FastLane

1941 Chevrolet Special Deluxe Sport Sedan

Happy holidays from GM Blogs.

-Alicia Dorset, blog editor

By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

Hello, everyone. The original purpose of the post was to send the warmest of season’s greetings to all of you, and wish you a happy and healthy 2007. But, as usual, there’s more on my mind than that.

So while the holiday greetings from us to you are first and foremost and sincere, I also feel the need to comment on recent talk centering on possible revisions to the government’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. There is now a team of “independent CEOs”, most of them in the transportation business, that has recommended a 4% per year increase in the standard.

My feelings on CAFE are well-known; I’m the guy on record who compared forcing automakers to sell smaller cars to improve fuel economy with fighting the nation’s obesity problem by forcing clothing manufacturers to sell garments in only small sizes.

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By Steve Shannon
General Manager, Buick

It’s great to read all your comments about Buick and its rich heritage for styling and innovation. It’s funny, I was writing about just one aspect of Buick’s business — China — and it appears that many are not that familiar with what is going on in the U.S.

Since 2004, we have been steadily rebuilding the Buick brand, brick by brick, with vastly improved products that signal a renewal of Buick in the U.S.

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Take a look at FYI for an article by Mark Phelan, Detroit Free Press automotive critic, on GM and the EV1, and introduction by GM’s Brian Akre.

-Alicia Dorset

Peter Gilbert and Jay Spenchian

By Jay Spenchian
General Manager, Saab Automobile USA

One million miles, one car and one single owner — that’s quite a story and one long-running affair! Peter Gilbert and his 1989 Edwardian Gray Saab 900 SPG are the couple in question.

Knowing what I know about Saabs, I wasn’t surprised to learn that it still has its original engine and turbo. I was able to ride with him as it rolled over during this year’s North American Saab Owners Convention in Lake George, N.Y. We also snapped a shot of the odometer as it hit a million. It was such a cool experience for me to share this milestone with a diehard Saab owner and for it to happen in front of a bunch of other Saab loyalists.

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The 2007 GMC Acadia

By John Larson
GMC General Manager

Last week, my GMC team, our Vehicle Line team colleagues and I got the chance to ride in the all-new 2007 GMC Acadia with about 60 journalists and analysts from around the United States and Canada. In fact, we showcased all GMC’s trucks — from the Canyon to the Yukon XL — to demonstrate the depth and breadth of the GMC lineup.

The Acadia, which I posted about last July when we unveiled it to the press, is the newest member of GMC’s stable of Professional Grade trucks. We believe that adding a crossover SUV, which is the largest growing segment of the market, is a natural extension of the GMC brand. A brand, by the way, that is 104 years old.

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The Buick Royaum at Auto Shanghai 2005

By Steve Shannon
General Manager, Buick

Have you been to Shanghai lately? It’s a young, vibrant, dynamic and technologically advanced city. And, believe it or not, it’s also a city where Buick is a very popular brand.

Few of us think of Buicks being sold anywhere but in the U.S, because Buick is seen as a distinctly American brand. However, Buick is one of the best selling auto brands in Shanghai and in China as a whole.

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By Bob Lutz
GM Vice Chairman

Lots of minivan talk going on… let me just make one thing clear: Nobody said GM is getting out of the minivan business forever. We simply pulled a minivan option out of the running for one of our architectures. We reserve the right to initiate whatever future product programs we feel the market desires, up to and including new generations of minivans if we deem them necessary and desirable.

That’s really the key to everything, of course: the market. And we think the case for another new entry at this point in a market that is trending away from minivans just doesn’t make a lot of sense.

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By Alicia Dorset
Blog editor

Don’t forget to check out our Flickr albums for this month’s calendar. December features a photo of the GM Design Center and a 1966 Camaro from the GM Media Archive.

By Bob Lange
Executive Director, Vehicle Structure and Safety Integration

I woke up about 4:15 this morning, which is rare because I usually sleep really well and the alarm usually is set for 5 a.m. But I was pretty excited about coming to work today because it is opening day for our new Rollover Crash Facility. This is really huge for several reasons, but the biggest ones are making our vehicles safer and learning more about what causes injuries in rollover crash.

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