By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

If you want to film a disaster zone, where better than Detroit, right? Especially if you want to include some props out of the GM Design Studio! MichiganVW.org member detvw grabbed these shots of the set, props, and Optimus Prime while driving home from work the other day. Heckuva commute, eh? Plenty more after the jump!

Continue reading "Transformers 3 Spied in Detroit" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

For their music video for “Nowhere to Run,” Martha and the Vandellas shimmy and lip-sync their way through an assembly line full of freshly-minted Mustangs while regular-Joe line workers try to concentrate on doing their jobs. It’s pretty rare to see oldie music videos that are actually awesome, and with the huge concentration of assembly plants in the Detroit area, you kind of have to wonder why every Motown band didn’t have an assembly-line music vid. Seems like the perfect no-brainer, like film-school students doing a zombie flick for their senior project. Via Hemmings.

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

General Motors has dropped to number 15 on the Fortune 500 list, out of the top ten for the first time in 101 years. Ford dropped one spot, from number seven to number eight. Weirdly, without a massive bailout from the US Government, GM wouldn’t even exist. This is the first time in the history of the company that they haven’t been in the top 10.

2009 was an unmitigated disaster, not only for GM for for the entire auto industry. The General definitely took the worst of it though. It was a year spent paring down brands, closing dealers, laying off employees, and chewing through three different CEOs.

While Ford’s year was no banner-maker, that company has introduced a product line up that seems to be doing a better job than any other domestic manufacturer at dragging stalwart import buyers back to an American brand. Please don’t take that as a compliment, as we aren’t sure we’d be “proud” of luring import buyers to American cars that look and feel like imports, but at least they are paying the bills. Ford dropped a spot, but are in a position they’ve never been in before with regard to the 500 list. They’re ahead of GM.

Chrysler? That’s a whole different kettle of fish.

Source — MLive.com – General Motors falls out of top ten of Fortune 500 list for the first time in 101 years

By Chris Bicknell

Bick66

Marking a major milestone in American automotive history the first pre-production Volt rolled off the line at the Hamtramck Plant in Detroit on March 31st, 2010.  GM’s engineering team will use this first wave of plug-in electrics for quality control testing before full-scale production starts later this year. See more pictures after the jump and read more on Chevrolet Volt’s official Facebook page.

Continue reading "First Chevy Volt Rolls Off The Assembly Line" »

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

We’ve covered every inch of the 2010 Detroit Autorama for three days, and tonight was the end of it with the traditional exiting of all the hot rods out of Cobo Hall and into the snowy Detroit winter night. We’ve heard great stories of the load-out night turning into a pretty good show in itself, but this year all the drivers were sadly pretty tame as they left the building. That didn’t stop us from getting a final photo gallery of some of Autorama’s cars in action on the street. It’s a nice end to a great weekend.

Click here for the BangShift.com photo gallery of cars leaving the 2010 Detroit Autorama.

Also, here’s a list of all our Autorama coverage from 2010:

735 photos of the show cars

The announcement of the Great 8 (cars in contention for the Ridler Award), with detail photos

Tammy Ray wins the 2010 Ridler Award

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Call us nuts, but we were actually feeling pretty good after reading this piece from the Detroit Free Press. Writer Mark Phelan brings up some great points and actually clues us in on some existing technology that is going to give some immediate help (when implemented) in the fuel economy department of gasoline engines.

There’s so much doom and gloom happening in the media on a nearly daily basis with respect to cars, especially the types of cars we like. It was great to read something that actually gave us some hope for the future that isn’t pie in the sky fantasy.

If you are looking for some positive muscle car ju-ju click on the link to the Detroit Free Press story.

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

Detroit’s annual Woodward Dream Cruise rolled into town this weekend along with droves of visitors looking to get in on the fun and Cruise Woodward. The estimated attendance was to the tune of just over 1 million visitors, which is said to be a few hundred thousand less than last year, although I’m not sure exactly how you’d go about counting everyone. Despite the Los Angeles-style traffic that comes with so many visitors, the boost in the economy is more than welcome around these parts. I even saw a few nuns, of all people, hustling visitors for their prime parking spots at a church parking lot. Well done sisters!

For Detroiters, it was a pleasant surprise to see the American automakers on hand and still showing their support for the event. Ford went as far as shutting down a portion of 9 mile Rd. in Ferndale,MI to turn it into Mustang Alley, lining both sides of the street with Mustangs from all generations and styles. It was pretty impressive such a variety of Mustangs including the original Shelby’s from the mid-60′s.

Continue reading and view more photos at MotorMavens.com

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

See all the hot rides from the Motor City show!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I guess it’s not terribly surprising at this point, but… Dunno what to say, really. Read the story at Reuters and then let us know what you think!

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

According to new General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson, it’s a distinct possibility that the company could leave Detroit as all options to save the massive company are being looked at. It seems that bankruptcy is a guarantee at this point and once this mess hits the courts, look out.

GM leaving Detroit may not be as big a deal as it once would have been as the company has been “leaving” Detroit for over 20 years as it has gradually degraded to the precarious point it sits in now.

Just to prove that this is not a hoax, here’s a link to the story laying it out.