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Lutz dishes dirt on GM in latest Autoline Detroit

Bob Lutz sits down for Autoline Detroit - Click above to watch video after the jump
Autoline Detroit recently played host to Bob Lutz, and, as is always the case, the former General Motors vice chairman dished out some great commentary. Lutz was promoting his new book Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business, and talk quickly turned to his role as it related to product development and high-level decision making at GM. While on the topic of brand management, Lutz revealed a few rather interesting tidbits about his former employer:
All Chevrolet vehicles were required to have five-spoke aluminum wheels and a chrome band up front, as part of the Bowtie brand's overall image.

Are orphan cars better deals?

Most folks don't know a Saturn Aura from an Oldsmobile Aurora. Those of you who are immersed in the labyrinth of automobilia know that both cars were testaments to the mediocrity that was pre-bankruptcy General Motors, and that both brands are now long gone. But everybody else? Not so much. By the same token, there are some excellent cars and trucks that don't raise an eyebrow simply because they were sold under brands that are no longer being marketed. Orphan brands no longer get any marketing love, and because of that they can be alarmingly cheap. Case in point, take a look at how a 2010 Saturn Outlook compares with its siblings, the GMC Acadia and Buick Enclave. According to the Manheim Market Report, the Saturn will sell at a wholesale auto auction for around $3,500 less than the comparably equipped Buick or GMC. Part of the reason for this price gap is that most large independent dealerships, such as Carmax, make it a point to avoid buying cars with orphaned badges. Right now if you go to Carmax's site, you'll find that there are more models from Toyota's Scion sub-brand than Mercury, Saab, Pontiac, Hummer, and Saturn combined. This despite the fact that these brands collectively sold in the millions over the last ten years while Scion has rarely been able to realize a six-figure annual sales figure for most of its history. That is the brutal truth of today's car market. When the chips are down, used-car shoppers are nearly as conservative as their new-car-buying counterparts. Unfamiliarity breeds contempt. Contempt leads to fear. Fear leads to anger, and pretty soon you wind up with an older, beat-up Mazda MX-5 in your driveway instead of looking up a newer Pontiac Solstice or Saturn Sky. There are tons of other reasons why orphan cars have trouble selling in today's market. Worries about the cost of repair and the availability of parts hang over the industry's lost toys like a cloud of dust over Pigpen. Yet any common diagnostic repair database, such as Alldata, will have a complete framework for your car's repair and maintenance, and everyone from junkyards to auto parts stores to eBay and Amazon stock tens of thousands of parts. This makes some orphan cars mindblowingly awesome deals if you're willing to shop in the bargain bins of the used-car market. Consider a Suzuki Kizashi with a manual transmission. No, really.

GM calling in 56k Saturn Aura sedans over shift cables

General Motors may have made a few mistakes when it came to the whole ignition-switch debacle, and it will likely be dealing with the consequences for some time to come. But you have to hand it to Mary Barra and her team, because they're determined to clean house and avoid the same mistakes. That's why the biggest of the Big Three automakers in Detroit has been issuing recalls left, right and Renaissance Center. Aside from those vehicles fitted with the faulty ignition switches, GM has recalled over 50,000 Cadillac SRXs, another 50 heavy-duty pickups and some 51,000 full-size crossovers. There are bound to be more to come, and now it's issued another 50k-unit recall over faulty shift cables in the transmission.
The recall affects 2007 and 2008 Saturn Auras fitted with the four-speed automatic transmission manufactured between April 24, 2006, and October 31, 2007. The recall doesn't affect models equipped with the six-speed automatic, or for that matter any of the Aura's Epsilon platform-mates like the Chevy Malibu, Pontiac G6, Opel Signum and Vectra, Saab 9-3 or - carrying over from Fiat's aborted partnership with GM - the Fiat Croma, although many of those models used the same 4T40 transmission employed in the Aura.
In the affected vehicles, the shift cable might fracture while in motion, preventing the transmission from shifting into Park or the ignition from switching off, which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures could lead to the car rolling away. Hence the recall of 56,214 units in the United States, owners of which can expect to hear from their dealership in due course to have the necessary components replaced.