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GM claims it's first to sell million 30+ mpg vehicles

As we continue to put together all the data for the year-end edition of By The Numbers, General Motors has announced that it sold more than a million vehicles in the US last year that achieved at least 30 miles per gallon on the highway. More impressively, GM managed this feat using multiple strategies including small vehicle size, turbocharged engines and hybrid or plug-in technologies across four brands (Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC) accounting for 13 separate models. This number will grow even more in 2013 thanks to cars like the all-electric Spark, the diesel Cruze, the range-extended Cadillac ELR and the Buick Encore compact CUV.
GM's small car sales were up 39 percent last year helping to attain this million-sales mark for 30-mpg models, and almost 40 percent of all GM sales consisted of cars with fuel-efficient I4 engines. In regards to more advanced means of improving fuel economy, GM says that it plans on having 500,000 vehicles with "some form of electrification" on the road by 2017.
Scroll down for the full list of GM's million 30+ mpg cars as well as an informative press release.

Despite strong profits, GM still fighting flat market share

Looking at the progress General Motors has made since it entered bankruptcy, it's easy to forget that the company still has a long way to go before it's the juggernaut it once was. A recent report from Reuters points out that, while GM is making money, it isn't making any gains in terms of US market share. Quite the opposite, really. Consider this factoid: In 1963, nearly half of the cars sold in the United States were from Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, GMC or Pontiac. Now, the company's US market share is stagnant at 17.9 percent. That same number is half of just Chevy's 1963 market share. This is all despite GM going on a binge replacing or updating its models. "Market share increases are not instantaneous," Mark Reuss told Reuters at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show. "We've got a lot of baggage. Don't underestimate what people though of us, or these brands, through these hardships and 30 years." The reasons for the stagnant market share are numerous. Reuters points out that retooling of factories and a focus on limiting incentives are both good things for profit, but not necessarily for market share. There's also the troubling turnover of the brand's marketing department. These issues don't change the fact that Chevrolet has lost 1.4 percent of its market share in two years, and that Cadillac - arguably GM's most improved brand overall - has lost 1.2 percent in the same period. Part of that can be blamed on GM's avoidance of fleet sales in favor of more profitable customer sales. "Our focus has really been on retail and that's where we've got the growth," said Alan Batey, GM's interim global marketing boss. "We want to grow GM and that means growing market share and profits, but it's not at all costs," Reuss said. News Source: ReutersImage Credit: paul bica - Flickr CC 2.0 Earnings/Financials Buick Cadillac GM GMC sales profits

Junkyard Gem: 1978 Buick Electra 225

The Buick Electra was a big, plush, dignified land yacht for the 1959 through 1976 model years, but certain events in the middle 1970s, coupled with increasing sales of imported cars, convinced The General that a weight-loss program would help Electra sales. For the 1977 model year, the big Buick became 11 inches shorter and shed close to 900 pounds. Sales took off. Most of these cars are gone now, but I was able to find this faded '78 in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard a few weeks back. Just to be clear, the Buick Electra in the iconic Sir Mix-a-Lot video, My Hooptie, is a 1969 model. That car was much bigger and more powerful than today's Junkyard Gem. This car has the optional Oldsmobile 403-cubic-inch V8 engine under the hood, which was good for 185 horsepower and 320 pound-feet of torque. This is the same type of engine that was badged as a 6.6-liter plant in the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am of Smokey and the Bandit fame, and GM's mix-and-match games with engines from different divisions went on to cause great disgruntlement among buyers who wanted a Buick engine in a Buick. The silver-faced gauges were pretty cool-looking by late-1970s standards. The interior is standard-issue Detroit luxury car for the era: much vinyl, many molded-in fake stitches, plenty of not-trying-very-hard-to-look-real "wood." These cars rode very comfortably and looked sharp, so who cared if the interiors were plasticky? According to Glenn Ford, the '78 Electra carried on an ancient tradition of Buick luxury. Related Video: