#GeneralMotors

Despite rampant talk about how the United Auto Workers’ stand-up strike and its resulting deals would bankrupt the automotive sector, the union strategy appears to have ended up costing the industry less than the labor strike GM endured all by its lonesome in 2019.

The United Auto Workers have reached a tentative agreement with all three Detroit automakers. Ford was the first to strike a deal, followed by Stellantis. But General Motors wasn’t far behind and managed to settle things with the union early Monday morning. Based on comments from select UAW members in the know, the final issue reportedly revolved around EV battery plants.

It’s important to have recall work done without delay if you can help it. The fixes are free, and in some cases, the work is necessary to keep you and others on the road safe. Chevrolet conducted one of the most significant recalls in recent times with the Bolt and Bolt EUV. Though it’s been a while since the initial recall action, we’re still hearing news on the situation, with the latest being that GM is offering payments to owners for using related diagnostic software.

Chevrolet will be debuting a new corporate slogan during the first game of Major League Baseball's World Series. The decade-old "Find New Roads" will be supplanted with “Together Let’s Drive” during a commercial for the Chevy Trax that’s focused on promoting the vehicle’s affordability.

The brand has had loads of slogans and some are definitely better than others. While we’re prone toward remembering whatever jingles were playing during our formative years, the true value of specific taglines can probably be measured by how long they stuck around.

We return to the Cadillac Eldorado saga today by popular demand. In our last entry, we delved into the engineering and platform changes that arrived for the entire Cadillac line in 1954. In short, the same C-body platform continued in use for Series 62, Sixty Special, and Eldorado with new bodywork and additional standard features. Eldorado was repositioned in ‘54 to become mass market, and lost its unique styling. That meant visual differences between it and the lesser Series 62 convertible were down to pieces of trim. 

Following news that production of the Chevrolet Silverado EV would be delayed, General Motors has announced that the Chevy Equinox EV would likewise be arriving behind schedule.

The postponement was announced as part of GM’s earnings report, with CEO Mary Barra citing improvements the company would like to make to the product as well as some market challenges. Some of that revolves around using the time to better manage capital investment related to EV demand (or lack thereof) while the rest seems to apply to engineering changes that might make the vehicles more profitable.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has suspended Cruise’s permit to operate driverless vehicles, citing public safety concerns.

This represents a major victory for the Alphabet-owned Waymo, as it’s now the only company within the state that’s legally allowed to offer robotaxi services. On Tuesday, the DMV said that Cruise’s suspension would take effect immediately with the company likewise stating that it would be pausing operations to examine potential improvements in how its vehicles operate.

Just one day after the UAW went on strike at Stellantis’ pickup factory in Sterling Heights, roughly 5,000 union members walked off the line at General Motors’ plant in Arlington, Texas. The UAW is now targeting automaker’s most-profitable facilities, with Tuesday’s walkout suggesting that the industrial game of chicken could be nearing its final act.

The UAW strike is dragging on, but automakers still have everyday business problems to deal with, like how to produce millions of electric vehicles and sell them. It turns out that the “other” problems are just as serious as the strike, and General Motors’ recent announcement is a great example. Earlier this week, the automaker noted that it would push production of its upcoming electric pickup trucks back at one of its Detroit-area facilities.

General Motors’ Cruise may be one of the first companies in the world to field driverless vehicles as part of a commercial endeavor. But this doesn’t appear to have endeared the brand to everyday people. The business appears to be loathed by San Franciscan residents and emergency response crews, who have only gotten angrier since state regulators allowed the business to expand operations. 

Sustained reports of mishaps and injuries involving the vehicles has encouraged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to launch a preliminary investigation into the company — which may also explain why Cruise just issued a press release explaining how it’s going to remedy all of the above. 

In last week’s installment of Abandoned History, we learned about General Motors’ 1966 magnet-based primitive navigation system, DAIR. The inclusive system featured emergency messages, traffic bulletins played inside the car, and route guidance. DAIR never progressed beyond the concept stage and two total test vehicles, largely because it would have meant buried magnets and accompanying signal relay stations at every major intersection in the country. Some 25 years later The General tried it again, but technology progressed considerably by that point.

While the United Auto Workers (UAW) decided to implement an aggressive strike campaign that bucks some of the historical trends American union leadership feels did not serve the cause in the past, Canada’s Unifor has vowed to take a more measured approach during its contract negotiations with the industry. However, that does not mean simply rolling over for automakers in order to strike any old deal. 

Last week, Unifor criticized General Motors for failing to meet important elements of its pattern agreement with Ford Motor Company. With both sides failing to make any tentative agreements by the Monday deadline, Unifor has announced plans to strike in Ontario — hindering the company’s ability to manufacture light and heavy-duty pickups. 

GM’s exclusive Guidestar navigation was available on a select handful of early 90s Oldsmobiles for a very short period of time. Gone as quickly as it arrived, the expensive system was at the forefront of in-car automotive navigation. Believe it or not, it was Oldsmobile that offered the very first navigation system for a passenger vehicle in the North American market. But what happened to Guidestar that led it to be featured here at Abandoned History? The tale begins in 1966, with a genius idea.

In 2017, General Motors sold Opel and Vauxhall to Frances PSA Group — which later merged with Fiat Chrysler to form Stellantis — basically ending its involvement with the European market. However, the company vowed a return in 2023 and that’s now taking place in Switzerland.

The Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) has confirmed that Andretti Formula Racing LLC has been granted approval to join Formula One. While Micheal Andretti first announced plans to have the family racing team join the F1 grid in 2022, FIA hadn’t taken the matter under serious consideration until the following year.

The FIA officially launched an application process to identify prospective teams by early 2023. Knowing that F1 was eager to continue drawing fans in the United States, Andretti immediately announced a partnership with Cadillac. We previously speculated that being backed by General Motors would make all the difference for Andretti Autosport.