Category Archives: General Motors

News about General Motors automobile manufacturer. News about General Motors recalls, technical service bulletins (TSB), and problems regarding General Motors vehicles.

GM Dealerships To Stay Open

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Last year General Motors announced that they would be closing dealerships due to the low demand for cars and trucks. Many dealerships argued the decision saying the auto maker did not offer enough details explaining how they decided which ones would be closed. Complaints to congress lead to a bill giving dealerships a chance to dispute their closure depending on their past success. This week GM announced that it will be reinstating more than half of the dealerships that disputed the closures. GM executives said that more than 600 dealerships out of the 1,100 seeking to stay open with GM will receive letters giving them the option to remain with the auto maker.

Below is GM’s statement regarding the dealer arbitration:

General Motors is taking a major step toward its goal of creating positive, lasting relationships with its dealers.

GM carefully reviewed each of the approximately 1,100 dealer reinstatement claims that were filed with the American Arbitration Association. We conducted these individual reviews, keeping in mind our goal of moving quickly and effectively to complete the overall arbitration process, and determined that we would send more than 600 Letters of Intent to the involved dealers. The Letter of Intent contains our usual core business criteria. This action will allow these dealers to conduct normal dealership operations as soon as they comply with the terms of the Letter of Intent.

“We are eager to restore relationships with our dealers, and get back to doing what we do best – selling cars and taking care of customers,” said Mark Reuss, president, GM North America. “The arbitration process creates uncertainty in the market. We believe issuing these Letters of Intent is good for our customers, our dealers and GM.”

GM Power Steering Recall

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General Motors announced Monday that they will be recalling 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac Compact cars for power steering problems. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began an investigation into the problem on Jan. 27 after getting 1,100 complaints of cars loosing power steering assist. The complaints included 14 crashes and one injury.

The auto maker said the vehicles are still safe to drive and never totally lose their steering, but consumers will notice harder steering when traveling under 15 mph. Shutting the vehicle off and then restarting will usually restore the power steering. The auto maker will start with older models first because the problem usually takes 20,000 to 30,000 miles of driving for the condition to develop.

The recall covers:

  • 2005 to 2010 Chevrolet Cobalts
  • 2007 to 2010 Pontiac G5s
  • 2005 and 2006 Pontiac Pursuits
  • 2005 and 2006 Pontiac G4s

Toyota Ranks Well In Consumer Reports

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After all the news we have been hearing about Toyota and their problems, Consumer Reports still ranks Toyota vehicles as number three. (The same ranking as last year.) The rankings are based on performance, comfort, utility and reliability of over 280 different vehicles.

“Toyota builds extremely good, reliable cars”, said David Champion, senior director of Consumer Reports’ Auto Test Center. “I think once they get through all the recalls you will see that they are a very reliable manufacturer.” The magazine ended up dropping a couple of Toyota models from the Top Picks after the company suspended sales because of the recall. Since the vehicles were not for sale at the time, they could not make the list.

Honda (which includes Acura models) and Subaru were tied for first place, the fourth year that Honda was the leading manufacturer. They were followed by Toyota, and Hyundai (including Kia) which was ranked fourth, up from ninth last year. American manufacturers fared poorly. Ford was ranked eleventh, moving up one place from last year. General Motors and Chrysler occupied the bottom two slots, respectively.

California The First To See The Volt

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General Motors Co. Vice Chairman Bob Lutz announced that when their Chevrolet Volt rolls off the assembly line, California will be the firsts market to see them in the show rooms. GM will provide 100 Volts and 500 charging stations for California utility companies in early 2011 for road testing. California was chosen as the first “test site”, because of it’s tax credit offerings, and infrastructure to accommodate electric cars.

The volt will be designed to comply with all overseas regulations in the hope of making it an international car. “This is uncharted territory for us,” Lutz said, but we expect to sell between 100,000 to 150,000 plug-in hybrids each year.

Ford Shines At The Detroit Auto Show

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Based on the Detroit Auto Show, the automobile industry may be undergoing a huge transformation. There are dozens of hybrid vehicles and countless pure battery-powered cars. The market for energy alternative cars remains weak, but if strict emissions standards are imposed, demands could soar.

Ford Motor Company had a very strong showing, winning North American Car of the Year and North American Truck of the Year Awards. The car award went to the Ford Fusion Hybrid and in the truck category, Ford’s Transit Connect van. This is the sixth win in the truck category for Ford, the most of any automaker.

The awards recognize the vehicles that are “benchmarks” in their category based on factors including innovation, design, safety, handling, driver satisfaction and value for the dollar. Vehicles must be new or “substantially changed” to be considered.

Some other memorable displays are: General Motors with their new Chevy Volt, Mercedes B Class pure hydrogen fuel cell car, Audis A8 which won the eyes on design and Chrysler’s Gem which has sold more than 40,000 since 1999 and reportedly owns about 70 percent of the electric vehicle market.

Saab-To Sell Or Not To Sell!

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As General Motors Co. continues to close down the Saab division of their company, starting with replacing their entire board, they are still putting pressure on bidders to make better offers.

This comes after negotiations between G.M. and the high-end Swedish automaker Koenigsegg failed. Beijing Automotive was one of Koenigsegg’s backers in the earlier Saab procurement plan, potentially contributing $200 million to $300 million toward the deal. Saab’s engineering expertise has always been admired by the Chinese automaker. Saab did come to an agreement with Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings to sell the rights to powertrain and tooling technology for some of their older models. Saab will also help Beijing Auto build its own car brands, using the Saab technology.

GM executives said on Monday that none of the bids received are meeting the financial requirement for a deal and said they were moving ahead with plans to close Saab. Saab spokes woman Gunilla Gustavs added today: “There is still the possibility that the negotiations on the bids will result in a decision to sell Saab in its entirety.” Luxembourg based investment firm Genii Capital and Dutch luxury carmaker Spyker Cars and a group of Swedish investors are expected to make better offers for Saab.

Tax Credits For Batteries

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Automakers will be receiving $220 million in tax credits to help develop battery packs for hybrid and plug in hybrids vehicles. The credits, which include $100 million for battery manufacturers and $120 million for battery pack assembly, are designed to benefit Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Dow Chemical Co.

Ford plans to move production of battery packs from Mexico to southeastern Michigan and to invest up to $500 million to assemble hybrids and lithium ion batteries there. “This is huge,” said James McBride, vice president of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. “This is the rebirth of the auto industry in this state.”

Despite the recent excitement over electric cars, the National Research Council thinks that it will be a few decades before we see hybrids in “meaningful numbers”.

Chrysler to Challenge Legislation

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Complaints made to Congress from GM and Chrysler dealerships has led to a House approved $1.1 trillion spending bill. This bill will give dealerships a chance to dispute their closure depending on their past success. G.M. and Chrysler proposed their own review processes last week in an effort to keep Congress from getting involved, but their proposal was rejected.

Today, Chrysler came back challenging the decision, calling it ‘unconstitutional legislation’. Sergio Marchionne (CEO of the Fiat and Chrysler Group LLC and Chairman of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association) said that restoring large numbers of dealerships could cause havoc within Chrysler. “We are in a completely different position than G.M.” he said. G.M. has about $42 billion in cash in September, paying back $6.7 is easier than it would be for us.” Mr.. Marchionne also said G.M. was more focused on repaying the loans because the government owns 60% as opposed to 10% of Chrysler. Chrysler’s majority shareholder is the United Automobile Workers union’s retiree health care trust.

Chrysler is planning to make investments that would provide jobs and other economic benefits. Building a fuel-efficient engine with Fiat technology in the United States is one of three goals that each allow Fiat to gain an additional 5 percent of Chrysler.