Gmc Sierra 2500 Sle on 2040-cars

Auto blog

UAW rejects GM contract proposal but makes a counter offer

The United Auto Workers union said a new comprehensive offer made by General Motors Co late Monday to end a two-week-old strike was not acceptable and said it had made a new counterproposal. UAW vice president Terry Dittes said in a letter to members "there are many important issues that remain unresolved." The union is awaiting GM's next proposal. He said GM's offer came up short on many issues.  Dittes said GM made a "comprehensive proposal" at 9:40 p.m. Monday. "This proposal that the company provided to us on day 15 of the strike did not satisfy your contract demands or needs. There were many areas that came up short like health care, wages, temporary employees, skilled trades and job security to name a few." Dittes is the union's vice president for GM relations and the UAW's lead negotiator in these contract talks. "We have responded today with a counterproposal and are awaiting GM's next proposal to the union," he wrote. "Regardless of what is publicized in print or social media, etc., there are still many important issues that remain unresolved." The strike, in its third week, has cost GM more than $1 billion, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Ryan Brickman. He said the cost per day in potential profit is $82 million. However, another analysis, by East Lansing-based consultant Anderson Economic Group, put the losses at $25 million a day. And the effects of the strike are expanding. GM said Tuesday the strike has created a parts shortage that forced the automaker to halt production at its pickup and transmission plants in Silao, Mexico, temporarily laying off 6,000 workers. Silao is where GM builds its highly profitable four-door crew cab Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. The strike has also forced GM to idle some Canadian workers, and many suppliers have been forced to halt operations. About 48,000 UAW members went on strike on Sept. 16 seeking higher pay, greater job security, a bigger share of the leading U.S. automaker’s profit and protection of their healthcare. 

GMC Hummer EV SUV to be fully revealed during Final Four in April

GMC is going to use another large platform to reveal the next chapter in its Hummer story. The GMC Hummer EV SUV will officially be revealed on Saturday, April 3, at 5 p.m. ET during the Final Four. That’s the SUV, not the truck, which has already been revealed. YouÂ’ll be allowed to place a reservation for the SUV at the same time as itÂ’s unveiled during the basketball games. There are no further details about the SUV, but weÂ’ll point out that a decent preview of what the SUV will look like is already out and can be seen here. ItÂ’s going to look a whole lot like the pickup, but will of course be fully boxed in, as an SUV is. WeÂ’ll know more about what GMC has in store in just under a monthÂ’s time.  In addition to the news about the impending SUV, GMC released video footage of the pickup version undergoing winter testing in MichiganÂ’s snowy Upper Peninsula. You can see the video below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. GM says that itÂ’s using this region to dial in and calibrate the truckÂ’s all-wheel-drive torque distribution, traction control system and stability control. Testing is conducted on snow, ice, and steep and split-friction grades. ThatÂ’s all GM is letting us in on for now, but at least we have the second version of the electric Hummer in our scopes now and will be eagerly anticipating its reveal. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Junkyard Gem: 1973 GMC Sierra Grande Camper Special

Starting in the 1973 model year, General Motors introduced the "Rounded Line" family of C/K-series Chevrolet and GMC trucks, and sales of the pickup versions continued all the way through 1987. Nice examples of these trucks can sell for large money, but the junkyard teaches us that not all collectible vehicles are worth rescuing and fixing up. Here's a reinforcement of that lesson, courtesy of a first-year GMC C2500 Camper Special with the high-zoot Sierra Grande trim level, found in a self-service yard just outside of Denver, Colorado. I'm no GM truck expert, but I know enough to stay clear of the battles over what to call this pickup. Let's just say it's a three-quarter-ton, rear-wheel-drive third-gen C-Series with really cool badges. Yes, I bought this badge for my garage wall, and it was totally worth the $4.23. GM came up with the Camper Special package during the late 1960s, when removable pickup campers became popular, and for 1973 it included heavy-duty springs and a wiring harness made to plug into the connectors on slide-in truck campers. It also included woodsy-looking badges, but someone pried the ones off this truck before I could buy them. This may well have been a one-owner truck, because it still had original warranty paperwork inside. Here we see that it was purchased new on August 2, 1973 (which happens to be the day that George Brett got his very first hit in the big leagues) by a resident of Compton, California. Yes, that Compton. The build tag tells us that this Camper Special was born at the Fremont Assembly plant in California, which became the GM-Toyota NUMMI venture in 1984 and is now the Tesla Factory. I think most 1973 C/K pickups sold new in Colorado would have come from Pontiac Assembly in Michigan. There was a time, not many years ago, when a genuine 454-cubic-inch (that's 7.4 liters to those of you sweating under the oppressive weight of the French Empire's Measurement System) big-block Chevrolet engine would have been yanked out and purchased within hours of hitting the rows of a yard like this. These days, engine-swappers can get more power with less weight from any number of donor vehicles. If this engine is the original 454, it was rated at 240 horsepower and 355 pound-feet (down from 270 hp in 1972 due to emissions-related changes). This truck had a three-speed automatic transmission, like most optioned-up Detroit pickups of its era.