Tag: GM

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Cars

New Interior Design for Future Cadillac Escalade

Good news for the lovers of Cadillac. GMrecently announced that, they will not use the same interior design and part for upcoming Cadillac Escalade, GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe / Suburban models.
What does it mean? When you buy a Cadillac Escalade, it features the same interior as the Chevrolet Tahoe. This is a good strategy to reduce costs but is not good for increasing the sales and differentiating a brand. Actually, using same parts in different segmented products also vanishes the premium effect. Basically, sharing the same interior in Cadillac with Chevrolet is not good for Cadillac.
Finally, GM realised this mistake and decided to create individual interiors for different brands. Good news and this may help to increase their competitive advantage in Europe if they coupled the vehicles with diesel engines.

Pictures’ Copyrights
GM

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Cars

The Integration of Mobile Technology to Cars

Manufactures of consumer’s electronics have been pushing the industry to develop a standard terminal practise which enables mobile applications to form an automotive infotainment portal. A recent consortium which includes famous cars brands GM, Honda and Volkswagen have coordinated with Panasonic and Sony system distributors to coordinate the Terminal Mode Standard which was which began its initial roll out earlier this year.
A global terminal standard allows a harmonious technological integration of the various components which will form the new ecosystem in the technological niche driving forward innovation for communications in the motoring sector. A single platform strategy for a user interface reduces the systems life cycle and allows consumers application upgrades without purchasing new hardware. This could mark a dramatic shift in the consumer’s consumption of digital technology which had previously required regular hardware upgrades.
The technology which can support mobile applications from both Apple and Android open architecture may see the emergence of Microsoft into the playing field the level of interest shown by the dominant players indicates trends towards a supplementary navigation system within the vehicle itself as consumers are able to mix infotainment and navigation in the applications storage device. Whilst this is large leap forward for traditional car entertainment systems there are already ambitious plans to integrate frequency communication and wireless charging too.
Honda’s unveiled its first terminal infotainment system in July this year which included a unique Honda application that allows users to access Facebook, Twitter, Restaurants and Radio in one simple device. The application immediately opens access to thousands of radio stations and music streams as it is bouncing off the digital platform running off the cloud system. Honda’s platform has a greater reliance on Microsoft’s App Link platform then manufactures using the standard windows operating system but upload speeds remain relatively unchanged
The integration of Smart Phone technology to cars will have dramatic effects to laws which regulate the use of mobile phones in motor vehicles and may improve driver safety if it prevents the use of handheld devices. However the technology has the potential to be disruptive if it is not built into an accessible interface location.  Driving Offence Solicitors have yet to become involved in a negligent driving case caused by this technology and many motorists will be hoping applications that provide information on traffic accidents and speed cameras are easily available.

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Cars

A new taste from Buick

As you might notice I don’t write about US industry that much, as I don’t have time left writing about Mercedes-Benz. But now there is something very interesting, sudden and special. Buick (GM’ brand) has never been my favourite or close to favourite brand with interesting cars named similar to Croissant. But this time Buick revealed something very special, of course they are not going to offer a car called Tiramisu, they are going to produce 1,4lt turbo charged four cylinder engines with 140 horse powers (200 nm of torque). That’s excellent news for US auto industry but the engine will be available in 2012! At that time, VW might be producing engines 0,4lt with 200 horse powers.
At least GM is trying their best to engage with global world! I really appreciated their decision but they should have done it much earlier! Unfortunately there is no point to have a huge V8 engine only capable of producing 300 horse powers.
I hope one day they will be producing small diesel engines in US market! By the way Croissant inspired car is called LaCrosse. Actually, LaCrosse looks excellent for Buick. It is out of league of Buick! Believe me if you stick an Audi logo in front this car, it would sell much more :)

Pictures’ Copyrights
Buick
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Lifestyle

GM powered by Google !

Last one year was very hard for US car makers. They lost their kingdom and defeated by Japanese car makers. Everything went very bad for them. US car makers were the king of automotive industry and nearly one hundred years later, they survived only with the help of huge amount credits! A few days ago GM was saying thank you to everyone and this flashed some ideas in my mind.
Of course, US car markers tried their best to be worst :) Hummer, huge petrol sucking V8s, ignoring diesel or any other alternative and designing car which were uglier than anything. Did they change their mentality? Of course no! Still you can find huge SUVs with huge petrol engines, they are not offering some different since one decade. Even last year’s trauma did not make any change. Actually, I am sure that many people in those companies are doing their best to safe their company but the mentality of company does not change in one night!
And ten years ago something else came into our life! Google. We did not understand how created a relationship with Google but now our whole life relies on Google. Without we cannot even do very basic stuff :) And Google shares something in common with US car companies! They are in same country, one firm is making fortune, the other one is dying.
So my suggestion, transfer people from Google to car companies in US and let Google guys to do your marketing and product design. They don’t know automotive industry but how worse can it be? Really! You all know automotive industry and we know the story. So, how worse can it get? Actually, Google guys are very good that designing new products and on marketing strategies. Give them a chance ;)
Pictures are taken from;
GM and Googel Websites

Bye bye Hummer

World’s the most unforgetable vehicle was placed itself in automotive history. The huge, heavy, big, inefficient, symbol of being rich and lack of taste will be shut down. Hummer was one of the most sensational vehicle, many people loved it many people hated it but it always caught attention; may be that the secret of Hummer! Many car companies are trying to do by very different way but Hummer did not struggle to achieve this. Actually that’s the only achievement Hummer has achieved.
When it was first loved my Arnold and he wanted to drive it daily, those day he was not interested on environment. Then, every block buster action movie placed a Hummer, people who won lotto bought one. Despite its lack of quality, lack of everything, it was a symbol. And this high demand to Hummer ignitiated the more civilized model H2. It was powered by a ridiculious petrol powered engine with Chevrolet Sububran strucutre. It made a huge impact when the petrol was something cheap and it was not considered as a symbol of wealth. Meantime, many car manufacturers introduced SUV models and competition became tough and Hummer’s ability on sand was not helping to defeat the competitors.
Later on, GM introduced H3 model to survive the brand but it was from last century and offering nothing special. Then petrol price started to increase and increase and Hummer’s hunger for petrol became more significant. People was no longer looking forward to buy a Hummer and changed their preference but the only one who has not changed the preference was the GM. And they tried to sell Hummer to Chinese, it was looking fine. However some rumours started and finally it was announced that nobody on earth wants to buy Hummer and GM will shut down the brand. We will miss the Hummer, it was nice piece of entertainment for automotive world.
Pictures are taken from;
Hummer Website

1937, A new technology !

How the differential works? Actually many of you does not care what a differential is or they don’t want to learn how it works :) That’s the thing which helps to move tyres which are transferring power to move freely :) Unless, we cannot even park our cars ;)
But you should watch the movie produced in 1937 to educate people about how a differential works. However, movie has more interesting story than the differential ;) By General Motors
By the way, this is the best video to understand this how this complicated machine is working!
Categories
Cars

GM vs. Saab

What I have read about Saab and saw how the brand was sinking last one decade proofed that GM is not automotive manufacturer. Actually automotive destroyer! VW is managing many brands without any problems, the slight price differences between VW and Audi is a proof of perfection and ability to understand the market, also consumers.
However, GM was stuck in 1950s; produce a chassis and cover it with engine and some other stuff. I cannot understand the US car manufacturers, from the same country people are producing microprocessors which is extremely tiny and does not tend to die but a huge car cannot be built without any problem. US car companies should understand that, world has changed V8 world died long time ago and brakes from chewing gum and suspension from bed spring is not welcomed in anywhere on earth. Even the US market does not prefer US brands! You have many business school which shaped the world economy contributed valuable  knowledge to literature but GM was unaware of all these things! I hope that Opel could save itself. If GM did not realize that Cadillac Escalade is something which is totally useless, there is not need to say anything more. Just compare Escalade with Range Rover, Mercedes GL Class, Toyota Land Cruiser !
Mercedes GL 350 CDi – Cadillac Escalade
Picture are from;
Saab Website
Mercedes Website
GM Website
Categories
Cars

Rejected take off to Saab, Again!

Saab’s condition turned into chaos. For one year, nobody wanted to buy and last minute Spyker felt in love with Saab. From the press releases, Spyker wants to buy but there are some obstacles! Something like this; can we sell Saab cars? Or can we survive after we finance Saab? They are making business and these kind of expectations are very normal.
Buying Saab is quite risky and you should lots of money to spend and supported by huge income. Hmm; I think Ecclestone is a good choice or Kuwait Invesment. Kuwait Investment bought Aston Martin, I think they own %7 of Mercedes Benz and probably some other firms also. They could ass Saab to their portfolio.
Saab’ safety features did not help to save Saab!

Picture is from;
EuroNcap Website
Categories
Cars

Count down for Saab

I guess, most of the people know what is happening in Saab. And death end is very close to Saab. As we know that except Dutch Spyker, there are no any other offers to buy Saab and tomorrow is the last for Saab brand. This is a very unfortunate story for Saab despite its heritage. But chains of mistakes and wrong decisions caused this. They should have thought about these at least five years ago.
Even Spyker saves the Saab, they must take serious decision to save the brand. World has changed, move your mind!
Picture is from;
Saab Website
Categories
Cars

Coolest Opel ever made, Meriva

For me, Opel is one of the uncool car brand on earth! There are many reasons to discuss why the Opel is uncool. And I try to avoid Opel until now. Opel reveal the picture of new Meriva! Meriva is one of the boring cars which made Opel uncool but this time there is something different. Meriva is offering something very cool! Suicide door. Don’t take it wrong, these doors are not made to kill yourself. As you could see from the picture, these doors are opening opposite, it is a bit retro. However, nowadays suicide doors are only in Rolls Royce and Mini. This is minor a detail which made a major difference.
Picture is from;
Vauxhall Website