KARL Chevrolet HUMMER

CHEVROLET ANNOUCES CERTIFIED POWER RATINGS FOR THE NEW CHEVROLET CORVETTE ZR1: 638 HP FROM THE SUPERCHARGED LS9 V-8

PONTIAC, Mich. - When it was introduced at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit earlier this year, the 2009 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1’s power was estimated at 100 horsepower for each of its 6.2 liters of displacement. GM Powertrain has completed SAE certification of the ZR1’s supercharged LS9 V-8 and the results exceed the estimate: 638 horsepower (476 kW) and 604 lb.-ft. of torque (819 Nm). Read more »

CHICAGO — If consumers have to pay $4 per gallon of gas for an extended period of time, the vast majority of them say they will buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle, according to a new Cars.com survey regarding gas prices and their effect on car-buying decisions. The survey results showed that 85 percent of consumers said a prolonged period of $4 gasoline prices would prompt them to buy a more fuel-efficient car. Of that 85 percent, 28 percent said they would buy a more fuel-efficient car immediately and 57 percent said they would buy a more fuel-efficient car the next time they purchased a car, the survey also revealed. However, there is a threshold to how much consumers are willing to pay to get better gas mileage, the survey showed. According to officials, the survey asked consumers, all things being equal, how much more they would pay for a car that got 40 miles per gallon versus a car that got 25 miles per gallon. More than 60 percent said they would pay $2,000 or less and 21 percent said they wouldn’t pay any more for it, the results revealed. “Clearly, when it comes to fuel-efficiency, there is a contradiction between what consumers want and what they are willing to pay for,” [said Patrick Olsen, editor-in-chief at Cars.com.] “That puts a bigger burden on auto makers who claim that they will have to add thousands of dollars to the cost of each vehicle to meet the fuel-economy standards of 35 miles per gallon by 2020.”
Source:  Auto Remarketing

Are you going to buy a more fuel efficient vehicle? When? And how much are you willing to pay for better fuel economy? Leave us a comment!

The Chevy Volt has been called many things by many people. Some say it is the first great American hope for breaking foreign oil dependency and possibly the first really viable, mass-produced, all-electric car. Others say that it is vaporware, a car that will never be produced, and even if it is, it will be late to market and overpriced. Whatever your stance on the vehicle, the good folks at www.gm-volt.com are putting together the scraps of info that escape GM into a relevant and interesting website. Take a look at the info the have collected and make up your own mind. Do you think the Volt will be here at KARL Chevrolet HUMMER by 2010? Would you buy a car that can go 40 miles without burning any gas? How much would you be willing to pay if they bring to market the Volt with all the capabilities they are shooting for? Drop us a comment…

Excerpt from www.gm-volt.com:

WHAT IS THE VOLT?:

The Volt is radically different than any on the road today. Although agreement about definitions vary, GM doesn’t not consider it a hybrid. Current hybrids cars, such as the Prius, are defined as parallel hybrids, meaning they have a small electric motor that moves the car when it is going slowly, but when speed or acceleration increases, a gasoline motor kicks in. The Volt, however, is considered an extended-range electric vehicle (E-REV). It has a very powerful all-electric 161-horsepower 45KW (53 KW peak) motor that is the only engine to power the car at all times. This engine should be capable of moving the car from 0 to 60 in 8.5 seconds, and have a top speed of at least 100 mph. Read more »

GM may yet beat Toyota in plug-in cars, but its breakneck development pace is fraught with risk.

At a General Motors research laboratory in Warren, Mich. engineers are simulating real-life wear and tear on a pair of prototype batteries that lie at the heart of GM’s riskiest technological gamble ever. By repeatedly drawing energy out and pouring it back in every ten minutes, they want to know how much stress the batteries can handle. Dialing up the torture, they’ll soon move those tests to a “shaker table,” where they will subject the batteries to jarring vibrations, extreme temperatures and corrosive road salt, to name just a few hazards.

GM is working feverishly to prove that one or both of these lithium-ion batteries will be capable of powering a hybrid car for up to 40 miles without burning any gasoline, that they’re safe and that they can last ten years and 150,000 miles. Today’s hybrids use a wimpy battery by comparison, and they can’t be plugged in for recharging. By spring GM aims to road test the batteries in prototype versions of its forthcoming plug-in, the Chevrolet Volt. Read more »