The Showroom New 24 Year Old Buick

Boulevard Buick in Signal Hill, California has probably seen its share of slow-moving units over its 50 years in business...but why has this brand-new 1987 Buick Regal GNX stayed on the showroom floor for almost half that time?

The fascinating story from the Los Angeles times via The Detroit Free Press.

GM To Offer Cordless In-Car Charging

Cell phone charger cords are unsightly and often end up in the way of important stuff like gear shifts, HVAC and audio controls. Now, GM (at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas) is introducing cordless charging technology.

Full story from The Detroit News.

GM Shares OnStar

After 15 years as an almost-exclusive GM offering (Audi offered it briefly about a decade ago), General Motors is making OnStar available through its competitors. Vehicles from Ford, Chrysler, Toyota and Honda will soon feature OnStar, and aftermarket versions will be on the shelves at stores including Best Buy.

While I've consistently said I wouldn't part with 2 grand for a factory nav system, OnStar's list of features and price point make a lot more sense...and upgrades to the system happen on OnStar's end.

Full story at The Detroit News.

Cadillac Kills The SRX Turbo

Fun is fun, but if nobody's showing up for the party, well.....

GM Inside News says it's confirmed that Cadillac is dropping the Turbo model of its SRX crossover. Goodbye, 300 horsepower. But also goodbye, 15 miles per gallon city. Which might have a lot to do with it. As might the publicity garnered last spring when more than one of those turbo engines did its impression of a grenade after suffering the indignity of being fed regular fuel rather than premium.

Full story here.

2011 Cadillac STS Review

Cadillac's upcoming XTS sedan will not only replace the DTS, but the STS as well. What's an STS? Can't blame you...this is another strong sedan that's been neglected in the marketing department and overshadowed by its smaller (and brilliant) sibling, the CTS.

And that's a shame, too....because while the STS never really got to be the BMW 5-Series killer many had hoped it would be, it's a terrific sedan.

Consider the specs:  Available in rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive...a 3.6-liter V6 engine making 302 horsepower and 272 pounds per foot of torque with a six-speed automatic transmission standard...and an EPA mileage rating of 18 city/27 highway.

But, unlike its big brother DTS, you have to dig a bit to find a big discount over the 5-Series. The entry level 5 (the 528i) starts at $45,050...the lowest-rung STS is $47,280. But the STS has 60 more horsepower. Move to erase that deficit, and you're looking at the 300-horsepower (2 less than the Cad) 535i,  and the price tag for that Bimmer is $50,100.

The other weak point for the STS is that Cadillac's been planning its demise for a while...meaning not much has gone into upgrades the past few years...especially in the interior. Nothing's seriously wrong, mind you...it's just that it looks and feels a full generation behind what a 2011 luxury car should look and feel like.  And that's at the $47,280 price point. Start clicking the option boxes and you can get an STS past $60,000 without a lot of strain.

The XTS promises to be quite a car, and, frankly, more of a replacement for the STS than the DTS. The time has come for change. But GM's neglect of upgrades and marketing for the STS deprived a lot of people from discovering this car in its prime...and its dealers of thousands of sales to what would have been satisfied customers.

(review vehicle courtesy Lund Cadillac)

UPDATE: Make That $41,000 For A Single Volt

But that includes delivery charges.

(Cue crickets)

Chevy says it can make the argument that unlike the purely electric Nissan Leaf, which starts below $33,000 before tax credits, the plug-in hybrid Volt is a "real" car. And GM's working some math magic to make lease payments competitive with the Leaf despite the sticker spread.

Full details from The Detroit News.

And full credit to Edward Neidemeyer over at The Truth About Cars , who got past the price tag, hauled out the spec sheet and found the Volt's range extender (what you and I might quaintly call a "gasoline engine") requires.....

Premium fuel.

40,000 Volts Is Quite A Shock. So's One Volt For $40,000

That's the price General Motors has arrived at for its 2011 electric Chevrolet Volt, according to Automotive News (free subscription required).

The announcement comes tomorrow, and the blow will be softened somewhat by a $7,500 tax credit...but, still...$40,000? A chunk above now-retired GM product guy Bob Lutz' prediction of "the upper 20s"...and significantly higher than the Nissan Leaf's $32.780 before tax credits.

Would you? And if not you, then who?

Nice Work, Einstein. University Sues GM Over Use Of Dead Genius' Likeness

The above image is page one of a four-page ad that ran in People magazine last fall to promote the GMC Terrain SUV.

Well, as Rolling Stone once famously said about Jim Morrison of The Doors,

But in Einstein's case "dead" doesn't mean "he can't sue us from beyond the grave". For while Einstein didn't will his body to science (there's dispute whether his brain was preserved against his wishes) and was cremated, Einstein did leave his publicity rights to The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which is suing GM for the unauthorized use of Einstein's image.

General Motors...even the new, smaller, GM, should have a legal staff that knows (or at least can learn) this stuff. The only upside for them? The university is going easy on them. The suit is for $75,000...a little less than two loaded GMC Terrains.

What's Better: "Leadership" or "Excellence"?

GM's ditched its logo from the flanks of its cars and from its advertising. And though you'd have to be of a certain age to recall,  it was once associated with a slogan: "GM. Mark of Excellence".




Well, now Cadillac has put distance between itself and GM in its advertising, yet somehow comes up with a tag line that's derivative of the "Mark of Excellence".



Which begs the question: When spending $40-50K for a midsize luxury sport sedan, do you want "leadership" or "excellence"?  My take: Excellence, thank you very much. And Cadillac's old positioner "Standard of the World" strikes me as promising more of what they need to build if they intend to actually play in BMW, Audi and Mercedes' ballgame.

Oh...and there's this: A big hat tip to Peter DeLorenzo at Autoextremist, who points out that the new Cadillac ads are from the same agency that did this Jaguar spot. See if you can spot the similarities.

On second thought, try to find some differences. It'll take less time.

GM May Buy Back GMAC

As General Motors claws its way back to solvency, it's remembered the good old days when a chunk of the money that literally flowed through its hallways came from its captive financing arm, the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC). So it's thinking about buying it back.

But it's complicated. For one thing, the new owners re-named it two days ago:

For another, the US government owns a chunk of both GM and Ally, oversaw the divestiture, and would have to approve the re-marriage.

For another, most of Chrysler's in-house financing comes through GMAC...er...Ally.

Like we said...it's complicated. As most potential gigabuck enterprises are. The Detroit News has the details.

U.S. Treasury: GM Repaid Loans Properly Through Escrow Account

After an accusation by Senator Charles Grassley that GM repaid its federal loans with federal funds, in effect running a shell game, the U.S. Treasury says not so.

Full story from Bloomberg.

GM Unveils Chevy Volt MPV5 Crossover At Beijing Auto Show

Chevy's getting this PR momentum thing down cold. Just days after WXYZ-TV in Detroit spotted one of the first pre-production sedan models of the electric Chevy Volt parked on the street, the wraps have come off a crossover Volt.

Full details, including more pix and the GM press release at Autoblog Green.

Senator: GM Repaid Federal Loans With Federal Funds

Ed Whitacre may be really happy about General Motors paying off its federal loans ahead of schedule, but Iowa Senator Charles Grassley (can we call him 5.6 Billion Buck Chuck?) is not impressed.

The senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee is calling BS on GM...alleging a shell game in which GM used TARP funds instead of its own earnings to pay back Uncle Sam.

GM and the Treasury Department are denying it. Full story at Automotive News. 

In fact, Whitacre says when it's all said and done, the US will get back its entire $50 billion investment in GM and may even make a profit. Details at The Detroit Free Press.

Chevrolet Camaro RS Review

The wait between thinly disguised show car and production Camaro was so long that a lot of people were predicting the real thing would be a dud...that the public would be bored silly before the first one was sold.

Boy, were they wrong.

No, it's not going to be 1967 all over again, when 220,000 Camaros rolled out of showrooms and into driveways across America...100,000 is probably more like it. But in this day and age, that's an impressive number for a limited-use vehicle (have you tried the back seat?) with two more or less equally attractive direct competitors.

Part of the appeal here has to be the magic Chevy has wrought with the base V6. At 305 horsepower, it's five horsepower more than the '09 Mustang V8, and only ten less than the 2010 Mustang V8. The fact that it can get 29 miles per gallon on the highway no doubt sweetens the deal for newly-green buyers.

And then there's the look. It takes a lot of critical thinking to get past the "Wow!" stage when you walk up to the new Camaro, especially in the right color (ours was the yellow you see above). Once that critical thinking is mustered, though, the only downer is the car seems a bit big...especially if you've been exposed to the first-gen (1967-69) car this one emulates. But the truth is, there's no way to build a car with the capabilities of this one, and the equipment the government mandates and buyers demand and have it be as light and lithe as the ones from 40 years ago.

Inside is where a lot of the "Wow!" factor evaporates. It's dark inside...and it's not helped by the high doors and low roofline that reduce glass space all around. Over time, you get used to it, but you'll never fall in love.

And the cluster of gauges down on the floor console? Well, we've learned way too much about ergonomics and keeping our eyes on the road the past four decades to think that's anything but a gimmick with no real value for the driver.

Ah...driving.

For the purposes of television, I took the RS out to the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving near Phoenix and spent half an hour or so on the autocross track. The RS handles sweetly...especially given its size and weight. The SS, with a heavier 425-horsepower V8 over its nose, probably won't move as nimbly.

Base price starts in the 22s...our tester bottom-lined at $30,160. These days, for this kind of performance, that's a bargain. It goes a long way toward explaining how Camaro is overcoming a late start, stiff competition, a bad economy and a burgeoning "sports cars=bad" mentality with a car that draws its inspiration from before its target buyers were born.

UPDATE: Did another week in another RS recently...this one with a six-speed manual...makes a big difference in performance (which is already stellar)...and kept the  price below $30K ($29,175). EPA estimates 17 city/29 highway.

If only Chevy can fix the interior darkness and visibility issues (beyond suggesting we buy the 2011 Camaro Convertible, that is)

TireKicker Time Machine: 1978 Chevrolet Caprice Classic

(UPDATE:  Sharp-eyed TireKicker reader Paul Duca spotted the clues that this is in fact a newer Caprice. We've been able to narrow it down to 1982, '83, '84 or '85. Hit the comments section if you can help us pinpoint it to a single year. We'll change the headline and tags once we've got the right vintage)

It wasn't that long ago that you couldn't drive a city block without seeing three of these.

Oh, wait...it was that long ago. 32 model years since this '78 Chevrolet Caprice Classic rolled off the showroom floor...20 model years since its clean, classic lines were replaced by the dumpy upside-down bathtub models that themselves are becoming (mercifully) scarce.

                          

Hard to believe it now, but this was the downsized full-size Chevrolet...and GM was thought to be taking a big risk when it introduced this body style in the fall of 1976 as a '77 model. 637 pounds lighter than the previous generation, 10 inches shorter and 4 inches narrower.

What nobody realized until they saw the new one was just how badly the Caprice needed a diet. The big Chevy had been packing on the pounds since 1971 (kinda like Elvis at the time).

The new Caprice rapidly became its own benchmark.

                                  

Even in the desert Southwest, where these were a best-seller and where cars don't rust away, these aren't everyday sights anymore in any condition, which makes finding an intact, clean original all the more wonderful.

The NADA guides suggest $800-$2,000 would be enough to take one in this condition home, if you could find one and an owner who wanted to part with it. The best one on earth might set you back $2,500.

                                  

Back in the 90s, the buzz was that these were being bought up used and shipped by the boatload over to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, where they hated the new 90s Caprice styling even more than we did, liked the looks of this one, knew it was virtually bulletproof (in terms of reliability..."bulletproof" tends to be taken more literally in certain parts of the world) and that its air conditioning system could allow the Caprice Classic to double as a meat locker.

If true (and there do seem to be a lot of ads for them from Kuwait online), let's hope they didn't take too many and that there are plenty still here in the USA...hiding in retirement community garages...their 55-year old buyers now 87 and ready to hang up the keys after finding the Caprice a good home.

GM To Repay Loans Early

General Motors is expected to announce tomorrow that it is repaying $5.8 billion in loans to the U.S. and Canadian governments early. The deadline is in June.

This could pave the way to an Inital Public Offering (IPO) of stock in the "new" GM and the U.S. government getting out of the car business.

Full story at The Detroit Free Press.

Chevrolet Posts Topless Photos To Facebook: 2011 Camaro Convertible

It's just a fact of modern life...drop your top in front of a camera, and it's going to wind up on the internet. But this isn't the work of an ex-boyfriend a disgruntled GM employee...not an invasion of presumed privacy by the long lens of Brenda Priddy.  Nope, Chevrolet has found its inner exhibitionist and outed the 2011 Camaro Convertible with the first official photos (two of them).....on its own Facebook page.

Oh, Chevy, you tease.

Chevy Volt On The Street

The first pre-production Chevrolet Volt electrics (built just last week) are popping up on the street in Detroit.

A crew from ABC affiliate WXYZ-TV caught one parked in the Motor City and has a slideshow here.

2011 Camaro V6 To Mustang: I'll See Your 305 And Raise You 7

A mere two weeks after Ford announced a 305 horsepower rating for the 2011 V6 Mustang, (one more than the 2010 Camaro's 304), the Bowtie Boys are upping the ante by raising the horsepower rating for their six to 312.

Full details (how they did it, new colors, a heads-up display and production date) from the GM press release here....and discussion on the GM Inside News forums here.

                                  

Upgrade your Mustang from a stock hood with aftermarket Mustang hoods from AmericanMuscle.

More Chevy Volts Roll Off Assembly Line

One week after the first "manufacturing validation" example was built, three more Chevolet Volt electrics have rolled off the assembly line. They are the first of a few hundred preproduction models that will be built this spring and summer.

Full details from The Detroit Free Press.