2003 Buick Rendezvous Cx on 2040-cars

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GM's labor deal with UAW union on verge of ratification

Nov 15 (Reuters) - General Motors' tentative labor deal with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union closed in on ratification as the votes were counted on Wednesday. Following the approval earlier in the day by more than 60% of union members at the Detroit automaker's large Arlington, Texas, assembly plant, additional votes in favor have the deal close to clinching majority approval. The number of union locals, most of which are smaller, still to report vote totals is not large. After several large assembly plants voted against the deal earlier on Wednesday, some media had reported the deal was heading toward failure. But Arlington's support, followed by strong voting in favor by smaller warehouse and parts facilities, has put the deal on the brink of approval. This would mark the first ratification of a deal, which runs through April 2028, with one of the Detroit Three automakers. Ford and Stellantis voting is still under way, and workers at both companies were favoring ratification by comfortable margins. The UAW's GM vote tracking site currently shows approval of the contract leading by a 54% to 46% margin with almost 32,000 workers having cast votes out of about 46,000 UAW-represented GM workers. The Arlington plant, with about 5,000 UAW members, has the most of any GM plant. Voting officially ends on Thursday at 4 p.m. EST, although most votes will be cast on Wednesday. The UAW went on strike for more than six weeks against the Detroit Three, seeking better wages, working conditions and cost-of-living adjustments. All three companies agreed to tentative agreements about two weeks ago. Workers at other GM assembly plants voted against the deal, including 60% of workers at its Fort Wayne, Indiana, truck plant, 53% at its Wentzville, Missouri, plant, 58% of workers at GM's Lansing Grand River plant and 61% of workers at the Lansing Delta Township plant. Seven of GM's 11 assembly plants rejected the deal. In addition to Arlington, workers at plants in Detroit, Fairfax, Kansas; and Lake Orion, Michigan; approved the agreement. Only nine facilities are still listed without vote totals on the UAW vote tracker, including GM's Lockport, New York, components plant with about 1,200 members. Those voting in favor of the agreement have a lead of almost 2,500 and many of the facilities still to come include workers who stand to receive large pay increases upon ratification.

Junkyard Gem: 2002 Buick Regal Joseph Abboud Edition

Ever since we saw that snazzy green 2000 Buick Regal GSE last month, with its supercharger and Monsoon Audio speakers, I've made it my junkyard-searching goal to find a genuine Joseph Abboud Edition Regal among the not-so-interesting Luminas and Vues in the GM sections of my local car graveyards. While this publication once stated that the Joseph Abboud Regal was "the low point of the brand" (in my view, the nadir was achieved with the Iron Duke-powered Skylarks of 1980-1985), my great love of designer-edition Detroit cars overrides any so-called rational opinions on the subject. It took less than three weeks of walking the aforementioned junkyard GM sections to find a Regal with the mark of the famous menswear company on the fenders. The heyday of designer-edition cars came during the 1970s, when Lincoln offered Continentals co-branded by Bill Blass, Givenchy, Pucci, and Cartier. At the same time, American Motors teamed up with Levi's and Oleg Cassini, and fashion-industry players continued to work with car manufacturers here and there after that time. It appears that the Abboud package got you nice leather seats with these monograms, plus the stylish fender badges. Otherwise, it was just a nicely-equipped but unspectacular late W-Body. For you GM trivia fans out there, the W platform stayed in production for an impressive near-three-decade span, from the 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix through the (fleet-only) 2016 Chevrolet Impala Limited. The final W-based Regals rolled off the assembly lines in 2005. This car has the 240-horsepower supercharged 3800 V6, so it's the GS version. You could get the Abboud package on the non-supercharged LS Regal as well. If you did, you got the better tires and suspension used on the GS. These Roots-type Eaton M90 blowers are by far the easiest superchargers to find and extract from a junkyard car. In fact, there's such a glut of these things at swap meets that the going price now hovers around 50 bucks. This car looks to have been in decent shape when it arrived in the junkyard. The original owner's manual was still in the glovebox when I found it. The 240-horse supercharged engine was Harley Earl's idea, turns out. He'd been dead since 1969, but that's a technicality. Some tips for selling the new Regal.

Buick tops in Consumer Reports' annual brand rankings

Buick is the first US-based automotive brand to crack the top 10 in Consumer Reports magazine's annual brand report cards. US automakers also placed three vehicles on the magazine's list of "top picks" for vehicles, the first time that's happened in 17 years. The rankings were unveiled Tuesday in the magazine's annual auto issue. Buick placed seventh in the brand rankings. But the brand rankings and top picks still were dominated by Japanese and German manufacturers, with Lexus, Mazda, Toyota, Audi and Subaru taking the top five brand spots. The magazine calculates each brand's overall score with a composite of its vehicles' road-test scores and reliability scores for each model in its annual survey of subscribers. It's the third year for the brand rankings. Porsche placed just ahead of Buick at number six, while Honda, Kia and BMW rounded out the top 10 brands. Mercedes-Benz, Acura and Infiniti all suffered precipitous declines in their rankings due to unreliable new models or poor road test scores. Mercedes fell out of the top 10 to 21st, while Acura dropped from number two to 11 with an unimpressive test of the new RLX sedan, the magazine said. In the model rankings, the top overall finisher was California-based Tesla's Model S electric car, for the second year in a row. The Model S, which cost the magazine $89,650, finished first due to its performance and technical innovations, the magazine said. Buick's Regal midsize car beat the BMW 328i as the top sports sedan, and the Chevrolet Impala was named the top large car. The model rankings show Consumer Reports' favorite among the 270 vehicles its team has recently tested. The rankings are closely watched in the auto industry, since shoppers consistently cite Consumer Reports as a main source of car-buying advice. Other top picks included the Subaru Impreza in the compact car category, Subaru Legacy in midsize cars, Toyota Prius as the best green car, Audi A6 luxury car, Subaru Forester small SUV, Toyota Highlander midsize SUV and the Honda Odyssey minivan. Japanese vehicles won six of 10 top pick categories, but that was the smallest number in the 19-year history of Consumer Reports top picks. "For years domestic automakers built lower-priced and lower-quality alternatives to imports, but those days are behind us," said Jake Fisher, the magazine's director of automotive testing. But other U.S.-based automakers still had problems.