GM bringing back 1,350 workers

[tu_holmes]

http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/18/news/companies/gm_jobs/index.htm?cnn=yes


Increased demand for fuel efficient cars is leading General Motors to reinstate workers and increase shifts and overtime in order to build 60,000 additional cars.
 
GM's Orion, Mich., plant, slated to close for a 2-year shutdown in September, will now stay open through November due to increased sales.
Cash for Clunkers cars list: Top 10
 
These are the most popular cars purchased under the Cash for Clunkers program.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors is upping production and calling 1,350 of its U.S. and Canadian auto workers back to work due to increased demand for its vehicles.

The company said Tuesday it is raising production by about 60,000 vehicles in the third and fourth quarters, in response to the increased sales that accompanied the government's Cash for Clunkers program.

The increased production will come from added shifts and overtime, GM said. In addition, the company will keep select plants open during weeks that they had previously been forecast to be shut down.

For example, the Orion Township, Mich., plant, which had been scheduled to close for nearly two-years in mid-September, will now remain in operation until just before Thanksgiving.

Those additional hours should increase the paychecks for an about 10,000 GM workers beyond those called back to work.

"The uptick is an encouraging sign that vehicle sales are turning around, and we will ramp up quickly to meet that demand," said Tim Lee, GM group vice president for global manufacturing and labor, in a statement.

Weak sales and a need to conserve cash led the company to shut most production during the spring and early summer months, leaving GM with a record low dealer inventory of about 300,000 vehicles, according to company officials.

Mark LaNeve, GM vice president, U.S. sales, added on a conference call that he expects additional production increases to be announced in coming weeks and that the increased production could continue into the early months of 2010.

"We're probably not done," he said.

The Cash for Clunkers program, which gives car buyers up to $4,500 from the federal government for older gas guzzlers if they buy a more efficient new car, caused a spike in sales across the industry during the last week of July. GM rival Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500) has also announced increased production for the second half of this year.

LaNeve said that GM has continued to benefit from healthier demand since the end of July, putting it on pace to beat internal sales targets for August by about 50,000 vehicles.

But he cautioned that strong sales to rental car companies and other so-called fleet customers last August will make it difficult for GM to post a year-over year gain in sales.

GM, which filed for bankruptcy in early June as part of a government-mandated reorganization, emerged from bankruptcy protection last month.

[Soul Crusher]

This is such a joke.  Serious TU - this is the most hairbrained idea I have ever heard of.  This is just more tax money being funneled to GM by the taxpayer.   

The demand was brought forward by this scheme and there is going to be an equal drop off of sales once the subsidy is gone. 

Finally, the fed gov is screwing the dealers big time.  I posted an article about this yesterday. 

[tu_holmes]

I'm very confused by how this is a joke. These people are getting their jobs back... How is that a joke?

[BM OUT]

I'm very confused by how this is a joke. These people are getting their jobs back... How is that a joke?

Because NO ONE WANTS SHITTY GM CARS!!!!!
The cash for clunkers program is a disaster as the dealers arent getting reimbursed.GM,is a failure just like Obamas other hair brained idea ,the stimulous.

[tu_holmes]

Because NO ONE WANTS SHITTY GM CARS!!!!!
The cash for clunkers program is a disaster as the dealers arent getting reimbursed.GM,is a failure just like Obamas other hair brained idea ,the stimulous.

Please stop going on about the Stimulus.

I read the stupid USA today article also... Guess what... Just below that in the USA today gallop poll was a complete reversal where 65% of the respondents thought it was working.

You have yet to show me where it has failed... you're just talking some crap. You do not have an evidence to back that statement up.

[Soul Crusher]

I'm very confused by how this is a joke. These people are getting their jobs back... How is that a joke?

They are not getting their jobs back - they are getting free taxpayer $$$$ because of a govt welfare program designed for idiots to turn in a perfectly working car to go into debt and funnel $$$ to the state govts.  This is a false front loaded demand based on an overly generous welfare check provided by all taxpayers to some.  The demand is not based on real demand, but based on the subsidy provided by the govt.  Thus, once the subsidy is gone, the sales will drop off and these people laid off again.  Its a complete smoke and mirros shell game.    

"Cash for Clunkers" is nothing more than another govt scheme to steal your money BTW.  It actually steals from people in two ways.  One, you are paying taxes so other people can get a car, and Two, you are going into debt and the $4500 is going mostly to bank fees and local taxes on a car that loses at least that much value the minutes its driven off the lot.  

This whole program is a perfect example of crack pot economics.      

[tu_holmes]

They are not getting their jobs back - they are getting free taxpayer $$$$ because of a govt welfare program designed for idiots to turn in a perfectly working car to go into debt and funnel $$$ to the state govts.  This is a false front loaded demand based on an overly generous welfare check provided by all taxpayers to some.  The demand is not based on real demand, but based on the subsidy provided by the govt.  Thus, once the subsidy is gone, the sales will drop off and these people laid off again.  Its a complete smoke and mirros shell game.    

"Cash for Clunkers" is nothing more than another govt scheme to steal your money BTW.  It actually steals from people in two ways.  One, you are paying taxes so other people can get a car, and Two, you are going into debt and the $4500 is going mostly to bank fees and local taxes on a car that loses at least that much value the minutes its driven off the lot.  

This whole program is a perfect example of crack pot economics.      

So those people will not get a paycheck and pay taxes back into the system? Really?

Apparently I do not understand what getting a job encompasses.

[Soul Crusher]

So those people will not get a paycheck and pay taxes back into the system? Really?

Apparently I do not understand what getting a job encompasses.

Bro - serious - read this book as a good start to understand reality.  These people are paid with taxpayer money, not private profits. 

"Cash for Clunkers" helps out a few at the expense of everyone else.  Its true quackery at its best. 

Additionally, this is a scheme that fools people into going into debt that they probably dont need.   so maybe you help out a few joes from Mi for a few months, but there are going be thousands of fools hurt by this who end up with the car repoed and the bank losing $$$ on the defaulted loans.

The bad outweighs the good on this by 10 to 1 IMHO.   

 

[kcballer]

333 will never see the logic Tu so it's kind of hard to explain it to him.  He just doesn't get that these people will spend this money and stimulate their local economies and help create a flow on effect.  

[tu_holmes]

Bro - serious - read this book as a good start to understand reality.  These people are paid with taxpayer money, not private profits. 

"Cash for Clunkers" helps out a few at the expense of everyone else.  Its true quackery at its best. 

Additionally, this is a scheme that fools people into going into debt that they probably dont need.   so maybe you help out a few joes from Mi for a few months, but there are going be thousands of fools hurt by this who end up with the car repoed and the bank losing $$$ on the defaulted loans.

The bad outweighs the good on this by 10 to 1 IMHO.   

 

So if GM makes money to pay back the money they have borrowed... That's bad.

If these people spend money that they earn and help stimulate the economy... That too is bad.

I get it.

[Soul Crusher]

So if GM makes money to pay back the money they have borrowed... That's bad.

If these people spend money that they earn and help stimulate the economy... That too is bad.

I get it.

GM is getting the money from the taxpayers based on the welfare check provided by the taxpayer.  This is just another bailout and they gave it a catchy name to fool everyone. 

Also, read about how the fed gov is screwing the dealers on these things.  Its a complete fraud. 

And there is a difference between spending money from debt vs. from savings.  That is too complicated for KYballsack to understand so I wont even go there in this thread. 

________________________ ________________________ _______________________

Cash For Clunkers Won't Work
Jay Yarow|Apr. 15, 2009, 11:37 AM|1

PrintTags: Cars, Carbon, Emissions

A Senate proposal to induce drivers to replace older, less fuel efficient cars with newer fuel efficient cars will be a waste of government spending with little impact, writes FBR Research in a note put out today.

The proposal, known as "cash for clunkers", aims to increase new auto sales, while eliminating emissions from crappy old cars. In order to achieve those goals though, FBR says, "Proposals that are impactful enough to be effective are likely to be prohibitively expensive, while a frugal approach is unlikely to generate significant participation."

According to their calculations, based on the only bill with broad support in the Senate, less than 5% of U.S. vehicles will be able to participate. Additionally, the bill will reduce U.S. oil use by just 80,000 barrels per day in 2012, less than .5% of demand.

The project is supposed to cost almost $1.1 billion if 575,000 drivers participate. Depending on the model of the car, drivers will get between $1,500 and $4,500 as a voucher to trade in their old cars in Accelerated Retirement of Inefficient Vehicles Act of 2009 (ARIV) which has been proposed in the House and Senate.

Here's why FBR thinks this program will fall on its face:

A conservative example is a driver driving a very inefficient SUV with a trade-in value well below the $1500 subsidy (16 miles per gallon and $500). The purchase of an eligible used 2005 fuel-efficient SUV of similar size would likely cost upwards of $10,000. Even in this conservative estimation, the net $1000 subsidy amounts to under $17 per month, less than the likely finance charges for a qualifying used SUV based on a five-year loan. Even including the gasoline savings at $2.18/gallon, the fuel-efficient SUV is likely to  cost more than an earlier model inefficient vehicle that did not qualify for the credit. We do not believe that the economic incentive is likely to drive significant behavior changes in SUV/pickup truck owners. The program is likely to draw participation from some owners of light trucks and SUVS nearing the end of their useful life, or with potentially expensive problems that reduce their resalevalue below that of the credit.

In contrast, eligible drivers could realize significant savings by using a voucher to purchase smaller vehicles like a 2005 sedan which gets over 37 miles per gallon, has lower maintenance, repair costs, and lower depreciation than older light trucks. However, on the whole, we believe that with gas prices below the $2.50 range, there is may be a little incentive for large numbers of SUV/pickup drivers to adopt a wholly different approach to their vehicles, which would appear to have significant lifestyle implications.

On the whole, we believe that the program as introduced is unlikely to result in the retirement of one million, or even a half million fuel-inefficient vehicles on the margin. Over 4% of eligible vehicles are scrapped each year, and we believe that much of the participation is likely to come from vehicles with higher repair costs that are close to being taken out of the market anyway. We believe the scrapping of older vehicles is unlikely to reach the 10% projected by proponents.

Image: Roy Montgomery/Flickr


     

[Soul Crusher]

This Is Too Absurd To Even Describe
Henry Blodget|Aug. 3, 2009, 11:08 PM|37

PrintTags: Economy, Cars, Media, Politics, Emissions

The government doesn't want to take the chance that they'll be accused of doing what they are doing, which is giving a $4,500 gift to consumers and car companies in the form of the Cash For Clunkers bailout.

So the government has to keep pretending that Cash For Clunkers is about the environment.  Which is why the government is insisting that all those perfectly good "clunkers" that get only slightly worse gas mileage than the new cars people are buying be "killed."

The clunkers can't just be crushed, because then a frugal former owner might fish out some parts and use them again.  They have to be completely wasted.

To this end the government has come up with an innovative way to make sure that every last scrap of the clunker is rendered worthless: pour two quarts of sodium silicate (liquid plastic) into the engine and run it for a while.

All this car-killing, in turn, is driving the price of old engines and parts through the roof (for people who didn't accept the bribe and buy a new car).  It's also driving the market for the clunker-killing agent, sodium silicate, through the roof.

Kevin Helliker, WSJ: odium silicate is the designated agent of death for cars surrendered under the federal cash-for-clunkers program. To receive government reimbursement, auto dealers who offer rebates on new cars in exchange for so-called clunkers must agree to "kill" the old models, using a method the government outlines in great detail in its 136-page manual for dealers: Drain the engine of oil and replace it with two quarts of a sodium-silicate solution.

"The heat of the operating engine then dehydrates the solution leaving solid sodium silicate distributed throughout the engine's oiled surfaces and moving parts," says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration publication. "These solids quickly abrade the bearings causing the engine to seize while damaging the moving parts of the engine and coating all of the oil passages."

Wait until you hear what Bob Lutz has to say about this (yes, that Bob Lutz, the former GM car design god):

"I, like, have so not even ever heard of this before."

Neither has anyone else.  Which is why even the folks who stock sodium silicate had to call around and confirm that the sudden crush of buyers were serious--that the stuff could actually be used to destroy cars.

________________________ ________________________ ________________________ __

The point of this article is that there are always unintended consequences to anything we do. 

We are destroying perfectly good cars so people can go into debt.  Its insanity. 

[Soul Crusher]

Tu - Ron Paul gets it. 

[Decker]

Because NO ONE WANTS SHITTY GM CARS!!!!!
The cash for clunkers program is a disaster as the dealers arent getting reimbursed.GM,is a failure just like Obamas other hair brained idea ,the stimulous.

It was a wildly successful program.

[Soul Crusher]

It was a wildly successful program.

Who would have guessed, people flocked for welfare and handouts?

 

[240 is Back]

This is such a joke. 

it's a start.

[tu_holmes]

it's a start.

Not to mention, if it was not for the Obama administration plan, those cars would be getting made in China by now.

[Skip8282]

it's a start.

Down the wrong path.  The government is trying to float a company that the consumers have essentially condemned.  Let it die peacefully and focus on getting those workers into other jobs as soon as possible.

[Bindare_Dundat]

333 will never see the logic Tu so it's kind of hard to explain it to him.  He just doesn't get that these people will spend this money and stimulate their local economies and help create a flow on effect.  

 

[240 is Back]

If the Big 3 were to fail, we'd lose 5 million american jobs in 2 months.

All these folks going on unemployment would bankrupts most state budgets.

Down the wrong path.  The government is trying to float a company that the consumers have essentially condemned.  Let it die peacefully and focus on getting those workers into other jobs as soon as possible.

[Skip8282]

If the Big 3 were to fail, we'd lose 5 million american jobs in 2 months.

All these folks going on unemployment would bankrupts most state budgets.

Ford's getting by.  As for GM and Chrysler it's not as though they're going to shut down overnight.  There's the entire bankruptcy process, restructuring, downisizing, etc.  Losing 5 million jobs in 2 months is just fear mongering.

[body88]

Because NO ONE WANTS SHITTY GM CARS!!!!!
The cash for clunkers program is a disaster as the dealers arent getting reimbursed.GM,is a failure just like Obamas other hair brained idea ,the stimulous.

Yahoo.com

NEW YORK (AP) -- All three U.S.-based automakers are doing a better job of satisfying their customers than they were a year ago, according to a recent survey.



General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC all posted significant gains in this year's American Customer Satisfaction Index released Tuesday by the University of Michigan.



"Although the future will obviously be challenging for Detroit, the rise in customer satisfaction provides a much needed improvement in competitive standing," Claes Fornell, the University of Michigan business professor who heads the annual survey, said in a statement.



Fornell said keeping customers happy is key for the automakers, especially at a time when less people are buying cars, because they will be more likely to come back the next time they need a new vehicle.



GM's Cadillac and Toyota's Lexus brands tied for first place in the survey with scores of 89 out of 100. That marked a 4 point increase for Cadillac from its 2008 results and a 2 point improvement for Lexus, which also ranked first in last year's survey.


GM's Buick brand, Honda and Ford's Lincoln Mercury vehicles all received an 88. The Lincoln Mercury score marked a 5 point increase over its results for the previous year, while Buick's score rose by 3 points.


BMW received an 87, while Mercedes, Toyota and Volkswagen each got an 86. Volkswagen's increase of 5 points, or 6.2 percent, marked the biggest jump from the year before.



Hyundai received an 85, while the Chrysler's namesake brand rose 4 points to 84. GM's Saturn brand also got an 84.



The Chevrolet and Ford brands rose by 4 points and 3 points respectively to 83, while GMC fell by 1 point to 82.



Dodge, Kia, Mazda and Pontiac all received an 81. Jeep and Nissan, fell to the bottom of the pack with a 79 and 78, respectively. Nissan was one of the few brands to post a decrease from the year before, falling 4 points, or 4.9 percent.



The overall automotive industry's score was 84, up from 82 the year before.



There were over 11,000 telephone surveys conducted and about 5,500 for the auto industry in the second quarter of this year, asking respondents to rate their satisfaction of the vehicles on a scale of zero to 100. At the industry level, the margin of error is plus or minus 1 point. At the company level it is plus or minus 3 points.

[GigantorX]

Not to mention, if it was not for the Obama administration plan, those cars would be getting made in China by now.

Ignorance at its best.

[GigantorX]

It was a wildly successful program.

Artificial demand brought on by govt. welfare. More people take on more debt, perfectly functioning cars are destroyed thus driving up the cost of older used cars which hurts the poor....the list goes on and on and on.

If these workers were being hired back to produce cars because off of an organic increase in demand brought about by an true and real economic recovery than this story would be getting a whole different treatment on here.  Once this program is gone, where will the demand be for new cars and new debt?

Hint: probably the same place where all that oil demand is hiding.

[Hugo Chavez]

NO ONE WANTS SHITTY GM CARS!!!!!

I wouldn't mind one of those new camaros.