The first production vehicle, the Buick Model B, was offered to retail customers the following year. Today, Buick produces a range of luxury vehicles including the Encore and Enclave crossovers and the LaCrosse, Regal and Verano sedans.

Buick Celebrates 110 Years of Building Cars

Buick is a modern luxury brand offering vehicles with sculpted designs, luxurious interiors with thoughtful personal technologies, along with responsive-yet-efficient performance. Buick is attracting new customers with its portfolio of award-winning luxury models, including the Enclave crossover, LaCrosse sedan, Regal sport sedan, Buick Verano sedan and the all-new Encore crossover.

Learn more about Buick cars and crossovers at www.buick.com, on Twitter @buick, on Pinterest or at www.facebook.com/buick 

 

@GM Joins Center for Automotive Research at Stanford

Mary Barra, GM senior vice president of Global Product Development, confirmed the membership Friday following a visit to the Stanford School of Engineering, where she spoke to faculty, students and researchers.

“Joining the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford is a natural fit for GM,” Barra said. “In order to create the world’s best vehicles, we make every effort to remain on the cutting edge of automotive development. Our membership in CARS will allow us both to expand and share our knowledge with students, faculty and industry partners as we work together to move the industry forward.”

The Center for Automotive Research at Stanford is a community of faculty and students from a range of disciplines aimed at discovering, building, and deploying critical ideas and innovations for the next generation of cars and drivers. Unique in its infrastructure, CARS provides shared resources for research, teaching, student project teams and new educational initiatives across many research centers, including the law and business schools.

“GM is dedicated to helping develop the next generation of science, technology, engineering and mathematics professionals and advancing the industry,” Barra said. “The Center for Automotive Research at Stanford offers us not only the chance to contribute to the education of future leaders, but also cultivate new and creative vehicle technology solutions.”

This membership fortifies GM’s long-standing relationship with Stanford. Barra is one of many GM leaders to have earned a degree from Stanford, which is one of GM’s key engineering and business recruitment institutions.

GM and the GM Foundation are committed to improving education in America, ensuring the next generation of professionals has the skills and education necessary to compete globally. GM supports multiple industry partnership outreaches and established the Buick Achiever’s Scholarship in 2011, which has already provided $12 million to college-bound students studying in science, technology, engineering and math-related fields.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama talks about his belief that a thriving middle class is the true engine of economic growth in the United States.

Weekly Address: The President Talks About Jobs, Skills & Opportunity

President Barack Obama talks about reigniting that engine and continuing to build on the progress that has been made over the last four years of his Presidency. President Barack Obama talks about investing in three key areas like jobs, skills and opportunity.

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DEARBORN, Mich – The Ford Fiesta was Europe’s best-selling small car in March and for the first three months of 2013, according to the latest figures from the world’s leading provider of automotive data and intelligence, JATO Dynamics.*

European customers bought Fiestas at a rate of one every 100 seconds during the first quarter for 2013 – 41,600 in March, and 77,800 total in the first three months of 2013 – 14,000 units more than its nearest rival, according to JATO.

Parked bumper-to-bumper the Fiestas sold during the first quarter would cover the equivalent of 770 laps of a 400 metre Olympic running track.

“It’s clear from the rate that our new Fiesta is flying off forecourts that its striking a chord with Europe’s small car customers,” said Roelant de Waard, vice president, Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford of Europe.  “The small car segment is probably more competitive than it has ever been and the new Fiesta is gaining retail market share and reaching new customers on the strength of its design, technology and drive dynamics.”

Fiesta’s retail share – sales to private customers – in its segment rose by 1.2 percentage points in March**. Incoming orders from customers also increased by 8 per cent in the first quarter, compared to the same period last year.

The new Fiesta offers seven powertrain options that offer sub-100 g/km CO2 performance*** including the 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine, the 2012 “International Engine of the Year”. One quarter of Fiestas sold this year in Europe were equipped with 1.0-litre EcoBoost.

The new Fiesta also features dynamic new exterior and interior styling with benchmark design, craftsmanship and ergonomics, in addition to offering Ford MyKey, which enables parents to place restrictions on younger drivers to promote safety.

Also new to Fiesta is Ford’s SYNC voice-activated in-car connectivity system featuring Emergency Assistance, which can alert local emergency services operators to an accident in 26 languages, spoken in 40 European regions. Sixty per cent of new Fiestas ordered during the first four months of the year feature the Euro NCAP Advanced reward-winning system.

The most popular colour to date is Frozen White, chosen by 23 per cent of customers – rising to 40 per cent in Greece – followed by Panther Black and Moondust Silver. Fifty-five per cent of Fiesta buyers have opted for the Charcoal Black interior, including 84 per cent of U.K. customers.

Fiesta was earlier this year named the best-selling subcompact car globally in 2012 with 723,130 registrations, by automotive data and trends forecasting leader Polk. It was also the best-selling small car in Europe in 2012 according to JATO Dynamics, with European consumers buying 306,405 models in total.

For more information regarding Ford and its products worldwide, please visit: http://corporate.ford.com.

@GM to Source Small Cargo Vehicle from Nissan for U.S., Canada Markets

GM will procure the vehicle from Nissan and distribute it through the Chevrolet dealer network. GM expects the Chevrolet City Express, based on the Nissan NV200, to be available for sale in the fall of 2014.

“Our fleet customers have asked us for an entry in the commercial small van segment, so this addition to the Chevrolet portfolio will strengthen our position with fleets and our commercial customers,” said Ed Peper, U.S. vice president of GM Fleet and Commercial Sales.

Joe Castelli, Nissan vice president, commercial vehicles and fleet added, “Working with partners to expand markets for our innovative products enhances Nissan’s growth and manufacturing efficiency by leveraging our capacity to meet growing demand in this space.”

Nissan currently sells a version of the vehicle as the NV200 in numerous markets globally, including the United States and Canada. The Nissan NV200, a spacious-yet-compact commercial vehicle, is a previous winner of the International Van of the Year Award. Cost of ownership for the vehicle is among the lowest in the class due to low running costs, the high efficiency of the engines and drivetrains and a safety structure that helps to minimize crash damage.

The price of the Chevrolet City Express will be announced later.

More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com and www.InfinitiUSA.com, or visit the Americas media sites NissanNews.comand InfinitiNews.com.

More information on the company and its subsidiaries, including OnStar, a global leader in vehicle safety, security and information services, can be found at http://www.gm.com.

GM’s New Enterprise Data Center Transforms Global IT

The center, benchmarked against the best in the world, is the capstone of GM’s efforts to transform its IT operations to help the company work smarter and faster from the design studio to the factory to the showroom floor.

Located at its Technical Center in this Detroit suburb, the facility is the first of two Information Technology Operations and Command centers that bring in-house GM’s global IT infrastructure and consolidate a network of multiple sites. The two centers will integrate and streamline all aspects of product development, manufacturing, marketing, sales and OnStar applications to speed access to any GM employee anywhere in the world.

“Having a single nerve center for our global operations will get newer vehicle designs and technologies into our customers’ hands quicker and improve the bottom line,” said GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson. “IT is back home where it should be, and it further drives unnecessary complexity from our businesses while improving our operational efficiency and better supporting our business strategy.”

For example:

• Crash test simulations enabled by super-computing generate data that is analyzed and applied in vehicle design and development or refinement of safety technologies, saving $350,000 for each physical crash test avoided.
• An application that enables Global Product Development teams to make tooling payments to suppliers at key points throughout the development cycle helps suppliers prioritize the timing of critical parts and reduce overall engineering expenses by millions.
• Chevrolet tracked sales data of last year’s Impala in markets where car buyers traded in non-GM models, enabling a jump-start to sales of the new 2014 Impala in markets where it previously underperformed.

The enterprise data center and a companion data center at the Milford Proving Ground are part of a previously announced plan to transform GM’s global IT footprint from 23 facilities to two by 2015. Construction of the $100 million data center expansion in Milford will begin this summer.

GM IT is leveraging the Warren and Milford data centers to create a secure, private cloud that allows super-computer applications, servers and data storage to be efficiently and quickly accessed among multiple users.

“Our data center consolidation is just one of the initiatives driving the transformation of GM’s business,” said Randy Mott, GM vice president and CIO. “It’s part of an overarching strategy to transform not only information technology but also allow GM’s business operations to be more responsive to our customers, quicker to market and deliver on our objectives to shareholders.”

The 5,040-square-foot IT Operations and Command Center has 48 work stations and a 955-square-foot video wall composed of 28 configurable screens that monitor data use across operations around the clock.

GM’s New Enterprise Data Center Transforms Global IT

The modular design of the facility’s “white space,” where the technology resides, enables future expansion for handling the increasingly complex computer simulations needed by GM teams working on vehicle design, fuel economy, safety, and quality requirements. A server acquisition and installation process that used to take weeks now takes hours. Data mirroring, redundant feeds and shared storage capability minimize downtime and help ensure information security. The center’s ultra-efficient electrical system has robust backup generators to provide uninterrupted service.

DETROIT  — Mayor Dave Bing announced that he is not seeking re-election to a second term as Detroit mayor. Mayor Dave Bing also spoke at a press conference regarding Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr’s recently released Financial and Operating Plan AND

“Our City is in a dire financial situation” and “The City’s accumulated operating deficit is expected to reach nearly $380 million by the end of the fiscal year, which is next month,” Mayor Dave Bing said.

Mayor Dave Bing said in a surprise announcement Tuesday he will create a committee to explore other opportunities, including a possible run for Wayne County executive.

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 John Kerry ( US Foregin Minister) spoke to Swedish press on Tuesday  and explained his position as well as the importance of Sweden’s participation in the US-led Nato  mission in Afghanistan.

“We are very grateful for whatever Sweden decides to do. As we have said previously ‘in together, out together’. That is the philosophy that has guided us in respect to the mission.”

“Very shortly the president does intend to make public what his plans are for post-2014. But I can tell you that he is committed to continuing to support the mission and will keep supporting the Afghan military.”

“We have not invested in this, all of us together for all of these years, in order to invite failure,” Kerry said.

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