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German Union Wants Opel to Rule Out Redundancies, Sign New Deal by October 26

Opel has been bleeding money for the past 12 years and analysts predict that it will post a total of US$1billion operating losses annually until 2021. General Motors wants to restructure the ailing carmaker and turn it around. This, however, involves not only collaborating with PSA Peugeot Citroen, but some serious cost cutting as well.

Industriegewerkschaft Metall, the Industrial Union of Metalworkers that is (thankfully…) more commonly known as simply IG Metall, is the most prominent union in Germany and has some really serious clout with both manufacturers and the government.

Tumbling sales can be attributed to many factors. Japanese carmakers, though, just can’t seem to get a break as since last year, they have seen their production hurt by an earthquake and a tsunami, a nuclear reactor malfunction and now, a political crisis.

As we have already reported, the dispute between the two countries over the ownership of a group of East China Sea islands has resulted in escalating protests, boycotts and even violence against anything Japanese, from restaurants to automobiles in China.

Following these events, Toyota and Nissan announced that last month they recorded their biggest sales drop in China since 2008. In September, Toyota, Nissan and Honda sales fell by 49, 35 and 41 percent respectively, to 44,100, 76,066 and 33,931 units.

Big may be beautiful, but when reality bites, small can prove to be a choice that makes more sense. High fuel prices, along with the fact that subcompact and compact cars are better than ever have resulted in the small car segment being on track to achieve its best-ever market share since 1993 when it held 20.5 percent of the market.

Last month, sales of small cars exploded by 50 percent compared to the same month in 2011 according to Autodata Corp. As a result, the segment accounted for 20.2 percent of September deliveries, the most since July and August 2009, and 19.3 percent of the market year to date.

In welcome news for Michigan, General Motors announced on Monday that it expects to hire up to 1,500 tech employees over the next few years to staff its new Information Technology Innovation Center located in Warren, just outside of Detroit.

The automaker said that the move is part of a broader plan to overhaul its information technology organization by shifting computer work from outside to a more in-sourced business services model.

Plug-in hybrid vehicles claim to be much more fuel efficient, and thus cheaper to run, than regular models powered only by international combustion engines.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, though; in the case of plug-in hybrids, you have to factor in the energy consumed to charge the battery at your home, which adds to the electricity bill.

General Motors’ OnStar service is currently testing an application that will inform Chevrolet Volt owners about the cost of charging their extended-range plug-in hybrid.

September auto sales were up 13 percent compared to the same month in 2011, according to sales tracker Autodata. This is the best result in the last four years and exceeds even the most optimist analysts’ expectations.

It also raises the automotive industry sales’ Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate (SAAR) projection to 14.9 million. SAAR is determined by dividing the unadjusted annual rate for the month by its seasonality factor, resulting in an adjusted annual rate for the month.

September was the fourth consecutive month, and the seventh month this year, that the SAAR has exceeded 14 million.

Industrial espionage in the United States is on the rise in most sectors. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI) opened 1,212 intellectual property rights cases in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011 – an increase of 66 percent compared to 2009.

The automotive industry is no exception: General Motors, Ford and Toyota have been the targets of such actions, with former employees stealing and sharing information with foreign rivals.

Assistant U.S. attorney Cathleen Corken described a case in which a Ford employee stole thousands of secrets in order to secure a job with another company, according to a report from Automotive News.

The current Chevrolet Impala is the last passenger car still in production in North America to offer a front bench with three-across seating. This will end soon since the brand-new 2014 model year Impala won’t be available with this option.

The front bench was abandoned by almost every carmaker a long time ago. Even the bow-tie brand itself admitted that it was far from popular with Impala buyers, as only one out of 10 ticked the box for this low-cost (US$195) option on the LS and LT trim levels.

Instead of waiting for scoop photographers to spread the word around, General Motors is relying on itself to…shoot pictures of prototypes of its next generation Silverado pickup truck series.

After the release of a single image and a short video of a 2014 Silverado test car dressed in a squiggly wrap and plastic covers back in July, GM returns with a new photo of its full-size pickup truck, this time with less camouflage.

After the U.S. market meltdown, which resulted in General Motors and Chrysler receiving a bailout, the two automakers along with Ford recovered quickly and are now posting near-record profits.

However, it seems that Detroit's Big Three have to face the fact that, even though their sales are blooming in most parts of the world, the European debt crisis will put their local operations in the red.

According to a report from the Detroit News, GM’s Opel/Vauxhall and its French partner PSA Peugeot Citroen, Ford of Europe and Fiat will lose a combined US$4 billion this year because sales in the Old Continent are slumping to their lowest levels since the mid-1990s.

It seems that the 8-speed auto gearboxes that are becoming the norm in premium models and are even trickling down to more affordable cars are still not enough.

The New York Times reports that General Motors and Ford are expected to announce an agreement to jointly develop new automatic transmissions specially designed to reduce fuel consumption as early as in November.

According to sources from both carmakers, Ford and GM are already working on 8-, 9- and 10-speed automatic gearboxes for use in their passenger cars and light trucks.

When it formed an alliance with General Motors last February, PSA Peugeot Citroen, Europe’s second-biggest car manufacturer, said that this would not affect its partnerships with other manufacturers.

Yet according to Agence France-Presse, Peugeot’s head of R&D Gauillaume Faury said that the French group would end its joint venture with BMW on hybrid research that was established in February 2011, and continue with GM instead.

General Motors is pretty serious about maintaining its leading role in China, the world's largest auto market.

On Saturday, September 22, GM and its Chinese partners, which include SAIC, Shanghai GM and the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center, opened the largest automotive proving ground in the country.

All-electric and hybrid car sales so far account for just 3.5 percent of total vehicle sales in the U.S. this year. Not exactly what their makers expected when they launched these models.

At a first glance, the situation is improving for General Motors, as its Volt extended-range hybrid sold a record 2,800 units last month. Year-to-date Volt sales have so far reached 13,000 units, which certainly compares very well to the 7,700 cars that were sold in 2011.

For example, before the discounts, Bunnin Chevrolet in Culver City, California was selling three to five Volts per month. Last month it shifted 36 cars, mostly leases, and sales manager Chad Kelman told The Detroit News that the dealership is having a hard time keeping enough units in stock.

General Motors is evidently placing a lot of focus on the sportier characteristics of the soon-to-be launched 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Turbo, as for the second time in the past couple of months, it has released a video of the car on the track.

Mark Meyers, GM Global Vehicle Performance Manager, tries out the Malibu Turbo LTZ at the Milford Proving Grounds and shares his thoughts about the most potent version of Chevrolet's new mid-size sedan.

Negotiations between the Canadian Auto Workers’ union and Ford resulted in a tentative deal concerning the new four-year contract between the workers and the automaker, averting the proposed strike that would start on Monday midnight if a deal couldn't be reached.

Though the deal still needs to be ratified by the union members, it includes creating 600 new jobs, modifying the two-tier wage system, paying CAW members US$9,234 in bonuses over the life of the contract and eliminating guaranteed cost-of-living wage increases. Moreover, new hires will start at about US$21 an hour, but will receive full wages of about $35 an hour after 10, instead of six, years.

After telling us that the new Buick Encore has received an EPA certification of 28mpg combined, General Motors has now announced pricing for its Nissan Juke-sized small crossover that will arrive in U.S. showrooms in the first quarter of 2013 starting at $24,950, which includes a $750 destination charge (*).

The Encore is offered exclusively with a 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine churning out 138-horsepower (140PS) and 148 lb.-ft. (200Nm) of peak torque. All-wheel drive is available on all models for $1,500.

The Holy Grail in any industry is customer loyalty. All manufacturers are fighting to improve their retention rate, that is, the percentage of customers who, when the time comes to replace a product, will remain loyal to the brand.

The automotive industry is no different. In the U.S. market, the current leader is Toyota, with a 58 percent retention rate. General Motors’ percentage is around 52-53 percent, close to the automotive industry average. Clearly, GM execs think that this should change; and there’s a very good reason for that.

It’s going to a busy time for General Motors and its Buick and GMC brands as the company's executives told dealers today that the two automakers plan to launch nine all-new or "significantly" refreshed models in the next 12 months.

The first models to arrive will be the brand-new Buick Encore small crossover and the revamped GMC Acadia SUV this fall.

In the course of 2013, Buick will introduce the Regal sedan and LaCrosse (most likely facelifts), while GMC, the new Sierra and Sierra HD full-size pickups, as well as the Yukon and Yukon XL full-size SUVs.

During the 2009 bailout, the U.S. Treasury Department invested more than US$50 billion in General Motors through Troubled Asset Relief Program. It currently owns a 26.5 percent stake in the company, a fact that has led bailout and government opponents deriding GM as “Government Motors”.

Now that the company is up and running for good (sans its European operations) reclaiming the number one spot from Toyota in 2011 and is posting profits, it wants to buy back its shares.

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German Union Wants Opel to Rule Out Redundancies, Sign New Deal by October 26

Japanese Automakers May Slash China Production in Half as Sales Plunge Amid Islands Row

Small Cars Sales on the Rise in the U.S., Could Account for 20 Percent of the Market this Year

GM Opens New IT Center in Michigan, Plans on Hiring up to 1,500 People

New GM App Shows Chevy Volt Owners the Real Cost of Charging Their Hybrid at Home

U.S. Car Sales Increase by 13 Percent in September, Market is on its Way to Reach 15 Million Units

U.S. Auto Industry Threatened by Rising Rate of Industrial Espionage

GM Bids Farewell to the Three Across Front Bench Seat with the Chevrolet Impala [w/Video]

GM Drops New Photo of 2014 Chevrolet Silverado with Less Camouflage

Detroit's Big 3 to Record US$4 Billion Combined Losses this Year due to European Car Sales Slump

GM and Ford to Cooperate on Joint Development of 9- and 10-Speed Auto Transmissions

PSA Peugeot Citroen Reportedly Terminates Hybrid Research Partnership with BMW, Continues with GM

General Motors and its Local Partners Build China's Biggest Test Track

August a Record Month for Chevy Volt Sales Thanks to Big Discounts; But is it Really Good News?

Chevrolet Promotes Upcoming 2013 Malibu Turbo with Another Test Track Video

CAW Strikes a Deal with Ford, Gives GM and Chrysler More Time to Make Up Their Minds

New 2013 Buick Encore Priced from $24,950*, Goes on Sale Early Next Year

GM Wants to be the Best in Customer Loyalty, Gain More than US$4 Billion Annually

Buick and GMC to Present Nine New Models in the Next Year Including Regal, LaCrosse and Sierra

U.S. Treasury Department Won’t Sell GM its Shares Back Until the Price is Right

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