ZV8

iTrader: (2)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/gm-inv...220503699.html - here is the source...

Yahoo is so retarded but whatever...

General Motors (GM) announced plans to invest $332 million in four plants in three Great Lakes states in order to gain competitive advantage in terms of fuel-efficient engines and transmission systems technologies.

The plants are located in Toledo, Ohio; Bedford, Ind.; and Flint and Bay City in Mich. The investment at the plant will help GM build a new V-6 engine, a new small motor and new eight-speed automatic transmissions.

Particularly, General Motors would invest $215 million in the Flint Engine Operations in Flint for producing new three- and four-cylinder engines; $55.7 million in Toledo Transmission Operations in Toledo for producing a new eight-speed transmission and expand capacity to build an existing six-speed transmission; $31.7 million in a powertrain plant in Bay City for building parts for a new V-6 engine and components for new small engines; and $29.4 million in a metal castings plant in Bedford to manufacture parts for small engines and for the new eight-speed and existing six-speed automatic transmissions.

GM would also make an additional investment of $46 million at its Romulus and Saginaw plants in Mich. to support production of the new V-6 engine. All these investments will not make any addition to the workforce but preserve 1,650 jobs at the six plants.

General Motors has been desperately trying to catch up with its rivals in engines and transmissions technologies. Its competitors are already producing 10-speed transmissions when the automaker is lagging behind them providing only six-speed transmissions in vehicles. Transmissions with more gears are more fuel-efficient as they allow engines to do less work.

Late 2012, GM has joined hands with Ford Motor Co. (F) in developing a nine-speed transmission for passenger cars and a heavier-duty 10-speed transmission for larger vehicles.

Chrysler Group – controlled by Italy’s Fiat SpA (FIATY) –already has the license to produce the 8HP 8-speed automatic transmissions system (developed by Germany’s ZF Friedrichshafen AG) at its Kokomo Transmission Plant and the Kokomo Casting plant, starting this year. This transmission system is used in many vehicles produced by Germany’s Volkswagen AG (VLKAY).

General Motors has invested $10.2 billion in its North American facilities since 2009. The company has vowed to invest $1.5 billion in its North American plants in 2013 as part of its $8 billion annual investment plan for its global operations for new vehicle development.

So far, GM has announced projects with an investment of $1.2 billion in the U.S. under the $1.5 billion plan. Last month, the automaker announced investment of nearly $250 million for gearing up its CAMI Automotive Inc. assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario for future production.

Recently, at an industry conference in Detroit, GM stated that it expects modest growth in global auto sales in 2013 as improvements in China and the U.S. will be offset by sluggish car sales in Europe. The automaker predicted a 5% rise in industry sales in the U.S. and international market each and European market to shrink 4% in the year.

The company foresees pricing pressures to exist, particularly in China and Europe. However, it expects that moderate market share gain across the world, driven by new vehicle launches, will boost its profit margins. GM plans to upgrade 70% of its global lineups by the end of this year.

GM, a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock, posted higher profits of $0.8 billion or 48 cents per share in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared with $0.7 billion or 39 cents in the same quarter of 2011. However, earnings missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. The results excluded net gain from special items of $0.1 billion or 6 cents in the 2012-quarter and net loss from special items of $0.2 billion, or 11 cents in the 2011-quarter.

Revenues in the quarter scaled up 3.4% to $39.3 billion, being higher than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $38.6 billion. Unit sales escalated 4.2% to 2.3 million vehicles. The automaker occupied a market share of 11.5% during the quarter, down from 11.6% in the year-ago quarter.

GM expects to boost its top-line in 2013 with the help of new vehicle launches. At the same time, the company believes cost control measures will boost its bottom line growth. It expects 2013 capital expenditures to be at the 2012-level.

SparkyJJO

iTrader: (11)

Lagging behind? 10 speed transmissions? In what?

And is it just me or do 10 speeds seem utterly ridiculous and overly complicated for what seems to be little gain?

ZV8

iTrader: (2)

exactly what I was thinking, dumbass yahoo writer trying to comment.

Z Fury

iTrader: (1)

There are using every trick they can to hit those CAFE marks... In my mind, 6 speeds is the magic number.

Tainted

iTrader: (9)

Do I dare ask how weak these new 8spd trans will be not to mention the HUGE repair costs? ?

justin455

These right here.

BanditTA

iTrader: (3)

Every six speed I've driven is annoying and worthless. The new Tahoes and Silverados can't even use 6 gear unless you're doing 75mph with the stock and only available 3.08s. My wife's 08 CTS doesn't know what gear to even go into half the time when you crack the throttle down and the 25ish mpg isn't really that impressive for six gears either.

In the end my 07 Tahoe with 4.10s and a 4-speed gets the same mpgs has my uncles 6-speed Yukon and my bosses 6-speed Tahoe. Not to mention my truck actually has ***** and performs very well compared to theirs. 21-22mpg is common on all three all day long, mine actually seems to do better in the City as well.

NW-99SS

iTrader: (6)

I agree with you to a point. The problem you have is that your basing this on GM transmissions. My work truck is a 6A and performs as you described - lugging when it shouldn't, never finding the right gear. Really it's only decent from a stop to 70mph in a smooth fashion.

On the other hand, the BMW X3 we used to have was fantastic. Always in the right gear, downshifting appropriately, excellent fuel mileage for an AWD SUV. If you needed more gear, a quick flick of the shifter to sport mode induced an automatic single gear downshift. The transmission programming was really well matched to the inline 6.

I think you would like 6 speed autos if they all performed like that. Unfortunately, as stated, CAFE requirements are making these more of a fuel mileage gimmick than they need to be. Properly calibrated, even the GM 6A's could be great. I find myself using the manual shift on the lever a lot just for this reason.

Rawr256

Who makes 10 speed transmissions? 8 speeds are still fairly new to the market, and I wouldn't call their engines necessarily lacking unless you want to look at it from a strictly displacement vs return point, but that is like comparing apples to oranges.

Problem throwing more gears at the car is than the juts jack up the rear gear to compensate for performance/acceleration. The end result is that mpg hardly changes. I expected my G8 to at least be within 1 - 2 mpg of my wife's cammed TA instead it is about 6 mpg on the hwy and 3 through town. I know things like weight and aero play a part in it but jacking up the gear doesn't help either.

It is pretty obvious whoever does the tunning for the GM 6A is just sitting at a desk and not actually driving the cars. With my G8 I told myself I wouldn't tune it for at least a year, month later I redid the whole trans tables because it was a joke. Like mentioned, it never knew what gear it should be in and was shifting a lot more than it really needed to.