Given the disparity between the U.S. and Canadian auto industries, it’s not surprising that Friday started with news of a shift dropped at Fiat Chrysler’s Windsor, Ontario minivan plant and ends with two more added at General Motors facilities just across the border.

GM said today that a shift each will be added to its two Lansing, Michigan assembly plants; one to support a brace of new sedans (this could be the last time anyone writes such a statement), the other to support — what else? — crossover production. (Read More…)

Mark this date on your calendar or, should you be so inclined, in your diary. Today — February 27th, 2020 — marks the end of the Chevrolet Impala.

Some 62 years after its launch, the last Impala sedan will roll off the line Thursday at General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, The Detroit News reports. A very different future awaits both the factory and the industry, and it seems cars like the Impala have no role to play in it.

It’s been a long time coming. (Read More…)

A Cadillac crossover that heralds a slew of other electric models will make its public debut in April, Cadillac executives told dealers on Monday. The meet-up, reported by Automotive News, comes as General Motors readies a surge of EVs over the next few years. Cadillac will play a major role in that product transition.

Per that same meeting, Cadillac’s dealer council has created a subcommittee made up of dealers and brand execs to help smooth the entry of gas-free product. (Read More…)

The news that General Motors will exile Holden to the Island of Lost Brands overshadows changes set to occur elsewhere in the world, all part of the automaker’s plan to cut costs via a streamlined global footprint.

China, despite its current problems, is still seen as a market with great growth potential, but the same can’t be said for another Asian nation. (Read More…)

A car brand that emerged from a saddlery company in 1908 will disappear from the Australian and New Zealand markets, General Motors announced late Sunday.

Parent of the Holden brand since 1931, GM said production would cease by the end of 2020, spelling the end of a marque that once fielded the powerful rear-drive Commodore sedan and Ute — the ANZAC version of the El Camino. (Read More…)

We’re not talking about a digital threat here; no, it’s more just one more headache caused by the viral outbreak rampaging through the Chinese manufacturing heartland — the source of so many components crucial to domestic auto production.

At General Motors, a supply chain disruption is the last thing the company needs after weathering an expensive 40-day strike at its U.S. plants last fall. The automaker is now attempting to allay fears of idled plants in the wake of an ominous social media post. (Read More…)

The GMC Hummer EV pickup due to arrive next year sounds like a beast, both in terms of size and power, but buyers will still have considerable choice. It has to be that way, what with the cash involved in retooling Detroit-Hamtramck and getting a fully electric truck off the ground.

It’s highly unlikely we’ll see a stripped-down Work Truck model with ironic hand-crank windows and a vinyl front bench, but there will be a selection of powertrains on tap. That’s according to General Motors President Mark Reuss. (Read More…)

The man behind a Chevrolet ad campaign that spawned a particularly hilarious, long-running spoof almost from day one has left the company, Automotive News reports.

Chevrolet ad chief Paul Edwards took a walk Thursday, with General Motors replacing the brand’s U.S. marketing VP with Steve Majoros, currently the bowtie’s director of cars and crossovers marketing. (Read More…)

General Motors is recalling around 128,500 vehicles in the United States over a previous fix that didn’t work as intended. The cars stem from a larger December callback that aimed, via a software flash, to mitigate braking problems on about 550,000 Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Cadillac CT6, and GMC Sierra 1500 models from 2019. GM says the solution created issues on about a third of them.

The problems are much the same as before. Affected vehicles may have serious braking issues and have their anti-lock braking system (ABS) and electronic stability control (ESC) fail. At least this time the computer will know enough to indicate a problem via the vehicle’s warning lights. In the previous recall, GM said the vehicles’ diagnostic system would not illuminate the instrument cluster to hint that something was amiss.

(Read More…)

Maybe Corey’s grandmother should have waited. As the Chicago Auto Show kicks off in the Windy City, General Motors unveiled a mid-cycle refresh of one of the most popular compact crossovers on the market.

For 2021, Chevrolet’s Equinox cosies up a little closer to its big brother, the Blazer, adopting a meaner-looking face and offering, for the first time, a sport-oriented RS variant. A CUV that’s lacked attitude since its inception now wears a snarl. (Read More…)

General Motors CEO Mary Barra went to New York on Wednesday to hold an investor conference. The day’s theme was: convincing everyone that GM deserves a higher valuation because, like Tesla, it’s supposed to be more than a car company.

While it seems slightly presumptuous for GM to expect the same overblown share price when Tesla probably doesn’t deserve it, either, the Good Book is supposed to say something about getting what you ask for. Still, having not read it in a while, I sincerely doubt it was referencing giant corporations or huge amounts of money.

Barra and company are attempting to show that GM hasn’t sat back on electrification and the same kind of advanced automotive technologies that wooed Tesla investors. Nobody said the rival automaker’s name during their speech, of course. Of course, they wouldn’t really need to, either.  (Read More…)

Widely regarded as one of the best— if not the best — hands-free driver-assist system in a still-small market, General Motors’ Super Cruise receives an upgrade this year, allowing drivers to change lanes by simply activating a turn signal.

The first models to gain the feature are the 2021 Cadillac Escalade revealed late Tuesday and Cadillac CT4 and CT5 sedans for the coming model year. The plan was always to filter Super Cruise through the GM stable, but the timeline was always hazy at best. Via GM President Mark Reuss, we now have a better idea of when semi-autonomous (and semi-autonomous only) driving will reach other models. (Read More…)

While the next-generation Cadillac Escalade debuts on Tuesday, the cover was pulled off early by automotive photographer Wilco Blok. The model has seen leaks before, helping to validate Blok’s image as authentic. That said, this is probably the best-quality photo we’re likely to see of the model before its official premiere just hours from now.

Visually, the 2021 Escalade maintains its familial resemblance to SUVs from GMC and Chevrolet sharing the same GMT1XX platform and has dramatically scaled back its reliance on bling. However, the de-chromed grille arguably makes it more difficult to tell apart from the Tahoe/Suburban and Yukon, which hardly seems like a wise marketing decision.  (Read More…)

Delayed by a prolonged UAW strike late last year, General Motors announced Monday that that series production of the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette C8 has begun. The very first mid-engine Stingray intended for the passenger market has left the retooled assembly line in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with many more to follow.

Everything you’ve seen up to this point was technically a pre-production model, though there shouldn’t be any big changes forcing you to cancel your order. It’s still powered by a naturally aspirated 6.2-liter V8 (495 hp, 470 lb-ft) and should run to 60 mph in under 3 seconds if you launch it carefully. Even if you aren’t enamored with the styling and prefer the front-engined C7, the C8 represents both a performance bargain and a major technological leap for the model. GM has teased mid-engined Corvettes for decades; now they’re real.  (Read More…)

Emojis have taken on a bizarre level of importance within the automotive industry. Last October, Jeep complained about how the symbol used for its name on iOS devices didn’t accurately represent the brand — and it was only a few months earlier that Ford was busy teasing the pickup emoji it had pending with the Unicode Consortium. There’s marketing potential here, and everyone wants to see it work to their benefit.

While Jeep convinced Apple to disassociate the Jeep name from the generic crossover emoji, Ford’s progress has been harder to measure. The automaker’s product communications lead, Mike Levine, tweeted the symbol’s arrival late last week, but it didn’t much resemble the emoji Ford submitted. People noticed. Instead of a simplified F-Series in blue, the Unicode Consortium opted for a red truck straight out of a children’s book.

It also didn’t escape the notice of General Motors, which quickly decided to use the opportunity to kick Ford while it was down.  (Read More…)