Filed under: Sedan, Europe, Crossover, Buick, GM, Opel

To help build the Buick brand, General Motors has turned the Opel Insignia into a Buick Regal, and in the fall, the Astra will become the 2012 Verano. These new products are proving to be a shot in the arm for Buick, but will the magic work the other way around?

According to a new report by GMInsideNews, we may soon find out. The site claims that The General will make room in the Opel lineup for the next Buick Enclave and LaCrosse. The move would likely make sense from a cost perspective, giving GM economies of scale thanks to increased production, while also adding to the Opel lineup without significant engineering expenditures. The General could also take advantage of its global footprint by building the Opel version of the LaCrosse or Enclave in the U.S. or even China, where labor is cheaper than in Germany.

Can GM succeed in turning the LaCrosse and Enclave into future Opel models? Hard to say, really. On one hand, if GM pursues this path, it will likely reap substantial savings from shared engineering costs between Buick and Opel. On the other hand, the Enclave and LaCrosse are quite large for most European cities and tastes, and GM will need to offer competent diesel and four-cylinder petrol powertrains for the models to have a shot at strong sales.

Opel to get next-gen Buick Enclave and LaCrosse originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sedan, Europe, Crossover, Buick, GM, Opel

To help build the Buick brand, General Motors has turned the Opel Insignia into a Buick Regal, and in the fall, the Astra will become the 2012 Verano. These new products are proving to be a shot in the arm for Buick, but will the magic work the other way around?

According to a new report by GMInsideNews, we may soon find out. The site claims that The General will make room in the Opel lineup for the next Buick Enclave and LaCrosse. The move would likely make sense from a cost perspective, giving GM economies of scale thanks to increased production, while also adding to the Opel lineup without significant engineering expenditures. The General could also take advantage of its global footprint by building the Opel version of the LaCrosse or Enclave in the U.S. or even China, where labor is cheaper than in Germany.

Can GM succeed in turning the LaCrosse and Enclave into future Opel models? Hard to say, really. On one hand, if GM pursues this path, it will likely reap substantial savings from shared engineering costs between Buick and Opel. On the other hand, the Enclave and LaCrosse are quite large for most European cities and tastes, and GM will need to offer competent diesel and four-cylinder petrol powertrains for the models to have a shot at strong sales.

Opel to get next-gen Buick Enclave and LaCrosse originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sedan, Europe, Crossover, Buick, GM, Opel

To help build the Buick brand, General Motors has turned the Opel Insignia into a Buick Regal, and in the fall, the Astra will become the 2012 Verano. These new products are proving to be a shot in the arm for Buick, but will the magic work the other way around?

According to a new report by GMInsideNews, we may soon find out. The site claims that The General will make room in the Opel lineup for the next Buick Enclave and LaCrosse. The move would likely make sense from a cost perspective, giving GM economies of scale thanks to increased production, while also adding to the Opel lineup without significant engineering expenditures. The General could also take advantage of its global footprint by building the Opel version of the LaCrosse or Enclave in the U.S. or even China, where labor is cheaper than in Germany.

Can GM succeed in turning the LaCrosse and Enclave into future Opel models? Hard to say, really. On one hand, if GM pursues this path, it will likely reap substantial savings from shared engineering costs between Buick and Opel. On the other hand, the Enclave and LaCrosse are quite large for most European cities and tastes, and GM will need to offer competent diesel and four-cylinder petrol powertrains for the models to have a shot at strong sales.

Opel to get next-gen Buick Enclave and LaCrosse originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, BMW, Buick, Chevrolet, GM, GMC, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota

For the 2011 model year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has implemented tougher crash testing procedures that make it more difficult for vehicles to receive a five-star rating. The new test is known as the NCAP, or New Car Assessment Program, and the first batch of cars were evaluated earlier in the year. Ten more vehicles have been subjected to the NCAP, and the results are promising... for most.

General Motors received high marks for its Lambda triplets - the Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia - with all three netting five-star ratings. Not all GM products received a gold star, however - the aging Buick Lucerne only received a three-star rating under the new test procedures. Honda's Accord sedan also received a five-star rating, however its main competitor, the Toyota Camry, didn't fare so well. Both the gasoline- and hybrid-powered Camrys only received three stars.

During the first batch of testing the average score was four stars, so the five-star ratings here are good news for GM. Previously, only the Hyundai Sonata (after being revised and retested) and BMW 5 Series received the coveted five-star rating.

The National Highway Safety Traffic Administration plans to test 55 cars in total before the year is over, and the full results of the latest testing can be viewed at SaferCar.gov.

[Source: SaferCar.gov via The Detroit News]

NHTSA releases second batch of crash test ratings under new system originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday, we mentioned Jeff Pulver’s road trip through the Midwest to drum up awareness of the #140conf, which is coming to Detroit in October.

On Sunday, Pulver and his Buick Enclave (Buick is the lead sponsor of the Detroit #140conf) rolled into Cincinnati, visiting startups like Share this Voice and venture accelerators The Brandery, while still finding time to tweetup with folks from Cincinnati’s social media community.

The tweetup, fittingly, was held at a place called the Cadillac Ranch. Gotta love it.

Monday found Jeff rolling through Indiana to Indianapolis for a lunchtime tweetup, then all the way to St. Louis for another tweetup. Then today, more tweetups in Kansas City MO, and Omaha.

Getting tired just thinking about it! Of course, the culmination of all this traveling is a visit to Detroit on Aug. 28, setting the stage for October’s #140conf.

You can keep up with Jeff’s travels on his blog. - Will Stewart, blog editor

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, GM

The Detroit auto industry's annual summer shutdown is a tradition that goes back many decades, but this year, General Motors is taking a pass. It comes from a time when the new model year started in September for every car and they all debuted simultaneously, usually in dealer showrooms. The shutdown was the two week period in the summer during which all the plants installed updated tooling for the new models.

In more recent times, the practice has persisted as a time to do maintenance and other work that might interfere with production - even if it hasn't coincided with the launch of a new model. This year, however, GM's inventories on many models are running so low that nine of the automaker's 11 assembly plants will keep producing vehicles during the designated shutdown period. Among the plants that will stay open are the Detroit-Hamtramck plant that builds the Cadillac DTS, the Delta Township plant builds the Lambda crossovers and the Chevrolet Corvette plant in Bowling Green, KY. Full press release after the jump.

[Source: General Motors]

Continue reading GM nixing summer shutdown, hiring thousands of temps to meet demand

GM nixing summer shutdown, hiring thousands of temps to meet demand originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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