Nothing but good news out of GM these days

STEVE BOND/FOR THE TORONTO STAR

RUMBLE AND ROAR: Peter Howes, president of Norton Motorcycles Canada, fires up the first new Norton motorcycle in Canada in 35 years outside the company’s offices in Newmarket on Wednesday. The recently reopened Norton factory in Britain is expected to build 1,000 new bikes for 2011, 2,000 for 2012 and a maximum of 5,000 a year thereafter. Canada will get about 25 of the bikes this year – and most have already been sold.

John Leblanc

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

What a difference a year can make.

Even after surviving bankruptcy protection, the bad press of receiving bailout funding from U.S. and Canadian governments, plant shutdowns, brand and product rationalizations and the culling of dealers just twelve months ago, some were still questioning whether General Motors was a viable business.

But now in 2010, according to various industry reports, the only news coming out of GM these days pertains to new product, many with an eye towards new fuel efficiency standards.

In addition to the new Cruze compact sedan arriving at dealerships this fall, GM’s mainstream Chevrolet brand will continue to add small, fuel efficient cars.

Next year will see the debut of the Volt plug-in hybrid and the Aveo subcompact. Plus, the Spark minicar arrives in 2012.

Following that, the next generation Corvette sports car is expected to get a downsized, six-cylinder engine as an option in 2013, just in time to celebrate the car’s 60th anniversary.

The resurging Buick premium brand will add new models at both ends of its lineup.

Already on sale in Asia, the Cruze-based Buick Verano compact sedan should arrive in 2012 and a gasoline-electric hybrid version of the exiting LaCrosse sedan is also being planned.

And continuing its attack on Toyota’s Lexus brand, Buick is once again looking at a true flagship sedan based on the rear-wheel-drive platform that spawned the Chevrolet Camaro and short-lived Pontiac G8.

GM’s Cadillac luxury brand is also expected to add a new flagship and compact car.

We already know that the Cadillac XTS sedan will debut in the 2012 model year, based on the front-wheel-drive platform shared with the Buick LaCrosse. But now reports say Cadillac will also launch a compact car in the 2013 or 2014 model year, rumoured to be called ATS.

Smaller than the current CTS, the ATS will debut with a 3.0-litre V6 and an available 3.6 six; all-wheel drive will be an option. A four-cylinder is also likely.

Even the GMC truck brand is looking at getting smaller. As reported before, the compact Granite concept is expected to arrive as a production vehicle in 2013.

Brand awareness

growing in importance

With brand loyalty at an all-time low among new-car buyers, and the number of car brands and models still relatively high, automotive brand awareness is an increasingly important value to have for automaker marketers.

And according to the latest Market Intelligence Brand Watch from the U.S. Kelley Blue Book, Korea’s Hyundai brand is making great strides in this area.

Placing in the study’s Top Five for the first time ever, Hyundai has bumped Japan’s Nissan down to sixth spot.

In the survey, Kelley Blue Book questioned more than 3,000 new-car shoppers this past spring in regards to durability and reliability, driving comfort, fuel efficiency, driving performance and safety.

Leading in sales in both the U.S. and Canada, it’s no surprise that Detroit’s Ford took the No. 1 spot as the “most-considered” among the 37 new-vehicle brands.

Japan’s Toyota was positioned in the top spot at this time last year, but the brand’s ongoing safety recalls and quality issues has definitely hurt its reputation with new-car buyers has dropped it to second.

GM’s Chevrolet brand was third, and Japan’s Honda was fourth.

Hybrids save more fuel than money: Study

As proven time and time again, when compared against similar gas-only versions, the premium that automakers charge for their gas-electric hybrids means the cars save more fuel than money. Especially when fuel pump costs still hover in the relatively low $1/litre range.

A recent study by the B.C. Automobile Association proved this point, reporting that only one of the 16 new hybrids on the market it evaluated cost less to buy and run than its gasoline counterpart.

And, ironically, the only car to end up on the positive side of the ledger is one of the most expensive vehicles you can buy.

The BCAA projected the fuel costs of the hybrids over five years, then worked those numbers against their purchase price and financing costs.

The sole hybrid that cost less to buy and run than its gasoline counterpart was the $105,900 2010 Mercedes-Benz S 400 Hybrid, a mild-hybrid iteration of the German automaker’s full-size luxury sedan.

The report also focused on other hybrids that delivered relatively small cost premiums over their gasoline equivalents: three Toyotas—the $27,800 Prius, $31,310 Camry Hybrid, and $43,025 Highlander Hybrid — plus the $39,900 Lexus HS 250h and Honda’s $23,900 Insight and $27,350 Civic Hybrid.

One of the reasons the big Benz scores so well is Mercedes-Benz’s pricing strategy.

With 295 hp from the only six-cylinder in the S Class range, the S 400 is the most fuel-efficient model, rated at 11.0L/100 km city, 7.7L hwy.

Yet, the rear-wheel-drive hybrid is also the least expensive S Class, $2,100 less than the S 450 4MATIC,that sports all-wheel-drive and a 335 hp gasoline V8 that sips at a more prodigious rate of 14.2L city and 9.0L hwy.

`Race on Sunday, sell on Monday,’ still true

Just as racing’s Formula One recently saw the departure of factory participation from the likes of BMW, Toyota and Honda, the World Rally Championships seems to be having no problem getting automakers to buy into the old “race on Sunday, sell on Monday” axiom.

After the loss of former participants like Mitsubishi and Subaru a few years ago, the WRC looked to be heading in the same direction as F1.

However, both German automaker BMW’s Mini and Dutch Spyker’s Saab brands are planning to participate in the WRC in 2012, joining Toyota and Volkswagen, along with the existing Ford and Citroen factory teams .

Cashing in on a rally history that dates back to the 1960s with cars prepared by the legendary John Cooper, Mini recently announced that it will enter a version of its 2011 Countryman, the brand’s first car with five doors and all-whee-drive.

And recently, Britain’s Autosport magazine reported that Saab-Spyker CEO Victor Muller has met with high-ranking officials from the WRC about Saab making a “partial entry” into the 2012 season, with full participation starting the next season.

Like Mini, Saab is digging into its rally roots.

During the 1960s and ‘70s, Saab scored multiple victories and hired some of the most legendary drivers of the time, like Stig Blomqvist and Per Eklund.

As an insider told Autosport, “From what we understand, Saab is looking at the World Rally Championship as the perfect platform to launch a new product and to rebuild the brand.”

Ironically, Saab’s 2012 WRC entry will more than likely be based on its yet-unseen 9-1 subcompact car, a vehicle rumoured to be co-developed with the next-generation Mini Cooper.

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