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Bill Heard Enterprises, based out of Columbus, has filed for federal bankruptcy protection under the heading of Chapter 11 Protection.

Bill Heard Enterprises was one of the largest Chevrolet dealers in the United States and in the world. Heard’s dealerships sold more Chevy cars than anyone else. But it closed its 14 dealer outlets this month. The move put 2,700 people out of work, including more than 300 at the flagship Columbus dealership.

So what went wrong? How did the once powerful Bill Heard Enterprises end up the latest victim of economic strife in America?

Many analysts are pointing to Heard’s “Mr. Big Volume” philosophy as one of the key components to the collapse. By accepting all loans applications, regardless of credit history, Heard’s dealerships put many people in cars that wouldn’t normally be able to apply for them. Of course, with the good comes the bad and Heard often felt the crunch from these deals. His high volume, low profit sales organization was destined to fail from the outset, say many, and the events of this week are simply the inexorable results.

Responsible dealerships can thrive in any environment with smart business moves and proper credit researching. Loaning money and expecting payments from people who cannot properly make payments is not a solid foundation on which to build any business, least of all a car business.

Bill Heard’s collapse doubtlessly leaves many lessons behind, the most important of which is also the most obvious.

With gas prices being what they are and the economy not looking so good, to say the least, buying a full-sized pick-up truck at this point and time might seem like a bit of a strange move. But Chevy is hoping to curb the situation with its 2009 Chevy Silverado Hybrid, a vehicle that allows consumers to have the rough and tough component of a big truck with less of a gas cost.

The gasoline-electric Silverado offers hope to those who still like the feeling of rolling around in one of the larger trucks on the market but hate paying the enormous gas prices. Plus, the big truck proves that you can love big powerful stuff and still care about the environment. Sounds like a win-win situation, right?

For its 2009 model year, the Silverado will be among the first light duty pick-ups to go the hybrid route, which puts Chevy above the competition. Other car companies are scrambling to move to more hybrid capabilities, with the challenge being to find an engine powerful enough to drive the larger frames of trucks.

With Chevy cars and trucks moving in the hybrid and fully electric direction (see the Chevy Volt, for instance), it looks like America’s domestic automobile industry is finally learning from its mistakes.

In 1978, it would have been a little hard to miss the movie Corvette Summer. After all, the star of the show, Mark Hammil, was well on his way to fame and glory when he filmed Corvette summer, just after the release of Star Wars. While Corvette Summer isn’t star wars by any means, this movie is a fun look back in time at what many people consider the golden age of Corvettes.

The movie starts with Hammill’s character, Ken, as a senior at a high school in the Valley. Ken builds a Corvette in auto class, complete with spoilers on the top, a grill that looks like teeth, and fur on the dashboard. While few Corvette enthusiasts today would respect the styling choices, for its time this Corvette certainly had a unique look.

The car disappears, and Ken embarks on a summer-long quest to find his car. Along the way, he joins up with Vanessa, played by Annie Potts. She’s an aspiring hooker, who plans to make her fortune running a brothel out of her Chevy van. She tries to seduce him, and he refuses. Instead, she winds up helping him in his quest.

By the end of the film, Ken and Vanessa fall in love. They find the Corvette together, and, we assume, live happily ever after.

While not the most interesting plot, and while the acting isn’t the greatest, this little peak at a long-forgotten Corvette makes the movie worth a look.

If you’d rather drive a Corvette without any fur on the dashboard come see your local dealer today and we’ll help you find your dream car.

You can’t always predict what you’re going to be throwing into the bed of your new Chevy truck. It might be that you don’t really plan on using your truck bed on a regular basis, and it doesn’t occur to you that you might need something to protect it. Fortunately, there are things you can do to protect the bed of your new Chevy Truck.

First off, you can consider a bed liner for your truck. A bed liner is designed to take the hits, bumps, and scratches from things like tools, furniture, or even camping gear. Bed liners are designed to keep your truck bed sharp and damage-free.

Another way to protect your truck bed is with a truck box. You can install a truck box on the back of your Chevy pickup and keep most of your tools or other gear inside. A truck box provides weather protection for those items, too.

Finally, you can consider a topper for your truck bed. A topper protects your truck bed while keeping the elements off it as well. When combined with a bed liner, a topper provides a safe location for your equipment, and it does it in such a way that your bed will stay in pristine condition.

If you’re looking for a new pickup truck, visit your NJ Chevrolet Dealer today and see what we have to offer.

We’ve spent quite a bit of time lately talking about the brand spankin’ new Chevy Volt and its potential impact on the world of automaking. But the wait is over and the 2010 Volt has finally been unveiled on a curious public, giving journalists and analysts a chance to finally explore what the new ride has to offer.

General Motors unveiled the production model of the Volt and, in doing so, created a new class of vehicles known as the Extended-Range Electric Vehicle or E-REV. The Volt differs from hybrids in that it utilizes electricity to move at all times and all speeds.

The Volt boasts a 40 mile battery range and uses a gas/E85 powered generator to supply power to the electric drive unit. The vehicle has a top speed of 100 miles per hour and should usher in a brand new wave in environmentally-friendly cars.

Using a 16-kWh lithium-ion battery, the Volt should turn some heads on the road with its zippy get-up-and-go. The car’s electric drive unit delivers the equivalent of 150 horsepower, 273 lb-ft. of instant torque, to reach its top speed. The Volt is charged by plugging it into a standard 120v household outlet, giving the driver even more convenience.

Wtih the arrival of the Volt, look for other Chevy cars to continue the trend to save you money and save the environment, too.

When General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner told a throng that there was no guarantee that GM would be using American-made batteries in the brand new Chevrolet Volt, the throng rumbled.

The problem with this arises out of the fact that Detroit automakers recently pressed the government for $25 billion in government loans. With the Volt and the idea that a good portion of it may or may not be spent on the batteries in a domestic capacity, the idea that some or a good portion of the government money set aside to help Detroit automakers could be going to overseas manufacturers flat out doesn’t sit well.

“As we sit here today, I can’t give you a guarantee that it will be made in the U.S.,” Wagoner said regarding the making of the battery for the vehicle. “If we want to get the Volt in the market, as we do by the end of 2010, we’ve got to make some relatively near-term decisions about how we are going to do all that.”

Wagoner’s comment came before he, Alan Mulally, the chief executive officer of Ford, and Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli lobbied Congress for a loans package that would help aid their industry in America. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said top lawmakers had agreed to attach the loan package to a continuing resolution end-of-the-year budget appropriation.

Whether or not the Volt will be 100% American remains to be seen, but at the moment is appears that it and other Chevy cars are more in a rush to get out on the lot than they are to use the American loan from the government in any domestic capacity. We’ll stay on this story as more develops in the coming days.

The brand new Chevy Volt is facing down some serious marketing opportunities. Not only has the Volt been heavily promoted in a variety of avenues, but Stephen Colbert’s show recently had the opportunity to interview General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz and talk about the brand new Chevrolet Volt.

Colbert’s finest hour came when he proffered the question “Will it get me laid?” to a seemingly flustered Lutz.

Lutz’s response: “You’re going to get a lot of nice, no-makeup environmentalist [women].”

While Lutz responded in typically hilarious Colbert Show fashion, Chevy’s promotion of the image of the Volt is dead on target. By going on shows like Colbert’s the Volt will rack up a fair range of marketing opportunities and will get more people interested in the vehicle. But if Lutz and Chevy intends to be continue to raise its profile amongst the target audience for the Volt, they’ll need to be a bit more progressive in terms of the answers.

Lutz sounded outdated and not entirely supportive of the Volt, which is a vehicle that he and all Chevy cars reps need to get behind if the intention is to sell it to a younger public. The appearance on the show along won’t necessarily sell more cars, but his support behind the vehicle will. And he and other Chevy reps will need to work harder in the coming months to promote the vehicle.

When you think about a Corvette, you probably don’t automatically picture a soccer mom driving one. The Corvette enthusiast group has long been dominated men, and brings up plenty of images of machismo.

Vette Girl TV aims to challenge those assumptions. At this website, a minivan driver, Becky Anderson, trades in her minivan for a Corvette. At this site, Becky sets out to experience everything that a corvette driver can experience. Followed by a film crew, she participates in everything from drag racing to road racing to drifting to salt flats.

Becky Anderson always dreamed of racing a Corvette, ever since she was a small girl. Even in her minivan, she felt the need for speed, and has often been accused of having a lead foot. Vette Girl TV finally gives her the chance to really open things up in the ultimate American sports car, and she comes through with flying colors.

This website offers Corvette enthusiasts several exciting features. First of all, you can watch a Corvette neophyte as she gets behind the wheel for the first time. You can witness her excitement as she learns to drive a stick shift, and as she takes the Vette out on the track for the first time.

Currently featuring six episodes, Corvette Girl TV promises to continue to produce these interesting and insightful videos.

The 2009 Chevrolet Camaro SS brings to life something that’s been missing from the camaro for a long time.

The new Camaro SS, based on General Motor’s Zeta platform, is going to be a new and modern take on the classic 1969 Camaro. For many enthusiasts, the 1969 Camaro SS was the ultimate of the car’s first generation. This new Camaro was designed by a young group of designers, and is ready to take the sports car world by storm.

The Camaro SS will feature as standard General Motor’s global 3.6 liter V6. It is expected to get between 240 and 260 horsepower. The V8 option available for the 2009 Chevrolet Camaro SS will use the 6.2 liter GEN VI engine, which is capable of producing 400 horsepower.

The SS is expected to begin production at the end of 2008, and will hit dealerships sometime in early 2009.

Camaro enthusiasts around the world are excited, as this marks the long awaited return of one of Chevrolet’s favorite sports cars. Coupled with the return of the Corvette ZR1, Chevrolet is going back to its roots when it comes to sports car appeal.

Want to know more about the 2009 Camaro or Chevy’s other great vehicles? Come see your NJ Chevrolet Dealer today.

Chevrolet is announcing that it will be temporarily halting the production of its Corvette for the week of October 6, 2008 in the Kentucky plant where the monstrously cool car is produced.

There is also word that there may be some job cuts in October to offset the slowdown in sales of the Corvette. Slow sales and mounting dealer inventory is causing the lull and is leading to the halt in production, creating a backlog for Chevrolet and problems for Chevy workers. Word is that up to 75 workers may face layoffs from the Kentucky plant.

This is interesting news for producers of the Corvette, as Chevy hasn’t had to lay off workers on the car since 1987. The ‘87 cuts took place because the company was turning out too many Corvettes and the market was saturated. This round of cuts, over ten years later, comes with a much different underlying message.

“We’re going to reduce our production to make sure we align it with the expected demand that we see in the near term,” explained Paul Graham, plant manager for the Bowling Green Assembly Plant. “It’s something we don’t look forward to doing, but unfortunately given where the marketplace is, we’re in the luxury market and it’s down about 12 percent this year right now.”

With the layoffs and the temporary halting of production, Chevy cars may also face some upcoming promotions to move current models off of the dealership lots. Keep your eyes on the papers for more information.