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Automotive News & Views GM News, New Models and Market Share
8245 messages, Last post on Nov 22, 2009 at 11:08 PM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Looks like GM has some competition. Will be interesting to see the annual fee. Toyota Motor Sales has announced a new in-car convenience telematics program for select Toyota and Lexus models that sounds a lot like GM's popular OnStar program. The proprietary system will be dubbed Safety Connect for Toyota buyers and Lexus Enform for ToMoCo's luxury brand. There's a lengthy press release after the jump, but here are the salient points. Safety Connect is the core service and, as its name implies, is designed to give drivers additional peace of mind. The system features four different safety and security elements: Automatic Collision Notification (ACN), an Emergency Assistance Button (SOS), Stolen Vehicle Location (SVL), and Roadside Assistance. Using embedded cellular and GPS, it can signal help if there's an airbag deployment or a severe rear-end collision. If the system isn't triggered automatically, the Emergency Assistance Button (SOS) can be used to contact the help center manually. If the car is stolen it can be tracked once a police report is filed. The system also includes Roadside Assistance through the SOS button when the driver needs mechanical assistance. Lexus did use GM's OnStar system After years of quiet talks with General Motors Corp., Toyota Motor Corp. this week will unveil its 2001 Lexus luxury sedans equipped with its rival's OnStar in-vehicle communications service. The licensing deal with Toyota puts GM solidly ahead of the automotive pack in developing in-vehicle Web and cellular communications systems. It should also help GM inch closer to its $61 million year-end revenue target for OnStar sales. But the pact is expected to have little near-term impact on Toyota's Lexus sales in the U.S., Lexus dealers said. GM launched OnStar, a satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS) mapping and cellular calling service three years ago. Aichi, Japan-based Toyota will begin shipping the 2001 Lexus LS 430 to its dealers on Thursday. The restyled vehicle has a suggested price tag of $54,000. GM's OnStar service, which Toyota has rebranded as Lexus Link, is available as a factory-installed option at a cost of $1,215.
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Looks like the Volt batteries will be built here? A Massachusetts battery designer said today it plans to build a manufacturing plant in southeast Michigan to supply batteries for Detroit automakers A123 Systems says the plant will be the first of several across the country that could eventually employ 14,000 people and supply batteries for 5 million hybrid vehicles or 500,000 plug-in hybrids by 2013. The company says it will spend $2.3 billion on the factories, and has applied for $1.8 billion in federal loans under the $25-billion advanced technology program that Congress funded last year. While automakers around the world have been planning to use lithium-ion batteries in future hybrids and all-electric vehicles, most of the world’s manufacturing of such batteries is in Asia. Only one firm, Enerdel, currently builds lithium-ion vehicle batteries in the United States
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Replying to: m4d_cow (Jan 07, 2009 10:10 am) getting a good price at the time of the sale helps allow you to not have to worry about resale value. As far as long term, the 5k saved up front saves hundreds more on day 1 in sales taxes, and grows with compounding (at the car loan rate since less has to be borrowed) while both car choices drop fast in value. Even the Accord loses $4k or more in year one. If it was MT car of the year in 2008, wasn't it scrutinized carefully and is actually a below average choice as far as risk goes? |
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Replying to: circlew (Jan 06, 2009 11:17 am) It'll be interesting to see the final plan. How to convince us we deserve no success. First write that the D3 products are bad. Then, when that is refuted, say that they are good but at some time in the distant past they were bad, therefore we still wish to be unsupportive of our own economy forever. Then, to further confuse, argue that American cars are made elsewhere and that Toyota is an American company. The final plan??? The bailouts get stopped and we supply raw materials and unskilled labor as the middle class shrinks.
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Jan 07, 2009 7:08 pm) |
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Jan 07, 2009 7:08 pm) If I remember correctly Onstar was a great selling point and it also lost GM a lot of loyal customers. When the FCC allowed the Cell carriers to dump analog Cell service it left 1000s of Onstar customers stranded. GM did not offer to upgrade the early analog equipped vehicles. I remember reading of many disgruntled GM customers lost forever over that blunder. From what I am seeing, GM takes one step forward and two backward on a regular basis. |
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Replying to: 62vetteefp (Jan 07, 2009 7:10 pm) DETROIT, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Battery maker A123 Systems plans to build automotive battery manufacturing facilities in the United States and has applied for $1.84 billion in government loans to fund the construction, the company said on Wednesday. A123, which is competing to supply next-generation lithium-ion batteries for General Motors Corp's (GM.N) all-electric Chevy Volt, said it planned to invest $2.3 billion for the proposed U.S. manufacturing facilities, with the first plant to be located in southeast Michigan. And yet another Volt rumor from 4 hours ago: Back in October, GM-Volt’s Lyle Dennis seemed to confirm a Reuters report that LG/Compact had won. “As we have heard before in a subtle way from GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz,” wrote Dennis, “GM was only using one supplier’s packs in the mules. Concurrently, we had heard from Compact Power’s CEO that his batteries were being used in the mules. Sources have now confirmed this is the case and that the mules packs are performing flawlessly.” So really, who knows. GM may well be saving the announcement for the forthcoming Detroit Auto Show. |
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Replying to: m4d_cow (Jan 07, 2009 10:36 am) **** I *did* call it. GM doesn't want anyone to know where the bailout money is really going because it's all gong overseas to basically get the hell out of the U.S. when it comes to manufacturing. They say stuff in the press and lie through their teeth, but if the guys in China say they're going to be building them there, I know which newspapers to believe. Moral - only buy cars with a 1 as the first number in the VIN. Anything else is literally shipping dollars out of our economy and overseas.
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Replying to: dave8697 (Jan 07, 2009 8:06 pm) No one deserves success, it has to be worked for and earned...rather than given away as, like, a bailout.  Many of the D3 products ARE bad, many more were bad in the past and left such a bad taste in people's mouths that they refuse to even consider them (this is the major Problem Ford is having: they've improved now but they have to get people beyond old perceptions and willing to consider them again). Incidentally, the Fusion (Consumer Reports's highest rated midsize as far as driving AND reliability) is made in Mexico. Several Ford, GM, and Chrysler vehicles are NOT made in the United States, and therefore do NOT support jobs in the USA. Several Toyotas, Hondas, Nissans, and Subarus are in fact made in the United States and do support jobs here. So it's not so simple as "D3 are American, and therefore support American jobs!" So it in fact IS confusing by nature. Live with it. Personally I don't consider where the car is built and which country the company chooses as home anymore, it's gotten TOO confusing. I look at the car. Period. Make the best car for my needs and you earn my money. If GM and Chrysler can't make cars people are willing to pay them enough to make a profit on, then they DON'T deserve success. It's that simple.
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Replying to: bpizzuti (Jan 08, 2009 3:20 am) You hit the nail on the head and if that sounds negative, so be it. Take it as you see it. For me, I leave the brand which again has the chance to reinvent itself. We will see. Regards, OW |
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