All Entries Tagged With: "GM"
Decisions, Decisions: Corvette Coupe v. ZR1
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG GM
THERE is much to recommend GM’s plastic fantastic.
Besides the brash styling that broadcasts American brawn, on paper, Corvette remains a bargain:
For $48,930 you have the low entry-point to start the Chevrolet LS3 V8; a righteous 6.2 liter, 430 horsepower engine that makes 424 lb-ft of torque happen @ 4600 rpm.
Couple that with a moderate curb weight of 3,208 lbs and the standard coupe’s good for the claimed 190 mph top speed.
Better still, it’ll average 26 mpg which is thriftier on regular than my Saab convertible.
But here’s the question – Would you pay better than twice the price to buy the Corvette ZR1?
For $106,880 you get the Chevrolet LS9 V8; 638 horsepower that summons 604 lb-ft of torque.
Massively powerful, GM’s slotting this beast against the likes of Ferrari (599) and Lamborghini (Gallardo).
To add that it’s still cheaper than its competition means less than the virtues of the ZR1′s aluminum frame along with “visible carbon fiber components” that grant a power to weight ratio advantage over the Italians.
Oh, and top speed is 205 mph.
Does this make the ZR1 twice the Vette?
Having driven (only briefly) the standard coupe, it’s easy to say a staunch “Hell, No!” And they both look pretty much the same, aside from the ZR1′s quad pipes and tacky see-thru engine window on the hood.
Nevertheless, track considerations are another matter.
True, it’s unlikely that many buyers cross shop Ferraris with Vettes.
Prancing Horse buyers factor an image/performance decision ratio of somewhere around 60/40. For Lamborghini, we could argue 65/35. The ZR1 appeals to those who seek raw performance in a car destined for racing.
The difference is, however, that unlike, say, a Viper which exacts its might with all the finesse of a jackhammer, the Vette remains a sharp implement.
Handling, braking, and the effects of accelerative force are all considered in what amounts to GM’s best engineering efforts this side of the CTS-V.
Short of driving both cars, we can safely surmise that the standard Vette minus all the fixin’s (Carbon fiber brakes, HUD, etc.) represents the superior value. The ZR1 is less bang for your buck and more of an all-in American style.
I Dream of Saab
By Gunnar Heinrich| IMG Saab Automobile AB
SAD to know that what we’ve come to love cannot be forever.
To the Saabists out there – we few but passionate Svenska automobilists – my heart goes out to you on the eve of this terrible news.
Saab Automobile AB will now close after several botched attempts to find suitors.
Truthfully, Saab hasn’t been Saab for some years now. Since 2003, the 9-3 sedan (the bread ‘n butter of Saab’s smart portfolio) was sold as a rebadged Opel (generic as any midsize rental Euro car can get) streamlined in a mistaken quest to compete for BMW 3-Series and Audi A4 sales.
The 9-3 and the effort to drive Saab mainstream was but one of many tragic missteps by GM’s global brand of gross incompetance.
General Motors never understood Saab. Never wanted to, either.
Time and again Saab slipped the world clues as to the true capacity of their creativity despite the fiscal shackles that restrained it. The 9-1X a super techy and oh, so svelte hatchback that if priced in the $20K’s would’ve flattened BMW’s MINI. Even the new 9-5 seemed brimming with promise.
No one ever thought the Turbo X a credible alternative to an Audi S4 or a BMW M3. Nor could we reasonably contemplate purchasing a 9-3 SportCombi in place of a Volvo V70. The customers were very different, even if the price ranges were similar.
And therein lies the crux: Saab drifted away from what Saab did best – selling smart, sleek, turbocharged hatches. MINI has proven that there’s a market for quirky, upscale hatchbacks (even in America) and can now claim the market for its own.
Automotive enthusiasts everywhere have reason to morn tonight. For Saab, a company whose premise was building cars that are more than just appliances for getting us from points A to B, has died. And with it, a piece of the automotive soul.
Happy Saabing, Jan-Willem Vester
- Former Saab rep. Jan-Willem Vester has died
- Mr. Vester was a true gentleman and tremendous representation for GM
- Owned Saab 900 Convertible and Porsche 911
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Kevin Kusina for ADLX
JAN-WILLEM, or “Jay-Dubya” as his one time boss at SaabUSA called him, was a true car guy and an even truer gentleman.
Before joining GM’s press relations team for Saab, the gentle Dutchman wrote for European car mags and in his own garage: a mint, 80′s fresh 900 Convertible and a 993 gen. 911 Porsche.
What made Mr. Vester so effective was his character: devoid of any attitude, soft spoken, and clever in finding common ground.
For instance: recognizing that eventhough I owned a Saab convertible myself, my strongest interest centered on Mercedes-Benz, he regaled me one evening with a review he once conducted on the W140 gen. 600SEL.
With few exceptions, he was one of the finest car company representatives I’ve met. According to SaabsUnited, the auto industry is emptier today with news of his death.
One of Jan-Willem’s common sign-offs was “Happy Saabing”.
Happy Saabing, Jan-Willem.
Trollhattan Stirs! Saab Lives To See Another Week
A happening at the Saab factory…
- Did GM’s CEO shuffle help buy time for Saab?
- Saab sales frozen with lack of confidence
- SaabsUnited proves to be best source for the blow by blow
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via SaabsUnited.com
SAAB still lives!
Bless their Svenska souls, it seems like GM’s become too distracted with the immediate departure of former CEO Fritz Henderson and his reportedly outspoken daughter (if true, good on her for defending dad) to drop the axe on Saab.
Considering how the General so cavalierly doused that phoenix which was Pontiac last year, it may surprise you that with the collapse of the Koenigsegg deal, Saab’s lived to see another week.
But make no mistake, tidings are still grim.
Sales have drawn down to drip-drops from last year’s trickle. Monthly sales figures in markets like Canada and Germany are down to low double digit accounting errors. It’s a fearsome freeze in confidence that Saab’s facing.
Lucky for Saab, it has a plucky and loyal community of faithful Saabists led by the ever firey Steven Wade.
Mr. Wade is SaabsUnited‘s flame spouting griffin; a blogger who has in the past been coddled by GM largesse (in one instance, GM flew Mr. Wade from Tasmania to Detroit a couple to cover the Detroit Auto Show) only to be exiled when he continued to hold the Detroit giant to account.
Throughout this tumultous period for Saab, Mr. Wade or “Swade” as he’s known has provided a thorough, daily account of every little event – right down to writing a small post about some appreciative Saab staff handing a grimacing smiling CEO Jan Ake Jonsson a bouquet of roses in a show of support as he headed off to lobby the suits in Motown.
In such a dark hour, the Saab community (of which yours counts himself a member) can count Mr. Wade as a boon to a busted car maker.
Saab, Koenigsegg & The Seventh Seal
- Koenigsegg fallout with Saab echoes Bergman drama
- Christian Koenigsegg literally looks like Death
- Saab may be out of options
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG The Seventh Seal
HAVE yet to sit through Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal.
The last time yours watched it – or attempted – I drifted off somewhere shortly after opening credits. There’s something about the warm patina of fuzzy nat sound coupled with grainy black and white footage that envelops you in a comfy sensory blanket.
In the same vein, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is especially cozy.
Back to the Seventh Seal and how it wraps nicely with Saab’s current grappling with the unknown.
The film’s synopsis is simple: a crusading knight (Max von Sydow) returns home to Sweden to find his country plague ridden and Death, himself, waiting. In a coup, the crusader challenges Death (Bengt Ekerot) to a game of chess in a ploy to delay the inevitable for himself and his family.
The irony in this cross platform fiction-reality-film-auto metaphor is first apparent in that Christian Koenigsegg, president of Koenigsegg Automotive AB and main arbiter of Saab’s fate, looks a lot like Mr. Ekerot’s Death. They’re both completely bald, googley eyed, sinister and eerily indifferent to their partner’s fate.
Darker still, the sixth month round-robin between General Motors, Saab, Koenigsegg, and the Swedish Government seem to parallel the crusader’s fateful chess match.
Having briefly interviewed Saab chief Jan Ake Jonsson two years ago, the dry Swedish executive seems anything but the heroic protagonist. Nevertheless, in this case Mr. Jonsson is Mr. Sydow’s knight in the corporate drama.
Mr. Jonsson and his team deserve credit for working overtime to secure the four way negotiations; plying leverage with Saab’s creditors before Swedish bankruptcy courts, participation from Motown execs, and support from the interior ministry to make the improbable, but nonetheless appealing, Koenigsegg sale happen.
Christian Koenigsegg has announced that despite a half year’s negotiations, legal wrangling, and painstaking planning, his eponymous sports car company will not buy iconic Saab.
Barring an eleventh hour savior, without Koenigsegg Automotive it now seems Saab is out of options.
The Seventh Seal concludes when it’s clear that the knight’s lost the match to Death. Out of options and fearful for his wife and child, he appeals to God: “Have mercy on us, because we are small and frightened and ignorant.”
Only One Car That’ll Do: Pink Cadillac
By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via IMCDB
LOUD.
The Boss is playin’ as I write. His wailin’s managed to clear out wildlife for a mile. Maybe more.
If you’re in an audio-safe zone, rock with me as you read.
Bruce Springsteen – Pink Cadillac
Now, you may think I’m foolin’, but there’s really no replacing Cadillac. There’s no Japanese, German, or Italian translation. No Honda Valkyre to its Harley. Heck, there’s no American equivalent, either.
Lincoln? C’mon.
At Lincoln’s best – the 60′s Continental – the original “L” marque was an ultra-serious, minimalist zig to the Caddy’s rocket-shipped zag. It’s as if those mean lines were a stern apology for that out-of-control party over at GM.
God bless Mister Earl and his rocket ship fantasies.
Any of the large ‘n in-charge designer’s issue from the 50s thru to the mid 60s were the rolling image of America on wheels. Cadillac was part of brand USA’s A-Team like Coca Cola, Mickey Mouse, and General Electric.
Back when chrome was metal and gas was -gag- leaded…
To hell with brands. What about larger-than-life icons?
Marylin Monroe. Ronald Reagan. Elvis. Sunny. Optimistic. Larger-than-life. Universal.
Goddamm beautiful.
Anyway, Cadillac was something more than A-to-B transportation. Something past playing catch-up with ze Germans. Something above the blue. Those rocket fins were fitted just to take off with our imagination.
What about Cadillac today? The 2010 SRX seems a little weak. And the DTS is a cop-out for “tradition”, a rental car long overdue for retirement.
Still, Cadillac could still rebound. The CTS-V is thunder, Heaven sent. The Escalades still espouse true Cadillac excess.
If MoTown’s top brass had, well, the brass to build it, they’d take the CTS-V’s throttle, the Escalade’s size , and all the heavy metal and cow hide that made an old Biarritz worth more than a Silver Cloud and show the world a true, honkin’ Caddy, two door and four door.
Did someone say Sixteen??
Hell, it doesn’t even have to corner. Just be big, beautiful, and unashamed at being, well, a Cadillac. And nothing else.
As for such an enormous, luxurious barge’s place in the great automotive market, well, here’s how it’d fit:
Now some folks say it’s too big
And uses too much gas
Some folks say it’s too old
And that it goes too fast
But my love is bigger than a Honda
It’s bigger than a Subaru
Hey man there’s only one thing
And one car that will do
Anyway we don’t have to drive it
Honey we can park it out in back
And have a party in your pink Cadillac
GM Webcast – Product Technology
The way of the future…
By Gunnar Heinrich
CALLING all blogs.
GM’s set to announce it’s latest and greatest efforts in developing a relevant march into the uncertain future.
The General will appear armed and ready with product brimming with new potential (we pray) including but not limited to the following:
- A new, smaller Cadillac 3er/C-Class/ A4/ IS fighter called “ATS”.
- Much anticipated by the Sunshine State’s pensioner set – the Cadillac DTS (née Sedan DeVille) successor XTS will also be formally announced
- Buick will showcase a brand new midsize saloon
- And there will be news about the 2011 Chevy Malibu
Lock it here for the press conference with GM CEO Fritz Henderson which will go live at 08:00 EST.
If the embedded player functions as reliably as an old Chevy Citation, tap this link >>> GM Product Technology
2010 Camaro SS & Classic Chevy In NJ
Kudos to he or she who can identify the model Chevy behind the Camaro.
Beautiful car in banana cream yellow.
Here’s a strong hint…
ADL TV | GM @ 100 Yrs: Cadillac
“MISTER EARL”
There’s nothing quite like having the man who designed the Corvette Sting Ray tell you, the interviewer, that you’re not giving GM’s larger-than-life chief designer Harley Earl enough respect.
My question: “Did you ever work with Harley Earl back in the day?”
Bob Veryzer: “He was around. It was never Harley Earl. It was always Mister Earl.”
To which GM’s VP of Global Design Ed Welburn added, “It was only until recently that people started calling him Harley Earl.”
Apparently, GM’s artistic duo hadn’t seen any of Buick’s “My name’s Harley Earl” TV spots. Nevertheless, at this gala in honor of Cadillac, clear respect for an icon was the order of the evening.
Last summer we drove up to Saratoga Springs, New York where instead of placing bets on horses we braved the worst tempests that the Hudson River Valley could throw our way to tape a story about Cadillac’s past and where it might fit in GM’s tomorrow.
GM had turned 100 years old and the Saratoga Auto Museum threw a party in honor of Cadillac. Many GM big wigs were there, including GM’s G.M. for Cadillac, Jim Taylor.
As grim as Caddy sales looked last July, the financial markets had yet to crash and the General was still almost a year away from filing for bankruptcy protection. We were in, if you like, the eye of the perfect storm.
In this segment with a T.R.T. of 07:15, we watch some of the best and worst of Cadillac’s past; hear comments from the marque’s fans; and get a real sense that in the midst of the celebration, GM’s top brass knew what was to come.
“This is a new world we’re going into,” Mr. Taylor notes, “Quite frankly I don’t think anybody realizes how big a difference there’s going to be. Until you wake up in four or five years and realized what happened.”
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_________________________
Credits
Executive Producers: Gunnar Heinrich & Neil Rogers
Editors: Michael Russell | Neil Rogers | Kevin Kusina
Camera: Joshua Schnitzer | Gregory Dwyer | Neil Rogers
Writer | Host: Gunnar Heinrich
Special Thanks: GM | Saratoga Auto Museum | Dres. Ward Heinrich, Sr. & Jr.| J.M. Ficca
GM Bankruptcy & Cadillac
By Gunnar Heinrich
THERE’S just no replacing Cadillac.
As GM files for bankruptcy today, it’s worth noting that the second of four divisions that GM intends on keeping is America’s last true luxury car maker.
Yes, Mercedes-Benz builds ML and GL-Klassen in Alabama. And true, there is still Lincoln whose Town Cars ferry America’s big shots from one city block to the next.
But neither count, really. Lincoln has no soul. And Mercedes-Benz is still very German. It doesn’t matter where they build ‘em.
So, Cadillac is “ours”, for better or for worse. And in recent days, it’s been for better.
A quick recap of recent stock.
The CTS is the sharpest midsize luxury sedan on the market. It’s just too bad that only the limited production CTS-V truly performs.
And the Escalade still has its over-sized thumb on the pulse of the luxury SUV market. Everyone else (the Europeans, in particular) can’t match the large truck’s big pimpin’ cred. We should also be mindful that this is the only Caddy that still makes into pop culture’s lexicon.
The SRX and STS are both due for an overhaul. Hopefully, they’ll get just that. The DTS just keeps on tickin’ for Florida’s senior citizenry.
For its part, the General sees a certain value in a strong Cadillac and has sacrificed stronger divisions – Pontiac – to ensure that the crested wreathed logo lives on to float GM through another day or another bond(s).
Let’s hope in this brave new GM to come, the company in its leaner form will be able to further Cadillac by building fewer cars of greater quality that will exceed their rivals -not merely hope to match them.
What else should we expect from the “standard of the world?”
