Buying Domestic...does it matter anymore?

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From: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...TO01/607290395
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GM, Renault's mini alliance
Automakers weighing global tie-up already produce vans jointly
Bill Vlasic and Christine Tierney / The Detroit News

While the business world obsesses over a possible alliance of General Motors Corp. and Renault SA, the two auto giants are quietly launching their latest vehicle developed together in Europe.
There was zero fanfare -- and no sign of Rick Wagoner or Carlos Ghosn -- at media events this month for the new Opel Movano and Renault Master, nearly identical mid-sized commercial vans developed together by GM and Renault.
The vans are the product of a joint venture between GM and Renault dating back to 1999, when the Detroit automaker and its French counterpart began building light commercial vehicles together for the European market.
It's an obscure partnership among many in the global auto industry, but its success could offer a peek into the future of an historic international alliance between GM, Renault and the French carmaker's Japanese partner Nissan Motor Co.
And since Wagoner, GM's chairman, and Ghosn, CEO of Renault and Nissan, opened talks July 14 on a potentially huge deal to link their companies, the lessons learned from a small joint venture could have a big impact.
"That's really significant," said David Cole, director of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. "To establish a relationship is one thing, but if you already have an existing relationship, things can go much easier."
GM and Renault-Nissan have said little about the agenda for the 90-day alliance talks. But if the commercial van business is any indication, the two sides may be more compatible than outsiders expect.
"We have a very professional relationship," said Jamal El-Hout, vice president of planning for GM Europe. "We work through tough issues very well."
Together, they produce 250,000 commercial vans a year at a GM plant in England, a Nissan factory in Spain and a Renault plant in France. About two-thirds of the output is mid-sized vans, and the rest is smaller models sold by GM as the Vivaro and by Renault as the Trafic.
"This is a cooperation that has been very positive for both partners," said a spokeswoman for Renault.
Culture of competition
Bland and boxy, the vans are a staple for small businesses across the Continent. About 2 million light commercial vehicles are sold in Europe each year, according to the European carmakers' association ACEA, and it's a brutally competitive market.
Partnerships are the norm in the segment. German automakers Volkswagen AG and DaimlerChrysler AG collaborate on commercial vans, as do Fiat SpA of Italy and the French manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen.
When GM and Renault began talks in the mid-1990s to produce vans in tandem, the fit seemed right from the start.
"One of the things that made it successful was that we needed each other," said Jon Dennis, one of the GM negotiators in the deal. "Everyone else was partnered except us."
Dennis, who now works for GM in Australia, said the tone was set at the top by Louis Schweitzer, Renault's then-CEO, and GM Europe's president at the time, Richard Donnelly.
"There was a lot of support from the leadership," Dennis said. "Schweitzer and Donnelly were motivated to make this happen."
The decision was made to form a 50-50 joint venture, with GM selling vans under its Opel and Vauxhall brands, and Renault marketing its vehicles separately.
Renault took the lead on engineering and design, while GM ran the manufacturing process. After Renault and Nissan formed their own corporate-wide alliance in 1999, the agreement was extended to all three companies.
Since 1999, the companies have built and sold more than 1.2 million vans -- and made money doing it.
"We've been successful with it and I believe it has been successful for the other companies," El-Hout said. "We've grown our commercial vehicle business 125 percent over the last five years."
Partnership still unclear
El-Hout declined to comment on the prospect for the far larger global alliance currently under discussion by high-level teams at GM, Renault and Nissan.
However, his experience in the van venture offers insight into possible areas of cooperation down the road. "This is a productive partnership because it makes sense to get the costs out together and to hook up on the (vehicle) platform," he said.
But sharing costs and production on a niche-market van doesn't change the intensely competitive relationship between GM's Opel brand and Renault across Europe.
"What we would like the product to be, we do that jointly," El-Hout said. "But we compete vigorously in the marketplace even though we are partners."
Speculation has been rife about the prospects of a GM-Renault-Nissan alliance since billionaire GM shareholder Kirk Kerkorian first advanced the idea publicly on June 30. The initial meeting between Wagoner and Ghosn two weeks later made headlines worldwide as the industry watched transfixed at a possible marriage of the No. 1 U.S. automaker and Renault-Nissan.
By contrast, the press previews for the new Movano van last week were hum-drum. Journalists were shown prototypes in Germany and given a chance to test drive the 2.8-metric-ton van.
But as the GM-Renault-Nissan talks heat up in the coming weeks, the trail blazed by the Movano and the Master could be a key indicator of things to come.
"We've seen all kinds of alliances -- good and bad -- in the industry," Cole said. "A healthy relationship like this is really the foundation of the successful ones."

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From: http://www.chicagotribune.com/busine...i-business-hed
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Ford's Quarterly Loss Balloons to $254M

By BREE FOWLER
AP Business Writer
Published August 3, 2006, 7:12 AM CDT

NEW YORK -- Ford Motor Co.'s second-quarter loss more than doubled from what the No. 2 U.S. car maker previously reported because of higher-than-expected pension costs. In a second piece of weak news, the company said its luxury car division won't be profitable this year.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday evening, Ford said it revised its loss to $254 million, or 14 cents per share, from the previously announced loss of $123 million, or 7 cents per share.

That contrasts with a profit of $946 million, or 47 cents per share, posted in the second quarter of last year.

Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford attributed the revision to an increase in full-year 2006 pension curtailment expenses to $1.2 billion, up from its previous projection of $1 billion. Full-year special items are expected to total $3.8 billion.

Ford had previously expected its Premier Auto Group, which includes its Jaguar, Volvo, Aston Martin and Land Rover brands, to post a 2006 pretax profit, but be close to breaking even, excluding special items.

The filing came the same day The Wall Street Journal reported that the automaker is starting a review of poorly performing units, including Jaguar, with an eye toward the possible sale of some operations.

Ford also is considering forming an alliance with other automakers, a move that General Motors Corp. is contemplating, the newspaper reported, attributing information to unidentified people close to the situation.

"There are no new plans to divest our brands or invest in a new alliance," Ford spokesman Tom Hoyt told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Hoyt said Bill Ford recently told industry analysts that while all aspects of the business were being reviewed and he wouldn't rule out any possible moves, company leaders were focusing their efforts on turning around Ford Motor's North American automotive business.

Ford also announced Wednesday that it has contracted with former Wall Street merger and acquisitions whiz Kenneth Leet to serve as a strategic adviser to Bill Ford, the automaker's chairman and chief executive.

Ford has been losing market share to Asian manufacturers for a decade and has been badly stung by high gas prices because big trucks and sport utility vehicles account for a majority of the vehicles it sells. For the first time last month, it sold fewer vehicles than Toyota Motor Corp. in the U.S.

According to the report, Leet will lead Ford's review of its ailing operations. He headed merger and acquisition teams for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp.

"He'll absolutely be helpful in that process and play a key role in that process," Hoyt said.

The newspaper said a team will consider whether Ford should sell some underperforming brands or seek alliances with other automakers. It said the team also will look at what Ford should do with its financing arm, Ford Credit. The unit's borrowing costs have risen because Ford's credit had been downgraded below investment grade.

Ford acquired Jaguar in 1989. Last month, Ford lowered the financial goal for its Premier Auto Group.

Ford sold 224,447 vehicles in July, down 35 percent from 346,429 in July 2005. Toyota's July sales totaled 241,826 vehicles, up 12 percent from 216,417 a year earlier.

Ford's "Way Forward" restructuring plan, launched six months ago, calls for shedding 25,000 to 30,000 jobs and closing 14 plants by 2012. By year's end, the company will have cut production capacity 15 percent and will be a third of the way toward its targeted number of employee cuts, Bill Ford has said.

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From: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...lines-business
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Ford to Scale Back Dealership Network
By John O'Dell, Times Staff Writer
August 15, 2006

Ford Motor Co. wants to reduce its dealership network in the United States, particularly in major metropolitan areas such as Southern California, to allow the survivors to improve profits as the company battles to reverse a decade of slumping sales.

The plan, outlined to dealers at a meeting in Las Vegas last week, will be "voluntary and collaborative," Ford spokesman Jim Cain said Monday. Details have not been announced.

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For Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford, the problem is too many dealers chasing a shrinking pool of customers for its cars and trucks.

There are 134 Ford dealers in Southern California, selling an average of 900 cars and trucks a year, said one Ford dealer who asked not to be named because he was negotiating a financial deal with Ford and didn't want to sour the relationship. Japan's Toyota Motor Corp., by comparison, has 75 dealers covering the same territory, each selling about 4,000 vehicles a year.

Nationwide, Ford dealers sold an average of 696 new vehicles apiece last year while Toyota dealers averaged 1,613, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

Ford has 4,300 U.S. dealers selling the Ford, Lincoln and Mercury brands, down from 4,400 at the end of 2005, and profit for most has plunged in recent years. Ford has said that its average dealership's profit dropped 10% in the first half of 2006. The company doesn't provide dollar figures.

"A lot of Ford dealers are losing money," said Mark Rikess, a Burbank automotive dealership consultant.

Ford won't say how many dealers it would like to trim from its roster, but the company wants to see reductions in key areas, which could include Chicago, New York and San Francisco, happen "sooner rather than later," Cain said.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker hasn't indicated whether it intends to assist dealers in getting out of the business by offering cash incentives or is planning to let attrition do the job, several dealers said Monday.

"If it's attrition, it could take 10 years," said Dave Conant, co-owner of Cerritos Ford-Lincoln-Mercury. "If Ford really understands what's going on, it would get much more involved" and buy out weaker dealers, he said, adding that he would "be really surprised if they did that."

Burt Boeckmann, president of Galpin Ford in North Hills, the nation's largest Ford dealership, said he believed the automaker would help thin the herd by putting some of its own cash into consolidation deals.

"They could make substantial inroads in three to five years if they aggressively work at it," he said. "Otherwise, all this is just lip service."

Ford isn't alone in its quest to pare its dealer network. General Motors Corp. and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group have dealership consolidation plans.

GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner acknowledged in an interview last week that having too many dealers competing with one another in major metropolitan areas remained one of the problems the company must tackle.

"Look at the volume the big three U.S. [auto] companies lost over the last 10 years and realize that their dealer count hasn't changed much," said Earl Hesterberg, CEO of Houston-based Group 1 Automotive dealership chain and former head of marketing for Ford's North American operation.

"Then look at Toyota and Honda, whose dealer counts are pretty constant but whose volume has gone way up," he said. "They can spend a lot more money on advertising, training, hiring the best people and taking care of their customers."

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From: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/23/bu...in&oref=slogin
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Ford, Like G.M., Is Looking at Alliances

By MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: August 23, 2006
DEARBORN, Mich., Aug. 23 — The Ford Motor Company is evaluating the prospects for new alliances with other automakers, people who have been briefed on Ford’s activities said today.

Ford’s chief executive, William Clay Ford Jr., is in charge of these efforts, these people said. As part of the process, they said, Mr. Ford spoke recently with Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan of Japan and Renault of France, who is involved in similar alliance discussions with General Motors; that conversation was also reported in The Wall Street Journal today.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Investors appeared pleased by the news that Mr. Ford and Mr. Ghosn had spoken. Ford shares rose 28 cents in noon trading to $7.78 a share.

Mr. Ghosn’s discussions with General Motors concern a three-way alliance proposed by G.M.’s biggest shareholder, Kirk Kerkorian. Teams from G.M., Renault and Nissan are looking at various ties among the companies, and are due to decide by mid-October whether to move forward.

The conversation between Mr. Ford and Mr. Ghosn was described as perfunctory, part of a broader effort by Mr. Ford to determine which companies, if any, would be suitable for alliances with his auto company, the people briefed on the company’s actions said.

They stressed that Ford has not had anything resembling formal discussions with other auto companies. But they added that Ford also has been approached informally by some of its competitors to see if it would consider an alliance.

“There is outreach of all kinds — it’s not just Ford talking to people, it’s people talking to one another,” a person with knowledge of the conversations said. “You have to be prepared, and game things out in a lot of ways.”

This person declined to say which auto companies were involved, but added, “At this point, it is all really, really preliminary.”

Mr. Ford is taking the lead role in the evaluations because of their strategic nature. If the company decided to begin conversations about a deal, Mr. Ford could be expected to draw on the expertise of Kenneth Leet, the former Goldman Sachs and Bank of America executive whom Mr. Ford recently hired as an advisor.

So far, the evaluations are not taking up much of Mr. Ford’s time. His greater priority, these people said, is Ford’s restructuring efforts in North America, where the company is preparing an expanded version of a turnaround plan called the Way Forward.

Ford is expected to roll out details of the broader plan next month. The original plan, unveiled in January, called for Ford to close 14 factories and eliminate 30,000 jobs through 2012.

Since then, Ford has reportedly roughly $1.5 billion in losses for 2005; cut its dividend in half; and said it would reduce production by 21 percent in the fourth quarter. The cuts were the biggest at Ford since the early 1980’s.

Alliances are nothing new to Ford. It has management control of Mazda, it operates a joint venture with Peugeot to produces diesel engines, and it licenses hybrid-electric vehicle technology from Toyota.

[dlocal]

I like Japanese cars. They are more appealing to me.

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From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060917/...bitious_toyota
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Toyota moves to unseat GM, outpace Ford
By HANS GREIMEL, Associated Press Writer Sun Sep 17, 5:55 PM ET
TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. is quickening its quest to unseat ailing rival General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest automaker and widen its lead over Ford Motor Co. with reported plans to boost overseas production by 40 percent to 5 million vehicles by 2008 and blueprints for higher output in North America.

The news comes just days after Ford announced drastic steps to remold into a smaller, more competitive company, slashing thousands of jobs and shuttering two plants to cut costs. Ford's overhaul was aired just as DaimlerChrysler said it would cut U.S. production through the rest of 2006 and follows big cutbacks at GM earlier this year.

Toyota, by contrast, is planning to increase overseas production by 40 percent of its 2005 level to 5 million vehicles by 2008, Japan's Nihon Keizai newspaper reported Sunday, without saying how it got the information.

In North America alone, the world's largest auto market, the Japanese company intends to raise production by 20 percent to 1.84 million vehicles in that period, the business newspaper reported. The Toyota City-based company aims to meet the target with the help of new plants previously planned for Texas and Canada, it said.

The vastly different outlooks underline the diverging fates of Japanese and American automakers. While U.S. competitors are closing plants, letting workers go, and trimming production amid weak sales, Japanese manufacturers, including Toyota and Honda Motor Co., are posting record earnings and cranking output to keep up with demand.

In May, profit-rich Honda announced sweeping plans to spend $1.18 billion on new plants in the United States, Canada and Japan, and boost production to meet soaring sales of fuel-efficient models.

Nissan Motor Co. is meanwhile in talks with Renault SA over a possible alliance with GM to help bail out their Detroit rival.

Under the plans reported Sunday, Toyota also expects to raise production for the first time above 1 million vehicles in Asia, excluding Japan and China. That goal will be achieved by bringing online its third factory in Thailand, the Nihon Keizai reported.

In China, the automaker aims to quadruple production from 2005 levels to 600,000, it said.

Domestic production is seen rising to 4.15 million vehicles by 2008, bringing Toyota's global output to 9.1 million.

Toyota officials were not available for comment Sunday. But Toyota's robust earnings and sales have put it on track to surpass General Motors as the world's No. 1, analysts say. The only question is when.

GM, which lost $10.6 billion last year, launched a major restructuring in November 2005 that called for closing 12 plants by 2008, slashing its work force, reducing capacity and cutting costs. About 34,000 hourly workers have accepted buyouts or early retirement offers that were extended earlier this year, and the company cut 2,000 salaried workers.

According to figures released by GM earlier this month, the American automaker produced 9.05 million autos worldwide in 2005. Toyota produced 8.23 million worldwide that year.

Since being overtaken by Toyota in 2003, Ford is meanwhile falling farther behind.

Friday's cuts by Ford bring its total plant closures to 16, adding to 14 plants announced in a previous restructuring. Ford also said it would complete cuts of about 30,000 hourly jobs by the end of the 2008, four years ahead of its previous target.

That announcement coincided with more bad news from DaimlerChrysler, which said Friday its Chrysler division will make additional production cuts in the third and fourth quarters to reduce dealer inventories.

The Big Three, which rely more on light trucks for profits than their foreign competitors, have been hurt by declining sales of pickups as customers switch to more fuel-efficient vehicles. They are also struggling with the need to reduce so-called "legacy costs" of big pay and benefits packages for workers and retirees.

Despite its ambitious outlook, however, even Toyota recognizes no automaker is invincible.

Last month, Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe warned that his company could delay some new models as it tries to improve its quality control amid a spate of recalls. The glitches were partly due to efforts to cut costs by using the same parts across different models, but could do lasting damage to Toyota's reputation for reliability.

Japanese authorities have launched an investigation into three Toyota officials suspected of failing to do anything about a faulty steering part, which may have caused a 2004 accident that injured five people.

And the U.S. government also has opened an investigation of 2004-2005 Toyota Sienna minivans after receiving complaints the liftgate had failed, causing the hatchback to close on motorists. In China, authorities recently said Toyota will recall 20,069 Crown sedans made there because of defective rubber strips in the windshields.

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From: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/26/bu...ss&oref=slogin
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G.M. Said to Be Wary of Alliance

By MICHELINE MAYNARD
Published: September 26, 2006
PARIS, Sept. 25 — General Motors has raised doubts in its talks with Renault of France and Nissan Motor of Japan that a three-way alliance would yield the benefits that Renault and Nissan insist would result from such an agreement, a senior executive at Renault said tonight.

Patrick Pelata, who is leading the talks for the Renault-Nissan side, said he believed that his side had made a strong case in favor of a deal, which he said could help G.M. fend off a strong challenge from Toyota, which ranks No. 2 behind G.M. worldwide.

But he said he was not sure if the case had been strong enough to convince G.M., whose biggest shareholder, Kirk Kerkorian, proposed the arrangement in mid-July.

Mr. Pelata, a close associate of Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of both Renault and Nissan, said members of G.M.’s negotiating team, including its chief financial officer, Frederick A. Henderson, have said they are wary of Renault and Nissan’s claims because of G.M.’s experiences in its alliances with global auto companies.

Referring to the hoped-for synergies in those deals, with companies like Suzuki, Fiat and Isuzu, Mr. Pelata said that G.M. officials told the Renault-Nissan side that they had “never seen them come about.”

A G.M. spokesman, Brian Akre, took issue with the notion that G.M. would be skeptical of a partnership because of past relationships with other automakers.

“We’ve had multiple alliances, some of which have been very successful and some of which have not,” Mr. Akre said.

It was the most detail to date about the talks on a possible deal. The discussions began on July 14, after a meeting in Detroit between Rick Wagoner, G.M.’s chief executive, and Mr. Ghosn, who led product development at Nissan after the 1999 alliance with Renault.

The two sides agreed to spend 90 days exploring an alliance, which Renault and Nissan say could range from purchasing to manufacturing to product development.

A spokeswoman for Nissan North America, Frederique Le Greves, said the talks were making progress. “The discussions still go on,’’ she said. “The study will go the 90 days.”

Mr. Akre added, “We’re not commenting on how the meetings are going other than that they’re continuing.”

The two chief executives are to meet again later this week here, where both will attend the Paris Motor Show.

Neither side has confirmed the exact date of the meeting. But in recent days, news reports and industry analysts have suggested that the talks had stalled over the reluctance by G.M. to enter an alliance with Renault and Nissan, particularly when it is moving forward on an overhaul plan.

Some analysts theorize the meeting could provide a graceful way for the two chief executives to end the discussions, which Mr. Ghosn has said would not proceed if G.M. did not wish them to continue.

Nissan and Renault, for their part, have claimed that a three-way alliance would yield a company as strong as Toyota.

Mr. Pelata said his company believed that there were at least 1,000 areas where the three companies would improve their performance and that the list would grow should the two sides agree to a deal.

But Mr. Pelata acknowledged that the complexity of the deal would be “a cost’’ that the companies would have to take into account.

He complained that the 90-day negotiation period was not long enough to yield the kind of detailed data that would allow Renault and Nissan to identify more such areas. He declined to answer when asked if he thought the two sides would talk beyond that.

Still, he said, “I think we have had the right discussions. I don’t know if it is enough.”

Referring to this week’s meeting, Mr. Pelata said, “I think the meeting between Rick Wagoner and Carlos Ghosn will go further” than have the negotiating teams.

In an unusually candid moment, Mr. Pelata said he had told Mr. Henderson that their companies needed to find a way to fend off Toyota, which could pass G.M. to rank as the world’s biggest car company as soon as this year.

“What are we going to do,” he said, other than to perhaps hope that “one day there will be a miracle, and an earthquake in Japan?”

Mr. Pelata also said G.M. could not miss the opportunity presented by the crisis at the Ford Motor Company, which recently hired a new chief executive and expanded an overhaul program that calls for it to cut more than 35,000 blue- and white-collar jobs by 2008.

“I don’t think it is a good bet to say Ford is going to fail’’ and G.M. survive, he said. “If you delay fixing your performance, it’s just going to get worse.”

G.M. officials, however, have said that the company’s overhaul plan drafted by Mr. Wagoner is the right course.

The strategy, outlined 10 months ago, calls for G.M. to cut 30,000 jobs and close all or part of a dozen plants through 2008. G.M., which lost $10.6 billion last year, has slowed its North American losses, and gained market share this summer, although its sales are off for 2006.

Mr. Pelata implied that the overhaul plan alone would not be enough. G.M., Mr. Pelata said, must “find a way to be at the right performance level of Toyota — not 10 years from now, but now.”

Nick Bunkley contributed reporting from Detroit.

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From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...092501212.html
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Renault Executive Says GM Deal Would Help Both Firms Fight Toyota
By Sholnn Freeman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 26, 2006; Page D06

PARIS, Sept. 25 -- General Motors Corp. ought to enter an alliance with Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA as a defense against the rising global dominance of Toyota Motor Corp., a top Renault executive said Monday.

"What are they going to do about Toyota?" said Patrick Pelata, executive vice president of Renault, in a briefing with reporters. "What are we going to do, and what is GM going to do? Are we just going to say they're going to be winners?"

Pelata said GM needs to recognize the urgency of battling Toyota. The Japanese company is on the verge of overtaking GM as the world's largest automaker within several years, analysts have predicted.

GM's "competition is not Nissan. It's not Renault. It is Toyota," Pelata said. Toyota last week increased its profit forecast for the first half of 2006 and its sales goals for the next two years.

The automaker has steadily expanded its U.S. operations, including new production of pickup trucks and hybrid cars. Nissan has long had an intense rivalry with Toyota in Japan, and both have big ambitions in global markets.

Pelata, who is a participant in the alliance talks, said he saw enough synergies among Nissan, Renault and GM to justify a partnership.

A spokesman for GM had no comment. A Toyota spokesman also declined to comment.

Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of both Renault and Nissan, and G. Richard Wagoner Jr., chairman and chief executive of GM, are to meet here this week to review progress on the talks, said Frederique Le Greves, the top communications official for Nissan's North American operations. The executives will study the progress of 10 teams set up to search for areas of cooperation and cost savings among the three companies, she said.

Recent media reports from Detroit have suggested that the talks have stalled and that the automakers have not found many areas of compatibility. Ghosn has said all along that an alliance can't be had if GM management is opposed.

The talks began in July at the insistence of Jerome B. York, a GM board member and associate of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 9.9 percent of GM. York, who was installed on the board last year, has called for deeper changes than GM's management originally planned. York has asserted that "time is of the essence" for the world's No. 1 automaker, which lost $10.6 billion in 2005.

GM's performance has improved so far this year, and Wagoner has said the company is on track to fix its many problems and return to profitability.

Wagoner and Ghosn's meeting comes the same week as the Paris Motor Show. Renault officials are offering tours of their operations to the U.S. press to show off what they say is the successful cooperation between Nissan and Renault. The two automakers linked up in 1999.

Asked if it would be a loss or failure for Ghosn if a major deal with GM does not materialize, Le Greves said: "Is it a failure? A failure for who?"

She said Nissan was open to potential discussions with Ford Motor Co. in the event that no deal is struck with GM, but she added that Nissan and Renault remain committed to finishing talks with GM first. "If GM doesn't happen, if Ford is interested, why not?" she said.

[austin356]

Originally Posted by James Bond Agent 007

In the last JD Powers initial quality rankings which came out a couple moths ago or thereabouts, the Jackson plant had finally reached the quality levels of Nissan's Smyrna, TN plant.

This is really good news for personal reasons. My parents own a home in the area and success of this plant has much deeper impact than what is just seen on top. If the local workers get a stigma as being "not up to par", chances for competition to build in the local area is demished. If this factory turns out to be a sucess and more are built then that will push up property values in the area (the area has the possibility right now to pull both a Detroit, or a Nashville, and this plant is one push towards the latter) and success will eventually financially benefit me when parents decide to sell home and move to florida instead of moving in with me .


Oh and regarding location; the facility is in Canton, a working class suburb of Jackson (15-20 miles) and is in the MSA (1/2 Million).

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From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6071666.stm
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Chrysler to cut car prices in US

Chrysler has revealed plans to cut the price of every car it sells in the US by $1,000 (�531), as it aims to boost sales and turn itself around.
The news comes a month after the firm, the US unit of German-American group DaimlerChrysler, admitted there was a glut of vehicles on its forecourts.

Chrysler said the price reduction was part of its wider restructuring work, but denied reports of plant closures.

The firm has already said there will be some temporary factory shutdowns.

'Back on track'

"We are now putting a plan together to put Chrysler back on track," DaimlerChrysler chief executive Dieter Zetsche said in an interview with the CNBC television channel.

"We first have an opportunity with eight new vehicle launches this year for the Chrysler Group, but we are also looking at the cost side."

Chrysler confirmed that a "handful" of executives from its sister company Mercedes-Benz had joined the study group looking at potential cost savings at the US unit.

Chrysler's falling sales are mirrored at its US rivals Ford and General Motors.

Collectively known as the "Big Three" US carmakers, they have all been plagued by an over-reliance on thirsty trucks and sports utility vehicles.

Sales of such cars have fallen in the US as petrol prices have risen in recent years.

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From: http://www.boston.com/business/globe...o_1_automaker/
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Toyota on track to surpass GM as No. 1 automaker
Demand for small, fuel-efficient cars drives production
By Associated Press | October 25, 2006
TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s global production rose 3.8 percent in September, putting the company on track to overtake General Motors as the world's biggest automaker. It was the company's 23d consecutive monthly advance.

Surging oil prices have prompted drivers to favor fuel-efficient cars, including the Prius hybrid, Corolla compact, and the mid-size Camry, the best-selling model on the US market for eight of the last nine years.
Toyota's total output last month came to 696,594 vehicles, the company reported yesterday. Overseas production climbed 2.8 percent to 340,945 units, while domestic output rose 4.7 percent to 355,649 vehicles.
Earlier this month, the first hybrid version of the Toyota Camry made outside Japan rolled off the assembly line of its Kentucky plant, positioning the Japanese automaker to take an even larger share of the gasoline-electric vehicle market in the United States.
GM in 2005 sold 9.2 million vehicles globally and produced 9.05 million vehicles, compared to Toyota's sales of 8.13 million for that year. The Japanese automaker surpassed Ford Motor Co. in terms of vehicle sales in 2003.
Toyota has said it will boost global sales to 9.8 million vehicles in 2008 -- even as its troubled US rivals are closing plants. Toyota did not release an output target.
Nissan Motor Co., Japan's second-largest automaker, said global vehicle production fell for a ninth month in September, dropping 12.5 percent to 274,788 vehicles.
Nissan said output in the United States fell 18.9 percent last month from a year ago to 60,600 units, largely due to the changeover of the 2007 Altima model.
Honda Motor Co.'s global production rose 5 percent to 318,946 vehicles, its 14th monthly rise. Overseas production climbed 6.6 percent to 199,932 units, boosted by a monthly record in both North America and the rest of Asia.
Domestic production at Honda rose 2.3 percent to 119,014 units.
Mazda Motor Corp. reported worldwide output posted a 1 percent gain to 106,332 units. Its overseas production rose 1.2 percent to 21,420 vehicles on increased production of the Mazda6 and Premacy models, including a strong demand in China.
Mazda, which is 33 percent owned by Ford, said production in Japan rose 1 percent to 84,912 units -- the 11th straight month of higher domestic production.
Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said worldwide output fell 15.4 percent to 106,666 vehicles. Domestic production slipped 5.4 percent to 62,812 units while overseas output fell 26.5 percent to 43,854 units.

[SSLL]

From: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/...ess/autos.php#
________________

Europe gives hint of Detroit's future
By Micheline Maynard
The New York Times

Walk inside Toyota's five-year-old factory here, an hour's drive from the Belgian border, and step into a world stuck on fast-forward. Forklifts speed down aisles bearing fresh supplies of parts, forcing visitors to flatten themselves against the walls as the deliveries go by.

Huge stamping presses beat out an ear-splitting rhythm of "ca-chunks" as they bang out metal sides and roofs for the small Yaris cars built here. Deep inside the plant, injection-molding machines spit out brightly colored front and rear bumpers, looking like so many Lego pieces, which are loaded onto racks to be towed to the assembly line.

By contrast, the atmosphere at BMW's plant in Leipzig is decidedly more refined. Its soaring gray and silver factory, designed two years ago by the architect Zaha Hadid, is the equivalent of automaking by Armani.

Unpainted car bodies, their sheet metal the hue of brushed pewter, ride silently through the plant lobby, lighted from beneath in blue, providing a perfect accent to the colors of the building.

Outsiders are not allowed near these 3-Series models; instead, they must observe production from a catwalk above the assembly line. Below, in what seems more like a very expensive kitchen than a factory floor, workers clad in neat coveralls stroll along an assembly line that spreads into a series of fingers, the places where the real work goes on.

These two plants, one high-volume, the other high-end, may seem to have little in common with each other. But together, these plants, and the niches they serve, may offer some idea of what lies ahead for American automakers on their home turf.

During the past, awful year for Detroit, industry executives and experts have been puzzling through what will become of General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler Group. One potential future consists of total disaster, with the Detroit automakers vanquished by their Asian and European rivals. This is an option that only those with a doomsday complex really believe, given the Detroit companies' billions in cash and broad infrastructure. Another potential outcome is that the Big Three vanquish the competition to again rule American roads, a prospect that has faded in 30 years of fighting the imports and is even more improbable now that foreign companies hold nearly half of the market.

A third option, much more likely than the others, is for GM, Ford and Chrysler to adapt to a new American market that in many ways resembles Europe's: a fragmented bazaar that has little in common with the mass-production ethos of Detroit's first century. In this new American market, it is very hard to profitably support enough different brands and models to guarantee "a car for every purse and purpose," which Alfred Sloan, as GM's president, declared to be the company's mission in the 1920s.

Rather than trying to be all things to all people, Toyota, BMW and other successful carmakers on both continents are concentrating on a different strategy: Find a niche, hone it and own it. In Europe, for example, the market is not dominated by any single player or small group of players with market shares that dwarf smaller competitors the way GM, Ford and Chrysler once did in the United States. Instead, Europe's car sales are splintered such that 5 percent is enough to make a difference, and 20 percent is more than anyone can expect.

As is the case in Europe, no automaker in America can automatically count on selling hundreds of thousands of one model annually as they could even five years ago, meaning that they must find ways to profitably stay on top of market trends - or be left behind. In Europe and increasingly in America, consumers are demanding the latest in environmental technology, both to save gasoline, as with hybrids, or to avoid using it, as with diesel-powered cars. While some national loyalty lingers in Europe, as it does in the United States, no company can rely on such loyalty to sell cars.

Carmakers are forced to continually update their brand images in order to stand out in a crowded market. At the same time, like their European counterparts, America's unionized autoworkers must also adjust. They cannot count much longer on the cushy contracts that typified their jobs in the past, because new deals at new factories have chipped away at pay and benefits while emphasizing more-productive work methods.

European companies have long competed this way, but it is a new reality for American carmakers who were so dominant for much of the last century. As recently as 1990, GM, Ford and Chrysler together sold more than 70 percent of the cars bought in the United States; GM alone accounted for more than one- third of auto sales.

Now those companies' American market share has dropped to around 50 percent, while the influence of Toyota and other foreign manufacturers is growing. Though GM remains on top, its share has slipped below one-quarter, and the battleground has become the section between 10 percent and 20 percent of the market. That is the area where Ford and Chrysler have slipped and where Toyota and Honda have grown.

In many ways, the changes in the United States have European parallels. Toyota is also rising in Europe, where its market share has more than doubled over the last 10 years, to about 5.7 percent. It has forged the gains by focusing on one segment, well-made small cars, and pursuing it with single-minded determination. Its factory here in Valenciennes is evidence of that focus.

Inside the factory offices, the plant manager, Didier Leroy, sits in front of an electronic tally board that shows the plant's production goals for the day and the number of vehicles it has actually built. This board, along with others inside the plant, gave a disappointing picture on a recent afternoon, showing that workers had fallen behind their target.

But Lero confides with a smile that managers intentionally set the targets a little too high, to keep workers focused on their tasks. If employees believe that they are falling behind, he says, pointing to the board, they will work more vigorously than if they think the day's objective is easy to achieve.

The Valenciennes factory is among Toyota's most important plants worldwide, ranked even above its American operations, according to some inside Toyota. An important reason lies inside the body shop, where major structural parts of the car are welded together.

Valenciennes was the first Toyota plant outside Japan to receive what the company calls its Global Body Line: a configuration of robots that can be programmed to build a number of different styles of vehicles without having to modify the entire factory. Today, that same body line is in Toyota's plants in Kentucky and Indiana, and has been installed in the pickup factory that Toyota will open next month in San Antonio.

While the Valenciennes plant builds only one model, the Yaris, it produces it in four configurations - left-hand and right-hand drive, and equipped with gasoline and diesel engines. Each configuration requires different parts and production steps. That flexibility, which can also be harnessed to produce wholly different models on the same assembly line at the same time, is a hallmark of Toyota's factories around the world, and an example that other companies, both in Europe and the United States, are striving to emulate.

On a recent weekend, Peter Claussen, the manager of BMW's Leipzig plant, went to his bookshelf to seek guidance on solving a problem there. He found a solution in "My Life and Work," written by Henry Ford in the 1920s. Back then, Ford offered advice that still sounds appropriate today, as American companies look to Leipzig, Valenciennes and elsewhere for hints of the future.

"If there is any great secret of success in life," he wrote, "it lies in the ability to put yourself in the other person's place and to see things from his point of view - as well as your own."

Nick Bunkley contributed reporting from Detroit.

[SSLL]

From: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...=Business/News
________________

GM betting on China's growth
Nov. 6, 2006. 07:24 AM
ELAINE KURTENBACH
ASSOCIATED PRESS

SHANGHAI, China — General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) intends to keep investing in China's fast-growing market, and it is confident its sales are still outpacing the industry average, GM's chairman Rick Wagoner said Monday.
"We are willing to invest ahead of demand here because we are very bullish that demand is going to keep growing here," Wagoner told reporters after taking a ceremonial spin, with Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng, in GM's hydrogen fuel cell-powered Sequel.
GM's sales jumped 36.7 per cent in the first three quarters of this year, helped by strong demand for newly launched models such as the Buick LaCrosse.
Wagoner said GM expects its sales growth in China this year to outpace the industry average of about 20 percent.
China and other overseas factories accounted for more than half of GM's total output of 9.2 million vehicles last year, Wagoner said. The company says its total production will remain at about that level this year.
Monday's event was meant to showcase GM's progress in bringing its newest technology to market, and its willingness to cater to China's appetite for advanced technology as it builds up its auto sector.
Shanghai GM, the company's joint venture with local partner Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp., plans to begin manufacturing hybrid gas-and-electric powered vehicles by 2008, part of the effort to shift into next-generation technologies that might help reduce the environmental impact of growing vehicle use among the 1.3 billion Chinese.
Ultimately, GM is betting on hydrogen fuel-cell technology such as that used in the Sequel, which looks like a minivan and has a range of 300 miles.
"We believe fuel cell vehicles offer the best long-term solution for meeting the world's growing demand for automobiles in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner," Wagoner said.
"Sequel represents the most production-ready fuel cell vehicle available today," he said. "We've made a lot of progress in making it a real life technology.''
Still, the vehicle is far from ready for commercial use, Wagoner acknowledged.
Nearly all the world's major automakers are testing hydrogen-powered vehicles, with some in use by government workers.
The pollution-free technology holds the potential of zero emissions and a sustainable source of energy produced when hydrogen and oxygen are mixed. Experts say they could begin arriving in showrooms by 2020, or perhaps earlier.
But many obstacles exist, including the high cost, relatively short range and a lack of fuelling stations.
GM has managed to reduce costs for making the Sequel by 12 times, but still needs to reduce them by seven times more to make it competitive, Wagoner said.
And automakers need help from governments in developing the infrastructure for hydrogen fuelling, he said.
"Developing new technologies is really a team sport that requires business and governments to work together," he said. "It's doable, it's not that expensive, but it's going to require some work."

[SSLL]

From: http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4327558.html
______________

Nov. 11, 2006, 7:27PM
Toyota aims to roil pickup market
New Tundra rolls off the line in San Antonio later this week

By SEAN M. WOOD
San Antonio Express-news

Toyota calls the 2007 Tundra the most important product launch in its history, more significant than Scion and even more significant than Lexus.

On Friday, the first new Toyota Tundra pickup rolls off the line in San Antonio. It will move a few hundred feet into the reception area of the plant, never to be driven.

It's the other 199,999 trucks the plant will be able to produce in a year that Toyota is counting on to change the domestic pickup landscape.

"I think this will be the beginning of Toyota's incursion into the last domestically owned segment in the market," said Karl Brauer, editor in chief of the automotive comparison site Edmunds.com.

Edmunds has already dubbed the 2007 Tundra the most significant vehicle of the year, even though consumers won't find them at their local dealerships until February.

Brauer said vehicles don't have to be on sale in order to be important.

"We think the Tundra is going to be hugely significant," Brauer said. "It's got such a wide range of options and configurations that will appeal to truck buyers. That includes real truck users whose livelihoods depend on their trucks."

The Tundra has been seen as a "nine-tenths" truck. Its domestic rivals, from Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Dodge have always beaten it in size, towing and payload, not to mention sales. GM and Ford combined sell nearly 10 times the pickup trucks that Toyota builds.

But some industry analysts say the new Tundra could change that.

"Tundra has grown up slowly and gained credibility," said Gordon Wangers, an automotive marketing consultant. "They've never really come out and said it is a direct competitor to the domestics until now. They catch the domestics at a time of particular vulnerability."

But not everyone is vulnerable, said Rebecca Lindland, analyst with Global Insight in Boston. She said the new half-ton pickup from GM is more than capable of holding its own against the new Tundra.

"GM doesn't have anything to worry about," she said.


Big part of the mix

Trucks are a major part of the domestic automakers' mix.
The vehicles are revenue generators, with higher sticker prices that cover the wages and benefits the domestic automakers have to pay their organized workers and retirees. But sales of full-size trucks are down nearly 10 percent this year through September.

Some of the decline stems from higher fuel costs, but analysts say it is also a result of tired designs and drivers waiting to buy the newly designed Tundra and GM trucks.

"This year is a bit of an anomaly," Lindland said. "It's not entirely typical that two major companies are redesigning at the same time, with the Tundra pickup truck and the GMT 900 from GM."


Ford and Dodge numbers

She said Global Insight forecasts strong sales for the Tundra and the new pickups from GM. Sales of Ford's F-series pickups will lose 3 percent to 4 percent in 2007, she predicted, while sales of the Dodge Ram will be down nearly 5 percent.
Achieving even those sales, however, will require Ford and Dodge offering heavy incentives, Lindland said.

That should be good news for truck buyers in 2007.

"It's a great time to buy a pickup," Wangers said. "Looking at the differences between trucks, it's splitting hairs.

"The Nissan Titan is a great truck. The new Tundra is a spectacular truck. The new Chevy is phenomenal. The F-150 is fantastic and the Dodge is also an excellent truck.

"Whatever you end up with, you're a winner."

[SSLL]

From: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...l=969048863851
_______________

GM open to Ford alliance
Nov. 20, 2006. 08:24 AM
REUTERS NEWS AGENCY

ZURICH — No. 1 U.S. carmaker General Motors is open to an alliance with its No. 2 rival Ford, vice-chair Bob Lutz said in a newspaper interview yesterday.
Asked whether GM would choose to go it alone or merge with Ford, Lutz said, "We are open to alliances. But we can also be successful alone."
Lutz spoke in an interview in the Swiss newspaper SonntagsZeitung.
Both Ford and GM are restructuring North American operations to adjust to a loss of market share in their home markets. GM is attempting to recover from a $10.6 billion loss in 2005.
Lutz said GM remained open to a smaller deal with Renault-Nissan after GM declined to pursue a larger tie-up with the French-Japanese group.
"We would have been in agreement with a smaller deal on engines, and we still are today," he said.
After nearly three months of talks, GM, Nissan and Renault said in October that they would end their discussions on a possible partnership.
Lutz told the newspaper that GM would have benefited from the proposed alliance far less than Nissan and Renault.

[SSLL]

From: usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-01-23-china-1b-usat_x.htm
______________

Detroit has a craving for Chinese
Updated 1/23/2007 3:43 AM ET

By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY
DETROIT — A generation ago, the arrival of Japanese cars here was greeted with sledge hammers.
Auto dealers selling domestic brands gleefully offered customers visiting the sales lots a whack at one of the little imports. Some companies and Detroit-area union locals banned foreign cars from parking lots. A bumper sticker declared "Toyota, Datsun, Pearl Harbor."

The hostility was prompted, at least in part, by fears that for every auto industry job created in Japan, one was being lost in America. It inspired a wave of protectionism that has made Japanese cars a hard-sell in much of the Midwest for decades.

PHOTOS: Changfeng Motors makes a splash at Detroit auto show

Now, the Chinese are poised to become the fourth wave of exporters of inexpensive cars to American shores — after the Germans, Japanese and South Koreans. And how is Detroit responding this time?

With open arms.

Instead of trying to throw up new barriers, Michigan seems to be taking the attitude that if you can't beat them, at least invite them to come and sink money into the beleaguered state's economy.

"We want Chinese automakers and their investment here," Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm declared as she toured the North American International Auto Show here earlier this month. "We want to make sure we take advantage of the global economy and are not just victimized by it."

Instead of viewing imports as a threat, state and local officials say they see them as a path to enhancing Detroit's role as the center of the automotive universe.

The Chinese so far haven't engendered the kind of anti-pathy that dogged the Japanese. U.S., Japanese and South Korean automakers all are taking part in joint ventures with Chinese companies to open China's domestic market. By contrast, much of the resentment of Japan 35 years ago centered around the perception that the USA was being shut out by an alliance of Japanese automakers, suppliers and its government — "Japan Inc."

That was long before Japanese automakers and suppliers began building U.S. plants.

Gaining a comfort level

In China, General Motors was the top automaker last year, followed by Volkswagen, Hyundai and Honda, PricewaterhouseCoopers says. GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz says Americans shouldn't fear a "Chinese menace" when it comes to auto imports. "Because we are inside that 'menace,' I'm more comfortable," Lutz says.

And, frankly, when it comes to the U.S. market, Chinese cars aren't ready for prime time. They don't yet measure up to American quality or safety standards.

That gives Detroit automakers a few more years to figure out how to survive — or take advantage of — the coming onslaught.

Meantime, Michigan isn't waiting. Wayne County, where Detroit is situated, now has three trade offices in China and has sponsored two trade trips. The state of Michigan's trade office in China switched two years ago from focusing on hawking the state's products to Chinese companies to trying to lure those same companies to set up shop in the Wolverine State.

For now, state and local officials aren't expecting a lot of success. It took years before the Japanese and South Koreans set up auto plants in the USA. Maybe the Chinese will consider opening a research center, test track or sales office as a first step.

Nailing the first one is what counts. "If we get the initial companies here, the rest are going to follow," says Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano in an interview in his office, where a case holds the plates and other gifts he received on China visits. So far, he says, the county has attracted one small, press-shy Chinese auto parts maker.

What he's trying to avoid is having Chinese automakers slip away the way that the Japanese and South Koreans did. At the same time that Michigan's resentment of Japanese cars was starting to boil, the Asian brands were situating their U.S. headquarters in Southern California. "I don't want to see that mistake repeated," Ficano says.

Ficano, a Democrat and the county's top elected official, didn't let the opportunity pass when Changfeng Group showed up at the big auto show this month, the first Chinese automaker to exhibit on the show's floor. He exchanged gifts with company's chairman, Li Jianxin, in a ceremony before the press unveiling of Changfeng's SUVs and pickup. "Our doors are open, and our workforce is ready and willing," Ficano told the Chinese.

Granholm, also a Democrat, toured Changfeng's display as part of her rounds through the auto show. "We're glad that you're here, and we would love investment if there ever is an opportunity," she told the automaker's vice president, Allen Zhiyu Han, who ushered her among the models. "We're interested in seeing production here, too, for the American market as you open it."

Jianxin, through a translator, said Changfeng came just to make an appearance and doesn't have immediate plans to open a U.S. headquarters. When the time comes to enter the U.S. market in about two years, the company would probably start selling vehicles regionally.

Teaming up could mean jobs

Michigan needs help with jobs, having one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation. The state's seasonally adjusted jobless rate of 7.1% in December — 7.7% in greater Detroit — was far above the national average of 4.5%. The state lost 39,000 manufacturing jobs, the kind of good-paying jobs on which the employment base is built, last year, according to the state Department of Labor and Economic Growth. GM and Ford Motor announced dramatic lists of plant closings and employee reductions last year. Meanwhile, European and Asian brands have continued to pick up market share and grow by building plants primarily in other parts of the Midwest and in the South, where unions aren't as strong.

Michigan, however, has advantages that other states lack. It extols its car-building tradition, strong universities and inexpensive real estate. "We have a ready workforce of people who grew up with autos in their DNA," says James Epolito, CEO of Michigan Economic Development.

Michigan has the right idea, says Stephen D'Arcy of PricewaterhouseCoopers' automotive consulting practice. But while Detroit may have a rich ethnic tradition — visible communities of Greeks and Middle Easterners, for instance — its Chinese are more widely dispersed. To lure Chinese companies, D'Arcy suggests the state go on a charm offensive, adopting the attitude: We are going to fall over ourselves to make you welcome.

Epolito isn't hurting for prospects. Changfeng is only the most visible of the Chinese companies eyeing the U.S. market. Last year, Chinese brand Geely exhibited a car in the foyer of the car show, though not on the floor itself.

And sending the biggest quake through the auto show this year, Chrysler Group announced it has a tentative agreement with Chinese maker Chery to develop small cars to sell in the USA and worldwide.

But getting Chinese cars to market in Michigan or anywhere else won't be easy.

First, Chinese parts suppliers may not be sophisticated enough yet to produce the fancy systems that U.S. consumers demand, cautions Michael Robinet, vice president of global vehicle forecasting for CSM Worldwide.

Then there is the matter of how to find the many dealerships that would be required to sell the cars. "It has little to do with the Cherys and Geelys and Changfengs. It's a distribution issue," Robinet said at a Detroit conference last week.

Last, there are questions about how fast the Chinese can catch up to American quality expectations. "Our customers here are pretty sophisticated, and in many cases the demands they have on products exceed the ability of the Chinese" automakers and suppliers, says Jim Press, president of Toyota Motors North America.

Changfeng is, in some ways, a good example of how the Chinese are catching up to, but haven't yet caught, most of Western automakers. Founded in 1950 as a military plant, Changfeng has developed its line of mostly SUVs over the past decade. By 2010, it hopes to produce 288,000 vehicles a year.

By comparison with the industry, that's still just a smidge. Changfeng's production goal is about equal to the number of Chevrolet Impalas sold in the USA last year.

The vehicles Changfeng brought to the Detroit show were mocked by some observers for issues such as poorly fitting panels and uneven paint jobs. "You get what you pay for," Khalid Al-Naif, who specializes in the economies of developing nations at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan, said as he looked over Changfeng's vehicles.

But he doesn't underestimate how Chinese cars could conquer the market, having seen them make inroads in his native Jordan. "Even if they break, (parts) are cheap."

The entry of China into the U.S. market "can't do anything but help" because of increased competition, said Paul Lisi, 46, a computer technician from Cincinnati who was touring the show with his 18-year-old son, Phil.

Still, he added, "Henry Ford is rolling in his grave."

But over time, the line between what constitutes a foreign or domestic car has blurred anyway. "Even American cars have foreign parts," says Jeff Bucher, 55, of Toledo, Ohio, who runs an auto repair shop.

Can't hide from global economy

Michigan officials say there is no reason to fear the Chinese auto industry as long as the state can take advantage of its interest in the USA.

"Don't be afraid of China," says Yvonne Warmbier-Ramp, the Mandarin-speaking head of Michigan's Shanghai trade office. "It's going to help us."

Ficano agrees. Wayne County and Michigan, he says, can't afford to be left out of the game.

"It's a global economy. If we stick our heads in the sand, we're going to pay a heavy price."

U.S. CARS SOLD IN CHINA

GENERAL MOTORS

Buick Chevrolet

LaCrosse Epica

Regal Lova

Royaum Aveo

Excelle (sedan and station wagon) Sail

HRV S.RV

GL8 (2.5 and First Land) Spark

Cadillac Saab

CTS 9-5 sedan

SRX 9-3 (sport sedan, convertible and sport combi)

XLR

Escalade

SLS

FORD MOTOR

Ford Volvo

Mondeo S40

Focus S80

Fiesta XC90

Transit C70

Maverick Land Rover

Lincoln Navigator Range Rover Sport

Jaguar Range Rover

S-Type Discovery 3

XJL Freelander

XK

DAIMLERCHRYSLER

Chrysler Jeep

Grand Voyager Cherokee

300C Grand Cherokee

PARTNERSHIPS

Ford- Chang'an Automotive Group Chrysler- BBDC, China Motor Corp.

GM- Opel, SGMW (SAIG-GM-Wuling Automobile)

Sources: Company websites, PricewaterhouseCoopers


HOW GM, FORD RANK

Top 10 automakers in China, by number of vehicles made in 2006:

1. General Motors
880,706

2. Volkswagen
697,796

3. Hyundai
397,207

4. Honda
360,051

5. Chang'an
345,786

6. Toyota
306,632

7. Chery Auto
287,700

8. China FAW
287,590

9. Ford Motor
255,642

10. Renault-Nissan
238,639

Source: PwC Automotive Institute 2007 Q1 Data Release

[Alta California]

I tried hard to really like US cars for the 2007 models. Alas, it's a MINI for me. The Japanese cars are too dull, and the Pontiac G6 (it was the only US car that I found to be "designed") seem to demand an entire Gulf state to keep it running.

[TexasStar]

It truly distresses me to see the number of Americans driving down the road in rice-burners.

[fflint]

You get truly distressed whenever you see all the many, many people who have chosen a superior vehicle?

I'll never understand the whole aesthetic--that we should all be diapers absorbing whatever Detroit shits out of its sloppy ass.

[SSLL]

From: http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/...can-usat_N.htm
_________

How do you tell which car is more American?
By Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY
Joe Luehrmann likes American cars, has owned a string of them and is considering buying another.
But he faces a problem in trying to figure out what's American anymore.

His brother just bought a Chevy Equinox, but some of its parts are from China. And he knows all about the Kentucky-built Camry, but buying a Toyota ships the profit to Japan.

Toyota brags in ads about its growing list of U.S. plants, yet it imported 37% more cars from Japan last year to meet increased demand. General Motors promotes its trucks in TV commercials to strains of This Is Our Country but makes some of its best-known SUVs in Mexico.

"What's American, vs. what's foreign? I can't really say," says the frustrated Luehrmann, a Chicago accountant. "It's not that easy. It's very shades of gray."

The ambiguity creates a quandary for the many who consider "Made in the USA" a badge of honor. To them, the label means putting fellow countrymen to work at decent wages and supporting the U.S. economy in wartime. Some domestic-brand dealers use patriotic appeals to try to rev up the Buy American spirit.

But many consumers are increasingly confused. The world is no longer as simple as us vs. them, Detroit against the Asians and Europeans.

It's a global industry now, in which all manufacturers are touching their automaking toes on the shores of just about every industrialized nation. Even GM, long the icon of American industry, hedges its bets. "We're very proud for the economic role we play in this country," says GM spokesman Greg Martin. "However, we're a global car company that happens to be based in the United States."

The contradictions of a borderless automotive economy are borne out by government figures that track where vehicles are made and their domestic parts content. The search for the American car leads to:

•Foreign cars made in the USA. Honda's Ohio-built Accord is 70% domestic parts. Toyota's Corolla is made in a California plant alongside General Motors models.

•American cars made abroad. Ford's hit Fusion sedan is made in Mexico; only half its parts are from the USA or Canada. GM pitches its small HHR sport utility and giant Suburban straight at the American market, but they, too, are built in Mexico. HHR has only 41% American and Canadian parts.

•Famous American names and foreign owners. More than three-quarters of the parts in Dodge's new Nitro SUV, which is assembled in Toledo, Ohio, are American or Canadian. But the profits go to Germany because Dodge is part of DaimlerChrysler. Chrysler Group, meanwhile, just became the first major automaker to announce it's going to make small cars for the U.S. market in China.

Despite the confusion, about half of Americans surveyed say they still try to buy products made in the USA, says Britt Beemer of America's Research Group.

The government makes it easy for buyers wandering sales lots to figure out which vehicles are most American. The location of the plant where a vehicle was assembled and its amount of U.S. or Canadian parts — they aren't separated out — are pasted on the window sticker.

Arguably, the most American of all vehicles right now is Ford's hulking 2007 Ford Expedition, a USA TODAY check of government listings, manufacturers and dealer sales lots reveals. The SUV is composed of 95% U.S. or Canadian parts, and it was made in Michigan. Ford's new Edge crossover and the Crown Victoria sedan also have 95% components, but both they and their corporate cousins are assembled in Canada.

Even though individual models vary widely, Detroit automakers overall still had more domestic parts in their vehicles when weighted according to sales, says an analysis from a pro-Detroit trade group.

Detroit's Big 3 derived about 77% of their parts from U.S. and Canadian factories from domestic sources. That compares with slightly less than half for Japanese brands overall, according to the Automotive Trade Policy Council, which represents the domestic manufacturers in trade issues. Among Japanese brands, Honda had the most domestic content at 59%.

"The data is clear: Domestic auto plants create more jobs in this country than overseas producers who locate here," says United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger in a statement to USA TODAY. But he was quick to note that foreign automakers have created more jobs in the USA by opening plants here, and he respects their workers.

Many auto dealers selling domestic brands are playing to the patriotism theme.

In Tampa, Bill Currie Ford credits pro-USA ad themes for contributing to fast growth. A billboard posted along Interstate 275 shows an American flag and outlines of Japan and South Korea. The message: "Whose country are you supporting?"

"We've had some compliments," says Currie's community relations director, Danny Lewis. And, he adds, "very little criticism."

In Roseville, Minn., Cadillac dealer Wally McCarthy runs radio ads on WCCO-AM in Minneapolis that say, "Buying a vehicle from GM, quite simply, helps support Americans."

Manufacturers — and not just those in Detroit — have picked up on the patriotism theme lately, especially when it comes to pickups.

To crack the full-size pickup market with its new Tundra, Toyota doesn't hold back in promoting how American it has become. The new Texas truck plant where the Tundra is built "is just one more example of our commitment to America," Toyota touts in colorful newspaper ads that mention lots of new jobs and a $15 billion U.S. investment.

GM counters with its Our Country campaign, filled with images of vintage Americana, for its Chevy Silverado pickups.

Consumers who care the most about patriotism when it comes to purchases are usually working-class white men; thus the emphasis on the pickup market, says Dana Frank, a history professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of Buy American: The Untold story of Economic Nationalism.

Pickup buyers also are notoriously loyal, another reason the campaigns are targeting them. They'll wear a Chevy belt buckle with pride, notes Honda Senior Vice President John Mendel, adding, "Not a lot of Lexus owners have an 'L' tattooed on their arm."

Half the domestic pickup buyers surveyed by J.D. Power and Associates cited not wanting to own a foreign-made truck as the chief reason for their purchase decision, even more than the one out of three who said they didn't like foreign-truck styling.

Pickup buyers "tend to be flag wavers, and they aren't convinced that Toyota is an American company," says Art Spinella of CNW Marketing Research. Consumers may be a little predisposed against Toyota, with 61% of those participating in CNW focus group panels in five cities saying they don't consider Toyota to be a U.S. company despite efforts to tint its image more red, white and blue.

"It does bother me that they have a series of ads showing they are part of the heartland of America, yet their imports increased," says building contractor Jim Urbano, 53, of Woodbridge, Conn., who also researches car-buying options on Edmunds.com. He says he prefers American-made vehicles, because, "It troubled me to see so many U.S. autoworkers being laid off."

Besides its flag-waving Tundra ads, Toyota has been running a public relations campaign in greater Washington, D.C., to cultivate an apple pie, not sushi, image among policymakers.

It helps that Toyota announced that a new assembly plant will be built in Tupelo, Miss., its fifth in the USA, with a goal of increasing production by 600,000 vehicles by 2010. Honda is also building a new assembly plant in Indiana.

"We are committed to building where we sell," says Toyota spokeswoman Martha Voss. "No one is adding more capacity than we are."

Voss cites demand for small cars last year as the reason Toyota's Japanese imports rose by so much. Altogether, Toyota imported close to half of all the vehicles it sold in the USA last year from Japan, including all its gas-electric hybrids and most of its luxury Lexus division vehicles.

Honda's imports soared 30% last year, Mazda's rose 19%, and Suzuki's were up 23%, the Congressional Research Service finds in a new report. It says Japanese makers are simply trying to meet customer demand while running their U.S. plants at full tilt.

Japanese automakers encountered "capacity restraints in their existing U.S. plants as a sharp increase in the price of gasoline sparked greater consumer demand for fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly vehicles," says William Duncan, general director of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association's office in Washington, D.C.

All told, each of the Detroit automakers supports 2½ times more U.S. jobs than Toyota, says Jim Doyle, president of the Level Field Institute, a Washington research group. He acknowledges, however, that "people are trying to define what an American car is, and they are having a tough time."

The confusion pains Luehrmann, 48. Hoping to reach a decision soon about his next car, he's looking at everything.

He's a believer in American cars, but, says with a tinge of regret, "I don't feel any great loyalty anymore."

What do you think makes a car an 'American car'? Do you care and does it affect what you buy?