April 25, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
From Wards Auto: General Motors is in good shape with its manufacturing footprint in the U.S., says Mark Reuss, president-North America, giving little indication the auto maker plans to reopen any idled facilities in the near future. GM has two major assembly plants on standby in Janesville, WI, and Spring Hill, TN. Much of their tooling remains intact, giving the auto maker the option to bring them back online quickly if extra capacity is needed. GM’s production was up nearly 18% in the region, pushing its capacity utilization over 100%. Generally, auto makers want to build close to – or beyond – 100% capacity to maximize profitability. Some GM plants operate over that benchmark and some below, depending on the vehicles they build.
From the Wall Street Journal: A disruption to parts supply chains following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan last month resulted in domestic production at Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. plummeting by more than half in March. Although March is usually the biggest production month—as book closing usually prompts dealerships to make a last-ditch effort to sell as many vehicles as possible—this didn't prevent a sharp fall in output. According to figures released Monday, Toyota's domestic output fell by 63% from a year earlier, Nissan's production dropped 52%, and Honda's fell 63%. Japan's top three car manufacturers are currently operating their domestic factories at half of planned or normal production rates. The ongoing difficulties with parts supplies means it's hard for them to make any certain long-term predictions about when the situation will improve. Honda, Japan's third-biggest car maker by volume, said Monday its plants in Japan will remain at 50% of its pre-quake production plan until the end of June, and output levels after July are uncertain. That follows the outlook outlined by Toyota last Friday that its output won't be back to normal at least until November. "We are restoring operations. But continuing aftershocks sometimes undo our work. We are repeating this over and over again. That makes it hard to foresee" accurately when operations will return to pre-quake levels, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said at a press conference last Friday. Toyota is still unable to source 150 types of parts from quake-hit plants more than a month after the quake hit March 11.
From Automotive News: Nissan recalled nearly 271,000 older-model Pathfinder and Infiniti QX4 SUVs in North America due to the chance that road salt and water could collect to cause a loss of steering, U.S. safety regulators said. Affected in the United States and Canada are about 225,650 Pathfinders from model years 1996 to 2004 and about 45,330 Infiniti QX4 SUVs from model years 1997 to 2003. The recall affects Pathfinders and QX4s in Canada and 20 cold-weather U.S. states where road salt is used to keep roads clear of snow and ice. Road salt and melted snow can collect in the strut housing and may cause corrosion that could lead to difficulty in steering and even loss of steering, which could cause a crash, regulators said.
From the New York Times: More than three years after Toyota first learned that its curtain-shield air bags could deploy without a crash, the automaker is recalling almost 308,000 sport utility vehicles. The recall covers about 214,000 RAV4s from the 2007-8 model years and 94,000 Highlander and Highlander hybrids from 2008, the automaker informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Thursday. N.H.T.S.A. has eight complaints on its Web site from owners reporting inadvertent deployments, but the safety agency never began an investigation. Five of those complaints were filed last year. “I turned the ignition on and the side air bags on both sides exploded,” one owner told the agency. “It felt like someone had put a bomb in my car.” In its report, Toyota said it learned of the problem in 2007 and discovered it was caused by a short circuit in two sensors. The automaker said it changed the sensor design in January 2008. Despite the change, Toyota said it continued to receive reports of deployments, including some that caused minor injuries. Toyota did not consider the problem worthy of a recall because for the air curtain to deploy without a crash, it would require two short circuits to “occur nearly simultaneously after the initial air bag check.”
• From the Detroit News: Federal safety regulators have opened an investigation into 370,000 Jeep Liberty vehicles over corrosion issues. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a notice posted Friday it is reviewing the 2002-2005 Jeep Liberty after receiving nine complaints about rear control arms failing due to excessive corrosion. Two of the complaints alleged the failure occurred at speeds of 50 mph or greater. Three complaints alleged that the failure resulted in a loss of vehicle control. This is the third NHTSA probe into corrosion issues on Jeep Liberty vehicles. In November 2003, the DaimlerChrysler recalled 336,000 2002-2003 Jeep Liberty SUVS because some experienced a loss of lubrication that led to corrosion of the lower control arm ball joints. In some instances, drivers lost control of vehicles. In August 2006, DaimlerChrysler recalled 825,000 2002-2006 Jeep Liberty SUVs over the same issue after NHTSA had opened an investigation. The automaker again replaced lower ball joints because they could be corroded and lead to a possible separation causing a loss of control. Three years later in April 2009, Chrysler LLC recalled 42,469 2002-2003 Jeep Liberty for corrosion issues in 22 cold-weather "salt belt" states to address upper ball joint separation issues, including Michigan. That followed at least five reports of incidents at speeds of 40 miles or greater. NHTSA closed its 18-month-old investigation after Chrysler announced the recall
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