Flybrian

The Magnum's survival means the G8 estate's arrival, so I hope it keeps living.

Because most buyers in this segment don't get V6s much less navigation systems and Bluetooth. I guess there's a more rational aspect in us realizing that. Would it be nice to have both? Certainly. It would also be nice to have an 8-way passenger seat, Rainsense, EyeCue, and a price of $9,999 but it won't happen. Saturn and Buick? Both are more necessities than in a Malibu, IMO.

I was just thinking that myself since there is no Delta II production slated for NA aside from the specialty Volt.

Are 'canisters' stricitly a diesel thing or are they used in modern gasoline engines too?

It sure does!

Gen V 6.2l DOHC V8 to Power C3XX Fullsize Pickups Second United Auto Workers Agreement Reveals General Motors' Potential Future Truck Plans By: Mike Levine Posted: 10-01-07 12:30 PT | Link to Original Article @ PickupTruck.com A document found online (using Google) at the Future of the Union website suggests that General Motors is preparing to substantially overhaul the engine lineup used in its next generation full size trucks. Future of the Union has published an internal memorandum of understanding that contains detailed information about contract negotiations that took place in June 2007 among the United Auto Worker (UAW) union, General Motors (GM), and GM’s largest supplier, Delphi. The document contains GM’s future product commitments to UAW-represented employees at Delphi, similar to the future product timelines that emerged from the recent strike settlement contract between GM and the UAW. Most notable are the powertrain components that Delphi is expected to supply for use in the C3XX truck program, starting in 2011. The C3XX platform will replace the current GMT 900 architecture that underpins the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full size pickups. According to the document, C3XX pickups will feature a new 'Gen V' 6.2-liter dual overhead cam (DOHC) V8 engine - a major departure from GM's traditional overhead valve (OHV) pushrod engine design used in its trucks, like the ‘Gen IV’ 403-horsepower / 417 lb-feet L92 6.2-liter V8 under the hood of the GMC Sierra Denali. The only DOHC V8 GM currently offers is Cadillac’s 320-hp / 310 lb-ft 4.6-liter Northstar engine. The Gen V 6.2 motor will use variable valve timing (VVT) like the Gen IV 6.2, but the use of dual overhead cams holds the promise of four valves per cylinder instead of the current two valves, for better intake and exhaust flow and increased power. This is a similar setup to the 5.7-liter i-Force V8 used in the Toyota Tundra, but the Gen V 6.2 will also offer GM's active fuel management (AFM) system. AFM shuts down half the cylinders during steady state running for improved fuel economy – a feature not currently available for the i-Force. Up until this point, it’s been conventional wisdom that implementing cylinder deactivation on OHC engines is impractical for reasons of cost and complexity. Pushrod engines won’t be disappearing entirely from GM’s truck line. A new ‘Gen V’ OHV V8 will replace the current 320-hp / 340 lb-feet 5.3-liter V8. Apparently the final displacement hasn’t been determined yet, because it’s referred to as 5X. The new 5X gasoline engine will feature spark ignition direct injection (SIDI), like a diesel. SIDI places the fuel injector right inside the combustion chamber, so fuel can be directly mixed with air entering the chamber during the intake stroke instead of before it enters the chamber, like in a conventional multi-port fuel injected gas engine. This approach enables a leaner burn of the fuel at higher compression ratios than current gas engines, resulting in greater fuel economy, cleaner emissions, and more power. Initial production of both engines is slated to start in 2011 with full production in 2012. Of course, it's possible that because this information is still approximately three years out in time, plans detailed in this document for the full size truck powertrains could still change. Contacted for comment, a GM spokesperson told PickupTruck.com that GM doesn't make statements about documents like this. There was no phone number or names listed to contact the Future of the Union website for comment.

If you visit the Cheers and Gears homepage often - and you should because its updated frequently, contains lots of features, and all the cool members are doing it - you've hopefully noticed a new Hot Topic box underneath The Competition entitled Hot Topics: The Industry. Be sure to scroll down a little further from now on and check out the latest topics concerning the automotive industry! As always, if you have any other comments, suggestions, or things you'd like to see added to C&G, let us know anytime!

SAAB 9-1 Hybrid Available From Day One Delta II first GM platform designed to accomodate hybird from the start Link to Original Article @ TrollhattenSAAB According to information from GM, the new Saab 9-1 will be available as a hybrid from day one. The new smaller Saab goes into production after 2010. Saab in Trollhättan now wants all GM hybrid cars in Europe. According to auto industry paper Automobilwoche, GM’s new Delta platform is being developed to accept a hybrid powertrain. The paper cites sources inside GM who state that both Opel Astra and Saab 9-1 from day one will be available as hybrids. This is especially important for the US market, where Saab is marketed under it’s own brand name while Opel Astra is marketed within the Saturn brand. The Trollhättan plant is one of four plants in Europe to produce the smaller GM cars developed on the Delta platform. The others are located in the UK, Germany and Poland. GM has decided to invest about 4 billion USD to adapt the plants for the new platform. There is no information yet about the breakdown of the investment between the factories, but either way most of it will be used to make production of hybrids possible. There is a big difference between a hybrid powertrain and powertrain with a more common engine. The batteries are one such thing. The Trollhättan plant will not only build the Saab 9-1 on the Delta platform, and the people at Saab have their sights set on the hybrids. “We would love to take on the whole production of GM’s new hybrids in Europe,” said Stig Nordin, then Executive Director Technical Development, Saab Automobile, in an interview with Ny Teknik earlier this year. “Our strength is the flexibility. The engineers in Trollhättan have contributed with several key technologies in the development of the Delta platform’s hybrid capabilities.” For some time now, there has been a mock-up of a lightly disguised Opel Astra hybrid at Saab’s hybrid center in Trollhättan. There, engineers have tried to fit the technology in the car. Thought has also gone into how the car will be produced. “Our production line can easily adjust to hybrid cars,” says Stig Nordin. “We have the knowledge and the capacity to do it. In a long-term perspective, I can see Trollhättan as a pure hybrid plant.” The Delta platform is the first one that from the start has been developed for a hybrid powertrain with a compact combustion engine and a powerful electric engine. The developers target a modular construction, where the the combustion engine can be a diesel, petrol or ethanol engine depending on the market. The electric motor is used when starting the car and in acceleration. Saab has also developed an extra motor for the rear axle as an option for those who want some more power. To store the energy, lithium-ion batteries using nano phosphors technology are used. They are more durable and fireproof than “ordinary” lithium-ion batteries. A few days ago, Stig Nordin left Saab for a top position at the Italian auto maker Iveco. His successor is yet to be announced. But according to Christer Nilsson, Press Relations Manager at Saab Automobile, the work with hybrid technology continues in Trollhättan. “Absolutely. Saab and turbo and hybrids belongs together, and that is something you will see a lot of in the future."

Once Again We’re Driving What’s Not Made Here By LOUIS UCHITELLE | September 30, 2007 | Link to Original Article @ New York Times NOW that the Big Three automakers are shrinking their labor costs — removing what they have so frequently described as the biggest obstacle to selling more cars in this country — they should be able to regain market share. Right? Well, not exactly. The game has changed. The foreign companies against whom the Big Three compete are selling more and more cars that are not made at their factories in the United States, making labor costs here less important. They are importing again — in fact, quietly importing almost as many cars as they did in the 1980’s when Japanese vehicles flooded the market, provoking an outcry, and also import quotas. Back then, the Japanese responded by putting factories in the United States. “Transplants,” they were called. So did the Germans and other Europeans and, most recently, the South Koreans. They are all still building factories here, expanding “domestic” production and paying their nonunion labor $25 to $30 an hour less in wages and benefits than the Big Three’s workers. The Big Three for years have blamed that cost disadvantage for their sinking market share in the United States. Their cars were too expensive to make, they said. The tentative contract that General Motors negotiated with the United Auto Workers last week would lower the cost spread by shifting retiree health insurance obligations to a stand-alone trust fund administered by the U.A.W. and by lowering the wage scale for new hires. But imports are once again rising, and the message is that shrinking labor costs within the United States won’t be enough. In a global economy, there are too many ways to gain market share. Marketing Toyota’s hybrid Prius, made only in Japan, as a fuel-efficient, ecologically friendly vehicle is one example. “I don’t think anyone at Ford, Chrysler or General Motors believes their own rhetoric that they are going to gain market share just by reducing their labor costs,” said Daniel Luria, an economist at the Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. “What they are trying to do is reduce their labor costs in a new U.A.W. contract while at the same time import more cars” — but their own. The foreign auto companies are already well ahead on that score. Imported vehicles — coming now especially from Japan, Germany and South Korea — accounted for 23.4 percent of the vehicles sold in the United States this year through August, according to a compilation of government data by Moody’s Economy.com. That has risen gradually from 11 percent in 1996. The numbers don’t include imports from Mexico and Canada, considered part of the domestic North American market. Even so, the import share is approaching the high of 27 percent in 1987. But this time, in sharp contrast to the Japan bashing of the Reagan years, there is silence. “When you get outside Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, I don’t think there is any real view anymore of what is American and what isn’t,” Mr. Luria said. “Most people would say that most Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans are made here. The idea that the Big Three are American and the others are foreign, that is less and less meaningful.” The Big Three seem to be absorbing that view. They struggled in the 1980s to get the foreign manufacturers to locate in the United States, thinking initially that it would be easier to compete with them here. But now Chrysler and General Motors are already either importing vehicles from Europe, China and Australia for sale as American models, or arranging to do so, making labor costs at home less relevant. Such trends do not sit well with Alan Tonelson, a research fellow at the United States Business and Industry Council, which favors tariffs. He argues that the Big Three lift the rest of the national economy more than the transplants do. Specifically, he says, nearly every study shows that vehicles manufactured here by G.M., Ford and Chrysler contain a “considerably higher” percentage of American-made parts than cars rolling off the lines at the transplants. Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, is also vexed. Citing Census Bureau data and his staff’s calculations, Mr. Levin argues that “immense barriers” erected by Japan and South Korea keep down vehicle exports from the United States to those countries. Car, truck and parts imports from Japan, for example, reached $60.2 billion last year, he said, while similar exports to Japan from the United States were a tiny $2.3 billion. He put the Korean imbalance at $12.4 billion versus $751 million. “What we should do with Korea is insist that the free trade agreement guarantees openness in their markets,” he said of the pact signed by the countries last June and now before Congress. “This agreement does not do that.” Apart from trade issues, other factors are lifting vehicle imports. The Japanese are the leaders at making smaller, fuel-efficient cars in their home factories — and that is paying off at a moment when $3-a-gallon gasoline is raising the popularity of such cars here. Some argue that the rise in imports, especially small cars, is a natural market response to that demand. “The transplants are generally large-car plants,” said James Doyle, president of Level Field Institute, a research group partly financed by American automakers. “So even a Toyota or Hyundai can’t make small cars profitably in the United States.” Largly because of the Prius, Toyota is turning out to be the biggest single importer so far this year, accounting for roughly one in every five vehicles coming into the country. Although the Japanese company is adding factories in the United States, 45.7 percent of its vehicles sold here through August were imported, up from 40 percent in 2003. Trina Ewald, a spokeswoman for Toyota Motors North America, says the company has no choice. “We are operating our North American plants at full capacity,” she said. “We are building as many vehicles as we can locally.” That is not true in Japan, where Toyota and other auto manufacturers have built new factories, only to find that domestic sales are not enough to keep them operating at full capacity. Exports have helped to do this. So has the weak yen — weak for most of this decade, reducing the cost of production, measured in dollars, and thus the profitability of exports to the United States.

GM to Build New Chevy in Tennessee Jamie LaReau and David Barkholz | Automotive News | October 1, 2007 DETROIT — General Motors will build a new mid-sized Chevrolet crossover at its Spring Hill, Tenn., plan beginning early next year. The vehicle, to be called Traverse, will arrive in showrooms as a 2009 model, sources say. The Traverse will be based on GM's Lambda architecture, which is used for the GMC Acadia, Saturn Outlook and the Buick Enclave. Those three crossovers are assembled at GM's plant in Delta Township, Mich. United Auto Workers and management officials have told Spring Hill workers that the new Chevy will be priced about $10,000 below the Enclave. The Enclave starts at $32,790, including shipping. The Chevy crossover is expected to target Chevrolet TrailBlazer and minivan owners. GM is phasing out the TrailBlazer and minivan sales continue to decline. “We need it, we need it desperately,” said a large Chevrolet dealer who asked not to be named. “We don't have a van right now, the closest we have to it is the TrailBlazer, so we're losing a lot of business because of it. The crossover is a very popular segment right now.” The dealer said Chevy wants capacity for 250,000 crossovers annually. Spring Hill, where the Saturn Vue crossover was produced, has been down for retooling since April. It is set to re-open in January. An engine plant on site continues to operate.

Auto sales are expected to slide September another weak month in what could be the most sluggish year for sales since 1998 Dee-Ann Durbin | Associated Press | Link to Original Article @ DetNews DETROIT -- September auto sales are expected to be weak because of a credit crunch, high gas prices and the troubled housing market, reflecting an overall slowdown for the year but little effect from the brief strike against General Motors, industry analysts say. Indeed, the impact of the two-day strike could be small in what could become the most sluggish year for sales since 1998, according to industry experts. Jesse Toprak, chief economist for the auto information site Edmunds.com, predicts Honda Motor Co. will be the only automaker to report an increase in sales, helped by the arrival of the new 2008 Honda Accord. Automakers are scheduled to report September sales Tuesday. "No one is immune to this general weakness we have in the marketplace," Toprak said. Auto sales will probably be down 4 percent compared to last September, JPMorgan auto analyst Himanshu Patel said. Patel predicts Ford Motor Co. will be among the weakest performers, with double-digit declines from last September, as the automaker cut back on incentives as well as sales to rental car companies. Patel said GM should be flat while Chrysler LLC will also see some declines. Ford's continuing slide in U.S. market share should be a source of concern for investors, Lehman Brothers analyst Brian Johnson said. Johnson said Ford's retail sales -- which don't include sales to rental, government or corporate fleets -- are down about 10 percent for the year, as Ford's aging F-150 faced increasing competition from newly redesigned GM pickups, the new Toyota Tundra and high incentive spending on the Dodge Ram. The success of Ford's crossovers are also eating into sales of its mid-size sport utility vehicles, Johnson said. "We believe that Ford will continue to suffer severe market share loss next year, as a result of sharply increased competition for some of Ford's key large trucks and the company pulling away from models oriented towards fleet," Johnson said in a recent note to investors. After a slight uptick in August sales, September will fall back into the sluggish pace the industry saw in June and July. Patel forecast an annualized selling rate of 15.9 million vehicles in September. The rate shows what sales would be if they continued at the same pace for the full year. The rate was 16.6 million in 2006. Johnson anticipates the weakness will continue and the industry will end 2007 with full-year sales of 16 million vehicles. If so, that would be the slowest year since 1998, when a 54-day strike crippled GM's production, and would be 1 million vehicles lower than the peak of 17.3 million in 2000, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank. Johnson said the Federal Reserve's recent rate cut could help things rebound next year. The United Auto Workers' two-day strike against GM in September may have had a minor impact on consumers who were deciding whether to buy or not, Toprak said. But he said a strike that short couldn't have made a measurable difference. Toprak said GM had about two months' worth of vehicles in its inventory at the time of the strike. "If anything, it may have helped them in terms of giving them a couple days' break to adjust production in terms of demand," he said. GM lost production of about 25,000 vehicles due to the strike, according to the automotive forecasting firm CSM Worldwide Inc.

I seriously don't understand why you don't make the price $25.36 which is coincidentally how much money is in my desk right now.

Even my DOHC Aurora emits a healthy growl under heavy throttle. I don't want to own a car that doesn't sound powerful, nor do I want one that sounds like a broken Casio synthesizer (FX35). I remember testing a 2004 LS430 once at CarMax when I was getting my Olds appraised. Sure, it was fast 0-60, but I couldn't hear a shred of evidence that anything under the hood was motivating it to those speeds; could've been magnets or an invisible towline for all I could hear. Why would I want a car like that? Why would anyone?

I'm seeing these more and more frequently. What I'd like to ask everyone to do if they can is report these outages right here in this thread, especially ones that don't just require a refresh. I want to provide our host with a chronology of these so we have no excuses this time.

...?

GM May Close 2 More Plants Under Deal Line workers at GM's Wilmington Plant, whose Kappa production will move by 2011/12 Associated Press | By TOM KRISHER | Link to Original Article @ Forbes DETROIT - The tentative contract between General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers would allow GM to close a plant each in Michigan and Indiana and possibly shut down several other facilities, according to a detailed copy of the agreement. The moves are the downside of job security pledges that the UAW won in the negotiations, including commitments for new products at 16 plants. About 74,000 hourly GM workers will vote on the pact starting this week, with a final tally to be done by Oct. 10. Gregg Shotwell, a GM worker and frequent critic of the UAW, posted most of the contract details on the Internet. He said he received the agreement from a local union official who attended a Friday meeting in Detroit. He would not identify the official, but the accuracy of its contents was confirmed for The Associated Press by a union leader who requested anonymity because members have not yet voted on the pact. The agreement would let GM sell or close a stamping plant in Indianapolis and close an engine plant in Livonia, in suburban Detroit. According to the detailed document, called the "white book," work at the Indianapolis stamping operation will continue or be reallocated to another GM plant "until such time as the plant can be sold to an outside buyer." GM will study keeping the plant, but if it is not sold or kept, it will be closed "no sooner than December 2011," the document said. It employs about 850 workers, according to a GM Web site. The Livonia plant, which now employs about 300, would remain open through its current product life cycle, which ends in 2010. "The national parties will jointly explore opportunities for current Livonia seniority employees," the document said. A stamping plant in Flint and a small powertrain operation in Parma, Ohio, near Cleveland, also may be in jeopardy, according to the document. For the Flint plant, under the heading "Product Opportunities," the document says only that the UAW and GM will explore opportunities for current Flint employees. The document says no future powertrain products will be allocated to Parma, which also has a stamping operation that will continue with new generation products. The document identifies as closing several smaller sites or factories that GM had previously said were going to be idled. The Flint North engine plant will gain a new facility under the agreement. The document says GM will build three "lean, agile flex engine modules" at a new site near the plant. The new plant could build as many as 1,200 four- and six-cylinder engines per day. Under the agreement, GM at present has no future product for the Orion Township assembly plant, which now makes the Pontiac G6, beyond 2013. But it says both parties will evaluate opportunities for future products. And the document says GM plans to transfer the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice roadster production from Wilmington, Del., to Bowling Green, Ky., after 2011. "No future product allocation has been identified beyond the life of the current agreement," the document says of Wilmington. Messages seeking comment were left for UAW spokesman Roger Kerson and GM spokeswoman Katie McBride. In the past, GM has refused to comment on the agreement until the ratification vote is complete. "This isn't a very genuine job security agreement," Shotwell said. "The UAW didn't win anything. The plants that are allowed to stay operating were already allowed to stay open." Union leaders at other factories that received new products disagreed with Shotwell's assessment. Dave Green, president of one of two locals in Lordstown, Ohio, said his plant got a commitment to build a new generation of GM small cars out of the deal. The company previously would not say what would be built at the plant near Cleveland after its current products, the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5, go out of production at the end of the 2009 model year. GM and the UAW reached agreement on the contract last week after a two-day nationwide strike. The UAW was seeking to protect jobs and slow its falling membership in this contract, and President Ron Gettelfinger said GM responded with "unprecedented product guarantees." GM committed to building current or existing products at 16 of its 18 U.S. assembly plants, according to the UAW's summary of the contract. The deal was endorsed Friday by local union leaders. It also requires GM to pay out at least $35 billion to the union to set up a trust to handle retiree health care and establishes lower wages for thousands of new employees. AP Auto Writer Dee-Ann Durbin contributed to this story.

Its obvious from your comments that you haven't been around a CTS-V.

What don't you know?

The Grand Marquis today looks so chintzy inside though. Tampo'd GRAND MARQUIS script on the wood trim? Geez. Get a Crown Vic LX or Town Car instead.

I intend on having a small collection when I replace the craptastic AM-only radio with an AM/FM 8-track,.

2 1 4

Welcome to the Choppin' Competition #44 Voting thread! Remember, artists who entered must vote for someone other than themselves. Those that do not vote or vote for themselves will be asessed a two (2) point penalty. Voters, please nominate three (3) entries in this format: 1st place 2nd place 3rd place Each first place vote earns 3 points, each second place vote 2 points, and each third place vote 1 point. Voting begins now and will end Monday, September 8, 2007 @ 11:59PM. Only those votes cast during that time will be counted. Remember, the 1st place winner will recieve a special GM-related prize from Cheers and Gears! 1 2 3 4 5 VOTE----------------VOTE----VOTEVOTE-----VOTEVOTEVOTE---VOTEVOTEVOTE-- -VOTE--------------VOTE---VOTE----VOTE---------VOTE---------VOTEVOTEVOTE--- --VOTE------------VOTE----VOTE----VOTE---------VOTE---------VOTE---------------- ---VOTE----------VOTE-----VOTE----VOTE---------VOTE---------VOTE---------------- -----VOTE--------VOTE------VOTE----VOTE---------VOTE---------VOTEVOTEVOTE---- ------VOTE------VOTE-------VOTE----VOTE---------VOTE---------VOTEVOTEVOTE---- ------VOTE----VOTE--------VOTE----VOTE---------VOTE---------VOTE---------------- -------VOTE--VOTE---------VOTE----VOTE---------VOTE---------VOTE---------------- ---------VOTEVOTE----------VOTE----VOTE---------VOTE---------VOTEVOTEVOTE--- ------------VOTE----------------VOTEVOTE-----------VOTE----------VOTEVOTEVOTE-- Good luck to all who entered!

Welcome to Choppin' Competition #45! As what has been regarded by many as GM's finest compact in forever makes its way to our shore in the coming months, excitement is all but waning. And with a car so well-designed and seemingly well-engineered, what could be possibly be improved? How about a proper coupe? Sedan? The TwinTop? RedLine? Something completely original? That's up to you. Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to Modify the Saturn ASTRA in any way you see it. A mild change, a wild change, or anything in between is find. A super-efficient Green Line or hot RedLine are some ideas. Remember that foreign market Astras have a wide variety of bodystyles to choose from, so use a TwinTop or sedan as you base if you'd like, or come up with your own original ragtop or four-door. Please use only use the ASTRA (any Astra is fine) for your base image! Some Picture Sources... -Saturn Astra @ Saturn* -http://gm.wieck.com/forms/gm/*query?astra&Source=all ^^High-Res GM Media imagery (Copy/paste URL into browser to access)^^ Size guidelines remain at 800x600, so please size your entry accordingly. Please do not submit your images as Bitmap (.bmp) files. The winner will recieve a GM-related prize from C&G! Deadline is Thursday, October 18th @ 11:59PM your local time. Good luck and have fun! *Instructions for accessing high-resolution images through AutoDeadline: Replace the bold, orange section of the URL... (http://gm.wieck.com/forms/gm/*query?silverado&Source=all) ...with the make/model/etc you're searching for. Replacing 'silverado' with 'lesabre' will bring up downloadable hi-res images of the Buick LeSabre. Copy into your browser. Hit enter.

Allrighty, closing tonight then! Great entries!

CDC... Meaning keep up with pool care.