During a dealer teleconference today, General Motors announced it would be launching a zero-percent financing sale beginning tomorrow, while simultaneously raising the prices of its 2009 vehicles. 
This has been a big year for GM's organization alignment, with President Fritz Henderson opening up about the brand issue snafu and the appointment of four brand czars. HUMMER was meant to join forces with Cadillac and Saab in a premium channel, but while HUMMER is still in the family, it's apparently been put out on the lawn. GM Inside News (GMI) reports that GM is treating HUMMER as a goner, saying that the H4 program is on life support for handover to the next buyer, and the H3 GMT-700 program is kaput.
Power for the concept comes from a turbocharged, direct-inject four-cylinder engine producing 250 horsepower and 220 pound-feet of torque, which is hooked up to a six-speed automatic transmission. Since it's a concept, however, the Invicta's powertrain is pretty immaterial. We're interested in its styling since it's likely what we'll see on the next-gen LaCrosse, which is scheduled to switch over to the Epsilon II platform that's shared with the Chevy Malibu when it debuts as a 2010 model. According to spy shots, things are coming along quite nicely. 
We don't normally cover every little change an automaker makes to its lineup as the model year clicks over, but General Motors has some significant features it's adding for 2009 that shouldn't fall through the cracks. For one, Bluetooth will finally become available on nearly all of GM's cars and trucks. For the longest time, only the Cadillac STS was available with Bluetooth phone integration, which ends with MY2009. Second, the six-speed automatic transmission that before was not widely available in the General's half-ton trucks and SUVs has spread like wildfire across the GMT900 lineup and will now be standard or optional in such vehicles as the Avalanche, Silverado and Sierra 1500, Suburban, Yukon and Yukon XL. Curiously, though, it's still not available on the Tahoe. 
Golf lovers are five times more likely to visit a Buick website than the average consumer and two to three times more likely to visit a Mercedes or Cadillac site. We're no marketing experts, but if those numbers hold up, that's an impressive return for the automakers marketing dollar. It'll be interesting to see if the up-tick in online interest will spur sales for Buick, Mercedes, and Cadillac in the month of April. The chart above shows web traffic in the months before The Masters, which begins April 10. Thanks for the tip, Eric!
General Motors has been enjoying some serious success in China with its range of Buick models, and it hopes to continue that trend with the unveiling of the Invicta concept at the Auto China show in Beijing. We've already seen one teaser shot of the Invicta in profile and this newest image (on the right) gives a faint hint of the front end. We messed with the image in Photoshop to draw out some of the fascia's details, but the only thing that's really obvious is the swooping, Saab-esque headlamps and the kinked beltline originally seen in the profile shot above.
GM, GMC, Pontiac, new CUV
Thursday, August 2nd, 2007GM’s future involves a new CUV in 2011 -Filed under: Trends, Crossovers/CUVs, Buick, Chevrolet, GM, GMC, Pontiac
Stricter mileage standards being voted on by the government is already taking its toll on automakers like GM, which now have to shift focus onto smaller and more fuel efficient vehicles. Traditional bread winners such as big heavy SUVs are being phased out by a new generation of smaller and more car-like crossover models.
To ensure that it can retain buyers downsizing from large SUVs to more fuel-efficient models, GM will be introducing a new compact crossover to essentially replace the Pontiac Torrent (pictured). However, under its new brand strategy, Pontiac will be strictly for cars while GMC will be responsible for truck sales, which means the new model will be branded as a Buick or Chevrolet.
It isn’t the end of the road yet for GM’s full-sized SUV models. Vehicles like the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon SUV will be equipped with hybrid options to ensure they continue beyond the current generations. The Acadia large CUV is also planned to receive a V8 in a couple of years, while the Envoy SUV from GMC will likely suffer the same fate as the Trailblazer.
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req’d]
