gm

An early burial for Hummer

I was reading an Associated Press article recently about all the soon-to-be-defunct product lines produced by General Motors: Pontiac, Saab, and Saturn. But another brand that's been on the way out for a while now was making headlines again, as GM looks all set in its selling off the Hummer brand to China-based Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corporation. While it's not official yet, unless something goes awry it looks to be a done deal and GM will have washed their hands of the tanking SUV line.

With General Motors metaphorically taking its Hummer brand out to the … Read more

Pause-and-play radio trickles down to Buick Regal, Chevy Cruze

Pause-and-play radio is a neat feature built into a few high-end General Motors models, such as the Cadillac CTS and SRX. According the GM, the Buick Regal and the budget-priced Chevy Cruze will be joining the ranks of vehicles that can benefit from this option. Pause-and-play allows you to pause live radio (AM, FM, or XM Satellite radio) for up to 20 minutes and resume playback later--sort of like a TiVo for cars.

The system even works when a vehicle is turned off. For example, if you're listening to your favorite talk radio program during your commute to work, … Read more

GM hotrods a Buick and a Chevy

DETROIT--The Buick Regal and Chevy Aveo may not sound like cars for the racetrack, but GM decided to show how it can turn a turtle into a rabbit. The company launched two show cars, the Buick Regal GS and the Chevy Aveo RS, at the 2010 Detroit auto show. As show cars, neither is meant for production.

The Chevy Aveo RS precedes the launch of the next generation of this little car, and serves to build excitement about a model that could really use some. GM won't reveal yet how much of the body work of the RS will … Read more

LG's global smartphones make a showing

LAS VEGAS--LG doesn't have much of a smartphone presence here in the U.S., but it does have quite a number of them in Europe and Asia. Here at CES 2010, we finally gotten the chance to take a closer look at these unattainable devices. We've compiled a photo gallery showcasing the two Android smartphones (the LG GW620 and the LG GT540), and two Windows Mobile ones (LG GW550 and the LG GM750).

Though we didn't have a chance to get a hands-on with the recently announced LG GW990, we did get a shot of it behind … Read more

New GM plant to assemble Chevy Volt batteries

General Motors' assembly plant for its Chevy Volt battery is set to begin production on Thursday.

The company claims it will be "the first lithium ion battery pack manufacturing plant in the U.S. operated by a major automaker."

To be more precise, the 160,000 square-foot plant will be run by GM's wholly-owned subsidiary GM Subsystem Manufacturing. And the GM Brownstown Assembly Plant is just that: an assembly plant.

The Chevy Volt battery packs assembled at the plant in Brownstown Township, Mich.--about 20 miles south of Detroit--will consist of batteries manufactured by South Korea's LG Chem … Read more

A tribute and a eulogy for Saab

As you probably know by now, General Motors has decided to discontinue producing the Saab brand after failing to make a sell to European manufacturers Spyker and Koenigsegg Group. Whether it's a lack of resources to produce the Saab brand, or just general disinterest in doing so, GM is about to swing the axe on the Saab imprint, and soon there will be no more Saab.

I have never found Saab to be anything to do cartwheels about, but there are many European car aficionados who appreciate the subtle beauty of Saab over the years, and this Web video … Read more

Something to Saab about: GM shuts down European brand

Tonight most of us will be counting down to the birth of the new year, 2010. However, it appears that General Motors will be counting down to the last Saab produced by the company, as it was announced a couple of weeks ago that the automotive manufacturer will be discontinuing the making of the Saab imprint because of its inability to sell the line to prospective European carmakers. As it appears, nothing will be changing on this front prior to the self-imposed deadline of December 31, 2009, and it seems all but certain now that the Saab car and name … Read more

Chevy Volt to cruise into California next year

California will be the "lead market" for the Chevy Volt when the electrically driven car is available at the end of next year, General Motors said Wednesday.

California was chosen because the state has the largest U.S. car market, and Californians are "known to be leaders in adopting groundbreaking new technologies," GM's vice president of global Chevrolet brand, Brent Deware, said in a statement pegged to this week's Los Angeles International Auto Show.

Production of the Volt is scheduled to start in late 2010. GM has not announced pricing for the 2011 model, … Read more

GM explores new Terrain

It may look like yet another boring SUV, but the GMC Terrain brings the SUV, and GM itself, into this millennium. A direct injection 3-liter V-6 offers plenty of power, an option over the standard direct injection four-cylinder. The interior looks particularly nice, especially considering a base price in the mid-20s. And we were most impressed with GM's new navigation system, a hard-drive-based unit with traffic detouring. The Terrain could change your mind about GM.

Read our review of the 2010 GMC Terrain.

For Chevy Volt drivers, battery life will vary

One year before starting production of the Chevy Volt, General Motors engineers say they are confident in the performance and safety of the electric car's batteries.

GM executives gave an update on the car's plans on Tuesday, saying engineers are making some tweaks to the design but that they are on schedule.

The Volt's chief engineer, Andrew Farah, also implied that GM is close to moving ahead with a project to make a Cadillac that uses the same gas-electric power train that the Volt uses. Last week, there were reports that the Converj concept had been given the green light internally, … Read more