What people really want to drive:
GM to boost Equinox, Terrain production at Cami plant
…
Cami Automotive Inc., already running almost flat out at three shifts a day and a Saturday overtime shift, will speed up its assembly line to squeeze out 50 more hot-selling Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain models a day, on top of the approximately 1,100 assembled now, industry sources familiar with GM’s plans said.
…it starts with the redesigned version of the Equinox, a mid-sized crossover utility vehicle. It’s now the fourth-best selling vehicle in the GM lineup. As of the end of August, its sales were up 48 per cent, second only to the Terrain’s 61-per-cent surge among GM vehicles.
“I can’t hardly keep them in stock,” Jonathan Wiest, sales manager at Davis-Moore Chevrolet in Wichita, Kan., said of the Equinox. It is one of the top three performers at his dealership, alongside the larger Traverse crossover and the Silverado pickup…
The plant is in Ingersoll, Ontario; I’d like to hear Premier Dalton “‘Tricity” McGuinty’s comments.
Predate: Consumer Reports was not impressed by the Chevy Volt–this in particular will be of interest to many Canadians and northerly Americans:
…Our engineers complained that the air from the heater was tepid, leaving them uncomfortably cold. The electric seat heaters help, but not enough. When the temperature dips below 26 degrees [F], the engine will turn on even during the electric portion of a trip to produce more heat…
You mean you can’t mandate away the desires and wants of the market? SHOCKING, I wonder if anyone ever thought of this before, oh right Adam Smith 235 years ago.
Don’t rely on surveys and public opinion polls about environmentalism, just look at habits within the free(ish) market. If people cared about the environment more than they cared about getting the costco run done in a single trip, they’d buy smaller cars.
To the Volt: duh. You mean a $60k Malibu designed for useful idiots in California isn’t a practical car for normal people? Again SHOCKED.
Junk. Maybe the leftwing retards can retro fit them with wood stoves…….
Volt sales almost doubled in August . . . to 300 units.
Now that is success in Obamaland.
They need to have an optional gas-fired heater like the old VWs used to have.
Emissions from those were worse than a chinese coal-fired power station. when they worked that is, when they didn’t they as often as not burned the car to the ground (but at least you were warm…
Gord Tulk
Yeah I recall those Espar heaters….had one in a Deutz repowered heavy truck….it constantly burned out it’s glow plug….no wonder the truck was cheap…
It was an excellant grain truck…powerful, good mileage but unpleasant in late fall corn harvest…especially after the sun set…a tilt cab….it felt like no cab at all…
First-hand knowledge here: the factory-equipped gas heaters in VWs used a glow plug, and the catalytic element rapidly got poisoned by the lead in the gas at the time. With today’s unleaded fuel, those heaters might work reliably, since after all, unleaded was foisted upon us in order that catalytic converters would not clog up.
Some of the older VWs in the six-volt era used gas heaters made in the U.S.A. by Hupp, and those units used a coil and spark plug for ignition, with an interrupter on the fan motor shaft to trigger the coil. The spark plug had great long centre electrode to reach near the bottom of the firebox where gasoline would pool. These heaters were quite reliable, and HOT.
The worst gas heaters in the VW record were those gas-fired heat boosters that sat atop the transaxle and were incorporated into the ducting for the engine heater. Vastly over-complicated, and could not be used with the engine not running. Also placed in an area where getting at it for service was decidedly difficult.
Sorry RFB but lefties would never endorse the use of wood burning stoves, after all they produce global warming gases.
I’m one of the thousands who bought an Equinox last year and it has proven ideal for my needs. Driving a small electric car on the prairies in winter could be defined as suicidal.
The Equinox is available with a 4 cylinder that gets over 30 MPG. Not too shabby for a good sized SUV. It needs a turbo charged version, though.