GM Keeps Its Greener Cars Out of North-America

OK, so GM closes the plant in my home town (OKC) which makes heavy trucks and suvs. Then the turn around the same day and announce that the shutdowns are to refocus production on: heavy trucks and suvs. I don't think that any of the news commentators pointed this out at all. There has been a deafening silence. Or is it that they just don't get it.

Just as a note of interest, the Meriva has been selling here in Mexico for some time, and the last time I looked Mexico was still in North America. As an expat Canadian I now know that.

JLP

This bodystyle is common in Europe - the Mercedes A-Class, Audi A2, and several others can be found.

Ford of Europe's version offers a diesel that gets 49mpg. They call it the Focus C-Max, but it has little in common with the Focus we know.

Of course you are right, JLP. I just had no idea that the Meriva was sold in Mexico. I should probably have a look at mexican carmaker websites and see what they have that we don't.

d,

I'm not sure why GM closed that truck plant, but I have a sneaking suspicion they want to make them somewhere with cheaper labor like Canada or Mexico (no offense, MGR & JLP).

GM now owns Daewoo, and a large portion of China's largest automaker. Several of GM's new car models are actually Daewoos in disguise, and I'm sure Chinese trucks are on the way. GM's just following the cheap buck wherever it leads them.

MGR,

We have available here a lot of European cars that disapeared from Canada ages ago like Renault, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, and loads of small cars like the Hyunday Atoz sold here by Dodge, Smarts, Pontiac Matiz which is another rebranded Korean car I think. A lot of those small cars are great ideas for a city with traffic as crazy as Mexico D.F.

Most major manufacturers have local websites with the corporate name and .com.mx

JLP

A while back I got ahold of an English car magazine. Not only were the cars sporty and good looking, they were also small and fuel efficient.

I don't understand why they don't sell them here. I'd consider buying one, that is if I didn't move closer to work and shopping to eliminate my need for a car.

Profit margins are much larger on big luxury laden vehicles. So that's what they fill the showrooms with. If these little guys were offered in the US, some of the sunk costs for making SUV's and Megatrucks would be lost (so the theory goes), dealers would lose revenue, and so would the ROI be lowered overall. This is the price we all pay for three generations of MBA's taking over everything.

If I live in Texas can I purchase a Meriva in Mexico and import it to the US with relative ease? Would it be easy to maintain? How much would it cost? Has anyone attempted this?

The Japanese have had their own issues with fuel economy. In January of 2001 I got one of the last Suzuki Swifts ever made. It (still) gets 45 m.p.g.. Yet they stopped making that year with nothing more economical to replace it.

One of the issues that hampers the importation of these nice foreign market cars, is North America's more stringent collision requirements. Foreign vehicles often require extensive and costly reengineering just to legally comply with safety regulations. It's perfectly obvious that the American car companies would rather not dabble with investing additional money into a vehicle that has a lower revenue return than their existing large trucks/SUVs.

I haven't done extensive research, but from what I've read the regulations in Europe aren't much laxer than in the US, if at all. It's just that they are a bit different and from experience, it seems that most times a bumper change and some other little things is enough.

Also, more and more cars are "global" cars. I hope that's the way of the future and that markets won't be so segregated in years to come.

In america small cars were beaten out by the ford explorer in the 80's. The United States actually WAS moving towards smaller cars but fords lobbyests convinced somebody that bigger vehicles were safer and that bigger was the way to go so the government put stricter regulations on small cars back then (when they actually were not as safe) and now its just hard because of the threat that SUV's impose

GM, didn't you get the memo? I want something reasonably fuel efficient, fun to drive, and attractively designed. Right now, you sell none of those things. Whereas selling Daewoos might take care of the first item, it does nothing for the other two.

Fortunately, there are a number of other car manufacturers who get it. Maybe someday you'll figure it out. Hint: Buying Daewoo is not winning.

um, i believe the proper pronounciation is Ford Exploder

on regulations:

a few years back i got teh rights to a really cute electric (vespa style) scooter. And after working both through NHTSA in the States and the Minister of Transpiortation in Canada (and having the time to see the Japanese standards, and the vehicle being cvertified for the EU) I got to see something very interesting... for the most part the standards are pretty much the same (even same title-numbers) except for some trivial things, like the difference in angles for headlights, things that may have some actual reasoning behind them (americans want to illuminate the highway sign, europeans want to light up the road) but really it seems that the have little logicm more just about territory and control.

on BIODIESLE, perhaps we ought to double check it

ok last one (here, and in a row) i promise--

but i just wanted to add a little historicity here-- GM right? the same GM that forced EV1 drivers to give back their vehicles? the same GM Taken over by Irenee DuPont and the DuPont family (the loveley family that only poisend air & water for everyone, assited GREATLY in the villification and banishment of Hemp, oh and loved Hitler) made tanks and trucks for the Nazis, and bought out any technology that could double mileage, drive on water, et cetera... that GM? How could they possibly obfuscate? How could they not be involved in solving the climate issues? No, really, how could they be evil when "what's good for GM is good for America"?

I'n my fantasy world, some benevolent government's commandos smash through the glass ceiling at GM and go deep into the basement release all the hidden documents and secret technologies they've been hoarding, and them mass produce them, letting us all drive without polluting, and finally have a green future.

oops! ...sorry for sounding like an activist

I've heard that one of the reasons we don't see so many smaller high efficiency cars in the states is because of union pressure.

As it is, for all the previously mentioned reasons, the plants for the smaller cars aren't in the USA. It's in the unions best interest to keep these cars out so the money for labor doesn't go off shore.

This explanation is for crap but you can connect the dots.

There's going to be a tipping point when the US auto industry is honestly resigned to producing a large number of smaller and fuel efficient cars. When that point comes, we'll see the models that we want to buy already. $3/gal gas got everyone spooked, but now we're down to $2/gal gas.

Anonymous,

A few years ago, I actually did research on trying to bring a Toyota Yaris (the Echo hatchback) from Mexico, and found that it would be near impossible.

You would have to pay a huge tax on the car, plus you may not be able to register it as a legal vehicle (so you couldn't get plates), and I could not find an insurance company who would cover it, even if I could get it registered.

When a car company imports a car, they have a paid staff who go through all the legal wrangling, and the price of the import tax is built into the price you pay for an import car.

Ssssshhhhh, I have a secret. There already is a mid size car in Sold all over the world that gets 50 m.p.h. on 100% biodegradable fuel.

It's called a VW Jetta TDI - yes, it's a diesel

I have one.
Traditional Diesel Concerns no longer apply to todays advanced Diesels.

Q&A:
Q1. Is it slow?
A1. While not a sports car. It's in gear acceleration is better than a Porsche Boxter from 50-75 m.p.h

Q2. Is it hard to start in the winter?
A2. Well lets see, I live in Minnesota and yesterday morning it was -6 Degrees Fahrenheit and it started right, no problem and yes it is parked outside without being "plugged in".

Q3. Is it smoky?
A3. In a word, NO. Besides, when you are burning 100% biodiesel (a completely carbon neutral fuel) it smells like french fries : )

What is wrong with American carmakers when it comes to diesel engines? Are they just waiting for the new low-sulphur diesel fuel to arrive? Or do they really think that Americans just don't care about the environment enough to go with diesel? It is really a sad state of affairs when there are cars like that are highly desirable to many Americans being made by American carmakers that are not available in the states.

The Focus C-Max and the other Euro Focus models could be brought here. The platform is here as the Volvo V40 and the Mazda 3.

There are many forces to blame for why we don't get the more fuel efficent, practical small vehicles here but I'm not going to bash the American auto companies for selling what makes them money. It's called business! Guess what at the end of the day all businesses exist to make money, not to save the planet and that includes Toyota (sorry they get no pass from me). Most of the reason for this situation is the cost of fuel in the US. Almost every automaker, Ford, GM, Toyota, Nissan etc. sells large fuel sucking SUV's in the US because that's what people were buying.

Your looking at the wrong end, we must increase demand for small cars and dampen demand for large ones. To that end I think taxes should be increased on fuel to increase it's price. Watch people make wiser car choices then.

"There are many forces to blame for why we don't get the more fuel efficent, practical small vehicles here but I'm not going to bash the American auto companies for selling what makes them money. It's called business! Guess what at the end of the day all businesses exist to make money, not to save the planet and that includes Toyota (sorry they get no pass from me)."

That's true, but guess who's almost bankrupt and who's making tons of cash? There's obviously a market for high quality smaller and fuel efficient cars.

It's just strange that GM won't bring them to North-America.

As for Toyota, they certainly do bad stuff too, but at least they are moving in the right direction and offer the choice; GM seems to just get worse in comparison to everybody else.

GM deserves some of it. I have made a hobby out of following the auto industry for years. GM is the least inovative. They finally decided to build a hybrid this year all the while Ford, who is behind Honda and Toyota in this, was bringing out a hybrid and working on their next generation hybrid powertrain. So it's not like an American company can't do it. Fords big mistake was being slow and then going to Toyota's supplier for its hybrid powertrain. Toyota is taking much of their production (and owns 40% of the company) so they can only build 24,000 hybrids a year. Their 2nd generation hybrid which should be out around the same time GM gets a hybrid into production will have parts sourced from other suppliers. Yup the automotive world is complicated.

The next race will be clean diesels, I know that Honda is looking into it for NA as are the German car companies. What of the others, we'll see.

I've been looking at cars recently, and one of the things that I found was that the small cars were a lot more to insure than a large car. It was $20-40 more a month. Made me rethink the whole small car thing.

Working for GM Design for 21 years was mostly frustrating. A few projects we did a long time ago, the EV1 and Ultra-Lite, were rewarding but never taken seriously. Most consumers want big cars, power and speed. GM management did as well because they saw big profit with cheep gas prices.
There memory of fuel shortages was long gone. In fact they get free cars and gas; they don’t know what it cost. They never cared about the environment because Detroit is not in a smog basin like LA. They would not do anything that was not mandated by law. Any intelligent person could see that they had no plans to make greener or safer cars until they were forced to.
I am glad to be retired from that mess; problem is that as they drive the company to hell so goes the pensions and benefits.
Toyota and Honda have thrived on the mistakes of the former big 3. GM got caught with its pants down again. Thanks to Rick Wagner.

yaknow, i almost hate sounding like a radical. but GM just sucks. and beyond that they do have an AWFUL hostory not only for their obfuscations but like i said before, for their history of support for groups like the Nazis in Germany. And I'm wondering, do you think at any point in time we will out these companies? I mean thats not the place of Treehugger.com, but we, as in WEstern society? How can we allow companies who were atrocous with their aid of atrocities to continue, and worse yet, allow them to obfuscate, fund lobbiests, and sqrew thier workers.

all the while claiming thatits not their fault. it's our fault for wanting these trucks (i dont, neither do my friends). Soemtimes i get so mad i wanna take a brik and mash itup-- of course that would be innefective and quixotic, but still, hwo do we allow these companies to get off scot free? while i dont want to lock 'em up, I would love to take people like Lee Raymond and put him in locks in a central square and spank his bare bottim till he cries and every one laughs at him. These creeps all need a spanking!

There's a problem with introducing small cars to the American market, because there isn't the 'prior art' that eases emissions and safety certification. (That's one reason why it took so long to bring the new MINI to the US market.) But I have no idea why GM and Ford don't take a stab at selling Corsas and Kas and Merivas in the US: sink investment into certification, run a small production line, and if there's a market, you're sorted.

why can't we start our own initiative to relax the u.s. and canadian standards? whoever is responsible for current legislation pertaining importing cars from european countries could change these things.
look at opel agila, berlingo or twingo, and of course panda. yes they are small, but use 60 mpg
in their small diesel-engines, easy to park, great to look at.
ideas anyone on how to go about this?
marijke

One of the issues about GM I'm hearing here is that they actually are keeping technology and product they want in a drawer because they are afraid of cannibalizing their other products. Is that a widespread sentiment?

too bad there isn't some "War" or something on climate... it seems that back when the US decided to join world war II they were able to convince GM and the rest to stop making sedans and make more trucks & tanks (like they (GM) were already doing for the Nazis.. but I digress)

in times of serious troble it seems, it is easier to get companies to shift gears. wouldn't it be great to force these companies to pull out all the technologies they've been sequestering for all these years? the 120Mpg carburators... the water cars...

what we need is some opposing force that could threaten the existance and the american way of life...oh wait a minute, climate change is that force... so now all we really need is some spokespeople for climate on shoddy camcorders threatening more storms and more droughts more forest fires and of course someone in the government to realize just how much money can be made if they start to reorganize and restructure the economy.... (ok i'm being silly, but aside from an alien takeover of the planet, what else can force these megaliths to actually change course?)

BTW FM, thanks for all the good work you did do and tried to do! the EV1 kicked ass! Thanks!

Maybe you would want to spread the word.