Category Archives: General Motors

2013 Buick Encore: A small package containing good things

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Okay, I was wrong. When I first saw the 2013 Buick Encore, I thought “Aztek,” as in the unlamented Pontiac crossover that was the subject of many Motor City jokes. General Motors’ marketing folks said the Encore was designed to attract younger buyers to the Buick marque and I posted a comment saying the only thing the Encore would attract was flies. After a week with the Encore, I am cheerfully munching my words: once inside, the little Buick crossover is a pretty nice place to be. And I am even getting used to the exterior styling. The Encore is a product of the cooperation of GM’s German subsidiary, Opel, and its Korean operations, formerly known as Daewoo. Across the Atlantic, it’s known as the Opel or Vauxhall Mokka, for the coffee bean, and it’s sold here and in China under the Buick name. The Mokka and Encore are very similar but, mercifully, the Mokka does without the fake Buick portholes on top of the hood. The Encore could get along just fine without them, too. When I first saw the Encore, I was surprised at just how small it really is. At 168.4 inches from bumper to bumper, it’s ten inches shorter than than a Honda CR-V and five inches shorter than a Chevrolet Sonic sedan. The Encore is built on GM’s Gamma II platform, the same one used for the Spark and Sonic. The platform is built up a bit to accommodate the Encore’s greater weight and the engineers did a good job of keeping most of the handling dynamics that make the Sonic such fun to drive. Power comes from GM’s 1.4-liter turbocharged 4-banger with variable valve timing, which is good for 138 horsepower and 148 lb-ft of torque. The engine is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission that allows manual selection of gears, to a point. This is the same engine/transmission combination found in the Sonic RS but now it has more than 300 additional pounds to move and it shows. A light foot on the accelerator will make you friends in school zones but nowhere else. Being a bit more assertive helps but 0-60 is still in the nine-second range which means look for long freeway on-ramps. Even navigating city streets requires frequent glances at the speedometer: the two main roads closest to my office have 45 mph speed limits and in the first couple of days with the Encore, I had to pay extra attention to keep up with traffic. Once on the highway, though, the Encore really surprises. Buick’s active noise-cancelling technology damps out most of the road and wind noise and the ride is comfortable without being mushy. You can feel the road but in a good way. On the 75 mph section of our evaluation route, the Encore cruised happily but passing required prior planning and a clear lane ahead. Of course, being relegated to racing snails for pink slips does provide a benefit: the 25 city, 33 highway, 28 combined fuel efficiency ratings are good for any crossover. One last quirk relating to the engine will be found when the hood is raised. For a moment, you wonder where the engine went and then you look down. The Encore doesn’t have an engine bay, it has an engine pit. There’s almost enough room to add a Hillborn fuel injector, complete with velocity stacks, without cutting a hole in the hood. The Encore’s cabin is well appointed and quite comfortable. Buick calls the Encore a premium subcompact crossover and the description fits. The leather-trimmed power front seats seats are firm and supportive and the brown, brown and more brown color scheme is well coordinated. The “wood” inserts add a nice, upscale touch to the ambiance. Fit and finish is good and the materials are pleasant to the touch. One omission that is rapidly becoming a pet peeve of mine is GM’s unwillingness to give the front-seat passenger a center armrest. There’s a decent fold-down armrest for the driver, but a premium anything should have some provision for the passenger, too. With the front seat adjusted for a six-footer, there was room in the back seat for my high school football player son to be comfortable. However, with both of us in front, the narrow cabin didn’t leave much shoulder room. Buick says the encore is a five-seater but the three in the back better be small children or those high-fashion models that weigh 25 pounds dripping wet. Better to consider it a comfortable conveyance for four. Being “length-challenged” creates another problem with the Encore: Space behind the second row of seats is limited to 18.8 cubic feet. That’s room for groceries and not much else. On the other hand, duffle bags can hold a tremendous amount and are more flexible than traditional suitcases. If just two are traveling, the second row of seats can be folded down, opening up nearly 49 cubic feet of space for luggage and the other accoutrements of a fun holiday. The controls are well laid out and GM’s infotainment system is easy to use. The seven-inch non-touch display screen actually rises above the dash; a good idea as it requires minimal eye movement away from the road. It’s especially nice when using the Encore’s rear-mounted camera while reversing. The controls mounted on the steering wheel are logical and their use quickly becomes intuitive. While I could wish for a bit more power, the Encore is nimble and comfortable and fits in even the most au courant parking space. In both in-town driving and highway cruising, the little crossover delivered the promised goods and lived up to its premium billing. Our review vehicle was loaded with about everything GM could throw at it but the specs of even the under-$25K base model make it well worth a look for those in the market for a smaller ute.

2013 Buick Encore w/Premium Group
Key Standard Features Dual-zone automatic climate control, cruise control, voice-activated intelliLink audio system with Bose speakers, USB port, Bluetooth connectivity, remote start, rearview camera, heated leather-trimmed steering wheel, leather seating with heated front seats, 6-way power front seats with manual recline, front and rear park assist, rain-sensing windshield wipers.
Base Price $28,190
18-inch Aluminum Wheels $995
Upgraded Audio/Navigation $795
Destination Charge $750
Sticker Price $30,730
Fuel Economy, City 25 mpg
Fuel Economy, Highway 33 mpg
Fuel Economy, Combined 28 mpg
NHTSA Safety Rating Five Stars Frontal Crash & Side Crash; Four Stars Rollover
IIHS Safety Rating Top Safety Pick
Why we’d buy it Small size, excellent amenities, quiet, good ride, surprisingly good handling.
Why we wouldn’t A little too small in the rear, engine needs another gerbil, silly faux portholes and other questionable styling cues.

GM taps Nissan for small van

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General Motors has inked a deal with Nissan for a small commercial van to be sold in the U.S. and Canada starting late next year.

The 2015 Chevrolet City Express will be cloned from Nissan’s NV200, which has been on sale in various world markets since 2009 and in the U.S. since earlier this year. If the name rings a bell, it might be because a passenger version of the NV200 was selected as the replacement for the Ford Crown Victoria as the next standard New York City taxicab.

Both vans will be built at the Nissan plant in Aguascaliente, Mexico.

“Our fleet customers have asked us for an entry in the commercial small van segment, so this addition to the Chevrolet portfolio will strengthen our position with fleets and our commercial customers,” said Ed Peper, GM’s U.S. v-p of Fleet and Commercial Sales.

While customers may have asked for a junior Chevy van, a more likely rationale for the Chevy-san is the success of Ford’s imported-from-Turkey Transit Connect, which has enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the segment with only minor competition from Chrysler’s Ram Cargo Van. Ford sold 35,216 Transit Connects in 2012. As of April this year, Transit Connect sales are up 27.6% while sales of GM’s full-size G-Series vans (Chevrolet Express and GMC Savanna) are down 6%.

In addition, Chrysler Group will start selling a Ram version of the Fiat Doblo, which is also built in Turkey, early next year, leaving GM as the sole Detroit automaker without an entry in the field. GM hasn’t had a small commercial van since the Astro was dropped in 2005.

The tie-up with Nissan seems unusual, considering that General Motors already has a small van, the Opel/Vauxhall Combo, which is sold in Europe and other markets. However, the Nissan van is already federalized, which will get the City Express to market more quickly and save GM the cost of certifying the Combo with the EPA. There’s also the potentially embarrassing fact the newest Combo is itself a clone: of the Fiat Doblo. Surprisingly, GM Korea (formerly Daewoo), which supplies the Spark and components for the the Sonic and Cruze, does not produce commercial vehicles.

Whatever the reason, Nissan is quite happy with the arrangement. Joe Castelli, Nissan v-p for commercial vehicles and fleet said, “Working with partners to expand markets for our innovative products enhances Nissan’s growth and manufacturing efficiency by leveraging our capacity to meet growing demand in this space.”

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GM buying shares from Treasury

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General Motors is going to leave U.S. taxpayers holding the bag for billions of dollars in loans that will be repaid at a fraction of the amount that was loaned.

GM announced it has an agreement to purchase 200 million of its stock from the U.S. treasury for $27.50/share for a total of $5.5 billion. While the price is about 7.9% higher than the current price, it would have had to be around $53.00/share or $10.6 billion for taxpayers to break even.

The Treasury will sell the rest of its holdings. 300 million shares, over a period of 12 to 15 months, depending on the market.

Treasury has also agreed to give up some of the governance rights included in the original secured credit agreement. While not specifically mentioned, the concessions likely include caps on executive compensation, which has been a sore point with GM management for some time.

“This announcement is an important step in bringing closure to the successful auto industry rescue, it further removes the perception of government ownership of GM among customers, and it demonstrates confidence in GM’s progress and our future,” said Dan Akerson, chairman and CEO of GM.

Dan Ammann, senior vice president and CFO added, “A fortress balance sheet has been a pillar of GM’s financial strategy and has enabled us to undertake today’s actions. GM’s balance sheet will remain very strong, with estimated liquidity of approximately $38 billion at the end of 2012, following the closing of the share buyback.”

“We come to work every day grateful that taxpayers from the US and Canada stepped forward to rescue our industry, and determined to show this extraordinary help was worth it,” Akerson said.

GM takes the wraps off new pickups

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General Motors has unveiled what might be its most important new product in years: the 2014 Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500 full-size pickups.

GM says the trucks are “new from hood to hitch” and are engineered to be fully competitive with pickups from Ford, Ram and Toyota.

The styling revisions are evolutionary with a more aggressive grille giving the truck a more massive appearance. But the big bucks, estimated to be between $3 billion and $4 billion, were spent on improvements underneath the sheet metal.

“Our customers rely on their trucks to meet the day-to-day challenges of earning a living, running a business and taking care of their families,” said Mark Reuss, president, GM North America, during the presentation. “Chevrolet is committed to giving truck customers the most-refined, best-engineered pickups in the market.”

Among the improvements are three new, naturally aspirated EcoTec3 engines, a 4.3-liter V-6, 5.3-liter V-8 and a 6.2-liter V-8, all of which have standard cylinder deactivation. Horsepower and torque figures weren’t released but the new engines are expected to be very capable: GM believes pickup customers prefer better performance to better fuel economy and isn’t going to try to match Ford’s EcoBoost engines.

All three engines will be matched to a six-speed automatic transmission. An eight-speed gearbox is scheduled to go into production in 2014.

GM’s slow-selling hybrid trucks will disappear with the introduction of the new series.

A nifty addition is the CornerStep bumper, a foothold stamped into the rear bumper. Combined with handholds built into the box rail protectors, the Cornerstep bumper makes it easier to access the box, which is a good thing as the top of the box is even higher than it is on the current models. The bed is also available with new upper tie-down hooks, under-rail light-emitting diode lighting, and an EZ Lift and Lower tailgate.

Buyers of the 2014 Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500 crew cab will be able to opt for a longer six-foot, six-inch box instead of the five-foot, eight-inch box. Extended cab trucks will offer only the six-foot, six-inch box while regular cab pickups will be available with the six-foot, six-inch box or the eight-foot bed.

New interiors feature a revised instrument panel and a six-gauge instrument cluster. GM says the controls are functional, logically placed and easily operated while wearing work gloves. The rear doors on extended-cab trucks are now hinged at the front and those on crew cabs are larger, making entry and exit easier.

Chevy and GMC will retain their steering-column-mounted shifters but add a tap-up/tap-down mode for those wanted to do their own shifting.

The bodies and frames have been improved with more high-strength steel in the bodies and hydroformed frame members. The chassis and body have been tweaked for a better ride and reduced wind noise. GM says millions of hours of computational time were used in the development of the new pickups.

The new Silverado and Sierra will go into production at GM plants in Flint, Michigan, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Silao, Mexico in the second quarter of 2013, starting with the crew cab. Extended and regular cab trucks will follow later in the year.

Pricing will be announced closer to start of sales.

The folks at General Motors say they have the truck that can outsell the F-Series. At the beginning of the unveil, Reuss said, “Our competitors may think they have smooth sailing ahead. But let me tell you, the weather is about to change.”

THe folks at General Motors clearly think they finally have the truck that can outsell the F-Series. The last time the Chevy outsold the Ford, Jimmy Carter was President and everyone was complaining about gas at 64 cents per gallon.

These trucks are vital to GM’s bottom line, bringing in as much as $10,000 to $12,000 profit each, depending on trim and options. However, GM has neglected the lines since the last overhaul for the 2007 model year. As a result, the GM pickups are now the oldest in the segment and have lost market share to Ford and Ram. From 2008 to the end of November 2012, the gap between Silverado sales and those of the Ford F-Series has more than quadrupled. The gap between the GMC Sierra and Ram pickup has also grown, nearly doubling since 2009.

Since brand loyalty in the pickup segment is higher than any other light vehicle segment, the new GM pickups should do well with current owners of GM light trucks. However, the lack of significant exterior change combined with the possibly risky call on fuel economy could hamper conquest sales to owners of other brands.

Ford has already announced plans to rain on GM’s parade and the official introductions of the new pickups at the North American International Auto Show next month. Ford will display a sneak peek at the 2015 Ford F-Series pickup, hoping to give the Ford faithful reason to hold on to their truck another year.

Furthermore, Ford has won high praise for its EcoBoost engine and the Ram’s Pentastar V-6 was a repeat winner in the Ward’s Auto best engine list. Even though gasoline prices have fallen significantly in recent weeks, nobody, especially fleet buyers, believe they will remain low. Chevy’s power vs. economy may play well among consumers, but it may hamper sales to the fleets that help truck makers roll up the big numbers.

In addition, GM will have just one model year to be the freshest face on the block. With the 2014 debut of the next generation F-Series, FOrd can play to its far larger base: since the pickup segment began to recover in 2010, Ford has sold nearly 120,000 more pickups than Chevrolet and GMC combined. The three-year gap between the Silverado and the F-series is over 537,000 units, which is more pickups than Chevy has sold in any year since 2007.

Of course, past performance is no guarantee of future results and GM has done well with its Cruze and otehr new cars, but it remains to be seen if GM is going to see a billion bucks worth of bang for its hefty investments.

GM partners with Apple for in-car connectivity

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At the LA Auto Show today, General Motors announced that Apple’s Siri soon will be able to ride in selected Chevrolet small cars.

Beginning in early 2013, Chevrolet Sparks in the 1LT and 2LT trim levels and Sonic LTZs and RSs will integrate Siri, Apple’s intelligent assistant into the compacts’ Chevrolet MyLink infotainment systems, allowing customers with compatible iPhones running iOS 6 to direct Siri to perform a number of tasks while the driver focuses on the road, reducing the potential for distracted driving, an activity the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says is responsible for thousands of deaths each year.

The latest upgrade to the iPhone’s software includes an “Eyes Free” mode that permits users to use their iPhone using only voice commands: the iPhone’s screen never lights up.

Set-up is simple: owners use the built-in Bluetooth to connect their iPhone with the MyLink system; pair the phone with the system and use the steering wheel-mounted voice activation button to have Siri make phone calls, play songs in the owner’s iTunes library and even switch from the car’s standard AM/FM/XM radio to iPhone mode. Siri can also access the owner’s calendar and add appointments, listen to, compose and send text messages to the owner’s contacts and answer simple questions, such as sports scores or the dates of holidays. To keep distraction at a minimum, Siri won’t answer questions that require displaying a web page.

“It says a lot about our commitment to small-car customers that Chevrolet has announced that Siri Eyes Free capability will be available in the Spark and Sonic well before the luxury brands,” said Cristi Landy, Chevrolet marketing director for small cars. “Safe, easy, reliable and portable connectivity is a top priority for our customers, and Siri complements MyLink’s existing capabilities to help deliver an incredible driving experience.”

Apple announced at last June’s Worldwide Developers Conference that it was working with several automakers to integrate its iPhone capabilities with in-car telematics systems to simplify and improve the safety of user connectivity. One of the advantages of the Eyes Free Siri integration is that implementation on both ends is entirely through software as part of the iOS 6 operating system upgrade that is already in use with the latest iPhones.

Mercedes-Benz will also use the Eyes Free Siri Integration on its new A-Class cars in Europe. Other automakers, including Chrysler, plan to add the Apple system to their own in-car telematics. The one holdout, according to sources, is Ford, which recently announced its commitment to its highly criticized SYNC, MyFordTouch and MyLincolnTouch systems developed in cooperation with Microsoft.