GM

General Motors has become the first car manufacturer in the world to produce 500 million vehicles, as Vauxhall in the UK – GM’s fourth largest market – celebrates 90 years of ownership by the US company. Commenting on the milestone achievement, Mary Barra, GM’s CEO, said: “During 2015, we expect to sell more than 1,000 new vehicles per hour, 24 hours per day. This adds up to nearly ten million vehicles, the most in our history. I look at this extraordinary volume as ten million opportunities to prove what kind of company we are and to say thank you.’ The landmark figure came 90 years after General Motors purchased Vauxhall in 1925 in what was the American company’s first overseas acquisition. Luton-based Vauxhall, which is Britain’s oldest surviving car manufacturer, quickly repaid GM’s investment and to date has sold nearly […]

Famous for the Interceptor muscle car, Jensen is back – and the GT will be its first new model in 2016. Legendary British maker Jensen has risen from the ashes and announced it’ll be building a new car to be launched next year, followed by a new Interceptor. A new company called the Jensen Group will launch the GT in 2016. It’ll be powered by a General Motors 665bhp 6.4-litre supercharged V8, and be based on a bespoke spaceframe chassis with the choice of six-speed manual or six-speed semi-automatic transmissions. The rear-wheel drive GT will come as a two-seater or as a 2+2, and promises a luxurious cabin, with leather and Alcantara trim. All cars will be built to order and cost in the region of £350,000. The GT will be built in collaboration with Jensen International Automotive (JIA) – […]

An interesting article from The Yuma Sun …. Stan Gourley is a man who obviously loves cars, particularly his 1970 Triumph TR6. The car sits in his garage, partially restored. “You know,” Gourley said, looking at his jasmine yellow car, “it’s really sad to think that in 20 or 30 years this TR-6 would probably be a Chevrolet Camaro or a Pontiac GTO or an Oldsmobile 442.” Gourley, a man who knows British sports cars, explains that he thinks what happened to the British Leyland Co. back in the ’70s and what is occurring to General Motors now is too similar to be ignored. “They were a giant company that dominated the market for British cars in the ’60s and ’70s, but then they had real labor problems, the government nationalized the companies, then guaranteed billions of dollars in bailout […]

A faltering auto giant whose brands are synonymous with the open road. Hundreds of thousands of unionized workers with powerful political backers. An urgent plea for the government to write a virtual blank check. This is not the story of Ford and General Motors, but British Leyland, a car company that went through £11 billion of inflation-adjusted British taxpayer money, or $16.5 billion, in the ’70s and ’80s before going out of business. All that is left of the company now are memories of cars like the Triumph, and a painful lesson in the limited effectiveness of bailouts.

The BBC’s Chanel 4 News is reporting that thousands of jobs at two UK car plants could be at risk as a result of a worldwide sales slump. General Motors, the world’s biggest car company which owns Vauxhall, said it will be bankrupt within months unless it gets an emergency cash injection from the US government to help it during the global financial crisis. The firm said it had called off merger talks with Chrysler and was asking the government for help after using up $6.9 billion (£4.4 billion) in the third quarter of 2008. The company employs around 5,000 workers at plants in Luton and Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, which produce around 215,000 vehicles a year. Meanwhile, German car giant BMW announced that production of the Mini was to be curtailed, with workers at plants at Oxford and Swindon told […]

Normally I don’t cover any non-UK automotive news, but this one is such a potential game changer that I had to mention it. The New York Times is reporting that Chrysler and GM are in preliminary merger talks. As the article says, “A merger would be a historic event, with two of the most iconic names in American industry coming together to survive in an increasingly difficult environment. Both have roots dating back decades in Detroit and, with Ford, long dominated the auto industry — until Japanese and other foreign car makers began making inroads into the American market.” Amazing times we live in. Oh, and on another front, I dreamed last night that MG started producing a minivan and a Hummer-like SUV. Please, say it ain’t so. I need to stop eating spicy food before bedtime.