We Finance 2001 Buick Century Custom Prempkg 2owners 49k Pwrst Cd Kylsent Cruise on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Opel to electrify all model lines by 2024, speeding PSA transition

What do you see in the Opel logo? That's right, a lightning bolt. As the German automaker dramatically restructures its future plans, electric cars are in the core of Opel's survival. With attempts to stop leaking money, Opel is speeding up its secession from GM technology, launching nine new models by 2020 with the aim to complete transition to PSA hardware by 2024, leaving only two Opel platforms. This is all part of Opel's freshly announced PACE turnaround plan, which is crucial for the company's survival, according to CEO Michael Lohscheller. "PACE will unleash our full potential. This plan is paramount for the company, to protect our employees against headwinds and turn Opel/Vauxhall into a sustainable, profitable, electrified, and global company," says Lohscheller. Competitiveness will be improved by reducing per-car costs by 700 euros, and by cutting marketing costs by 10 percent. Regarding Vauxhall's future, the statement still includes the British brand. When the Opel sale agreement was reached between PSA and GM in March, the plan was to start implementing PSA technology in 2019, completing the transition in eight years, as Automotive News says. The new business plan is noticeably faster. By 2020, with full access to PSA's electric tech, Opel would have a fully electric next-generation Corsa hatchback and a PHEV version of the Grandland X SUV, which is already based on Peugeot's 3008 model. Currently, there are nine Opel platforms and 10 engine families. By 2024 there should be two platforms and four powertrains; the number of diesel engines in use remains to be seen, and all product lines would include an electrified model. There would be an SUV and a midsize vehicle based on PSA's EMP2 architecture, with the former built in Eisenach — formerly known as the town that built East German Wartburg cars before its Opel era — and the latter built in Russelsheim, where Opel HQ is located. The Russelsheim hub will become PSA's global "competence center," where all Opel/Vauxhall vehicles would be engineered — not Paris. Plans include avoiding any factory closures or personnel layoffs. The PACE statement also mentions Opel's entrance to all of 20 new export markets, with a specific mention of China and Brazil, countries which have traditionally seen Opels sold as Chevrolets. Will the United States be included in that export plan?

Repo man pays off elderly couple's car just in time for Thanksgiving

Repo men get bad raps for a good reason; no one likes having their car taken away. At least one guy in the repossession game proved folks in his profession aren't all bad when he helped an elderly couple hold on to their wheels right before Thanksgiving. According to the Belleville News-Democrat, unexpected bills and the rising cost of prescription medications pushed Stanford and Patty Kipping's fixed income to the breaking point. Unable to keep up with the $95 dollar a month payment on their 1998 Buick, they fell into arrears and the bank sent a repo man out to their home in Red Bud, Illinois to reclaim the car. Jim Ford, co-owner of Illini Recovery Inc., hooked up the old Buick and dragged it away, but later that night his conscience caught up with him. "When I got home that night, I said to myself, 'They are a real nice elderly couple. I gotta do something. I can't just take their car,'" Ford told the News-Democrat. Ford did do something, something surprisingly humane. He set up a GoFundMe and, within just a few short hours, he raised more than $3,500 dollars. This was enough money to pay off the Kipping's loan with a little left over for some maintenance. Ford and a friend then hooked the car back up and towed it back to the Kipping's home. Ford presented the couple with their trusty Buick, and threw in a thousand dollars in an envelope and a frozen turkey for Thanksgiving. "It was a miracle come true," Patty told the paper. "We didn't know what we were going to do." "I got up this morning and I looked up at the sun and I said, 'I hope we get our car back,'" added Stanford. "It's just unbelievable."Related Video: News Source: Belleville News-Democrat Auto News Weird Car News Buick repossession repo man

Texas sues GM, saying it tricked customers into sharing driving data sold to insurers

Texas filed a lawsuit Tuesday against GM over years of alleged abuse of customers' data and trust. New car owners were presented with a "confusing and highly misleading" process that was implied to be for their safety, but "was no more than a deceptively designed sales flow" that surrendered their data for GM to sell. The suit contends that at no point was selling driving data ever even suggested as a possibility, putting GM in violation of the state's consumer protection laws. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking a jury trial and at least $10,000 per offense (every GM car sold in the state since 2015) and a hefty add-on of $250,000 in cases where the victim was over 65. Texas seems to be flying high after a recent $1.4 billion settlement from Meta over other privacy concerns. This may well be a way to solve any pending budgetary issues in the Lone Star State.