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Filed under: Car Buying, Auction Action, Marketing/Advertising, Chrysler, GM, Lexus

Way back in February, General Motors announced it would be listing all of it Certified Pre-Owned vehicles on eBay Motors, and it took until now to actually make that happen. To go along with GM, Chrysler and Lexus have also joined up, with eBay Motors making a special section of its website specifically for CPO vehicles. The new site, which can be found here, went live yesterday and is sponsored exclusively by Lexus. It’s also provided at no cost to any dealer looking for another outlet to advertise its inventory.

A quick check of the new hub shows that both eBay’s classic auction-style listings and regular classified ads are listed together. The site’s search functionality allows users to find vehicles located near their zip code, meaning it should prove awfully easy to find that brand-spanking-used Chrysler Sebring you’ve been foaming at the mouth for.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req’d]

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Filed under: Etc., GM

GM has seen plenty of tough times over the past few years, and even the company’s top executives have felt the pinch. Executive pay was among the items cut as the General waded through multi-billion-dollar losses and immense market pressure, but after two years of cuts, the members of GM’s top brass are getting their old salaries back. Top boss Rick Wagoner’s base pay went as “low” as $1.1M but is now back to its 2003 level of $2.2M. Product czar Bob Lutz and money man Fritz Henderson also had their pay restored, and Fritz even got a raise to reflect his promotion to COO. Many of the pay cuts were voluntary in recognition of GM’s market struggles, but even with the cuts in base pay, overall executive pay packages are worth a lot more than just the salaries alone. Wagoner, for example, was paid $14.4M in 2007, while Maximum Bob came in at $6.9M.

[Source: Auto News (subs. req’d)]

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Filed under: Crossovers/CUVs, GM, UAW/Unions

This morning, UAW workers at General Motor’s Lansing Delta Township plant in Michigan have began a work stoppage, halting production of the Saturn Outlook, Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia. Both GM and the UAW are remaining mum on why the strike began, but it’s likely due to an unsigned contract that covers work rules. However, according to the Lansing State Journal, 2,300 workers are employed at the plant, and while hourly workers are walking the picket line, salaried employees reported for duty.

[Source: Autoweek]

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Filed under: Hirings/Firings

General Motors announced today that it has aligned the sales, service and marketing of its brands into four distinct channels. They include the Chevrolet Channel; Buick-Pontiac-GMC (BPG) Channel; the Premium Channel that encompasses Cadillac; Saab and HUMMER; and what’s called the Channel Support Group (CSG). Other media outlets like Automotive News insist Saturn is one of the channels, so we assume it will fall under the CSG, though it will still be lead by its current General Manager, Jill Lajdziak.

One big score for the General was hiring on Mark McNabb, who comes to GM from his former position at Nissan where he was corporate vice-pres of Infiniti and the senior vice-pres of sales and marketing for Nissan North America. McNabb has been crowned the North American Vice President of the newly minted Premium Channel and will oversee sales, service and marketing for Cadillac, Saab and HUMMER. Otherwise, it seems GM has just switched around who reports to who and who is responsible for what when it comes to sales, service and marketing, hopefully in the interest of building a better automaker, but time will tell us that soon enough.

[Source: GM, Automotive News - sub. req’d]

Continue reading GM aligns brands into four marketing channels, hires away Nissan exec

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Filed under: Car Buying, Etc., GM, Saturn

There are over six million GM credit card holders that can use 3% of their card usage towards the purchase or lease of a new GM car, but until yesterday that offer didn’t apply to Saturn. The GM card program has been ongoing since 1992, which is right after Saturn came into existence, but since the “different kind of car company” went on its path at the beginning, it wasn’t included in the debt-inducing give-aways. Since Saturn has been towing the company line the last few years, we’d say the press release after the jump should have been issued a while back.

If you don’t have a GM credit card, this little tidbit probably means little to you, but if you have been racking up points in hopes of buying a GM product, it doesn’t hurt to finally include Saturn in your list of choices.

[Source: GM]

Continue reading GM Reward credit card earnings now apply to Saturn, too

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Filed under: Spy Photos, Sedans/Saloons, Buick, GM

The Buick LaCrosse may not be a real player in the midsize car market, but GM is looking to make big-time improvements for the 2010 model year. The next-gen LaCrosse shares its Epsilon II (the Malibu is an extended Epsilon, not Epsilon II) underpinnings with the critically acclaimed Chevy Malibu, and judging from spy shots from Brenda Priddy & So., the interior will be very similar as well. Close inspection of the pics shows some similar dash characteristics between the two models, though the ‘Bu is all about the curves while the Buick is more strait-laced. The two models also appear to share gauge clusters and housing. Seats in the preproduction LaCrosse are two-toned much like that of the up-level Malibu, but the two appear to have a different basic shape.

If GM manages to take the well-received Malibu and injects it with a healthy dose of up-level materials and cool technology, Buick could very well have a nice compliment to the hot-selling Enclave. Click on the link below to view a larger pic of the LaCrosse interior.

[Source: The Car Connection]

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Filed under: Sedans/Saloons, Recalls/TSBs, Hatchbacks, GM, Pontiac, Toyota

Joint manufacturing ventures allow both automakers to share resources and platforms, but unfortunately, it also means they share problems. Such is the case with GM and Toyota, whose NUMMI plant in Fremont, California, put out 540,000 Toyota Matrixes, Corollas and 123,00 Pontiac Vibes with faulty bolts that hold in the glass on the two front doors. The 660,000 2003-2004 vehicles equipped with power windows are being recalled after 500 complaints, 36 claimed injuries and one crash (?!) were reported. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is calling for both automakers to recall the affected vehicles and replace the faulty bolts at no charge.

[Source: Automotive News - Sub. Req.]

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Filed under: Car Buying, Garage, Hatchbacks, GM, Saturn, Driving

Click above for high-res gallery of the 2008 Saturn Astra

Enthusiasts here in the States have long wondered why they couldn’t buy Ford and GM small cars from Europe, and at least part of the answer has been that Americans don’t want to pay big bucks for premium small cars. Spiking gasoline prices have quelled that argument, and fuel economy is now towards the top of shoppers’ lists when looking for a new car or truck.

While Ford is still more than a year away from bringing over the Euro Focus and Fiesta, GM has made the cross-Atlantic jump by importing the Opel Astra to our shores. The Astra is a hot-selling hatch in Europe with high-end amenities and very good fuel economy, and the model is shipping to the U.S. differentiated from its Euro twin by some Saturn logos and little else. We were itching to get our hands on an Astra to see if it were as good as advertised, and our tester came equipped with everything Saturn could throw at the vehicle. Hit the jump to see how the 2009 Saturn Astra fared in the Autoblog Garage.

All photos Copyright (C)2008 Chris Shunk / Weblogs, Inc.

Continue reading In the Autoblog Garage: 2008 Saturn Astra XR

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Filed under: Trucks/Pickups, Plants/Manufacturing, Chevrolet, GM, GMC, UAW/Unions

The American Axle strike, now in its second month, is causing General Motors more than a few headaches. The parts shortage caused the General to nearly cease production of its highly profitable large trucks and SUVs, and shut down production in Oshawa, Ontario and Fort Wayne, Indiana.

As of this past weekend, it appears that GM has found enough parts to re-open those two plants to start building the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra again. While that’s good news for those workers, the SUV plant in Arlington, Texas, all but untouched by the strike, will now find itself shutting down. Arlington will go on a four-week layoff starting April 14.

To get the Ontario and Indiana plants up and running, GM is reportedly getting parts from an American Axle plant in Mexico (as Chrysler has been doing). Although GM won’t officially specify from where the parts are coming, if they are being supplied from Mexico, as many suspect, it will offer the automaker additional leverage in its dispute against the UAW. Union officials are currently losing negotiation power as the slumping U.S. auto market has reduced the demand for vehicles with American Axle components. In a move to shift the balance of power back to its favor, the UAW has threatened additional strikes if local contracts aren’t soon reached.

[Source: Detroit News]

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Filed under: GM, UAW/Unions

Just hours after threatening to strike at one or more GM plants, the UAW and the General have agreed on two-tier wages for certain job types. The move to clarify which jobs were “non-core” at the national level came as local UAWs were threatening to strike because they felt GM was asking for too many lower-paid positions at their plants. The more regimented deal identifies 16,000 positions that will soon be paid $14 per hour, which will save GM up to a half-billion dollars per year. It will take years to fill all of those positions because GM has to entice existing workers to retire before they can be replaced.

[Source: Detroit News]

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