1997 Buick Lesabre on 2040-cars

Auto blog

GM laying off 510 amidst slow Cadillac, small car sales

General Motors is laying off about 510 workers from two factories beginning in January, and it could be months before the automaker needs some of that latent capacity to come back on line. A combination of poor sales and high dealer inventories are prompting the cutbacks, according to Automotive News.
The largest changes come at GM's Lansing Grand River plant, where the Cadillac ATS and CTS are made. An entire shift of about 350 workers is being laid off, but the automaker hopes to find positions for some of them at other nearby factories. The decision leaves just a single shift building vehicles there. According to Automotive News, the move is partially spurred by Johan de Nysschen's plan to make Cadillac a more exclusive brand.
The lost shift will likely return for production of the next-generation Chevrolet Camaro at the plant, according to the report, but GM isn't saying when that will be. A previous announcement from the Canadian Auto Workers union indicated that the Oshawa, Ontario, factory would lose the coupe in late 2015 or early 2016.

Buick and Bar Refaeli teach in-car yoga

We're not sure which make or model you'd most readily associate with yoga. You'd probably see a fair few Mercedes convertibles, VW Beetles, and assorted minivans and crossovers outside your typical American yoga studio. But not to be left out of the contorting action, Buick is out to link itself to the age-old practice with these latest videos. They feature, as you can see, the ever lithe and supple Bar Rafaeli, clad in spandex, stretching and contorting herself inside and out of a Buick Verano. Which is really all you should need to know, but there's a little more to the clip above (and the behind-the-scenes video below) than eye candy. Choreographed by yoga guru Chad Dennis, the idea behind the video – cleverly entitled The Body Shop – is to show drivers, in as artful and visually pleasing a way as possible, how to limber up their body, mind, and soul in preparation for (or recovery from) a long drive. It also serves to promote the brand's new 24 Hours of Happiness test drive program that lets prospective buyers take a Buick home and try it out for a day before buying. And if nothing else, it aptly demonstrates that Buick has excellent taste – or at least as good as Sports Illustrated that gave the Israeli model her first big break, Leonardo DiCaprio whom she dates for several years, and the dozens of fashion labels, jewelry brands, and magazines for which she's posed in recent years.

Opel Insignia OPC Sports Tourer shows its fresh face ahead of Frankfurt debut

Drive down the Autobahn and there's any number of vehicles likely to pass you, and most of them are produced locally. But if you're wondering how that Opel left you in its dust, look closely (and quickly) enough and you might make out the letters OPC on the back.
They stand for Opel Performance Center (the German counterpart to Vauxhall's VXR line) and they adorn performance versions of the Corsa, Astra and Insignia. The latter is undergoing a bit of a refresh and is expected to debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show in a couple of weeks, but you don't have to wait that long as our intrepid spy photographers have caught it in the flesh outside an Opel facility in Germany.
Spied here completely undisguised in Sports Tourer (read: wagon) form, the Insignia has had a few nips and tucks performed, but we'll be more intrigued to see what it's got under the hood. The current model packs a 2.8-liter twin-turbo V6 driving 325 horsepower to all four wheels, but rumors suggest that the OPC (yeah you know me!) could have as much as 400 hp up its sleeve. That would make this one heck of a sleeper - especially in wagon form - and only make us pine for a more potent version of its twin Buick Regal to roam our highways, too.