User talk:Patrick at GM

Greetings

Welcome to Wikipedia! I think that it is a great idea for your company to have a place for direct communications about General Motors. It looks like you have good start on how a organization should interact with wikipedia. If you have not already, a good page to review is Wikipedia:FAQ/Organizations. Nyth83 (talk) 22:32, 8 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

User page

I had cut-and-pasted your post to Talk:General Motors as a starting point for your user page. You may want to copyedit it for context here as some of it refers to the page it was originally posted to. Keep in mind that while this is YOUR user page, anyone can edit it, so keep an eye out for vandals! Nyth83 (talk) 22:43, 8 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Would this be good place to ask questions about historical GM products? Would we be likely to get a response here? I actually have a question in mind. Nyth83 (talk) 19:52, 9 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Absolutely! We would be happy to field historical product questions on this page. Feel free to reach out and we will do our best to point you in the right direction. GMcommunications (talk) 14:39, 10 September 2014 (UTC)Caroline, GM Community Manager[reply]

Steel shortage and the Corvette.

OK, my question has to do with the article Chevrolet Corvette (C1) and the section titled Design and engineering. If you read the second sentence of the second paragraph, there is a mention of a steel shortage but there is no citation. I added a comment to the talk page about it but no one has responded to this.

I would like to know if a steel shortage really was a factor in the decision to use fiberglass body and if so, more details about this shortage and a good refence source.

PS. I own a 1951 Chevrolet and I know that the GM part number for the front suspension cross member was the same for the 1949–1954 passenger cars and the 1953–1962 Corvettes. I like to people that I have a factory-installed Corvette front suspension in my car. I get a lot of funny looks. LOL Nyth83 (talk) 19:52, 10 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I checked the GM Archives and could not find any sources that support that claim. In fact, the Corvette was a very low production vehicle and Chevrolet built its other, higher-volume vehicles in 1953 using steel bodies.

E.J. Premo, Body Engineer for the Corvette, presented a paper to The Society of Automotive Engineers in January, 1954 entitled “The Corvette Plastic Body” (http://papers.sae.org/540257/). In it he states the following:

“The body on the show model was made of reinforced plastic purely as an expedient to get the job done quickly.”

“Although we were going ahead with the building of an experimental plastic body in order to get a car rolling for chassis development work – at the time of the Waldorf Show, we were actually concentrating body-design-wise on a steel body utilizing Kirksite tooling for the projected production of 10,000 units during the 1954 model year. It was some time later that we decided to produce this quantity in reinforced plastic.”

“About this time, some doubt was expressed that we should build the 1954 model of steel. People seemed to be captivated by the idea of the fiberglass plastic body. Furthermore, information being given to us by the reinforced plastic industry seemed to indicate the practicality of fabricating plastic body parts for automobiles on a large scale.”Pete at GM (talk) 18:56, 25 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The logic with the production volume was exactly what I pointed out on the talk page and I am glad that you were able to verify it. I will review the link you provided and will make an update to the article soon. Nyth83 (talk) 21:34, 25 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I see that I would cost $24 to download the paper from the SAE site. I will have to rely on your excerpts posted above. Nyth83 (talk) 21:44, 25 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Without specific sources citing as such, I would note 1952 steel strike (and later in the decade, Steel strike of 1959) as well as some minor steel rationing during the Korean War. Nothing on the scale of WWII, but there were significant issue with steel in the 1950s. I covered some of this in the article I started American automobile industry in the 1950s. Dennis 23:26, 25 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Username

Greetings. I've seen your contributions thus far and I welcome them. Your transparency about being affiliated with General Motors is greatly appreciated, and you are to be commended for engaging with the Wikipedia community in a constructive manner.

Unfortunately I must inform you that your username, "GMcommunications", does not conform to Wikipedia's username policy. Usernames cannot imply shared use, which includes a position within a company, as a position can be occupied by different persons at different times. User accounts can only represent one individual, and accounts cannot be be shared by more than one person. However, usernames are acceptable if they contain a company or group name but are clearly intended to denote an individual person, such as "John at GM".

To comply with the username policy, I encourage you to request a change of username as soon as possible. An administrator will evaluate your choice of a username, and either perform the change or provide feedback if there are any other concerns.

Thanks for your cooperation. We look forward to your continued contributions. --Drm310 (talk) 05:55, 11 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Great move! Glad to see that you are making the commitment to keeping this line of communication between GM and Wikipedia open. Nyth83 (talk) 18:34, 23 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Glad you noticed, and thanks for bringing it up. From this point forward I will be the only one making updates on behalf of GM. Pete at GM (talk) 18:58, 25 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I was wondering if you were going to continue to be active here after the unfortunate experience with User:LuisaBuickEmployee with edits like this page replace which resulted in that user being blocked from editing. Today I applied and for and was granted an account with GM Media. The e-mailed reply came from The Media Bureau, GM Commuications, Detroit which appears to be your department so I did not know if you had any involvement in the review, but if you did, I thank you. I intended that as an alternate communications channels if you were unresponsive here. I will be posting some queries here regarding specific unsourced edits that were made by Luisa before she was blocked. Nyth83 (talk) 21:34, 25 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Without outing your full name, can you verify that you are the Pete listed on the contacts page under COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY AND NEWS OPERATIONS with a title of Social Media? I won't post a link to that page here as that is a private page requiring a login on the GM Media site. Nyth83 (talk) 22:37, 25 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. The account in question does not reflect our existing policies for engagement on Wikipedia, nor our goal for transparency through interactions with the community. We are in the process of working to resolve that issue and I plan on continuing to interact through this account.

In addition, we have recently issued a company-wide blog post detailing Wiki’s terms of engagement. If you see any additional accounts purporting to be affiliated with General Motors, please continue to bring them to my attention. Again, my goal, and the company’s goal, is to be a valued resource for and member of your community and NOT to edit pages.

To answer your question about verification, I am the individual you referenced in your post. My name is Pete Ternes and I work on the General Motors communications team. Here is a picture of me at GM’s global headquarters in Detroit: http://i.imgur.com/2MXkKcU.jpg. For further verification, my Twitter account (www.twitter.com/ternespt) is listed as one of the team members on the verified GM Twitter account (www.twitter.com/GM). You also can find me on LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/peter-ternes/4/72b/242.

Again, I look forward to engaging with the community and being a resource for GM information.Pete at GM (talk) 22:09, 9 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Holden Commodore/Chevrolet Lumina

Can you provide any information in regards to this edit Commodore/Lumina? Quote: From 2015, it will be built in Mexico, and sold as the Chevrolet Lumina.. Nyth83 (talk) 21:59, 25 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Unless otherwise noted on media.gm.com or on the specific GM brand site, ie. Chevrolet.com, we do not discuss future product or brand plans or speculation questions. This response also applies to your Holden, Canada, Buick, Chevrolet and Enclave questions.

Pete at GM (talk) 15:25, 6 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the update. That confirms the past practice of the company. We can let the edits stand. I have a watch on your userpage, so if you see any other speculative information that is incorrect or confidential on any of the GM related articles, you can post them here and I will be sure to see them, and will endeavor to make the appropriate corrections or updates. Nyth83 (talk) 18:04, 6 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Buick/Chevrolet Enclave

Can you provide any information regarding this edit Enclave? Quote: The Buick Enclave will be sold in Brazil as the Chevrolet Enclave. Specifications will be identical to the U.S. version. My follow up question is why rebadge the Buick when there is a similar vehicle in the Chevrolet Traverse. There does not appear to currently be a similar sized vehicle on the Chevrolet do Brasil site. The Captiva (wb=2707mm) appears to be about the same size or slightly smaller that the Equinox (wb=112.5in=2844mm). Also is this related to the announcement by GM to invest $2.9 billion in Brasil? Nyth83 (talk) 22:13, 25 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Holden Canada

Can you provide any information regarding this edit regarding Holden in Canada? Quote: Holden will launch in Canada in 2015, selling the Opel Astra as the Holden Astra and the Opel Insignia as the Holden Insignia.. This one just does not make any sense to me. Nyth83 (talk) 22:20, 25 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Buick in Japan

Can you provide any information regarding these two edits regarding the Regal and Verano? Quote: The Buick Regal will be launched in Japan again, but will be sold only with the 3.6 V6 High Feature engine. Prices and specifications will be announced soon. and The Buick Verano will be launched in Japan as of December 2014, and will be sold only with the 2.4 petrol engine. Nyth83 (talk) 22:21, 25 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

City Express Van

The releases for the new van state that it is ...the brand’s first entry in the small cargo van segment ... I am not sure this is strictly true as the Chevrolet Venture was available as a commercial van and was sold as a 'cargo' van. See this Photo. Now it was not purpose built as a cargo van and I don't believe it was available as a windowless van or with a carpet delete option or had any hardpoints, but you would have to research that. Nyth83 (talk) 13:40, 26 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, and the Uplander also. Nyth83 (talk) 23:46, 26 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There was also a panel version of the Chevrolet HHR that was sold as a cargo van. Nyth83 (talk) 15:26, 28 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks Nyth83 we're looking in to this.Pete at GM (talk) 22:10, 9 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I think the key difference would be that the City Express is purpose-built as a cargo van and the Venture, Uplander and HHR were adaptations of passenger vehicles. There would be a number of notable differences such as the hard mounting points, swing-out rear doors (instead of a hatch), other features designed specifically as a cargo hauler, and maybe a more rugged construction that a business owner would be looking for. I was just pointing out that the wording in the release would not be strictly true without a qualification such changing the wording to: the brand’s first entry in the small purpose-built cargo van segment. Nyth83 (talk) 23:43, 9 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Futurliner drivers

pete, would you be able to verify that all of the drivers for the Fulurliners were all male and why? Nyth 63 16:50, 17 January 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Since this was back a while ago, we'll have to look into it. Let me see what I can find.

Pete at GM (talk) 19:15, 6 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, we are interested in this for historical cultural norm reasons. My speculation is that it had something to do with accomodations. Nyth 63 21:43, 6 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like maybe part of the answer is here. Nyth 63 03:14, 7 April 2015 (UTC)[reply]

That is likely correct; however, there is no one here at GM that can verify if all drivers for the Futurliners were male. Pete at GM (talk) 15:12, 14 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Corporate Governance Update

The reference to Tim Solso as non-executive chairman of the board is now out of date. He does however remain on the board. Mary Barra is now the CEO and Chairman of the Board.

Here is the link to the press release: http://www.gm.com/company/investors/latest-news/news_detail_page.content_pages_news_us_en_2016_jan_0104-barra-anc.~content~gmcom~home~company~investors.html

Pete at GM (talk) 19:39, 21 January 2016 (UTC)Pete at GM[reply]