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United States drivers buying fewer Mexican-made cars

Crossovers and pickup trucks are not only growing in market share, they're also more profitable than cars. A crossover on the same platform as a sedan retails for thousands more, despite similar components. It's one of the reasons we've seen automakers rapidly shifting production of their sedans and hatchbacks to Mexico, where cheap labor preserves the thin profit margins on these inexpensive vehicles. But as the market continues to shift in the United States, Mexico is getting burned by its lack of product diversity. The country's auto exports, which are heavy on cars, suffered a 16-percent drop last month, Automotive News reports. In total, year-over-year exports fell from 233,515 to 197,020 last month, while year-to-date exports are down by 7.4 percent, from 922,029 to 854,118. The number one culprit? America – which usually accounts for 75 percent of Mexico's exports – and its appetite for crossovers and pickup trucks bolstered by cheap gas prices. While Mexico does build some light truck models – AN specifically calls out the Ram 2500, Honda HR-V, GMC Sierra, and Toyota Tacoma as export leaders – the vast majority of vehicles rolling out of its factories are sedans and hatchbacks. In fact, the three biggest drops in Mexican exports came from companies whose south of the border factories only build cars – Ford (Fusion/Lincoln MKZ and Fiesta), Mazda (Mazda3), and Volkswagen (Golf and Jetta). Mexican Automotive Industry Association President Eduardo Solis told AN the export shortfall will likely be sorted out sooner rather than later, thanks to a pair of new factories – a Kia car factory and an Audi SUV plant – that are coming online by year's end. The two facilities will add around 100,000 vehicles to the country's export totals, which Solis said should leave the industry on the verge of breaking another export record in 2016. But how sustainable will these record-breaking years be? Slapping an "Hecho en Mexico" sticker on a new German SUV won't be enough to change the fact that Mexico's product mix is tilted too heavily towards body styles that are not growing in volume. Mexico's record-breaking export years probably aren't at an end, but we'd argue they're certainly under threat. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Omar Torres / AFP / Getty Images Plants/Manufacturing Ford GMC Honda Mazda RAM Volkswagen Truck Crossover SUV Mexico

Barrett-Jackson is auctioning the first 2022 GMC Hummer EV for charity

Unveiled in late 2020, the GMC Hummer EV Edition 1 was so popular that enthusiasts scooped up the entire production run in merely 10 minutes. If you missed your chance to reserve one, you're in luck if your pockets are deep enough. Auction house Barrett-Jackson will sell the first example off the production line for a great cause. VIN 001 will be up for grabs during a sale that starts in Scottsdale, Arizona, on March 20. Hummer production hasn't started yet, so we don't know precisely what the truck will look like and it won't physically cross the auction block. Barrett-Jackson did not provide a pre-auction estimate, but it pointed out that 100% of the proceeds from the sale will be donated to a charity called Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation that helps wounded first responders and veterans across America. Charity auctions normally bring big dollars, so a sold-out flagship variant of a highly-anticipated model whose base price is pegged at $112,595 could sell for a seven-digit sum. Edition 1 deliveries will start in the fall of 2021, meaning the winning bidder will need to wait a few months before exploring the great outdoors in the 1,000-horsepower electric truck. More affordable trim levels are in the pipeline, but they're not exactly around the corner. GMC will expand the range by launching three trim levels called EV2, EV2X, and EV3X, respectively. Equipped with three electric motors, the EV3X will land in the fall of 2022 with a $99,995 base price. Pricing for the two-motor EV2X due out in the spring of 2023 starts at $89,995, while the entry-level EV2 will arrive a year later priced at $79,995. None of these figures include available incentives. Looking ahead, the Hummer EV will spawn an SUV that will make its official debut online in February 2021. We don't know when it will reach showrooms yet, but we're not expecting to see it until 2022 at the earliest.  Barrett-Jackson's Scottsdale sale includes sports cars from every era, ranging from a custom 1928 Ford Model A to a 2021 Honda Civic Type R. Ram's first 1500 TRX is on the roster, too, and it will also be sold for charity. Another stand-out car from the catalog is the first production version of the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Convertible. Finished in black with a black and red leather interior, it's powered by a mid-mounted, 6.2-liter V8 engine rated at 495 horsepower, and it's equipped with the 3LT and Z51 packages plus the Performance Data Recorder, among other features.

GM recalling 117,000 sedans, crossovers, SUVs, pickups and vans

General Motors has issued a stop-sale to dealers and has notified the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration of its intention to recall 117,000 vehicles in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Of those vehicles, only 4,500 are at dealerships.
The affected vehicles include the Cadillac CTS and Chevrolet Impala sedans, fullsize SUVs (Cadillac Escalade, Chevy Tahoe and Suburban and GMC Yukon and Yukon XL), Lambda-platform crossovers (Chevy Traverse, Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia), heavy-duty pickups (Chevy Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD) and fullsize vans (Chevy Express and GMC Savana). The sedans and body-on-frame SUVs include model years 2013 and 2014, while the CUVs, heavy-duty pickups and vans are limited to MY2014.
GM confirmed the recall to Autoblog via an emailed statement (which we've included below). According to the statement, the issue at hand in what is the company's 69th recall of 2014 covers the chassis-control module. Automotive News is reporting that a problem in the chassis-control system could cause a short in the module, which could cause the engine to stall or fail to start. The fault could also affect the trailer-brake control, provided it's equipped.