Thanks to congressional arbitration, GM’s dealer cull has been steadily downsized since The General made the decision to axe nearly 2,000 dealers during last year’s bankruptcy. Going into bankruptcy, GM had about 6,000 dealers nationwide, and it culled nearly 2,00 of them in an attempt to lean out its distribution channels. But now the Detroit News reports that GM’s North American boss Mark Reuss has said that about half of those culled dealers will have been reinstated by this July, bringing GM’s dealer count back to the 5,000 ballpark.
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Posts By: Edward Niedermeyer
Why do drug smugglers use Chrysler’s patented Stow ‘N Go storage system to smuggle $100k worth of marijuana across the Mexican border? Because they can. Or, because Wieden + Kennedy have another Caravan ad to make. But this is hardly the most entertaining shot from the LA Times’ gallery of “Bizarre Border Busts” [Hat Tip: Richard Chen]. No, you’ll have to hit the jump for that one…
- 2000 Honda Insight 5MT CVT (49/61/53)
- 2010 Toyota Prius (51/48/50)
- 1986 Chevrolet Sprint ER 5MT (44/53/48)
- 1990-1994 Geo Metro XFI 5MT (43/52/47)
- 1986-87 Honda Civic Coupe HF 5MT (42/51/46)
- 1994-95 Honda Civic Hatchback VX 5MT (39/50/43)
- 2006-2010 Honda Civic Hybrid CVT (40/45/42)
- 2010 Honda Insight CVT (40/43/41)
- 2001-2003 Toyota Prius CVT (42/41/40)
- 1989 Chevrolet Sprint/Suzuki Swift 5MT (38/45/41)
Keep in mind that this list [via our pals at Autosavant] is for EPA ratings, adjusted to the new post-2008 methodology (city/hwy/combined). Luckily, the EPA also accepts real-world mileage submissions from citizen-motorists to help illustrate the whole “your mileage may vary” thing. That list is after the jump.
The National Academy of Science’s National Research Council has released a comprehensive report on fuel-saving technologies and their associated costs [full report available online here, summary in PDF format here], and it’s data-licious. Just about every currently-available (within the next five years) efficiency-improving technology was assessed, not just for efficiency gains, but for cost as well… but let’s wait on the cost part for just one moment. Above, you can see the study’s findings in regard to efficiency gain available through various near-term technologies, as applied to vehicles with 4, 6 and 8-cylinder engines. It should come as no surprise to find that conversion to Hybrids, diesels and dual-clutch or continuously-variable transmissions offer some of the greatest benefits… but what about those costs?
Now don’t get us wrong: we agree with the principle that there aren’t enough affordable options in the mid-engine sportscar segment. And we certainly admire Mr Chen Jinmiao’s attempt to build his own, despite his apparent lack of engineering education (“I downloaded the drawings from the internet, then bought the materials from the market”). But why, oh why, does the Daily Mail insist on framing the story in terms of Mr Chen’s lifelong love of Lamborghinis? Again, with all due respect to Mr Chen’s accomplishment, his “car” is to Lamborghini what this is to GMC.
TTAC Commenter Charles T writes in:
Any chance you could do $30-$40k entry-level luxury, ie BMW 3-series and everyone else gunning for a piece of that pie? For completeness sake, include cars that normally aren’t positioned against the 3-series despite being a similar price (Lexus ES and Lincoln MKZ, for example) just as a sense of their relative market sizes; I’d be curious to see how the sporty vs unsporty dichotomy plays out in the real world.
Why eat the poor when you can sell them cheap car that’s fun to drive? The current Suzuki Swift is widely considered a poor man’s MINI, delivering funky front-drive fun for much less cash than it’s Bavarian-British reference point. And with the next-generation (shown here testing at the ‘ring) said to be headed stateside, Suzuki’s probably hoping it will be the ticket to less-lilliputian sales numbers. Unfortunately the brand’s latest offering, the Kizashi, is averaging a mere 338 sales per month this year… so don’t hold your breath for a swift Suzuki revival just yet.
GM has announced a voluntary recall for 1.5m heated washer fluid modules due to a possible fire risk. According to the company’s press release,
Because the feature will be disabled, GM will make a voluntary payment of $100 to the owner or lessee of each vehicle.
This heated washer fluid unit was first recalled in August 2008, due to a short-circuit problem. GM became aware of another problem with the unit in June 2009, and has since become aware of five separate reports of fires caused by the unit. Hit the jump for a list of affected models.
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Well, it was no fluke. Wieden + Kennedy can sell the crap out of the Challenger. It’s just too bad that every time people see a Caliber, Avenger, Journey or Caravan, they say “Dude, I’d rather be abducted by terrorists than that thing.” Especially if they’ve taken the time to read what “those consumer review sites” think about them.
With a GM IPO in the fourth quarter of this year looking more likely than ever, GM has revealed just how much its top management stands to gain from the automaker’s post-bailout share offering. Based on trading of Motors Liquidation bonds, which GM will convert into stock and warrants, a JP Morgan Chase report pegs the company’s value at $70b. Based on yesterday’s bond trading prices, however, BusinessWeek estimates new GM’s value at $48b. With a float of 500m shares planned, that puts GM’s current stock price at about $96/share. With that in mind, let’s take a quick look at GM’s planned executive stock compensation.
Meet the Renault Vel Satis, erstwhile flagship of the Renault range. Dreamed up in the go-go ’90s for “non-conformist” customers who sought to “distance themselves from the traditional saloon,” the Vel Satis ended up being something of a whipping boy for styling critics. And why not? In retrospect, it’s hard to deny that the thing looks a bit like the love child of a Nissan Versa and a Cadillac DTS. And yes, it is the only car on earth that can make Nicolas Sarkozy look attractive by comparison. In fact, the most apt critique of the Vel Satis’s styling was probably Stephen Bayley’s assesment that it wasn’t quite ugly enough.
Wait, Steve Jobs is signing up for an EV at the rollout of the new iPhone? Is the zen master of Silicon Valley a Volt guy or a Leaf lover?
We like to think of TTAC as something of the thinking (wo)man’s car blog: sure, we’ll try to drive the hot cars, but we’ll be just as interested in their history, sales and cultural context as their 0-60 time. One of the ways we like to help contextualize these, the most emotional artifacts of our material culture, is by breaking them down into their unforgiving sales numbers. In addition to our now-normal monthly binge of sales graphs, we will try to bring you one graph per day, illustrating a previously unexplored view of the market for automobiles. Today, we start with Luxury Crossovers, a segment invented by its current chapion, the Lexus RX.
What will tomorrow’s Chart Of The Day be? Email us at editors@ttac.com, and let us know what models, segments or brands you want to see compared.
The New South Wales police, who enforce Australia’s “hoon laws” should be leading by example, and driving base-engine Corollas or Cruzes. Instead they went out an splurged on an Alfa-Romeo MiTo. Top Gear reckons the choice is “unimposing.” We call it cruel and unusual.
300 plus horsepower, mid-engine sportscars are a rare breed. It stands to reason then, that they should be reviewed by someone who can put them into their rarefied context. The kind of reviewer who can tell you the subtle handling differences between each generation of the 911, and whose keyboard is stained with the oil […]
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