New Delhi, Aug. 1 General Motors plans to stave off the domestic launch of its global sports utility vehicle brands — Cadillac and Hummer — for this year.

For the current year, it plans to almost double the production of its compact car Spark as it commences operations at the new plant in September.

The plant is slated to be inaugurated in the presence of the company’s global President and Chief Operating Officer, Mr Fritz Henderson.

“We are reviewing the launches of our SUV brands. However, we would not be introducing either of the products this year,” Mr Ankush Arora, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, General Motors India, told Business Line.

The company, which had earlier this year at the Auto Expo said that it was planning to launch the two brands in the Indian market, now feels that it may not be able to keep its promise as the automobile industry remains in torpor with high interest rates and inflationary pressures.
‘No new models’

Revealing the plans for the year, Mr Arora said that the company would not launch any new model.

However, as its new plant at Talegaon in Maharashtra gets operational, it would increase the production of its mini-car Spark to almost 4,000-5,000 units on a monthly basis.

“We have been facing capacity constraints at Halol. With the commissioning of our new facility, we would be able to sell higher volumes,” he stated.

With regard to the company’s intention to set up an engine manufacturing facility, the company’s Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Mr P. Balendran, said, “We would finalise the location and other details in the coming few weeks.”

When asked about the details of Mr Henderson’s visit, Mr Balendran said, “Apart from the plant inauguration, it would also coincide with the annual convention of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers where he would be one of the keynote speakers”.

Thieves Swipe Four Tires From Delegate’s Cadillac

And now, a story from the brazen-criminal files:

Sometime late Sunday or early Monday, someone jacked up the 2005 Cadillac STS sedan driven by Prince George’s Del. Justin D. Ross (D), stole all four tires and hubcaps, and left the car perched on cinderblocks.

The crime occurred while the car was parked in the driveway of Ross’s Greenbelt home. The Cadillac also has official state license plates that say “House of Delegates.”

George Mathews, a spokesman for the Greenbelt police, said authorities think Ross was the victim of skillful criminals who used hand tools to silently and efficiently steal the tires.

“They’re pretty good at what they do,” Mathews said, and not with admiration.

Ross said the car was fine at 11 p.m. Sunday, when he went out to retrieve his daughter’s book bag. When he emerged at 7 a.m. Monday, the car was tire-less. Ross said the car had standard 17-inch wheels and Vogue tires, which he described as not particularly special.
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“My first thought was — let me clean this up — I was angry,” Ross said. He said he also found Monday that bulbs from two motion-sensor floodlights that would have lighted the driveway had been unscrewed.

Mathews said police dusted the car for fingerprints and came up with nothing, suggesting that the thieves might have worn gloves. There were no reports of noise or suspicious activity.

The same night, a car was stolen about a mile away and an airbag was stolen from another car on the block, Mathews said. Police do not know whether the crimes are related, but they are investigating, Mathews said.

It might sound surprising that a car could be stripped of its tires without waking the neighbors, but Jennifer Kiernan, who works at Old Town Motor Cars in Hyattsville, said a skilled mechanic could put a car up on blocks and take off four wheels in as little as 10 minutes. It could even be done by one person, she said, adding that a hydraulic jack can be almost silent.

The police department does not track auto parts thefts separately from other thefts, Matthews said, which makes it difficult to obtain statistics about this particular kind of crime.

He said, however, that police have seen a spike in such crimes in recent months.

“There has been a noticeable increase,” he said. “We think it might be connected to the economy. Some people are desperate for money.”

Ross said he made the story public because he hoped to encourage neighbors to join watch groups and stamp out the quality-of-life crimes that rarely makes headlines.

“Not talking about it doesn’t make it go away,” he said. “It is unacceptable that any Prince Georgian has to deal with the level of crime that we deal with. These are strong, middle-class neighborhoods that should not have to deal with this.”