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GM program sees dealers taking on way more loaner cars

Given the volume of vehicles we're talking about, this is a significant development for GM's bottom line. Bring your car into the dealership for service, and you may need a loaner car in exchange. And with so many recalls being carried out, that means a lot of loaners – especially at General Motors dealerships. That could be one of the reasons why GM is massively expanding its loaner fleet program. While many Chevrolet and Buick-GMC dealerships have an on-site rental car location operated by a third party like Enterprise (which may or may not provide a GM vehicle), others manage their own loaner fleets. But while the range of dealerships operating such fleets was once small, reports Automotive News, the number has been growing rapidly: from the locations responsible for only 20 percent of those brands' sales two years ago to about 90 percent today. The impetus for that growth comes down to a massive expansion of GM's Courtesy Transportation Program. The initiative encourages dealers to ramp up their loaner fleet to a maximum size determined by GM, with a mix determined by the dealer itself, so that a showroom in Texas can be bolstered with a fleet of pickup trucks and a dealer in California can employ more Volt and Camaro Convertible loaners. The dealership gets a $500 credit for each vehicle its puts in its fleet, and can use those vehicles as loaners for service customers, as multi-day test drivers or to rent out separately. The vehicles remain in the dealer's fleet for 90 days or 7,500 miles, then they can be sold as used, but with new-car incentives. The dealer gets a fleet of loaners, customers get to use the loaners, try out a new car overnight or buy a barely used car with attractive incentives, and GM gets to clock more sales. But therein lies the kicker: the automaker counts the dispatch of the loaner new vehicle to the dealership as a new-car sale, which could end up distorting its sales figures. Counting loaner vehicles as sold vehicles is something of an industry-standard practice, but given the volume of vehicles we're talking about, this is a significant development for GM's bottom line. One dealership - Paddock Chevrolet in Kenmore, NY, for example - had no loaner fleet two years ago, but now runs a fleet of 50 vehicles. Multiply that by the 4,000 or so dealers GM has across America and you're talking about the potential for hundreds of thousands of these sorts of sales.

2017 Buick LaCrosse First Drive

The 2017 Buick LaCrosse seems destined to never get the credit it deserves. It's bound to be dismissed as just another full-size sedan relic, ignored by those who habitually visit their Lexus dealer every few years for a new ES. This new LaCrosse will inevitably be overshadowed in the Buick showroom by SUVs and never fully appreciated by the majority of its buyers who simply want a big, comfy, and quiet car. That destiny would be a shame. The completely redesigned LaCrosse is now a legitimate luxury car, not because advertisements say it is, but for the way it drives, the way it looks, and the way it cossets you inside. The former is really the most impressive, since it's also the most surprising. During the LaCrosse press launch in Portland, Oregon, Buick boasted how comfortable and exceedingly quiet the car is, and indeed, it isolates road imperfections and allows for a pair of low talkers to converse in subdued tones. The big Buick sedan's low-effort steering will also satisfy the nice-and-easy tastes of most drivers. The best way to describe driving the LaCrosse is "unwaveringly pleasant." Yet, during that pleasant drive, road dips and mid-corner undulations don't make the comfort-tuned suspension bob and bound like its competitors might. Its body control and generally planted nature encourage speeds and confidence to creep ever so higher through successive sweeping corners on Oregon's densely forested Mist-Clatskanie Highway. Even that low-effort steering demonstrates precision, linearity, and just enough feedback to further spur on such a pace. This unexpected capability is best observed on cars equipped with the optional 20-inch wheels, which supplant the standard 18s and, more importantly, bring with them Continuous Damping Control (CDC) and GM's HiPer Strut front suspension, which is designed to quell torque steer and further improve cornering grip. You don't even have to engage CDC's firmer Sport mode to appreciate the LaCrosse's surprisingly sharp road manners. "We unleashed the engineers," chief engineer Jeffrey Yanssens said after our test drive. "I told them, 'I don't care how much it costs. I want you to know your system and I want your system to be the best it can be. What do you have to do to make that happen and what can I do to enable you to make that happen?'" Yanssens is honest and clearly proud of his team's work.

NC dealer falsely announces return of Regal Grand National, Regal GNX

Like many new car dealers, Liberty Buick GMC gets so excited about its brands' new wares that it puts out press releases announcing when new models are on the way. That's not typically national news, but the Charlotte, NC store has created a bit of internet hubbub by announcing that it will be "one of the first dealers in the country to offer the Buick Regal GNX," and it's even started to add customers names to a waitlist. Only one problem: Despite seemingly annual rumors and calls for such a model, Buick hasn't announced any Grand National models at all – let alone a GNX – and no such models are actually in the cards. The Liberty Buick press release talks in a nostalgic, venerative tone of the original 1982-1987 GN franchise, and goes on to say: "These returning relics will be based on the highly-acclaimed Alpha vehicle architecture currently used in the Cadillac ATS, 2014 Cadillac CTS, and soon to be in the sixth-generation Chevy Camaro. Alpha is the internal name of a General Motors vehicle architecture engineered to underpin compact and mid-size rear-wheel-drive vehicles." In the release, Liberty Buick claimed the GN/GNX models would arrive in late 2015, citing a coupe bodystyle, including a rather fantastical-looking GNX rendering from Bestride.com. Unsurprisingly, none of this is true. Autoblog reached out to Buick for comment about the release, and brand communications manager Nick Richards confirmed that the company had discussed the matter with Liberty Buick representatives. Richards went on to say that the release was wholly incorrect, proclaiming "an agency [for the dealer] picked up a lot of stuff off the internet" and ran with it, including an old Car and Driver story from 2013. The dealership subsequently issued a retraction, with Scott McCorkle, owner of Liberty Buick GMC saying: "We love the idea of the Buick Regal GNX coming back to our showroom but for now, it's only a concept. Bottom-line, the article was incorrect.