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Posted
Oct 02 2009, 07:31 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Rumors, credible rumors, are beginning to circulate in the car industry and the automotive press, that Chrysler may not make it another year primarily due to its falling sales and growing financial losses at partner Fiat.
Chrysler sold a 62,197 cars in September, down 42% from the same month last year. The figure was down from 93,222 in August when traffic to dealers was pushed up by the ”cash for clunkers” program.
Chrysler’s problems may only be beginning and, if so, Fiat, the ”managing partner” among Chrysler’s owners may not be able to keep the American company intact.
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Posted
Jul 17 2009, 11:13 AM
by
Minyanville
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
I can recite the 15 or so stops on New Jersey Transit’s North Jersey Coast Line in my sleep. I’ve made the trip from New York to Long Branch more often than I’d like to consider. My friends and I exchange NJT horror stories like trading cards -- though some are too depraved to divulge here.
A few of the milder occurrences: There’s the person who slides his smelly, shoeless feet directly through the seat cushion on which you’re sitting. There are the times you’ve fallen asleep and ended up utterly lost at the end of an unfamiliar line. The lone bottle that noisily rolls up and down the car with nobody bothering to stop it, the loud cell-phone talkers, the constant delays. And of course the merciless sonic blast of a conductor announcing stops at which nobody will exit on an early-morning train.
Worst of all, the train travels at a speed that’s the opposite of Mach 1. A century ago, the trip from New York to the Jersey Shore lasted about 2 hours. Now it’s only about 30 minutes faster, in spite of the benefits of modern technology.
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Posted
Jun 08 2009, 07:29 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
In a perfect world, all energy would come from electricity and hydrogen. Wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, and other renewable energy sources would provide enough electricity to power everything except air transportation. The “conventional” answer to transportation in the future was the hydrogen fuel cell. It doesn’t get any better than that. The fuel cell burns hydrogen and powers cars, trucks, and any other transportation vehicle. The hydrogen combines with oxygen to form water vapor. No other gases or pollutants are released.
The hydrogen fuel cell is an efficient generator of electricity, but it has one major problem: It needs hydrogen. So where does it get it? Therein lies the hydrogen myth. On Earth, there's no hydrogen to mine. You have to make it, and that requires wasting energy. You could conceivably mine hydrogen from the sun or Jupiter, but even Al Gore would probably agree that that would be tough to accomplish.
Last month, the Department of Energy (DOE) finally conceded that hydrogen won't be a part of the near-term solution to global warming, the peak oil crisis, or anything else you can think of. They're cutting back funding dramatically on hydrogen research. This is a triumph of physics over policy. In the long run, physics will always win, but we have way too many policy wonks in Washington without a clue about how the physical world works.
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Posted
Dec 22 2008, 08:42 AM
by
Bernhard Warner and Matthew Yeomans
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner site The Big Money.
“The contagion spreads”: familiar headlines since September, and yet Monday’s papers show some unlikely quarters for hand-wringing and pleading. For instance, did you know that big office buildings and sprawling office parks are looking for government support, too? Yes, citing lobbying efforts and a letter to Henry Paulson, the Wall Street Journal says that property developers want to get a piece of the $200 billion program to help car, student, and credit-card loan providers. Accompanying the piece is a familiarly shaped graph: climbing numbers of commercial real estate loans refinanced during the roaring 2000s, followed by a crash this year. Like residential mortgages, the commercial mortgage-backed securities have come to a “virtual shutdown,” and big swaths of commercial real estate loans are coming due in 2009.
A wondrous world of freely trading nations is apparently the latest shibboleth at risk. The Washington Post rounds up the latest protectionist moves by countries from Russia and France to Algeria and, yes, the United States. The Post notes that states at November’s G20 summit in Washington promised
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Posted
Dec 11 2008, 03:56 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
The New York Times debunks the claim that the Big Three auto workers earn $73 an hour. That number came from the car companies themselves during union negotiations, writes David Leonhardt.
But it isn't completely accurate. Yes, the companies do spend about $73 for every hour of unionized work, Leonhardt writes. Not all of that goes to the worker's pocket.
Here's how it breaks down:
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Posted
Oct 01 2008, 03:34 PM
by
Anthony Mirhaydari
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
September's auto sales were breathtakingly dismal: seasonally adjusted annual sales for domestically produced vehicles came in at 9.4 million for the month, down from 10.3 million previously and below the consensus estimate of 10.1 million.
A witch's brew of tighter credit availability and lack of lease financing has combined with all the pressures you're already familiar with: rising unemployment, declining asset values, dismal consumer confidence, high gas prices, etc. This is a perfect example of how the still unfolding credit crunch affects each and every one of us.
What's more, the monthly sales decline was widespread: Nissan down 37%, Ford down 35%, Chrysler down 33%, Toyota down 32%, Hyundai down 25%, Honda down 24%, GM down 16%, and VW down 9%.
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Posted
Sep 18 2008, 07:31 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
General Motors' prototype Volt underscores the basic problem automakers have in developing new electric technology: The car is designed to run just 40 miles between charges of its lithium-ion battery pack.
That’s fine for zipping around town, but useless for many daily commutes -- especially in the West. The U.S. Department of Transportation says 23% of the nation’s commuters drive 42 or more miles roundtrip to work each day; another 10% drive 32 to 40 miles roundtrip. GM’s Volt just doesn’t meet their needs.
For years, nickel-cadmium batteries were the standard, but lithium-ion, commercialized by Sony in the early 1990s, offers twice the “energy density” and is now the most promising battery
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Posted
Aug 25 2008, 01:48 PM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Toyota says it will hike the price of its Prius and Harrier hybrids in Japan to cover the increased cost of steel and other materials.
The price increases are the first in Japan since 1992 without an accompanying new model with improved features. The company raised prices 10% in 1974 after the first oil shock.
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Posted
Feb 11 2008, 01:44 PM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Like some many unsuccessful companies before it, Chrysler wants to cut its way to profitability. The privately held company, run by Home Depot exile Robert Nardelli, will probably chop its number of brands 50% and dealerships by a third.
According to The Wall Street Journal, "over the next three years or so, the now closely held auto maker plans to drop as many as half of the approximately 30 vehicles it now produces, a move likely to cut sales at least for a while." A while may be forever.
It is not believable to think that Toyota, Honda, and, to a lesser extent, GM will not market vehicles directly into the niches which Chrysler gives up. Toyota especially has the dealer network and broad brand line-up to do this.
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