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Posts Tagged ‘Detroit Auto Plants’

Cash For Clunkers Bill Approved by Congress

The Senate approved a $1 billion program yesterday to give vouchers to consumers who trade in their gas-guzzling clunkers for more fuel-efficient models — a move that dealers hope will revive slumping auto sales.

Congressional leaders attached the legislation to a $106 billion spending bill to fund troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The spending bill passed by a 91 to 5 vote but not before some Republican lawmakers unsuccessfully sought to strip the measure from the bill.

Dealers, unions, trade groups and automakers have been lobbying for months for the legislation in hopes that it would stop the streak of dismal U.S. auto sales.

“The simple fact is that we need to get Americans into car showrooms, and this is the bill that will do it,” Rep. Candice S. Miller (R-Mich.), a co-sponsor of the legislation, said in a statement.

Consumers would be able to start using the $4,500 vouchers as soon as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finalizes the rules — a process that must conclude within 30 days of the president’s approval.

Detroit Auto Industry Is Forever Changed Due to Credit Crunch

LANSING, Mich. — Detroit’s Big Three automakers are forever changed by the current credit crisis, according to a study done by a well-known Michigan economics firm.

The study, from Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group, gives a stark peek into the auto business and reports bankruptcy, radical restructuring and even a merger between two of the auto giants are just a few of the limited options the industry has left.

“Although the metaphor has been abused recently, it is indeed the worst crisis since the Great Depression for the domestic industry,” analysts wrote in the summary of their findings. The study projects annual sales for the Big Three may be less than 10.5 million units.That number is down from 16 million in 2007, a nearly 40 percent drop.

On a more positive note, analysts write in the study that they disagree “with the notion that the entire industry is a herd of ‘dinosaurs’ or that the Detroit 3 do not produce vehicles Americans want.”The next 18 months are both critical and full of possibility for automakers, according to the study.

Chrysler Announces Plans to Retool and Expand Jefferson North Assembly

TRAVERSE CITY — Chrysler LLC said Wednesday it would invest $1.8 billion retooling and expanding its Jefferson North Assembly Plant to build a new car-based sport utility vehicle to be sold under the Jeep nameplate.

The company’s vice chairman and president, Tom LaSorda, said the money would be used “in new vehicle programs” and a 285,000-square-foot expansion of the plant “including a new body shop that will allow increased flexibility and higher output.”

LaSorda, attending the Center for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminars, told reporters at lunch that the plant would build at least 120,000 vehicles including a next-generation Jeep Grand Cherokee under the program beginning in the spring of 2010. The vehicle will have the company’s all-new more fuel-efficient Phoenix engine and a more advanced axle.