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    Chevrolet

    April 30th, 2010

    Chevrolet was named after its founder, Louis Chevrolet who gained fame as a racing car driver in the early years of the motor cars history. The backing came from William Durant, who had founded General Motors but, in a corporate bloodbath had been ousted from control of GM and turned out. Durant immediately looked for opportunities within the car industry and set about laying the foundation for an automobile conglomerate with which to regain control of his beloved GM.

    Durant and Chevrolet had a lengthy history together before they set up Chevrolet. Durant had headed Buick prior to founding GM, and Chevrolet had been hired to race Buicks on the racing circuit. As a result, Louis Chevrolet was well known, especially amongst car aficionados, and Durant instantly recognized a way to harness Louis reputation to serve his own corporate comeback.

    Designs for the first Chevy prototypes were already off the design board and ready for production before the company was incorporated. In fact, the high end Series C Classic Six was already built before the doors had opened for business, and it was designed to strict instructions laid down by Louis himself.

    The company logo has long been a source of controversy over its origins. Louis parents were Swiss and some believed the car marque was a stylized Swiss cross, however others have argued that Durant saw the pattern on some French wallpaper. The argument seems to have been settled by car historian, Ken Kaufman and others who have identified the source of the Chevy marque as being based on another company s logo – Coalettes – a manufacturer of man made, burning coals.

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    Durant was keen to broaden the range of cars under the Chevy brand, as well as to extend the company s influence amongst other car makers and distributors. A deal was struck with Buick to allow Chevy chassis with Buick bodies to be sold, with manufacture taking place at Chevy s Toronto plant in Canada. This was a phenomenally successful deal for Chevy, and sealed the company s commercial fortunes and, by 1913, Durant had struck a deal with GM to take Chevrolet over but he was not yet strong enough to wrench control of GM back…yet.

    By 1916, Chevrolet was extremely profitable and this made Durant extremely rich (Louis too, but Louis now starts to fade from the story). Using this wealth, Durant was able to buy a majority stake in General Motors – his strategy had paid off, and now he set about removing those who had seen his departure from GM 6 years previously.

    Chevrolet became one of the all time, best selling car marques in the US and around the world, and has been part of the GM family ever since its acquisition.

    Chevrolet s biggest impact on the US car market took place in the post Second World War years; the golden era of the big car with chrome and fins – the 1950 s and 1960 s. Chevy became synonymous with car design and style, with extremely long cars, exceptional chrome and bodywork combined with luxury and performance without a supercar price tag. By 1963, 10 of all cars sold in the US were Chevy s, and the company had a dominant grip on the North American car market.

    The oil crisis of the 1970 s ushered in an era of high gas prices which severely dented Chevrolet s commercial performance. Chevy s were known for conspicuous gas consumption, the company being the first to offer a fuel injected engine in the 1950 s for instance. This was fine when gas prices were extremely low, but as oil prices soared, Chevy sales plummeted and the company found itself competing against a wave of cheap Japanese imported cars which delivered extremely good gas mileage.
    The future of the Chevrolet marque was put into doubt as a result of the recent economic crisis which led its parent, GM to declare bankruptcy. Fortunately, after a restructuring the Chevrolet has been retained as one of the slimmed down stable of car marques to be used by the rejuvenated General Motors.


    The Chevrolet brand is an enduring success in the American automobile industry. Founded by Louis Chevrolet and Wiliam Durant in 1911, Chevrolet continues to roll out vehicles known for their aggressive styling, power and reliability – all sporting Chevrolet’s world famous ‘bow-tie’ logo. Chevrolet is General Motor’s most popular and top-selling marque, currently offering 19 vehicles in its line including the Corvette, Impala, and Silverado. Chevrolet has invented many features that are now standards in car manufacturing such as articulated brakes and independent front suspension.

    The Chevrolet story is one of opposing visions. Louis Chevrolet wanted to produce luxury vehicles while William Durant pushed for more affordable models like Ford’s runaway bestseller, the Model T. Louis prevailed and in 1912 the company introduced its first car to the public, the Classic Six – a roomy, five passenger sedan with a top speed of 65 miles per hour. But in 1915, while Louis was on vacation, William altered the production and introduced the Chevrolet “490″ to challenge the Model T. This caused a falling out with Louis, who then left the company. Chevrolet was merged with General Motors in 1918, the same year it sold its first truck, the Model 490 Light Delivery. It has since then diversified its offerings from SUVs to subcompacts – a legacy from Durant who pioneered the system of a multi-brand car company.

    Chevrolet’s focus is the adoption of environment-friendly technology, in line with American automakers’ commitment to make one-half of the vehicles produced flexible fuel of bio-diesel capable by 2012. Versions of the 2007 Chevy Impala and the 2007 Chevy Avalance will use flexifuel or E85 ethanol, a renewable fuel made from corn which is a blend of 85 ethanol and 15 percent diesel. E85 ethanol reduces the emission of greenhouse gases and lessens the need for petroleum. It has a higher octane rating than gasoline which means better vehicle performance, the 2006 Chevy Silverado Hybrid Pickup Truck has a hybrid engine. Hybrid vehicles use a combination of electriciy stored in a battery and a combustion engine powered by diesel.

    There are currently different strategies for hybrid cars. In Chevrolets, as with most GM hybrid cars, the battery part is charged when the car is moving and when the vehicle stops (during a red light for example), it switches to electric power from the battery. The long term plan is to do away with fossil fuels like diesel and gasoline altogether. In September 2006, Chevrolet announced the arrival of Sequel, its first petroleum-free vehicle that runs purely on hydrogen derived from water. This means that the car does not have a combustion engine and instead of mechanical controls, it uses electric signals to perform conventional tasks such as steering, accelerating, and braking.

    Expect Chevy parts to evolve as the world looks for cleaner and sustainable fuel sources. Soon, the Chevy engine parts may become the Chevy fuel cell parts and the Chevy fuel tank may morph into the Chevy water tank. Whatever the future brings, purchase only genuine Chevy parts as replacement to get the most out of your Chevrolet.

    We all know in which for a while now there’s been a worldwide preoccupation to the environment. Besides the attempts to protect the natural habitat unspoiled, people exhibited far more interest in the conservation of the natural resources.

    Therefore significant steps have been made in this direction and scientists, engineers and vehicle producers have come together to create green vehicles or at least to adapt the existing types to the current ecological needs and legal specifications. One notable outcome of these efforts in this direction is represented by the appearance of more and more hybrid vehicles.

    In this area an important part is taken by hybrid trucks. What is the trick about hybrid trucks? Well, you may already know, goods transportation would be paralyzed in the absence of trucks. These kinds of big vehicles – the hybrid trucks – are huge fuel eaters and the industry of transportation is equally large.

    The awareness about preserving the environment is superior nowadays, and more respect for resources is obvious in their exploitation; hybrid trucks follow exactly this line of thought. Apparently, hybrid trucks represent probably the most popular hybrid items in the automotive industry. Folks are keen to locate the newest achievements in the hybrid vehicle construction business.

    People are interested not only in hybrid trucks but in addition in hybrid electric, diesel and flex fuel pickups, hybrid commercial trucks, freight trucks, semis and many others. Overall, full hybrid trucks make the vehicles of the future. Actually, a couple of full hybrid trucks have been launched in 2008, with more to come in 2009 and 2010.

    The sheer numbers of companies associated with the design of hybrid trucks is growing, and efforts are made in direction of developing fully electric vehicles.

    And so Chevy and GMC have come up with some mild versions of hybrid pickups. Truck lovers and users will get satisfaction before long when promises made by Toyota, Dodge, Freightliner, International Truck Engine, Eaton and Kenworth will become true in the new hybrid trucks to be used. A nice outcome in the making of hybrid trucks is the considerable lowering of the noise level besides the energy saving advantages. Hybrid trucks are quieter, cleaner and safer to use: all you need to do is evaluate an investment and get to work!

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