Bailout Blues: Saturn leaving the Great White North

As the t's are crossed and i's are dotted on the deal to take Saturn off Government Motors' red-ink stained hands, GM Canada has confirmed that the new Saturn owners, U.S.-based Penske Automotive Group, aren't interested in selling the brand in Canada.

GM Canada told  The Crank, "it is expected that GM Canada’s Saturn retailers will cease operations on or before December 31, 2009."

Apparently, customer service, parts and warranty needs will transition to local GM dealerships. 

Penske says it can't make the numbers work on continuing to shill Saturns here. Under GM, only 18,729 Saturns were sold in Canada in 2008.

Under the Penske deal, the new Saturn will sell several GM-produced models through 2011. After that, it has to find new manufacturing partners.

So, another GM brand may be outta here. Do you care?

Are their any current Saturns that you will miss?

And as most of the Saab dealers are tied to Saturn shops, how do you think this will this affect Saab's status in Canada? Is it the next GM brand to disappear from the Great White North?

Or will Hummer — all but sold to a Chinese heavy equipment maker — be the next to vanish?

[Source: GM Canada]

2009 Frankfurt: Is the new 9-5 the car to save Saab?

Worn down by years of inattention from parent Government Motors, soon-to-be-sold-off Saab is in desperate need of a hit with its new 9-5 "flagship" sedan.

In the first six months of this year, globally, Saab built 9,061 9-5s—down 72.4 per cent from 2008.

So, as you can imagine, much is being made of the long-overdue 2010 update of the Swedish automaker’s 12-year-old 9-5 mid-size sedan, which Saab spat out some details of today before its official unveiling in Frankfurt next month.

Apparently, the 9-5 will be “the most technically advanced car it has made to date,” so says Saab.

Yet most of the noted features (head-up information display, Bi-Xenon adaptive headlights, adaptive cruise control, parking assistance and all-wheel-drive) competitors have been offering for years.

Sharing a longer wheelbase version of the GM platform that also underpins the Opel Insignia and forthcoming Buick Regal, at least the new 9-5 is going back to Saab’s traditional all-turbo engine lineup.

Said Saab Managing Director Jan-Ake Jonsson, “This car is the start of a new era for our brand,"

But hey: no pressure.

Despite all this new goodness, the 9-5 has some strikes against becoming Saab’s saving grace.

As customers move to value, 9-5’s mid-size luxury sedan segment is getting clobbered in this new economy. As well,  so-called “mainstream luxury” brands like Saab and its Acura, Infiniti, and Volvo rivals, are also been dropped by buyers.

So, over to you: Is  the new 9-5 the car to keep Saab alive?

Or are we watching the unveiling of potentially the last ever Saab flagship?

[Source: Automotive News]

2009 Frankfurt: Mini gets a haircut with new concept

Let’s see…It’s the 50th anniversary of the original British Mini debut today. And we’re weeks away from the Frankfurt show. And about the only type of vehicle parent BMW hasn’t put out there is an amphibious Mini.

Add it all up, and we have the long rumoured Mini Coupé Concept.

As if the Mini wasn’t a minimalist ride to begin with, the Coupé does away with rear seats, and a good chunk of whatever little rear cargo space it had from its squarish rear end.

From the waist down, it’s basically a Mini Convertible. But the Coupé gets a more inclined windshield, almost-flat back hatch, curvier roof and a more pronounced C-pillar.

The concept gets the top-line John Cooper Works mill—1.6-litre twin-scroll turbocharged four, with 211 hp and up to 206 lb-ft. But expect the full range available when it goes on sale. Maybe Spring 2011.

Looking at this latest Mini, I’m channeling early-nineties Honda CR-X.

But what do you think of the latest in Mini’s growing model lineup?

Does the non-Mini chop job to its roof work?

[Source: Mini]

Bailout Blues: GM can’t afford to throw out its Opel baby

So, the Who’s on First? Opel bidding war continues.

The latest has Government Motors refusing to explain the “why” it can’t make a decision between what the German government wants (Canadian Magna’s Russian-backed bid) and what the automaker wants (Belgian private equity RHJ International’s bid that would give GM more control in a new Opel.)

Now listen up. Your Canadian pride may be backing Magna (Way cool—Canada’s first modern automaker!!) But as a Canadian taxpayer now with a share of GM, you may want to start cheering for the RHJ guys.

Here’s why.

Just one look at GM’s current passenger car lineup will tell you why it can’t afford to lose control of Opel. Like Ford, GM relies heavily on its non-U.S. divisions for the development of anything other than pickups or SUV platforms.

Here’s the truth.

GM Asia (aka Daewoo) takes care of the subcompacts, i.e. Chevy Aveo and Spark.

GM Australia (aka Holden) takes care of its mainstream rear-drive platform, i.e. Chevy Camaro and dead-car walking Pontiac G8.

While GM Europe (aka Opel) is responsible for the meat-and-potatoes compacts, i.e. Chevy Cruize, Orlando, AND the vitally important mid-size FWD cars, i.e. Chevy Malibu, Buick Regal and Allure, Cadillac XTS.)

That’s why the thinking around the GM board table these days is not to throw out its Opel baby with the bankruptcy bathwater.

They only need to look across town in Detroit at Chrysler and see how losing control of mainstream passenger car development would be corporate suicide.

So say what you want about the strengths and weaknesses of the two remaining Opel bids, but my taxpayer money is behind the GM-backed RHJ gang.

Autopocalypse: Cash-for-clunkers conks out Monday. Then what?

Recession? What recession? According to some business writers, the worst economic downturn since World War II is over.

Hallelujah! And pass the profits.

And most of the credit (along with rebounding Asian and European markets and a weak U.S. greenback) is being put on a the manufacturing sector, specifically autos.

The U.S. Federal Reserve reports that production of “motor vehicles and parts” increased 20.1 per cent in July from June, after falling 69.6 per cent in the first quarter of the year.

But how long can that be sustained?

Since the automaker-formerly-known-as-General Motors introduced 0 per cent financing after the 911 tragedies, a good chunk of domestic new car sales have been done based on some kind of incentive.

This time, it’s the U.S. government’s $3,500 - $4.500 (US) cash-for-clunkers scrappage rebate program that’s sending new car buyers into showrooms, depleting inventories and prompting renewed activity at plants across North America, like the Chrysler’s Windsor and Government Motors Ingersoll, Ontario, plants which are adding shifts to meet the recent demand.

Trouble is, cash-for-clunkers is just a short term boost. Then what?

The Obama administration plans to cut off dealer funding for cash-for-clunkers program on Monday at 8 p.m. EDT, after finding that the $3 billion fund is drying up,

When the president signed off the bill in June, the budget was just $1 billion, with the expectation that it would last until the end of October this year.

So unless offered thousands in discounts, will new car buyers keep buying?

Can auto sales stay high without this free money on the hood?

[Source: Automotive News]

New Infiniti M's ghostly reveal

Why bother spending all that money making a real showcar?

That seems to be the question Nissan's premium Infiniti brand is asking. It's "virtual" introduction at last week's Pebble Beach auto orgy of its new mid-sized M sports sedan did away with anything attendees could actually get their hands on.

Taking it cues from last Spring's Essence showcar, the new M looks good.

But do you buy it?

Or do you need to see the real thing? Probably at next month's Frankfurt shindig?

[Source: Infiniti]

Autopocalypse: GM pulls the plug on its Buick plug-in

Well. So much for that.

You may have missed it during Government Motors'  230 MPG or bust Volt PR circus last week.

But among the wave of new 2010 – 2012 products it promised was the stillborn 2010 Saturn Vue Plug-in Hybrid, (literally) rebadged as a Buick, right.

No one was really fooled. The vehicle quickly became facetiously known as the Vue-ick. And apparently GM was listening to the moaning.

So in a quick about face (that must be a record between a new model being announced and then being canned), GM’s decided to, well, pull the plug on the Buick plug-in.

From GM U.S. spokesguy Tom Stephens on the automaker’s Fastlane blog:

The Buick crossover we showed received consistent feedback from large parts of all the audiences that it didn’t fit the premium characteristics that customers have come to expect from Buick.

Stephens also wanted to make clear the plug-in technology isn’t dead. It just needs a proper home:

[this] is not the smaller Buick crossover we showed that was playfully referred to as “the baby Enclave.” That vehicle did very well and remains in the lineup.

Then Stephens opened the kimono on the “new” way GM is doing is business:

What gives me pause is how quickly we made a decision and carried it out. In the past this would have been a several-month process involving meeting after meeting of the APB, ASB, and various other acronyms, and also many “offline” follow-up discussions before a decision was reached and enacted. This happened in one day.

 

So there you have it. GM looks like it will stop trying to fool most of the people some of the time.

But in this case, does GM need to grow a thicker skin?

Has it overacted? Do you care what the badge on the grille is, as long as another fuel-sipping vehicle comes to market?

Or perhaps more importantly, should the Vue-ick have never seen the light of day in the first place?

[Source: GM’s Fastlane Blog]

Autopocalypse: A tale of two flagships

Two different automakers announced plans for their respectively new flagship sedans. And the details are telling of not only the two automakers, but also just who may be the winners and losers once we move out of today’s Autopocalypse.

There was more this week from Government Motors’ future product press day than a 230 MPG Volt banner.

One future product that was relatively overlooked was the announcement of Cadillac’s new full-size  flagship sedan, tentatively named the XTS, set to arrive in 2012. Looked at more closely—as the top product in GM’s top brand portfolio—it’s an interesting example of how little the “new” GM is from the “old” GM.

Now, let’s get a couple of things straight: In the “new” leaner an meaner GM, Cadillac is now supposed to have the resources to take on true luxury brands, like BMW, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

So one may think that one of Cadillac’s first missions is to establish a credible flagship sedan, instead of its currently decrepit (it’s based on GM’s K-platform that’s been used for front-wheel-drive Cadillacs since in 1980) DTS. You know, to take on rival rear-driver flagships, like the BMW 7 Series, Mercedes S Class, Lexus LS 460 or Audi A8 (with their eight- and twelve-cylinder engines.)

But no. Instead we learned that the Caddy “flagship” XTS will share underpinnings with the new 2010 front wheel-drive mid-size Buick Allure.

Meh…

Apparently, the XTS will be wider and longer than the Allure, (about the same size of the mid-size Mercedes E Class) with front- and all-wheel-drive—and get this—four- and six-cylinder engines.

Oy vey…

So that’s GM’s idea of a top dog sedan? A car that may (may) put the fear of God in Lincoln MKS owners? I mean, please, tell me: How is this any different than the GM of the past 25 years?

Now here’s where it gets interesting: the other automaker to announce a new flagship was none other than upstart Hyundai. And the contrast with GM’s lame efforts is telling of the future of the car industry.

The as-yet-unnamed sedan was quietly shown last spring at the New York auto show as the Korean-market Equus (see above video). It’s REAR-DRIVE architecture is based on the critically acclaimed Genesis sedan and Coupe. But bigger—more in size with those above mentioned Teutonic rivals. And tens of thousands of dollars less to buy.

We don’t have final North American specs or name. But let's just say, Hyundai don’t need no steenking little fours or sixes. Instead the NY show car had two available VEE-EIGHTS: the 4.6 unit from the Genesis, and a bigger version clocking in at an even 5.0-litres with “around” 420 hp.

And unlike the Caddy flagship, we won’t have to wait for a couple of years for the Hyundai.

It’s set to go on sale here LATE NEXT YEAR.

Now, for all you Ontario tax payers (i.e. GM shareholders), I have one question: Which automaker would you rather have your money tied up with?

Volt's 230 MPG claim already being called to the mat

Well that didn’t last long.

Government Motors’ outrageous claim that its 2010 Chevy Volt will get an EPA city rating of 230 MPG is already taking it on the chin from a credibility standpoint, only hours after the press conference was held this morning.

Now, instead of a positive distraction from the automaker’s ongoing struggles (you know, that bankruptcy thing), the 230 MPG campaign may turn into a PR train wreck:

• Details, details. When Green Car Advisor asked for confirmation of GM’s 230 MPG number, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued the following statement:

"EPA has not tested a Chevy Volt and therefore cannot confirm the fuel economy values claimed by GM.  EPA does applaud GM's commitment to designing and building the car of the future—an American-made car that will save families money, significantly reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create good-paying American jobs. We're proud to see American companies and American workers leading the world in the clean energy innovations that will shape the 21st century economy."

If you can ignore the American jingoism, translated, don’t expect the Volt to get anywhere near the 230 MPG unless driven by a GM engineer.

• 230 MPG? Big deal! NissanEVs Twitter account took the time to steal some of GM’s thunder with its own outladish claims for its Leaf EV (see video below) coming next year as well:

Nissan Leaf = 367 mpg, no tailpipe, and no gas required. Oh yeah, and it'll be affordable too!

Instead of posting a believable number, say 100 MPG, desperate for a “game changer”, GM's Fritz & Co. (above) had to do a moon shot of a PR move.

Not very smart.

What was GM thinking? That no one would challenge them on this?

[Sources: Green Car Advisor, NissanEVSonTwitter]

GM says Volt will get 230 MPG rating. Seriously...

Lock this down in your memory banks: 230 MPG.

That’s the EPA city fuel mileage the 2011 Chevrolet Volt will get when it goes on sale next year, according to an announcement this morning from Government Motors CEO Fritz “The Cat” Henderson, just one month after the automaker emerged form U.S. bankruptcy protection.

If the 230 MPG (BTW, for all you imperialists out there, that's in American gallons) number sounds outrageous, it is.

That’s about four times better than the new 2010 Toyota Prius. And it means the Volt is the first car on the planet to obtain a triple digit fuel economy rating.

While conspiracy theorists might say the Environmental Protection Agency and GM are both U.S. government agencies (nudge-nudge, wink-wink), GM estimated the Volt’s 230 number based on a new EPA methodology for determining a draft fuel economy standard for extended-range EVs like the Volt—which, right now, is the only vehicle of its kind.

(You can plug the Volt in to recharge the batteries. When the batteries die—which GM claims is in the 64 km range—the Volt’s tiny gas engine kick in to charge the batteries as you continue to drive.)

We’re all are aware of the “your mileage will suck” caveats.

And I’m sure when leadfoot journalists get hold of production Volts next year, we won’t see anything close to 230 MPG.

But will the “230” number come back to haunt the automaker?

Is this a huge marketing coup for GM, or just a desperate PR stunt to show some sign of life?

If this was Toyota, would the claim be more credible?