Chevrolet Malibu Lt on 2040-cars

Auto blog

GM pickup truck plant in Flint to add 1,000 assembly workers

FLINT, Mich. — General Motors said Tuesday it will add 1,000 workers to build new heavy-duty pickup trucks at its plant in Flint, Michigan, and will give priority to GM workers who were laid off elsewhere. The announcement comes the day after GM said it was starting to hand pink slips to about 4,000 salaried workers in the latest round of a restructuring announced in late November that will ultimately shrink its white-collar workforce in North America by 15 percent out of 54,000. GM has come under fire from U.S. President Donald Trump and Midwestern lawmakers for its plans to stop production at five North American factories and cut up to 15,000 jobs in all. The automaker has said it is trying to find new jobs for 1,500 U.S. hourly workers at the affected plants. Flint's truck plant could be a haven for many of these employees. Sales of heavy-duty pickups in the United States have grown to more than 600,000 vehicles a year, up more than 20 percent since 2013, according to industry data. Prices for luxury models can easily top $70,000. GM on Tuesday will celebrate the launch of a new generation of heavy-duty GMC and Chevrolet pickups at the assembly plant in Flint, Michigan, that is now building all such trucks for the company. Elsewhere in the company on Monday, two people briefed on the cuts in the white-collar salaried workforce said GM is cutting hundreds of jobs at its information technology centers in Texas, Georgia, Arizona and Michigan and more than 1,000 jobs at its Warren, Michigan Tech Center. GM is filing new required mass layoff notices with state agencies and disclosed the cuts to lawmakers. The largest U.S. automaker announced in November it would cut a total of about 15,000 jobs and end production at five North American plants. The cuts include eliminating about 8,000 salaried workers, or about 15 percent. GM cut about 1,500 contract workers in December and said 2,300 salaried workers accepted buyouts, officials said. "These actions are necessary to secure the future of the company, including preserving thousands of jobs in the U.S. and globally. We are taking action now while the overall economy and job market are strong, increasing the ability of impacted employees to continue to advance in their careers, should they choose to do so," GM spokesman Pat Morrissey said, adding the bulk of the cuts should be completed in the next two weeks. Morrissey said GM would provide salaried workers with severance packages and job placement services.

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. puts his Callaway Corvette and '55 Chevy on eBay

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. has put a couple of his personal cars up for sale on eBay. The first is a 1955 Chevy Bel Air that Junior had reworked by Funkmaster Flex, a bit of a diversion from Flex's more common Ford efforts. Junior's ride has a replacement chassis from Jim Meyer Racing, a 434 small-block tuned by Sharioff Racing to 500 horsepower, and truly thin rubber on what appear to be aluminum billet rims with Junior's former number 8 on the center caps. The interior is all custom and painted to match the outside, and those seats have been completely reupholstered. The second car is a 1999 Callaway C12, the 18th of 19 C12s built that year and featured in a 2002 issue of AutoWeek. It joined Earnhardt's private collection in 2004. Built on the base of a C5 Chevrolet Corvette and using a lot of technical know-how from Callaway's European racing program, the BMW #287 Blue Pearl C12 had its V8 bored out to 6.2 liters and graced with Callaway's Supernatural upgrade; it also has a Callaway coil-over suspension with adjustable dampers. There's new bodywork all around, and when new it cost about $200,000. At the time of writing bidding on the Bel Air was up to $80,100, the C12 was at $63,100. The auction ends Monday morning, and the winning bidders have the option of having their prizes autographed and retrieving the keys from Dale Jr himself if they're willing to go to Moorseville, NC. Featured Gallery Dale Earnhardt Jr. '55 Chevy Bel-Air View 28 Photos Related Gallery Dale Earnhardt Jr. Callaway C12 View 24 Photos News Source: Dale Earnhardt Jr via eBay [1], [2] Aftermarket Celebrities Chevrolet Auctions Coupe Luxury Special and Limited Editions Performance Classics eBay callaway callaway corvette Chevy Bel Air

Chevy teases next-gen Volt at fan event in LA

Barely two months before its planned debut at the 2015 North American International Auto Show, Chevrolet has released yet another batch of teaser images of its second-generation Volt. Unlike the first image, though, which just showed the car's rear badge, there's a lot more to this quartet of shots. The first three images show off the nose of the next-gen model and come from a fan event in Los Angeles. What we can see is a sleeker front end, with an evolution of the silver grille inserts previously seen on the original Volt and Spark EV. Gone is the current car's split upper grille, in favor of a more conventional arrangement. The sharper, more angular headlights are also an evolution of the lamps seen on the current Volt. Chevrolet also took the opportunity to announce a new location-based charging system that uses GPS to adjust the vehicle's charge settings, including the charge level, while also announcing that the next-gen car will feature more intuitive charge indicators that will be better able to inform owners of their car's charging level. The tech will mean that the Volt 'knows' when it is parked at home, and can thus automatically optimize charging for off-peak times, and so on. Take a look at the teaser images at the top of the page, and then head below for Chevy's press release announcing the new features. Next-Gen Chevy Volt Offers More User-Friendly Charging 2014-11-20 GPS makes charging more convenient Portable charger is easier to access Intuitive visual cues show charge status DETROIT – If there's one thing Chevrolet Volt owners love about their cars, it's being able to recharge the battery easily. Evidence of that is a U.S. Department of Energy study that shows more than 80 percent of all trips by Volt owners did not use the range extender. Chevrolet has made the charging system in the next-generation Volt even easier for customers to recharge the battery – and to check the charge status. The next-generation Volt debuts in January at the North American International Auto Show. "Chevrolet used the real-world experiences of today's Volt owners to make the charging process simpler and more convenient in the next-generation Volt," said Andrew Farah, chief engineer for the Volt.