Posts Tagged ‘Detroit’
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Why the UAW made peace with Detroit
Posted on October 23rd, 2011 by admin
p>By Doron Levin, contributor
FORTUNE — The Detroit-based auto industry could face significant threats over the next four years: tighter regulation, soft demand and tougher competition. High costs from union labor won’t be one of them.
A successful ratification vote by Ford Motor Co. (F) hourly workers, following ratification at General Motors Co. (GM), seals the four-year wage and benefit deal between the two biggest of the Detroit Three automakers and the United Auto Workers union. (Chrysler Corp. has a tentative agreement with the UAW.) “Detroit automakers haven’t solved everything. Competition with the [foreign] transplants is still very difficult,” said Sean McAlinden, a labor economist with the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “But the UAW contract is no longer the strategic threat it’s been.”
By employing more new hires, who work at a wage rate far below that paid to more senior workers, the automakers now are able to bring their total labor costs closer to those paid by Toyota (TM), Honda (HMC), Nissan (NSANY), Hyundai, BMW, Volkswage …CNN
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Detroit Three automakers stall out in coastal markets
Posted on October 7th, 2011 by admin
p>FORTUNE — When the 2011 model year came to a close at the end of September, the Detroit Three had much to congratulate itself for.
Competing against their Japanese rivals (admittedly handicapped by an earthquake and tsunami), they made some nice gains. General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) and Chrysler notched some improvements in market share, Chrysler climbed back into fourth place in U.S. sales ahead of Honda, and the Chevrolet Cruze emerged as a top-seller in the hotly contested compact segment.
One significant set of important customers , however, continues to elude the domestics and those are the ones on the East and West coasts. Despite years of trying, GM, Ford (F, Fortune 500), and Chrysler remain laggards in these markets, which are critical not only because of their size but also because of their influence.
“Trends start on the coasts and in bigger city centers and filter themse …CNN
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Detroit revved up car sales in September
Posted on October 4th, 2011 by admin
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Chrysler Group had the biggest sales gain of the Detroit automakers and one that was not due incentive spending or fleet sales, analysts said.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Major U.S. automakers posted sales increases in September, in some cases even better than analysts had predicted. Some of the biggest gains came from SUVs and compact cars as buyers who had been putting off purchasing a new vehicle finally re-entered the market.
Top Japanese automakers Toyota and Honda, however, sold fewer cars this September than last as their factories continued to recover from February’s earthquake and tsunami. But Nissan produced a 25% sales gain.
The industry as a whole sold over a million new cars and light trucks in September, a 10% gain from September of last year, according to industry analysts at Autodata.com.
“The larger story was how well the market did compared to what the indicators were,” said Jesse Toprak, an industry analyst with the auto pricing Web site Truecar.com.
Even as the economic news was largely dreary, people were still buying cars.
Two of the biggest reasons were that manufacturers had recently launched a lot of all-new and redesigned models and that a lot of people simply couldn’t put off buying any longer, Toprak said.
General Motors reported a 19% increase in sales compared to September, 2010. Among the biggest sellers for GM were compact SUVs like the GMC Terrain and sm …CNN
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Detroit dinosaurs: 6 autos headed for extinction
Posted on August 28th, 2011 by admin
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For a century, the North American auto market was an island of dinosaurs surrounded by an ocean of pygmies. Open roads, cheap gasoline, and an affluent population led to the rise of automotive species seen nowhere else in the world.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the combination of special circumstances and geographical isolation produced chrome-bedecked, V-8 powered, behemoth passenger cars. In the 1980s and 1990s, they gave birth to pickup trucks and their offspring, body-on-frame sport utility vehicles. Detroit lost its engineering edge as manufacturers on other continents pioneered front-wheel-drive, multi-valve engines, and hybrid gas-electric powertrains.
In the future, the larger, faster-growing market of China, will drive design preferences, while stricter fuel-economy standards will dictate size, weight, and engine size. That could mean extinction for some models that are beloved by American car buyers but aren’t adaptable to the new world order. Herewith, some candidates for the scrap heap.
NEXT: Truckasaurus Rex
By Alex Taylor III, senior-editor-at-large – Last updated August 26 2011: 9:52 AM ET
…CNN
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NYT: In its rebound, Detroit focuses on smaller cars
Posted on June 1st, 2011 by admin
div id=”mainart” class=”hmedia art grid-8×2″ about=”http://msnbcmedia2.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/g-110529-cvr-autos-8p.grid-8×2.jpg”> Steve Fecht / General Motors via EPA
A General Motors assembly line making the Chevrolet Sonic subcompact and the Buick Verano compact in Lake Orion, Mich.DETROIT — After years of being outgunned by Japanese rivals, the American auto industry has made small cars a central part of its strategy, seeking to capitalize on a fundamental shift in the preferences of consumers in an era of fast-rising gas prices.
By refocusing on small cars and de-emphasizing the gas-guzzlers that had long sustained the industry, General Motors and Ford in particular are preserving jobs and positioning themselves to prosper. …MSNBC