GM TO BULK UP ENGINEERING RESOURCES IN PAN-ASIA REGION, AKERSON SAYS

By Jason Stein, Automotive News - General Motors will add additional resources in its Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center over the next four years as it develops more vehicles globally, GM CEO Dan Akerson said Monday.

GM plans to design and engineer 100 additional vehicles in its international operations, which include emerging markets such as Brazil, India, Russia and China, by 2016 as well as add technical expertise for global programs at its PATAC operations.

Akerson said that will mean more authority will be assigned to GM's fast-growing Asian operations.

"We are fully committed to growing this region and moving it into our global portfolio," Akerson said on the sidelines of an event around the Beijing auto show.  "We will leverage our global engineering skills and use them at a regional level."

PATAC is one of GM's six global engineering and design regions.

GM also aims to position its Shanghai Advanced Technology Center as its second-largest technical center in the world over the next few years.

"Our commitment to China has been a key to our success," Akerson said.  "PATAC will grow over the years as the region continues to grow.  It is part of our broader global play."

GM, in combination with its partners, has led the China market for seven straight years, Akerson said.

The automaker's international operations accounted for 41 percent of GM's total vehicle sales in 2011, or 3.7 million units.

In the first quarter, GM sold an all-time number of vehicles in the region -- over 1 million units, and a 9 percent increase over 2011.

GM'S CHEVROLET SOLD 1.18 MLN VEHICLES WORLDWIDE

By Dan Hart, Bloomberg - General Motors Co. said its Chevrolet brand sold 1.18 million vehicles worldwide in the first quarter, up 6.5 percent from a year earlier, led by its Cruze sedan.

Chevrolet raised its global market share to 6.3 percent, reflecting the fastest growth of any high-volume brand for the past two calendar years, the Detroit-based automaker said.  More than 180,000 Cruze cars were sold in the quarter, up almost 20 percent over the year-earlier period, GM said in a statement.

Chevrolet sales in the U.S. gained 7.6 percent to 448,000 vehicles in the quarter, GM said.  Chevrolet sales in China rose 1.4 percent to 162,000 vehicles.

Chevrolet Europe sold 55,104 vehicles in western and central Europe, up 7.8 percent in the latest quarter, GM said.

In Brazil, Chevrolet sales fell 4.2 percent to 137,000 vehicles, while Mexican sales for the brand gained 14 percent in the quarter to 42,000 vehicles, GM said.  Argentine sales for Chevrolet rose 22 percent to 41,500 vehicles.

Chevrolet, which has traditionally been an American brand for GM, now has more than 60 percent of its sales outside the U.S., the world's largest automaker said.

REVIEW: 2012 CHEVROLET CORVETTE ZR1

By Sam Smith, Wired - For a small fraction of the car-buying public, price is irrelevant. These people simply see something they want and buy it, regardless of cost.

You may picture this demographic buying Ferraris, or Bugattis, or even mammoth quantities of more prosaic stuff ("Fifteen BMW M3s, one for every Caribbean island I own? Hell yes!"). And they do. But some of them buy Corvettes. And when they buy Corvettes, they do not buy the cheap ones. Because that would be silly. And slow.

They buy this: the $113,500US, 638-hp Corvette ZR1.

Forget for a moment that the ZR1 costs more than any other new Corvette. In supercar terms, this is pennies; a Ferrari 458 is more than twice as expensive, a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport, over ten times as much. Why, you ask, would the one-percenters want something that plays at the bottom of the scale? Why bother with the cheap seats, even if that term is relative?

Simple: Supercars exist to provide insanity. And few mass-produced, warrantied machines are more insane than this.

GM KILLING FANCY CHEVROLET AVALANCHE PICKUP

By Chris Woodyard, USA Today - The heavily styled pickup will get one more year before it disappears and Chevy has come up with a special edition to celebrate. It's being called the 2013 Black Diamond Avalanche.

Things haven't gone well for the Avalanche, a full-size pickup that hasn't been redesigned in ages.

"In its heyday back in 2003, the Avalanche made up 3.5% of Chevy's sales but fell to just over 1% in 2009 -- and never regained ground despite heavy incentives. The Avalanche has suffered from having a higher price and lower towing capacity than regular pickups," says Edmunds.com analyst Ivan Drury.

In 2012, the average incentive on the Chevy Avalanche has been $5,329US, Edmunds.com says. GM's average incentive is $3,227US, and the industry average is $2,157US.

In a review of the updated 2007 Avalanche, Test Drive's James R. Healey described it as looking better than the "ugly" previous version, but was too small inside.

Still, Chevrolet gives the model credit for a "trendsetting design and unique features" that "helped launch the boom in crew cab pickups."

For its last year, the 2013 Black Diamond Avalanche will get dressed up and a lower price.

The special edition will come with body-colored bed surrounds, a unique badge, additional features on LS and LT models, and a $2,500US price cut across the lineup.

For 2013, a rear camera, rear park assist, power adjustable pedals, fog lamps and remote start will be added as standard equipment on LS models. The LT models will have an added standard rear camera.

With those changes, the two-wheel-drive version of the Avalanche LS will start at $35,980US, plus $995US dealer freight charge.

BOB LUTZ PRAISES LEAF AND VOLT, SAYS NATIONAL SECURITY REQUIRES GOING ELECTRIC

By Sebastian Blanco, Autoblog.com - Bob Lutz is not going to take attacks on the electric car lying down -- the closest he'll come to that is doing push-ups on The Colbert Report. After spending a few of his Forbes columns laying into right-wing pundits for their attacks on the Chevrolet Volt, he is switching to a positive message about how plug-in cars can help with American national security. It is not surprising that Lutz, a former Marine, co-authors the article with two former U.S. Marines commandants and the CEO of FedEx (the three are all members of Securing American's Future Energy's (SAFE) Energy Security Leadership Council). The gist? Well, here's part of the opening paragraph:

When ... threats exist because the United States is the protector of the world's global oil supply lines, it is a clear illustration of how our nation's over-reliance on a single, globally priced fuel impacts our national and economic security.

America's addiction to gasoline costs the government billions of dollars a year, an estimated $80 billion, in fact, to guard the sea lanes, including one little area of Iran:

From a national security perspective, the U.S. military is forced to protect the world's vital oil infrastructure. The single greatest chokepoint is the Strait of Hormuz, through which 17 million barrels of oil per day passed in 2011 -- 20 percent of global supplies. Protection of the sea lanes of commerce has become an American burden and will remain so, costing the United States Treasury an estimated $80 billion per year while taxing our military, which is already engaged on multiple fronts.

It's arguments like this that have made the recent right-wing criticism of the Volt such a mystery. If we use less gasoline, we can spend fewer lives and less treasure importing the fuel (of course, we don't lose many lives at the Canadian border, which is where most of our imported oil comes from). The Army says that today's soldier uses an average of 22 gallons of gasoline a day.

Lutz and his co-authors are quite clear that high gas prices are hurting Americans' pocketbooks, "essentially" wiping out tax cuts that Presidents Bush and Obama put into place. That's why, they say, "government action is needed to mitigate the risks of oil dependence, because there is no free market for oil." This intervention contains both expanded domestic production and -- surprise -- plugging in our light-duty transportation fleet as much as possible and feeding our big trucks lots of natural gas. To that end, they write:

Regarding electrification, the beauty of plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles like the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf is that they are powered by electricity, which can be generated from many sources: nuclear, coal, natural gas, and renewables. Best yet, these are all domestic energy sources, meaning OPEC won't be able to corner the market. And the retail price of electricity is far less volatile that the price of oil.

Hard to disagree with that.

CNG OPTION ON GM PICKUP TRUCKS PRICED AT $11,000

By Fox News - If you want to join the fight against imported oil, you'll have to pay to enter. But stay long enough, and you may get your money back.

General Motors has announced that its upcoming line of compressed natural gas-capable pickup trucks will cost $11,000 more than the standard vehicles they are based on. The bi-fuel Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra 2500 HD trucks can run on either CNG or, for situations when it's not available, gasoline.

Pricing on the conventional Silverado and Sierra HDs starts at around $40,000 US.

The 6.0-liter V8-powered extended cab bi-fuel models will come in long or short bed versions and with rear or all-wheel-drive. A tank for the CNG takes up a large section of the forward part of the bed, but the vehicles are otherwise identical to their single-fuel stablemates.

The bi-fuel vehicles are available for retail sale, but will be targeted at fleet managers looking to lower their fuel costs. CNG prices vary widely state to state, but the current national average for the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline is $1.89. According to GM, an operator could save $10,000 in fuel costs per truck over three years.

Although the public CNG refueling infrastructure is limited, retail buyers can have a small pump installed at home, while fleet operators often have commercial refueling stations installed on their lots. CNG-powered vehicles boast lower emissions than their gasoline and diesel counterparts, and nearly all of the gas used in the United States is sourced from North America.

Chrysler's Ram division is also offering bi-fuel versions of its heavy duty pickup this year that carries a premium of about $11,000 over the standard models, as well.

GM will start taking orders for the Chevy and GMC pickups on April 19th, with deliveries scheduled for the end of the year.

WARD'S SELECTS THE 10 BEST INTERIORS OF 2012

By Jeff Sabatani, Autoblog.com - Ward's AutoWorld is well known for its annual "10 Best Engines" list, but the trade publication has been compiling a second list for interiors for a few years now. Formerly known as the "Interior of the Year" competition, Ward's rebranded the list last year, naming the coolest cockpits under the "10 Best Interiors" moniker.

This year's winners are a relatively diverse lot, with hatchbacks, sedans and crossovers all making the list. While Ward's lists them in alphabetical order rather than crowning a single winner, we're choosing to present them with the lowest starting Canadian MSRP first:

• Hyundai Accent ($13,199)


• Chevrolet Sonic ($14,495)


• Dodge Dart (TBA)


• Volkswagen Beetle ($21,975)


• Mazda CX-5 ($22,995)


• Hyundai Azera (2012 model year not sold in Canada)


• Chrysler 300 Luxury ($42,095)


• Infiniti JX35 ($44,900)


• Range Rover Evoque ($46,995)


• Audi A7 ($68,600)

The first thing we noticed then is that while fully half the models carrying base sticker prices under $25,000, Ward's was clearly not testing the base models of any of these vehicles. The Chevy Sonic, for instance, starts nearly $5,000 below the price of the car Ward's drove. Even so, that half of the cars on the list could be legitimately called "affordable" is impressive.

Ward's says 40 vehicles qualified for the competition by having "new or significantly improved interiors", and while 13 of those were luxury vehicles, they only made up half of the winners. Ward's says it judged the interiors based on design, fit-and-finish, comfort, ergonomics, safety, material selection, overall value, aethestics, and human-machine interface.

IS CHEVROLET TESTING AN IMPALA SS?

By Zach Bowman, Autoblog.com - Well ... look who lives! Our spy photographers have managed to snag a few photos of what may very well be the next interpretation of the Chevrolet Impala SS. Long thought to be a casualty of the General Motors bailout, the biggest member of Club SS was reportedly shelved a few years back. The Impala line hasn't offered an SS performance variant since 2009, and the more aggressive grille, front fascia and tweaked head- and taillight arrays on this prototype hint at something more sinister than any topped-out LTZ model could offer. Our spy shooter's supplier sources indicate GM is, in fact, still working on an Impala SS, and they suggest the sedan may bow with a new LF3 twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 under the hood.

If true, that means the brawny Impala could scoot down the road with a heady 380 horsepower. As far as we know, no vehicle since the limited production 350-hp Ford Focus RS500 has tried to push anywhere near that many ponies to the front wheels, which begs the question: will the Impala offer all-wheel drive despite recent reports to the contrary?

Doing so would seem to position the Impala SS quite well against the freshly updated Taurus SHO. Either way, we're excited to give this big boy a go.

GM'S EWANICK MULLS TURNING CHEVY AD CAMPAIGN INTO SITCOM

By Jeff Sabatini, Autoblog.com - If you haven't noticed, NBC's The Office has really jumped the shark since Steve Carrell left the show at the end of last season. Or maybe the beginning of the end was Pam and Jim's wedding during the sixth season. Regardless, the point is that the show is no longer very funny or edgy, nor does it ever make the audience uncomfortable in the way the brilliant original BBC version did. Rather, as the main characters in the American version of the show have become carictures. The Office has grown predictable and formulaic.

And this is why Chevrolet can launch an ad campaign like its "Under The Blue Arch" series. Despite the brief, 30-second running times of the ads, the characters are instantly recognizable and the "plots" are easy to follow. Although the scenes set in a Chevy dealership play with the tropes created by the Emmy Award-winning series, they do so to little comic effect. Because comedy isn't the point -- these are ads, after all, full of ham-handed product information and designed to sell cars.

If anyone should understand that it is Joel Ewanick, General Motors' Chief Marketing Officer. Yet he told Automotive News at the New York Auto Show that GM has 'talked about turning this into an actual show because we've got so much material."

Well, that Chevy product line isn't nearly the joke it once was, but if you say so.

Let's just chalk this one up to Ewanick being a bit starstruck. "Under The Blue Arch" was created by Randall Einhorm, one of the directors of The Office, and it 'starts' Wayne Wilderson, who appeared on the NBC Show in 2006.

GM SEES NEW MODELS SPURRING REBOUND FROM 90-YEAR U.S. MARKET-SHARE LOW

By Craig Trudell, Automotive News - General Motors Co. Vice Chairman Stephen Girsky said last week the automaker wasn't panicking over its U.S. market share slide. Ohio dealer Robert Morris III sees why.

"There's a little bit of new-product lag involved and you kind of have to wait it out," said Morris, who sells Cadillac, Buick and GMC brand vehicles in North Olmsted, about 25 minutes southwest of Cleveland. "I don't perceive them as taking a wait-and-see attitude or just taking it on the chin."

At 17.5 percent, GM's U.S. market share through March "may have surprised some people," Girsky told analysts April 4. I'ts below the 19 percent level that was the average full-year estimate of five analysts Bloomberg surveyes in January. GM finished 2011 with 19.6 percent of the U.S. market, according to researcher Autodata Corp. The last time it ended a year with 17.5 percent market share or less was 1922.

The drop for GM, which retook the title of the world's top-selling automaker in 2011, is among the biggest surprises this year in U.S. market share moves. Increased demand is spurring analysts and automakers to boost 2012 sales estimates.

Chrysler Group LLC added 2.1 percentage points of market share, showing up the five analysts that Bloomberg surveyed in January. They estimated Chrysler, GM and Ford Motor Co. would cede share to the rebounding Toyota Motor Corp., which lost the 2011 world's sales crown to GM, and Honda Motor Co.

'Stale' product

"GM's product is getting stale," John Wolkonowicz, an independent analyst in Boston and former Ford product planner, said Monday in a phone interview. "Chrysler is having some of the 'Little Engine That Could' phenomenon right now. They were the real underdog that's pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and they're hot stuff all of a sudden."

GM pulled back on incentive spending per vehicle by $405, or 11 percent, this year in the first three months to an average of $3,161 for every car and light truck it sold, according to Autodata. The automaker's sales still grew 2.7 percent through March, and its total light-vehicle deliveries led Ford, No. 2 in the U.S., by 70,498 and Toyota by 121,036.

In the first quarter, GM had five of the top 20 selling vehicles in the U.S., including the Silverado pickup and Malibu sedan. The company last week unveiled a redesigned Impala sedan at the New York auto show.

Morris, the Ohio dealer, is just ramping up sales of GM's new Buick Verano compact and will have the Cadillac ATS sports sedan and XTS large sedan to sell by the end of the third quarter. Those are among the new models that GM has said it's introducing in 2012 for segments representing 60 percent of U.S. retail deliveries.

Chrysler surprises

"We're going to be competing in segments where we haven't been before," Morris said in a telephone interview. "The fuel economy is much better for something like ATS or Verano. We didn't have small entries like that, so we didn't have a car to compete."

Chrysler deliveries climbed 39 percent through March to 398,051, boosting its share to 11.5 percent. Analysts estimated that the automaker controlled by Fiat SpA would end this year with 10.5 percent share, down from 10.7 percent in 2011.

"We never really saw Chrysler increasing their share as much as they have," Alec Gutierrez, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book in Irvine, Calif., said in a telephone interview. "Consumers are getting the sense that Chrysler is once again producing higher quality products. The last couple years, people shied away from Chrysler because there was still uncertainty about their viability."

Vanity versus sanity

New or redesigned models such as they Chrysler 200 and 300 sedans and Jeep Grand Cherokee sport-utility vehicle led the automaker's sales to outperform Kelley Blue Book's estimates, he said. Bloomberg also gathered estimates from analysts at AutoPacific, LMC Automotive, Edmunds.com and TrueCar.com for the January survey.

Chrysler is adding third shifts at plants in Illinois and Ohio this year to meet demand, said Reid Bigland, Chrysler's head of U.S. sales. That should give the automaker enough capacity to maintain market share gains if demand in the U.S. keeps accelerating, he said.

"But remember the old saying 'market share is vanity and profitability is sanity," Bigland wrote in an e-mail. "We are going to continue to run a disciplined game plan first with our market share numbers being secondary."

Ford sees its share of the U.S. market falling this year, Mark Fields, the automaker's president of the Americas, told analysts last week at an industry conference in New York. The automaker previously forecast share to be about equal with 2011's 16.8 percent.

Ford's share

"Market share is important, but we also want to do that profitably," Fields told reporters last week at the New York auto show. "We won't engage in marginal business" through deliveries to fleets or bigger discounts.

Ford light-vehicle deliveries rose 8.5 percent through March. The automaker claimed 15.5 percent market share, down from 16.2 percent a year earlier, according to Autodata. The average estimate among five analysts Bloomberg sureveyed in January was for Ford to end the year with 16.3 percent share.

GM, Chrysler and Ford will be tested this year by Toyota and Honda, which have rebuilt inventories after last year's tsunami in Japan and floods in Thailand. Those natural disasters disrupted the supply of parts and finished cars, leading to vehicle shortages.

Toyota increased sales 12 percent, trailing the industry's 13 percent gain, according to Autodata. That leaves Toyota with 14.1 percent market share, down from 14.2 percent a year earlier. Toyota is beating the 13.8 percent average of five analysts' estimates for full-year 2012 share.

Nissan passes Honda

Honda sales rose 4 percent through March, giving it a 9.2 percent share of the U.S. market, down from 10.1 percent in 2011's first quarter. Honda may end the year with 9.5 percent of industry sales, according to the five analysts' average estimate.

Nissan Motor Co. passed Honda in U.S. sales through March to rank No. 5 among automakers in the market after increasing sales by 13 percent. The automaker had a 9.3 percent market share, unchanged from a year earlier and ahead of analysts' estimates for 8 percent for 2012.

Ford and Toyota last week raised their forecasts for 2012 industrywide U.S. auto sales. Ford estimates deliveries of 14.5 million to 15 million, including medium- and heavy-duty trucks, up from a previous range of 13.5 million to 14.5 million. Toyota boosted its forecast for light vehicles only to the low- to mid- 14 million unit range from 13.6 million.

GM has left its estimate for 2012 sales unchanged at 13.5 million to 14 million. GM's Girsky said at the April 4 conference that the automaker won't chase share with big incentives and cited refreshed products such as the Chevrolet Malibu sedan as reason for optimism.

"No one's panicking," he said. "No one's rushing, 'Gee, we got to throw a pile of money at the market.' That's not the way we run the business these days."

1966 CHEVROLET IMPALA SS 427 CONVERTIBLE REMINDS US OF DAYS LONG GONE

By Jeremy Korzeniewski, Autoblog.com - Chevrolet has over a hundred years of heritage from which it can call upon when the right marketing angle presents itself. Like, for instance, when it launches a brand-new Impala for the 2014 model year, as it has just done at the 2012 New York Auto Show. As such, the automaker has brought a mint 1966 Chevrolet Impala SS 427 Convertible to display alongside its new family sedan.

We'll get this right out of the way: the 1966 'Vert has nothing in common with the 2014 sedan, other than its nameplate.

Regardless, it's always fun to ogle over a classic muscle car, and the '66 Impala is, perhaps, the very best of its full-size breed. The 427-cubic-inch V8 was factory rated at 390 horsepower and 470 pound-feet of torque -- plenty more than necessary to turn those 7.5-inch-wide bias-ply tires into plumes of smoke, and the four-speed manual and 3.55:1 gears mean it's properly equipped for 1960s-style stoplight showdowns.

Before we all get too sentimental for the old times, remember two points. First, as awesome as this machine undoubtedly is, it could never be sold today due to safety and emissions reasons. Second, most of the millions of Impalas sold over the years were much more pedestrian models than this stunning blue SS.

Caveats aside, we want this car rumbling away in our virtual garage. Badly.

2013 CHEVROLET SPARK STARTS AT $12,200US

By Jennifer Geiger, Cars.com - Although it's been on sale overseas since 2008, GM's tiny Spark will hit U.S. dealerships later this year with a less-than-tiny base price. Chevrolet's new-for-2013 Spark will start at $12,200. It may sound like a bargain, but Chevy's bigger Sonic starts only slightly higher at $13,865US, though the Spark has standard power windows and the Sonic doesn't.

The subcompact four-door hatchback slots below the Sonic in Chevy's lineup. Power comes from a small 85-horsepower, 1.2-liter four-cylinder engine. A five-speed manual is standard; a four-speed automatic is available for $925US, Chevy says.

Three trim levels will be offered: base LS, 1LT and 2LT.

Full pricing from Chevy is below:

Spark LS starts at $12,200US and includes:

• Standard 1.2-liter Ecotec engine and five-speed manual transmission


• Standard convenience features including air conditioning, power windows, rear window wiper, auxiliary input jack, outside temperature display and trip computer


• 15-inch alloy wheels


• 60/40-split folding rear seat


• Comprehensive safety package including 10 airbags, electronic stability control with traction control and brake assist


• OnStar Directions & Connections plan standard with six-month introductory subscription

Spark 1LT starts at $13,700US and adds:

• Standard 7-inch color touch-screen radio with Chevrolet MyLink, Bluetooth connectivity for select phones, steering-wheel audio controls, USB port and Sirius XM Radio with three-month trial subscription


• Other standard convenience features include power door locks with keyless entry, theft deterrent system, outside power mirrors, floormats, visor mirrors and cruise control.

Spark 2LT starts at $15,000US and adds:

• Unique 15-inch alloy wheels


• Fog lamps


• Exterior appearance enhancements including silver painted roof rails; chrome liftgate handle, exhaust outlet and belt line molding; body-colored lower rocker molding; front and rear body-colored sport fascias with unique front upper and lower grille inserts


• Leatherette seats, heated front seats and leather-wrapped steering wheel

All prices exclude a $795US destination fee. Five colors will be available: Salsa, Jalapeno, Denim, Lemonade and Techno Pink.

AUTOMOTIVE APRIL FOOLS JOKE ROUNDUP

By Zach Bowman, Autoblog.com - It's that time of year again. April Fools' came and went over the weekend, and a handful of the world's automakers joined in on a little Spring time fun. From intelligent anti-theft devices and TSA-inspired driver aids to automated NASCAR racers and high-performance hybrids, this year's raft of pranks were as good as any we've seen in past years. With April 1 falling on a Sunday, we saw fewer wise-cracking creations than before, but that didn't spoil the fun, so we thought we'd recap them for your enjoyment.

Mini took the cake this year with the company's Cowley Caravan and Swindon Roof Top Tent. The automaker went through the trouble of working up a full press release, complete with 20 photos and translations into a wide range of languages. We'll admit to being a little disappointed when we discovered the add-ons were a clever rouse. We'll just have to scrap our plans for a Mini safari. For now.

2013 CHEVROLET TRAVERSE LOSES THE FAMILY NOSE

By Zach Bowman, Autoblog.com - General Motors has just unveiled its facelifted 2013 Chevrolet Traverse at the New York Auto Show today. The big crossover has abandoned the company's corporate grille in favor of a new design that's expected to eventually make its way to the rest of the Chevrolet utility vehicle stable. With three chrome-finish bars across the upper grille inlet, more expressive headlamp arrays and a new foglight design, the 2013 Traverse looks a bit more conservative and polished than it did before, at least from up front. Move past the A-pillar, however, and the vehicle looks plenty familiar. Even with a new hatch, redesigned taillamps and a modestly massaged rear valance, the 2013 Traverse hasn't strayed too far from its family-minded original recipe.

Likewise, the 2013 model's drivetrain remains untouched as well. The same 3.6-litre V6 puts down 288 horsepower and 270 pound-feet of torque through either the front wheels or an all-wheel drive system and the six-speed automatic has been reworked for quicker shifting.

Buyers will be able to opt for Chevrolet's new MyLink system, complete with Internet-based applications like Stitcher and Pandora as well as Bluetooth voice and audio capability. Like its fellow Lambda-platform sibling, the reworked Buick Enclave, the Traverse will also be available with a new center airbag that bisects driver and front-seat passenger.

CHEVY VOLT DEMAND HIGH IN EUROPE

By Liane Yvkoff, Autoblog.com - General Motors may have had to slow production of the Chevy Volt in the U.S. due to low demand, but it's flying out the door of dealerships in Europe.

The Opel Ampera, the European version of the extended range hybrid, went on sale in Europe in February, and has already received more than 7,000 orders, according to a Digital Trends article. That's almost as many plug-in hybrids the automaker sold in the U.S. all of last year.

Chevy sold 7,671 Volts in 2011 and 1,023 units last month in the U.S. In contrast, Toyota managed to move more than 1,200 Prius Cs when it opened the order books for the compact hybrid a few weeks ago. The difference in popularity is most likely due to price.

The Volt retails for $32,495US after a $7,500US federal tax rebate and travels up to 40 miles on electric power alone, and achieves an average of 37 mpg when propelled by the gasoline engine. The Prius C starts at $18,950US, sans tax breaks, and gets an average of over 50 mpg.

The difference in up front price is clearly steep enough for drivers to opt for the hybrid over the extended range powertrain, especially since fuel prices swing greatly in the U.S. Car buyers also tend to see gasoline as more of a variable cost, unlike their car payments, and therefore often don't factor it into the carrying cost of the vehicle.

The average price of a gallon of gas in the U.S. is $3.92 this week, which is up 30 cents from this time last year. But even though $4 per gallon gas will cut many summer road trips short, that's still a bargain compared to the nearly 6 euros that European drivers pay for each gallon (1.575 euros per liter) they buy.

In Europe, the Opel Ampera is offered at a spendy 41,950 euros. However, EU car buyers are more in the habit of buying fuel-efficient vehicles to combat the high price of gasoline. And with relatively short commutes, they may be able to operate the vehicle on electricity alone and rarely need to gas up their car, which will help offset the Ampera's high purchase price.

But with $5 gas prices seeming inevitable, you have to wonder: are Americans short sighted when it comes to buying cars?

GOOGLE SELF-DRIVING CAR CHAUFFEURS LEGALLY BLIND MAN

Google demonstrates how its high-tech, tricked-out
Prius can operate autonomously be bringing
a blind man to the shopping center.

By Martin LaMonica, Autoblog.com - Google yesterday released a poignant video demonstrating the potential of its self-driving car.

In the short video, a man walks out of his house and gets behind the wheel of one of Google's robotic cars, a Toyota Prius equipped with an array of high-tech gadgetry including radar, lasers, and cameras.

The car takes the man, Steve Mahan, for a ride including visits to a Taco Bell and the dry cleaners without him needing to touch the steering wheel or pedals. Midway through, Mahan says he is legally blind, having lost about 95 percent of his vision.

The three-minute clip demonstrates how the car can maneuver from his home, through neighborhoods, and into a commercial center autonomously. At the end of the video, Google says Mahan is the first customer of Google's self-driving car, calling him "self-driving car user #00000000001."

"Where this would change my life is to give me the independence and the flexibility to go the places I both want to go and need to go when I need to do those things," he says during the video.

2014 CHEVROLET IMPALA HAS AUDI STYLE, TARGETS TAURUS

By James R. Healey, USA Today - Chevrolet has recrafted its Impala big sedan to be less like the junky rental car you might call to mind, and more like the premium high-end brand statement that Ford Motor executed with the latest Taurus.

Along the way, GM's Chevy brand styled its car to resemble a swoop-backed Audi. Let's just say it makes a good first impression.

"Our design team was challenged to create a new classic, but that didn't mean relying on nostalgia," says John Cafaro, director of North America passenger car exterior design.

The Impala hasn't had much of a rep since its heydey in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was a powerful, stylish big Detroit sedan that provided a lot of satisfaction to folks unwilling or unable to spring for premium models. Back then, it was distinguished from the lesser big Chevy, the Bel Air, by sporting six taillights to Bel Air's four.

Just so nobody mistook yours for the down-market model.

The car will be an infotainment-rich environemtn, which is the price of entry nowadays. Likewise, electronic safety features abound, as do the vision aids that are meant to keep you from bumping, smashing or crunching things around you that aren't necessarily apparent.

GM's Detroit-Hamtramck, Mich., and Oshawa, Ontario factories will build the car. Chevy will announce prices later.

Here's one huge difference between the 2014 Impala, on sale next year and starring at the Chevy display at the New York International Auto Show, and the fleet-footed machines of yore: No V-8 engine is listed for the '14. Two fours and a six.

Sign 'o the times, alas. Tauras has no V-8, either, but does offer a honey of a twin-turbo V-6 that makes a V-8 superfluous.

GM'S AKERSON SEEKS TO INCREASE VOLT'S MONTHLY SALES TO 3,000

By Tim Higgins, Automotive News - General Motors Co., resuming Chevrolet Volt production a week earlier than planned, seeks to boost sales of the $39,000 electric car more than 30 percent in coming months.

U.S. sales of the Volt rose to 2,289 in March, beating the model's previous best month in December when 1,529 cars were delivered. Sales fell from that high as the Volt underwent a congressional hearing after a federal safety investigation.

"It seems like we've sustained ourselves through this difficult period," CEO Dan Akerson said in an interview on Bloomberg Radio's "A Closer Look With Arthur Levitt" scheduled to air in May. "We hope to get up to 3,000-plus in the comingmonths and are certainly positioning it."

Akerson, 63, spoke Tuesday. Volt sales were hurt after a U.S. investigation into the safety of the car was announced in November, GM executives have said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed the probe in January, saying the Volt or other electric vehicles pose no more of a fire risk than other cars.

The Volt figures into political debates whether the U.S. should have bailed out GM in 2009. The U.S. still owns 32 percent of GM. Production on the Volt will resume April 16 at the automaker's Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, Chris Lee, a GM spokesman, said Wednesday in an email. The automaker had planned to halt production from March 19 through April 23.

Increased Sales

"Employees are being called back one week earlier than previously announced due to increased Volt sales since January and the need to meet demand in our strong markets, including California," Lee said.

GM announced its plans to halt production in early March after selling 1,023 Volts in February and 603 in January, below the rate needed to meet Akerson's goal of 45,000 deliveries in the U.S. this year.

Customers are returning to Chevrolet dealerships to get the Volt after GM addressed earlier safety concerns, Mark Reuss, president of GM North America, told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday. "The car is now becoming well known, people are beginning to understand how the car works," Reuss said in an interview. "We're matching production with demand."

Separately, in an interview at the New York auto show, Reuss said GM hasn't extended plans for summer downtime for the Volt production.

"Production is really agile, so we can do anything we want there," he said.

Lease Offers

GM has said it will improve the structure and battery-coolant system of the Volt to protect it better against fire after crashes. The automaker started a Volt marketing campaign in January. GM said it planned a modified version of the car in California that permits solo drivers to use carpool lanes.

Also in January, GM returned to the same lease offers it had when originally introducing the vehicle, Alan Batey, vice president of Chevrolet U.S. sales, said. In March, GM sold 2,129 Volts to retail customers and 160 to fleet customers, Batey said Tuesday during a conference call.

Volt has a starting price of $39,145 US, not including a tax credit of $7,500, GM's Website said. The automaker is advertising monthly lease prices as low as $349 US for 36 months.

"We're doing well on the purchase side and the lease side," Batey said. The automaker has 61 days' supply of Volt, he said.

Dealer "Reticence"

The Volt can travel more than 30 miles (48 kilometres) on electric power before a gasoline engine powers the car. The production halt allowed GM to clear away inventory of older Volts to make way for cars made with the changes for the California market and to the battery, said Alan Baum, principal of Baum & Associates, a provider of auto-industry analysis in suburban Detroit.

"There was some reticence of some of the dealers around the country to be ordering the Volt when it was viewed as negatively as it was," he said.

GM is "hoping between the PR campaign and last month's sales" that it can "sell the vehicles they are building".

WHY GM'S EWANICK IS EXCITED BY NEW CHEVY CAMPAIGN

By Mike Colias, Automotive News - General Motors marketing boss Joel Ewanick really likes a new Chevrolet advertising campaign that features the antics of a fictional staff at a Chevrolet dealership.

How much?

"We think there's a TV show in this. I kid you not," Ewanick said in an interview on the sidelines of the auto show here. "We've talked about turning this into an actual show because we've got so much material."

Chevrolet debuted the campaign dubbed "Under the Blue Arch" last month. The commercials feature an ensemble cast -- from a former-radio-host-turned-salesman to an over-eager rookie -- mostly making fun of one another and goofing off. All the spots are set in a sparkling new Chevy dealership.

Ewanick's musings about a TV show don't seem so far-fetched when you consider that the commercial's creator is Randall Einhorn, who has directed episodes of "The Office", "Parks & Recreation" and "Modern Family".

Ewanick says the commercials convey Chevy dealerships as approachable and friendly. He sees the campaign as a platform that can humorously package a wide range of advertising messages, from the fuel efficiency of the Chevy Cruze to trumpeting Chevy Truck Month in a more subtle way.

More than 80 local dealer marketing associations are running the spots, which is far more than the usual number that use Chevy's corporate ads rather than their own content, Ewanick says.

"Dealers are all in," he says. "They love this campaign."

Whether or not it spins off a TV series, one thing is certain: You'll be seeing plenty more of it.

It's got legs," Ewanick says. "We've just scratched the surface."