2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe Starts from $38,990, 556HP CTS-V Coupe from $62,990

General Motors has just revealed pricing for its all-new 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe and its hotted-up CTS-V Coupe sibling that both go on sale in the United States in early August.

The standard CTS Coupe comes with a 3.6L Direct Injection V6 engine that delivers 304-horsepower and is available with a six-speed automatic or six-speed manual transmission as well as rear-wheel and all-wheel drive.

Pricing, including destination charges, starts from $38,990 for the RWD model and from $40,890 AWD. That's a few thousand dollars less than one of its closest competitors, BMW's 300HP 335i Coupe and xDrive Coupe that start from $42,650 and $44,550 respectively.

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Is this the Start of Google Motors? Google Tech to Connect Chevy Volt Customers

General Motors has announced that OnStar will be working with Google in order to help connect the Chevrolet Volt even more.

Google has some add-ons in development for version 2.0 of the upcoming Volt app. There will be a navigation tab that uses Google Maps with a lojack-type setup, showing owners' proximity to the car (and possibly solving the Seinfeldian parking problem for good).

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Detroit 3 Closing Worker Pay Gap with Foreign Competitors

Sean McAlinden, an economist working for the Center for Automotive Research, says that due to shifts in UAW retiree / health planning US auto manufacturers may end up with a labor-cost advantage in the next few years. GM is used as the prime example.

Here's a look at the timeline:

In 2007, per-vehicle labor costs for GM were $1,400 more than Toyota, its largest international competitor. $950 of that was for retiree benefits.

In 2008, Detroit's Big 3 manufacturers (Ford, GM and Chrysler LLC) were reportedly paying their hourly employees $69,368 per year on average versus $70,185 being earned by employees at foreign-owned plants. Salaried employees at the Detroit automakers were making $122,963 versus $81,506 earned by foreign-based counterparts.

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Geiger Goes Tri-Mode on Chevy's Tahoe Hybrid with LPG Conversion

Geiger, German tuner of all things 'Murrican (and usually high-performance), has decided to try...wait for the pun...its hand at hybrid tuning with the Chevy Tahoe Tri-Mode (there it is!).

Instead of shooting for the moon with 1,000 horsepower or some such nonsense, Geiger has put its powers through a different filter to "get even more economic and environmentally compatible".

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Buick Confirms New Models, Targets "Customers that Shop at Ikea and Drink Coffee at Starbucks"

The new Buick confirmed that it will be releasing a new compact sedan and small crossover as follow-ups to its mid-size Regal (pictured above in GS concept form). Well, at least now it's official.

The three new vehicles are expected to help it move into 47% of the market, which will help Buick in achieving its goal of doubling sales "in the next few years".

The brand will also cease using trim-level designations, continuing to shake things up. Why? "Trim levels imply there is a hierarchy of the premium vehicle," says Craig Bierley, director of Buick-GMC advertising/sales promotion director.

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Baby Buick Enclave set to Join Reinvigorated Lineup

As we all know, Chevy recently decided not to distribute its Orlando mini-crossover in the States in order to concentrate on its current lineup. Looks like they might have had another reason.

According to the Associated Press, Buick will be continuing its barrage of new products with an Aveo-based crossover to be built in Orion Township, Michigan.

This is refreshing; the brand formerly known as OLD has not only reinvigorated its lineup, but will be releasing more products in the near future - the Chinese-market Excelle and this new mini-Enclave - to help pull in younger buyers (Lexus and Acura fans, too).

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America Loses out on the New Chevrolet Orlando (but Canada doesn't)

Sadly, Chevrolet will not be selling the production version of the chunky Orlando compact-crossover to the States. Instead, the Bowtie will focus on its current lineup of much-improved vehicles.

Here's how Margaret Brooks, head of small cars/crossover marketing explains it like this: "The best thing to do for Chevrolet is to focus on the brands we've already brought to market: the Traverse, Equinox, Malibu and, soon to come, the Cruze. We feel that with those vehicles, Chevrolet has plenty of options for the modern family."

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GM's Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC Record 19.7% Increase in April Sales

GM's big four survivors (Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, GMC) are on a roll: April sales have increased 19.7% over last year and calendar year sales are up 31%.

The Detroit automaker gives a lot of credit to its launch vehicles: Chevrolet's Camaro/Equinox, Buick's LaCrosse, GMC's Terrain, and Cadillac's SRX. According to the General, the "new" GM's launch vehicles account for a quarter of all GM retail sales.

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2012 Camaro: New interior, Z/28 Possibly Showing Up

Due to some complaints with the new Camaro's lackluster (but cool-looking) interior, GM is said to readying a revised version for the 2012 model year.

According to Straightline's special GM contact, "most of the upgrading work will go into the dash and...that big expanse of blackness in front of the passenger."

A revision would be a huge help in making the interior less concept and more daily driver, addressing other details people have had complaints about as well. These issues include the funky steering wheel and gauges (issues with readability have arisen with both primary and auxiliary gauges).

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Professor Claims General Motors "Repaid Us With Our Money"

Temple University Economics Professor William Dunkelberg recently posted a nice, succinct article on how GM really didn't repay us after all.

He explains that the $8 Billion that GM gave back was clearly nowhere near the $80 Billion of TARP funds US taxpayers "invested" in GM and Chrysler. Instead, taxpayers received 61% of GM ("and a block of stock for the UAW").

Dunkelberg slams GM by saying that such a loss hardly represents the returns necessary to drive up the stock price "needed to insure a return of taxpayer money", hinting that he really doesn't believe GM will be able to pay everything back.

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Buick's LaCrosse gets a Daewoo Badge, Heads to Korea

GM just announced that it will be bringing the Chevrolet brand to Korea, and now it looks like the General will be bringing Buick over as well in the form of a re-badged LaCrosse.

The Daewoo Alpheon, a LaCrosse in everything but name, recently debuted at at the Busan Motor Show. Powered by GM's 3.0 liter V6 and hooked up to a six-speed automatic transmission, the Alpheon is meant to be "a stand-alone luxury product brand in GM Daewoo's product portfolio".

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GM to Launch Chevrolet Brand in Korea Next Year

After years of importing cars to the U.S. from its Daewoo unit, General Motors is getting ready to turn the tables around as the Detroit automaker will soon start exporting vehicles to South Korea (albeit, at a much slower pace..).

At a press conference today held in conjunction with the opening of the Busan International Motor Show, GM Daewoo Auto & Technology President and CEO Mike Arcamone announced that the firm will introduce its Chevrolet brand into South Korea in 2011.

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Obama: Auto Industry Bailout was the Right Thing to do

President Barack Obama is using GM's recent loan repayment and Chrysler's operating profit as proof that his "unpopular" auto bailout decision was the right thing to do.

"I knew this wasn't a popular decision. But it was the right one," Obama said. Without the bailout, the American economic outcome could have been much more disturbing.

"General Motors and Chrysler...were on the brink of collapse. The rapid dissolution of these companies -- followed by the certain failure of many auto parts makers, car dealers and other smaller businesses -- would have dealt a crippling blow to our already suffering economy."

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Found on eBay: 1981 Pontiac Firebird Formula Drop-top

Pontiac never made a 1981 Firebird Formula convertible (or any kind of '81 Firebird Convertible, for that matter), but that didn't stop a lot of people from going out and chopping the tops off of these post-oil-crisis Ponchos anyway.

Usually when cars that were never meant to be convertibles get their brains blown out, it turns into quite an unattractive mess.

While this version - originally done by Coach Works and featuring a manual top and boot - doesn't look too shabby with the top down, I'd have to see it with the top up to get a better idea of what we're dealing with.

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First Pre-Production 2012 Opel Ampera EV Rolls off the Line

The first pre-production 2012 Opel Ampera, or the European market version of the Chevrolet Volt, rolled off the line at GM's assembly plant in Warren, Michigan, on Friday, April 23, marking an important milestone in the project.

General Motors said that the it build more pre-production Amperas in the coming months. The pre-production vehicles will not be sold at dealerships, but used for testing and validating the production intent design as well as developing the final vehicle software and control.

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GM Pays Back Remaining $5.8 Billion in Loans to U.S. and Canada

Good news to all you GM investors out there: the General has just wrapped-up paying back its US Treasury / Export Development Canada loans while also investing $257 million in prepping its Malibu plants in Fairfax, Kansas (primary) and Detroit Hamtramck (secondary).

The total payment was $5.8 billion ($4.7 bilion to the US and the remaining $1.1 billion to Canada). According to a report from Automotive News, "the governments still own equity stakes in GM."

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GM Opens Advance Design Studio in Seoul, South Korea

General Motors said Tuesday that it has relocated its South Korean advanced design function from the GM Daewoo Design Center's headquarters in Bupyeong, Incheon to southern Seoul, in order to "enhance its function and specialty".

Located in the city's more affluent Gangnam district, which is considered by many the nation's center of culture, the arts, fashion and industry, the new Advanced Design Studio will be home to some thirty designers and other employees.

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2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible: First Official Photos of Production Model

General Motors has opted to unleash the first official pictures of the production-ready 2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible on the pony car's dedicated Facebook page.

No specific details were released but we do know that the soft-top version of the new Camaro is pegged to enter production at GM's Oshawa plant in Canada during the first quarter of 2011, with sales set to start around April.

GM has also confirmed that the both the Coupe and Convertible variants of the Camaro will make their way over to Europe in the second quarter of 2011.

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GM Teams up with NASA to Create Robonaut R2 for International Space Station

NASA plans on solving the aging-astronaut problem by partnering with GM to create the Robonaut 2 (or R2), a new "permanent resident of the International Space Station".

R2 is the result of a co-op between NASA and GM to create a robotic assistant for human workers (that looks like Cobra Commander). Weighing in at 300 pounds, R2 is going into space for some zero-gravity operation and electromagnetic/radioactive interference testing within the station...BUT HE WON'T BE ALONE.

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Chevrolet Prices 2011 Silverado HD from $28,960

General Motors released pricing for its updated 2011 Chevrolet Silverado HD pickup truck range. Base pricing starts at $27,965, which excludes a $995 destination charge, while an upgrade to the 397 HP and 765 lb-ft of torque Duramax diesel engine and Allison transmission combination will cost buyers an extra $8,395 for a total of $37,355, which is the same amount as the 2010MY.

The refreshed Silverado HD will be offered in work truck, LT and LTZ trim levels, with production set to start in May. First deliveries are expected in early June, 2010.

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