GM Tidbits

[sirAQUAMAN64]

GM may sell Allison Transmission

Chrystal Johnson  |   |  Automotive News / January 25, 2007 - 10:24 am / UPDATED: 1/25/2007 1:32 P.M.
 
General Motors is exploring the potential sale of its Allison Transmission division, the company said today.

Allison Transmission, of Indianapolis, produces automatic transmissions for commercial and military vehicles. The division has seven plants in Indianapolis, employing 3,400 workers.

GM said in a statement that Allison is not central to the company's mission of designing, manufacturing and selling cars.

"This process is another potential step in GM's plan to improve liquidity through the assessment of strategic options for a business that is not central to GM's mission," the statement said.

GM spokeswoman Melisa Tezanos said GM would not disclose a possible sale price.

GM tried to sell the unit for $525 million in 1993 to German supplier ZF Friedrichshafen AG but ended talks after U.S. antitrust regulators sued to block the sale.

Eli Lustgarten, an analyst Ohio-based Longbow Research, said several companies such as Eaton Corp. and ZF Friedrichshafen might be interested in buying Allison.

He said Allison could also stand alone as an independent supplier. "Allison has a respected product in the auto transmission marketplace, so there are several possibilities."

I believe Allison gives GM a distinct advantage in the truck market.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

GM will aggressively cut daily rental fleet sales in '07

Jamie LaReau  |   |  Automotive News / January 25, 2007 - 3:14 pm
 
DETROIT -- General Motors' January U.S. sales will be lower than the year-ago period largely because of a significant drop in sales to daily rental fleet companies.

"We're going to have significant month-in and month-out declines in daily rent," said Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing, during a call with reporters today. "The most significant decline is in January."

With one week left to go for January sales, LaNeve would not indicate if GM will improve retail sales.

"We don't know yet. A lot of the business gets done in the last week," LaNeve said. "Our sales through today are comparable to last year, but I'm optimistic." He then added: "Even if we achieve a retail increase, we will not overcome this drastic reduction in daily rents. Our sales will be down."

GM's sales to daily rental fleet companies will drop by 120,000 units in the first half of the year compared with the year-ago period -- 25 percent of that will take place in January, LaNeve says. GM's other big reductions in its daily rental fleet sales this year will be in May and June.

Goal: 596,000 sales

GM plans to sell 596,000 daily rental units in 2007. The 2008 model negotiations with rental companies have not been completed, so that could affect GM's plans this year. In 2006, GM sold 700,327 units to daily rental fleets.

GM's go-to-market strategy is aimed at reducing daily rental fleet sales in order to improve residual values on its vehicles. For example, GM will have lower volumes of the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu sedan in daily rental than it did with the previous model to boost the vehicle's residual value. LaNeve said GM has seen improved residuals on its vehicles in the fourth quarter.

"Daily rental is good business," LaNeve said. "You get the benefits if you can take it down over time and not oversupply the used market, which impacts prices. 2007 will be our third year of significant declines. We've discontinued Buick Rendezvous, Pontiac Grand Ams and Pontiac Azteks from rental. We don't do as many (Buick) LaCrosses."

Declining incentive spending

Meanwhile, GM's per-vehicle incentive spending has dropped compared with a year ago, says Paul Ballew, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis. GM's incentive spending by midmonth January is "down significantly" compared with the year-ago period. GM also is spending less on spiffs than most other competitors, Ballew adds.

GM's per-vehicle incentive spending dropped by $700 in 2006 compared with 2005, LaNeve said. "This year we'll likely be flat but competitive and more targeted with it. We'll see how the market behaves for us."

[sirAQUAMAN64]

GM expects profit in fourth quarter
Accounting moves force delay in reporting results

Dale Jewett  |  Jamie LaReau  |  Automotive News / January 25, 2007 - 5:03 pm / UPDATED: 1/25/2007 6:48 P.M.
 
DETROIT -- General Motors said today it will report record revenue it its auto business and will post a profit overall for the fourth quarter of 2006.

But the automaker is delaying reporting its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2006 as its waits for final results from GMAC and corrects financial statements from five years ago.

GM had planned to release its 2006 financial results on Tuesday, Jan. 30. It intends to file those results with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the deadline of March 1, CFO Fritz Henderson said today. GM also will provide an update on its financial results during the week of Feb. 5, he said.

"The fourth quarter was another record revenue for General Motors on a consolidated basis," Henderson said in a conference call with reporters today. "We expect to be profitable."

Through the first three quarters of 2006, GM had posted a loss of $3.05 billion.

GM lost $10.6 billion in 2005 due mostly to a huge decline in its U.S. auto sales. Henderson declined to say how GM performed in North America last year, when overall U.S. auto sales fell 2.6 percent to 16.6 million units and GM's U.S. market share fell 1.7 percentage points to 24.5 percent.

GM presently has $26.4 billion in cash, Henderson said. The automaker expects a 15 percent return on its pension investments.

"Including the impact of attrition, we expect to end the 2006 calendar year with $17 billion in overfunded status," Henderson said of GM's pension plan.

Tax liabilities prompt restatements

GM, which has been the target of an inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission over its accounting, said it had overstated deferred tax liabilities in the third quarter of 2006 and prior periods.

GM said retained earnings as of Dec. 31, 2001, and subsequent periods were understated by $450 million to $600 million. The automaker added that the errors would not impact cash flow or previously reported cash balances.

GM last year restated its 2005 results, increasing its annual loss by $2 billion to $10.6 billion. At that time, it also restated earnings from 2000 through 2004 as a result of "erroneously" booking payments and credits it received from suppliers -- a key issue the SEC has been examining.

Waiting on GMAC

GM sold a 51 percent stake in its finance arm, General Motors Acceptance Corp., last year. Today, GM said GMAC was still working on its financial statements for 2006 and its balance sheet as of Nov. 30, the date of the sale -- also contributing to the delay in GM's results.

When asked if GM's restatement of its earnings will negatively impact investors' and customers' views of GM, Henderson emphasized that GM will file its financial statement by the March 1 deadline.

"Not only do we have to wrestle with this tax statement, the close of the GMAC sale and figure out (pension accounting) -- we have a lot going on," he said. "Credibility with investors is very important from a GM perspective and to me personally. We'd rather be transparent and make sure people understand it."

Reuters contributed to this report.

[safristi]

Jeebus ....I'm ALREADY payin' 2 SECRETARIES ta READ ALL THESE TID BITS STUFF....and NOW I can't ever read the synposes........

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Delphi loses $5.12 billion in 2006

David Barkholz  |   |  Automotive News / January 31, 2007 - 2:40 pm
 
DETROIT -- Delphi Corp. ended 2006 with a staggering net loss of $5.12 billion, including a dismal December loss of $461 million.

During the year, Delphi spent about $141 million on professional and legal fees related to its Chapter 11 reorganization, the company said today in its court-required monthly operating report.

The numbers are unaudited. Delphi put its U.S. operations in Chapter 11 in October 2005.

Buyouts and early retirements that culled more than 20,000 hourly workers in 2006 accounted for about $2.93 billion of the $5.12 billion loss, the report shows.

Revenue continued to plunge in December, in light of production cuts at Delphi's biggest customer, General Motors. December revenue was $692 million, down from $752 million in November and $888 million in October.

The grim earnings report "underscores the need to reach a consensual agreement with labor to bring competitiveness to our U.S. operations," said Delphi spokeswoman Claudia Piccinin.

Delphi hopes to emerge from Chapter 11 protection this year. A group led by Cerberus Capital Management LP and Appaloosa Management LP has offered $3.4 billion for the company.

The bid is contingent on concessions by Delphi's labor unions.

Delphi, of Troy, Mich., ranks No. 4 on the Automotive News list of the top 100 global suppliers with estimated worldwide original-equipment automotive parts sales of $22.59 billion in 2005. 

[safristi]

Ya just cain't beat Cerebrus Apalossa BATTERIES...........

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Found these articles to be interesting, contrasting ones...

Fields is flying a little bit lower

Automotive News / January 22, 2007 - 1:00 am
 
Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, has had his wings clipped.

Starting last weekend, he planned to stop using the company plane to fly home to Florida on weekends.

Ford, which is tightening belts and torching jobs, took pains to say it was Fields' decision. "He said he has made a decision to stop using the company aircraft for his personal use," a Ford spokesman said. "He doesn't want this or any other issue to distract the team from its main mission, which is to deliver the Way Forward plan."

Fields had been smoked in the press and in the hallways at Ford for the perk, which a Ford proxy statement tallied at $214,479 for one three-month period in 2005. Ford hasn't reported the 2006 cost, but it would approach an estimated $900,000, based on Ford's 2005 numbers.

It's not as if Fields will have to take the Greyhound home. He'll fly commercial, and Ford will pick up the tab.

Note to Ford's travel office: AirTran and Southwest are running specials to Florida. Advance purchase required.

_____________________________________________________________

JAMIE LAREAU

GM’s CFO flies home to Florida on his own dime

Automotive News / January 18, 2007 - 3:13 pm
 
When Ford Motor executive Mark Fields announced today that he would stop taking the company jet for weekend trips home to Florida, I remembered a conversation I had with General Motors' Fritz Henderson.

Henderson, GM's CFO, also jets to Florida on weekends to be with his wife and daughter. We chatted about it one night over dinner at a restaurant in the Renaissance Center in Detroit.

Fritz is one of those globe-trotting executives who has had a succession of assignments in South America, Asia and Europe. Through it all, he has kept a house in Miami so he would not uproot his family.

When he moved to Detroit as company CFO in 2005, Henderson kept his Miami home so his daughter could go to high school there. He found a condo in Birmingham, Mich., to live in during the week.

Over appetizers and wine, Fritz described his grueling schedule of early-morning meetings, late-night sessions and twice-a-month stampedes to catch one of Northwest Airlines' Friday flights to Miami.

What? Huh? Did you say Northwest Airlines? I paused in shock. I said, "Fritz, you're a vice chairman of GM. I thought it was company policy that all of GM's vice chairmen had to fly the corporate jet -- even for personal trips."

Fritz paused and smiled slyly. He's a finance guy. He calculated that one round-trip flight from Detroit to Miami on a corporate jet costs GM about $50,000. That doesn't add up at a time when the company was cutting 35,000 jobs.

"One flight is equal to the salary of one job," he said at the time. "So I figure that I can fly commercial and save one job each time I do it."

That night, I called my mother and recounted the story to her. Her response was simple: "I like this guy. He's a good guy."

I had that conversation with Henderson nearly a year ago. A call to GM confirmed that Henderson still flies commercial and pays for his ticket out of his own pocket.

This year, Fritz's frequent flier miles might taper when his daughter graduates from high school. The family plans to move to the Detroit area, where Henderson grew up.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

GM extends warranties for used cars

Arlena Sawyers  |   |  Automotive News / February 2, 2007 - 2:50 pm
 
LAS VEGAS -- General Motors will cover vehicles sold under its GM Certified brand with 5-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranties starting March 5.

The enhancement will be effective from the time the vehicles were sold as new, Brian McVeigh, general manger of GM Fleet and Commercial Operations, said today. The warranty is transferable and has no deductible.

The new powertrain coverage is in addition to GM Certified's 3-month/3,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and any remaining portion of GM's 3-year/36,000-mile new-car warranty. GM added 5-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty coverage to 2007 models last fall.

"As much as we know that our quality is at par with the best, we still have a perception gap," McVeigh said. "This says we are confident in our product, new or used."

The enhancement will cover all 2002-2006 Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Oldsmobile and Pontiac vehicles sold under the GM Certified brand.

There were 37,550 GM Certified vehicles sold in January, about 9 percent more than in January 2006.

Cadillac, Hummer and Saab have separate certified used-vehicle programs. Vehicles sold under those programs are covered by 6-year/100,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranties effective from the time the vehicles were sold as new.

McVeigh said Saturn is reviewing the powertrain-warranty enhancement and will make an announcement later.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070212/AUTO02/702120341/1148/AUTO01

GM's Lutz speeds into last turn

Time is as great a factor for the 75-year-old exec as it is for GM

DETROIT -- If only it were as easy as building good cars.

Even as General Motors Corp. begins to fill its showrooms with top-notch cars and trucks, its retail sales dropped 8 percent in January.

And the GM executive most responsible for the new iron, Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, said it may be years before the company's soiled reputation is repaired.

"An image transformation such as ours is really a five-year process," Lutz said during a wide-ranging interview last week. "We're two or 2 1/2 years into it."

This dose of realism comes from a man who turns 75 today. By the time GM finally outruns its reputation problems, his remarkable career may be over. Maybe that's why Lutz practically radiates with urgency these days, pushing his team at GM to the limit, firing away to the media at auto shows, dashing off rants on his blog. Lutz is on his last few laps and he wants to make them count.

In his office at the GM Tech Center in Warren on Thursday, Lutz exudes confidence in GM's comeback but remains realistic about the challenges. It took decades for GM to create its problems, and nothing can fix them overnight.

"A change in course cannot be done purely through advertising or something like that. There's not enough money in the world because a lot of these perceptions about brands or corporations are deeply embedded in people's belief system."

But Lutz says GM can change that belief system, and when he looks you straight in eye, you start to believe him, as impractical as that may sound.

The vehicles Lutz has shepherded from sketch pad to assembly line in the past six years are beginning to appear in GM showrooms. Two of his babies, the Saturn Aura and the new Chevrolet Silverado, are the North American Car and Truck of the Year. What's more, GM's once-far-flung product development operations are no longer needlessly duplicating efforts and wasting resources.

"His imprint on GM has been huge," said Jim Sanfilippo, executive vice president for AMCI, an automotive consultancy in Bloomfield Hills. "What Lutz has done is nothing short of a transformation. What he has loosed in GM's product development system is just the tip of the iceberg. I buy his credibility.

"I don't think any of the fire in his belly is gone. He is still pushing the organization to raise the bar."

But it is going to take time to win back customers who feel jilted or mistreated decades ago. It's going to take something special that makes people say, "Whoa, wait, that's a GM," Lutz said.

"It requires friends looking at a neighbor's new Saturn Aura and saying, 'Hey what's that?' Then driving it, and saying, 'Hey this is way better than my, insert name here, what did you pay for it?' Then you get one after another.

"That's the way Honda and Toyota grew here in the United States. But the problem is we don't have 20 years to do it."

No, GM does not have that much time and neither does Lutz.

The Aura, the coming Saturn Astra, the redesigned Cadillac CTS, the 2008 Chevy Malibu, the Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups are all well-crafted inside and out. Lutzmobiles are hitting showrooms, a welcome site for dealers and customers.

"There is hope at the end of the tunnel with people who are currently under 25, there's a much greater acceptance of GM and American cars in general. Why?

"Because Generation Y never experienced the bad days of the American automobile industry. They say, 'Hey, what's wrong with these cars? I like this stuff.' They don't carry the baggage.

"Their parents carry the baggage of the bad '70s and bad '80s."

GM vehicles are drawing high quality marks from auto industry experts such as J.D. Power and Associates. Yet many consumers remain unconvinced.

Lutz places some of the blame on GM for decades of taking customers for granted.

He also calls out the U.S. media, listing examples of biased coverage.

Even so, he sees progress.

"While everything we did over the last five years was better than before, every time I started to sort of get satisfied, I'd go sit in an Audi or Lexus and I thought, 'My god, we're not going to make it.'

"And now, to my satisfaction, I can go from a Silverado to a Toyota Tundra, and tell myself we're better.

"I can compare the new CTS and to any German luxury brand and say, 'By God, we're as good as they are.' "

Indeed.

But there's a lot more to do, and Bob Lutz wants to finish the job

[PJungnitsch]

Lutz shouldn't delude himself (as domestic execs are prone to do) they have a little way to go yet. The Aura was not rated North American car of year because it was better, but because it was thought to be most significant, ie a big change for the better for GM.

Car and Driver in a sedan comparison test in which the Aura was the 4th out of 6:

As we said, almost right, until the sponges in GM's Cheapness Department go to the project. Although styled well, the interior is executed with hard plastic, glaring panel gaps, ragged mold lines, and the scrape-scraping of a gear selector that slides through its range like a screwdriver through sand. Have GM's cheapness freaks ever sat in an Accord?

He may take consolation in the Camry scoring 5/6 in the same test, and C&D hammering Toyota for interior fit and finish

[Mitlov]

He may take consolation in the Camry scoring 5/6 in the same test, and C&D hammering Toyota for interior fit and finish

Yeah, I was pretty surprised to hear C&D say that they thought that the Kia had better interior quality than the Camry.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

LaCrosse/Allure tweaked after rare one-star rating

Harry Stoffer  |   |  Automotive News / February 13, 2007 - 3:01 pm
 
WASHINGTON - General Motors has altered the trim on the inside of the driver's door of the 2007 Buick LaCrosse because the car earned the lowest possible score in a government side-impact crash test.

"We were surprised and disappointed" with the one-star rating, GM spokesman Alan Adler said.

GM made the midmodel-year change in the door trim of cars on the assembly line last month, Adler said. The company will ask that the car be retested, he said.

But for the moment, the one-star rating remains in the information made available to consumers by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

A one-star rating on the five-star scale does stand out. The car still complies with safety standards, but a lower rating is supposed to indicate a greater possibility of serious injury in a crash.

Many vehicles now get four or five stars in most testing categories. The government is asking for recommendations on how to improve the program so that it better differentiates between the best performers and the less-than-best.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced plans to overhaul the program during a visit to the Detroit auto show last month. The testing, called the New Car Assessment Program, began in 1978.

The LaCrosse got five stars for protecting driver and passenger dummies in frontal impacts. It got three stars for the rear passenger in a side-impact crash and four stars for resisting rollovers.

Results for 63 newly rated vehicles are at www.nhtsa.gov.

Ratings for vehicles back to 1990 are at www.safercar.gov.

[Simple]

"We were surprised and disappointed" with the one-star rating, GM spokesman Alan Adler said.

GM made the midmodel-year change in the door trim of cars on the assembly line last month,

Last thing GM needs now, is word getting out that their cars are unsafe.  Would this need a Safely recall?

[Mitlov]

A one-star rating is truly abysmal for any 2007 model.  The 2005 LaCross/Allure got three stars for that same impact.  You don't expect ratings to plummet like that.  You also don't expect a large sedan like a Buick to be dramatically out-performed by a subcompact like an Aveo (which got four stars for that same test).

GM had better do a recall of all affected LaCrosses/Allures.  I'm not holding my breath though.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Great news for the Canadian auto industry.

http://www.canadiandriver.com/forum/index.php/topic,49896.msg358128/boardseen.html#new

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/181468
Oshawa to build hybrid truck

GM’s Oshawa truck plant yard will start filling with hybrid pickups from about mid-2008, the company announced Feb. 13. 
 
GM plan for Silverado and Sierra pickups buries Ford hope to be first out door

Feb 14, 2007 04:30 AM
Tony Van Alphen
Business Reporter

General Motors has trumped Ford in a plan to become the first auto maker to build hybrid vehicles in Canada.

GM of Canada Ltd. announced yesterday that it will start making hybrid versions of the popular Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks in Oshawa during the spring or summer of next year.

"GM is making it a top priority to provide our customers with the widest selection of green-vehicle technologies that can save them fuel and benefit the environment," said Arturo Elias, president of GM of Canada, in a statement.

"This new hybrid truck adds to GM's fast-growing list of green vehicle technologies being engineered or assembled right here in Canada."

In the race to become more environmentally friendly, Ford Motor Co. of Canada had announced a year ago that it would be the first auto maker to produce a gasoline engine-electric motor version of models here.

The company said it planned on assembling hybrid versions of the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX cross-over utility vehicles in Oakville by 2010.

One source said it would likely be sooner, but Ford acknowledged yesterday that its plans don't call for hybrid production of those vehicles in Canada until after the end of 2008.

It aims to sell at least nine other car and truck models in hybrid versions by next year.

Parent Ford Motor Co. set a target last year of 250,000 sales of hybrid models around the world by 2010.

In hybrid production, auto makers marry electric motors with a gasoline engine so they can, in some cases, alternate as power sources depending on driving conditions. Hybrids contain battery packs and high-tech regenerative braking systems that recover energy to recharge batteries.

The vehicles are attracting more interest from motorists and environmentally conscious consumers because they offer better fuel economy and reduce emissions.

GM, the industry sales leader, noted the company will use a two-mode hybrid system in the new pickups that optimizes fuel efficiency in city and highway driving.

The company has also developed engines in St. Catharines that shut down cylinders to save fuel in highway driving.

Furthermore, it is building the world's largest fleet of emission-free hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles and E85 flex-fuel (ethanol and gasoline) cars in Oshawa and producing hybrid transmissions in Windsor.

GM said it would not disclose prices for the hybrid truck models until a date closer to when they become available.

[Allen]

No gas in GM's car of the future
TAVIA GRANT

Globe and Mail Update

It may be late to the game, but the maker of Hummer vehicles says it wants to become the global leader when it comes to green cars.

And General Motors Corp. recognizes that means squaring off against the early leader and maker of the Prius hybrid vehicle, Toyota Motor Corp.

“We need to transition to vehicles that have little or no fossil fuels,” Robert Lutz, GM's vice chairman of product development, told the Globe and Mail's editorial board. “The only solution is the reinvention of the automobile and basically converting to electric drive.”

Mr. Lutz acknowledged that the auto maker had fallen behind competitors in developing fuel-efficient technology. A few years ago, such a switch would have been deemed too costly and risky by the company's board of directors, he said.

Times have changed. Last month, GM unveiled the Volt electric car on what it calls its e-flex architecture, which it hopes to have in production by 2010. The company's board of directors is fully behind that move and the creation of other costly technologies that might not provide a payoff for several years, he asserted.

“There's been a complete transformation at all levels of the corporation,” he said.

“We cheerfully announced to the board that many of these technological initiatives — like fuel cells, the early stages of the hybrid system, the e-flex architecture in the first few years, all of these are going to be money losers. And the board said, yup, we understand that, but these are all things we absolutely have to do.”

He wouldn't say how much it will cost to bring the Volt to market by 2010, but he noted that some costs will be reduced by using a version of the body and chassis system that provides the basis now for GM's compact cars such as the Chevrolet Cobalt in North America and the Opel Astra in Europe.

The move comes as GM and other auto makers face the prospect of tighter emissions regulations, both in Canada and the United States amid a growing consensus among the general public that greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced. The challenge for GM is to adopt more fuel-efficient technology without driving car prices higher or sacrificing safety requirements.

Canada will have a piece of GM's plans to go green, with fuel cells and hybrid SUVs under development at the company's regional engineering centre in Oshawa, Ont.

That's not to say that more Canadian jobs won't be lost in the auto sector as car companies continue to shift production to cheaper regions, Mr. Lutz warned.

Canada is “arguably a bit more cost-effective than the United States, but when you start the global comparison, it doesn't look so good,” he said.

As for consumer demand, North Americans will continue to buy large vehicles as long as gasoline prices stay low, Mr. Lutz said.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

For GM, plenty riding on rwd platform
Global approach promises savings, up to 700,000 sales

Rick Kranz  |   |  Automotive News / February 19, 2007 - 1:00 am
 
General Motors has shouted about the upcoming rear-drive Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac G8, but those are just two on a long list of cars that GM is producing on its new global vehicle architecture.

GM has been hyping the geographical reach and cost savings. Executives say:


Models are on sale or will be sold in Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America.


Global annual volume will be "around 500,0000 to 700,000, somewhere in that range," Gene Stefanyshyn, vehicle line executive for the architecture, told Automotive News.


Product development savings will be an estimated $500 to $1,000 per vehicle compared with different regions developing separate architectures -- savings that would total $250 million to $750 million.


Most GM vehicle architectures now are engineered for global applications. Regional engineering centers are given responsibility for developing architectures, guided by headquarters in Detroit.

For example, on the global rwd architecture, GM gave Australia's Holden Commodore mid-sized sedan new front-end styling to create the 2008 Pontiac G8, which will be exported to North America. GM North America expects 30,000 annual U.S. sales.
 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Global plan
Here are GM's global rwd models.
CURRENT MODELS

Holden Commodore sedan

Chevrolet Lumina sedan

Chevrolet Omega sedan

Vauxhall VXR sedan

Holden Statesman sedan

Chevrolet Caprice sedan

FUTURE MODELS

Buick Royaum sedan  <--first I've heard of that one. Apparently for China but makes sense the US would have a version as well.

Pontiac G8 sedan

Chevrolet Camaro coupe, convertible

Chevrolet Impala sedan


 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Australian exports

GM's Holden subsidiary in Australia developed the global rwd vehicle architecture. Assembly of mid-sized and full-sized Holden sedans started last year. Besides sales in Australia, models are being exported to Brazil, the Middle East, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

A Daewoo version will be offered in Korea this year from complete knockdown kits. A long-wheelbase Buick model will be assembled in China beginning next year. A version for Opel in Germany is being discussed.

Today, Australia is the sole rwd assembly site. But starting in November or December 2008, GM's Line No. 1 assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, will turn out Camaro coupes. Several months later, a convertible will be offered.

GM insiders say the redesigned rwd Impala will be added in 2009 or early 2010, after Oshawa's Line No. 2 plant is converted. Oshawa also will export some models.

Five additional rwd models are envisioned for sale globally.

At least six brands initially will market models on the rwd platform: Buick, Chevrolet, Daewoo, Holden, Pontiac and Vauxhall.

Fisher Body days

Flexibility is a key element of the architecture.

"It is really like going back to the old days of what GM did with Fisher Body" to create the full-sized rwd cars of the 1960s, said Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, interviewed this month at the Chicago Auto Show. He said GM "could do a whole lineup of entirely different-looking cars using common architectural components."

Lutz says the 1960s strategy allowed flexibility in such areas as wheelbase, front overhang, rear overhang and overall length between such nameplates as the plush Buick Electra 225 and the more mainstream Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight. Such flexibility is built into GM's new rwd architecture.

"I did a theoretical count," Stefanyshyn said. "I think there were 36 combinations -- not that we are going to exploit all that, but there is kind of a building-block approach. We can do pony cars, convertibles, sedans, wagons, a lot of things."

Today, GM can create an rwd vehicle with a long or short hood, Stefanyshyn said. "We have short dash-to-axle and long dash-to-axle" options. For the Camaro, Lutz said, "the front rails are extended to permit the longer hood line that you want on a pony car." Shorter front rails can be used for a sedan.

The wheelbase can stretch to 120 inches from 110. There is dimensional flexibility between the area in front of the instrument panel and the rear wheels, Stefanyshyn said.

Both mid-sized and large rwd cars can be created on the global architecture.

"Overall length for a mid-sized rwd car would be around 194 inches," Stefanyshyn said. "The long rwd would be around 201, 203, maybe a bit bigger if we want to put more rear overhang, a bigger trunk, make it more formal."

Such a car would be 2 or 3 inches longer than today's Impala.

Six- and eight-cylinder engines are offered; a four-cylinder engine is being studied.

Bottom line

Stefanyshyn said global architectures offer savings in four keys areas:

1. Engineering

2. Material costs

3. Plant tooling

4. Vendor tooling.

About a third of the savings comes from engineering, he said. Material costs decline about 10 percent. There are only four brake families, for example.

The third category, plant tooling, is difficult to estimate, Stefanyshyn said. It depends on such factors as whether a plant needs to be built and whether a wide range of robots or a high degree of labor will be used in assembly.

Although he did not provide a percentage, Stefanyshyn said, "There are some savings in the vendor tools depending on the commodity and how much freight and racks they consume."

The bottom line?

Stefanyshyn said GM will reach the $500- to $1,000-per-vehicle savings depending on the car and regional regulations: "We are hoping to see those kind of numbers," he said.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Chevy's aim: No. 1 in Russia
To reach goal the US carmaker will have to pass current leader Ford and hold back Hyundai

Anna Smolchenko  |   |  Automotive News Europe / February 19, 2007 - 1:00 am

 
MOSCOW -- General Motors wants its Chevrolet marque to regain its position as Russia's top-selling foreign brand this year.

"We will continue to strive to be No. 1 in the market," Warren Browne, GM director for Russia, told Automotive News Europe.

GM plans to increase Chevrolet sales in Russia to 137,000 units, Browne said. It sold 111,458 units last year, according to the Association of European Businesses in Russia.

The last time Chevrolet was Russia's No. 1 foreign brand in new-car sales was 2004. In 2005, Chevrolet lost the spot to Hyundai, which slipped to No. 2 last year. The Korean carmaker plans to sell about 115,000 cars in Russia this year, up from 100,685 units last year.

Ford was Russia's top foreign brand in 2006 with 115,985 new-car sales last year. The carmaker aims to increase its new-car sales by 30 percent to 150,000 units in 2007.

Ekaterina Kulinenko, Ford's Moscow-based spokeswoman, said the carmaker is confident it will meet its target.

Both Chevrolet and Ford expect to benefit from a strong demand for foreign brands among Russian car buyers.

Market on the rise

Last year the country's auto market grew 22 percent to 1.8 million units, with foreign brands accounting for 1 million of those sales, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
 


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Three-way race
Sales targets for Russia's top 3 foreign brands vs. 2006 volume
  2007 2006
Ford 150,000 115,985
Chevrolet* 137,000 111,458
Hyundai 115,000 100,685
*Includes GM-AvtoVAZ joint venture
Sources: Companies, Association of European Businesses in Russia


 

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GM's Browne said "customer satisfaction, dealership development and product initiatives" will help the carmaker achieve a sales boost. He declined to give further details on GM's customer satisfaction and product initiatives.

GM will expand its dealer network to more than 100 from 92 by the end of the year, Browne said. The carmaker will focus on opening new showrooms in large towns where domestic brands dominate.

Traditionally, people in provincial towns have bought Russian brands such as Lada.

But increasingly they are choosing Western brands that are safer, more reliable and more stylish than domestic models.

Browne said GM wants to increase sales of all its brands in Russia to 175,000 units this year.

Besides 137,000 Chevrolets, the target includes Opel, Saab, Cadillac and Hummer vehicles.

GM sold 132,600 unit in Russia last year, according to the Association of European Businesses in Russia.

Ivan Bonchev, a Moscow-based automotive analyst with consultants Ernst & Young, said GM's total target was realistic. "The market is booming," Bonchev said, "and there's a lot of unmet demand." 

[Scaerio]

FUTURE MODELS

Buick Royaum sedan  <--first I've heard of that one. Apparently for China but makes sense the US would have a version as well.

The Royaume already exists.  It's a Holden Statesman re-badged.  Also sold in Korea as the Daewoo Statesman.  Perhaps the new one will have its own styling.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Speaking of which...
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/02/19/wha-buick-dealers-dont-want-a-rwd-vehicle/#comments