This is The Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place every weekday morning. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parse it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
1st Gear: What Is Value, Anyway?
GM thinks that a mix of tech and product is what will make them the most valued automaker in the world, according to a report from Automotive News.
Mary Barra says that having brands that create "customers for life" and "significant value for shareholders." Those plans include having 11 platforms that account for 99 percent of sales (currently GM has 14 platforms that account for 75 percent), improve ties with suppliers, improve brand image, new products, and increase customer loyalty. She didn't give a ton of specifics, but that is to be expected.
This has been part of Barra's goals all along, though they may have been slightly put on hiatus due to the ignition switch recall.
2nd Gear: Speaking Of Ignition Switches
It wouldn't be a day unless there was ignition switch news, right? The Detroit News reports that GM now has nearly 1,100 claims, a jump of about 250 from just a few days prior. And now, the fund has 156 claims for deaths, though just 23 of them have been approved by Ken Feinberg and the lawfirm responsible for handling the recalls.
As of right now, the fund has made offers to 15 victims and their families, which means that there is still a lot of work to be done in order to rectify all claims. The 23 approved death claims mean that the fund will pay out at least $1 million to each of those families.
This is a bump on GM's road to being the most valued automaker in the world, that's for sure.
3rd Gear: Mercedes Has To Revise Fuel Economy Numbers
It's not just Hyundai and Ford that get fuel economy wrong. The EPA is having Mercedes make a slight revision on some C-Class models. The changes effect the flex-fuel and PZEV versions of the 2013 and 2014 C-Class.
For the FFV, one MPG is being taken off the city rating, dropping it to 19 MPG. The PZEV loses one MPG in each category, making its rating 19 city, 28 highway, and 22 combined.
Please update your C-Class MPG cheat sheets.
4th Gear: The Hyundai Strikes Are Over
After buying land for $10 billion in the Gangnam district of Seoul, workers that had been negotiating raises werent't the happiest campers in the world.
So they striked.
But now, an agreement has been reached that will bring the workers back online with a raise of 98,000 won per month. They'll have a lot of work to do when they return, too. Estimates say Hyundai had $847 million in lots output and was about 40,000 cars behind. Whoops.
5th Gear: Paris Motor Show 2014
If you hadn't noticed, the Paris Motor Show kicked off last night with Volkswagen's traditional cavalcade of stars known as "VW Group Night." And while some debuts, like a plug-in Porsche Cayenne, were snoozers, we also had the 910 horsepower (!!!) Lamborghini Asterion LPI 910-4 hybrid and the Ducati powered Volkswagen XL Sport, which is inasnely cool.
Our man Máté is running around Paris all day today with the latest news and reveals, be sure to follow along on our Paris Motor Show tag page.