With Sonic, G.M. Stands Automaking on Its Head

[Lunican]

With Sonic, G.M. Stands Automaking on Its Head



ORION TOWNSHIP, Mich. â€" The only subcompact car being built on American soil will soon roll out of an assembly plant here in suburban Detroit that is as unusual as the car itself.

The production line has been squeezed into half the space of a traditional plant. Welding robots are concentrated in efficient clusters, instead of being spaced along the line, while many of the workers earn half the typical union wage. Even the first coat of rust-proofing has been reformulated so that it is one-hundredth as thick as â€" and thereby cheaper than â€" the coating on other cars.

One of the oldest axioms in the auto industry is that no company can build a subcompact car in the United States and make money because they are priced too low. The Ford Fiesta is built in Mexico. The Honda Fit is made in several places, including China and Brazil. But with Americans â€" and Detroit â€" rediscovering small cars because of high gasoline prices, General Motors is intent on shattering that notion with its new Chevrolet Sonic. Not only does it give G.M. a new entry in the lowest tier of the market when it goes on sale this fall, the Sonic is expected to be a breakthrough in establishing a new level of cooperation between Detroit and the United Automobile Workers.

Full Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/business/with-chevrolet-sonic-gm-and-uaw-reinvent-automaking.html

[Ocklawaha]

Their rumored to have a trolley pole or pantograph in the trunk, just push the button and the pole extends up to the trolley wire for the ultimate in fuel efficiency. ANY city with a streetcar system will soon be home to thousands of these little cars...  THANK HEAVEN for General Motors...

Oop's almost forgot the rest of the story.

OCKLAWAHA

[urbanlibertarian]

Made by Government Motors? No thanks.

[BridgeTroll]

Good to see us getting back into the subcompact market.  Other interesting points in the article...

The plant itself is smaller and reconfigured to save money, with company executives modeling some of the changes after G.M.’s most efficient factories in Germany and Korea. The production line’s footprint alone was reduced from 1 million square feet to 500,000 â€" the equivalent of losing the space of more than two Wal-Mart Super Stores. The energy bill was cut by powering some operations with methane gas from neighboring landfills.

and...

The radically revamped factory here operates with fewer and cheaper workers, many of whom are paid $14 an hour rather than the full U.A.W. wage of $28 an hour.

and...

The U.A.W. tried to persuade the Ford Motor Company to build the Fiesta subcompact in the United States. But Ford chose a plant in Mexico, where the combined wages and benefits of a production worker total less than $10 an hour. By contrast, a full-wage union member in the United States costs G.M. close to $60 an hour. Even an entry-level wage employee costs about $30 an hour in wages and benefits.

[Debbie Thompson]

"Even the first coat of rust-proofing has been reformulated so that it is one-hundredth as thick as â€" and thereby cheaper than â€" the coating on other cars."

How efficient can the rust proofing be if it's 1/100 as thick as the coating on other cars.  Really?  In humid Florida?  Is it a new, super-efficient kind of rust proofing that's as good as the old one while being that thin?

[tufsu1]

Made by Government Motors? No thanks.

you mean the same company that took a loan from the U.S. treasury...and then paid it back in full with interest!

[copperfiend]

Made by Government Motors? No thanks.

you mean the same company that took a loan from the U.S. treasury...and then paid it back in full with interest!

Those dirty bastards!!!

[adamh0903]

Made by Government Motors? No thanks.

you mean the same company that took a loan from the U.S. treasury...and then paid it back in full with interest!

Not exactly...
They paid back the loan amount of 6.7 billion, out of a pool of 13 billion in an escrow account the government transferred to them. The US Government still owns 60% equity in G.M. The Canadian Government owns a little over 11%

[Tacachale]

Not anymore. The U.S. government already sold off about half of the 61% stake in the company it formerly held. It now has about 32% of the common equity in the company.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/22/gm-bloom-idUSN1E75L22Q20110622

As I recall Canada also sold off part or most of its stake.

[Dashing Dan]

Made by Government Motors? No thanks.

This car could have been made in the old Saturn plant in Spring Hill TN, but GM got a bigger bribe incentive from Michigan than Tennessee could offer. 

TN had already paid to rebuild the GM factory in Spring Hill so that GM could make the Chevy Traverse there.  But  back around 2008 GM shifted all Traverse production to a single GM plant (also) in Michigan.

Most of the GM factory in Spring Hill is sitting idle right now.  GM is making engines there, but not any cars or trucks.

Bailout or no bailout, GM is still picking our pockets, along with a bunch of other car companies that have new US plants built with taxpayer money.

[wsansewjs]

Good to see us getting back into the subcompact market.  Other interesting points in the article...

The plant itself is smaller and reconfigured to save money, with company executives modeling some of the changes after G.M.’s most efficient factories in Germany and Korea. The production line’s footprint alone was reduced from 1 million square feet to 500,000 â€" the equivalent of losing the space of more than two Wal-Mart Super Stores. The energy bill was cut by powering some operations with methane gas from neighboring landfills.

and...

The radically revamped factory here operates with fewer and cheaper workers, many of whom are paid $14 an hour rather than the full U.A.W. wage of $28 an hour.

and...

The U.A.W. tried to persuade the Ford Motor Company to build the Fiesta subcompact in the United States. But Ford chose a plant in Mexico, where the combined wages and benefits of a production worker total less than $10 an hour. By contrast, a full-wage union member in the United States costs G.M. close to $60 an hour. Even an entry-level wage employee costs about $30 an hour in wages and benefits.

Basically the unions were good back in the good old days, but today, it is the fault of the union workers to DRIVE their own jobs out because of their demands in an economic sense way. Yes I said, ECONOMIC sense, not ethnic, moral values, or any other reasons.

That's why the unions need to hold their horses and take the hit in order to maintain their job securities.

-Josh

[Ocklawaha]

Not anymore. The U.S. government already sold off about half of the 61% stake in the company it formerly held. It now has about 32% of the common equity in the company.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/22/gm-bloom-idUSN1E75L22Q20110622

As I recall Canada also sold off part or most of its stake.

Oh great now the Chinese will probably own it... 该死的美国佬 

OCKLAWAHA

[Dashing Dan]

G.M. is still using public money for private gain.  Here's an article from today's Nashville Tennessean

GM collected $17 million from TN for jobs, then left

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110731/NEWS0201/307310092/GM-collected-17-million-from-TN-jobs-then-left?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

As General Motors teetered on the brink of collapse nearly three years ago, it was able to tap an unexpected source of cash: the state of Tennessee.

The automotive giant received nearly $17 million â€" most of it in the week after executives disclosed the cash crisis that ultimately led to a federal bailout.