May 23, 2011 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
There are just 6 working days left in May and the canned food drive has barely gotten started. Containers are at the entrances for your donations. You can also donate money to Wanda Richard, Mike Bridgins, Tina Hayes or any other Community Services committee member. There is still time to make this a success and help those less fortunate than us as well as those who have sudden needs arise – like tornado victims.
From the Wall Street Journal: Volkswagen AG on Tuesday will celebrate the opening of a new Tennessee auto plant that gives the German auto maker much lower U.S. labor costs than not only its Detroit rivals but its Japanese competitors on American soil. Located near Chattanooga, Tenn., the plant will pay starting workers about $27 an hour in wages and benefits, according to estimates by industry analysts. That's roughly half the $52 an hour cost of labor at the Detroit Three auto makers and some non-union U.S. plants owned by Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. It comes as Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., whose Alabama and Georgia plant labor costs are similar to VW's, are gaining share against Detroit and Tokyo rivals. Over the next three years, VW is expected to boost the average worker's wage from $14.50 to $19.50, pushing up the total cost for a worker to roughly $38 an hour, according to the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
From the New York Times: The average price for a new car in the United States is edging toward $30,000, as automakers remain stingy with discounts and there just are not enough of the most popular vehicles available. Though the average price remains below historic highs when adjusted for inflation, nominally it has never been so high, according to the auto-research site TrueCar.com. That concerns some car company executives, who fear that the industry’s recent comeback could be stalled if buyers start experiencing sticker shock. And early sales data for this month are not encouraging: Retail sales of new vehicles are projected to total about 850,000 in May, according to J. D. Power & Associates. That translates to an annual seasonally adjusted selling rate of about 9.6 million units, a significant drop-off from the 10.7 million rate achieved from January through April. The data exclude sales to rental car and other fleets.
“You’ve got to figure out that sweet spot where you offer just enough incentives to get people to buy your cars without sacrificing profitability,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends at TrueCar. The average transaction price for a new vehicle in the United States, including rebates and other incentives, reached $29,602 in April, according to TrueCar.com. That figure represented an increase of $324 over March. But automakers are not necessarily getting greedy, industry analysts said. Some of the increases are going toward covering higher material costs, and the companies are also taking advantage of strong demand. General Motors, for example, is running short on supply of its Chevrolet Cruze compact car, and the Ford Motor Company is low on inventories of its Focus sedan and Explorer S.U.V. Some of the biggest year-over-year price increases are found on revamped, hot-selling models like Chrysler’s Jeep Grand Cherokee and Honda’s Odyssey minivan. “The pricing is more of a symptom of lack of supply than anything else,” said Jim Farley, Ford’s head of global sales marketing. “But it is affecting the industry’s volumes.” Ford and Toyota announced across-the-board price increases this year on their 2011 models. Ford said it would raise prices by an average of $117, or 0.4 percent, while Toyota said it would lift prices by about 1.7 percent on many of its Toyota, Lexus and Scion models. G.M. has said it will charge more for many of its vehicles, by an average of $123. But the increases are only part of the equation. Overall discounts and sales incentives fell to their lowest levels in five years in April, according to the automotive site Edmunds.com. Incentives averaged about $2,320 per vehicle in April, a $370 reduction from the period a year earlier. Some of the reduction is attributed to sales programs that expired and were not renewed. Japanese carmakers have also pulled back incentives because of the earthquake-related shortages, and the American companies have followed suit.
No comments:
Post a Comment