GM And Teijin Hope To Bring Carbon Fiber To The Masses

Carbon fiber is incredibly light, incredibly strong and also incredibly expensive. The materials used to make carbon fiber components aren’t particularly rare or pricey, but the conventional manufacturing process is labor intensive, requiring specialized industrial equipment to produce light but strong parts. There have been recent breakthroughs in material science, such as the carbon composites developed between Boeing, the University of Washington and Lamborghini, but these are still priced beyond practical implementation in the average family sedan. Read more

GM To Partner With BMW On Fuel Efficient Designs

While GM and BMW are both automakers, you’d hardly consider them rivals. GM builds, among other things, cars and trucks for the masses. BMW builds cars for the masses in Europe, but in the United States the Bavarian automaker is seen as a luxury brand and is priced accordingly. In regards to fuel efficiency, BMW builds more advanced gas and diesel engines than GM. When it comes to extended range EVs, General Motors has the superior technology. Read more

Big Brother Is Watching: OnStar’s New Terms & Conditions

If you subscribe to the OnStar telematics system, chances are good that you ignored a recent e-mail about changes to terms and conditions. If you haven’t already binned the e-mail, we suggest you read it carefully: as The New York Times points out, the changes could have a dramatic impact on your privacy behind the wheel. Read more

Buick Ups The Horsepower On The Regal GS

The Buick Regal Turbo is a reasonably good car, and one worth shopping if you’re in the market for a sporty mid-size sedan. It’s difficult for me to throw “sporty” and “Buick” out in the same sentence, but in the case of the Regal, it fits. I’d stop short of calling it a “sport sedan”, since the above average chassis was let down by a less-than-thrilling engine. The Regal Turbo makes do with a 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder, good for 220 horsepower and 258 foot-pounds of torque. In a small car, that could be fun; in the Buick Regal, it’s merely adequate. Read more

GM To Add 750 Jobs In Flint

It wasn’t too long ago that all the news related to U.S. automakers was negative. Things have changed in recent months, and GM is now the second of the big 3 U.S. automakers to announce significant hiring plans for the immediate future. General Motors announced on Monday that they would be adding a third shift to the Flint Assembly plant, which builds both the GMC Sierra and the Chevy Silverado heavy-duty pickups. The third shift is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2011, with workers arriving for training in the second quarter. Read more

Koenigsegg Could Be Buyer of Saab

Speculation is arising that Koenigsegg, the Swedish supercar maker, is obtaining Saab from GM. As part of GM’s road back to financial health, they have slapped a for-sale sign on the Saab brand some time ago.

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GM Agrees to Sell Saturn Brand to Penske

Saturn owners are some of the most loyal automotive consumers that you will find. The initiation of that same type of loyalty was rolled out in a car company that was just “different” as their slogan stated at one time, “Saturn: A Different Kind of Car Company”.

Current owners of Saturn vehicles begged and pleaded for General Motors not to sell the brand off but despite all of the efforts and GM’s current bankruptcy status, the Saturn brand has to find a new owner. Since the bankruptcy status of General Motors has taken first place in recent news headlines, we witness massive changes in what was one of the biggest automotive companies around. General Motors has said today that they will agree to sell the Saturn brand to Penske. As you may already know, Penske is owned and run by entrepreneur Roger Penske, who seeks to purchase Saturn for $100 to $200 million.

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Hummer Brand Being Sold to Chinese Machinery Company

Just yesterday we announced General Motors filing chapter 11 bankruptcy and just today they have found a buyer for the Hummer brand. Hummer will continue to live on through a Chinese industrial firm.

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