Autoblog

You know what they say: "Buy low and sell high." General Motors stock closed at $9.45 on September 30, which is 78% below its 52-week high of $43.20. That little piece of news, coupled with GM's enormous financial losses and declining sales, makes stock in the 100-year-old company sound like a bad bet, but employees don't agree. The low price of GM shares has lead workers to snatch up all available employee purchasable stock, which is capped by volume in the company's two 401(k) programs. As a result, GM employees can no longer buy stock in the automaker through the company. Because of the share freeze, GM executives are also not allowed to buy, sell or trade any of the company's stock during this time due to the Sarbanes Oxley act. To obtain more employee purchasable shares for its 401(k) program, GM has to register more shares with the SEC, which is expected to happen on November 9.

[Source: Detroit Free Press, Photo by jzakariya | CC2.0]

The Chevrolet Cruze is three kinds of car: small, American and important. And with the state of General Motors, it isn't even the individual words that mean the most: it's whether The General can combine them into a reliable, fuel efficient and cost effective package. True, we don't get to drive these things while they're parked under the lights, but to have a seat in the Cruze is to imagine a GM that begs the question, "Where was all this before the meltdown?" The studio imagery we've seen so far translates nicely into real life, and the center console looks and feels substantial – in fact, it looks like it could be foreign – even if the silver mesh treatment in the show car was a bit much. The car has a compact yet full-bodied stance, and will probably look even better on the road in a color other than scarlet, and not under klieg lights. Spring of '09 will welcome this first Cruze variant to Europe, after which other regions will get it, as well as a probable hatchback and wagon. It will be powered by a 1.4-liter turbo four-cylinder that charts up to 140 hp and is said to return 40 mpg. Have a look at the high-res gallery of live shots below to get a better idea of what to expect when the Cruze goes on sale here in a couple years.

At a press conference on Thursday, shortly after announcing plans for a new engine plant in Flint, Michigan, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner said his employer, "should be able to put to good use its portion of a $25 billion government loan package."

Wagoner goes on to say he's concerned about the details of the plan but hopes the package is expanded to include all gas-saving technologies, not just electric cars. Which is understandable, considering GM has already invested a great deal of money into the Volt and would logically welcome financial assistance in investigating other fuel-saving methods. Then again, the Volt may just yet turn out to be classified as an electric car by the EPA, as the California Air Resources Board just did.

Wagoner was also pleased to hear about the Senate's approval of a $7,500 tax credit for buyers of electric vehicles. The tax break is something the company has been lobbying for since May, and would certainly help to get the Volt's price tag closer to the original $30k estimate and hopefully allowing the General to sell the estimated 60,000 units we once heard.

[Source: The Associated Press via Yahoo Finance]

Everyone who has been waiting with bated breath for the past year and a half to see the production version of the Chevy Volt can now breathe a big sigh of relief. After some extremely unflattering press shots shots were accidentally released last week, people were extremely disappointed with what appeared to be little more than a Prius clone. Anyone who spends time photographing cars knows how hard it can be to make them look good and how easy it is to make them look really awful. Unfortunately, those shots that were unapproved and never supposed to be released anyway fell into the latter category.

The car that GM rolled out this morning as part of its centennial celebration in Detroit is a much more attractive machine that while different from the concept is still very attractive. Rather than the egg shape look we saw, it's actually much more like the car we saw in the Transformers 2 spy pics a few weeks back. The greenhouse is longer and the raked back windshield gives a very slick look. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the design is the black trim around the side windows. The thick black border along the lower edge is meant to recall the transparent beltline of the concept. It definitely works better in darker colors where there is less contrast. On the inside, a fully configurable LCD instrument cluster allows different drivers to select the gauges they want to see. Overall the design team appears to have created a car that while certainly more mainstream than the concept, is still recognizable as the Volt and something different from the Japanese brand hybrids.

UPDATE: More live shots are on their way. Wi-fi at the GM Renaissance Center is particularly bad this morning.

UPDATE 2: First gallery of live shots added below, and here are some live shots from autoblog china (Shanghai).

UPDATE 3: Video of the actual reveal added after the jump!

Credit Ford with a classy move yesterday when it strategically left the blinds open in certain offices at its World Headquarters in Dearborn. The effect was a building-sized birthday card congratulating its cross-town competitor, General Motors, on making it 100 years in the automotive business. Ford celebrated its centennial a few years back, so knows how much fun the big 1-0-0 can be. And though they're technically competitors in this grueling business, both Ford and GM often find themselves in the same boat when it comes to battling imports for market share, appealing to the federal government for loans and generally doing their best not to make Detroit an embarrassment. Did you know that GM almost bought Ford back in the day? The man responsible for making GM what it is today, Billy Durant, made Henry Ford an offer of $8 million to buy his six-year-old car company on October 5, 1909... and Ford accepted. Unfortunately, Ford demanded $2 million up front, preferably in gold, and Durant couldn't get the loan approved by New York banks. The two automakers' paths verged from there, but obviously never completely separated.

[Source: Ford]

Fresh from the news that Ford would be investing cash into its Canadian facilities, our friends north of the border got even more good news, this time from GM. The General is investing $290 million in all, including $245 million at its St. Catharines plant, which will make six-speed transmissions. The move will ensure the employment of the 300 workers at the facility. GM also plans to invest $40 million for environmental research at its Canadian engineering center in Oshawa. GM also announced that it would be building a hybrid vehicle at its Oshawa car plant at an undisclosed future date.

The Canadian government is showing its gratitude by not requiring early payment for $200 million in loans that is owed by the General. The loan was triggered early when GM announced the closure of its Oshawa truck plant, meaning the General wouldn't meet minimal employment targets.

[Source: Tradingmarkets]

Though its first official public debut isn't scheduled until early next week, the 2011 Chevy Volt has been introduced to the internet early courtesy of the The Car Connection, which published these apparently official pictures of the revolutionary series hybrid today. In the past few weeks we've seen official teasers shots of the car mixed with spy video taken on the set of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, all of which have only served to increase excitement ahead of the car's official debut next week. These pics give up the goods like no others, however, and show various GM execs and engineers directly responsible for its development posing alongside like proud papas. The list includes, in order, Tony Posawatz, Bob Lutz, Bob Boniface, Frank Weber, and Andrew Farah.

What we see is a vehicle about the size of the current Chevy Cobalt or next-gen Cruze with a very aerodynamic front end and high rear decklid. There are some futuristic design elements too, including the LED fog lights, black expanse beneath the windows and Volt badging attached to the sideview mirrors. Perhaps the most poignant pic of all is Lutz himself doing a double-handed lean on the production Volt, as GM's product czar has been the most visible figure during the car's very public development.

Check out all the pics in our gallery below and let us know what you think of the Volt's transfer from concept to production car in the comments.


[Source: GM, The Car Connection]

What's another $25 billion between friends? That's the argument General Motors, Chrysler and Ford's Congressional lobbyists will be making in the next few months for a $50 billion loan from the federal government.

Originally, Detroit's Big Three were after $25 billion in loans from the Feds, but after lawmakers authorized a loan in last year's energy bill, the domestics now want Congress to grant loans up to $50 billion over the next three years.

The loans would carry an interest rate of around four to five percent, with $25 billion being available in the first year, another $15 billion in the second year and the final $10 billion in the third.

GM, Ford and Chrysler contend that the low-interest loans would be used to build more fuel-efficient vehicles, including hybrids and electrics, thus reducing the U.S.'s dependency on foreign oil, not to mention making all three automakers more competitive in a market that no longer favors big trucks and SUVs.

Mark Fields, Ford's President of the Americas, likens the bailout loan to the recent financial support granted to Bears Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from the Feds, saying, "This is not about benefiting Wall Street. This is benefiting Main Street, the working men and women."

[Source: Detroit News]

Click above to view gallery of the production Chevy Volt

Excitement around the production version of the Chevy Volt is reaching a fever pitch. Last week we brought you spy video and images of what appeared to be a production Volt on the set of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, and while General Motors has since revealed that what we saw was not necessarily the series hybrid's final form (and that it was actually a rebodied, gas-powered Malibu), it nonetheless proved that the Volt's design is nearing the end of its gestation. Today GM revealed to Automotive News that the production Volt will, in fact, be unveiled this month as part of the automaker's 100-year anniversary celebration. The main events for the celebration are Monday, Sept. 15th and Tuesday, Sept. 16th, so we expect the car to be unveiled on one of those two days.

Ford Motor Company celebrated its centennial in 2003 and used the occasion to debut an equally exciting yet very different vehicle: the Ford GT. Fast forward five years and the hottest vehicle on everyone's mind is not a supercar, but a series hybrid. Times have certainly changed.


[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]

Click above for gallery of production pics of Chevy Volt

When the Chevy Volt goes on sale in late 2010, it may be joined shortly thereafter by other GM-branded series hybrids using the eFlex architecture. But after the General's bread-and-butter bow-tie division, which brands make the most sense to get their own Volt? We've already seen a Cadillac with underlying eFlex technology, and GM's luxury arm could charge higher prices to offset the cost of the expensive powertrain. After Cadillac, Saturn might be a good bet considering we've already seen an eFlex-based Saturn-branded FlexStream concept.

Susan Docherty, GM's North American vice president of Buick, Pontiac and GMC, thinks GM's driving excitement team is a natural fit for a Volt-like hybrid. Her reason is that the Pontiac brand can attract a younger crowd that readily accepts new technology and cutting-edge design. We're not so sure. If Pontiac is supposed to build excitement, how does that jive with a heavy battery pack in a car that's engineered to save fuel rather than go fast? Then again, nothing says instant torque quite like an electric vehicle. Dealers who bought into building combined Buick, Pontiac and GMC stores will want at least one vehicle in their showrooms based on the eFlex architecture, though, and Pontiac makes more sense than Buick or GMC.


[Source: Popular Mechanics]