Well, Bob, that is just silly. How could anyone possibly compare those pieces of cookie cutter junk to our beloved smart? Oh, did I type that out loud?
At last years LA Auto Show the Smart Booth was packed with people. You would think that going in the middle of the week during a work day would have prevented that...no way. I hate to think what it was like on the weekend.
This year, people have felt the sting of higher gas prices and are likely to have seen the Smart on the road. All good news for the Smart Booth, but bad news for me when I have to somehow cat through all that to try and take photos of the Booth.
In the latest blow to Delaware's struggling economy, General Motors Corp. said Thursday it will lay off 400 workers and eliminate one of two remaining shifts at its Boxwood Road assembly plant on Dec. 8.
More than a third of the workers who make the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky roadsters will be out of work in the second plant scaledown this year. GM dropped the third shift at the plant earlier this year, eliminating about 400 jobs then.
About 1,130 people, including 1,000 unionized workers, now work at the plant outside Newport, said Linda Messina, a GM spokeswoman.
A slump in sales of the Solstice and Sky roadsters is the reason for the layoffs, Messina said.
Solstice sales are down 23.8 percent this year through August, to 9,030 vehicles, while sales of the Sky are off 7.2 percent, to 7,573 vehicles
For me any waite longer than 6 months is unacceptable, if I can't configure by the end of this year (5 Months), I already have a backup, a 2009 Honda Fit Sport automatic by March next year after tax refund time.
It is unique enough for me, plus much more practical and reliable.
I am not happy with the 12 month or longer waiting time
I filled up yesterday premium $3.45 for the C class benz, I remember paying over $5 a couple of months ago. Regular is now $3.24 and suppose to be finally below $3 in the next few days. After only waiting for 4 months I am now 50 / 50 for the Smart Passion. I was tilting toward a Honda Fit Sport, but I always liked cars with character, I most probably will get a 2009 VW Beetle automatic coupe. Test drove one today with my two small kids, my wife will test drive next weekend, she is excited that I said the beetle drives like our C class, I will ask for a refund of my $99 as soon as I buy the Beetle, either before the end of this month, or as scheduled March next year. They say with our deep recession $3 gas is forecast for the next several years. It would spike again , but most probably toward the middle of the next decade.
Chrysler LLC is expected to announce Thursday morning that it will eliminate between 800 and 850 employees at its Toledo Jeep Assembly complex because of slow sales of its products.
The involuntary layoffs are expected to occur by year’s end, but may be offset by attrition as employees take buyout offers that are being offered to Chrysler employees at several plants.
The cut will effectively eliminate the second shift at the Toledo North plant, where the Jeep Liberty and Dodge Nitro are made.
Additional production cuts — but not necessarily job losses — are expected to be made at the Toledo South plant where the Wrangler is made.
A spokesman for Chrysler refused to comment on the layoffs.
Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Chrysler LLC, now in merger talks with General Motors Corp., will cut 1,825 jobs as it shuts a Delaware factory a year early and pares output at an Ohio plant because of slumping sport-utility vehicle sales.
Both moves will occur by Dec. 31, Auburn Hills, Michigan- based Chrysler said today in a statement. Closely held Chrysler, which isn't required to report financial results, also indicated it lost about $565 million in the second quarter.
The Delaware-made SUVs ``are simply not selling,'' said Aaron Bragman, a product analyst at Global Insight Inc. in Troy, Michigan. ``It reached a certain point where it simply doesn't make sense to keep the plant open.''
Chrysler is under pressure to trim costs as the global credit crunch threatens to push 2009 U.S. auto sales to a 27- year low. Cerberus Capital Management LP, which bought most of the automaker last year, is in talks with GM and Nissan Motor Co. about a merger for Chrysler, according to people familiar with the matter.
Chrysler is still 19.9 percent owned by Daimler AG, which said today it reduced the book value of that stake to zero from 171 million euros ($220 million) at the end of the second quarter.
There is ``no new news'' in talks on selling the rest of that holding to New York-based Cerberus, Daimler Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche said today on a conference call.
GM, Chrysler and Cerberus have declined to comment on merger discussions.
Delaware, Ohio
Chrysler's Newark, Delaware, factory makes the Dodge Durango and Chrysler Aspen SUVs and has 1,000 workers. It was was scheduled to close by the end of 2009. At the Toledo, Ohio, plant, Chrysler will drop one production shift, leaving the factory with daily shift building Dodge Nitro and Jeep Liberty SUVs. The plant employs 2,100 people.
Stuart Schorr, a Chrysler spokesman, declined to comment on whether the Durango and Aspen would be canceled, whether the Delaware production would be shifted elsewhere, or how output at the Ohio factory might be affected.
There is a 180-day supply of Durangos and a 106-day supply of Aspens, Schorr said. Analysts consider a 60-day inventory to be the industry standard. The Delaware plant also builds hybrid versions of the SUVs, the only gasoline-electric models now available from Chrysler.
U.S. sales of SUVs are down 19 percent this year through September, according to Autodata Corp., in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Durango sales are off 54 percent and Aspen sales are down 21 percent.
Daimler's Chrysler Losses
While Daimler's third-quarter earnings report today gave a glimpse at Chrysler's financial performance, those figures have been disclosed with a one-quarter lag, so they reflect the U.S. automaker's second-quarter results.
Under U.S. accounting rules, Daimler's third-quarter net loss for its holdings in Chrysler's auto operations was 76 million euros ($97 million), according to a statement from Chrysler.
That represents most of the 88 million euros ($113 million) in Daimler's losses related to Chrysler Holdings LLC, which includes the U.S. automaker and its finance operations.
Chrysler has said that Chrysler LLC's quarterly losses are about five times the size of Daimler's, or $485 million. Losses for Chrysler Holdings LLC would be $565 million. In the first quarter, losses on that basis were $515 million, according to Chrysler.
Last edited by Orphan-Beggar; 10-23-2008 at 08:57 PM.
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Oh, did I type that out loud?
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