2001 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Ext Cab Short Bed 4x4 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Chevy reveals new IndyCar aero package

The IndyCar Series is not one that demands its participating teams and automakers to design their own chassis as they do in Formula One, but for this season, the organizers have opened it up to allow for custom aero packages. What you're looking at here is the new look of the chassis to be fielded by teams running under Chevy power. Based on the Dallara DW12 chassis – introduced three years ago and named after the late Dan Wheldon – Chevy's new package is designed for road courses and short ovals, with the speedway configuration to be revealed later. The kit features new wings front and rear and more sculpted side pods. It's also got new wedges at the back to envelop the otherwise open wheels that are a hallmark of Indy racing, a more streamlined engine cover and bigger rear bumper pods. The new package will debut at the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg that will kick off this year's championship in Florida on March 29, followed by the road-course grands prix in Louisiana, Long Beach, Alabama and Indianapolis before the new package needs to be ready for the Indy 500 late in May. Half of the teams on the starting grid this season will be running under Chevy power and are expected to use this new aero kit, with the remaining Honda teams slated to run a different package of their own. Chevrolet Debuts All-New 2015 IndyCar Aero Package Chevy-developed bodywork delivers improved aerodynamics 2015-02-17 INDIANAPOLIS – Chevrolet-powered racecars in the 2015 Verizon IndyCar Series will feature Chevrolet-developed aero packages. Chevrolet introduced the road course/short oval body design today at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It is distinguished from the previous racecar with new front wing elements, sculpted side pods and a new rear wing. A speedway configuration for the aero kit, designed for high-speed ovals, will be introduced ahead of its competitive debut at Indianapolis in May. "This is an important milestone in Chevrolet's involvement in IndyCar racing," said Jim Campbell, General Motors U.S. vice president of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports. "We focused on developing an aerodynamic package that delivers an balanced combination of downforce and drag, along with integrated engine performance. It's a total performance package." The new Chevy road course aero configuration delivers greater aerodynamic performance than the previous design.

Chevrolet Malibu could last until 2024 before joining the dodo

Automotive News pieced together all available intel on the Chevrolet and GMC lineups, trying to ascertain how much life each model might have left. Concerning the Chevrolet Malibu, the answer is not too much, and the historic nameplate's final years don't look like the glory kind. After a major overhaul in 2016 boosted sales for the ninth-generation sedan to 227,881 units, the 2018 sales fell to 144,542, and this year's are down almost 15% through the end of June. The Malibu is one of two Chevrolet sedans still breathing - the other being the Impala for now - but only for about five more years. AN says there'll likely be a refresh in 2022, followed by a visit from the Reaper in 2024. After that, it could be "indirectly replaced" by an electric vehicle, one of the 23 EVs that GM is working on for 2023.     The Impala will meet the ax earlier despite a recent stay of execution. Production is still set to close in January 2020. In the entire GM stable, Cadillac might soon be the only marque with sedans. The Buick LaCrosse has a date with death, and Groupe PSA won't supply Opels-as-Regals forever.  The Sonic hatchback should say goodbye at the end of 2020, a year before the seemingly eternal Spark is thought to die. Two years after that, according to one report, the Camaro will go back into cold storage, perhaps forever, and AN says an "expected redesign of the car in 2021 was reportedly canceled." Finally, let's give one final shout-out to the Chevrolet Cruze, a global nameplate, which in the United States alone outsells the Malibu, outsold the Camaro by a factor of three last year, and absolutely trounces the Impala, Sonic, and Spark. Even that couldn't get a stay of execution. In more uplifting news, everything's happening on the crossover and truck side in the next few years. The Chevy Bolt is due for a refresh next year, even though it has "become more important for self-driving ride-hailing fleets that GM Cruise plans to operate than for consumers." In 2021, the Bolt-based crossover should bow, first in China, then here. It's said to look like "a mix of the Bolt and Trax" in spy shots. Still waiting for a green light: a possible subcompact GMC crossover called Granite that might make it to market by 2023. The full-sized SUV triplets Tahoe, Suburban, and Yukon could show their new faces in 2020. The Silverado might get an updated interior in 2020 or 2021, while the Colorado and Canyon mid-sized pickups won't get attention until perhaps 2023.

GM might lose 90-year U.S. sales crown over chip shortage

Automotive News editor Nick Bunkley tweeted on October 1 that according to AutoNews data, General Motors "has been the largest seller of vehicles in the U.S. every year since passing Ford in 1931." With automakers having turned in light car and truck sales data for the first three quarters of 2021, GM's 90-year-run might not reach 91. According to AN figures, Toyota was 80,401 vehicles ahead when the October workday started. Worse, GM is so far behind its historic pace that it might only sell enough light vehicles in the U.S. to match its numbers from 1958.  Meanwhile, the New York Times put a few more salient numbers to the pain GM and Toyota are enduring alongside the the rest of the industry. GM sold 33% fewer cars in Q3 2021 than it did in Q3 2019 during the dark days of the pandemic, 446,997 units this year as opposed to 665,192 last year. GM's Q3 2020 was only down 13% on Q3 2019. Over at Toyota, the bottom line showed a 1% gain in Q3 2021 compared to 2020, with 566,005 units moved off dealer lots. The finer numbers show two steps forward and one step back, though; Toyota's September sales were down 22% compared to last year.  GM remains optimistic about what's ahead, GM's president of North American operations telling the NYT, "We look forward to a more stable operating environment through the fall." We'd like to see that happen, but we don't know how it happens. The chip shortage said to have been the inciting incident for the current woes isn't over, and not only can no one agree when it will be over, the automakers, chip producers, and U.S. government still can't get on the same page about who needs what and when. Looking away from that for a second shows articles about "No End In Sight" for supply chain disruptions in early September, before China had to start working through power supply constraints, global supply chain workers started warning of a "system collapse," and roughly 500,000 containers sat waiting to be unloaded at Southern California ports — a record number seemingly broken every week. And back to chips, we're told just a few days ago the chip shortage is "worse than we thought."   For now, the NYT wrote that GM dealer inventory is down 40% from June to roughly 129,000 vehicles, and down 84% from the days when dealers would cumulatively keep about 800,000 light vehicles in stock. However, GM just announced it would have almost all of its U.S. facilities back online next week, although some would run at partial capacity.