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GM's Oshawa plant may close after Camaro production moves

Most of the time, when vehicle production is moved from one assembly plant to another, it spells bad news for the former. While General Motors won't go so far as to say its Oshawa, Ontario factory, which is losing the Chevrolet Camaro to the Lansing Grand River plant, is in trouble, analysts seem to think the factory's days are numbered. Forecasts for the facility are far from positive. The loss of the Camaro this year, combined with GM's targeted shutdown of a single-shift assembly line responsible for the fleet-only Chevy Impala Limited and the Equinox crossover is a bad enough omen. But with AutoForecast Solutions CEO Joe McCabe telling The Detroit News that the plant's other two products, the Cadillac XTS and Buick Regal, aren't likely to stick around beyond 2017, things look decidedly grim at Oshawa. "There is a fairly strong chance that the plant could close," Jeff Schuster, senior VP of forecasting for LMC Automotive, told The Detroit News. That doesn't mean that Unifor, Canada's auto union, and the Canadian government are going to let the factory die without a fight. And with the latter chipping in $10 billion as part of GM's 2009 bailout, you might think it has a degree of leverage in the situation. A meeting between the government and the Detroit Three at the 2015 North American International Auto Show revealed that Oshawa is already a topic of conversation. "We made it very clear that we would like to see an indication on the future of Oshawa sooner, in particular because the timing is very challenging for our supply chain to be able to adjust to potentially future orders or changes, but also to know that there are going to be future opportunities at Oshawa," Ontario's Minister of Economic, Development, Employment and Infrastructure Brad Duguid told The Detroit News. "Bottom line: It's time they made a longer-term commitment here," Unifor President Jerry Dias said, echoing Duguid's statements. It's unclear if this sort of strong talk will be enough to save 3,300-plus employees, although based on the analysts' forecasts, we doubt it.

Basic configurator for 2021 Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon slips online

TFLnow discovered basic configurators for the 2021 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon are already online at GM's site for employee discounts. These aren't the fully-featured whiz-bang configurators that will show on the retail websites soon, but they include a bunch of the relevant info a shopper would be looking for. After trim changes detailed earlier this year, the 2021 Colorado offers the most choice, even with the two-door base model gone. Cutting the entry-level Colorado also means the entry-level price has gone up by $3,900; the 2020 Colorado could be had for $22,495, but the 2021 model starts at $26,395 after the $1,195 destination charge. That gets you the extended cab with a standard bed in two-wheel drive. The 2WD crew cab with a short bed starts at $28,295, and the 2WD crew cab with a standard bed starts at $30,595. At the top end, the ZR2 model runs $44,395, which is $200 more than the 2020 version. The color palette isn't complete, but the options page shows a number of choices for packages. The Redline Special Edition Package goes up $10 to $2,690, the Tonneau and Step Package increase $100 to $1,195, a new Chrome Package puts shiny stuff in places like the door handles and steps for $300, while the Black Bowtie Emblem Package drops $80 to $140. The one-inch front leveling kit, which was thought to cost $150 based on early order information GM Authority had seen, is here listed for $450 and available on the Colorado but not the Canyon.  The Canyon makes matters a tad simpler by having many options locked in depending on which one starts with — 2WD Elevation Standard starting at $27,595, 2WD Elevation for $31,195, 4WD AT4 with a cloth interior for $39,395 or AT4 with leather for $41,195, the least expensive Denali starting at $42,095 for a crew cab short box with 2WD. The Elevation includes items like the Convenience Package that are options on the base model, and also offers a $1,400 High Elevation Package conferring heated and power black leather seats, plus a heated steering wheel, that can't be optioned on the Elevation Standard. The pinnacle is the crew cab with a standard bed in Denali 4WD trim for $45,895. Colors and many of the final options and accessories, such as the AT4 Off-Road Performance Edition Package we've heard about, are also missing here, but there's heaps to play around with to get an idea of what you'll be in for if you're considering a 2021 Canyon. Related Video:    

Coronavirus shakes up America's truck market: GM outselling Ford and Ram

FCA, Ford and General Motors joined the rest of the U.S. auto industry in taking heavy volume hits due to coronavirus-related shortages of both cars and customers. The saying goes that a rising tide lifts all boats; it stands to reason, then, that a falling one would have the opposite effect.  However, as we learned Thursday, the automotive market can behave in unpredictable ways. While the F-Series remained the best-selling nameplate in Q1, GM's full-size trucks are now outselling Ford's again for the first time in years, and with this upward thrust from the General, FCA's Ram was unceremoniously booted out of a hard-earned second place.  While late-March sales declines hit just about every major automaker in one way or another, the model-by-model results weren't nearly so uniform. And because the market tends to be a zero-sum game, for every winner, there generally has to be a loser.  In this case, that winner was GM, and its rise had to come at the expense of another automaker, in this case, Ford. F-Series sales dropped 13.1 percent in the first quarter of 2020, while sales of GM's full-sized Silverado and Sierra surged nearly 28% in the same period. FCA's Ram lineup managed a steady-as-she-goes 7% increase. All-in, GM finished the quarter with 197,743 full-size trucks sold to Ford's 186,562. Here's the full breakdown: Ford F-Series: 186,562  Chevrolet Silverado*: 144,734 Ram P/U: 128,805 GMC Sierra: 53,009 *includes 1,036 Medium Duty sales Things are a but murkier in the midsize segment, where the Chevy Colorado slipped 36% to just 21,430 units sold — just a few hundred better than the slow-selling Ford Ranger's Q1 numbers. The GMC Canyon experienced an almost identical slide, finishing the quarter with just 4,483 units sold. For perspective, Jeep sold more than 15,000 Gladiators and Toyota's midsize Tacoma slipped less than 8%, finishing the quarter with nearly 54,000 sales.  We suspect this discrepancy in full- and mid-size truck sales comes from shifting incentives. Ford, GM and FCA would like to keep selling bigger trucks because there's far more profit margin built into their list prices. Even with tens of thousands of dollars in manufacturer money on the hood, big trucks still make money.  Since these automakers report quarterly, we won't get another good look at these numbers until July, but if you thought that 2019 represented the new normal for U.S. auto sales, well, think again.