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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 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 10 2009, 07:35 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Updated at 5:09 p.m. ET
The “best” parts of General Motors were transferred Friday morning to a newly created company owned almost two-thirds by taxpayers. The federal government will end up stuffing $50 million into the new entity in the hope that a smaller and less debt-heavy GM can make money in the ravaged domestic car market.
Investors seemed to think so, and the announcement set up a bizarre day of trading in the stock that now represents GM, GMGMQ. It rose 37% during the day. Yet in the new world of GM, these shares are worthless, as Barron's explained in this report.They don't represent the new entity.
That new entity faces a difficult future
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Posted
Oct 07 2009, 10:19 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 Could the Prius and other Toyota hybrids be banned from the U.S.? It seems unthinkable, but that's one possible ending to a patent investigation launched this week.
This case centers around Paice, a tiny Florida company that has patented a way to apply force to a car's wheels from the electric motor or the internal combustion engine. Paice thinks that Toyota (TM) is infringing on its technology, and is going after the automaker in court. The legal spat became much more serious for Toyota this week, when the U.S. International Trade Commission decided to investigate the matter. Bing: How do hybrid cars work?
The problem is that the ITC can stop any imports that infringe on U.S. patents.
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Posted
Oct 01 2008, 11:52 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
One in five U.S. car dealerships could bite the dust in the next year, according to a study out Wednesday. Sales are down. Credit is harder to come by, and even the people who have good credit are leery of making big car purchases.
Potential investors are staying away, and no wonder. Car sales in this country have declined for 11 months straight -- the longest slide in 17 years, according to Bloomberg.
And September was a particularly ugly month. Carmakers are reporting results for the month, with negatives across the board. Ford's U.S. sales fell 34% from the month before, and Toyota was down 32%.
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Posted
Dec 09 2008, 08:57 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Unions, like democracy, work perfectly on paper. But both suffer a disconnect between concept and execution.
Unions first sprung up in 18th-century Europe when women and children joined armies of poorly paid male factory workers. As individuals, the factory workers were powerless to negotiate with their bosses. A union gave them a collective voice. They could band together to say, "You're getting rich off our labor, and you need to share that wealth with us -- or we'll stop working." The factory owner would then have an incentive to improve wages and conditions.
Who but a factory owner could argue with its logic or fairness
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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
Mar 31 2009, 04:17 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Toyota’s (TM) share of the U.S. light vehicle market is 18% and Honda’s (HMC) is 10%. General Motors (GM) claims about 22%. Fifty-five years ago, the No. 1 U.S. car company had 54% of the market. By this time next year, GM’s piece of the American car pie could drop another 50%, bringing it closer to Honda’s.
It seems improbable that GM could lose that many customers so fast. But Rick Wagoner, the recently departed chief executive of the company, told Congress in December that people won’t buy cars from a bankrupt company. Some at the hearings figured Wagoner was bluffing, trying to convince Washington that a Chapter 11 filing would end the firm’s ability to market products because customers could turn to cars made by competitors in reasonably good financial shape.
But most research done recently indicates that Wagoner was probably right, at least right enough that GM’s sales could be clobbered by consumers who believe that their warranties will be worthless and that their dealers will disappear.
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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
Feb 19 2009, 04:11 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Toyota (TM) wants General Motors (GM) to go out of business. Then the Japanese car company could take the No.1 market share position in America, perhaps over 25%, and make a fortune when the consumer gets back his appetite for spending.
All of that does make sense until analysts start to look inside the industry and see how the supply chain works. If GM falls, so do many of its suppliers. If the suppliers fail, Toyota loses its sources for parts. Toyota factories in the U.S. will have to shut down, and potential car buyers will need to keep the ir current vehicles or buy a horse.
According to Reuters,“A healthy U.S. auto industry is vital for a sound U.S. economy and by extension for Japanese carmakers.” That is only the tip of the iceberg and it is based on the fact that higher US unemployment will further undermine car sales. But, if the stimulus package works, the consumer’s ability to buy a new vehicle should improve.
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