Whitby This Week - The list of product debuts continues to grow for the 2009 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit as the world’s auto manufacturers and more than 6,000 international journalists are set to converge on Detroit this weekend.
Chevrolet and Kia are the latest automakers to reveal worldwide debuts for NAIAS 2009. […]
Posted on January 30th, 2009 by kburton
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The St. Catharines Standard by Glen Woodcock
There’s one thing I really admire about Chevrolet: it has a sense of tradition the other General Motors divisions seem to lack. Well, at least it does when it comes to naming its vehicles. Consider …
Gone are famous Cadillac names such as Deville and Eldorado, replaced by the likes […]
Posted on January 28th, 2009 by kburton
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The Calgary Sun by Wade Ozeroff
Swedish carmaker Saab remains the most European accent in General Motors’ plethora of brands in this country.
It exhibits exteriors distinctive enough to stand out among the field of similarly purposed entry-level luxury/family four-doors out there, and a cabin environment with just enough of a sculpted feel in the dash and […]
Posted on January 26th, 2009 by kburton
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Filed under: Hybrids/Alternative, Green, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, LLC., Dodge, Ford, GM, GMC, Honda, Nissan, Toyota
Despite all the clamor about how hybrids are going to save the planet, cure cancer, facilitate the second coming, etc., sales of battery-pack-mobiles are down nearly ten percent for 2008. At the beginning of 2008, it looked like hybrids were going to have their best year ever, driven by high fuel prices and a recessive economy. That recession, however,has caused consumers to cut way back, leading to dramatic drop in fuel prices, killing much of the argument for a hybrid’s price premium. Consumers shy away from hybrids when fuel dips below $3.50 per gallon, and the incessant clang of news stories about expensive fuel also dries up, causing the issue of fuel efficiency to fall from consciousness.
Toyota is still the hybrid sales king, with 241,000 units shifted in 2008. Honda managed to ring up 31,000 sales, and Ford came in third with nearly 20,000 vehicles sold. While nearly every automaker offering hybrids is down (Nissan actually saw a 5 percent increase, and General Motors garnered a whopping 179 percent jump thanks to its 2008 introductions), Ford was hardest hit, with a 22 percent drop. Some might say “we told you so” about the way things have played out - by the time everyone got on board with more efficient offerings, the bottom has fallen out of the price of fuel - and others might use the sales figures to agitate for a gas tax to stimulate the purchase of fuel efficient vehicles.
[Source: Auto News - sub req]
Hybrid sales slide 9.9% in 2008 originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 25 Jan 2009 16:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on January 25th, 2009 by Dan Roth
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Years after being promised smaller and more fuel-efficient cars the next generation of diminutive autos is finally on its way. But these new “small” cars aren’t as small as you might think. In order to provide a point of comparison, we’ve compared the length of these cars to a Ford Super Duty Crew Cab pickup […]
Posted on January 22nd, 2009 by kburton
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Filed under: Spy Photos, Crossovers/CUVs, GM, GMC
Judging by the looks of this prototype, plans for a GMC version of General Motors’ updated Theta platform are almost ready for prime-time.
Essentially the replacement for the Pontiac Torrent, this cladded-up GMC Terrain prototype reveals a masculine, blocky exterior with good differentiation between it and the forthcoming Chevrolet Equinox successor. A large, quadrangular shield grille stands proud while the blocky bumperette-style outcroppings in the corners give the crossover a bluff looking front end in a bid to reinforce GMC’s image as a truck brand. In profile, the crossover has strong, squared-off wheel arches and flares that alleviate its otherwise slab sides, and the rear tailgate area cribs its cues from the SUV playbook, including an upright rear window, matte lower cladding and large, high-set taillamps.
Like its platform-mate from Chevrolet, we expect to see the Terrain debut with a 2.4-liter Ecotec direct-injection four-cylinder (good for 182 horsepower and an EPA-pending fuel economy rating of 21 city miles-per-gallon city and 30 on the highway ), as well as a 3.0-liter direct-injection six-cylinder good for 255 hp and estimated 18/25 mpg.
Our spies at KGP Photography note that the Chicago Auto Show has been a common unveiling point for GMC in the past, and judging by the finished look of this tester, a rollout in The City of Big Shoulders seems quite likely.
Gallery: GMC Terrain - spy shots
[Photos: KGP Photography]
Spy Shots: GMC Terrain spotted looking all but production-ready originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on January 21st, 2009 by Chris Paukert
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Filed under: Auction Action, GMC
Back in the early ’90s, General Motors proved that it was capable of producing a vehicle that was fully competitive with the best supercars in the world, and it did so, oddly enough, with a compact pickup truck called the Syclone. Later, a midsize SUV bodyshell was used with the same powertrain, namely, a turbocharged and intercooled 4.3L V6 engine that sent power to all four wheels through an automatic transmission. Today at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, AZ, the General brought out the very last Typhoon ever produced in 1993, and it was joined by a 1991 GMC Syclone that was used as a pace truck in the PPG Race Series. First up was the Syclone, which sold for way more than we would have guessed at $66,000 after auction fees. As tempted as we were to bid on the Typhoon, our collective pocketbooks shook in fear as the bidding incrementally crept skyward before passing $40,000 and finally selling for a grand total of $52,800. See the official Barrett-Jackson description for both vehicles after the break.
Photos copyright (C)2009 Drew Phillips / Weblogs, Inc.
Continue reading Barrett-Jackson 2009: Final 1993 GMC Typhoon
Barrett-Jackson 2009: Final 1993 GMC Typhoon originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on January 17th, 2009 by Jeremy Korzeniewski
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Filed under: Trucks/Pickups, Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, GMC, Nissan, Toyota
As we all know by now, auto sales are down, dropping by around 18% in 2008. Pick-ups actually fared worse, posting a decline of 26.5% over the same period. Still, the Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado maintained their positions as the two best selling vehicles in the United States, and these two manufacturers managed to post incremental increases in total pick-up truck market share after all was said and done.
Those increases came directly from the competition, especially Dodge. The full-size Ram truck managed to see its piece of the pie dwindle by almost one full percentage point. Dodge’s drop in overall market share allowed Toyota, for the first time ever, to grab the bronze medal behind Ford and General Motors. However, it’s not particularly good news for the Japanese upstart, which owns just 8.52% of the market after seeing Tundra sales fall by over 30% in ‘08 and well short of its stated goal of 200,000 units per year. The last place trophy goes to Nissan, as its 34,000 sales represent a meager 2.11% of the market.
These market share figures include both full-sizers and their smaller brethren, and it was the Toyota Tacoma and the aging Ford Ranger that made the biggest upward moves among the mid-size pick-ups. Again, the biggest loser award goes to Dodge, which saw its Dakota sales fall nearly 65%, and its Mitsubishi Raider stablemate, which posted an insignificant 2,900 total sales.
[Source: PickupTrucks.com]
Toyota overtakes Dodge as third best-selling truckmaker in U.S. originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Posted on January 13th, 2009 by Jeremy Korzeniewski
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The Vancouver Province by Bob McHugh - In addition to being a clever name for a crossover vehicle, the Traverse is a ground-up crossover vehicle, according to Chevrolet. It’s not a car, not a wagon, not an SUV and not a minivan. Yet, to some degree it’s all of them as it can tow a […]
Posted on January 13th, 2009 by kburton
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Winnipeg Free Press by Ted Laturnus: In these days of escalating gas prices, peak oil, and tighter emissions requirements, automakers have to do the right thing — whether they want to or not — and there’s a large, green bandwagon in the industry that manufacturers ignore at their peril. More than ever, optics are everything.
Posted on January 10th, 2009 by kburton
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