Making cars is cheaper now for General Motors and Chrysler

[n2doc]

BY GREG GARDNER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

A year after their historic bankruptcies, General Motors and Chrysler have already cut the cost of making each vehicle by $3,000,and labor costs could be lower than at any Japanese automaker in the U.S. in less than five years, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

That means a new small car like the Chevrolet Cruze can be made profitably in the Midwest instead of Mexico, and the restructured carmakers will be profitable at lower sales and market shares than expected.

Tuesday is the first anniversary of GM’s bankruptcy filing. Chrysler exited its 41-day makeover a year ago June 10.

Government loans won’t be repaid in full until each company completes a public stock sale. For GM, that could happen later this year; for Chrysler, more likely sometime in 2011.

Politics aside, the plant closings, worker buyouts and lower incentive spending are making a big difference, even with a very modest rise in new car sales.


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http://www.freep.com/article/20100530/BUSINESS0104/100530012/1322/Making-cars-is-cheaper-now-for-GM-Chrysler

Yet the rw'ers wil STILL claim that "american workers are paid too much to compete with Japan"

[Scuba]

1. Of course the RW'ers claim 'american workers are paid too much'...

...they want slave labor.

[madrchsod]

5. one of the reasons is the older workers are retiring

and being replaced by the younger lower wage workers.

[Scuba]

7. That's my personal experience....

old guy fired at 59 and replaced with a 31 year old babe making half.

[charlie]

2. $3000. That's remarkable

And fast.

[madrchsod]

3. Chrysler `s Belvedere ,IL plant may add another half million sq ft

mercedes benz invested close to a billion dollars in the rebuilding of the production and other on site facilties. it`s crysler`s crown jewel-the most productive auto plant in the country.

[Dr Morbius]

4. First we start making our own cars again. Then the televisions.

And the computers. Then we can start making our own clothing again.

Think about that: if not for China, most of us in America would stand naked.

[madrchsod]

6. most of the flat screen televisions are assembled in mexico.

cheap crap comes from china or even lower wage countries. there are some japanese manufactured televisions on the market.

the big problem is we sold or scrapped the machines to make these products.

[LiberalFighter]

10. Then maybe the assembly instructions will be written in understandable English

and the diagrams make sense.

[BR_Parkway]

12. That's an imagine I'd rather not picture, thank you

[femrap]

15. You can buy clothes from

India, Vietnam, Thailand, Honduras, etc. Don't buy the crap from China. You don't need it if it's made in a country that treats their people worse than our nation treats us.

Yep...I think the new employees for the auto companies are making $12 to 15/hour.

And the service industry people are making $7 to 10/hour.

Yippee! US is number one!

F*cking Corporations.

[Obamanaut]

8. If labor and production costs go down, will the MSRP go down as well? nt

[Rage for Order]

9. ...

:rofl:

[HughBeaumont]

11. What he said.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Obamanaut]

14. My first thought was "Of course not!" but one can hope (fantasize), can't one? nt

[jody]

13. Anyone have latest stats on how much of GM/Chrysler's retirement debt will be picked up by PBGC?

PBGC (Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation)

[hootinholler]

16. They still claim that having more babies on welfare will get you a Caddilac n/t