July 25, 2012 online at www.uawlocal2250.com
The 7th annual SOS – Support our Soldiers – motorcycle ride and rally will be Saturday, Aug. 18. Registration will begin at 9 am at the Union Hall with the last bike out at 11am. Cost is $20 per bike, $5 per passenger and $5 for each extra hand. The ride ends at Crazy Horse Saloon in Wentzville at 6 pm. All bikes and cages are welcome. Proceeds will benefit Operation Homefront. If you have any questions you can contact Steve Melson at 636-262-1234.
From the Wall Street Journal: Ford Motor Co.’s second-quarter net profit slid 57% as its overseas operations and a higher tax rate held back strong results from North America. Ford also lowered its full-year profit forecast as well as its budget for capital spending. The company's results give a hint into its expanding economic problems abroad, particularly in Europe and how much it now relies on its home market for profits. Overall, Ford posted second-quarter net profit of $1.04 billion, down from $2.4 billion in the year-earlier period. Revenue fell 6.2% to $33.3 billion from $35.5 billion. Ford's operating earnings of $1.8 billion or 30 cents a share—after-tax profits excluding some charges for asset write-downs and cuts to workers—were better than the 28-cent a share profit forecast by analysts. Ford said it now expects its annual losses in Europe to exceed $1 billion, up from the $600 million loss forecast earlier in the year.
"This is structural in nature," said Bob Shanks, Ford's chief financial officer, in an interview after the release of the earnings. "And we think this is a situation that we will have to deal with for the foreseeable future." Mr. Shanks said Ford is expecting difficulties in Europe to last at least five years. He suggested that Ford will announce a restructuring initiative there in the future. Ford posted a pre-tax loss of $404 million in the region, a reverse from the $176 million it made a year earlier in the quarter. Revenues in Europe fell $1.9 billion to $7 billion.
Ford's North American operations produced $2 billion in pre-tax profit, up $1.9 billion a year earlier. Its profit margin in its home market increased to 10.2% from 9.8%. The company said its South American posted a $5 million pre-tax profit— positive, but a plunge from the $267 million year-ago result as competition forced it to lower prices or use incentives to sell cars. Ford said it expects the region to remain profitable for the year. Ford's Asia and Africa operations also lost $66 million on a pre-tax basis as higher revenues from car sales were offset by heavy capital spending for new plants and products. Ford Motor Credit's pre-tax results also declined to $447 million, down from $604 million a year earlier. The lending arm is getting less revenue and profit from vehicles returned on leases.(General Motors will report 2nd quarter financial results Thursday, Aug. 2)
Chevrolet topped three categories in the latest J.D. Power and Associates’ Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout study, released today. The APEAL survey measures what consumers like about their vehicles based on rankings of 80 attributes collected between February and May of this year. The Chevrolet Sonic subcompact, Volt compact car and Avalanche pickup all place first in their respective categories. Results are spread across U.S., Asian and European auto makers alike, with Audi, Dodge, Ford, Kia, Mini, Nissanand Porsche each receiving two first-place honors, and BMW, Infiniti, Range Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen each taking home one. At 887 out of a possible 1,000 points, Porsche is the highest-ranking nameplate in the APEAL study for an eighth consecutive year. The industry average is 788 points. Cadillac was GM’s highest rated brand at 823 points, followed by Buick (784), GMC (780) and Chevrolet (777).
From Torque News: The Chevrolet.com website page dedicated to the Chevrolet Volt has three interesting “gauges” showing the actual number of miles driven by Chevrolet Volt owners around the United States. The Volt communicates with company computers to keep a running, up to the second total of the miles driven by Volt owners around the country, including how many of those miles are driven on electricity. It is really a very interesting feature.
As this piece goes live here on Torque News.com, the Chevrolet Volt has traveled roughly 105,790,000 miles on US roads and roughly 67,020,000 of those miles have been driven on pure electric power – meaning that roughly 64% of the Volt mileage over the last 21 months has been electric. The result of all of this electric driving is over 3.5 million gallons of gasoline saved by using electric power as opposed to gasoline. Considering that the national gas price average right now for the required premium fuel is $3.75, Volt owners have saved a whopping $13.24 million dollars.
From Digital Trends: The Nissan Leaf may be able to drive quickly in reverse, but it may not be able to handle intense summer heat. Several Leaf owners in Arizona say their cars are losing range, CBS5-TV Phoenix reports, and they think the heat is to blame. One Leaf owner said that when they bought their car a year ago it returned 90 miles on one charge, enough to get them to work and back. Now the Leaf will only go 44 miles on a single charge. In addition, owners have seen two or three of the 12 lights on the Leafs’ battery capacity gauges stay off, even with a full charge. That indicates that the battery is no longer holding the extra charge. There are 400 Leafs on the road in Arizona, and five owners have complained of reduced battery range so far. They say their Leafs have lost 30 percent of their battery capacity, despite impeccable maintenance, proper driving techniques, and a clean bill of health from Nissan dealers. According to Nissan, a battery should not lose 30 percent of its charge until the car is seven years old. However, director of product planning Mark Perry said the company does not consider the Arizona complaints a problem, although it is investigating them.
Tom Brune
UAW/GM Communications Coordinator
Wentzville Assembly
636-327-2119
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