As General Motors attempts to come out of its government owned era, it has the massive task of reinvigorating the American buyer. As with most large purchases, the American consumer is also rather uneducated. As we can see by the downfall of the housing market, all too often consumers over extend themselves and make poor decisions. Admittedly, the decline of the real estate market and the downfall of the big three automakers are due to completely separate reasons, but some similarities can be found.
One of the biggest struggles that General Motors will face in the coming years is making people believe that their product is superior to the competition. As emissions laws tighten and consumers become more environmentally conscious the problem for an automaker like GM is extrapolated. GM is a company built around its truck sales and the most environmentally unfriendly thing on the road this side of a Hummer is a heavy duty pickup truck.
However, General Motors has surprised us by coming out of bankruptcy so quickly and with so much vigor. Its new models are impressive and cross every segment that the company operates in. Many may think that this is the same old GM singing a new tune that will fade away soon, but the company has organized several events to educate the consumer and let them know that these changes are here to stay.
This past weekend we attended the Main Street in Motion event in Newport Beach, CA. Several years ago we were at a similar event in Las Vegas, Nevada, but this time things were a little different. General Motors brought their typical heavy hitter models like the Corvette, Camaro, Sierra, and Tahoe. They also included some of the newer, cleaner, and less known models like the Volt, Cruze, Acadia, and Tahoe Hybrid. Those who attended were able to test drive every model and see how each model handled when compared to the competition.
Hit the jump to read more about the Main Street in Motion event.
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In the corporate world, things run a bit differently than they do in normal life. Business executives are treated to private planes, expensive dinners and big offices. Not to mention massive bonuses. General Motors on the other hand, has taken things to the extreme.
GM is holding auctions in 14 different states to get rid of some old materials. The most recent auction happened last week and they’ve been taking place since September of 2009. What makes this story interesting is some of the various items that were up for auction, like an abandoned Indiana church and a New Jersey golf course. We can find you 1,000 companies that have private planes and large headquarters, but find us one with a church and a golf course.
The next auction will be held on November 4th at the Pontiac Assembly Plant, so if you’re in need of some random items, stop up and place your bids. Each winning entry will help GM address its $275 billion debt.
Sales might not be as good as they were once thought to be for the Detroit automakers. New documents uncovered by Automotive News shows that these sales figures were being inflated by sales to rental fleets.
Through July of this year, GM’s overall sales were up 13 percent and Chrysler wasn’t far behind with an 11 percent increase. Yet, take away fleet sales and the game changes.
According to the documents, GM has increased its fleet sales by 53 percent, or 400,000 units. Chrysler’s doubled with 242,000 vehicles. Once these figures are taken away from the overall company sales things begin to look different, as GM’s figure would be down 1 percent, while Chrysler’s sales would fall 19 percent.
Don’t think that these two are the only ones guilty. Ford is in this party as well. Chrysler is top of the charts with 39 percent of sales going to fleets, but Ford is a close second with 35 percent, while GM sells around 31 percent to rental companies.
“We all are — every one of the Big 3, even the imports,” Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said last month. “As new models start launching, you’ll start seeing an increasing share of retail.”
Not so Mr. Marchionne. Hyundai has only sold 16 percent of its total to fleet companies and Nissan is around 15 percent. Toyota has 9 percent of its total sales going to fleets, while Honda is at 2 percent.
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.
The other fast rises are Mazda, Hyundai, Suzuki, Kia, Mitsubishi, and Subaru.
Full story after the jump.
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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.
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