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General Motors announced today they will cut production in the first quarter of 2009 by 250,000 units, or approximately 30% of total capacity, affecting 21 plants in three countries. This news follows the failure of the auto industry aid bill and news of other automakers slashing production. General Motors blames the "speed and severity" of the Carpocalypse . The list includes more than a dozen of the company's US plants . The cuts cover a wide range of vehicles, including nearly every truck line in addition to cars like the Chevy Malibu, Saturn Aura, Pontiac G6 and Cadillac CTS. Full details in the press release below. GM Announces Significant Production Cuts for Q1 '09 DETROIT - General Motors announced today a significant reduction of planned production for the first quarter of 2009 due to the ongoing and severe drop in industry sales, which were down 36 percent in November overall and 41 percent for GM (2007 vs. 2008). The impact of these and recently announced actions...
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Even as mega-dealerships keep going under , the older urban car dealerships that had managed to stave off the edge-city auto malls clung to life somehow… but all the personalized customer service and convenient locations in the world couldn't save Good Chevrolet in Alameda, which had operated out of the same downtown location since 1950. Day before yesterday, the axe fell, for Good as well as two other Bay Area Chevrolet dealerships, as gas prices and credit woes administered a cruel bumper-jack beating to new Chevrolet sales. I went by and took some photos of the suddenly-defunct dealership yesterday; make the jump to see them all. galleryPost('GoodChevroletCloses', 9, 'Good Chevrolet Closes Its Doors'); Quite a few DOTS cars were bought new at Good, including this '65 Impala . Über-dealerships located in unincorporated county areas don't have to pay city sales taxes, so the older car dealerships located in urban centers- such as Alameda's Park Street and...
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GM has announced it will invest $370 million in a new 552,000 square-foot plant in Flint, Michigan to produce the 1.4-liter four-cylinder engines intended for duty in the Chevy Cruze and Chevy Volt . The engines will be rolling off those new lines in two flavors — turbocharged with 140 HP and 148 lb-ft of torque for the Cruze, and a non-turbocharged 100 HP version for the Volt. The plans also indicate the 1.4-liter is destined for service in two additional U.S.-bound models expected to debut in the 2011 time frame — helping GM to their planned goal of "one-third of...North American engine volume will be four-cylinders by 2011." Complete details on this huge win for the city of Flint (Won't Michael Moore be proud!) and details on the tech in the engines below the jump. GM's 'Boost' In Efficient Four-Cylinders Includes More Turbos Strategy Highlighted by the 2011 Chevy Cruze's new 1.4L Turbo that is Expected to Be a Fuel Economy Leader FLINT, Mich...
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The video and images of a Chevy Volt on the set of Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen showed a car very similar to the Volt that GM has been lifting the skirt on . But now GM is saying the dark-blue car is "not the final version at this stage." GM spokesman Rob Peterson told Inside Line that it is "representative of the production vehicle," which makes sense as we've now learned that this prop is just a re-bodied Malibu. Though it should be noted that he wasn't even aware the car was out in California on the movie set. galleryPost('voltsneakpreview', 3, 'Chevy Volt On The Transformers 2 Set'); "I've never seen that vehicle and I've never seen that color... You can tell it caught me off guard. I didn't even realize it (the Volt) was out of the state of Michigan." Jalopnik Snap Judgment: Of course this isn't exactly what the production Volt will look like. The production model likely won't have the big showoff rims...
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Even before he saw today's new Chevy Volt pictures , New York neurologist Lyle Dennis liked the idea of the 2011 Chevy Volt . In fact, he liked it enough to start GM-volt.com more than a year ago, in the process collecting the names of more than 33,000 prospective buyers for the Chevy electric car. The greatest interest comes from California, Texas, Florida and Michigan — no surprise there. What is surprising is that General Motors has apparently been watching Dennis' activities closely, even meeting with him and a handful of other Volt enthusiasts at the New York Auto Show this year. So what's the good doctor's motivation in all this? Apparently, Dennis is concerned that GM may be underestimating consumer interest in the Volt, leading to shortages when the vehicle finally arrives. "If everyone who wanted a Volt could get one, that would be the dream," he said. Given the Volt's expected price point, there's no word on whether Dennis' dream goes...
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The Financial Times brings news that GM is studying Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant on Merseyside as a European production base for what will be known stateside as the Chevy Volt . Easy jokes about an all-electric British-manufactured car aside, this news comes contrary to earlier reports that Volt production would be centered solely in Hamtramck, MI . So, how can Ellesmere Port lock down Volt production? Easy: Government subsidies! According to the Times , Carl-Peter Forster, president of GM Europe indicated "a climate of tangible government goodwill towards the project would be influential in making a decision," which is a quintessentially British way of saying, "tax breaks, please." Regardless, having Volt production centered in the U.K. could be worth it to the local economy, since GM estimates that only one facility will be required to accommodate demand under all three Euro brands likely to get a Volt: Vauxhall, Chevy and Opel. [ Financial Times ]
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GM is partnering with the US Postal Service to place its fuel cell-powered Chevy Equinox into service in Irvine, California and other yet-to-be-identified locations. The idea is to put the fuel cell SUVs into heavy-use situations to help work out the development kinks. Not only that, but they'll be able to test the operation of the hydrogen filling station at UC Irvine. It's a cunning plan, and it makes sense, but they aren't getting one over on us. GM is putting high technology in the hands of the government's most notoriously dangerous agency. While deep undercover, we're certain the "mail carriers" will use the Equinox to quickly develop the necessary network of hydrogen depots, drop stations, and the intel needed for the larger plan, whatever that is. We don't know what the "targets" are, but the plan falls under GM's false flag " Project Driveway " operation. So far they've placed a hundred of these "fuel cell vehicles"...
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In the now-infamous press conference from General Motors this morning, Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner not only spelled out GM's strategy to save itself from impending doom, but also revealed pretty much every upcoming GM vehicle that hadn't already been shown to the public. This includes the first photos of the 2011 Chevy Cruze , 2010 Cadillac SRX , 2010 Saab 9-4X , and the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox . This comes in addition to official confirmation of the 2010 Buick LaCrosse , 2010 Cadillac CTS Coupe and 2010 Cadillac CTS Wagon . So basically, along with GM's own downsizing, they're also putting plenty of enterprising spy photographers out of business too. galleryPost('newgmcars', 6, 'The Future Of General Motors');
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Following word this morning the production version of the Chevy Volt will be shown in September, we hear the rocking-down-electric-avenue Lutz-mobile will also be featured in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen . Although there's no official word if the Volt will actually be a Transformer, but given its guts and looks, it's just begging to become some kind of electric-themed Autobot. The Volt would join the Trax and the Beat as not-yet-available Chevy vehicles featured in the movie. Jalopnik Snap Judgement : This may be the reason why they're hurrying up the production look of the car. They've got to beat set filming times, right? [ Reuters via TFW2005 ]
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GM is accelerating development of the 2010 Chevy Volt in an attempt to ready the production version to reveal as the company celebrates its 100th anniversary in September. Although we know GM desperately needs a cutting-edge Prius-killing success to stem the sales slide, given past RenCen rush jobs, we're not sure that setting a time deadline instead of a performance benchmark is the best way to move forward. A look at potential pitfalls after the jump. Exploding batteries: Remember the flaming plug-in Prius from a few weeks ago? No, that wasn't a manufacturer-sanctioned ride, but it still plainly shows the dangers inherent in releasing unproven technology. The fact that GM has yet to name a supplier for Volt's lithium-ion battery pack is another red flag for the power source. Embarrassing show mishaps: GM needs a win...and they need it to be a clean win, both on the stage and showroom floor. No panels falling off, stalls, massive oil leaks, fires, or collapsing spokes-robots...
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According to the WSJ , GM's early-August board meeting is likely to result in layoffs affecting both blue- and white-collar workforces. They're also reporting GM is seriously exploring sloughing off another brand, either by outright closure or by placing it up for sale, a-la Hummer's "strategic review." We've put together a quick brand-viability scorecard breakdown after the jump for those of you playing along at home. The Journal claims GM has already taken Chevrolet and Cadillac off the table, considering them core to the company. But what about the rest of the lineup? Saturn: GM's low-price, non-haggle, donut-loving import-fighter brand has reportedly never made a profit. Even with products like the Aura and Astra, it's having trouble making any inroads with consumers despite a loyal fan base. Coupled with the fact GM has reportedly stopped development work on the next-gen Aura, we think Saturn's got a good chance of getting to know Geo in the division...
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General Motors is lobbying for a $7,000 tax credit for buyers of the $30,000 $40,000 2011 Chevy Volt — more than double that originally offered for Prius buyers. The automaker's arguing the credit should be based on battery capacity. "What we favor is actually a sliding scale depending on how much battery you have on board," said Jon Lauckner, GM VP for global program management. "When I talk about $6,000 to $7,000, we're talking about a battery that's at least two times the size of a typical conversion plug-in or even a plug-in hybrid that we would offer." Of course, since new Chevy products apparently now command 4 times their MSRP , we predict the Volt will cost $153,000 after the tax credit. If congressional leaders agree to GM's recommendation, the Volt could have a "real" price to consumers closer to the originally reported $30,000. However, since GM is suggesting basing the tax credit not just on battery size, but also on the potential...
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We were beginning to think GM had developed a masterpiece of long-range marketing with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt program. Let reporters in every once in a while, strategically leak images while actually showing nothing, all the while keeping a late-2010 entry on the lips of every eco-dork in the motoring press. Let them build the buzz for you! Genius. However, with Slick Rick's statement that we'll be getting a look at the production sheetmetal for the Volt, we wonder if they've made a strategic error. What it looks like is practically the only thing we don't know about the car. Showing it off now is going to be like pulling a Camaro on us: By the time it hits the show floor, we'll be tired of the look. They'll be wasting acres of print space now, rather than revealing it with a flourish and sending it to dealers right away, Apple style. Whatever. We're not paid to come up with strategery, but making fun of it we can do all day. [ TopSpeed ]
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GM may be ready to shill the Hummer brand, but word also has it that GM chairman Rick Wagoner announced that the board of directors has approved the funding for production of the Volt, including a 2010 goal (that will likely be missed by a mile). What does this really mean to us? Well, not a lot. We've been bombarded with mules , spy photos and pricing rumors for a while now, and that won't change until we can walk onto a GM dealership and see a Volt waiting for spoonage. That being said, with Hummer on its way out and Volt kind of officially on its way in, plus F150 losing its top billing , are we seeing yet another example of the return of the Malaise Era? galleryPost('chevyvoltpr', 3, 'Chevy Volt'); [ psfk ]
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newVideoPlayer("84_Z28_Vidgame_476.flv", 463, 387,""); Zero to 55 in six seconds! Not only that, the Early Post-Malaise '84 Camaro had "remarkable" new handling, which apparently enabled the lysergically enhanced driver to hit hallucinated giant fungus spores emerging from the road shoulder. Was GM targeting 9-year-old video-game players with this ad?
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