GM Plans $3.2m Investment in Daewoo

[BusyBody]

GM Group Vice Chairman and CFO Frederick Henderson unveiled a plan to invest W3 trillion (US$1=W929) in GM Daewoo from 2008 to 2009. GM has invested W3 trillion in the Korean carmaker since 2005.
Vice Chairman Henderson said that the investment will be focused on upgrading engines and transmissions. There will be no additional investment in the production sector, since GM Daewoo is operating to full production capacity, he said.
The senior GM official added that a six-speed automatic transmission, which will be used for sedan models like the Tosca, is being developed at the company's Boryung plant. He said GM has no plans to revise its market strategy despite the recently concluded Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, which he expects will bring positive changes.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/ht...704180026.html

[SonicAerio]

The 1 thing GMDAT needed investment in was engine and drivetrain.....Finally! GM noticed this...the new GMDATS should be even better!

[Butz]

The senior GM official added that a six-speed automatic transmission, which will be used for sedan models like the Tosca, is being developed at the company's Boryung plant.

Are they developing another 6-Speed? Why not use the one they've already developed?

[cadillac jack]

GM needs 6 speeds bad, very bad. Engines too. Good to see GM trying to keep up.

[spaz]

what honda and several other companies are doing is developing specialized 4 cylinder engines for smaller displacements and larger displacements. Good to see GM putting the effort in

[spykebn]

I agree, why are they developing another 6 speed when they already have one.

[plane]

Will it be soon enough? I'm hoping.

Let's take a moment to acknowledge Busybody's fine contributions.
He seems not only to find the articles that slip under the radar, but then throws in great comments as well.

Kudos BB. And Kudos to all GMIers that bring the threads that make GMI worth posting at.

[Ming]

Originally Posted by SonicAerio

The 1 thing GMDAT needed investment in was engine and drivetrain.....Finally! GM noticed this...the new GMDATS should be even better!

Absolutely, SonicAerio. Consider what GM Daewoo has done with the technology it has had to work with --- it will be great to see them run with their own modern powertrains and really take it to the competition for GM globally.

[paul8488]

Maybe this 6-speed will be better suited to GMDAT vehicles? When you look at their growing worldwide sales it makes sense perhaps that they get their own 6-speed. My guess would be that it'll be more compact than the one in the Aura, and hopefully find its way into the Captiva and Lacetti (and a Rezzo replacement) eventually too.

[paul8488]

This is cool news though! It's not that they're building more plants to pump out more cars while they can sell them... they're putting there money where it can make a more important difference. With better engines and transmissions these will actually be great cars... they're already good cars, and these changes will make them very competitive if they hold the line on pricing.

[redimpss5]

Why???????

[DmitryKo]

Wow, $3 bn are a lot of money to invest! I hope GM Daewoo will be able make their versions of Family 1 engines perform even better than their Opel counterparts

If I were them, I'd be retiring the S-TEC and adopting Opel's Family 0 range (1.0-1.4 L) ... that said, Family 0 and Family 1 engines with Ecotec Twinport moniker are not significantly better than the S-TEC and Family 1 E-TEC II.

What GM Daewoo needs is to go beyond minor refinements like improving the compression ratio and installing better ECU with knock sensors. They need to use more advanced technology like all-aluminum block, turbocharging, VVT and direct injection... Making a small-displacement diesel that is on par with Fiat's excellent MultiJet engines would be a good idea too.

Manual transmissions could use improvement as well, just like their more modern Opel counterparts. Volkswagen and Renault are able to make very firm shifting manuals, why can't GM? And the performance of modern semi-automatic transmissions already challenges traditional hydraulic units, so I hope they would look in that direction as well.

[albert_ycchen]

Originally Posted by Butz

Are they developing another 6-Speed? Why not use the one they've already developed?

I think the reason is simple. For COST and WEIGHT.

The 6T70 and 6T75 transmissions co-developed with ford are medium-duty transmissions, capable of handling 300hp and 280 ft.lbf of torque.

Although I do not have the gross weight of the transmission at hand, it's quite possible that this transmission is too heavy to fit in small or compact cars, also, too expensive to build.

If GM could manage to build a small and light-weight 6-speed for Daewoo, European Chevy, and Opel's small cars, these cars would definitely stand out from the crowd.

[kenman923]

We could use more of those Daewoos over here, as Chevys

[paul8488]

Originally Posted by redimpss5

Why???????

Put your development money where it'll have the most impact. GMDAT cars are sold on every continent, and are fueling huge growth. Only makes sense to make the cars coming out of Korea even better.