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Vert-A-Pac train cars kept your Chevy Vega's price in check

Our apologies to those who've seen this before, but for the rest of the class, how awesome are these pictures of the Vert-A-Pac shipping system General Motors came up with to ship the Chevrolet Vega back in the 1970s? Developed along with Southern Pacific Railroad, GM was able to double the amount of Vega models it could ship by packing them into the unique storage cars vertically.
At the time, rail cars could fit 15 vehicles each, but Chevrolet was able to lower shipping costs by making it possible to ship 30 Vegas per rail car, in turn allowing the price of the Vega to remain as low as possible. Each rail car had 30 doors that would fold down so that a Vega could be strapped on, and then a forklift would come along and lift the door into place. All the cars were positioned nose down, and since they were shipped with all of their required fluids, certain aspects had to be designed specifically for this type of shipping, including an oil baffle in the engine, a special battery and even a repositioned windshield washer reservoir. See for yourself in our image gallery above.

GM to build outgoing Silverado and Sierra until late 2019

As it has done with previous generations, General Motors is keeping the outgoing versions of its 1500 pickups in production despite the arrival of the all-new 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and 2019 GMC Sierra. The production of the previous, K2 generation models will begin to be wound down gradually, according to Automotive News, starting with crew cabs "early next year," and double and regular cab models following during "the early second half of next year." The old model trucks will continue to be built into "late 2019" based on market demand, GM's spokesperson Kim Carpenter said. The Chevrolet will go by the name Silverado LD, with the GMC Sierra designation still to be announced. Some of the outgoing models are built by sharing the assembly work between two GM plants. Partially finished Silverado and Sierra double cab bodies are shipped from Fort Wayne, Ind., to Oshawa, Ont., where the trucks are completed, including receiving paint. This eases the workload in Fort Wayne, where production of the new T1 generation trucks started in July 2018. In January, the Silao plant in Mexico will take on the duties of building new generation regular cab and crew cab trucks. Carpenter also said that the "Oshawa shuttle," as the shared production is called, has been very successful. As a result, 60,000 more trucks will be built than what the original production forecast initially called for. GM's latest quarterly profits, disclosed last week to be $1 billion, have been far higher than expected and will result in full-year profits far higher than what had been predicted in light of steel tariffs. GM isn't the only truck maker taking a similar multi-generation approach for 2019. Both the outgoing and redesigned Ram 1500 are in production, with the previous generation being dubbed Ram 1500 Classic. Related Video:

This is how GM is hiding new Chevy Volt in public

General Motors is letting the public know that, well, it's not about to let the public know anything else about the next-generation Chevrolet Volt. But the automaker is willing to talk about its camouflaging process for upcoming versions of the extended-range plug-in. So it's a half-hearted secret, at best. GM actually has a "camouflage engineer" charged with creating ways to disguise the styling of new vehicles. In the Volt's case, the company is applying black and white swirly color patterns on top of the materials, such as plastics, vinyl and foam, that are used liberally across the body. It's all part of a teaser campaign that started last month with pictures of part the 2016 Volt. Earlier this month, GM said it was keeping track of Volt drivers' habits as it works on the next-gen model. The company noted that more than four out of five trips are being made in all-electric driving mode, and that 60 percent of Volt owners use a plain-old 100-volt outlet to recharge their cars. The car is slated to make its global debut at Detroit's North American International Auto Show next January, and the early word is that performance and all-electric range will be improved (we should hope so). The car will also be sleeker. By how much, we can't tell yet, because of those darn swirly patterns. GM's got more non-details in its press release below. Engineers charged with hiding styling while vehicle testing proceeds in public DETROIT – The styling of the next-generation Chevrolet Volt is one of the automotive world's best-kept secrets. Keeping customers and media eager to see the successor to the groundbreaking original at bay until the new Volt debuts at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January is tricky business. First, it is engineers, not designers, who are charged with creating camouflage that balances styling secrecy with the need to validate the Volt and its systems in public. "If it were up to me it would be a shoebox driving down the road," said Lionel Perkins, GM camouflage engineer. "The design team wants us to cover more of the vehicle and the engineering team needs to have enough of the vehicle's weight and aero exposed so that the tests in the development process are consistent with the product that will come to market." The engineers responsible for the "cool" designs covering the car might deserve style points but their efforts are intended strictly to hide the metal beneath.