wary Toyota consumers. Nissan and Hyundai also picked up some nice gains in January. For a full run down on all the stats, check out the full report on AutoObserver.

AutoObserver: January Whacks Toyota, But Sales Firm for Other Makers

Categories: Auto Industry,Chevrolet,Ford,General Motors,Honda,Toyota,Toyota Recalls

A NHTSA investigation is never a good thing for an automaker, but this one could be good or bad for Chevrolet.

It's bad for obvious reasons. In this case, the Chevrolet Cobalt is being investigated for problems related to failure of its electric power steering system. According an article in the Detroit News, the problem has caused 11 accidents and generated 1,132 complaints. Although the cars in question range from 2005 to 2009, the majority of the reports have been filed in the last six months.

And the good part? The timing of course. If General Motors can take care of the issue quickly it will likely blow over while the Toyota fiasco dominates the headlines. Should be interesting to see how the two problems are handled.

Detroit News
 

Categories: Auto Industry,Chevrolet,General Motors

Spyker has outlined its plans for Saab as the deal with General Motors inches closer to reality. There aren't any real surprises, unless you think continuing with Saab's current lineup is somehow shocking.

According to Spyker officials, it will run Saab as a separate company and it aims to send the 9-3, 9-4X and 9-5 to the U.S. market. The redesigned 9-5 is expected to arrive this summer while the 9-4X will come in early 2011 and the 9-3 in early 2012.

IL News: Spyker Outlines Saab Future Product Plan

Categories: Auto Industry,Future Vehicles,General Motors,Luxury Cars,Saab,Sedans

GM has released another press release stating that the Pontiac Vibe is safe to drive despite being on Toyota's sticky pedal recall list. Specifically, GM says it tested two Vibe vehicles to see if the brakes were powerful enough to overcome the engine at full throttle.

"We ran the Vibe wide open at 60 miles an hour and the brakes were able to bring the vehicle to a safe stop within 169 meters, consistent with our internal requirement for brake performance." said Martin Hogan, GM director of brake systems.

So there you have it, should your Pontiac Vibe take off in a fit of acceleration just press the brake and hold.

GM

Categories: General Motors,Pontiac,Toyota Recalls,Wagons

GM has released a statement regarding the 2009-2010 Pontiac Vibe that was recalled along with a whole bunch of Toyotas last week. GM says that based on its experience, "the Vibe is safe to drive," and it received no complaints of unintended acceleration prior to the recall.

Notably, GM says that after the recall it received several complains about sticking throttle pedals from customers. None of the claimed incidents caused any accidents.

Think people might be watching the news just a little too much?

GM

Categories: Auto Industry,General Motors,Hatchbacks,Pontiac

GM isn't wasting any time taking advantage of Toyota's weakened position after its massive recall and sales stoppage. The General has just announced new incentives for current Toyota customers.

In a phone call to Inside Line, a GM official said the new offer consists of zero percent financing for 60 months on most Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac models. Cash buyers get $1,000 toward a down payment and lease customers can get a waiver of three payments up to $1,000.

To qualify for the incentives, customers must show proof that they own or lease a Toyota.

This is starting to get interesting.

Categories: Auto Industry,General Motors,Toyota

As you surely know by now, GM has successfully entered into a binding agreement with Spyker Cars to transfer ownership of Saab.

You will read many happy quotes from happy executives about how happy this makes them. And it's hard to imagine who might be angry with the deal right about now, except maybe one Mr. Koenigsegg. Or maybe he's the happiest of all. Time will tell. The one thing we're most happy about is that the survival of the Saab brand will mean that lazy automotive journalists will continue to use one of the industry's most time-honored headline-writing cliches: A Saab Story.

Anyway, here are some of those details we promised you in our headline:

-- Spyker will pay GM $74 million in two installments: $50 million at the completion of the deal (hoped for mid-February) and $24 million on July 15, 2010.

-- Additionally, GM will retain $326 million worth of redeemable preference shares in the company.

-- According the GM's John Smith, "There is additional consideration for GM as well." He won't be talking about what that might be.

-- GM will provide power train components to the new entity "for the long term."

-- GM will provide the 9-4X crossover, which shares its underpinnings with the Cadillac SRX

-- The new entity will continue to build the new 9-5, a few of which are currently being built in Sweden. Full production is expected to begin in April.

-- GM will provide "transition-oriented" engineering services.

-- Mr. N. Antonov, a Russian investor in Spyker that reportedly gave GM the creeps, has been bought out and will retire as a member of Spyker's Supervisory Board effective when the deal with GM is closed.

-- GM assures owners in the U.S. that there will be no lapse in warranty coverage during the switchover in ownership.

Categories: General Motors,Saab

Yep, it's a done deal, Saab will be sold to the tiny Spyker company provided no objections rise up from any government agencies.

"Today's announcement is great news for Saab employees, dealers and suppliers, great news for millions of Saab customers and fans worldwide, and great news for GM," said John Smith, GM vice president for corporate planning and alliances.

"General Motors, Spyker Cars, and the Swedish government worked very hard and creatively for a deal that would secure a sustainable future for this unique and iconic brand, and we're all happy for the positive outcome," Smith said.

Categories: Auto Industry,General Motors,Saab

In a move that could hardly be called unexpected, GM's Board of Directors asked interim CEO Ed Whitacre to stay on in a permanent role. This after a two-month executive search that presumably yielded little in the way of better options.

This is probably a good move in the short term as it reduces the amount of upheaval that a new CEO would inevitably cause. Longer term, this is bad for GM.

Whitacre may be a smart executive with plenty of business experience, but he knows very little about the car industry and probably even less about actual cars. He's not even planning to move to Detroit full time, that's how committed he is to the cause.

The only other news to come out of this morning press conference is Whitacre's promise that GM will pay back its government loans by June. This sounds like a big step on the surface, but it doesn't mean much. GM is simply giving back the money the government gave it in the first place, and it's only a small piece of the total government investment.

Categories: Auto Industry,General Motors

We've got to give General Motors some credit here: The company cancelled the Pontiac G8 program, yet we cannot shut up about it. First, there was all the talk of the G8 being resurrected as a Caprice. Now, Mark Reuss, president of GM North America, is offering hope that the Ute open-bed verision of this rear-drive Holden might come to the U.S. as an El Camino.

"I think another brand with the Ute would be pretty attractive," Reuss told PickupTrucks.com in an interview. He then suggested that brand might be Chevrolet.

The prospect of using more fuel-efficient direct-injected V6 and V8 engines this time around might make the proposition more feasible, he added.

We of course saw the Holden Ute when it was dressed up as the Pontiac G8 Sport Truck at the 2008 New York Auto Show. It had the go-ahead for production, but then, well, you know what happened. Thanks go to Bob Holland for the tip.

PickupTrucks.com

Categories: Chevrolet,General Motors,Pontiac,Trucks

Saab Managing Director Jan Ake Jonsson has been shown the door along with Saab's entire managing board. But not to worry, says General Motors, this is all part of the orderly wind-down process. Stephen Taylor and Peter Torngren, both of AlixPartners, the firm GM has retained to oversee the wind-down of Saab, will take the place of the executive team.

Interestingly, Jonsson has been asked to stay on and witness the slow killing of the automaker that has employed him since 1973, Automotive News reports. Jonsson became Managing Director in 2005. It's unclear what role he will play in the wind-down.

Separately, GM said it continues to "evaluate proposals" for a potential last-hour purchase of Saab. Presumably, these are the proposals from the Dutch automaker Spyker and the Luxembourg-based investment group Genii Capital, which includes Formula 1 chief Bernie Ecclestone.

This despite interim GM CEO Ed Whitacre's ominous "We are shutting down Saab" comment to reporters yesterday at the Detroit auto show.

Automotive News (sub.req)

Categories: Auto Industry,General Motors,Saab

# NAIAS

Say what you will about the concept of GMC doing its rendition of a Scion xB (goodness knows we've had a couple of choice words). But once you see the thing up close and in person, it's actually really well executed.

Sure, it wouldn't look a third as cool if it ever made it to production. But its beautifully finished interior, cool wheels and clever body surfacing serve as a nice counterpoint to the chrome-laden, body-kit-having crossover excess that is the GMC Acadia Denali parked next to it.

There is hope.

Categories: Concept Vehicles,Detroit Auto Show,GMC,General Motors

No one in the media had leaked anything about the GMC Granite yet, so General Motors took on the deed by itself. This detail photo was released today on the GM Labs design blog ahead of the Granite's debut next week at the Detroit Auto Show.

GM has described the Granite as an urban utility vehicle concept, which likely means it has all the toughness of a daisy combined with some really clever storage solutions for your smart phone.

Also, based on this computer-drawn silhouette, the Granite is smaller than any current GMC production vehicle, including the Terrain. It's also virtually identical in size and shape to the Scion xB.

So GMC is building us a box-shaped car named after an igneous rock.

GM Labs via Jalopnik

GM Labs Flickr

Categories: Crossovers,Detroit Auto Show,GMC,General Motors,SUVs