Happy Holidays

December 25th, 2006

Cars & Trucks

1941 Chevrolet Special Deluxe Sport Sedan

Happy holidays from GM Blogs.

-Alicia Dorset, blog editor

Posted in Cars & Trucks

32 Comments

December 26th, 2006 at 2:04 pm
getalifeagain

Merry Christmas Santa.
December 26th, 2006 at 2:10 pm
noel park

This reminds me of a book we got from Steve Earle at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races about the life of the great Juan Manuel Fangio.

Before becoming a World Champion Grand Prix driver, he made his fame driving 2 door versions of this same vintage of Chevrolet in 2000 mile plus road races which were held in those days in South America.

The roads were all dirt, including hundreds of miles through the Andes which were actually all rocks. The cars were hardly modified at all, unlike the off road racers of today.

It is a stunning testmony to the ruggedness of these old Chevys, and a to the priceless heritage of Chevrolet.

Please do not let all of this be lost.

You have a priceless resource in these bloggers. Whether you, or Mr. Lutz, agree with all of their comments or not, they represent a substantial segment of the population, me included, who care passionately enough about the survival of GM to pay attention to this and try to contribute.

So, Happy Holidays to all of you at GM, and to all of you awesome bloggers! Keep it up in 2007, and maybe we can help the General to find its way.
December 26th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Gerald

Merry christmas and happy new year in advance too. I have been really busy for last few days and couldnt get time to read everything on GM fastlane but i am catching up. BTW congratulations on this http://www.carsnaps.com/news.php?id=48 no doubt thats a great achivement of GM
December 26th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
Jon

Merry Christmas to you too.
What I want for Christmas from GM is:

–A Cadillac S-class competitor eventually.

–The Cadillac Sixteen and Coupe version to compete with the Bentley Continental GT and Flying Spur.

–IRS on the Escalade and an interior to beat the Range Rover.

and finally,

–That GM catch-up to the rest of the world in technological innovations.
For too long, GM has faltered while DSGs, variable turbos, VTECS and the like, have been invented elsewhere.
What happened tot he company that brought us fully automatic climate control? Or the world’s first fully-automatic gearbox?

P.S. I have been “good” this year.
December 26th, 2006 at 7:13 pm
Andy

Where are the environmentalists complaining about global warming and all the snow vanishing?
December 26th, 2006 at 11:16 pm
Edward Hayes

Merry Christmas to all of you!

We can do a retro Chevy, it don’t have to be Buick, although it’s popularity will afford GM doing both. Trickle down economics or trickle up.

On the Christmas cards today they don’t put images of cars from today on them, they usually are cars like this painted in a shiny black coat under a frosty night glow of a street lantern from the same era. Well, it was just a better time, do you get the picture?

Well thank goodness, New York City and other forward looking cities rendered modern lights of the 70’s to the scrap heap in favor of those street lights from its heritage. Quite frankly, I would not mind if GM did the same with the automobile.

You know it’s funny how in life everything seems to come full circle. Lutz returns to GM. Great design along with him returns to Detroit. Tall (10 feet high) prairie grass returns to the grasslands as the most efficient source of ethanol in the future along with the roaming bison. The farm economy is restored through those efforts and the heartland turns up golden once again. And the tall American automobile returns to America’s roads running on fuel from our own land once again.

How special is that?

You know this vision is not far off, did you read the article about the Michigan corn farmers windfall? In the Detroit freep.com article it says farmers made on average an additional $20,000 on higher corn prices due to ethanol this year.

In Illinois where there are 6 existing ethanol factories there have been no less that 40, I said 40 applications in that state to make new ethanol facilities.

In short.

This vision is almost complete we are just waiting on GM.
December 27th, 2006 at 7:49 am
Chris McKinney

I was reading in the free press that Bob Lutz said if new fuel efficiency standards go into play for trucks and suvs gm will loose the market to japanese auto makers. It said something to that effect anyway. Anyway, so are you saying GM can’t make trucks and suv’s as fuell efficient as japanese auto makers can? Maybe you need to stop and take a new look at the kind of cars your making because gas guzzling monsters obviously isn’t going to work anymore.
December 27th, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Brian Smith

The way I interpreted Mr. Lutz’s comments were that the market, not the government, should determine whether or not fuel economy is important as a deciding factor in their vehicles. CAFE standards are artificial benchmarks that create abrupt changes in the marketplace by forcing manufacturers to address issues that may or may not impact their sales. GM has shown that it can more than compete in the area of SUVs, but the way that CAFE standards are constructed, foreign competitors that have an advantage in small cars can use the credits from small cars to off-set their disadvantage in larger vehicles. CAFE standards applied against the entire line of vehicles. So, for instance, the fuel savings in the Prius, against which GM has no direct competing vehicles, can be used as a credit to offset the poorer fuel economy performance of its full size trucks and SUVs.

If the government wants to improve the fuel efficiency of vehicles, it can do so by upping the federal and state gas taxes, which are more fair to manufacturers than the CAFE standards.
December 27th, 2006 at 12:23 pm
Jon

I was reading in the free press that Bob Lutz said if new fuel efficiency standards go into play for trucks and suvs gm will loose the market to japanese auto makers. It said something to that effect anyway. Anyway, so are you saying GM can’t make trucks and suv’s as fuell efficient as japanese auto makers can? Maybe you need to stop and take a new look at the kind of cars your making because gas guzzling monsters obviously isn’t going to work anymore.

Posted by: Chris McKinney on December 27, 2006 07:49 AM
===========================

Chris, please show us which Japanese trucks get better fuel economy than any GM comparable sized truck.
December 27th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
obriend

I know a few people who work (or worked) at GM (engineering, marketing, management types), and it’s true that most of them have no idea what a 2 year old car is!

I have said in the past that GM engineers and management should be forced to buy Hondas, BMWs, Toyotas, etc. and drive them everyday. Sure, the parking rules at GM headquarters and it’s plants would have to change (what a joke), but the people in charge could see first hand why AVERAGE Americans (not just crazy Californians) choose a competitor’s car over their’s.

Likewise, eliminating the GM perk car may also serve to remind them what a POS their car usually becomes at 3.001 years and 36001 miles.

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/showpost.php?p=875801&postcount=160
December 27th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
noel park

Any politician or senior public employee will tell you that every person who takes the time and trouble to call or write a letter on any issue represents at least several hundred others who feel the same way but will not take that time and trouble.

I don’t think any of this is about anyone feeling big headed because their name shows up on a bleeping blog. Anyone can post on a blog - that doesn’t make any of us special, least of all me.

I think that this is about the GM faithful desperately trying to do what little they can to help to save the corporation.

I have to say it one more time. The comments on this thread, and the ones on the previous post about Mr. Lutz’s rantings re CAFE, etc, are really impressive. I am almost embarrassed by my puny efforts in the face of many of yours.

GM had d*** well better pay attention to you, or they will go the way of the dodo bird.
December 28th, 2006 at 1:24 am
mrbill

Bob, a good present for us would help revive the Buick nameplate. Lets get on with the new GNX as seen in the photoshop at Hot Rodding mag. Based on the Zeta platform reardrive and could be made on the current Holden set up. Start with a V6 and move up to the 6.0 liter V8. 6 speed auto and 6 speed manual etc. Lets get the vibes moving again.

Thanks
December 28th, 2006 at 11:58 am
MOOSTOPHA

i agree that we have some of the best products we’ve ever had. at least in my twelve years in the car business. we just don’t have that traffic driving, gotta have type of vehicle that drives people to my lot. my store is having the worst year we’ve had in 10 years. the new trucks are awesome!! but……… you know what people are saying? “wow!! great looking truck!! what are the rebates??” i say none. ” well, i’ll wait until they put some incentives on them. you know they will……………..” the customer leaves. what we are going through is a weening process that is going to take years to complete. people are waiting on 0% for 72 on the new 900 tahoes. i’m telling you this from the front lines. i see this stuff on a daily basis. the only thing i know to do is tough it out and be glad that i put some money back when things were good after 9/11.
http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/showpost.php?p=876658&postcount=10
December 28th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
Jon

Dear Bob,
Can GM bring back the station wagon on Lamda or Zeta?
I am thinking about something along the lines of the Nissan Stagea:

http://img459.imageshack.us/img459/567/nissanstagea1721024×768sx4.jpg

With much of the size of the station wagons of yore!

I really think an expertly-styled wagon would do well for Chevrolet.
And not just a mini-ute or a derivative either.
December 28th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Edward Hayes

Just saw the new Chevy Malibu. It’s a beauty. I do love the special attention to the interior and the effort to make the three color options of gray, black and tan each beautiful as can be. As a consumer I would be happy with either of the three and that is how it should be.

I know the bloggers seem to rant about GM not responding to gas prices but if you look at the Camry over the past 30 years it continues to grow. From a compact to a mid-size, growing and bulging trunk and hood seating and belt-line getting taller. They sell a couple of million of them then send 1 or 2 new subcompacts and a hybrid to divert attention from the fact that their best selling car is getting bloated.

So we Americas talk a good diet but still are the heaviest people in the world. Believe me, we say we are but we are not getting in no smaller cars. We are concerned with the environment but representing 6% of the world’s population still consume 50% of the resources.

In the end it’s just as I said from the beginning and nothing has changed.

What does the consumer want???

EVERYTHING! We want the cake and we want to eat it too.

And GM is a company uniquely positioned to offer just that.

Like McDonalds expand the menu but keep the same winning recipe.

Lutz we are not out of ideas we are just getting started…to offer everything.

1. HEED- what the customer wants. Hydrogen, hybrid, electric ethanol diesel

2. small to large. Do a subcompact and do the large as well, including a larger retro vehicles, big vehicles always sell better than small it’s just common sense.

3. modern to retro. Do it all, no other automaker has as much heritage as GM use it, it may be your only advantage and at the same time your Ace in the hole. Build a brand around it or offer one to Chevy and Buick.

4. Rhythm You have to have a steady beat or pattern and schedule to restyle all of your vehicles. Each product should be on the 1, 2, or 3 year restyle pattern. And each should have the 4,5, or 6 total redesign schedule. Like Toyota, we cannot forget any of your vehicles.

5. Don’t abandon any niche. After all, the only thing the automobile industry is is a plethora of niches.

6. Take back design leadership.

7. Take back technology leadership.

8. Continue uplifting the vocabulary of your brands. As Redlines Greenlines and Euro style do for Saturn lets put Heritage, flat floors, high belt-line, fender flares back into Buick’s design vocabulary and so on.

9. Don’t sit on great concepts. Build the Holden FJ Efigy. What? We are just going to look at it. GM right now has the answer to all its design problems in the Velite the Chevy WTCC, the Efigy, H3T, and so on that it need not take a back seat to no one.

10. Don’t let them get to you Bob and GM.

You saved the company you turned things around, you doubled your stock price, you are increasing your market share, you are exploding in China, you are changing perceptions, you are helping us grow ethanol and best of all,

YOU PROVED ALL OF THEM WRONG!!!

Just like I said you would over a year ago.

I said it then and I will say it again…

May God continue to bless GM with the incomparable business savvy of Rick Wagoner, the best product guru since the 60’s Bob Lutz and the greatest group of designers, engineers and workers in the world.

Happy New Year.

And lets do it again.
December 28th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
HotCarNut

I love the idea of a complete line of retro automobiles. That follows the trend of the last few years in hot rodding, where people take classic designs and put them on thoroughly modern chassis and drivetrains. You get the styles of your dreams and performance that blows away that car of 30 years ago. Let’s face it, a lot of today’s sedans have more bhp and torque than many of the muscle cars ever did. Plus they generally handle and stop better than those cars could have dreamed of. About the only thing that modern cars lack is the soul of those classics; the timeless designs that keep those cars on postcards.
December 29th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
Anxious in Arizona

Bob Lutz,Arizona (Phoenix and Scottsdale) are predominetly Mercedes,Bmw,Lexus,Toyota and Honda country.The Cadillac Escalade is the predominate Gm vehicle. The Saturn sky is drawing great interest here. The problem is our Scottsdale dealer can’t seem to inform those of us that ordered back in Sept. if our vehicles will be scheduled in 2007 or not.They have 80 plus orders and there allocation is one or two a month.What hope have I to get my vehicle built in 2007 ? The math doesn’t support 2007 delivery.Just want the truth.
December 30th, 2006 at 11:01 am
mbukukanyau

You know, I have sold two Escalades in the last month for GM and Bought a HHR myself this year (2006). And those are aganist a Porsche Cayyene and a Range Rover and X5. I am about to sell a third one.
I do not work at a Dealership, and I am not a sales person. These are just conversations I have with my monied friends. Who swear by their BMW’s Acura’s and Toyota’s…and say they would never ever consinder a Domestic…

I think GM would not take me Seriously, when I tell them on GM Blog that my HHR should have had a Nav. I would have loved a factory Nav for my HHR and would have paid full price for it.. BUT GM does not offer it.

A Malibu would be a tough sell for some of my friends driving Camry’s without a NAV.

I completely understand what you mean when u say GM is out of touch with the Street, and does not understand new trends…
http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/showpost.php?p=879200&postcount=28
December 31st, 2006 at 1:00 pm
kurtW

Happy Holidays, GM Bloggers!

And as GM further improves its vehicles in 2007, lets hope a new years resolution will be to make performance parts and vehicle upgrades more widely available to owners of existing GM vehicles. It seems rather silly for us to dispose an entire automobile simply because of one minor change (like the Dodged Viper boys will be doing now that the 2008 version offers 600 HP). Being able to better customize with factory approved parts makes a lot more sense.
January 1st, 2007 at 10:27 am
AD

Geeez, a Christmas greeting and the usual cast of characters and experts show up.

Hey at least GM isn’t in open collusion with a home government to mess with currency values. If they gotta lie about the money why trust them to be telling the truth about their product?
January 2nd, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Joe Sandoval

Hey!!

You guys took my suggestion! It must have been ,I don’t know, a year ago everybody was talking about how they wanted a new 10,000HP atomic powered Camaro. I wrote in saying all I wanted was a 240HP AWD sport tuned suspensioned Chevy Equinox, and presto!! the 2008 Equinox Sport. Now I won’t demand payment for giving you guys the idea or anything, but I’ll take a ‘08 Eq Sport if you got one lyin’ around I’ll let you guys choose the color.
Happy New Year!!

P.S. “Pontiac Torrent Formula” sounds nice,doesn’t it. Do I gotta do ALL the work around here!
January 3rd, 2007 at 2:03 am
John

So, after posting on this board for many months now, generally with unsolicited advice on how GM can do better, I seem to have talked one of my close friends into buying a Saturn Sky.

She doesn’t care about practicality or performance or even trunk space, she just wants something cool for about $25k.

So, with that in mind, I told her to check out the Pontiac Solstice / Saturn Sky, as despite their shortcomings, they are two of the prettiest cars on the road.

So she’s completely fallen in love with the Sky.

The only problem? She can’t find one.

She’s ready to buy one this week if she can find one in Silver Graphite, with BLACK leather seats, and NO spoiler from a dealer that’s not into price gouging. (Auto or manual are fine, LSD is ok, the other options are unnecessary.)

If there are any dealers out there with a car that meets this criteria, or if GM can help me get a lead on a car that meets this description, I’d be most grateful.

I can be reached at jbinwestla [at] hotmail [dot] com .

Thanks for your time.
January 3rd, 2007 at 9:48 am
PrenupTB

I want to have a serious discussion here. When is GM going to get serious with Cadillac and tell its dealers to renovate. Some of these Caddy dealerships are horrendous looking. The one close to me is called Allen Cadillac. I’m almost positive this thing was built in the 50’s. The GMC dealership next door is even worse. This is in OC people. Where luxury cars and image are huge. I’m tired of seeing better looking Hyundai dealerships than cadillac. When will GM wake up and tell its dealerships they must change or else. At this rate, Cadillac will never be taken seriously.
January 3rd, 2007 at 5:17 pm
boblutzfan

Chrysler introduced these back in September 2003 - GM and Ford tried for 24 years to crack the code and finally gave up. KIA comes in and figures it out by their second generation van…after just a four year attempt. GM should be ashamed and embarrassed.

Honda took just two attempts to get it right and are now on the second generation of the right formula - which has resulted in their being #2 in sales behind DCX. Toyota took four attempts to get the size and powertrain right - but they kept trying - now they are #3 in sales behind DCX #1 and Honda #2. It will be just GM and Ford folks who will claim this segment is dieing. It isn’t…they just walked away.

GM tried the Astro, then the dust buster vans, then the CSVs then gave up…They never really tried to copy the size and features of the DCX vans - and as a result the worlds largest auto manufacturer failed at this very lucrative segment.
January 3rd, 2007 at 5:41 pm
LAMRONH

You are correctomundo.
Humans are emotional beings. We narcissistically pat ourselves on the back and call ourselves the rational animal, but once we get past balancing the checkbook, logic takes a back seat IMO.
If GM had only been listening to and living the old maxims like “a stitch in time saves nine,” “one bad apple spoils the barrel,” “do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” they would not be in the fix they are today.
It’s going to take leapfrogging product, class dealerships, and clever advertising to do that. And 0-for-3 is not the road to a batting title.

So, who wants to place bets on the new Accord vs. the new Malibu regarding quality, performance, comparo results…?
January 4th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
David

“I was reading in the free press that Bob Lutz said if new fuel efficiency standards go into play for trucks and suvs gm will loose the market to japanese auto makers. It said something to that effect anyway. Anyway, so are you saying GM can’t make trucks and suv’s as fuell efficient as japanese auto makers can? Maybe you need to stop and take a new look at the kind of cars your making because gas guzzling monsters obviously isn’t going to work anymore.”

Ahem- in case you haven’t noticed; GM’s fuel economy for full size trucks FAR Exceeds that of it’s Japanese comptetition. In the Full Size Truck class the “gas guzzling monsters” are made by Nissan and Toyota.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:07 am
Robert Wilson

A batting title is won over nearly one thousand at bats and includes many 0 for 3 performances. You have no idea what this organization is capable of and obviously are oblivious to what it has contributed to this world over the last 100 years. Just sit back and watch then go out and actually drive one of the vehicles.
January 5th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
noel park

The fact that GM full sized truck and SUVs get better mileage that the equivalent Toyotas and Nissans is great, but it clearly doen’t solve the greater problem.

Note yesterday’s L.A. Times business section article “Toyota speeds past Chrysler”, subtitle “U.S. automakers’ sales slump in 2006.”

You can make the greatest trucks and SUVs in the world but, if you can’t sell enough of them to carry the overhead, the business model is not sustainable.
January 7th, 2007 at 8:11 am
joseph quick

I would like to replace my 1994 suburban 2500 diesel with a new diesel suburban when will this be available?

thankyou Joe
January 8th, 2007 at 8:44 am
m

Yeah, there has been a huge case of denial among GM diehards since I’ve been here (1999). The thing that gets me is that before the car comes out it is going to crush the competition and then when it doesn’t the battle cry changes to “wait until next year”. Its like a rancid disease. It used to be funny, but it isn’t anymore it is rather sad.

M
January 10th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
bernard a. sznaider

you may want to read the book,”Japan in the passing lane”, by kamata satoshi if you fear the Toyota may pass G.M. in the future.
April 6th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
keith

i would love to buy a malibu but the leather seats in two tone just dont do it for me why is there no choice for solid black leather interior i think this is a big mistake not to offer this option

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Happy Holidays

32 Comments

noel park

Gerald

Jon

Andy

Edward Hayes

Chris McKinney

Brian Smith

Jon

noel park

mrbill

Jon

Edward Hayes

HotCarNut

Anxious in Arizona

mbukukanyau

kurtW

AD

Joe Sandoval

John

David

Robert Wilson

noel park

joseph quick

bernard a. sznaider

keith

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