In years past, GM and Ford were not the best cars in terms of residual value. Now, according to Automotive News, that might be changing. The automakers are only building cars that the market needs and the projected residual value, of all automobiles, has risen dramatically.
General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are leading the way in the residual value rise. This will help both companies offer more competitive leases.
Honda and Toyota, who are usually a buy word for residual value, remain strong. Lower incentives and shortage of used vehicles are lifting the value of the Japanese cars, as well as those from the Detroit automakers.
Automotive Lease Guide projects that 2010 vehicles from GM and Ford will retain more than 40 percent of their sticker price. Five years ago, the same vehicles were under 40 percent.
Technology is a wonderful thing when used appropriately and we have to admit although GM’s image for the next generation head-up display is pretty cool, we have to wonder how much safer it is actually making the driving experience. Let’s rewind a moment to illustrate just what this new technology will entail.
GM R&D, Carnegie Mellon University, The University of Southern California, and other institutions are working together to create a full windshield head-up system that allows the driver to see in any type of weather condition turning the windshield into a device that will hopefully keep the driver aware of his surroundings and his eyes on the road.
Check out the rest of the story plus the press release after the jump.
For some people, the work life becomes too toxic to the point that they’d do anything to get out of their jobs, even resorting to screaming at their bosses just so the company has a reason to let them go.
But that’s not the case for one Murray Butler IV, who probably has one of the best gigs in the world – at least according to him.
Butler is one of those rare kinds of people who not only enjoys the work he does, but even compares it to like “being in Disneyland.” So what exactly does he do?
After filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy last June, GM has decided to launch a marketing campaign centered on “Excellence for Everyone”. The new campaign will feature more of the Corvettes and Camaros we all love. The Detroit automaker doesn’t do a good enough job leveraging those iconic names to help the Chevrolet brand, according to Mark Reuss, president of GM North America.
"When have you ever seen ’Vettes and Camaros in ads for Equinox and Malibu?" he wrote in a web chat with the Detroit Press. "This will change."
Change is something that GM should be getting accustomed to. This effort to boost sales comes after a new CEO, multiple restructurings, and the closing down of some of their dealerships (and then the reopening of some).
We should see the news ads appear sometime in the next couple of months and although the marketing campaign is centered on “Excellence for Everyone”, Reuss assures that this will not be Chevy’s new tagline.
In an unprecedented reversal of fortune, General Motors was outsold by Ford Motor Company in the month of February. Yep, the unquestioned industry leader among all US manufacturers has been bumped off its throne – at least for a month.
Normally, news like this doesn’t make the water coolers the next day, but given the fact that GM has pretty much controlled the US market since the late 20’s, Ford’s accomplishment shouldn’t go unnoticed. For some perspective, just imagine if Pepsi beat Coca Cola in sales for a month or – God forbid! – Adidas trumps Nike in sales for basketball sneakers.
Ford’s February sales amounted to 142,006 vehicles sold, a 43% increase from its February 2009 numbers. GM, meanwhile, sold 141,535 units in February, 12% spike from their numbers in the same period a year ago.
General Motors’ sale of Hummer to Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co. Ltd. is dead and as a result GM has decided to just wind down the brand.
After months of negotiations, the agreement between Tengzhong and GM stalled because of a multitude of reasons, including poor sales of Hummer and the fact that the sale would go against the country’s increased efforts in curbing gas-guzzling vehicles in favour of more eco-friendly cars. The deal with Tengzhong was supposed to save Hummer from folding, which was what GM initially planned to do if it couldn’t find a partner to buy the brand.
Depending on how much you’ve matured over the years, you should know by now that Santa Claus is nothing more than a symbolism of what the holiday season is all about.
Surely there really isn’t someone from the Arctic with reindeers – one of which, with a red nose, no less – ready to fly him to every chimney all over the world where young children breathlessly await for their presents, with milk and cookies in tow, right?
Well, OnStar’s making you think that Santa is indeed coming to town.
From 6 in the morning on Christmas Eve until the early morning of Christmas Day, you can now keep tabs on where Santa Claus is in the world through your OnStar GPS, thanks to a collaborative partnership between OnStar and NORAD.
According to Scott Kubicki, Vice President of OnStar Service Delivery, helping out the ‘world’s busiest traveler’ is an honor that the company could not refuse. "We know with our core suite of services, Santa’s travels will be much easier," he said.
In the highly-entertaining press release, OnStar described Santa’s recent visit to the OnStar Command Center to “pick up his newly outfitted sleigh and learn about the real services the company offers subscribers and the custom services OnStar created just for him”.
It doesn’t matter if you believe in St. Nick or not, but if you do have OnStar on your vehicle, it’s certainly worth looking into.
Koenigsegg may have dropped the ball with purchasing Saab but at least somebody has stepped up to take the beleaguered car brand out of GM’s hands – at least some of it. Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Co. Ltd has bought the intellectual rights for Saab’s 9-3 and 9-5 sedans, in addition to a number of powertrain technologies.
As part of the new deal, BAIC will be manufacturing the 9-3 and 9-5 sedans in China with Saab supplying invaluable knowledge and resource to BAIC as the company begins to improve its future line-up of cars. According to Jan Åke Jonsson, the managing director of Saab Automobile, the sale of the 9-3 and 9-5 sedans to BAIC is a step in the right direction for both companies. "We have developed a good relationship with BAIC and look forward to working with them to integrate this Saab technology into their future vehicles," he said.
Despite the sale of the 9-3 and 9-5 sedans to BAIC, General Motors is still pushing through with selling the entire brand to a number of potential suitors, the most notable of which has become Spyker.
We first saw this car when it made an appearance as Sideswipe in the hit movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and while we had an inkling as to what car would eventually be, it wasn’t until a few days ago when GM officially lifted the covers off to introduce its real name: the 50th Anniversary Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Concept.
Developed mainly to infuse and combine design elements from iconic Stingrays of the past to create a more cutting-edge version for the future, the 50th Anniversary Corvette Stingray Concept is an eye-catcher in every sense of the word.
According to General Motors, the Corvette Stingray Concept was a project undertaken with the sole objective of taking the brand to newer heights, all while retaining its iconic legacy. So in an effort to puts some weight behind their goal, GM left no stones unturned in developing a concept that its predecessors can be proud of. Among the features found in the Corvette Stingray Concept is a clamshell hood, scissor doors, rear-view cameras with night vision enhancement, ergonomic seats, and of course, a high-performance hybrid. In addition to that, the car also comes with a state-of-the-art inertactive touch control system that allows drivers to manipulate the cars power and efficiency depending on their liking as well as use their settings to share with other people via the cars advanced telemetrics and in-car system.
With a brand that’s as esteemed as the Stingray, it would’ve been foolish for GM to not exert any and all efforts in creating a car that can live up to the legend of the iconic brand. Fortunately, GM knows better than most of us that preserving the status held by the Stingray in the annals of automotive lore is something that should never be taken lightly, and the 50th Anniversary Corvette Stingray Concept is proof of that.
General Motors is the only automotive manufacturer to offer OnStar, a service that provides a variety of subscription based communications like: in vehicle security, hands free calling, turn by turn navigation and remote diagnostics systems. However as one lucky California resident learned, the little blue button in his Chevrolet Tahoe can do so much more. Thanks to the advent of Stolen Vehicle Slowdown, only 16 minutes after Jose Ruiz and his cousin were accosted by a carjacker wielding a firearm, The satellite service was able to bring his 2009 Tahoe to a halt, bringing what could have been an exhausting and endangering car chase to a halt.
This occasion marks the first time that the OnStar SVS technology has been activated to help in a carjacking situation. SVS helps take high speed pursuits out of the equation, and reduces the chance that a stolen vehicle will be crashed during a chase. Once a subscriber has reported a stolen vehicle they can call and request the service. The advisor will then use advanced GPS technology to pinpoint the location of the vehicle and notify law enforcement. When police have the vehicle in sight, they can request the advisor send a signal that interacts with the vehicle’s engine, gradually slowing it down, aiding in a safe recovery. So the next time that any carjacker thinks about boosting a new car, they ought to think twice about stealing a GM vehicle.
