Vauxhall's VXR8 Sport Saloon Wins MPG Marathon Award, No Really

In an eco-marathon, you normally expect the winner to be a hybrid, a diesel or some other super-frugal -and usually underpowered- car. Well, in the Fleet World MPG Marathon the champion had no less than 431-horses kicking and screaming to be unleashed under its bonnet.

You read that correctly: the LS3 6.2-liter V8-powered VXR8 - essentially a Holden HSV rebadged as a Vauxhall for the UK market- won the two-day, 350-mile economy trial.

How did this happen? There's a simple explanation: this award wasn't given to the most fuel efficient vehicle in absolute numbers, but to the one that recorded the highest percent improvement over the official fuel consumption figures.

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Rumors: 2013 Cadillac ATS Sedan to Receive New 2.0-liter Turbo Engine

For many years, American car buyers adhered to the popular slogan “there’s no replacement for displacement”, but consumer habits are changing and the auto industry is slowly moving away from large and thirsty engines to smaller but equally powerful turbocharged powerplants.

The upcoming 2013 Cadillac ATS, with which General Motors wants to compete directly with the German competition in the premium compact sedan segment, will be one of the latest American models to make use of smaller displacement engines.

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Video: 2012 Camaro ZL1 Lapping the Nürburgring in 7:41.27"

We only just learned about the 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1's Nürburgring lap time on Wednesday through a tweet from a GM spokesperson, yet the Detroit automaker has already released video footage from its run of the Nordschleife.

Officially, the new 580-horsepower Camaro ZL1 won't go on sale before the end of the first quarter in 2012, but GM said it used a "production-intent model, with no performance modifications", driven by Camaro Performance Engineer Aaron Link to record a lap time of 7:41.27.

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New 2012 Isuzu D-MAX Pickup Truck is the Chevy Colorado's Asian Twin

Isuzu has long abandoned the U.S. passenger and truck market but it continues to have strong ties with General Motors, which was once its primary stockholder.

This week, the Japanese automaker revealed its all-new D-MAX pickup truck, which was designed in cooperation with GM and is a sister model to the 2012 Chevrolet Colorado that made its debut on Wednesday. Albeit on separate occasions, both pickup truck models were presented in Thailand.

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South Korea is the First Market in the World to get New Chevrolet Malibu

The all-new eighth generation Chevrolet Malibu is not only the first in the nameplates' 35-year long history to be offered globally but also the first to launch outside the United States.

On Tuesday, General Motors released the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu in South Korea, which is the first market to receive the mid-size sedan. Local production will begin later this month at GM Korea’s Bupyeong manufacturing plant while sales are scheduled to start on November 1.

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GM PR Tweets that the 2012 Camaro ZL1 Laps the Nürburgring in 7:41.27

We're still a few months ahead of the market launch of the new 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, but General Motors has already began leaking information about the muscle car's appearance on the famed Nürburgring racetrack.

Today, GM spokesperson Jason Laird posted a tweet saying, "Mark Reuss just confirmed ZL1 Camaro lapped Nurburgring in 7.41.27". We wouldn't be surprised if GM announces a better time down the line, but as is, the ZL1 is in the same league as the now obsolete Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640 and the new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG.

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All-New 2012 Chevrolet Colorado Pickup Truck Revealed in Production Guise

These are the first official photos of the brand-new 2012 Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck that made its global debut today in Thailand in final production trim. Over the past year, General Motors had presented concept versions of the Colorado in numerous motor shows around the world

Thailand will be the first country to receive the new pickup truck before the end of October with the Asia Pacific, Middle East and South American regions to follow shortly after. In Australia, the Colorado will be marketed under the Holden brand name.

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GM Insists it Will Sell 10,000 Volts this Year but the Numbers Don’t Seem to Add Up

Earlier this week, General Motors released its US sales results for September. And the numbers are looking good as deliveries are up 20% compared to September 2010 while the Cruze remains the best-selling compact car in the country.

Yet, despite all the euphoria, GM is actually facing a small problem: even though it had initially set a target of delivering 10,000 units of its Volt hybrid by the end of the year, it is very unlikely that it will achieve this goal.

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GM to Launch New CNG Bi-Fuel Pickup Truck in Late 2012

General Motors will soon increase its commercial offerings of CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) models with the addition of a new bi-fuel pickup truck that is scheduled for launch early in the fourth quarter of 2012. Read more »

Bob Lutz Says General Motors, Volkswagen and Hyundai are the World's New Big Three

It's fall again, time for Bob Lutz to make headlines. Less than a month after "Maximum Bob" made his official comeback to General Motors as a consultant, the semi-retired car executive and onetime Marine pilot gave an in-depth interview to German monthly Manager Magazin.

Lutz was questioned about a variety of subjects that mainly concentrated on Opel and its relationship with General Motors, but he was also asked about the future of the industry in general, and whom he sees as being the major players.

According to Captain Lutz, the new big three in the automotive industry are General Motors, the Volkswagen Group and –wait for it- the Hyundai Group. And what about Toyota and the rest of the Japanese carmakers like Honda? According to the GM exec, Japanese automakers have lost it… Follow the jump for his (translated) response as well as the original Q&A.

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GM Debuts Automotive Industry's First Front Center Air Bag

Someone once said that in the future, the inner works of our vehicles after a crash will look like a balloon party – sans the bright colors. And true enough, after the front, side, roof, knee, rear curtain and seat-belt airbags, automakers have now discovered another area of the car that can be fitted with an inflatable bag for our protection: the center.

Following Toyota's presentation of the first production rear-seat center airbag on the Japanese domestic market Crown Majesta in 2009, General Motors is introducing the automotive industry's first front center air bag, designed to protect the driver and front passenger in far-side impact crashes.

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GM Idles Pickup Production Once Again to Reduce Inventory

General Motors announced that it will temporarily halt production at its Fort Wayne plant in Indiana for the week starting November 7, in order to reduce its inventory of pickup trucks models.

This is not the first time that GM has stopped production at the plant where the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra are manufactured. Even though pickup sales in the US have increased from January until August by 9% to 1.1 million units, compared to the same period last year, GM seems to have badly misjudged demand for its models, resulting in an inventory of 122-days.

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Polk Says 2011 Non-Dedicated Hybrid Model Sales Down 1.5% Versus 2010

With the notable exceptions of the Chevy Volt, Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, most of the hybrids on sale today are merely spin-offs of existing ICE models with gas / electric powertrains fitted; take the hybridized Chevy Tahoe, Toyota Camry and Honda Civic for instance.

According to automotive statistics website Polk online, in the first seven months of 2011, sales of non-dedicated hybrid models dipped 1.5% compared to last year. Analyst Tom Libby blames the sales slump on the lack of distinct styling; hybrid buyers want their cars to stand out from the crowd.

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General Motors Reverses Decision to Track Canceled OnStar Subscribers

After General Motors received intense criticism from users as well as lawmakers and privacy advocates on its decision to continue to collect data from drivers that have canceled their OnStar service unless the customer asked for it to be shut off, the Detroit automaker announced today that it is reversing its proposed policy changes.

As a result, GM's OnStar will not keep a data connection to customers’ vehicles after the service is canceled.

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First 2012 Camaro ZL1 Goes Under the Hammer for $250,000

The first publicly available 2012 Camaro ZL1 was sold for a quarter of a million dollars at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Las Vegas on Saturday evening.

The sports car was offered by Fairway Chevrolet-Buick-GMC in Las Vegas and all for a good reason as 100 percent of the proceeds will benefit the YMCA of Southern Nevada.

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Report: New Opel Astra GTC May Make it to the States as a Buick

The sporty-looking Opel Astra GTC was only just introduced in Frankfurt last week, but there are already reports suggesting that it could be one of the compact cars General Motors said it would build at an unspecified plant in the U.S. under the details released Tuesday of its tentative pact with the United Auto Workers (UAW).

According to Auto Observer, in a meeting with journalists and analysts at Opel’s Rüsselsheim headquarters in Germany, the firm's CEO, Karl-Friedrich Stracke, said "I could easily see it as a Buick" referring to the Astra GTC.

It would make sense from a marketing standpoint since Buick would automatically gain a new contender in the small sports car segment against the likes of the Hyundai Veloster, while also widening the reach of the brand to a younger audience.

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GM to Manufacturer New Mid-Size Pickup in Missouri, and Two New Mid-Size Models at Former Saturn Plant

[Chevrolet Colorado Concept from 2011 Bangkok Motor Show pictured above]

General Motors has revealed plans to build a new mid-size pickup truck at its Missouri plant as well as to reopen a former Saturn assembly plant in Tennessee for the production of two new mid-size models.

A GM representative declined to provide further information, saying that the company will not comment on its future products, however, the most likely candidates for the pickup truck model are the successors to the Chevrolet Colorado or the GMC Canyon.

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GM Prepares All-New 2012 Chevrolet Colorado for Launch, but it won't Come to the U.S.

After traveling all around the world in concept format, the new 2012 Chevrolet Colorado pickup truck has entered the final testing phase in Thailand before the introduction of the production model that will go on sale towards the end of the year.

Today, General Motors released some new photos showing the prototype models being put through their paces as the company prepares to produce the midsize pickup in its Rayong assembly plant in Thailand.

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GM and SAIC to Develop a New Electric Vehicle in China

General Motors Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson and his counterpart at SAIC Motor Corp., Hu Maoyuan, signed an agreement for the joint development of a new electric vehicle in China.

The Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center, which is jointly owned by the two companies, will undertake the development of the new architecture, with GM and SAIC teams working together.

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Chevrolet Orlando gets in a Harlequin Suit for the Sake of Art

We do not know if Belgian design label Quinze & Milan had the famous Volkswagen Polo Harlequin special in mind when it was reinterpreting Chevrolet's new 7-seater Orlando, but the result sure looks familiar.

However, unlike Volkswagen's special edition supermini, Quinze & Milan's one-off creation is not only characterized by the pallet of colors, but also for the fact that the modified parts inside and out are sprayed in the firm's signature foam coating called QM FOAM.

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