In an official statement made by American car manufacturer, General Motors Inc., the company states that they will cut in half the total number of automobile units and power plants used globally. This move by GM is said to be their solution to address their up and down ride in cost and product development problems.
According to the official statement, the number of GM automobile architecture will drop from 30 in 2010 to 14 in 2018. Their engine platforms will take a dive from 20 in 2009 to just 12 in 2018. Their long term goal is to make the engine platform figures to just 10. According to executives from General Motors, the number of unproductive development practices is causing them almost $1 billion annually. This is supported by the claim made by Senior Vice President, Mary Barra who confirmed that they lost almost $1 billion annually because of inefficient production practices and that they’ve been in an up-down cycle when it comes to product investment.
Barra added that the launch dates for the Buick Enclave, the GMC Acadia and the Chevrolet Traverse continue to take a drawback due to fluctuating financial conditions. Having common architectures will help the company take the product lines to the show rooms faster.
The press release also mentioned that the American brand will begin producing Cadillacs in China by the bulk late in 2012. Additionally, GM is will set up another assembly plant in Russia and about four more in China. Lastly, GM is said to be planning to debut about 16 new models in China in the span of five years.
German car manufacturer BMW is thinking of reconfiguring their strategy for naming their vehicles across all brand. This was according to the BMW marketing director during a recent interview in London.
BMW is foreseeing an evolution in terms naming the vehicles across the different brands. BMW has not revealed what the new smaller BMW model that will be positioned below the 1 Series will be called and so far the marketing department of BMW would not say a word. Director of marketing Ian Robertson though noted of the upcoming I models, and the Z, X, and M models. He added that a lot of numbers might be used in the future.
The naming of the cars for the Rolls Royce and the Mini can even get more complicated. Names that has already been copyrighted across the globe makes the situation even tougher. Robertson recalls his work with the Land Rover during which the company thought of giving the SUV the name Freestyle which can become Freelander for Europe and LR2 in the United States, but they found out that these names are already in use in different markets.
The marketing director of BMW did not give any hint of how the future Mini’s and Rolls Royces will be called but we think they will also be getting alpha numeric badges.
Different issues like copyright and the century long history of car production makes naming cars for different brands very difficult. We might see car names getting duller and boring as we go along.
J.D Power and Associates is an international marketing firm that specializes in surveys and studies for customer satisfaction. In a recently concluded J.D. Power survey about Chinese car consumers, the results show that European automobile brands are fast gaining popularity compared to domestic old-time favorite brands from Japan and South Korea.
The J.D. survey revealed that almost 32% of Chinese car consumers prefer to go after European brands. About 27% of the respondents involved in the survey expressed that they would go for a Japanese car brand like Toyota or Mitsubishi. The rate in the 2009 study was 32 percent. Furthermore, only 20% of the survey respondents revealed that they would patronize a Chinese brand.
The results of the J.D. survey suggest that Chinese consumers shift to European brands because of their high-tech transmission and engine technology as well as its topnotch quality and dependability. Moreover, the respondents added that strong verbal approval add to its appeal. The Audi A4L model has been regarded as the most wanted European model among Chinese consumers, along with the VW Tiguan as the most wanted SUV.
Sadly, Japanese brands have suffered low support from the Chinese consumers because of its lack of endorsements from families and friends who swear by them. However, the J.D. survey seems to have not mentioned American brands like General Motors Inc. which sold 2 million car units in 2010 alone. Popular GM models in China include the Chevy Cruze, Buick GL8 and the Chevy Sail.
Long time luxury car segment leader Lexus is outclassed by rivals Mercedes and BMW in terms of sales. Toyota’s luxury brand Lexus have been the annual top leader among the luxury car marques for eleven years.
The sales of Mercedes-Benz jumped by 11% or by 16,398 units compared to their last year’s numbers. BMW sprung by 21% or by as much as 15,905 vehicles. Lexus on the other hand fell by 17% or by 12,860 vehicles.
Lexus was able to protect its position last year and held off the two other rivals BMW and Mercedes to keep the top position in terms of sales in the Unite States. Lexus held the position for 11 years. The German brands have outpaced and outpositioned the Japanese Toyota unit with the X3 of BMW hitting the showrooms and the C-Class of Mercedes Benz getting a face lift.
The lead of Lexus is getting smaller with its 2009 19,473 units lead shrinkign to 9,216 last year. The sales of Lexus jumped 6.2% in 2010 or by around 229, 329 units while BMW’s numbers sprung by 12% or by as much as 220, 113 vehicles for 2010. Mercedes-Benz was able to achiev a 14% jump or 216,448 cars for 2010.
Lexus had a good push towards the end of 2010 to keep it afloat. The good race between the three luxury brands will impact the stats for the segment early this year. Lexus surely suffered from the recalls made by Toyota resulting to more incetive spendings for the company.
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General Motors Co. has included the standard warnings for present and future investors in its 734-page filing to go public. This includes the many risks that GM faces in the industry like the stability of its supply base, weak sales figures, and changes in regulations to name a few. Of course, the risks that GM has disclosed almost paint the picture that the American automaker might just face bankruptcy in a year’s time.
The 734-page file also includes the state in which senior management is being paid an uncompetitive salary because of the limitations that comes from the government’s aid to the GM. There is also the matter of unhealthy financial controls inside the company the negative effects of GM’s deflating dealer body to its market share and sales in the U.S.
According to GM, the sales and market share will suffer when they decide to let go of several brands and cut down their U.S. dealer network. In 2009, there were approximately 5,600 GM dealers in the U.S. In June 2010, the figure goes down to 5,200. The initial plan was to cut down the dealerships by 3,600 to 4,000 in the long run that in 2009, the automaker has ended their franchise deals with over 2,000 dealers. But the new federal law urged GM to revive at least 700 of these terminated dealerships while some were restored through government mandated negotiations. GM now plans to cut their US dealers to around 4,500 towards the end of this year.
We do not hear very often how the car manufacturers design the sound of their engine. BMW is among the leader in this technology and they coined theirs as Active Sound Design.
Mini gets an engine note to make its 4-cylinder diesel powerplant sound like a V8 muscle car. The engineers actually came up with four notes which are now being tested with a Mini and with a prototype BMW 635d.
The sound technology makes use of the vehicle’s own sound system to create a better driving experience. Drivers will perceive that the vehicle is performing better when compared to a same vehicle with the same specs but without the V8 sound technology. The sound technology feeds a generated sound through the cabin via the sound system of the car while also utilizing panels to lower the real sound of the car coming from its engine bay.
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All right people, you know that the Toyota recall is some of the biggest news to hit the auto market since – well, in a while right? People crashing into buildings, other cars and people just all around getting hurt. It is difficult to handle, but Toyota is doing an okay job … I think.
Right now however, there are many people that are actually filing lawsuits again Toyota to pay for things like – higher car insurance premiums because they crashed because of the fact that their gas pedal was stuck.
What do you guys think about this? For me – I think it’s a great idea. I mean honestly, I think that Toyota was stupid to not start the recall earlier.
If you have been following along with the General Motors news, you would have read that GM actually partnered with Chris Fesler’s custom car shop. Now though, we are finally able to reveal some of the pictures that have come out as a result of that partnership and I am proud to say that the 2010 Fesler-Moss Camaro is absolutely beautiful.
Not only is the 2010 Fesler-Moss Camaro available in two different flavors, but the overall appeal of this particular Camaro is incredible! Now – the first package is the Competition package and this has a $50,000 price tag but the upgrades like a supercharger and a six-piston brake system make it all the better!
If you are looking for another flavor of the 2010 Fesler-Moss Camaro, well, the Limited Edition package is just $150,000 and has everything!
Koenigsegg Group and General Motors have reached the final table deal with regard to the fate of the Saab. After twenty years of American ownership, Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg will have 100% control over the Saab brand.
The deal will be concluded after a few months and the Saab brand will know what lies ahead. Koenigsegg and GM will be handling necessary legal re-organization and discuss some closing conditions.
General Motors is expected to give transitional assistance for the operation of Saab. The Swedish government has also promised to inject some funding to the turnover.
For a certain time frame, Koenigsegg and GM will be sharing their services and technology guided by set agreements. The Swedish car maker plans to put into effect some solutions to revive Saab but it is a big job to prove for a company with only 50 employees that sell a number of $1 million cars annually.
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We all know that GM is changing the way that they think – they are changing the way that they do things and they are certainly changing the way that they truly act. While 2009 has been a very, very tough year for this particular auto group, they finally have some good news. The workers for GM have taken the hits the most it seems and now – finally, the Human Resources VP Mary Barra sent out an official missive telling that the 3 – 7% pay cuts that everyone was feeling have been restored.
This is huge – for everyone and as of September 1st, they finally are able to bring the funds back up and while the senior executives are not the ones that get to take advantage of this … well, the workers do. GM has actually saved $50 million dollars by giving those cuts during the last four months and right now – they are able to give it back.
To me, that is something that is really good for the blue collars, while the white collars might have to suffer a little bit – they don’t get to get their third car this year … big deal right?
In an official statement made by American car manufacturer, General Motors Inc., the company states that they will cut in half the total number of automobile units and power plants used globally. This move by GM is said to be their solution to address their up and down ride in cost and product development problems.
