Tag Archives: GM

Ford, GM Earnings Reports Will Tell the Chip Shortage Tale

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GM

Ford and General Motors are both slated to show their third-quarter earnings reports on Thursday.

Reports suggest that despite the negative impacts of the global semiconductor chip shortage, there may be positives for the companies, as well.

Both companies have, of course, had to halt production at times to deal with the chip shortage. And supplies, materials, and shipping have higher costs now, which could also prove problematic for profit margins.

On the other hand, strong demand for profitable trucks and SUVs has been more than helpful.

According to Automotive News, this means investors will be wondering how both companies can navigate a turbulent supply chain.

The annual sales rate for new cars and trucks dropped to 12 million in September, thanks to the chip shortage, and forecasters are cutting their forecasts for 2022 thanks to the shortage and general supply-chain disruption. Much depends on if the chip shortage ends in 2022 or 2023.

Wells Fargo is expecting the two companies will tell investors to focus more on the lower end of their forecasts for the year.

That’s not shocking — the industry is facing a lot of headwinds right now, and Ford and GM aren’t exempt.

[Image: GM]

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Buy/Drive/Burn: Economical American Compacts From 1982

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Our recent Rare Rides coverage of the Chevrolet Citation made one thing very clear: We need more Citation content. Today’s 1982 Buy/Drive/Burn lineup was suggested by commenter eng_alvarado90, who would like to see all of you struggle. Citation, Aries, Escort, all in their most utilitarian formats. Let’s go.

Chevrolet Citation

The Citation is in its third model year for 1982, and sales have already fallen far from their initial peak of 800,000. The bloom is off this rose, but GM is still on track for six-digit sales this year. Sticking firmly to economy and utility, today’s Citation is a five-door hatchback equipped with the 2.5-liter Iron Duke inline-four and paired to a four-speed manual. Throttle-body injection is new this year and means 90 horses are underfoot. There’s also a new horizontal slats grille.

Dodge Aries K

The Dodge Aries is still new and is in its second model year for 1982. Chrysler started out strong last year with over 300,000 sales, and will likely reach that number again in ’82. Today’s Aries is the four-door wagon, as Chrysler does not offer a hatchback K-car at this level. Underhood is the base 2.2-liter Chrysler inline-four, which uses a two-barrel carb. Eighty-four horses are at the driver’s command, shifted through a four-speed manual. New this year: rear windows roll down on sedans and wagons, replacing the fixed glass.

Ford Escort

Ford’s Escort is also in its second model year for 1982. The American market Escort was supposed to be very similar to the European one for parts sharing purposes. However the respective design teams each headed their own direction, and the two cars share only an engine and transmission. Today’s five-door Escort hatchback is new for ’82, along with a new grille and presence of the familiar Ford Blue Oval. The base 1.6-liter CVH engine gets a high output version this year, which increases power by about 10 horses, to 80. Power is delivered to the front via a four-speed Ford MTX manual.

Economy and cheap driving are available to you, and they’ll probably hold up for at least three years before falling apart. Which gets the Buy?

[Images: GM, Chrysler, Ford]

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Abandoned History: Chrysler’s Liberty Project, to Saturn or Not to Saturn

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<img data-attachment-id=”1772492″ data-permalink=”https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2021/08/abandoned-history-chryslers-liberty-project-to-saturn-or-not-to-saturn/iacocca-k-car-1024×532/” data-orig-file=”http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/abandoned-history-chryslers-liberty-project-to-saturn-or-not-to-saturn-5.jpg” data-orig-size=”1024,532″ data-comments-opened=”1″ data-image-meta=”{“aperture”:”0″,”credit”:””,”camera”:””,”caption”:””,”created_timestamp”:”0″,”copyright”:””,”focal_length”:”0″,”iso”:”0″,”shutter_speed”:”0″,”title”:””,”orientation”:”0″}” data-image-title=”Iacocca-K-Car-1024×532″ data-image-description=”

Chrysler

” data-medium-file=”http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/abandoned-history-chryslers-liberty-project-to-saturn-or-not-to-saturn-2.jpg” data-large-file=”http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/abandoned-history-chryslers-liberty-project-to-saturn-or-not-to-saturn.jpg” class=”aligncenter wp-image-1772492 size-large” src=”http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/abandoned-history-chryslers-liberty-project-to-saturn-or-not-to-saturn.jpg” alt width=”610″ height=”317″ srcset=”http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/abandoned-history-chryslers-liberty-project-to-saturn-or-not-to-saturn.jpg 610w, http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/abandoned-history-chryslers-liberty-project-to-saturn-or-not-to-saturn-1.jpg 75w, http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/abandoned-history-chryslers-liberty-project-to-saturn-or-not-to-saturn-2.jpg 450w, http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/abandoned-history-chryslers-liberty-project-to-saturn-or-not-to-saturn-3.jpg 768w, http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/abandoned-history-chryslers-liberty-project-to-saturn-or-not-to-saturn-4.jpg 120w, http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/abandoned-history-chryslers-liberty-project-to-saturn-or-not-to-saturn-5.jpg 1024w” sizes=”(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px”>In Part V of the Rare Rides series on the Eagle Premier, I mentioned an abandoned project at Chrysler called Liberty. Announced in 1985, Liberty was supposed to be a direct challenge to GM’s recently announced Saturn brand. Or it wasn’t, depending on what day of the week Liberty was addressed.

Chrysler’s PR department and CEO Lee Iacocca seemed at odds on what the Liberty project was, but they were both sure it was very important and it would build something, probably.

The Detroit Three were in a bit of small-car worry in the mid-Eighties. Detroit’s desire to create a competitive subcompact car was outside their prior 50 years of land-barge expertise. At the same time, previous protections assured by Japanese car import quotas were about to expire, as declared by Reagan’s White House. Japanese companies were also getting around said restrictions by building manufacturing facilities within U.S. borders. Time for action.

General Motors acted first (officially) when early in 1985 it incorporated the Saturn brand and made a land purchase in Tennessee for a new factory. Chrysler followed suit in late March of ’85 when it announced Liberty. Both Saturn and Liberty were about more than “build an econobox” ideologies but rather intended to refine and streamline the manufacturing process, just like the Japanese. Streamlining cut costs, and would ultimately assure domestic subcompacts could compete with the ever-increasing Japanese competition.

Speaking of competition, Lee Iacocca was not comfortable with the news media’s implication that Liberty was a response to Saturn. Lee said Chrysler was working on Liberty first, they just didn’t tell anyone about it. Hidden for two years before the announcement, Liberty was to produce a car in 1990 – two years following Saturn’s claim of 1988. Lee pointed to the more sophisticated manufacturing Chrysler was already doing, something GM wasn’t doing across its portfolio. The contemporary Omni/Horizon twins were his sophisticated manufacturing examples.

Liberty, he said, would improve the manufacturing process to such an extent that it would save $1,000 per car. And the rest of the savings would come from a better currency balance between dollars and yen. Liberty would use modular construction, have a plastic body, and use either three- or four-cylinder power. All the car’s functions would be controlled by 12 advanced microprocessors. Because Liberty would be a modular design, components could be produced abroad (saving money) and assembled domestically.

Such was the story in March of 1985. By late April there was a different spin on Liberty, to the point the stated goal of the entire project had changed. Mr. Iacocca was in Tokyo on April 17th, 1985, making some announcements to the press about future business. Among them, that Chrysler had “…ceded the low end of the market to the Far East.”

The statement above came on the heels of the announcement of the Chrysler-Mitsubishi joint project that you’d know as Diamond Star Motors. Since the Japanese were just so good at small cars, Chrysler would let them help – a lot. Mitsubishi would design the DSM cars, and run the plant at Normal, Illinois (its groundbreaking was in April 1986).

Iacocca addressed Liberty that day too and said the high-tech Liberty that was in the works earlier than GM’s Saturn and targeted Saturn-like economy car things would not produce a subcompact car. Then he added “per se,” to the end of his statement. Naturally, this confused the press, who ran to telephone their favorite Chrysler PR person. Weeks before in March, many journalists were shown a working prototype of a Liberty project car (no photos of this on the internet).

Chrysler made an official statement that day and claimed that Chrysler never had a particular car in mind with Liberty, but the project was more about technology and streamlined management techniques. Said techniques would be finalized within Liberty and then implemented at all current Chrysler manufacturing facilities. The fact a working prototype had already been shown was not addressed.

About 11 months after the initial Liberty announcement, Iacocca was still talking about Liberty, and once again it was labeled as a direct charge against Saturn. Manufacturing streamlining and cost-cutting had been refined, and the estimate of cost savings was up, now $1,500 to $2,000 per car.

While Saturn was still moving forward with its new brand, Iacocca announced a change in direction for Liberty once more: It would now start with the decade-old Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon as its basis. The Liberty project was underway and contained largely within the Belvedere, Illinois plant where the two hatchbacks were produced.

On May 15th, 1986, Iacocca announced the newest and cheapest Omnirizon models, the stripped-out America trim.  He addressed Liberty very directly: “This is the first step on our road to Liberty, our Liberty project designed to take $2,000 out of the cost of a car so that, for the long term, we can compete with Japanese imports.”

Iacocca went on to call the Omni and Horizon America trims an experiment. The experimental part was reducing available options as much as possible, down to just two options packages that contained five options each on the Americas. This methodology would expand in the near future to Chrysler’s new subcompacts, the Dodge Shadow and Plymouth Sundance. This simplification was termed by the media at the time as “high-velocity production.”

The Liberty project and its “Liberty car” continued on in mythical terms for the next three years or so without direct announcements or much of any press coverage. But in September 1989 it was finally laid to rest. Popular Mechanics did a little blurb and announced the new AMC-developed Premier would take the place of the Liberty project. While that didn’t make much sense as it was not a streamlined economy car by any means, it was the explanation given on the project from Chrysler.

The Liberty program had various issues throughout its run, as seen above. While the Saturn-not-Saturn disagreement was ongoing, Chrysler finalized the purchase of AMC that netted the expensive new Premier. This very modern car, they decided, would form the basis for future Chrysler cars. And if it wasn’t streamlined, economy, Saturn, or Japanese competition, so what? What did Liberty even mean anyway? Nobody could recall.

[Image: Chrysler]

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Buy/Drive/Burn: Basic American Compacts From 2008

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We continue our 1990s-then-2000s series today, following up the last post that featured compact American two-doors from 1998. By the late 2000s, the Escort, Neon, and Cavalier were all dead. In their place were the Focus, Caliber, and Cobalt, and not all of those had a two-door variant. That means we focus on four-doors today. Let’s go.

Dodge Caliber

The Caliber is in its second model year this year, as the crossover replacement for the Neon. Front-wheel drive with optional all-wheel drive, the Caliber rides on the Chrysler-Mitsubishi PM platform with things like the Mitsubishi Outlander. The only body style is this four-door with hatch. There are four trims this year, SE, SXT, R/T, and SRT-4. Today’s base SE uses a 1.8-liter inline-four good for 148 horsepower. It’s front-wheel drive, and has a five-speed manual transmission provided by Magna. Yours for $14,965.

Chevrolet Cobalt

The Cobalt is in its fourth model year after it replaced the ancient Cavalier for 2005. Cobalt uses the Delta platform which also sees use in the Saturn Ion and Chevrolet HHR. Unlike the Caliber, all examples are front-wheel drive. With two- or four-doors, there’s always a traditional trunk on the Cobalt. Four different trim levels are available at dealers this year: LS, LT, Sport, and SS, the latter with turbocharging. Base LS models are powered by a 2.2-liter inline-four that wrestles up 148 horses. The five-speed manual here is a Getrag box carried over from the Cavalier. Cobalt asks $14,410.

Ford Focus

The Focus is in its second generation for 2008, and is a car specific to North America. The first generation global Focus was part of Ford’s world car plan, but that idea was dropped. In 2008 customers choose from a two- or four-door Focus with trunk, as the hatchback option is no more. All Focii are front-drive, and all use the same 2.0-liter Duratec inline-four. Customers choose from four trims: S, SE, SES, and SEL. The cheapest S has the same 140 horses as the other models, and uses a five-speed manual. The Focus is in your drive for $14,395.

Three four-doors of Ace of Base persuasion, all wearing fantastic late 2000s styling. Which one’s worth the Buy?

[Images: GM, Ford, Dodge]

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GM Prioritizing Pickup Production Over Crossovers, Sedans

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<img data-attachment-id=”1769300″ data-permalink=”https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2021/07/chip-shortage-leads-to-dead-cars-on-factory-lots-gm-halts-truck-production/a-2020-chevrolet-silverado-hd-in-the-trim-shop-on-thursday-janu/” data-orig-file=”https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/GMFlintSilverado70.jpg” data-orig-size=”3000,2000″ data-comments-opened=”1″ data-image-meta=”{“aperture”:”4.5″,”credit”:”John F. Martin for Chevrolet”,”camera”:”Canon EOS 5D Mark III”,”caption”:”A 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD in the trim shop on Thursday, January 24, 2019 at General Motors Flint Assembly in Flint, Michigan. (Photo by John F. Martin for Chevrolet)”,”created_timestamp”:”1548865370″,”copyright”:”\u00a9 2019 John F. Martin and General Motors. This image is protected by copyright but provided for editorial and social media use.”,”focal_length”:”24″,”iso”:”640″,”shutter_speed”:”0.016666666666667″,”title”:”A 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD in the trim shop on Thursday, Janu”,”orientation”:”1″}” data-image-title=”A 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD in the trim shop on Thursday, Janu” data-image-description=”

GM

” data-medium-file=”http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/gm-prioritizing-pickup-production-over-crossovers-sedans-2.jpg” data-large-file=”http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/gm-prioritizing-pickup-production-over-crossovers-sedans.jpg” class=”aligncenter size-large wp-image-1769300″ src=”http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/gm-prioritizing-pickup-production-over-crossovers-sedans.jpg” alt width=”610″ height=”407″ srcset=”http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/gm-prioritizing-pickup-production-over-crossovers-sedans.jpg 610w, http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/gm-prioritizing-pickup-production-over-crossovers-sedans-1.jpg 75w, http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/gm-prioritizing-pickup-production-over-crossovers-sedans-2.jpg 450w, http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/gm-prioritizing-pickup-production-over-crossovers-sedans-3.jpg 768w, http://gagetruck.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/gm-prioritizing-pickup-production-over-crossovers-sedans-4.jpg 120w” sizes=”(max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px”>

General Motors will resume full-size pickup assembly next week, leaving its crossovers will have to continue enduring production hang-ups related to the semiconductor shortage. American manufacturers have been absolutely creamed by supply shortages this year and a lack of chips really hurt pickup volumes. We’ve seen a lot of creative solutions, including automakers putting unfinished vehicles on the lot in hopes that they can install the missing hardware later.

But GM’s latest solution involves prioritizing Michigan’s Flint Assembly, Indiana’s Fort Wayne Assembly, Silao Assembly in Mexico — all of which were previously idled or operating on reduced schedules. Unfortunately, that means giving other North American facilities more downtime and, sadly, plenty of it. 

According to Automotive News, this includes Kansas City’s Fairfax Assembly — which has been idled since February — and five other factories located in North America. The facility was supposed to return to normal at the start of this month, which was later revised for the end of August. However, the newest plan leaves Cadillac XT4 production offline until September 20th, with Chevrolet Malibu assembly now being a giant question mark.

Lansing Grand River Assembly, responsible for the Cadillac CT4 and CT5, has been down since May and just got a two-week extension on its current production leave. Assembly isn’t likely to resume until the very end of August.

San Luis Potosi Assembly has enjoyed more production time than most North American facilities this year. But it’s getting another three weeks of downtime before resuming production of the Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain. Those models will be back on the assembly line on August 23rd.

That just leaves GM’s Lansing Delta Township, Spring Hill, and Ramos Arizpe facilities — all of which will be getting just one more week off. But we’ve learned not to assume anything in 2021, especially since this is just one of dozens of scheduling changes that had to be revised by automakers. If chip supplies don’t stabilize, we anticipate the manufacturer prioritizing Lansing — so it can get more Chevrolet Traverses and Buick Enclaves on the lot Ramos Arizpe — which builds the Chevy Blazer and Equinox — also has a good chance of getting preferential treatment. Though the whole gang is supposed to be fully operational by August 2nd.

General Motors is just one automaker contending with this industrywide disaster, however. This week saw Mercedes-Benz and BMW also cutting production, citing supply chain problems. Meanwhile, Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida was expressing his pensiveness about the ongoing semiconductor shortage to the media despite his company turning a profit for the first time in a while.

“Knowing the current situation … we cannot be optimistic,” Uchida told CNBC on Wednesday. “I think this is day-by-day still.”

[Image: General Motors]

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Automakers Suspend Operations, Change Equipment Due to Chip Shortage

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Ford is temporarily suspending production at its Kansas City assembly plant to deal with the shortage.

Automakers continue to search for ways to deal with the semiconductor chip shortage impacting the industry on a global scale.

Most companies cut back production and shift available chip inventory to high-profit vehicles like pickup trucks. Seemingly no automaker is immune to the problem, including pricey luxury and sports car makers. Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and others all recently announced moves to deal with the shortage.

This week is not different with Daimler, Stellantis and Subaru reporting today they are taking new measures to account for current run of chip shortages, both in the U.S. and in other facilities around the world.

New announcements

Ford plans to extend the shutdowns at plants that build its F-150, Ford Transit, Ford Explorer and Lincoln Aviator, Ford Edge/Lincoln Nautilus and Ford Mustang. The Kansas City Assembly Plant that builds its top-selling F-150 and Transit commercial van suspend operations for the weeks of May 3 and 10. It’s currently closed down.

GM is slowing production of its van at its Wentzville plant to deal with the chip shortage.

The Flat Rock, Michigan plant, which builds the Mustang, and Chicago plant that builds the Explorer and Aviator will also be down the first two weeks of next month. They’ve been down since the week of April 12, according to Automotive News.

The company plans to continue the reduced production of its Super Duty and medium-duty trucks at the Ohio Assembly Plant near Cleveland.

General Motors plans to move its Wentzville (Missouri) Assembly plant from three shifts to just two on a temporary basis starting the week of April 26. It’s cutting van production at the site. Production of its midsize pickups, the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon, are unaffected. The company just restarted operations at the facility last week after a two-week shutdown.

Other moves

In what may be the most novel approach to dealing with the issue thus far, Stellantis is using analog speedometers in some its Peugeot models instead of the digital ones they would normally come equipped with.

Mercedes C-Class line at Bremen 2021

Daimler is cutting hours for 18,500 workers at two plants in Germany as it waits for more chips.

The move affects only the Peugeot 308, Reuters reported, which are built in France. The brand sold about 98,000 of the 308 model last year. The 308 is being phased out this fall in favor of a new vehicle. The company may reduce the price as a result of the less advanced speedo.

Daimler plans to reduce hours for 18,500 employees and idle production at its Bremen and Rastatt plants in Germany. Bremen builds the C-Class as well as the GLC, GLC Coupe and the all-electric EQC. The Rastatt plant produces the A-Class hybrid as well as the A-Class sedan, B-Class and GLA compact SUV.

Japanese automaker Subaru Corp. revealed plans to temporarily suspend production at its plant in Lafayette, Indiana. The closure will be in place until the end of April, according to officials. It will affect about 15,000 vehicles for North America, officials noted. The company builds the Ascent, Outback, Legacy and Impreza at the site.


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Rare Rides: The 1991 Chevrolet Lumina Z34, a Practical High-performance Coupe

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In 1991, consumers could purchase one of several affordable midsize coupes of low-medium equipment, low-medium quality, and upper-middle levels of style.

Let’s talk Lumina Z34.

The Lumina was a new model in Chevrolet’s lineup, introduced in 1990 to replace the dated and extra boxy A-body Celebrity that was on sale since 1982. Lumina was larger in every dimension and more suited to its midsize car mission than its predecessor. Utilizing the newer W-body, Lumina was produced alongside the Buick Regal, Pontiac Grand Prix, and Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. All four cars went head-to-head with the sales monster that was the Ford Taurus.

But the Lumina was no single-car replacement at GM; there was a larger plan at work. Lumina also absorbed the market share of Chevy’s Monte Carlo, which saw its last model year in 1988. Monte’s sporty customers chose the two-door coupe, while Celebrity types opted for the four-door sedan. Monte Carlo was reintroduced for the ’95 model year, which coincided with Lumina’s second W-body generation. In that guise, Monte Carlo was not as much its own design, but more a new Lumina coupe. The Lumina name also extended to a minivan – the APV – which was the Cadillac of Minivans when it donned Oldsmobile Silhouette costumery. The APV was a replacement for the Celebrity wagon; GM saw the Nineties writing on the wall as wagon sales entered a nosedive.

First-gen Luminas were available with inline-four or V6 engines. A 2.2-liter I4 was available only in 1993, while the 2.5-liter Iron Duke from the Celebrity was available from 1990 to 1992. V6 power arrived via a 3.1 (’90-’94) or 3.4 (’91-’94). Transmissions were three- and four-speed GM automatics, or the rarely chosen five-speed manual from Getrag.

Newly available for 1991 was a high-performance Lumina variant, the Z34. The Z34 trim was offered only on the coupe, and was always fitted with an FE3 sports suspension package, and used the largest 3.4-liter engine shared with the Euro trim sedan. Standard was a dual exhaust and four-wheel ABS, as well as a five-speed manual. The automatic was optional on Z34 and usually selected. Even in automatic guise, the shifter was floor-mounted, in contrast to more common Lumina trims. Z34 sported 200 horsepower, which meant a 0 to 60 time of just 7.2 seconds with a manual transmission, and a top speed of 130 miles per hour.

Outside, the Z34 showed its sporting intent via different fascias front and rear, lower side skirts, louvers in various places, and a spoiler. Paint colors were limited: red, blue, white, black, silver, and gray. Inside, drivers grabbed a three-spoke sports wheel and sat on overstuffed bucket seats.

The Lumina was immediately successful, and in 1990 racked up over 300,000 sales. Around 278,000 of those were sedans, and nearly 46,000 coupes. At the end of the Lumina’s first generation in 1994, over a million had been sold. The Lumina Z34 faded away after that year and was replaced by the aforementioned Monte Carlo Z34 in 1995.

Today’s Rare Ride is in spectacular condition and goes up for auction tomorrow. With a five-speed manual, it has just 17,000 miles and has been in the same collection for the past 28 years.

[Images: GM]

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