auto industry

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February 6, 2012 | 12:45 PM | By Dustin Dwyer

What Do We Mean When We Talk About Detroit?


Last night during the Super Bowl, Chrysler ran a follow-up to its much buzzed-about commercial from last year’s big game. The new commercial, dubbed “It’s Halftime in America” ran, appropriately enough, during halftime.

The ad makes it clear that Chrysler is sticking with its strategy to promote the Motor City as a way to promote its vehicles.

After declaring that “it’s halftime in America, the ad’s narrator, Clint Eastwood, says:

People are out of work and they’re hurting. And they’re all wondering what they’re going to do to make a comeback. And we’re all scared because this isn’t a game. The people of Detroit know a little something about this. They almost lost everything. But we all pulled together. Now, Motor City is fighting again.

The ad got us thinking: When people say Detroit, oftentimes what they mean is “the auto industry” or “metro-Detroit.” So, what exactly are we talking about when we talk about Detroit?

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FILED UNDER: Communities, Industry, ad, advertising, auto industry, Chrysler, Clint Eastwood, Detroit, Halftime in America, Imported From Detroit, Super Bowl
January 26, 2012 | 9:09 AM | By Kate Davidson

Buy Here-Pay Here: Get a Ride, Don’t Be Taken for One

Kate Davidson

Matt Ghazal runs a Buy Here-Pay Here business in West Michigan. He's trying to change the sector's reputation.

In the Midwest, it’s hard to get around without a car.  These days, people are holding onto them longer.  The average vehicle is almost 11 years old and used cars prices are on the rise.  All this adds to the pressure on the bottom rung of consumers: people with bad credit.  For many, the only way to finance a car is at a Buy Here-Pay Here lot.  Here, dealers loan to deep subprime customers at interest rates up to 25%.[display_podcast] Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Communities, auto industry, buy here pay here, car loans, economy, financing, Kate Davidson, Michigan, Ohio, used cars
January 26, 2012 | 8:38 AM | By Dustin Dwyer

Midwest Memo: Abbott Posts Layoffs, Auto Industry Posts Openings And A Target For Cabrini-Green

Layoffs at Abbott North-Chicago based Abbott Laboratories is laying off 700 workers in the U.S. and Canada. The Chicago Tribune reports 200 layoffs will be at the company’s campus in Lake County, Ill.

Don’t call it a comeback One analyst predicts the auto industry will add 15,000 jobs this year. But the Detroit Free Press reports that still won’t come anywhere close to replacing the jobs that were lost.

Job training, streamlined Ohio governor, John Kasich says this year, job training is “going to be, probably my seminal issue.” The Columbus Dispatch says streamlining Ohio’s current job training programs is at the top of the governor’s to-do list. Right now, Kasich says the state has 77 training programs across 13 agencies.

Radically local consumerism Residents in Chagrin Falls, Ohio decided to “occupy” their locally-owned hardware store over the weekend to help generate some business. USA Today says by 10 a.m., the store was jammed with a “cash mob.”

This is where we used to live It’s official, the former site of one of the country’s most violent and infamous public housing projects has been bought by Target. Crain’s Chicago Business reports Target bought the former Cabrini-Green property for $8.8 million.

FILED UNDER: Midwest Memo, Abbott, auto industry, Cabrini-Green, John Kasich, Target
January 19, 2012 | 1:32 PM | By Micki Maynard

The Top Spot Goes To General Motors Once Again

General Motors has ranked second among the world’s carmakers for the past three years. But now, GM looks like it’s back in the top spot.

GM is once again the world's biggest carmaker. Photo by Chris via Flickr.

GM said Thursday that it sold 9,025,942 vehicles last year, 7.6 percent more than in 2010, according to The New York Times. Its closest competitor was Volkswagen, whose sales grew 14 percent to 8.156 million.

Toyota, which has led the global car market for the past three years, looks like it has fallen to No. 3. It hasn’t released its 2011 auto sales numbers yet. But last month, it estimated that will sell 7.9 million vehicles in 2011, and 8.48 million vehicles for this year.

The title returns bragging rights to Detroit, and gives GM a new challenger to worry about. Meanwhile, Toyota, whose Princeton, Indiana, plant just built its 3 millionth vehicle, is still working on its recovery from recalls, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami and floods in Thailand.

Does it matter to you if GM is No. 1? Let us know what you think of the sales race.

FILED UNDER: Industry, auto industry, General Motors, Toyota
December 20, 2011 | 3:56 PM | By Pete Bigelow

Battered By Criticism And Low Sales, Honda Announces Civic Redesign

Stung by sluggish sales, consumer criticism and bad reviews, Honda announced today that it would revamp its Civic only eight months after it released its latest model.

Critics noted the newest Civic was made from cheaper materials, had slower braking capability compared to its predecessors and failed to receive “recommended” status from Consumer Reports.

Tetsuo Iwamura, chief executive of American Honda Motor Co., made the announcement during an appearance in Detroit on Tuesday. The move comes as part of Honda’s ambitious goal to lift U.S. sales by 24 percent in 2012. Civic sales have been trending in the opposite direction.

U.S. sales of the Civic have fallen 13 percent this year to 200,690, according to researcher Autodata Corp, while Honda’s overall market share in the U.S. dipped one percentage point to 9 percent.

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FILED UNDER: Industry, auto industry, Honda
December 19, 2011 | 3:28 PM | By Pete Bigelow

With Twin Cities Assembly Plant Now Closed, St. Paul Ponders Future Of Shuttered Site

Employees crowded around, took photos and cheered as the last Ford Ranger pickup truck rolled off the assembly line Friday in St. Paul,  Minn.

At least one worker was bewildered by the reaction.

Photo by Slobodan Stojkovic via Flickr.

“I could not understand why there were cheering for the last vehicle,” Mike Montie, who worked at the Twin Cities Assembly Plant for 28 years, told the Associated Press. “You cheer for the first one, not the last one. I was like, ‘What the hell?’ I didn’t want it to end, you know?”

He was one of 800 employees who lost their jobs when the Twin Cities Assembly Plant closed Friday. The plant, located along the banks of the Mississippi River, has produced more than 6 million cars during an 86-year history. But sales of the Ranger have slackened since the 1990s, and Ford decided to concentrate on larger, more profitable pickups.

A multimillion dollar cleanup of the 122-acre site will begin early next year.

Local officials are hopeful the site can be repurposed. According to the St. Paul Star Tribune, locals are considering a lot of possibilities, including a green manufacturing complex, a densely populated transit village, a park, an office campus and a middle-class neighborhood.

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FILED UNDER: Communities, Industry, Jobs, auto industry, Empty Places, Ford, Minnesota
December 19, 2011 | 12:12 PM | By Kate Davidson

Happy Birthday, Industrial Robot: 50th Anniversary of Unimate

Here at Changing Gears, we can’t let 2011 go by without marking a revolutionary anniversary.  Fifty years ago, in 1961, GM installed the first industrial robot.  It altered the course of manufacturing forever. Unimate was a robotic arm that unloaded hot pieces of die-cast metal.  Joseph Engelberger, known as “the father of robotics,” saw the invention as a way to replace dangerous, dull and dirty jobs.

Unimate actually had two fathers – George C. Devol, who died in August at age 99, and Engelberger, who is still alive.  Back in 1966 Engelberger joined Unimate on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, where he (the robot) sank a putt and opened a can of beer.  We were struck by the wonder of that moment, the enthusiasm for the power of automation.  Chrysler and Ford followed GM’s lead, but it was Japan that fully embraced the new robotics.

FILED UNDER: Industry, Innovation, auto industry, Japan, robotics
December 8, 2011 | 5:13 PM | By Pete Bigelow

Report: Developers Trend Toward Repurposing Shuttered Auto Plants

Of the 263 automotive plants closed across the country over the past three decades, nearly 49 percent have been repurposed, according to a Labor Department study released Thursday.

And the pace of redeveloping them has accelerated.

The New York Times reported today that, despite the fragile economy, developers have bought as many closed plants in the past three years – 32– as they did in the previous 26 years. Lower property values and a glut of plants on the market have contributed to the trend.

The repurposed plants have welcomed traditional manufacturers, and some of have been turned into housing developments, offices and research centers which has helped affected communities rediscover needed tax revenues, according to the study, which was authored by Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Center for Automotive Research.

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FILED UNDER: Communities, Industry, Innovation, auto industry, Empty Places
December 8, 2011 | 3:50 PM | By Pete Bigelow

Ford, Chrysler And General Motors All In The News Today

Today’s news cycle has prominently featured the U.S. auto industry. Here’s a quick roundup of three stories about Detroit’s Big Three making news this afternoon:

Photo by Slobodan Stojkovic via Flickr.

1. Ford Reinstating Dividends. Ford will reinstate its quarterly dividends in 2012, the company announced Thursday. “We have made tremendous progress in reducing debt and generating consistent positive earns and cash flow,” Bill Ford, executive chairman, said in a statement. Ford will pay five cents per share to holders of Class B and common stock as of Jan. 31, 2012. Payments will be made on March 1. Ford had suspended its dividend payments more than five years ago, as the company grappled with the recession. Now, it has posted 10 consecutive profitable quarters, according to the Los Angeles Times.

2. GM Chief Shakes Up Detroit. For generations, executives at the Big Three adhered to a code of conformity and predictability. More recently, that culture has been shaken up by outsiders. None are having a more dramatic impact than General Motors CEO Dan Akerson, according to Bill Vlasic of The New York Times, who profiles the senior executive today. Vlasic examines Akerson’s handling of the recent federal investigation into the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. By offering to buy back Volts from concerned owners, Akerson adopted an “aggressive – and potentially risky – strategy,” said one analyst. Akerson saw the company’s reponse to the crisis as a potential defining moment, Vlasic writes.

3. Detroit Comeback Featured In Time. The comeback of the American auto industry has reached the front page of Time Magazine. The lead story of an issue that hits newsstands tomorrow examines the resurgence of a domestic industry that faced extinction only three years ago. Specifically, the weekly news mag looks at Chrysler and the role of CEO Sergio Marchionne in boosting sales 23 percent in October 2011 year over year. The headline: “How America Started Selling Cars Again.”

 

FILED UNDER: Industry, auto industry, Chevrolet Volt, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, GM
December 8, 2011 | 11:53 AM | By Pete Bigelow

Midwest Memo: Lansing-Area UAW Members Voting On Strike Authorization, Illinois Lawmakers Regroup, Milwaukee Businesses Sharing Office Space

Three stories making news across the Midwest today:

1. Lansing-area Local 602 could authorize strike. Members of UAW Local 602 are voting today and tomorrow on whether to authorize a strike. The union, which represents approximately 3,430 employees at the General Motors assembly plant in Delta Township, Michigan, has failed to reach an agreement on a local contract with plant management. According to the Lansing State Journal, a strike authorization gives union leaders the authority to call a strike, but does not necessarily mean one is imminent. Changing Gears profiled Local 602, one of the three locals that defeated the GM-UAW contract, in September.

2. Illinois lawmakers regroup. Lawmakers will give a second effort to keeping CME Group and Sears in Illinois. After rejecting two bills that would have provided the Chicago-based companies with $250 million in tax incentives last week, they announced the House would hold a special session Monday in hopes of trying again. House members have now raised the prospect of splitting the bill into several pieces of legislation and holding multiple votes, our partner station WBEZ reported. The two companies have threatened to relocate elsewhere in the Midwest if a deal isn’t done by the end of the year. Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn said Ohio offered Sears $400 million in incentives to relocate to Columbus.

3. Milwaukee capitalizes on workspace-sharing trend. A Milwaukee developer is bringing a  West Coast trend of small businesses sharing office space to the Midwest. Soon, William Waldren will open the Hudson Business Lounge, where 180 small-business owners have already signed up to share work space, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “There’s definitely been a pickup in people wanting to do this,” said James Carlson, who runs Bucketworks, another Milwaukee-based shared workspace building. Hudson offers various levels, starting at $55 per month for part-time access to group work tables to a $795 per month package that includes private office space. Across the U.S., 450 to 500 co-working sites exist, according to the newspaper, but most cater to tech people. Walden wants to broaden the appeal to other businesses.

 

FILED UNDER: Communities, Government, Innovation, auto industry, CME Group, Illinois, Lansing, Milwaukee, Sears, tax incentives, UAW