Last month, General Motors announced a plan to introduce more than 20 new and refreshed models in China in 2019 to “maintain its growth momentum in the world’s largest vehicle market” and pump EVs into what is probably the most electric-friendly region on the planet.

GM appears to love China and not without good reason. As the automaker’s largest retail sales market since 2012, GM hasn’t been afraid to fully embrace it — at the expensive of looking like it’s playing favorites and putting its homeland in the doghouse. But is that what’s really happening, or does it just feel that way when an iconic American company starts playing patty cake with a foreign entity?   (Read More…)

Were it not for his Canadian place of birth, Cadillac President Steve Carlisle might make an ideal centrist presidential candidate. On paper, anyway. Mild-mannered and cautiously optimistic, not prone to exaggerated doomsaying, Carlisle would either be triumphantly swept into power, or creamed like a bushel of Iowa corn.

Well, he’s not running, though he is couching the importance of his brand’s product turnaround in less apocalyptic terms. Unlike, say, GM President Mark Reuss. (Read More…)

Today’s Rare Ride is a very limited production coupe from Brazil that appears to be very derivative in its styling. But what if that’s not the case at all?

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The Cadillac XT5, which happens to be a perfect all-weather urban vehicle, is a major breadwinner for the upscale brand. By far the best-selling vehicle in the Caddy stable, the XT5 midsize crossover out-volumes the bigger and pricier Escalade by a factor of two to one.

Unfortunately, it’s no longer the freshest face at the party. Cadillac’s smaller XT4 bowed last year and the larger XT6 dropped its towel in Detroit. Hoping to return some interest back to its midsize crossover (and have something to reveal in Chicago), Caddy gave the XT5 an emo makeover, launching the 2019 XT5 Sport package. It’s a “limited edition” package, Caddy claims, without offering a specific number. Could it be that it’s limited to the number of Sport packages GM can sell in 2019? Could be. (Read More…)

Despite a year-over-year sales drop in the fourth quarter of 2018, a higher average transaction price spurred by growth in high-margin vehicle sales in North America returned better than expected Q4 earnings for General Motors.

The company’s strong showing comes as its overseas ventures sank and headwinds gathered at home and abroad; mainly, predictions of a slower 2019. That’s GM’s outlook, too, which explains why CEO Mary Barra isn’t backpedaling on her plan to shutter five North American plants. (Read More…)

Today’s Buy/Drive/Burn brings three big and brawny American luxury coupes from 1963. You’ll have to burn one — no exceptions.

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Last Friday’s whisperings of a “Black Monday” panned out, with General Motors announcing the elimination of roughly 4,000 salaried workers — part of a preexisting pledge to reduce its North American workforce by 15 percent.

Pink slips are in the process of being handed out, an unwanted delivery that should take two weeks to complete. In total, GM hopes to cull 8,000 salaried workers and reduce its executive ranks by 25 percent. (Read More…)

There’s no love lost between General Motors and Canadian Detroit Three autoworkers union Unifor. The former plans to shutter the historic Oshawa Assembly plant in Ontario this year, the latter would prefer it didn’t. It would also prefer some product to build there.

Amid the turmoil surrounding GM’s wide-ranging cost-cutting efforts, Unifor released a commercial Sunday slamming GM for abandoning both its workforce and consumers. The title of the ad? “GM leaves Canadians Out In the Cold.”

GM’s message to Unifor? Cool it. (Read More…)

General Motors’ cost-cutting plan could hit home in a big way for salaried employees next week.

While the automaker has already begun cutting its salaried workforce, part of a broader streamlining push that includes plant closures and model discontinuations, sources claim Monday could bring widespread pink slip action. (Read More…)

Today’s edition of Buy/Drive/Burn was generated by a discussion over at the TTAC Slack room. The conversation turned to sporty midsize luxury sedans from 2014, and one staff member regarded one of these choices with a “meh.”

Let’s see how you feel about them.

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Maybe that headline’s too harsh, but have you seen a recent Cadillac commercial? If nothing comes to mind, that merely illustrates the brand’s problem. The bulk of its marketing efforts are, in this writer’s opinion, boring, forgettable, and uninspired. Just showing that a crossover can drive sedately down a dry, urban street isn’t enough to get audiences jazzed over a purchase. A Trabant can drive down a street and, yes, people can be merry and youthful inside it. (Odds are against it, but it could happen.)

Scroll down to see one of the brand’s latest, this one for its new XT4 compact. You won’t thank me.

Let’s face it — most of Cadillac’s ads could cure sleep apnea, leaving sufferers refreshed and alert the next morning. It was against this grim marketing backdrop that, while viewing a news spot from last night’s Great Lakes region snowstorm, I watched a random driver create the best ad Cadillac never paid for. (Read More…)

Julia Steyn, head of General Motors’ Maven mobility brand, is reportedly leaving the company. Stayn joined GM in 2012, starting out as the automaker’s vice president of corporate development and global mergers and acquisitions, then switching to the company’s urban mobility unit and Maven three years ago.

Maven, if you’re not aware, is a GM-owned car-sharing service that underwent an expansion last year, allowing owners of newer GM cars to rent out their vehicles to eligible users. The mobility experiment will have to continue with someone else at the helm. (Read More…)

Hardly a month goes by without a manufacturer expressing an interest in making an all-electric truck for the masses. Indie manufacturers like Bollinger and Rivian have lit a fire under the traditional automakers playing in this segment, with Ford confirming last week that it is planning an EV F-150.

Perhaps predictably, General Motors quickly jumped on the bandwagon after the Blue Oval news, with top brass uttering phrases about electrification as it relates to their line of pickup trucks.

Today’s truck shoppers shouldn’t put aside their purchase plans, though; it seems The General won’t be acting on these ideas anytime soon.

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Two days after blockading roads leading to General Motors’ Canadian headquarters, autoworkers union Unifor rolled out an invisible wall to be placed between Canadians and GM vehicles built south of the Rio Grande.

The union’s call to boycott Mexican-made GM products doesn’t come as a surprise; Unifor president Jerry Dias threatened it in the past as a way of prodding corporate bosses in Detroit to keep the century-old Oshawa, Ontario assembly plant open. With the union now escalating its protest action, the boycott call is out. GM Canada isn’t happy about it, claiming it will only end up hurting Canadian workers. (Read More…)

General Motors’ Spring Hill, Tennessee assembly complex has reason not to worry about the automaker’s current round of cost-cutting and plant mothballing. There’s not a car in sight.

On Thursday, the General forked over another $22 million to facilitate production of a thriftier version of its revered 6.2-liter V8 truck engine, which brings total investment in Spring Hill to over $2 billion this decade alone.  (Read More…)