General Motors has announced that it will be recalling over 300,000 2009-2010 Chevy Impala automobiles because of a problem with the front seat belts. GM said that the front safety belt webbing may have not been properly attached to the lap belt anchor pretensioner during assembly. There have been no reports of injuries related to the problem, but the company felt a recall was needed after receiving 32 warranty reports. Dealers will inspect how the belts are anchored, and will reinstall the anchors if needed at no cost to the owners. GM will start sending out letters to owners October 26.
Tag Archives: GM
Chinese Company Seeks G.M. Stocks
G.M. is planning to hold its first public stock offering in late November, giving the Treasury Department its first opportunity to begin selling off the 61 percent stake in G.M. How many shares the government decides to sell will be determined by the price offered. In order to break even, the Treasury Department estimates that the stock must sell for almost $135.00 per share.
Last week, the Treasury Department said it would not seek special deals with large investors to buy big chunks of its stake to ensure that small investors get a fair chance at buying GM stocks. “We expect that a large and diverse group of institutional investors will be offered an opportunity to participate, with no single investor or group of investors receiving a disproportionate share or unusual treatment.” the Treasury said.
But concerns about foreign influence over the largest American automaker are growing as Chinese automaker, the SAIC Motor Corporation, expresses interest in buying a stake in GM. The Shanghai-based company has had a longtime partnership with G.M. in China. They are one of China’s largest automakers and recently bought half of G.M.’s India division.
There was no comment from the Treasury about the possibility of a foreign company buying a big stake in G.M.
First Chevy Cruze For The US Market
Yesterday, GM’s first Chevrolet Cruze for the United States market, rolled off the assembly line in Lordstown, Ohio. The car first made its debut at the last LA Auto Show, and has been GM’s second best seller overseas after their Silverado pickup trucks.
The Cruze is GM’s most significant new model introduced into the United States since last year’s bankruptcy. With the forty miles per gallon fuel consumption on the highway, they hope to break into the fuel efficient market that they gave up to imports thirty years ago. With an emphasis on safety, like ten air bags and traction control as standard equipment, they hope to make the Cruze stand out from all other models.
While the Cruze costs a little more than most of its competitors, G.M. argues that it provides a better value with extras like air-conditioning and power locks that are basics in high end models but extra on most compacts. That approach helps the Cruze generate more revenue and allows the car to be built profitably at a union plant in the United States. (Most competing compact cars are built at nonunion plants or in other countries.)
To build the Cruze, G.M. added a third shift at the Lordstown plant after being downsized to a single shift during the height of the recession. The plant now has about 4,500 workers, including 800 who transferred from elsewhere at G.M.
GM Crossovers Recalled For Seatbelts
On Tuesday, GM announced that they will be recalling almost a quarter million crossover sport utility vehicles for problems with seat belts. The recall will affect 2009-2010 Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China and Saudi Arabia.
According to a GM press release, the problem is with the second-row safety belt buckles. When the seats are laid flat and then returned to the upright position the buckle could come in contact with the seat frame and become damaged. Eventually, the buckle may fail to latch and unlatch properly or may appear to latched when it is not.
The auto maker will begin notifying owners of vehicles affected by the GM crossover recall this month. Dealers will inspect the seat belts and replace it if necessary, as well as reshape the side trim to allow the seats to fold without damaging the seat belts. The company said they discovered the problem when they inspected damaged safety belts in warranty return vehicles, but there have been no reports of seat belt failure to date.
GM – Nissan Electric Car Wars
As both GM and Nissan get ready to release their electric cars later this year, the electric car wars are starting to heat up already, resulting in benefits for the consumer.
GM announced the Chevrolet Volt would start at about $41,000, $8,000 more than the Nissan Leaf, but GM will also match the $349 per month lease deal that Nissan is offering on their car. Nissan fought back by announcing they would match GM’s battery warranty of eight years, 1000,000 miles.
Both vehicles will cost more than a comparable gas engine car, but the lease deals make them quite competitive. If you take into consideration the savings at the pump, the federal tax credit, and the additional tax breaks offered in some states, the new electric vehicles are in the budget of mainstream buyers.
Both Nissan and GM say the base models of their cars will come nicely equipped. Both have navigation, multiple air bags and premium audio systems standard. Options for both include backup monitoring cameras, leather seats in the Volt, and a solar-panel spoiler that generates electricity on the Leaf.
GM Back In The Auto Financing Business
In 2006 when GM was faced with $10.5 billion in losses, they decided to sell their credit business, GMAC, so they could use the money to pay down some of its restructuring costs, shut assembly plants and buy out employees. Even though this deal helped GM restructure their company, the bailout in 2009 showed that GM had not learned from their mistakes.
GM announced Thursday, that they would be getting back into the credit business in a recent plan to buy AmeriCredit Corp., in an all cash transaction valued at about $3.5 billion. GM executives have said for months that they were missing sales opportunities due to lack of credit for lease deals and financing for sub prime buyers and that this is an opportunity to bring more people into the showrooms and help them with finance.
The two companies have had a financial relationship for years. AmeriCredit, which already works with about 4,000 GM dealers, now gets about one-third of its business from financing new and used GM vehicles. Overall, the auto financing company has about 800,000 customers and $9 billion worth of auto loans on its books.
The automaker says that its partner, Ally Financial — formerly known as GMAC Financial Services Inc., will continue to finance GM’s dealer inventory and make loans to buyers with good credit. GM says it is not considering a purchase of Ally’s auto financing unit in which GM sold controlling interest in 2006. The company eventually had to be bailed out by the U.S. government because of problems with its home mortgage loan unit.
Many feel that GM’s purchase of AmeriCredit is another multinational corporation finding loopholes to exploit, and that the credit practices that collapsed the sub prime housing market was actually started in the auto finance credit business. The recent Financial Overhaul bill that was just passed by Congress will not be of any help either, since automakers were exempt from it.
GM, Chrysler Arbitrations Come To An End
The Congress led arbitration hearings for almost 2,800 GM and Chrysler dealerships that were to be closed last year will soon come to an end. Since the hearings began, many of the cases have been resolved outside of arbitration. Some dealerships dropped out of the process on their own, others decided to start selling other brands, and some could still face months of litigation in state courts. While GM agreed that it would restore more than 660 dealerships and Chrysler about 80, the actual numbers will not be known until the arbitration is complete.
Chevrolet Corvette Recall
GM will be recalling about 40,000, 2005-2006 Chevy Corvettes equipped with tilt and telescopic steering. The company said that repeated movement of the steering column could cause a signal interruption in the active handling system, which could cause unintended braking, possibly leading to a crash.
Owners can contact Chevrolet at 1-800-630-2438 about recall number N100118 or contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY: 1-800-424-9153) or at www.safercar.gov.
