Classic Cars Chevrolet

When the 2009 World Touring Car Championship season takes off, Chevrolet will use its brand new 2009 Chevy Cruze to turn heads.

The Cruze was revealed as the company’s car of choice recently, showing onlookers that the car is based on the new model that recently premiered at the Paris Motor Show. Chevrolet has used the Lacetti since moving into the WTCC, but the switch to the Cruze for 2009 ought to be an exciting change of pace.

Sneak peeks of the Cruze had been circulating since before the Paris Motor Show, with various industry analysts getting an early glimpse at the car. It is a global compact car, one which may well become the flagship vehicle for Chevy cars around the world. Its sleek design and driveability add up to perfection behind the wheel.

The car is being built on the Chevrolet Cobalt, Cobalt SS, and the Cobalt XFE with hopes of leading the Cobalt line to higher sales as well.

Many critics are chastising Chevrolet and General Motors for bringing the Cruze around too late, but others are suggesting that the timing is just right. With the current economic crisis swelling over our heads, perhaps the time isn’t ideal for the introduction of a brand new vehicle. With the Cruze, however, heads will turn without much damage to the bank account. It is an exciting new entry for Chevrolet and General Motors.

It wasn’t too long ago that we reported on the closing down of Bill Heard Enterprises. Now lawyers for a former company worker are alleging that Heard broke labour laws when thousands of employees were terminated before the company sought bankruptcy protection on September 28.

According to the lawsuit, Bill Heard Enterprises and about two dozen affiliates were required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act to give at least 60 days advance written notice of the employee terminations and continue paying certain wages, salary, and benefits during the notice period in accordance with federal law.

Edward Kratzel has brought the suit against Bill Heard Enterprises. Kratzel worked at a Las Vegas facility until September 24. He filed his lawsuit in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court District in Decatur, Alabama.

Kratzel’s suit seeks WARN Act required wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, holiday pay, vacation pay, pension and 401(k) contributions, and other benefits that would have been paid or covered during the notice period. The lawsuit also seeks attorneys’ fees.

Kratzel’s legal team is attempting to have the suit termed as a class action lawsuit that would include all persons terminated by Bill Heard Enterprises during the company’s march to bankruptcy protection. This includes those terminated at Georgia, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Tennessee, and Texas plants on or about September 24.

Those selling or building Chevy cars are important to, as John McCain would have it, “the fundamentals” of the American economy. Workers need to be treated fairly and if Bill Heard Enterprises is guilty of any wrongdoing, the workers will receive justice.

We recently told you all about the brand new Chevrolet Traverse and the expected impact the vehicle is going to make on the industry. Well, General Motors has begun production on the Traverse at its plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

The production of the 2009 Traverse began after General Motors performed a 12 month retooling of the plant and invested $600 million in the project.

Production of the brand new crossover from General Motors is heavily anticipated by Chevrolet execs, who claim that the Traverse will provide the perfect fit for today’s struggling markets.

“The all new Chevy Traverse is the right product for the market today, and we’ve got the right manufacturing team building it here in Spring Hill,” said Troy Clarke, president of GM North America.

General Motors has stated that the Traverse is one of the company’s most important volume market products, noting its fuel-efficiency as one of the top-drawer effects of the car’s potential for success. The car company is hoping that the Traverse’s fuel economy, with the 3.6-litre engine, will help provide a selling feature for the vehicle.

As with most other Chevy cars, promotion is a big factor. While the vehicle is beginning production, GM and Chevrolet have a long way to go in making the car popular among a public starving for a break from the economic turmoil.

With the 2009 Chevrolet Traverse, General Motors adds another vehicle to its Lambda build foundation. The other cars using the Lambda build are the Saturn Outlook, the Buick Enclave, and the GMC Acadia. The Traverse is in some good company, wouldn’t you say?

The Traverse offers much of the same functionally as its cross-brand cousins, giving Chevrolet an entry in the segment of crossovers without relying on a truck foundation like the TrailBlazer of previous years.

According to reviews of the Traverse, this new Chevrolet car features a quiet engine pushing out 288 horsepower with the newest version of GM’s 3.6L DOHC V-6 making things happen under the hood. The vehicle drives on a six-speed automatic transmission, including a manual toggle for shifting through the gears should the driver desire it.

Fuel economy appears to be one of the vehicle’s weaker points, with EPA fuel economy estimates at 16 mpg city and 23 mpg highway. One test reported achieving worse fuel economy than that after a “hard drive,” reporting a mere 12.1 mpg.

In terms of the vehicle’s interior, early reports say that the Traverse does a good job matching comfort and function. The controls are durable and easy-to-use, while some reported having a less than desirable amount of legroom in the second row and almost none to speak of in the third row. Adults will have trouble sitting in those locations in the Traverse.

With Chevy cars working overtime to drum up a new customer base, one wonders just how well a heavier duty vehicle like the 2009 Traverse will do in today’s market.

For General Motors and Chevrolet, the upcoming Paris auto show is incredibly important.

Car companies from around the world will spend millions of dollars on the show, hoping to unveil some of their more vibrant creations on a waiting public anxious to see the new goods for the first time. The public exposure from the auto show simply can’t be beat and Chevrolet will be hoping to make the most of the opportunity to reach a broad audience in one shot.

“This is a way to express that Chevrolet is now a global brand,” said Wayne Brannon, the chief of Chevrolet Europe.

One of the key components to Chevy cars presentation at the Paris show is the Chevrolet Volt. The electric vehicle is one of Chevy’s most bankable products, as the car company is putting an awful lot of promotional stock behind the smooth ride.

Chevy hopes to use the enormous media coverage and the huge international audience to bring up the profile of the Volt and other Chevy cars. With additional focus on the environmentally-friendly vehicles from around the world, there’s no question that GM and Chevrolet will set their sights on Paris for an opportunity to show just how “green” they can be.

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.

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.