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Monday, 30 June 2008 |
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Filed under: Trucks/Pickups, Plants/Manufacturing, Crossovers/CUVs, Chevrolet, GMC, Rumormill 
General Motor's "commercial grade" truck unit may be losing two of its planned products, leaving some to contemplate the future of the nameplate in general. It's too early to consider GMC dead, but with the apparent cancellation of the next-generation Acadia CUV as well as the planned unibody truck inspired by the Denali XT Concept, GMC dealers are likely left wondering what, beyond the new GMC Terrain, they are supposed to be selling in the next few years. We're not all that sad to see the Acadia go as the Chevy Traverse is a better looking overall package and it makes more sense to offer the CUV as a Chevrolet anyway. What's more, with most GMC dealers also offering Buick vehicles, they'll still have the Enclave to offer potential customers.
Current rumors also predict an end to the Saturn Outlook, the slowest seller of the original Lambda-based trio, which would leave the Enclave and the Traverse as the two remaining GM crossovers. There still seems to be a good chance that Chevrolet will get an SUT based off the platform as well, so nothing too important seems to have been lost with this decision.
[Source: GM Inside News] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Monday, 23 June 2008 |
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Filed under: Car Buying, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GM, GMC, Pontiac, Saturn  During a dealer teleconference today, General Motors announced it would be launching a zero-percent financing sale beginning tomorrow, while simultaneously raising the prices of its 2009 vehicles.
The "72-hour sale" will run from June 24th through the 30th, and will offer customers 0-percent interest rates for 72 months on most Chevys, Buicks, Pontiacs and GMC vehicles. So far, there's no word on whether the offer will extend to Cadillac and Saturn. GM will also offer $500 in "bonus cash" to buyers who opt to purchase GM products outright rather than leasing them.
At the same time, the General is going to be raising the prices of 2009 models by an average of 3.5-percent "across the board," something that was bound to happen, according to Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of vehicles sales, service and marketing.
On the production front, GM will be adding a third shift to its Lordstown, Ohio plant to increase production of the Pontiac G5 and Chevy Cobalt, while at the same time boosting production of the Pontiac G6, Chevy Malibu and Saturn Aura through the use of maximum overtime. Also of note: GM has hired Citibank to investigate the future of the HUMMER brand, which comes in the wake of GM's CEO, Rick Wagoner's announcement that "all options" are on the table regarding GM's faltering off-road brand.
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req.] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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Monday, 23 June 2008 |
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Filed under: Hybrid, Chevrolet, GMC 
In spite of the recent announcement by General Motors that it will close the Oshawa, Ontario truck plant in 2009, the company will proceed with production of hybrid pickup trucks there this fall. GM has already installed equipment and trained assembly workers to assemble the Two-Mode hybrid GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado at the Canadian plant. GM has not changed its plans to close the plant and will likely move the new tooling to one of the remaining truck plants in the U.S. The pickups use the same hybrid system that GM already uses in the Tahoe/Yukon SUVs.
[Source: CBC, thanks to LIP for the tip!] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments |
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Friday, 20 June 2008 |
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Filed under: Buick, Cadillac, GM, GMC, HUMMER, Pontiac, Saab, Rumormill  This has been a big year for GM's organization alignment, with President Fritz Henderson opening up about the brand issue snafu and the appointment of four brand czars. HUMMER was meant to join forces with Cadillac and Saab in a premium channel, but while HUMMER is still in the family, it's apparently been put out on the lawn. GM Inside News (GMI) reports that GM is treating HUMMER as a goner, saying that the H4 program is on life support for handover to the next buyer, and the H3 GMT-700 program is kaput.
The bigger hearsay is that GM's board is considering euthanizing GMC or Pontiac. Those two brands were to be aligned in a brand channel with Buick (PBG). Getting rid of GMC could make some kind of sense, since it's entirely brand-engineered vehicles with some of the worst mileage numbers in the fleet. Shunning Pontiac would be a surprise to us since the Solstice and G8 have given it a nice brand awareness boost and it's got some products in the pipeline. If GMC or Pontiac did go, the GM board would consider folding Saturn into the PBG channel to maintain sales volume. In corporate-speak, we believe this is called GM's "gloves off" phase. Thanks for the tip, Dan!
[Source: GM Inside News] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
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