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http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Columns/articleId=109512
I wonder who's going to inspire the next Mustang or will that get the axe :lemon:
Rocky
Rocky
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY -- DaimlerChrysler AG is joining forces with its suppliers to invest $1 billion in its Mexican manufacturing and supplier operations, the latest in a series of investments by the company.
Most of the outlay, jointly announced by Mexican President Vicente Fox and Chrysler Group's chief operating officer Eric Ridenour, will go to upgrade the Toluca assembly plant, the only place in the world that produces the Chrysler PT Cruiser.
In addition, two supplier parks will be build and operational improvements made.
The expansion and renovations, most of which will take place in 2006, will allow the Toluca facility the flexibility to make at least 3 models on one assembly line, officials said.
"The bottom line is that consumers are demanding more of our remarkable products," said DaimlerChrysler Mexico Vice President of Manufacturing Roberto Gutierrez.
In 2005, the plant turned out 158,000 PT Cruisers and PT Cruiser convertibles.
DaimlerChrysler spokesman Edward Saenz said the key market for PT cruisers is likely to continue being the United States.
Saenz said the investment should lead to more jobs at the plant, which now has a work force of 2,600 people.
Fox said the upgrading will contribute to Mexico getting more than $18 billion in foreign direct investment this year.
"Every product that comes out with the quality of these cars is the best promotion for investing, so our economy keeps on growing and keeps on generating jobs for the young," Fox said.
Chrysler recently announced plans to invest $1 billion in two plants near St. Louis, Mo., and completed a $419 million renovation of a plant in Belvidere, Ill. that builds the Dodge Caliber.
Oh yeah let's give Mexico more money :mad:
Rocky
Gray Swoope, chief operating officer for the authority, said the South Korean automaker will make the final decision on where to place its first U.S. plant.
The site in Lauderdale County at Kewanee is still under consideration, Swoope said.
"We continue to push Mississippi and all the sites that meet their criteria," he said.
Kia officials toured a site in Meridian in 2005, initially declaring the city a front-runner in its search. Company officials later became less enthusiastic, saying Meridian's population may not be able to sustain the necessary work force for the plant.
Mississippi has continued to pursue the plant, despite reports that a LaGrange, Ga., site is a strong contender.
Swoope declined to comment on whether the state has pitched a site in Lowndes County.
The Detroit-based Automotive News reported Monday that the Gulf Opportunity Zone legislation would allow Mississippi to offer Kia an incentive package worth nearly $1 billion.
The bill was signed into law in 2005.
While Mississippi will be able to offer a better package because of post-Katrina legislation, the state will not disclose the amount, Swoope said.
"Any publication of those numbers would be speculation," Swoope said. "And, what would be available in Lowndes County would be available in Lauderdale County. As far as incentives, the state will never be in the position to offer more incentives at one site than at another site."
Kia is expected to announce its plans for the site before the end of March. Kia is owned by Hyundai Motor Co.
Whoa !!!!! That's a good way to spend tax payer money. Let's give them some Katrina funds. :mad:
While Mississippi will be able to offer a better package because of post-Katrina legislation, the state will not disclose the amount, Swoope said.
Swoope, I bet your scared to disclose that amount, because you probably got your hand out wanting a kick back. :mad:
Any publication of those numbers would be speculation
Yeah I bet, but I want to know where "MY" money's going and I don't want it going to subsidize a foreign buisness.
- I find it amazing that we are giving all this money to the victims of Katrina and it has yielded little performance. Billions mysteriously have disappeared and it looks like Billion or so will go to Kia. :sick:
I wished are politicians would use lubricants because it's starting to hurt.
Rocky
OTOH, Kia makes a nice-looking minivan, car and SUV that is well-built and doesn't cost an arm and a hammer. The Long-Haul Warranty was genius, pure genius on Hyundai/Kia's part, too. The new Hyundai Sonata is a great new car that is selling like hotcakes. Kia has my business and Hyundai continues to grab more market share every year, as does my fave Kia. They've handled this thing very intelligently, indeed.
Kia wants to locate in Georgia in a location that is on the rail and truck line from the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama. Look for Kia to take a location in an oakie spot in Georgia within a few weeks. What tax incentives are offered are just icing on Kia's cake. Let tham get a good tax break and give some Georgians some jobs there.
I like some of what the domestics are doing lately, notably the Dodge Caliber, with it's CVVT engine that is similar to the 1.6 liter engine Kia is plopping into their 2006 Kia Rio LX and 2006 Kia Rio5. Those engines are the new "world" 4 cylinder motors that Hyundai, Mitsubishi and Daimler-Chrysler have been working on for a few years. They reduce emissions and increase ghastly mileage, albeit only somewhat.
It seems that we're just gonna have to live with the gas mileage we're seeing available right now. When a manufacturer says(Kia included here)that their car will get 32 city and 35 highway, like on the new Rio's, that really means something closer to 26 city, 30 highway. Then again, what's wrong with those numbers, dudes?
Yep, it's all coming up South Korean these days. The only other two rigs I'm interested in are the afore-mentioned Dodge Caliber and the Scion xA RS 3.0(what color are they picking for the xA RS 3.0, Mr. Shiftright?)at this time.
Our 2001 Kia Sportage 4x4 is humming along like new at 109,680 miles and replacing it will take something strong.
Oh, and the Super Bowl was tampered with this year. Something was awry, something was ticked and tattered and bought off...ummm...did I say bought off? I mean, something was tinkered and tattered. People, you have to think a little bit yourself about things. Read into things a little further. For some reason the NFL wanted Pitt the winner for this year's Super Bowl. They had Pittsburgh Steelers fondling the Lombardi longingly and with a glee in their eyes before the game. Seattle's Holmgren and Alexander were allowed to cast gleaming glances only later on in the info-mercial. It was pathetic when the game actually started and the ref's started tossing out flags like Rod Price and Lonesome Dave Peverett tossing out guitar picks at the world's greatest rock band's rock shows. Every time Seattle would start a drive a flag would come floating out of the sky.
Ben Rothelsberger did not get into the end zone. He even admitted it on a late-night talk show. Jackson pushed off on his TD pass from Hasselback? Yeah, sure he did. As the first half ended Jackson caught another pass that should have been called a Seattle touchdown, too. He had one foot in and the other brushed the pylon. Evidently in the NFL rulebook that is considered a TD. Hey, a thought just occurred to me. Maybe the NFL referee's ought to bone up on their own rulebook before trying to call a game, eh? Either that or refuse to dishonestly accept bribes to call a game a certain way. Pathetic. That was Seattle's Super Bowl to lose. What I mean by that is Seattle was obviously the more talented team. The team with the high-powered offense. The team with the real, prototype NFL quarterback who is now getting results in a large way. Seattle's defense was improving every week and clamping down tight on opposing offenses in the red zone. Everything was coming up Rose Bowl's for the Seahawks. Those who worship the God of Cash refused to let the finer team win. They will have to pay to a higher power for those dishonest acts. You can bank on that, gentlemen. The Seahawks were robbed. By thugs in zebra suits. And no doubt the mob, or an organized crime affiliate of your choice. Take your choice, car nuts.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Back to topic. I agree with you 100% that the GM suits waited until it was to late and let everything boil over. :sick: I guess I can't see myself ever driving a Kia or Hyundai. The Japanese like Honda and Toyota make much better cars and will be my first choice if GM dies.
Rocky
Rocky, take me up on this. Go drive the new 2006 Kia Rio LX sedan or the 2006 Kia Rio5 hatchwagon. They are great cars and Kia still offers the wonderful Long-Haul Warranty. In my case I can pick and choose whatever car I want without family interference. I wouldn't listen to my family if they did disrespect my choice in cars, anyway. I'd politely tell them to jump in Lake Erie, right near that phony-baloney Rock and Roll Hall of Shame that won't induct Foghat into their R&R "Hall of Shame". What a buch of dorks they are. Think about this one: they inducted The Turtles, an American pajama-bottom band, and overlooked the greatest rock band ever, Britain's Foghat. And you can't e-mail them to complain because you'd interrupt their latte's and donuts and high-life there in Cleveland. Tee-hee.
Rocky, I truly want to see Detroit rise up in the NFL. Joey Harrington may or may not be their dude to help them get there, though.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Back on subject:
Unfortunatly, I had the oppertunity to ride in a Rio Lx sedan twice and I had back sores (well it felt like it) My grandmother (my moms, mother) had one a few years ago, and my friend Pracilla has one now. The seats are like sitting on a Cement Chair (think steps on a porch) and the gutless engine was louder than my grand dads chainsaw :surprise:
BTW- I didn't like riding with my knees covering my ears.
I however had tears running down my face from all the smart comments my Aunts and my mom were making. I had my mom laughing so hard she honestly told me to stop because she was going to pee her pants. She was laughing at me because of the way I was packed in their like a sardine.
iluvmysephia1, with all do respect those cars shouldn't be allowed on the road pal. They are very dangerous. You'd get rear ended in Dallas or Chicago when accelerating and a Escalade or Hummer doesn't see you and uses your trunk like a speed bump. Really they aren't much bigger than a Jersey Bouncer.
Please don't take this the wrong way
iluvmysephia1, Your a great guy and I like you alot, and I am not going to tell you what to buy. But for the safety of your family and you, I'd like to see you upgrade to atlease a Sonata or Azera if money is an option and you insist on driving a Korean Car with the long warranty
Rocky
P.S. Joey will be fine. :shades:
TOLUCA, Mexico — DaimlerChrysler celebrated the millionth Chrysler PT Cruiser to roll off the assembly line on Wednesday, and the company is celebrating by announcing a $1-billion investment to upgrade the plant and build two supplier industrial parks.
The big new investment will be made jointly with suppliers, DaimlerChrysler said.
DaimlerChrysler has been building the PT Cruiser exclusively at the Toluca plant since March 2000, and the car is sold in 60 countries. On hand to celebrate the achievement were Mexican president Vicente Fox, Chrysler Group CEO Eric Ridenour, and executives of DaimlerChrysler and the union in Mexico. At the ceremony, DaimlerChrysler de Mexico managing director Joe ChamaSrour called the PT Cruiser "an important part of the DaimlerChrysler family."
What this means to you: Chrysler is betting on a sunny future in Mexico.
What this means to me
DC can keep those POS south of the border, until they can quit polluting the enviroment and pay those folks a livable wage so they stop coming over here.
Rocky
I didn't look through it all but I'm sure the Bush, Clinton, and Cheney family is somewhere on the list.
Rick Wagoner, will probably be on their once he pulls his golden chute out of the bag. :P
GM's Kerkorkian is on the list at 8.6 Billion :surprise:
Bill Ford Sr. is on the list at 1.1 Billion. For somereason I'm not sure if I buy that small amount.
Rocky
Mininum wage gets increased in Michigan :surprise:
Way to go Jennifer Granholm
Rocky
P.S. Do any other states have a higher mininum wage than $5.15 an hour ?
Mostly auto-related.
Rocky
The United Auto Workers may be smacking down talk that a landmark deal with General Motors Corp. and bankrupt Delphi Corp. is nigh, if only to calm edgy members clamoring for answers.
But a sweeping deal is likely, if not imminent, because a silent, powerful fourth player in this three-way drama -- the capital markets -- is making its presence felt. It will force a resolution to this Detroit conundrum, either at the bargaining table or in bankruptcy court.
Why? Because it can. How? Because publicly-traded companies and the unions who feed off them cannot survive without two things -- capital and the confidence that underpins it. Lose both and it's all over.
Look at GM's share price and debt ratings or Delphi's monthly cash burn. The capitalists who provide cash and credit to GM and are trying to recover some from Delphi aren't too confident that the parties can resolve their very ugly and very complicated problem.
Billions wasted
Understandably, too. GM and its Detroit-based rivals probably rank among the greatest destroyers of capital the modern industrial world has ever seen -- billions invested, billions spent on cars and trucks whose sales missed expectations, billions paid in wages and benefits that outstripped those paid by more productive and profitable competitors.
It was all in the pursuit of something other than what was wrought, which was declining market share, lower earnings-per-share, battered reputations and razor-thin profit margins.
With the exception of the SUV-fueled late '90s, the past 20 years don't instill confidence in capitalists anymore than in the hourly workers who don't make the decisions but have to live with their consequences.
Which is why these negotiations downtown are so difficult. They're demanding historic change to a 70-plus year relationship, justifying those demands with arguments that the world has changed (which it absolutely has) and assurances the companies have changed, too.
Break the cycle
That's debatable. Less so is the reality that the Detroit-based industry is burdened by a cycle of blame that views every negotiation as a zero-sum game.
Who cares what former GM Chairman Roger Smith did 20 years ago? Or how the UAW's decades-long monopoly on labor empowered it to drive costs higher with each new contract -- until the Asians landed down south and began to expose a yawning competitive gap?
What matters is fixing the problem.
Philosophically, these two sides will never see eye-to-eye. Not when one considers it standard procedure to grant bonuses equal to 50 percent of base salary in a good year, and the other sees nothing wrong with getting full wages and benefits to sit and do nothing, even in a bad year.
Capital doesn't much care who did what to whom and when. It just wants the cycle of mutual self-destruction to end. Otherwise, it will make sure that it does.
Rocky
You OTOH :P
Rocky
One thing I'll say for GM though, is that I ended up taking a liking to the Lucerne the moment I saw it in person. If I were in the market for a new car, I'd at least consider it.
Rocky
Over to sports: who cares about Brees?!!! What are you talking about, rocky? READ CAREFULLY: THE SEAHAWKS ARE MORE THAN SET AT THE QUARTERBACK POSITION! They employ this man named Matt Hasselbeck that tore up the league last year. They also have the best running back in a guy named Shaun Alexander, who just signed for $62 million dollars over a 8 year period. At the high-notice positions they are set. Their changes will be minor and carefully done at some of the lineman positions. They may switch out a defensive back or two, who knows. It's all part of the fun of following them, man. They also have all of the receivers they need. Basically they would be the Super Bowl Champions if the NFL had set a fair and square table for them at the Super Bowl against Pittsburgh.
Oh, and Rocky, I'm just looking at the Rio's. I drive a 2001 Kia Sportage 4x4 which is the same design used by the South Korean military (only don't call them Jeeps-they just kinda resemble Jeeps). One of the things my wife and I like about them is the fact that you sit up high in them. We are concerned about safety and we're well taken-care of in our Sportsman. I wish the morons in the Detroit-built pick-em-up trucks and huge SUV's were just as concerned about safety as we are. You'd never know by the way some of them drive. :mad:
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Offering side/curtain airbags does not mean the car is very safe. You should wait till there is an actual crash test, than offer a bold statement "They are very safe vehicles" that may not be true. According to the recent NHSTA test, the RIO recieved a 3 star rating in the side test. Albeit, NHSTA has many flaws in their testing. They rarely give out 3 star ratings to new models. I'd still wait for the IIHS test to come out. Their testing methods are much better.
Example: The Kia Spectra had a "poor" side rating from IIHS. It was equipped with side/curtain airbags.
Sort of like the 1959 Chevrolet - which had the really wild gull-wing decklid, but still held the "USA-1" position on the sales charts.
The interior of the Camry is a major upgrade, and the exterior is not offensive, just a little bolder.
DrFill
Exactly. An automaker with a diminished reputation such as GM can't right its ship merely by playing follow-the-leader, it needs to outperform and exceed its competition in order to win back its reputation and overcome any stigma.
Cloning the leader won't be good enough. If a consumer wants a Camry, then he's going to buy it from Toyota. He is likely to pass up the uninspired knock off version provided by the General.
So why design a product that is destined to fail? GM will need to exceed expectations AND differentiate its products so that they have a distinctive difference that people are willing to pay for.
Chrysler learned this with the 300 and Ford seems to have (mostly) figured it out with the Fusion and Mustang, avoiding any half-hearted attempts to photocopy a Lexus or Toyota by carving their own distinctive paths that serve desires and needs that aren't met by the transplants and imports. That's smart thinking, and precisely what they need to keep doing if they plan on competing on their own merits.
GM's only option is to get crazy. 350 cubic inch V8 in a Cobalt-type car. Interesting doors. Stuff that you normally see at an auto show. Chrysler figured this out a while ago. Can't beat them, so gotta be different and unique. People still buy a Wrangler, for instance, despite the fact that this year's RAV-4(new model) out-everything's it off-road in normal trim(aftermarket mods - well I've seen a 4*4 1975 ElDorado, too).
Why? Because it looks and feels diffferent. PT crusier - same deal, despite it actually being a dreadful car.
I do think that you are overstating things a bit, but in some respects, you have identified one of their Achilles' heels. They are somewhat overdependent upon using reliability as a differentiator (which is why Honda and Toyota prosper while companies such as Isuzu and Mitsubishi don't -- the latter don't have those quality bragging rights).
My theory is that this will become a less compelling value proposition as the gap narrows further. If Hyundai closes the gap on quality, and converts that into proven long-term reliability, while offering reasonable styling and a price advantage, it will make serious inroads in the segments where it chooses to compete.
I don't know if a V-8 Cobalt is what would do the trick, but I would surely make a compact that is youth-oriented and exciting, meant to serve as a gateway to the family of products and to create a relationship. (At this point, profitability is almost secondary, the goal should be to build the brand and corresponding market share.)
That might mean a combination of flash, excellent reliability, some opportunities for customization (I'd study Honda's model of working with aftermarket tuners to make sure that the ricers are well cared for) and a certain something that the competitors don't offer. Kids like tech, so I'd probably figure out cool ways to give it to them. (You can make a different less quirky compact that will appeal to the grown-ups, of course.)
They need to take risks and break the molds. I agree - profitability is moot because they are bleeding as it is. They need to create cars that have the same flair and recognition as say, a Porsche does. (their SUV bastardization aside - sigh)
Great Reading Material
Rocky
I guess I'm the opposite.
I hated the 98 Accord Sedan and loved the coupe.
Loved the 03 Accord Sedan and hated the coupe.
Sorta liked the 97 Camry and hated the 02.
Going back a few more years, I sorta liked the 93 Integra and loved the 94 - when most people I talked to then hated the 94.
None of those opinions have changed over the years.
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060326/AUTO01/603260358/- 1148
Rocky
My question is to you. If their is so many oppertunity's for engineers, why is this making the media ? :confuse:
Rocky
Can he do it ?
Rocky
Rocky
From the article you linked:
One job placement agency, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Spherion Corp., is looking to fill nearly 900 engineering positions nationwide, including 224 in Michigan and Ohio
The jobs are there, you just have to go looking for them a little harder. That article is from the Detroit news, and Michigan's economy, along with the rest of the midwest, to a lesser extent, is doing pretty bad. The rest of the country's doing quite well.
I think the article's byline says it all, Conference's career fair is promising for those who're out of work-- but not if they want a Big Three position. There's a mentality in Michigan that the only good jobs are from the big 3. That has to change.
The people that will really feel the pain are those purchased in the past 2-3 years on adjustable mortgages.
Rocky
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060404/AUTO01/604040393/1148- - /rss25
Rocky
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060404/AUTO01/604040389/- 1148
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060405/AUTO01/604050402
Rocky
http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060404/AUTO01/604040391/- 1148/AUTO01
Rocky
Rocky
Rocky
Rocky
I wonder if people will go from buying Mercedes to Cadillacs ?
Rocky