4gm

That interior looks pretty damn good to me. The exterior, not so much.

For the first time since 1998, J.D. Power is revamping its influential survey that tracks new car and truck quality, and the changes could increase the number of problems and gripes reported by owners by as much as 40 percent on some models. The third-generation study, which collects nearly 60,000 surveys from new car and truck buyers after 90 days of ownership, contains more detailed questions than previous Initial Quality Studies and allows consumers to reply in essay form. more at link http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic.../605110403/1148

The others? How many more are being planned?

And ends up making a profit! Those crazy accountants!! DETROIT, United States (AFP) - The world's biggest automaker, General Motors Corp., announced a revision to its first-quarter results, saying it had posted a net profit of 445 million dollars. GM said it had finalized its first-quarter profits to 78 cents per share following a "final determination" of its accounting for a recently approved retiree health-care settlement agreement and other adjustments. The automaker had said on April 20 that it had shrunk its losses during the first quarter to 323 million dollars, or 57 cents per share, from 1.3 billion in the same period a year ago. "The difference between the preliminary and final results primarily reflects a change in the way GM will account for the health-care settlement agreement between GM and the United Auto Workers union," GM said in a statement. GM said it had made the revision following talks with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. As part of the accord with the UAW, GM will make contributions to a new independent Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association trust (VEBA) of one billion dollars in 2006, 2007 and 2011. GM will recognize the impact of the contributions over seven years, beginning in the third quarter of 2006 when the health care changes are scheduled to take effect. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060508/bs_af...to_060508225617

The article doesn't say exactly which Astra models will be imported. Antwerp builds the the 3-door, 5-door and wagon versions of the Astra. 40,000 seems like a low target if they intend on importing all 3. What if GM does something stupid like only importing the wagon? I wouldn't put it past them. Anyway, if/when the 3-door makes it over here, it'll be my next new car. I hope I can hold out.

But will it be a South American import or a European import?

GM needs to use the Brera as a template for a new Pontiac.

It's a great looking car. Just put in an engine that gets great gas mileage and bringing over is a no brainger. The Aveo is GM's only subcompact. That's ridiculous for a company with 8 divisions. Imagine Saturn with this car, the Astra and a new VUE. GM could have a division where all of its cars are actually competitive.

I really like the Signum. The design is cohesive. The lines flow well. The Maxx and regular Malibu look like a different person was assigned to design each body part.

Nice! Slap a split grill on it and call it a G8!

Dude, Pontiac's getting the G5. What more do you want?

If I owned one of those I'd be afraid that someone would literally walk away with it.

At this point in the game GM needs some homeruns in their non-truck categories and this doesn't look like one to me. It looks good, just not nearly as good as the Antara or S3X. It'll be competitive and will probably be a solid seller. But it could have been so much more is how I'm seeing it.

Prepare to be underwhelmed. http://autospy.dreamwiz.com/board/bbs.php?...ry=view&uid=943

Nothing against Northstar, but that response is hysterical. Anyway, I'd make Kappa mostly a Pontiac platform. The Solstice, a 4 door, a 2 dr, and maybe a hatback. A 9-1 for Saab would be good too.

Instead Pontiac gets the G5. Way to think ahead, GM!

volcano

There was a thread around here somewhere which posted some spy pics of the Opel badged NG Vue. And really, it's just not as alluring.

Obviously the Soltice is doing very well for Pontiac. And it looks like the Sky will do just as well for Saturn. GM just should have fully fleshed out the Kappa architecture to insure more derivatives before it went full steam ahead with the Soltice and Sky. I'm not saying these cars shouldn't have been made. But they should have been put on the back burner while Kappa was being fully developed. And I think that's what others are saying as well. Early on the Soltice was touted as a demonstrational exercise for how fast GM could bring a brand new car to market. As well all know, a brand new architecture was created for it. My question is, why did it take longer to bring other all Lutz cars which used existing architectures onto the market? The HHR, Lucerne, H3, Aura? It seems like a better use of GM's limited resources would be to rush a program to replace one of GM's mainstream vehicles that has a usable architecture already in place.

I'm sure a lot of currently unemployed citizens wouldn't have a problem with it.

If Delphi workers strike, GM will pay for replacement workers. And they won't wait very long to do it either. I'd give them 3 full weeks at the very most. I'll bet one of the reason why GM has been selling off assets as of late was to bring their cash reserves up to pay for temporary factory workers both at Delphi and its own plants in case of a strike. They know they can't weather a long term strike. A long term strike would force them into bankruptcy which management absolutely will not let happen. With its cash reserves GM could weather a short term strike and lost productivity while it trains new workers to get them up to speed. The UAW has another thing coming if they think they'll bring down GM. There will be lines around the block to fill their positions while they picket. And after a few months, GM's factories will be churning out the cars like nothing even happened.

I'm guessing that people who watch Nascar are a lot more inclined to buy a domestic car than those who don't. GM's money would be better spent giving the G6 a new interior or giving the Lucerne a new nose.

DETROIT - General Motors Corp. reported a first-quarter loss of $323 million Thursday, the sixth straight quarterly loss for the world's largest automaker. The loss of 57 cents per share for the January-March period was narrower than a loss of $1.3 billion, or $2.22 per share, in the first quarter of 2005. GM said revenues were up 14 percent to a record $52.2 billion from $45.8 billion a year ago, thanks in part to strong sales in Asia and Latin America and improvements in North America, including better pricing. "The first quarter represented an important milestone in GM and GM North America's turnaround," GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said in a statement. GM shares rose 68 cents, or 3.3 percent, to $21.25 in premarket trading. The automaker, which lost $10.6 billion in 2005, is in the midst of a major restructuring that calls for cutting 30,000 jobs by 2008. Included in the first-quarter results was a one-time pretax charge of $1 billion in for expenses related to a recent settlement that requires hourly retirees to pay more for their health care. GM must contribute $3 billion to a fund for retiree health care by 2011. GM's struggling North American division reported a loss of $946 million, compared with a loss of $1.5 billion a year ago. GM Chief Financial Officer Fritz Henderson said cost savings from the health care agreement and from employee buyouts will largely be seen after July 1, but the automaker is optimistic about its results. "It's a quarter of good, solid progress," he said. "Obviously, the job's not done." GM's financial arm, General Motors Acceptance Corp., earned $605 million for the quarter, down from $728 million a year ago because of lower mortgage earnings. GM recently completed an agreement to sell 51 percent of GMAC to an investor group for $14 billion. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/earns_gm;_ylt=A...zkxBHNlYwN0bQ-- North American lost almost 1 billion dollars. That's terrible. But if it wasn't for the $1 billion one time charge, GM would have made money for the quarter.

I'm telling you GM should at the very least make all their pushrods E85 capable. Making all their engines E85 capable would be ideal but since the pushrods are a lot cheaper to make, they'd be better able to absorb whatever extra costs are involved in changing them and possibly counteract perceptions of the engines as being old tech. I think it would be a great PR move.

Yeah, but what you're missing is that every division needs a halo car like the Sky, Corvette, GTO, XLR, SSR and Soltice because once people see how great these halo cars are sales of the halo car's division go up significantly ... NOT