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Because the Traverse / Enclave are huge vehicles. Big as Yukons. I would like something smaller but need the capability of 4 kids in the back for carpooling to schools/events. The current Captiva does have 3 rows available.
The Equinox is a smaller, midsize segment CUV. Do you think the Enclave is competing with the CR-v/Rav4? I sure was not worried about cannibalizing, just looking for what I need.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=129330
A secret photo of the 2010 Chevrolet Equinox has just emerged from within from GM, showing the face of the new, five-passenger crossover utility vehicle expected to come to market late in 2009 as a competitor for the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4.
The 2010 Chevrolet Equinox is based on the mid-size sedan architecture that underlies such cars as the Chevrolet Malibu and Saturn Aura. The mechanical package will be shared with the 2010 Cadillac SRX and 2010 Saab 9-4X.
Not quite true. The SRX will use a very modified and upgraded version of the Theta II platform.
Is there another vehicle sold in the US similar to the Zafira? Compact 7 passenger minivan. Would like to see the volume. A good vehicle but here in the US it seems like a CUV type vehicle is more sellable.
Its a different market here in the US than Mexico. Mini vehicles like the Corsa have not sold well. When gas went up to $4 the subcompacts started to sell but now that gas is down to $1.50 even the compacts have plummeted. Now the Mini is selling well but I believe it is selling more on it's cute factor than anything.
But when gas goes back up to $4 in a few years mini cars may sell a bit more but I believe most US people like a larger vehicle. But I did read that GM will be selling the sub compact Beat here in the US. Hopefully it will be here in time for the $4 gas and not before.
Another good reason is that GM does not make a lot of, if any, money an vehicles as small as the sub compacts. Perhaps that will change by March.
Addressing Skeptics, GM Says Volt "Remains on Schedule" (Inside Line)
Simple.
Regards,
OW
How do they differentiate the Vectra/Malibu? I went to the site but my spanish is very poor. I could look it up but what are the sales volumes of each?
I clicked on the [translate this page] and was provided with this
We can also drop the url of the page into this
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/
and get a translated page (mostly).
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
This is where I question GM's strategy. They think that a $Billion on the Volt and then sell for $35K is ok, but selling a really high quality small car is not OK if they cannot make money on those. But the small car is where the entry buyers are and where brand loyalty is built. This is a very long term strategy. My friend bought a new Vega in '74 and it turned me off to GM for life. The excellent Cruze or whatever (as an example) would be the starter car that if excellent would bring in an entire generation of GM-loyal buyers. Seems like that would be more of a halo effect than the Volt.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
OK, but Honda sells the Fit and it has received excellent reviews, especially the new redesign. They expected to sell 30K/year but have been selling more like 80K. That's not too shabby and if those buyers are happy then you have another generation of people who are going to look at Honda first. Imagine if the Aveo hatchback was that good. Those buyers would be wanting to stay with GM. Even if GM lost some money, would they lose more than with the Volt? Will the Volt sell as many as a subcompact sedan? Things to consider.
Perhaps the Cruze will be excellent. They should not even produce the car unless it is BETTER than the Civic or Mazda 3.
Toyota Motor Corp. forecast a first-ever annual operating loss, blaming a relentless sales slide and a crippling rise in the yen while declaring an emergency unprecedented in its 70-year history.
The world's biggest automaker had been expected to issue its second profit warning in less than seven weeks after domestic rival Honda Motor Co. also cut its outlook again last week, but today's downward revision was bigger than analysts predicted.
"We are facing an unprecedented emergency," President Katsuaki Watanabe told a year-end news conference today. "This is a crisis unlike the crises of the past."
Seriously, in this day and age, what dealer is going to stick a $995 markup on an entry-level midsize?!
Hmm, AutoBild and C/D HK dont seem to agree. According to them (translated): the Theta II is a mildly revised Theta I, and even though GM claims the 2010 Captiva to be all new, the use of an altered Theta1 platform, the re-use of various components like the current model's whole A to C pillars, roof, doors, base engine, and even the same rear end as a whole leads us to assume that the "new" car will not be so new afterall. On the other hand we really welcome the upgraded interior, which leave the outgoing model's totally obsolete
Well, the engine part is in fact debateable, as each country gets different engine options, but the rest is inexcuseable. Well, it's natural as perhaps you've never seen the Captiva with your own eyes. I have, and I dare say the description is accurate.
Of course, it doesnt change the fact that the Captiva is a much more competitive product than the Equinox.
The good side? This proves, doesnt matter where a car came from, as long as its good.
Bad side? Why, GM, why do we have to deal with clones again????
Straight to the point. One will simply never understand what's so great about the Fit until he/she try it for his/herself. Always, always take note of the amazing Ultraseat configurations.
Haven't looked at an Aveo but a Vibe is on the list. But we've quit looking for a while.
2018 430i Gran Coupe
But in comparing photos of the 2008 Captiva and 2010 Equinox it does look like they share platforms which must mean the Captiva is theta II which would be different than out old Theta Vue?
Looks like the 2010 Equinox doors are shared with the 2008 Captiva skins. Everything else exterior and interior wise are different. So it is pretty heavily revised coming to our country.
But in comparing photos of the 2008 Captiva and 2010 Equinox it does look like they share platforms which must mean the Captiva is theta II which would be different than out old Theta Vue?
If C/D HK is correct, than I'm not surprised. With the Theta2 itself being a modified Theta1 it's nothing weird if both new and old model have the same or similar proportions.
Captiva itself came from Theta1 architecture, as far as I know. The current Vue is a rebadged Opel Antara, which oddly also sold as Vauxhall Antara. The Antara-Vue is a reskinned Captiva. Captiva by itself is a mildly reskinned Daewoo Winstorm. Confusing huh?
I believe the re-use of many parts from the outgoing model, such as doors, roof and rear hatch, plus the use of a revised Theta1 (ok, its Theta2 by name) are the reasons the upcoming 2010 Equinox looks so similar to the current Captiva. Hell put it next to the current Vue and you'll see some similarities as well.
I've been saying many times that GM should dump the current Equinox and bring the Captiva here. It will finally be done, quite late imo but at least better than nothing.
PS: is it just me or the instrument panel is lifted directly from the upcoming Camaro, and the steering wheel from the Volt?
I think that's a broad brush to say that it has only excellent reviews. I was watching Motorweek review their long term test unit. Amazingly they were throwing in a lot of negatives about it even though it's a foreign brand which they usually love. Their usual method is like consumer reports and they give a positive view about a car they like and in the second half of the compound sentence they include the negative. Most people hear the first part and miss the second part.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Back to GM now?
To make many happy or sad, another one bites the dust.
Last day at Moraine Assembly for GM
19000 (Delphi included) souls in 1999 to 572 souls employed today by GM in unison with Izusu.
And there are hundreds in supplier jobs
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
"I had an elderly man and his wife who loved this new Impala," said Alan Starling, owner of Starling Chevrolet in St. Cloud, Fla., near Orlando. "They were going to buy it, but wouldn't until they knew President Bush was going to make this bridge loan to General Motors."
The dealership delivered the new car late last week.
On Monday, Dec. 15, a Manhattan businessman, worried about warranty and parts availability, held off buying a $74,000 Cadillac Escalade hybrid.
But 30 minutes after President Bush's press conference on Friday, Dec. 19, the customer walked in with a certified check. He drove the black SUV off the lot before noon, said Anthony Ciarlo, Internet sales manager at Cadillac-Hummer of Mahwah in Mahwah, N.J.
"I talked to him Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, but he was worried," Ciarlo said. "He said he didn't want to buy a Lexus, but he'd wait until he knew if GM would make it."
Ciarlo said he didn't have an answer to the many people concerned about GM's future.
Within minutes after Bush announced the $17.4 billion loans Friday, showroom traffic picked up at River Oaks Chrysler-Jeep in Houston.
"We had customers who were waiting to make sure that parts and service would be there and that Chrysler would be a viable entity years from now," said dealer Alan Helfman.
Jim Arrigo, co-chairman of the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep national dealer council, said: "We've been sitting on pins and needles."
Saturn dealer Don Hudler, with six stores in Texas, thinks buyers will return to showrooms now that GM's liquidity issues are at least temporarily off the table.
Said Hudler: "If we have a good weekend, that will be the barometer that more people have some confidence in all of us going forward."
The announcement follows a pledge Friday by President George W. Bush to offer $17.4 billion in emergency loans to General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.
Harper said Canada's rescue plan, the equivalent of 20% of the U.S. aid package, will help keep the plants afloat while the automakers restructure their businesses to retain one of the country's most important sectors.
The companies want the government to help their U.S. rivals survive. But they don't want that help to impose big competitive disadvantages on them, said Mike Stanton, president of the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers. The association represents Toyota, Honda, Nissan and 11 other automakers.
Late last week, Stanton praised the Bush administration's approval of $17.4 billion in emergency loans for General Motors and Chrysler LLC. He said the money would give the companies "time to work through their issues."
Stanton said import brand companies also will support legislation aimed at helping the industry over the long term. Those measures include bills that would stimulate consumer interest in buying vehicles, he added.
But Stanton conceded that members of his association largely avoided talking specifics during the bailout discussions.
Invited to a senator's office, Stanton recalled, "We kept it at the 30,000-foot level — which, quite honestly, they didn't like."
arl Quist, a consultant and former director of industry affairs for Toyota Motor North America, said Toyota told policymakers that failure of one or more of the Detroit 3 would take down suppliers that all automakers need.
"Without parts, we can't make cars," Quist told Automotive News last week.
Some members of Congress dragged the import brands into the fight. The lawmakers cited the imports' U.S. operations as examples of how to operate profitably and, they said, to build more environmentally friendly vehicles than the Detroit 3 has.
If the guy can spend that much money on a new ride, the last thing he should worry about is the warranty and parts availability!
DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co.'s much ballyhooed 2010 Fusion Hybrid will get 41 city miles per gallon and 36 mpg on highways, based on final certification figures from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the company said Monday.
The move is one of the final steps in getting the vehicle to dealerships next spring. Certification of the vehicle was recently completed at the company's testing laboratories in Allen Park.
Ford said that the Fusion Hybrid tops Toyota's Camry hybrid -- its main competitor -- mileage by 8 mpg in the city and 2 mpg on the highway.
The Fusion can travel up to 47 miles per hour using only battery power. After 47 miles, the car's four-cylinder engine turns on to power the car and recharge the battery.
The Fusion's nickel-metal hydride battery is lighter and produces 20 percent more power than the Ford Escape hybrid. It also devised a way to get 28 percent more power out of the battery cells, said Praveen Cherian, program leader for the Fusion Hybrid.
"It's not just one thing, but thousands," he said of the improved mileage numbers. "We've optimized the heck out of that vehicle, it's individual components."
The battery can also tolerate higher temperatures, and Ford has eliminated its battery cooling system in the Fusion, allowing the battery to cool using regular cabin air.
The company has also improved its regenerative braking system, which captures energy lost through brake friction and stores it for battery usage. Ford said 94 percent of brake friction energy is recovered in the new model.
The Fusion also includes SmartGauge technology, which helps drivers adjust their driving to get more mileage out of the car.
GM workers reach final day at Ohio SUV plant
Associated Press
MORAINE, Ohio -- Workers at General Motors Corp.'s sport-utility vehicle plant in the Dayton suburb of Moraine are working their last day at the factory.
Tuesday is the final day of production at the plant, which has been pumping out GM vehicles for the past 27 years. About 1,080 hourly workers are employed at the plant.
In June, GM announced it would close the plant because high gasoline prices were driving consumers away from the SUVs made there.
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GM employed 19,000 workers in the Dayton area in 1999, before spinning off its Delphi supplier division. Tuesday's closing of the SUV plant will leave 572 workers at a GM engine plant in Moraine the automaker owns jointly with Isuzu.
Forget the politicians and their calculated "rescue" of Detroit's automakers. They won't be the ones who save, or kill, the Big Three where it matters most -- in the marketplace.
It'll be the real people, would-be customers who decide to give General Motors Corp. metal another look or who credit Ford's Blue Oval for trying to make it without federal help. Or it'll be the people who long ago gave up on Detroit, who conflate bad experiences of a generation ago into sweeping condemnations of the companies today.
I bring this up now because the bailout debate, punctuated by President George W. Bush's decision to throw the automakers a $17.4 billion lifeline, is delivering Detroit more attention than it wants or needs. And government largesse for GM and Chrysler LLC will keep this complex, politicized restructuring in front of taxpayers for months to come.
Which means those inside the Detroit Bubble eager to remind folks on the outside that the automakers were FDR's "Arsenal of Democracy," that Detroit "created the middle class, and that an independent, U.S.-owned auto industry is an economic cornerstone may find most of the Bigger America doesn't agree and doesn't much care.
Yes, federal officials are lending GM and Chrysler help, but they are clearly doing so while holding their collective noses with one hand and wagging their fingers with the other. Could it be that the politicians know their constituents are as fatigued by Detroit's troubles as the rest of us mired in this morass?
Readers periodically e-mail objections to suggestions (from me and others) of an anti-Detroit Auto bias around the country. After the inquisitions called congressional hearings, the misinformed sanctimony from members of the California, New York and Massachusetts delegations and the snide slaps of Senate Republicans from the South, I'm not at all sure the e-mailers have much (if any?) evidence to buttress their point.
Then, in today's e-mail, arrives more data to bolster mine: A CNN-Opinion Research poll reports that 70 percent of 1,013 Americans polled over the weekend said they opposed extending any additional aid to Detroit's automakers beyond March 31.
Even as two-thirds said a bankruptcy of one or more automakers would be "a crisis" or would cause "major problems," more than 80 percent said an automaker bankruptcy would cause "minor problems" or "no problems at all" for their personal financial situation. And 65 percent said they would not be likely to consider buying a car from a bankrupt automaker.
Translation: Detroit, you're on your own, though I'm not at all sure the message is resonating where it matters most.
'A way of life' under siege
Over the weekend, I ran into a prominent, thoughtful and recently retired Detroit auto executive out with his family for a holiday dinner. Amid the handshakes he looked at me and matter-of-factly said, "We're dismantling a way of life."
He's right. But how many people in your workplace or neighborhood or school district realize it? Do they understand that the culture defined by Big Three salaries, benefits, expectations, vacation schedules -- where else in the country do people get a four-day weekend around Easter? -- will be torn apart over the next three months because it has to be?
And if it isn't -- if United Auto Workers brass can call in enough political chits with congressional Democrats and Team Obama to keep from having to ask their members to vote on wage cuts and work rule changes next year -- what guarantee is there that it won't happen in bankruptcy anyway? None.
On Sunday, an e-mail landed from Robert F. in Marin County, Calif. "Hello from the Left Coast," he began. "Here in California we don't much care about Ford, GM, Chrysler. We gave up on them years ago, (and) the rest of the country is following California's lead."
A view from the 'Left Coast'
I read on, marveling (but not surprised) that decades-old experiences with a '67 Olds Cutlass, an '81 Dodge Omni, a '91 Jeep and a '99 Ford Contour shaped a mind-set that Detroit probably could not break, no matter what it does. Add, too, his self-described "gold standard" -- "the '98 Camry LE I sold with 226,000 miles, with only a starter motor replacement at 180,000."
"Quite honestly, it does not matter to the Left Coast if they all go bankrupt and take that greedy UAW with their incessant petty work-rule nonsense with them," he wrote. "Those idiots shut down GM in the summer over some ridiculous issues totally oblivious to the disaster upcoming."
Yes, Robert, they did.
"Good luck," he added. "You will need it."
Yes, that too. A more contemporary understanding of Detroit's new metal also would help, but that's probably too much to expect when generalizations rooted in personal experience can suffice -- and show Detroit, yet again, just how problematic its revival truly will be among fellow Americans.
Was there anything in the article that indicated GM sales, *overall* were up after the Bush announcement? Your title is not supported by the contents of the story unless I've missed it.
I wonder if the GM market share will go up or down in December and January?
Sounds like a general US trade association that is probably 50% D3. I didn't see any quotes from the J3 in the article. The imports may very well be worried about suppliers, but an an all-US trade association's statement is not the same as "imports reiterating...". The article had no quotes from Honda, Toyota, or Nissan saying anything to that effect. Only vague attribution from third parties.
While GM was trumpeting the Volt, Ford was quietly designing a competitive hybrid.
Malibu hybrid is definitely spanked. Fusion Hybrid may end up being the next Car of the Year, not just for being the best hybrid midsize around, but for bailing out Ford from within. If they can get the message out, get people to come in to the dealers and consider it (let's face it, some people are too sour on the D3 to even consider it)...word is it's a great midsize in general too, though we'll have to see how it holds up against Accord and Altima. AWD availability is a nice thing that Camry, Accord, and Altima just don't offer, which helps too. I think we may have ourselves a seriously competitive midsize here.
And I DO love Fusion's styling...never liked Camry's looks, Accord's are OK, Altima's are OK, but in both cases I liked the previous generation better.
Again, so that we don't think you're just spinning, your title says "imports reiterate supplier issue". The quotes were from an association representing Toyota, Honda, Nissan and 11 other automakers.
Sounds like a general US trade association that is probably 50% D3. I didn't see any quotes from the J3 in the article.
It is a trade association made up of all auto makers in the US EXCEPT the big 3. I have posted Toyota qoutes that agree with the subject matter here before.
It will be interesting to see if those who have clamored for more fuel-efficient vehicles from American automakers and less reliance on foreign oil will support these Ford hybrids by actually buying one when the cars go on sale in early 2009.
Ford also emphasized that the Fusion Hybrid’s E.P.A. rating bests its main competitor, the Toyota Camry Hybrid, by “8 m.p.g. in the city and 2 m.p.g. on the highway.” The Fusion’s city rating also is one mile a gallon better than the Honda Civic Hybrid. The Fusion also crushes anything General Motors and Chrysler have to offer.
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/ford-fusion-hybrid-is-rated-at-41-mpg- /?hp
If it has a bigger trunk than the cramped Camry Hybrid it should outsell the Toyota offering. It is better looking than any of the competitors. It is fitting that Ford should end up the standard bearer for AMERICAN AUTO MAKING. So long GM :sick:
I read somewhere that the Fusion hybrid only has a 12 cubic foot trunk. That's pretty bad for a midsized car, but not for a midsized hybrid that's based on an existing car. In contrast, the Camry hybrid has an 11 cubic foot trunk, and the Altima only has a 10 cubic foot trunk!
The Malibu hybrid has a 15 cubic foot trunk, probably because it's that "mild hybrid" system that probably doesn't take up as much space for batteries, I'm guessing.
See, it IS possible for an American company to compete, innovate, and dominate. Unfortunately, GM is not that company.
GM had the lead with the EV-1 and development of the NiMH battery used in all the Hybrids. They threw it all away to satisfy the 1990s Me generation's lust for the Big SUVs. GM 40 years ago was a leader. Toyota among others copied GM engine designs and who knows what else. They got lazy and lost the drive to be number one. Well now they are no longer number one. I don't think they will be able to hang on as number two much longer.
I've received some hate filled comments at other sites saying that I'm evil, unpatriotic, etc, etc. Some even suggested that I'm a terrorist wishing harm to US economy for not supporting the D3. Yeah, whatever.
Here's the deal, I have issues with the D3 asking for taxpayers money to save them. It's their problem, not ours, and we shouldn't be penalized for it. The same goes to bailing out the banks, I dont support it either. Buy and takeover the banks and companies if the government must, but dont give them money with no strings attached.
Without this bailout issue, I simply don't care if the D3 goes bust. What's the point supporting the D3 when they dont even bother giving us what we want, high-quality products that we can actually cross-shop with the imports. I won't bother supporting arrogance, greed, lazyness and corrupt minds the D3 are all about. It's made in America so we have to support it? Please.... (well, at least Ford is finally learning a lesson)
The only reason I'm being soft in my views is because of the current state of the economy. Otherwise, I'd say drop dead, period.
Toyota is actually pretty pigheaded. It got the first wakeup call when the 2003 Altima hit it, hard. They woke up, for about a second and then went back to sleep. The Malibu didnt do a good job. I'm curious to see if the Fusion will be able to kick Toyota harder in the nut.