General Motors

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/sv/20050825/tc_sil...ey/_www12466179

JASON STEIN | Automotive News Posted Date: 8/22/05 http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=103024 General Motors has promised to run product development globally in the past. This time it's actually happening. After several false starts, GM is assigning global programs to different vehicle development centers around the world. The automaker now has globalized engineering, design, information systems and manufacturing, with global operating and capital budgets. For instance, engineering work on the next generation of vehicles on the mid-sized, front-wheel-drive Epsilon architecture -- including the Chevrolet Malibu and Pontiac G6 -- now is led by GM'…

DETROIT -- As General Motors moves to value pricing, it is training its dealers to boost sales of add-on accessories. Retail sales of accessories are an estimated $30 billion a year business in the United States. The business grew by two-thirds between 1998 and 2004. GM dealers sold about $1 billion in accessories last year, says Nancy Philippart, executive director of General Motors Accessories. "Customers have more flexibility and choice at the point of sale," Philippart says. "They get what they want, and that increases our odds of making the (vehicle) sale." With value pricing, GM wants to curb incentives and move transaction pri…

WENDOVER, Utah - It took Mother Nature millennia to create the Bonneville Salt Flats, but she needed only a few hours of hard rain to wash out this year's Bonneville Speed Week. After two days of speed trials, a violent storm swept through northern Utah on the evening of August 16, leaving standing water on the immense natural speedway and compelling officials to cancel the final four days of the event. Before the rain came, journalist Don Sherman drove GM Performance Division's Ecotec Lakester to a 189.205 mph speed record in G/BGL (G Class/Blown Gas Lakester). Sherman eclipsed the 179.381 mark set in October 2004 by GM engineer Mark Dickens with the high-tech reincar…

By Greg Migliore Automotive News / August 22, 2005 http://www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=13123 DETROIT -- Suzuki's redesigned 2006 Grand Vitara SUV is getting a $604 price increase for base models when it arrives in showrooms in September. The Grand Vitara has a new, light-weight unibody with a built-in ladder frame, which Suzuki says delivers a smoother ride. The vehicle also is 1.2 inches wider and 12 inches longer than the 2005 model. It is has a 2.7-liter V-6 engine that makes 185 hp. The base model has a five-speed manual transmission, six airbags and rear-wheel drive. It starts at $19,594 including $595 in shipping charges. Four-wheel drive is a…

EDWARD LAPHAM COMMENTARY 8/23/05: Can a U.S.-built car be the next great Euro roadster? By Edward Lapham Automotive News / August 23, 2005 General Motors execs expect big results from the low-volume Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky roadsters, which will be image-building halo vehicles for their brands. Initial Solstice sales make it popular, but production is being ramped up slowly, so Pontiac dealers are clamoring for more cars. Some Pontiac dealers are grumbling that GM shouldn't give Saturn dealers a version, even though it goes into production this year. What's less certain is how Europeans will accept the Opel roadster that is expected for 2007.…

here are the link to see the new color and specs of the 2006 ssr http://pong.server2vh.com/~cheers/forums/i...hp?showtopic=95

Thanks to C&G member Brian Johnson for sending this along. Below is the text from a speech by John F. Smith GM Group Vice President, Global Product Planning. Thank you, David [Cole], and good morning, everyone. It’s a pleasure to be a part of the Management Briefing Seminar, especially on its 40 th anniversary. I’m here today to tell you that General Motors is moving forward, with great urgency and focus, to fundamentally change and improve the way we do business. We understand if you react to that with skepticism, and we realize that the proof will be in the pudding. . . . the product pudding, to be specific. I’m here to tell you that we are ready to r…

LORDSTOWN, Ohio -- They were the bad boys General Motors Corp. could hardly handle -- a United Auto Workers local where members had little sympathy for the automaker during recessions and industry downturns and no use for rules foisted on them from Detroit. Workers sparred with management from the moment GM opened the sprawling Lordstown manufacturing complex in 1966. In 1972, as GM was preparing to speed up production of the Chevrolet Vega, workers sabotaged the small cars and eventually walked out. But the wildcatters of decades past are slowly and reluctantly becoming less contrary as GM copes with its worst financial crisis in at least a decade. They've ag…

i saw the front and the rear of the new tahoe and escalade!! its cool if you want the link please tell me!!1 B) B) B)

GM says "Lets Buyout Delphi!" As if they have the cash. One analyst says that if General Motors were forced to buy-out Delphi workers it would cost the General more than $1 Billion (Dr. Eeeeeeeeevil) dollars and to help keep the parts supplier out of bankruptcy. The Free Press link below states that the General may be looking to pay as much as $100,000 to some 23,000 Delphi workers for them to retire with full benefits to help the struggling parts supplier. Mismanagement on every end here ladies & gents. Isn't it a beautiful thing? http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/irep19e_20050819.htm

Whatever happened to the spyshot? I remember that it said it was going to be posted on here once the site goes live..