GMC Denali XT: Aussie Attitude, Half the Fuel

GMC Denali XT: Aussie Attitude, Half the Fuel

Promising to use half the fuel of a comparable small pickup, the audacious GMC Denali XT Concept (looking not unlike the recent Toyota A-BAT Concept) features an E85-capable 4.9-liter V-8 with direct injection and cylinder-deactivating Active Fuel Management, along with a two-mode hybrid system that allows for all-electric drive at low speeds. The crew-cab Denali XT, which was designed and engineered by GM's Holden division in Australia, features a unibody structure and rear-wheel drive, with a 4.5 x 4.0-foot bed separated from the cab by a fold-down Midgate. Fair dinkum!

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(Via Autopia.)

GM bringing 1.4L turbo four to market next year

GM bringing 1.4L turbo four to market next year
click image for a gallery of the 2008 Saturn Astra

General Motors has announced that it's bringing out a new 1.4L turbocharged four-cylinder gasoline engine next year, which will help the automaker increase cars' fuel economy while presumably not sacrificing power. A normally-aspirated version of this motor is currently offered across the pond in the Opel Astra 5-door. Dubbed the 1.4 Twinport Ecotec, the Euro-spec NA version makes 90 horsepower at 5600 RPM, 92 lb-ft of torque at 4000 RPM, and gets 38.5 US miles per gallon in the combined cycle. With a snail attached, the little 1.4L should easily corral over one hundred horses. According to GM's Jim Queen, both the Chevy Cobalt and Saturn Astra (no surprise there) are candidates for the US-bound turbo variant, with midsizers not out of the question, either. The 1.4L will supplant the Aveo's 1.6L four as the smallest engine offered by GM in the US. Hey General, while you're at it, why not throw it in the Aveo, too? Between this and Ford's EcoBoost push, we expect to be seeing 'turbo' badges on a lot of cars in the years to come.

Gallery: 2008 Saturn Astra

(Via Autoblog.)

Micro to become macro? GM looking at competing with the Nano

Micro to become macro? GM looking at competing with the Nano
Click image for a gallery of the GM China Chevrolet Spark

If everyone else is going to build cars like Tata's headline-grabbing Nano, GM's going to pile on, too. The Lutz cites GM's part-ownership stake in Wuling Motors, a Chinese manufacturer of sub-$3,000 utility vehicles as a possible source of a GM Nano competitor. Lutz went on to say that one way to make an inexpensive car for the developing world is to repurpose a legacy platform that has become obsolete. The tooling and design will have long been paid off, and there'll be plenty of experience from the manufacturing side, too. This is essentially what GM China is already doing with the Daewoo Matiz/Chevrolet Spark. It might smack of dumping an old product that isn't safe or clean enough for mature markets, but is 'good enough' in other parts of the world. That said, it could also be a way to maximize the life of an investment while also providing developing markets with a better product than they'd have otherwise. Lutz also called into question whether the average Nano would sell for its rock-bottom $2,500 price of entry, anyway. Adding extra amenities will likely push the price of most Nanos higher, says Bob.

Gallery: GM China Chevrolet Spark

(Via Autoblog.)

GMC unibody pickup concept to debut in Chicago, not New York

GMC unibody pickup concept to debut in Chicago, not New York
click above to view more speculative renderings of GMC's unibody pickup

Bob Lutz may have been confused when he told GoAuto that GM would be unveiling a GMC unibody pickup concept based on the rear-wheel-drive Zeta platform at this year's New York Auto Show in late April. Sources close to Jalopnik claim that the vehicle will actually debut nearly a month and a half earlier at the 2008 Chicago Auto Show, press days for which begin on February 5th. The source also claims that the GMC unibody pickup will be entirely unibody, and not have a chassis grafted onto the back like the Holden Crewman, the vehicle to which this concept pickup has been most closely compared.

All that's fine and good, but ever since Lutz mentioned the car-based pickup, we've had a tough time imagining what it will look like. Lutz said it would have four doors, be low to the ground and feature very masculine GMC styling cues. The only other totally car-based pickup with which we're familiar is the Honda Ridgeline. Now we can't get the image of a lowered Ridgeline wearing GMC badges out of our head.

Fortunately, GM Inside News forum member MonaroSS has come to our rescue with these photochops of what the GMC's unibody pickup could look like. The images are based off of the Holden Sportwagon, but the roof has been raised, the rear end swapped out for a bed, bulging fenders added and the front profile has a definite GMC shape. We much prefer conjuring an image of this vehicle in our heads than the aforementioned mutant Ridgeline, at least until we meet the pickup in person at the Chicago Auto Show.

Check out more renderings of the GMC concept by MonaroSS in the gallery below.

Gallery: GMC unibody pickup concept - renderings

(Via Autoblog.)

New York '08 Preview: GMC to show four-door Holden ute

New York '08 Preview: GMC to show four-door Holden ute
click above for more high-res pics of the 2003 Holden Crewman

Australian outlet GoAuto is reporting that GM Car Czar Bob Lutz has confirmed that a four-door ute concept based on Holden's rear-wheel-drive Zeta platform but wearing a GMC badge will debut at the New York Auto Show in late March. From Bob's description, the vehicle is much like the Holden Crewman, which was a version of the Holden Ute with its wheelbase stretched to accommodate a second row of seats and two more doors (all-wheel-drive was also eventually an option).

The concept debuting in Detroit will be wearing very masculine GMC styling cues, however, and sounds as if it will be billed as a unibody pickup. This gives the GMC four-door ute a good shot at production since GM knows that demand for trucks in the future has to be satisfied with vehicles that are more fuel efficient than body-on-frame trucks. A recent spate of unibody truck concepts like the Toyota A-BAT Concept and Ford Explorer America Concept show that automakers are very interested in switching to lighter unibody platforms for vehicles that have traditionally been truck-based.

Lutz also points out the obvious upside that if the GMC four-door ute is popular with the public, it can be sold in Australia as Holden's replacement for the Crewman, which wasn't updated along with the rest of the Ute lineup last year.

Gallery: Holden Crewman

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(Via Autoblog.)