Main page | May 22, 2007 »

Job cuts won't fix Chrysler

Chrysler's new owners, Cerberus Capital Management LP, will need concessions from the UAW to trim costs and become competitive with Japanese automakers, industry experts say, but labor cuts alone will not turn Chrysler into a success, according to Detroit Free Press business writer Joe Guy Collier.
Chrysler estimates that Japanese automakers, such as Toyota Motor Corp., have a $30-an-hour labor cost advantage, counting benefits and special provisions, and the gap could grow to $45 an hour by 2009 without changes to the UAW contract, Collier reports. Chrysler, Ford and GM begin contract talks this summer with the UAW, presenting an opportunity to rework labor costs for all three automakers.

Posted by   at 10:24 AM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 0

How’s My Driving? Dial My License Plate

In “American Graffiti,” the character played by Richard Dreyfuss spends much of the movie pursuing a mysterious woman played by Suzanne Somers, who drives a white Ford Thunderbird. If only they'd had SameLane, a service that allows drivers to call strangers on the road by dialing their license plate numbers into cellphones, The New York Times reports.
A CB radio for this century, SameLane is aimed at commuters stuck in traffic, long-haul drivers fighting fatigue and good Samaritans trying to help people with broken taillights and such.
To use the service, which goes live on Monday, drivers register their cellphone and license plate numbers with SameLane, which sends them bumper stickers identifying the drivers as part of the SameLane network. After spotting a member, drivers dial a company number, punch in the license plate number of the car they want to reach and wait for SameLane’s computers to connect the call.

Posted by   at 10:16 AM to Accessories , Technology | Permalink | Comments 0

Fifty, Finned and Fabulous

1957 was a Golden Era for automobile design, but a fleeting one that would end before the year was out, according to a fascinating feature in The New York Times.
“I think 1957 was a high-water mark for Ford design; Chrysler as well,” said Greg Wallace, manager of General Motors’ Heritage Center in Sterling Heights, Mich.
The enduring popularity, not to mention collectibility, of Chevrolet’s 1957 cars “speaks for itself,” he said, adding, “The ’57 Chevy was quite simply the best-looking car of the entire postwar era.”

Posted by   at 10:11 AM to Auto industry , Companies , Design , Marques | Permalink | Comments 0

G.M.’s Mr. Horsepower Has an Electric Conversion

Speaking at a taping of “Wait Wait ...Don’t Tell Me!” the quiz program on National Public Radio, Robert A. Lutz, vice chairman at General Motors, declared Thursday night that the Chevrolet Volt, the hybrid-electric concept car that G.M. unveiled at this year’s Detroit auto show, may be among the most important vehicles that G.M. has ever developed, The New York Times reports.
Lutz has long been considered one of Detroit’s ultimate “car guys,” for whom no vehicle could be big enough, powerful enough or fast enough. He is the father of the V-10 Dodge Viper and has championed automobiles like the 1,000-horsepower Cadillac Sixteen.
Lutz said he was more excited about the Volt that he was about the Dodge Viper. “I think this can bring about the revolution and really make us independent of foreign oil and solve all the other problems," he said.

Posted by   at 10:03 AM to Alternative fuels , Companies , Design , Environment , Fuel economy , Marques , People in the News , Technology | Permalink | Comments 0

Oil prices on the march again

Oil prices climbed today on continued concerns that U.S. refiners are not producing enough gasoline to meet peak summer demand, the Associated Press reports.
The upward trend was held in check, however, with news from Nigeria that a key pipeline hub that had been taken over by protesters for nearly a week had started pumping again.
Light, sweet crude for June delivery gained 34 cents to $65.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange by noon in Europe.

Posted by   at 9:40 AM to Oil | Permalink | Comments 0

Gas prices getting up to record levels

The average price of self-serve regular gasoline hit a record high of $3.18, rising more than 11 cents over the past two weeks, according to a nationwide survey released Sunday, the Associated Press reports.
The latest figure topped the record of $3.07 set two weeks ago, which had been the highest price since the average cost of a gallon of gas hit $3.03 on Aug. 11, 2006, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country, AP said.
The latest price also beat the previous inflation-adjusted record of $3.15 per gallon in March 1981, AP said

Posted by   at 9:36 AM to Gas prices | Permalink | Comments 2