GM Recalls 2013 and 2014MY Camaros Over Warning Labels That Peel Off

And yes, we have the first recall for the only just released into the U.S. market 2014 Chevrolet Camaro facelift. To be precise, GM's recall involves both the pre-facelift 2013 and the newer 2014MY Camaro coupes manufactured from June 9, 2013, through September 6, 2013, over some…free-spirited airbag warning labels.

In a filing to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), GM said:

"In the affected vehicles, the required air bag warning label on the sun visor may peel off. If the air bag warning label detaches from the visor, the driver and front seat passenger may not be warned of the risks of air bag deployment, increasing the risk of injury in the event of a crash."

Not that you can't see it for yourself, but since we do live in the age of lawyers and fine print, GM said that it will "notify owners, and instruct owners how to inspect the visor sticker" with dealers to replace the sun visor as necessary, naturally, free of charge.

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GM Boss Wants to Sell Cars Online

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson says the company wants to allow customers to buy cars over the Internet. “We want people to start buying cars over the Internet,” the executive said during a quarterly earnings conference call with analysts. He added that the move might be “a potential half-step away from our traditional channels.”

“It doesn’t mean we are going to try and bypass our dealers, but why not in this tech-savvy culture we have, this economy we have, allow the millennial to come in and ... sign and go,” Akerson said, according to a Detroit News report.

The CEO referred to customers generally younger than 30, who usually know what model and options they want and are already aware of the price before entering a dealership, as they look up for information on the Internet.

According to the National Automobile Dealers Association, ten years ago, car buyers made an average of 4.5 visits to a dealership before buying a car. Nowadays, the Internet has deeply affected that habit, with shoppers only making 1.3 visits before deciding on a model.

GM launched a pilot program about a year ago with a web tool called Shop-Click-Drive that allows customers to search for vehicles, get pricing, chose financing and get a trade-in estimate only by using their computer or smartphone.

The carmaker wants to roll out the program nationwide by the end of the year to all 4,300 dealers. Currently, about 100 dealers use it. GM said about 900 sales were made through Shop-Click-Drive at the end of September, but only five of them were completed entirely online.

By Andrei Nedelea

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GM's New Data Mining System Slashes Recall Numbers by Pinpointing Affected Cars

The modern automotive industry has grown to monstrous proportions, and with it, so have its supply chains, number of employees and general complexity of operations undertaken. That’s why it’s very difficult for these large-scale manufacturers to operate small changes in the production cycle of a vehicle, or recall just the ones it knows are affected when a recall is in effect.

This is a problem and a major inconvenience for literally millions of people: being caught up in a gigantic recall of hundreds of thousands of cars to find only a few faultily built ones…

However, now GM is showing its way of making the whole process of sorting out manufacturing defects after the car has been released much easier for both themselves and the owners through more careful tracking of the manufacturing process. This has allowed them to make a very accurate recall that involved only 4 Chevy Volts instead of hundreds or thousands of cars.

Automotive News tells the tale. Apparently, it was discovered this year that some 2012 Volts may have been fitted with a faultily manufactured brake valve. However, instead of recalling all Volts to search for and sort it out, GM took a much smarter approach to finding a fix.

According to the report, GM allocated one of its engineers to search into a database that tracks the parts used in its cars, and collects manufacturing records from suppliers, which in the case of the Volt, happened to be TRW Automotive. It took a month to pinpoint the U.S. cars with the problematic valve.

They were able to do it because the part in question came with detailed information from its manufacturer. They then tracked down the cars fitted with the defective part and found out it was only four Volts – imagine how much less of a hassle this was, as opposed to recalling en masse, for both manufacturer and owners.

This represents the future of recalls, and manufacturers who are not currently heading in this direction of marking all parts either with bar codes or radio frequency tags should really reconsider their steps. It will definitely pay for itself in the future…

By Andrei Nedelea

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Peugeot Reconsiders Alliance with GM as it Looks to China for Help

France’s largest carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen has said that its alliance with General Motors may be scaled back, sparking speculation that it is doing so in preparation for a deeper partnership with China’s Dongfeng Motor.

The carmaker, which recently posted a 3.7 percent quarterly revenue decline, said plans for a joint small-car program with GM are “under review”, despite having announced earlier this month joint production of B-segment MPVs in Spain.

“The project of development of a new joint platform for B segment models with GM is under review as well as the relevant terms of the development agreement. As a result, the announced mid-term synergies ($1 billion for PSA) may be readjusted downwards. New initiatives are under consideration,” Peugeot said in a statement.

Peugeot is currently in tie-up talks with its Chinese partner Dongfeng Motor. Dongfeng and the French have stated that they are considering taking equal stakes in Peugeot of about 20 percent in a capital increase that would raise at least €3 billion ($4.13 billion). While the GM alliance is focused on cost reductions in the shrinking European market, a partnership with Dongfeng would help Peugeot expand in China and boost its profits.

Peugeot and Dongfeng currently operate three factories together in China, with annual production capacity expected to rise by two-thirds to 750,000 vehicles until the end of 2015. Peugeot’s sales in the first nine months of this year in China rose 29 percent to 403,000 vehicles. Peugeot has a second joint venture in the country, Changan PSA Automobile, and opened a fourth factory last month.

Should PSA Peugeot Citroen pursue a deeper partnership with Dongfeng, it would risk the GM alliance, since GM’s Chinese partner is SAIC Motor, a rival for Dongfeng. If that happens, GM may pull out of the alliance with PSA and sell its 7 percent stake.

By Dan Mihalascu

Story References: Reuters & Bloomberg

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GM Considering Hybrids, Diesels for Its Large Chevy, GMC and Cadillac SUVs

General Motors is considering various technical solutions for its recently announced, but not yet available, trio of big SUVs, including the 2015 versions of the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade, with hybrid powertrains, diesel engines and high-geared transmissions being all taken into account.

The company’s executive chief engineer for GM trucks, Jeff Luke, confirmed all these three technical proposals, according to an Autonews report. “We've got some interesting powertrain technologies coming on the SUVs over the next few years,” Luke said during the introduction of the 2015 Cadillac Escalade.

The Escalade and the extended ESV model share the same platform with the Chevrolet Tahoe / Suburban and the GMC Yukon / Yukon XL. All models will be launched in North America during the first quarter of 2014.

“In this segment, the competition is tough. You've got to raise the bar,” Luke said of the luxury SUV market where the Escalade competes in. Since the three models were last redesigned 8 years ago, GM didn’t provide technical upgrades for the SUVs, but that may change from now on.

Luke said that the Escalade’s six-speed transmission would eventually be replaced by a higher-geared transmission. General Motors is currently working on 8-speed and 10-speed transmissions, both for rear-wheel drive applications.

The official said GM continues to consider a hybrid, even though the Escalade Hybrid was discontinued for the 2014 model year because of weak sales. GM is also looking at the possibility of a diesel engine, but Luke didn’t say which of the three large SUVs would get one.

“Grand Cherokee is doing it. We're watching,” the exec said of Jeep's recently introduced diesel engine for its largest SUV.

By Dan Mihalascu

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Mary Barra, Candidate for GM's Next CEO, says "No More Crappy Cars" [w/Video]

General Motors has grown to gigantic proportions, increasing in size practically continuously since it first started out in 1908 and up until the financial troubles settled in and made everybody go bankrupt. It forced a big restructuring move from within the company, of which Mary Barra was a part of, occupying several different positions.

Now she is nominated as one of the prime candidates to someday run the whole of GM, and currently fills the role of executive vice president of global product development, a section of the company that alone is worth an estimated $15 billion.

In a recent interview for Fortune Magazine, she mentioned what her approach had been up until the present moment, and how her own initiative helped the company get past the difficult times that came around  the year 2008.

One of the topics of discussion was her desire to “change the culture” after the bankruptcy and bailout period, in an effort to make “no more crappy cars.” She explains that her responsibility is very high, as she has to allocate the development budgets for the new models which (are said to be shrinking, as per a reported industry trend), and her job is to not let that reflect in the quality of the products.

It’s an inspirational fifteen minute talk, which you can check out in the video posted after the virtual jump.

By Andrei Nedelea

Story References: Autoblog-com

VIDEO

GM Says New Camaro Z/28 Could be 6 Seconds Faster on a Dry Nürburgring

As you probably already heard, read and saw, the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 recently set a lap time of 7:37.40 in the rain at the Nürburgring Nordschleife track in Germany, beating the Camaro ZL1 by four seconds, the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 and Mercedes-Benz SLS by two and a half seconds and the Porsche 911 Carrera S by half a second.

However, the Z/28’s time was set on a wet track, which means the car can be even faster in dry conditions. Actually, GM reckons the car could be considerably faster. “Based on telemetry data from our test sessions, we know the Z/28 can be as much as six seconds faster on a dry track,” said Al Oppenheiser, Camaro chief engineer.

That would bring it into Porsche 911 Turbo S or Porsche 911 GT3 RS (7:33) territory (7:32), making it quite a remarkable achievement. But until Chevrolet takes the Z/28 for another lap of the Nürburgring, there’s some new information about the car.

The 7.0-liter LS7 V8 engine develops 505 horsepower and 481 lb-ft (652 Nm) of torque and is only offered with a close-ratio six-speed manual transmission. The gearbox distributes power to the rear wheels via a limited-slip differential featuring a helical gear set, rather than traditional clutch packs.

Mark Stielow, performance engineering manager for the Z/28, said the engineering approach favored weight-saving over horsepower - the optional air conditioning system says a lot about the car.

“We didn’t put a ton of horsepower in this car. We chose a light, efficient package and we need to make up all our time in the hardware spots. We need to brake harder, corner harder,” Stielow said, according to The Detroit News. It looks like they made it, as the car can achieve a G-force of 1.08 in corners and its Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes are capable of 1.5 Gs in deceleration.

Production of the 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 will begin in the fourth quarter this year at GM’s Oshawa plant in Ontario, Canada. It will arrive in U.S. dealerships late in the first quarter next year, with GM likely to limit production about 3,000 to 4,000 vehicles a year. Fuel economy, top speed and pricing have yet to be announced.

By Dan Mihalascu

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VIDEO

We Put GM's Big Three SUVs Side by Side, Drawing Preliminary Conclusions [w/Poll]

So, General Motors has renewed its lineup of full-sized SUVs for the 2015 model-year. It propagates the tradition of underpinning these models on the same body-on-frame architecture and which include the Cadillac Escalade, GMC Yukon and Chevy Tahoe.

The Detroit company has made efforts to differentiate the models, while keeping costs as low as possible, but all look 100 percent identical from the side. That may not be too much of an issue for the non-premium Chevy and GMC variants, but it is, in my view, for the Cadillac.

Sure, its interior is the best of the bunch, looking quite snazzy (bar the oversized shifter stalk) and of the highest apparent quality – there’s also a newfangled digital display cluster, preferred in favor of traditional dials, and that's meant to exude premium as well. However, step back outside, and on to the side, so that you don’t see the trademark LED headlights, grille or badge, and you realize it could be any the other two.

This will definitely become a problem for those who buy a 2015 Escalade to pose as their extra financial efforts to plump for the premium model are negated by GM’s lack of interest/imagination in its approach to diversifying the range – people may say you just have a Chevy with a fancy front.

It shouldn’t matter, but it does, and I think GM should have known better here, and tried harder to differentiate the luxury model from the lesser (-badged) ones by giving it a unique body – I for one regard the identical and very noticeable C-pillar design found on all three models as proof of very evident corner-and-cost-cutting, because this is a case of already having a design package, but working on the different styling ideas for each model (and frankly not going far enough).

Worth noting, and appreciating is the fact that the Cadillac has a more unique interior that greatly differs from that of the GMC and Chevrolet models, which share several common bits such as the center console – you could say it adds to the individuality value that's kind of lacking here...

The bottom line is that yes, the Escalade is the most imposing of the new GM SUVs, and has the biggest and most angular grille, but for me, it just doesn’t cut it as a self-standing and unique model. I know this has been the brands’ approach since the first one launched in 1999, but this new one differs just as little from the regular models as the old one. I would call it willful stagnation, or beating a perilously ill horse (the formula/idea) to keep going, when it could never really stand up on its own without props.

Cadillac was giving me the impression that it was actually trying to become a key player in the premium segment, with some competent (and good looking) sedans that received good review scores, but with this new Escalade being a reworked Chevy, and not being its own individual model, it shouldn’t really be encouraged.

Merely rebadging or reworking Chevys never got Cadillac anywhere in its more recent history (from the 1980s onward), and the old Escalade(s) I think sold more on clever marketing, an image created by celebrities and the rap song lyrics that questionably chose them as the subject of their vehicular praise. You should be careful of what one soaks up from all of the advertising that we are surrounded with, and should always have a clear mind when purchasing a vehicle, to know where the desire comes from – whether it’s induced, or naturally-occurring.

That is my view on the matter, but please do comment and share yours in the dedicated section below that also supports photo uploads. Before you do, though, do check out our two structured galleries that show all the new models side by side.

By Andrei Nedelea

The best-looking model in GM's Big Three SUV range is…

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