Automotive News - May 19, 2008 - (Page 46)

46 • MAY 19, 2008 final assembly comment AMERICAN AXLE >> Get the latest updates on the UAW’s strike at American Axle at www. autonews.com. Toyota will go slow in Tupelo P lans for Toyota’s Tupelo, Miss., plant have taken a double hit from the U.S. auto slump: It will open five months later than planned and won’t build as many vehicles. A spokesman said that because of the sluggish market, the plant will open in May 2010 and will build 120,000 Highlander crossovers a year, not the 150,000 originally planned. Delaying the launch also allows Toyota to sidestep a minor problem it faced with a scheduled product change. Toyota’s Highlander: A later start The Highlander is scheduled for a midcycle enhancement in 2010. Before the decision to delay the Tupelo project, the plant would have had to launch with one version of the Highlander, then make tooling changes only a few months later to accommodate the revised version. Pischetsrieder has earned a celebratory cigarack when he was running the Volkswagen group, the rumor was that Bernd Pischetsrieder used to enjoy sitting outside at his house in the Bavarian countryside smoking his cigars. It’s a good bet that he’s smoking a few now. Look at the latest quarterly earnings report out of Wolfsburg, and Pischetsrieder’s success is all over it. “Volkswagen Group Continues Success Story” is the headline on the company’s latest earnings JASON STEIN release. IS PUBLISHER OF More vehicles AUTOMOTIVE delivered. NEWS EUROPE. Increased sales revenue. Sharp rise in profit. Cost plan working. What does that say? The better question is what it doesn’t say: Bernd Pischetsrieder’s hard work totally paid off. Pischetsrieder isn’t the first guy to get whacked, then be forced to sit back and watch as the success story is attributed to someone else. But he’s an interesting case. Truth be told, Pischetsrieder did all of the heavy lifting at VW at a time when there was serious weight to lift. Now, with the hard work continued by others, you see the results. Pischetsrieder went toe-to-toe with the unions over serious job cuts, and about 20,000 employees eventually left the company. He recruited a big-time product guy (Wolfgang Bernhard) who knew what the automaker needed in its lineup and had the skill to execute the plan. And he took on the supervisory board to save his job. What happened? Pischetsrieder took the fall when the political heat was turned up with the unions and with Ferdinand Piech. Oh, and Bernhard was also gone. And now the fruits of their labor are on the street. The Passat CC and the Scirocco are remarkably attractive vehicles. Audi is a legitimate competitor among the premium brands. Skoda is a runaway success in central and eastern Europe. And costs are in line to the point that VW will exceed Pischetsrieder’s intended target. “The success of our products,” said Martin Winterkorn, Pischetsrieder’s successor in 2006, “shows that our new model rollout is meeting with an excellent response.” Smoke one for us, Bernd. You did a great job. Buildings Porsches in U.S.? Depends whom you ask CAROL KAELSON I Brian Collins, right, and brother Tom: Thanks but no, thanks F_RD GU_S WI_ BUI_KS I n Vanna White’s language, they’d call it IR_NY. Brothers Tom and Brian Collins, partners in Fox Valley Ford in North Aurora, Ill., were contestants on “Wheel of Fortune” recently and did pretty well. They won a couple of Buicks. “They are very nice vehicles,” Tom Collins said of the Enclave crossovers. “We’re looking forward to selling them.” Brian Collins, 37, survived the screening process to be a contestant on a “family week” taping of the long-running game show when it visited Chicago in March. He chose Tom, 34, as his teammate. And they cleaned up: more than $100,000 in cash and prizes, including trips to Las Vegas and the Caribbean — and the Enclaves, worth about $70,000. They kept quiet about the program’s outcome and threw a party for about 100 family members and friends to watch the episode when it was broadcast May 8. They also made history. “Wheel” host Pat Sajak noted: “This is the first time in the history of our show that we’ve given away two brand-new cars to two guys who own a car dealership.” n the league of self-defeating exercises, trying to make money exporting vehicles from Europe to the United States ranks somewhere between herding cats (as the French would say) and carrying frogs in a wheelbarrow (as the Dutch put it). That’s what the strong euro vs. weak dollar has done to exporters’ U.S. business model. One European carmaker after another is angling to build vehicles in America. But is Porsche one of them? According to a German newspaper report, the sports car maker, which controls Volkswagen AG, might build its Cayenne SUV at a factory VW will open in the United States in 2010. A VW spokesman appeared to confirm that report. “When we discuss whether to build the (VW) Touareg and (Audi) Q7 in the U.S.A., we also talk about the Cayenne,” the spokesman told Automotive News Europe. Those vehicles share a platform. But later, Porsche spokesman Albrecht Bamler took a different view. Bamler said Porsche does not need to build the Cayenne in North America and has no plans to do so. He said it wouldn’t make sense because suppliers that make parts for the SUV are in Europe. And he said Porsche is protected against the financial effects of the weak dollar through currency hedging until 2013. Ferrari: From denial to debut T he California GT — the car whose existence Ferrari has been denying vigorously for months — will debut at the Paris show in October. It’s a convertible with a flexible hard top stretched over an aluminum chassis. It’s powered by a new 4.3-liter direct-injection V-8. It has a multilink rear suspension, Brembo brakes and a predicted 0-60 mph time of under 4 seconds. Ghosn is glum on prices, U.S. sales prospects arlos Ghosn’s grim run through 2009. outlook: Raw material The pessimistic outlook and sticker prices are going came last week when Ghosn up, and U.S. sales will stay said his company expects a down for quite a while. 30.5 percent drop in The Nissan president operating profit this year, due said there is “no doubt” in part to rising costs of steel Carlos Ghosn: and oil. higher sticker prices are A long slump around the corner as raw “You cannot continue to material costs soar. He also say, ‘All my raw materials are warned that the U.S. slump would increasing, all the components of my car are increasing, but I’m not going to increase prices,’ ” Ghosn said. “You’re going to have significant inflation in cars. No doubt about it.” Ghosn described 2008 as a “tough year for the entire industry” and added: Unfortunately also we are not seeing a revival in 2009. We’re seeing a couple of years at a very low level.” THE FINAL SAY “ JOE WILSSENS We saw a 14.4 million SAAR in April … gulp. The total industry was down 92,000 year to year, but 62,000 of that was fleet. If fleet business were the same, the SAAR would have been 15.5, so we have to be sure we’re not all panicking as an industry thinking the market is going to hell. NHTSA spins VINs, averts meltdown T here’s a lot to fret about in the auto industry these days, but you can scratch one worry off the list: The assembly lines won’t shut down for want of new VINs. In the nick of time, the feds changed the rules so automakers have enough vehicle identification numbers to last at least 30 more years. Had they not acted, some companies might have run out this year. Like an echo of the Y2K crisis, rule writers did not consider simply adding more letters or numbers to be a reasonable option. It seems computers everywhere — in factories, dealerships and government agencies — have been programmed for VINs of no more than 17 characters. So the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figured out a way to change the order and coding of those 17 digits that slides us through until about 2040. Or maybe longer, if things don’t pick up. You may e-mail Jason Stein at jstein@craincom.de — Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. ” http://www.autonews.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Automotive News - May 19, 2008

Automotive News - May 19, 2008 Ford eyes smaller F-150 cousin Sonic: Mercedes tries to 'extort' store upgrades Chrysler seeks 25% slash in parts prices Dealership managers pushed Chrysler's latest incentive Crain names 4 new VPs Automotive News staffers win Wheel Awards GM will keep cutting sales to fleets GM studies the future of full-sized trucks American Axle plans to expand in Asia At Lexus, the sales laggards are cars VW positions Tiguan as 'GTI' of small SUVs Tata enters race for 100-mpg car Harley Earl was the daddy of auto design Focus will follow Fiesta as a global vehicle Lexus shows how it sweats details Industry slows tide of state CO2 rules Chevy tweaks Cobalt to add fuel economy Be careful; don't do anything dumb Looking ahead to different industry They thought they knew everything Cerberus doesn't belong in autos Dealers as scapegoats Smart, steady growth works best for suppliers Farley's smart to value Ford's heritage Absurd logic in the U.S., cowardice in Germany BMW, Daimler keep a wary eye on U.S. economy James Franey Dealers' approach can lessen pain of staff cuts GM plans to distinguish Opel with image makeover Make or buy? Software can estimate costs for company Honda, Toyota see robots in their futures Bosch aims to lead in hybrids technology King of hearts Clarke aims to get GM back on track in N.A. Fields navigates Ford through 'white water' LaSorda steers Chrysler's global ventures Toyota's Lentz: A crash course in hard times Truck sales fall 13% in April Modine sells Thermacore unit Alcoa to close Mexico plant Toyoda Gosei expands in Mexico Hayes Lemmerz plans to close Georgia factory Japan's sales slide 2% in 1st quarter; output climbs Dealers Hyundai let U.S. direct Sonata freshening After .com and .edu, is it time for .car? Panoramic sunroof of Lincoln MKS boosts Inalfa sales Chrysler hedged gas price bet Smart phones help dealerships retain customers CAW completes pacts with GM, Chrysler early GM, UAW resolve 2 disputes New media buyer for Chrysler Visteon names Stebbins CEO Convertible registrations drop Ferrari: From denial to debut Buildings Porsches in U.S.? Depends whom you ask Toyota will go slow in Tupelo Ghosn is glum on prices, U.S. sales prospects Pischetsrieder has earned a celebratory cigar NHTSA spins VINs, averts meltdown F_RD GU_S WI_ BUI-_KS 50 PEOPLE FOR 50 YEARS Yutaka Katayama Clarence Talley Jim Morton Pete Brock Marvin Runyon Yoshikazu Hanawa Bill Bruce Shin Maki Jack Collins Mitsuya "Scape" Goto Bob Link Soichi Kawazoe Jerry Hirshberg Takashi Ishihara Roy Rogers John Parker Bob Thomas Teruo Uchino Morrie Sage Bob Thomas Nobe Wakatsuki Earl Hesterberg Carlos Ghosn Lee Clow Jerry Benefield Yutaka Kume Doug Betts Tim McCarthy Jed Connelly Atsushi Nakatsuji Dave Hubbard Joe Opre Patrick Pelata Yoshiyuki Kimura Diane Allen Mad Mike Taylor Chuck King Larry Dominique Mark Igo Mitsuhiko Yamashita Shiro Nakamura Tom Mignanelli Dick Roberts William Cushing Emil Hassan Chester Luby Jane Nakagawa Louis Schweitzer MR. K Ray Lemke Richard McCutcheon

Automotive News - May 19, 2008

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