2002 Buick Lesabre Custom Sedan 4-door 3.8l on 2040-cars

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GM announces net 220 job increase as Trump visits Michigan

GM announced today that about 900 jobs would be added (or, importantly, retained) ahead of President Trump's arrival in Michigan, where he is expected to discuss his plan to roll back fuel economy standards. The timing of the announcement is almost certainly not coincidental, as appending it to a Trump visit gives it a higher profile and dovetails with the President's jobs agenda. It's less likely the decision itself was made for those reasons, but the free PR boost is a nice bonus. As for those 900 jobs themselves, they aren't all new jobs. The only net gain is approximately 220 jobs at the Romulus Powertrain Plant, which produces the 10-speed automatic transmission that's proliferating through the company's lineup. The 180 jobs at Flint Assembly and 500 jobs at Lansing Delta Township are retained jobs – that is to say, spots the company found for workers who would otherwise have been laid off. By the way, the Flint jobs will help with production of heavy-duty pickups, and the Lansing jobs are to produce the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave. Finding jobs for manufacturing workers in the auto sector, whether new or retained, is admirable. No matter how GM couches it, the company has created or retained a total of 7,000 jobs this year, and its total reinvestment in US production is around $1 billion. But these decisions are business ones, not political ones – timing the announcements to make them seem inspired by economic policy, or the political situation, is simply smart PR. Related Video: Image Credit: Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Celebrities Government/Legal Buick Cadillac Chevrolet GMC

What's in a trademark? Sometimes, the next iconic car name

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is a treasure trove for auto enthusiasts, especially those who double as conspiracy theorists.
Why has Toyota applied to trademark "Supra," the name of one of its legendary sports cars, even though it hasn't sold one in the United States in 16 years? Why would General Motors continue to register "Chevelle" long after one of the most famous American muscle cars hit the end of the road? And what could Chrysler possibly do with the rights to "313," the area code for Detroit?

Junkyard Gem: 1985 Buick Somerset Regal Limited

The Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac divisions of The General's mighty army got serious about their attempts to compete with futuristic and stylish German and Japanese coupes during the second half of the 1980s, with cars such as the Cadillac Allante, Oldsmobile Toronado Trofeo, and Buick Reatta. They featured edgy styling, wild digital dashes, and other interesting gadgetry. Before them, however, came the Buick Somerset. Built for the 1985 through 1987 model years, only the '85s were badged as Somerset Regals. Here's one of those ultra-rare cars, spotted in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service wrecking yard. This badging confused many Buick shoppers at the time, because the 1985 Regal was a "traditional" midsize rear-wheel-drive car, based on the increasingly antiquated G-Body platform, and the Somerset Regal was an N-Body front-wheel-drive compact. For 1985 and 1986, the car became the Buick Somerset. The interior is your standard Whorehouse Red velour, a theme used by everybody from Nissan to Chrysler during the 1985-1995 period. This cloth looks pretty nice for a car from sunny California. Digital dashes became very trendy during this period, with Mitsubishi, Subaru, Nissan, and even Toyota getting into the act during the first part of the decade, and everyone else jumping on the bandwagon a bit later. The radio face went into this weird pod perched over the HVAC controls, which looked like something from the Mars Base and made aftermarket audio-system installation nearly impossible. The factory cassette deck, if desired, had to go elsewhere in the console. The base engine in the Somerset Regal was the decidedly un-European Iron Duke four-cylinder with 92 horsepower, but this car has the optional 120-horse 3.0-liter V6. In theory, a 5-speed manual transmission was available, but I'm guessing that the quantity of so-equipped Somerset Regals was numbered in the high dozens. There's plenty of hard red plastic and fake wood inside, of course. Base price on a V6 Somerset Regal Limited came to $10,026 (about $24,000 in 2018 dollars). Meanwhile, a Pontiac Grand Am LE with the 3.0 V6 was nearly the same car and listed at $8,970. If you wanted even crazier electronics and an interior that looked like something out of a jet fighter, the 1985 Subaru XT GL had a $9,899 price tag. Give me savvy. Give me cool. Give me a car that breaks all the rules. Give me the look. Give me the feel. Give me the magic. Give me the wheel.