#chevrolet

Good evening. TTAC rewind is a bit late today due to your humble author being on the road again.

Anyway, I was talking to a few other journalists this week about the Chevrolet Volt and my contention that while it had its faults -- a bit overpriced, the lack of a middle seat in the rear -- the car was generally pretty good, and its extended-range electric powertrain setup could've been revolutionary for electrification, but GM simply didn't market it strongly enough.

With production pauses becoming commonplace during the pandemic, automakers realized they could effectively starve the market while demand reached dizzying highs that allowed the industry to trim overhead and forego factory incentives. Unfortunately, this also meant consumers were given less choice and often had to pay more – whether or not they found what they wanted on dealer lots.

Many automakers have stated that they won’t be going back to robust vehicle inventories and would instead continue attempting to run lean in order to maximize profitability. With exactly that in mind, General Motors has opted to suspend production at its Fort Wayne, Indiana truck assembly facility. The pause will last two weeks (impacting the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra) and help the company “maintain optimal inventory levels.”

Flying in the face of empty dealership lots and a headache-inducing supply chain, General Motors reported this morning that the company recorded just under $10 billion in net income during the 2022 calendar year. This is good news for anyone wearing a GM hat, including hourly workers who will find enormous bonus checks in their mailboxes later this year.

In front of this weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours, Chevy took the time to haul the covers off its newest mid-engined monster meant for customer racing – though you’ll have to wait until next year to see it on the track.

Axios, the news source for people who like bullet points, has a post out today examining how the pickup truck market has changed over the years, with an emphasis on the shift in consumer preferences from smaller trucks to big, honkin' full-size rigs.

Small Japanese pickups became increasingly popular in North America as the 1970s went on, with plenty of Hiluxes and 520s/ 620s rolling out of Toyota and Datsun showrooms. Detroit wanted some of that minitruck money, and so each of the Big Three turned to a Japanese partner to make it happen. Today's Junkyard Find is the GM player in that game, found in a self-service boneyard near Reno, Nevada.

The Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray was introduced yesterday. Now that we know that it's combining a gas engine and an electric motor, I'm wondering -- what's next for the venerable 'Vette?

Chevrolet will unveil the hybrid, all-wheel drive Corvette E-Ray next week.

If you're looking for a new-ish EV, this forum user has a 2020 Chevrolet Bolt for sale.

The Chevrolet Bolt is under recall for another defect that reportedly poses a fire risk. However, it’s got nothing to do with the battery this time around. Instead, the automaker has all-new concerns about seat belt pretensioners venting hot exhaust gasses that could ignite interior carpet. In response, General Motors will be recalling 140,000 examples of the Bolt produced for the North American market.

This afternoon's TTAC Rewind is meta, in a sense. Author Jack Baruth notes that TTAC traffic numbers sometimes show that years-old reviews are doing well -- because people are searching for a particular model as a used car.

Chevy is selling all the Corvette and Corvette Z06 models it can build, driving wait times for some models into the years-long timeframe. That gives buyers a lot of time to think while they wait for their new mid-engine sports car to show up. Bummer, yes, but never underestimate the magic a bored, obsessed enthusiast can make with a little extra time on their hands. One of them just dug up a hidden configurator for the upcoming electric Corvette, dubbed the ERay. It’s important to note that we’re likely looking at a hybrid here, not a Corvette EV or PHEV.

It appears that Chevrolet will officially be building two new vehicles under a sub-brand. They'll use the C8 platform but not the Corvette name, and one will be a crossover and the other a four-door coupe.

The question is, will this work for Chevy?

Just the other day, we reported on Mark Reuss's comments suggesting that a new car or crossover was coming and it would be based on the Chevrolet Corvette C8 platform but it wouldn't use the Corvette name.

Now, a new report suggests it's official.

General Motors president (and, IIRC, former TTAC commenter) Mark Reuss had quite the Investor Day reveal -- Chevrolet has a C8-based performance car in the works. And it won't share the iconic Corvette nomenclature.