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GM invests $24 million to build more crew cab trucks in Fort Wayne

The full-size pickup truck arms race continues unabated here in the United States as Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler battle back and forth for sales supremacy. The Ford F-Series of trucks continues to lead the field in sales (214,611 units sold through the first quarter of 2019), but the race for second place has been a lot more interesting to watch. That's because Ram, long a distant third in truck sales, eked its way past Chevrolet late in 2018 and has managed to hold the position so far in 2019. Don't take this to mean that sales of GM's trucks have been poor across the board. In fact, the automaker reports that sales of its four-door crew cab pickups are up 20 percent in 2019 over the same period a year ago. And that's what makes GM's announcement today so interesting. The automaker is investing $24 million into its assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana to build more Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks, and the focus will continue to be on crew cab models. "We are building Chevrolet and GMC crew cab pickups at record volume and mix levels to meet customer demand and the $24 million investment will allow us to build even more," said GM chief Mary Barra in a statement. "Crew cab sales have been very strong, and we are expanding customer choice with new models, more cab choices and innovative new powertrains." It's worth noting that, if crew cab sales are up 20% this year, but overall sales are down (over 15% for Silverado and around 2% for GMC), that means it's the cheaper regular cab and double cab models that are lagging. At the same time, sales of the midsize Chevy Colorado have surged 16%. And finally, if you combine sales of the Silverado and Sierra into one bucket, GM still has a comfortable lead over Ram overall. If there's a takeaway here, it's that trucks of all shapes and sizes have been, currently are and will surely remain hot in America, and automakers will continue to invest money into making sure they are able to satiate consumer demand.

GM will compensate SUV owners for fuel-economy error [UPDATE]

General Motors will offer debit cards to owners of some of its crossover SUVs after it was discovered that GM overstated the vehicles' fuel economy on window stickers, Automotive News says. GM will offer reimbursements to about 135,000 customers that are worth between $450 and $1,500 each. Some owners will also have the option of being provided with an extended warranty free of charge instead of the debit card. GM overstated fuel economy on about 170,000 vehicles by one to two miles per gallon because of what it has said was an inadvertent error stemming from not factoring the impact of emissions-related hardware into the EPA window-sticker figures. As a result, GM put a temporary stop-sale on the Chevy Traverse, GMC Acadia, and Buick Enclave before switching out the window stickers on about 60,000 vehicles. Automotive News says letters and debit cards will be sent out next week, and Reuters is estimating that the reimbursement program will cost GM about $100 million. With automakers ranging from Hyundai/Kia to Ford to, more recently, Volkswagen and Mitsubishi being ensnared by emissions or fuel-economy-rating issues, GM is working quickly to address the problem. For those curious, the reimbursement totals, factoring in current gas prices, the SUVs' combined fuel economy, and typical driving of about 12,000 miles a year, will provide between three and 12 months worth of free gas for those drivers (the models get either 17 or 18 miles per gallon combined, depending on front- or four-wheel-drive configuration). While about 135,000 customers will be reimbursed, Automotive News says the fleet buyers of about 35,000 crossovers haven't been addressed yet. UPDATE: GM spokesman James Cain, in an e-mail to Autoblog on Sunday, confirmed that the company will reimburse about 135,000 customers. Purchase customers will be given the option of a pre-paid debit card or a 48-month/60,000-mile protection plan, while lease customers will be offered the pre-paid debit cards. Most of the cards will have a value of between $450 and $900 on them. "We want all of our customers to have a great ownership experience, so we designed this reimbursement program to provide full and fair compensation in a simple, flexible, and timely manner," he wrote.

2022 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali interior spied with dramatic redesign

The 2022 GMC Sierra’s interior overhaul is coming into better view with these new spy shots revealing a totally new dash.  GMC teased out a few changes when it announced Super Cruise was coming to the 2022 Sierra, but only so much was visible in the tightly cropped photo. These spy shots tell a fuller story about whatÂ’s going on inside the new GMC pickup. WeÂ’re instantly drawn to the new center stack that doesnÂ’t even remotely look like the truckÂ’s current design. ThereÂ’s a new widescreen infotainment system integrated nicely into the dash just below new thin air vents. It appears to be running a version of Android Automotive. The Google Assistant bubble is visible in the top left corner, and a Google sign-in screen is showing on the far right. GMC is obviously still prioritizing hard buttons and knobs for all vital controls. A big, knurled-looking volume knob is positioned to the left of the screen. And the climate control layout is all buttons and knobs with glossy black and chrome accents. This, along with the angled surfaces, classes it up a bit versus the current sea of flat black center stack buttons. Even the push button start appears dressed up in chrome. One other large change to the center console area is the introduction of a gear lever replacing the column-mounted shifter. The new shifter looks slathered in leather, glossy plastic and chrome accents. ThereÂ’s a part of us that will miss the chunky truck-like operation of the column-mounted shifter, but this new design is certainly more befitting of a luxury pickup. And from what we can tell, this Sierra is the luxury-oriented Denali trim. Its exterior features give it away with the ostentatious grille treatment and chrome trim scattered about. We still donÂ’t know which, if any, of these features we see here will be exclusive to the Denali, but the digital instrument cluster seems like a given but will likely be available further down the trim tree. This replaces the truckÂ’s current, tired-looking gauges with a vibrant and neatly-integrated screen. Super Cruise, as it is throughout the lineup of GM cars that offer it, also looks optional — this Denali does not have the fancy light-up steering wheel or controls for it. ItÂ’s worth noting that this DenaliÂ’s interior could be different than the rest of the Sierra lineup. GM already did that with the redesigned Yukon, giving its top trim model a different look than the rest of the trims.