Category: Automobiles

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) — General Motors Corp.’s 2008 U.S. sales plunged to a 49-year low, dragged down by a 31 percent plunge in December as demand was ravaged by the recession and concern that the biggest domestic automaker might collapse.

Toyota Motor Corp.’s U.S. deliveries plummeted 37 percent last month, while Honda Motor Co. slipped 35 percent, Ford Motor Co. fell 32 percent and Nissan Motor Co. was down 31 percent, pointing toward the industry’s worst annual volume since 1992.

… Ford’s annual U.S. sales sagged to a 47-year low, while GM’s total of 2.98 million was the least since 1959, according to trade publication Automotive News.

Bloomberg.com

Update: Wow, Chrysler sales off 53%. We won’t be seeing those Dodge truck ads much longer — because we won’t be seeing Dodge trucks much longer.

Oh, and an old complaint with me. Why can’t the coverage of these statistics be more meaningful? How about a three or better yet five-year running average to compare sales against. Any one year or month can be an anomaly.

A report in The Wall Street Journal tells of hard times for many car dealers, some of whom probably deserve it.

GM alone has 6,426 dealers, the company says. Toyota, with U.S. sales equaling about 85% of GM’s, has just 1,461 dealers.

In seeking federal aid, the Detroit companies promised to close or combine thousands of dealerships. Although the recently approved loans for GM and Chrysler don’t require this, the recession has been lowering the numbers anyway. The dealer association estimates that 900 auto dealers in the U.S. closed in 2008 — 86% of them sellers of domestic makes. It expects about 1,100 more dealerships to close in 2009.

Dan Neil informs us that all is not bad in Motown. Go read it all (because Neil is the best), but here’s the teaser:

The 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, and its twin, the Mercury Milan Hybrid, are mid-to-full-size sedans that seat five in surprising comfort and offer a full-size trunk measuring around 12 cubic feet. They measure 190.6 inches long and weigh a goodly 3,720 pounds. The gas-electric output is 191 horsepower and zero to 60 mph acceleration is under 9 seconds.

The retail price of a nicely equipped Fusion Hybrid — with blandishments such as rearview camera, blind-spot alert and 17-inch alloy wheels — is $27,270. With the applicable federal tax credit, the car should cost consumers about $25,000, I estimate (final numbers have not been announced).

On a test drive of a Fusion Hybrid last week in West L.A. traffic, I managed, without much trouble, to get 52 mpg in mixed city-highway driving.

If they don’t quit running those asinine Dodge Ram truck ads again and again and again, I’d just as soon Chrysler did go bankrupt.

Subaru and Dodge Ram Hemi may be truer to form in New Mexico than say Arlington, Virginia, but the characterizations apply everwhere. Kahunaburger tells us to Beware of the Santa Fe Snow Drivers — “First, let’s meet Carla Cautious. She drives an old Subaru. Green. … Second, there’s Rick Rambo. He drives one of those 7.1L Hemi Dodge Ram Heavy Duty trucks.”

Go read and enjoy.

Light snow this morning at Casa NewMexiKen, no accumulation yet.

Is it really 10 below in Denver?

In the summer of 1956, the once-mighty Packard Motor Car Company closed its doors. Its headquarters and chief production complex still stand here, though, and their slowly decaying remains serve as a symbol for the fall of American manufacturing in general and the degradation of the auto industry in particular. The Packard plant sits on East Grand Boulevard on Detroit’s east side. It is immense: 3.5 million square feet of space in 47 connected buildings. The campus stretches for almost a mile north to south.

Read more about the Packard plant from Op-Ed Contributor Bill McGraw.

The CEOs of GM, Chrysler and Ford have each agreed to an annual salary of $1 in hopes of getting financial support for their company.

But don’t forget, these guys all have stock options.

That means they’re probably really working for $3 a year.

How tough are they?

Well, for decades near the end of every college football game on television Chevrolet has honored the best player on each team with a donation of $1000 in the player’s name to the school’s scholarship fund.

Now the players have to give Chevrolet the $1000.

First some flavor:

Tom has been an employee of General Motors since he graduated from Evansville University in 1974. At the time, for a Midwestern kid from “stonecutter” Bedford, Indiana, it was kind of like going to work for Google today.

As you can imagine, Tom’s seen a lot happen in the energy and auto industries in the last 34 years, but before this year he never considered that his retirement, his health care, and indeed his professional future would be in such dramatic jeopardy. In fact, without ever changing careers, he once worked for the largest and arguably the most influential corporation in the world; now he’s getting these emails. He never dreamed that he’d need to be calling his congressmen to save the company to which he’s always been loyal, and upon which he and his family’s livelihood has depended. I can speak with such certainty about Tom’s past because I’ve known him for 27 of the 34 years he’s been with General Motors, and we’re very close.

Tom is my dad.

Go read it all — GM Goes Grassroots. A Son is Torn.

Seriously. Go read it.

The three auto company CEOs each flew from Detroit to Washington this week IN PRIVATE JETS. Three private jets.

About $20,000 EACH instead of first class air fare for maybe a grand apiece.

First contingency for any federal rescue money, their resignations.

If GM isn’t around to build it, let’s hope someone does.

The Volt, which the company plans to begin selling in November 2010, should easily double the fuel economy rating of today’s mileage hero, the Toyota Prius. The Prius, which carries a 46 m.p.g. rating in combined city and highway driving, is a conventional hybrid that uses modest amounts of electricity to minimize the fuel consumed by its gasoline engine.

The Volt takes the opposite approach, relying mainly on electric power, with its gasoline engine running only when needed to stretch the driving range. The 100 m.p.g. automobile, which once seemed an impossible dream, will become an official E.P.A.-rated reality with the Volt’s arrival.

G.M. calls the car an extended-range electric vehicle, or E-REV. For the first 40 miles after leaving home with a fully charged battery, the Volt will consume no gas at all, according to G.M.; when the gas engine does fire up, it will only drive a generator — the engine is not connected to the wheels. Owners will recharge the battery overnight from a wall socket, which brings the Volt into the category of plug-in hybrids.

Read more about the Volt from The New York Times.

I am a native Detroiter, and though I moved to Arizona at the start of high school, I remained in touch with the Motor City in a personal way well into my twenties.

As a little kid I can remember the thrill of seeing the Cadillac assembly plant on the way to Grandma’s. Or the blast furnaces making the sky glow orange on cloudy nights. Or seeing the latest models in the lobby of the General Motors Building on West Grand Boulevard (and the cool tunnel under the Boulevard to the Fisher Building across the street). Or the introduction of new car models each September, searchlights piercing the sky.

Later, while in graduate school, I had a summer job with a Ford supplier that took me to the executive suites of Ford and to the Lincoln-Mercury Division too, headquartered then in the wood-paneled hallways of Ford’s first Dearborn office building. As I noted here a few days ago, I once even applied for a job on the Dodge assembly line.

People in Detroit didn’t work at Ford, they worked at Ford’s, possessive as if they worked for Mr. Ford (because in many cases their fathers had worked for Mr. Ford). Even the freeways in Detroit told you who the important people were — the Edsel Ford, the Walter P. Chrysler, the Fisher (it was the Fisher Brothers that built GM car bodies), the Walter P. Reuther (the great United Auto Workers leader).

It was the quintessential American industry and it was the “Arsenal of Democracy.” During the last year of World War II, Ford was assembling one B-24 every 63 minutes. The assembly line was over a mile long. Chrysler made Sherman tanks and anti-aircraft guns.

You grow up in Detroit, the automobile industry is in your blood. At least it’s still somewhere in mine.

So what has happened that makes so many Americans willing to let the American auto industry go down the drain? Not only that, but as commenter Eric notes, with a “vindictiveness that pervades” so much of the discussion.

How in fact is stiffing Detroit any different than the way New Orleans has been treated?

… was completed on this date in 1914. When asked why the Dodge Brothers wanted to build their own car, John Dodge replied, “Just think of all the Ford owners who will someday want an automobile.”

Some background from This Day in History from the History Channel:

On this day, John and Horace Dodge completed their first Dodge vehicle, a car informally known as “Old Betsy.” The same day, the Dodge brothers gave “Old Betsy” a quick test drive through the streets of Detroit, Michigan, and the vehicle was shipped to a buyer in Tennessee. John and Horace, who began their business career as bicycle manufacturers in 1897, first entered the automotive industry as auto parts manufacturers in 1901. They built engines for Ransom Olds and Henry Ford among others, and in 1910 the Dodge Brothers Company was the largest parts-manufacturing firm in the United States. In 1914, the intrepid brothers founded the new Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company, and began work on their first complete automobile at their Hamtramck factory. Dodge vehicles became known for their quality and sturdiness, and by 1919, the Dodge brothers were among the richest men in America. In early 1920, just as he was completing work on his 110-room mansion on the Grosse Point waterfront in Michigan, John fell ill from respiratory problems and died. Horace, who also suffered from chronic lung problems, died from pneumonia in December of the same year. The company was later sold to a New York bank, and in 1928, the Chrysler Corporation bought the Dodge name, its factories, and the large network of Dodge car dealers. Under Chrysler’s direction Dodge became a successful producer of cars and trucks marketed for their ruggedness, and today Dodge sells a lineup of over a dozen cars and trucks.

NewMexiKen applied for a job at Dodge Main in Hamtramck in 1965 or 1966, but ended up in an electrical equipment factory nearby. Dodge Main was the original Dodge factory, ultimately demolished in 1980. Though I heard that work at Dodge Main was particularly tough and dirty I always thought it would have been cool to build cars, even if only for a summer. Or, more likely, especially if only for a summer.

Be careful out there. The weeks after the time change are the most dangerous of the year for pedestrians in early evening traffic.

“And Edmunds.com, which has suffered the slings and arrows of tedious car testing, says an emphatic yes. The venerable car group found that using cruise control improved gas mileage by 7 to 14 percent, except in mountainous terrain.”

Via Huffington Post

The college-age sister of a friend was T-boned this past week by a driver whose breathalyzer score was .19 (.08 is the legal limit).

The intoxicated driver was test driving a Ford 150 pickup from a local dealer. He ran a stop sign at 35 miles per hour.

Fortunately our friend’s sibling was not seriously injured.

But I’d own that car dealer before it was over if it was me.

Click image for larger version.

2009 Maserati GranTurismo S $135,000

Click image for larger version of car porn.

So NewMexiKen and Donna are driving down the street the other day and we see an ’03 Honda S2000 roadster in the front of a dealer lot. I continue on down the street, think what the heck, make a U-turn and we go back to check it out. I’ve had my eye on this particular model since 2001 — considered one then but took a pass because dealers were getting several thousand more than the MSRP.

The sales consultant wanders out and tells me $18,995 for this particular vehicle, which appears very clean. One owner he tells me.  Traded it in because his wife was pregnant and the car would be too small with a child.

I’m interested but it’s hot, and besides I know better than to act too interested. I’ll come by next week, I say.

Guess what? The car is listed online by the dealer for $1,000 LESS THAN THAT and has had three owners in its five years (in three states) according to CarFax. Not good.

(Even before she knew the car’s biography and actual price, Donna told me she’d offer just $15,995 for the vehicle. I am hiring Donna to negotiate all my major purchases. And “major purchase” for NewMexiKen is anything over ten bucks.)

Update: Donna called the sales manager late this afternoon. He acknowledged two prices and two (but not three) owners. She said he didn’t seem to care all that much that we had been interested in the car, but now wouldn’t trust them enough to buy Cinderella’s used pumpkin.