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GM lays off 450 at Lansing Grand River Assembly

General Motors will lay off 450 employees at its Lansing Grand River factory, The Detroit News reports, which is 100 more than the company said it'd be letting go last month. Lansing Grand River Assembly currently builds the Cadillac ATS and CTS, both of which have suffered sluggish sales, with the smaller sedan down 20 percent through last month and the larger model down 2.3 percent, The Detroit News reports. "We are adjusting plant production capacity to better align with market demand. Beginning in January 2015, the plant will operate on a single shift," a GM statement read, before explaining that not all the laid off Grand River employees will be jobless. Of the employees that have been laid off to make room for the single work shift, around 200 will transfer to the Lansing Delta Township factory, home of the Lambda-platform crossovers, GM's statement confirmed. The News expects this one-shift arrangement to continue until at least late next year, when the Alpha-platform Chevy Camaro transitions from General Motors' Oshawa, Ontario factory to Lansing. Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen said at last month's LA Auto Show, "It may not necessarily be permanent, a time may come when we've gained momentum and we can reinstate it. But for now, the adjustment to production capacity is in alignment with our plans for 2015."

GM extending warranties on Cadillac CTS-V and Chevy Camaro ZL1 for supercharger issue

Okay General Motors, we've sat by and watched you recall the compact cars, crossovers and pickup trucks, and aside from reporting on it, we've been fairly quiet. This, though, this will not do. We can almost tolerate the recalls on the bread-and-butter cars, but leave the performance vehicles alone.
According to a report from The Car Connection, GM has discovered a problem with the superchargers of the 6.2-liter V8s found in the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 and the Cadillac CTS-V. Apparently, the issue rests around the internal bearing shaft grease, which can become contaminated (we aren't sure with what). If left unchecked, it'll first lead to a rattle at idle, which goes away under slight throttle. The real warning stage is when a high-pitched squeal develops, signaling that the bearing shaft has failed. Naturally, severe engine damage is the next step (although it's possible that the engine will also just refuse to turnover, although neither case is desirable).
According to TCC, GM will replace the superchargers on vehicles that have exhibited symptoms of bearing shaft failure free of charge. It will also, allegedly, be extending the warranty on all supercharged ZL1s and CTS-Vs to 10 years or 120,000 miles (whichever comes first), from the date of purchase. Officially, only 2009 to 2013 CTS-Vs and 2012 to 2013 ZL1s are suffering from this issue.

Safety group pans GM’s new Marketplace in-dash shopping

When it comes to our cars, is the Internet of Things a godsend? Or a hidden menace that will create more problems than it will solve? On the same day General Motors announced it will equip newer-model cars with its in-dash Marketplace e-commerce app, a prominent safety group was shooting it down. National Safety Council President Deborah Hersman tells Bloomberg the technology will only contribute to distracted driving and hurt efforts to stem the tide of rising auto fatalities, which grew 5.6 percent to more than 37,000 in the U.S. in 2016. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says distracted driving was responsible for 3,477 fatalities and 391,000 injuries in 2015, the most recent year for which it has data. "There's nothing about this that's safe," Hersman told Bloomberg. "If this is why they want WiFi in the car, we're going to see fatality numbers go up even higher than they are now." Marketplace, developed with IBM, will allow drivers — or more often, one hopes, their passengers — to order coffee or food, find gas stations and reserve hotel rooms from their dashboard screens. The technology is set to be uploaded automatically to nearly 1.9 million GM vehicles model-year 2017 and later that are equipped with WiFi hotspots and compatible systems. By the end of 2018, about 4 million Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles will be equipped with Marketplace. The app will debut with a limited number of participating retailers, including TGI Fridays, Shell, Exxon Mobil and Starbucks, with more likely to join later. Online retail giant Amazon is also partnering with automakers such as Ford to bring e-commerce capabilities inside the car through its Alexa personal assistant. While convenience is nice, one other thing is becoming clear as the IoT wedges its way into our cars: It's taking aim at some decidedly first-world problems.Related Video: Image Credit: GM Buick Cadillac Chevrolet GM GMC Technology Infotainment in-car entertainment marketplace e-commerce