Scoopful of GM News – May 4, 2009: Saturn sales; Negotiations intensify; Fiat love; Hybrid sales; Equinox MPG; Dealer lawsuits; “Buy American” in Hot water; No love for Chevy Volt; etc..
GM Hires Adviser to Help Sell Saturn
General Motors said it is moving ahead with plans to sell its Saturn brand after receiving interest from multiple suitors.
General Motors is expected this week to accelerate talks with the United Auto Workers union and move toward closing about 2,600 dealerships.
…GM said it will be reviewing expressions of interest from the potential buyers and will look to secure an agreement with a specific buyer later this year. Separately, Fiat said on Sunday that it was exploring the possibility of merging its auto business and interest in Chrysler with GM Europe to create a large automotive group with more than…from Green Car Congress
…GM and Nissan dropped 45.5% year-on-year in April to 21,735, despite full month sales for the new Honda Insight and the Ford Fusion and Milan hybrids. Total LDV sales in the US were down 34.4%. (Earlier post.) The reported sales represented a 2.65% hybrid new vehicle market share (based on Autodata’s total LDV sales figure)—the highest monthl…from Green Car Congress
…tests at GM are showing the Equinox hitting 32 mpg on the highway cycle. In the city, the Equinox is expected to get rated at 22 mpg. Those numbers easily top competitors like the Honda CR-V at 20/27 city/highway mpg and the Toyota RAV4 at 22/28 mpg. The Equinox should be in dealer showrooms in June. Gallery: 2010 Chevrolet Equinox[Source: Gener…from AutoblogGreen
…GM, Earnings/FinancialsRock, meet hard place. With General Motors handed a directive from the White House to be ultra-aggressive in its restructuring in order to secure more government loans, the automaker is making cuts everywhere and dealers are far from immune. As reported previously, GM‘s plan to shrink its retailers from nearly 6,300 to 3,7…from Autoblog
…theory that GM sold its Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery patents to an oil company (Chevron? Exxon?), and then that evil oil company sued Toyota to prevent it from using NiMH batteries to keep them off the market because they might “threaten their oil business.” Jeeesh!On the first count, I LOVE the smooth, silent, seamless, torquey, petroleu…from AutoblogGreen
…GM‘s two-day ZR1 driving school first.Gallery: eBay Find: Damaged Corvette ZR1[Source: eBay via CorvetteBlogger]eBay Find of the Day: Damaged ZR1 on the cheap originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 04 May 2009 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds… from Autoblog
…bankruptcy and GM‘s impending viability deadline, it’s easy to understand why President Obama made the Buy American comment. Purchasing new cars and trucks would help stimulate the economy, and buying American certainly wouldn’t hurt. But what does the old adage mean nowadays? Hit the jump to read the AIADA’s brief press release. [Image Credit: …from Autoblog
…GM‘s still trying to sell Saturn — or kill it. Heck, they’ve even put out a press release to make sure you remember. GM to proceed with efforts to sell Saturn DETROIT – General Motors is proceeding to the next step with respect to the sale of Saturn. A number of potential buyers have surfaced and expressed interest in the Saturn brand and r…from Jalopnik
…talks with GM to acquire GM Europe and its subsidiary, Opel. As we have posted earlier, Opel is in dire straits, needing $4 billion to survive the Carpocalypse. The German state has thus far avoided a bailout, offering instead state support for potential investors. Here is where Fiat enters the fray. The Wall Street Journal’s Stacy Meichtry repo…from Jalopnik
…GM, Opel, Vauxhall, Alfa Romeo, FIATApparently, Fiat’s alliance with Chrysler is only the beginning. According to a variety of reports coming out of the UK and Germany, the Italian automaker’s expansion plans aren’t limited to its 20% stake in Chrysler – Fiat is also considering acquiring General Motors’ European operations, including Opel, Vaux…from Autoblog
…about how GM‘s 40-year downward spiral really got rolling). The story is blessedly free of hypersimplified and/or head-slappingly nostalgic nutshell descriptions of the sociopolitical climate of the 1960s- all too common in car books- and for that alone it deserves praise. We get technical details of Pontiac’s tough-but-flawed Strato-Streak engi…from Jalopnik
…s keeping GM – or at least the spirit of GM – alive as the company falters is the Chevy Volt. Washington Post columnist Charles Lane is not one of them. The Volt is designed to give 80 percent of Americans a car that, while it costs more than a similar, non-electric model, offers a chance to dramatically reduce their gasoline consumption. To Lan…from AutoblogGreen
…GM, Holden, Opel, VauxhallChevrolet Aveo, a.k.a Chevrolet Kalos/Daewoo Gentra/Holden Barina/Pontiac Wave – Click above for a high-res image gallery Eyebrows raised at reports that General Motors could hold on to its British subsidiary Vauxhall even if – or, more likely, when – its German counterpart Opel would leave the family. With the model r…from Autoblog
…something that GM can fix by adding more bracing perhaps, or a thicker nose molding. This 2010 SS was a production car, only a week old, so this concerns me. It might not be a good idea to do any high-speed runs in your new Camaro, at least until we understand the problem and how to fix it first. Nevermind the high speed runs, maybe it’d also b…from Jalopnik
…At GM, hybrid sales have been holding steady in recent months and are well ahead of April 2008. Last year, GM moved a little over 1,100 hybrid models including the two-mode trucks and the mild hybrid cars and SUVs. Last month that number stood at 1,534 units bringing the 2009 hybrid total to 5,156 vehicles. At Ford, April was the first full sale…from AutoblogGreen
