Miken

What Lies Ahead for Hybrid Car Investors?

Through a number of factual errors pointed out previously, the author has somehow arrived at the right short term conclusion in my opinion. PHEV's (not BEV's) are the near term right step. We should do a serious grid analysis (done by serious people with no advance agenda) to determine what kind of energy draw will be necessary to accommodate this technology.

I do think that research and infrastructure analysis should continue with hydrogen powered vehicles however.

China Looks to Electrify Our Cars

I would like one person to prove to me that ANY hybrid makes economic sense. For example, compare the Toyota Corolla to a Prius. Both within 200 lbs. of each other, wheelbase less than 4" different, basically would be appealing to the same customer from a size standpoint. The Corolla base model is $16,150 and the Prius is $23,375, a difference of $7225. Based on the EPA estimated combined mileage, the Corolla gets 30 mpg and the Prius 46.

At $2 per gallon gas, and driving 12,000 miles per year, it would take 26.0 years to pay off the premium cost for the Prius. At $4 per gallon, it would take 13 years, of course.

An even better comparison would be the Honda Civic and the Hybrid Civic. The regular Civic gets 29 mpg and the hybrid 42. There is a $7545 difference in base price. Using the same calculations it would take 29 years to pay off the premium.

If you want to save the world, by all means, drive a hybrid. If you just want to save money....not a smart idea.

Cars: What It Means to 'Buy American'

Per cent of parts manufactured outside the U.S. is only one metric. If one looks at the entire process from cradle to grave, there is a much more illustrative way to measure content.

From GM's most recent 10-K, and Toyota's most recent 20-K, it shows that even though Toyota sells 33.2% of their vehicles in North America, only 12.0% of their people are here. On the other hand, GM sells 42.7% of their vehicles in NA while employing 47.7% of their people here.

I think this is an even more telling statistic because it goes directly to the number of jobs, whether they may be union represented, management, engineering, purchasing, etc.

While both companies are multi nationals, it's clear which is American based.

I wonder how many Japanese government purchased American cars there are in Tokyo?

U.S. Automakers’ Race to the Bottom

STOP WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS....IT MAKES YOU LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT!!!!!!


On Mar 05 11:39 AM wrote:

> WHY ARE YOU SUPRISED ABOUT GM AND FORD. dID YOU REALLY THINK THAT
> THE BLLOD SUCKERS FROM THESE COMPANIES WOULD NOT BE BACK TO THE A--
> H---- IN CONGRESS FOR MORE MONEY.WE, THE TAXPAYER SHOULD HAVE NOTHING
> TO DO WITH CHRYSLER, ITS A PRIVATE COMPANY. GM AND FORD SHOULD MERGE.
> AS A MERGED COMPANY THE CAN REBUILD THEIR BALANCE SHEETS AND GO FORWARD.
> COMBINING THESE TWO COMPANIES WILL ENABLE THEM TO PRODUCE THE BEST
> PRODUCTS AVAILABLE AND SEND THE FOREIGN CAR COMPANIES BACK TO WHERE
> THEY CAME FROM. YOU WANT SOMEONE TO BLAME? BALME THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
> BUYING FOREIGN CARS BECAME A STATUS SYMBOL. LIKE MANY YEARS AGO IF
> YOU HAD A cADILLAC,YOU MADE IT. THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE BECOME THE
> MOST SELFCENTERED PEOPLE IN THE WORLD. GAS PRICES HAVE COME DOWN,
> AND AMERICANS ARE STILL BUYING THE LARGEST GAS GUZZLING FOREIGN CARS.
> GAS SHOULD HAVE GONE TO $5-6, THEN MAYBE WE WOULD LEARN

General Motors: Time to Shed Some Brands

"I don't claim to be an expert. It should be treated as an observation by a typical consumer (although one with a pretty good idea about branding). I'm actually quite surprised that SA syndicated it. "

We ALL are surprised that SA syndicated it, it is merely an opinion of one uninformed individual, and you know what they say about opinions. This article adds NO value. Nobody cares what your opinion is Mr. Shuttleworth.

General Motors: Time to Shed Some Brands

<<<For many years the Bonneville and the Impala were the same car.......under the skin.>>>

Don't be naive Tony. There's no "new" car that's different in EVERY respect. Don't think that they don't share engines, transmissions, front and rear corners, etc. The tooling cost would be astronomical.

In terms of powertrains, GM is more diversified than any manufacturer. That's changing a bit with their six speed transmission strategy. With some clever engineering, there are number of variations in their transmissions that make them applicable to a wide range of torque applications.

General Motors: Time to Shed Some Brands

Your inability to recognize the highly acclaimed Malibu says it all.

Pontiac and Chevrolet are the same cars as long as you can remember? Let me refresh your memory; GTO, Corvette, Bonneville, Impala. Are you able to distinguish which are Pontiacs vs Chevrolets?

Sadly, everyone thinks they're an expert and simply regurgitates an article that they read somewhere with no original thought. This author is an excellent example of my point.

I do agree completely with one thing this author writes:

"I don't really have any business commenting on the auto industry. "

What's an American Car These Days?

Write about something you know about. There is not a single UAW worker in those Canadian plants, they're CAW (Canadian Auto Workers) which have no affiliation with the UAW for about 39 years now.

If you want to really annoy a Canadian worker, just say he belongs to the UAW.

"2. What about these nine Canadian-made vehicles, produced by UAW brothers and sisters at factories in Canada, for the U.S.-based Detroit Three. They can't qualify as "American-Made" can they?:

Canadian-made UAW vehicles:

* Buick Lacrosse
* Chevrolet Impala
* Chrysler 300
* Dodge Challenger
* Dodge Charger
* Ford (F) Crown Victoria
* Lincoln Town Car
* Mercury Grand Marquis
* Pontiac Grand Prix

Why Is U.S. Transportation a Losing Investment?

There isn't a single piece of news in this article. Same stuff we've all read a thousand times. And with all due respect, I'm not interested in this young man's opinion about anything.

September Auto Sales: Why Was Ford Hit So Hard?

Roudy

Why is it that you think they are slowing down??

September Auto Sales: Why Was Ford Hit So Hard?

To jobu37:

You may be correct on the comment that Ford is doing the right thing by not playing as much in the incentives and fleet sales....maybe. It all depends on the price/cost relationship of each company.

The car business has always been a capital intensive business, thus high fixed costs are a reality, so when your sales are down the question always becomes do we shut down the factories and incur all of the fixed cost with zero revenue, or continue to run the factories (paying off the fixed costs, assuming you are making a variable profit) and have diminshed, but some revenue?

When you shut down the factory, you still pay property taxes, depreciation, etc. plus all of the R+D for new products and layoff benefits for the workforce. You have to weigh that against the long term affect of lowering the resale value of your brand.

Several car companies have brought down their breakeven point over the years, so I'm not sure that accepting the zero revenue solution is always the right choice in the short term.

Having said that, temporarily shutting down the plant is certainly not a good long term solution. If the lower sales look like they are going to last for a while, decommissioning the plant and permanently reducing the workforce is the correct answer.

In September, GM offered it's employee discount to everyone. That kept revenue flowing and allowed their unit sales to only be down 15% vs 30% for almost everyone else. One of the good things that did was to reduce national inventory by about 150,000 units going into the 2009 model year. Whether that was a good decision will depend on:
- What was the cost of the vehicles sold?
- How many sales will it rob from October?
- How long will this severe period of sales sales go on (read that the credit crunch brought to us by the banks and U.S. congress)?

Be interesting to see.

September Auto Sales: Why Was Ford Hit So Hard?

I'm a little confused by the whole premise of the article. Why single out Ford...it was a lousy month in general:

BMW down 25.8%
Chrysler down 32.8%
Ford down 34.6%
GM down 15.8%
Honda down 24.0%
Nissan down 36.8%
Toyota down

Auto Stocks: Value Investments Gone Wrong?

Honda fell 32% from Feb,07 to Mar,08, but has recovered a little since then.

Auto Stocks: Value Investments Gone Wrong?

Toyota is holding their own? In Feb, 07 TM was at $135.50. Yesterday it closed at $88.25, a decline of 35%.

Cashing In on the Electric Transport Boom

Once again, Seeking Alpha has allowed another uniformed, inaccurate article to appear under their banner. It's what you should expect when having an economist write an article on a highly technical subject such as electric cars. Mr. Gleeson, you could have been better informed if you had just done some research on the internet.

The only accurate part of the article is the statement that "It was costing GM anything up to $80,000 to build the car because the battery was so expensive ­ that was about twice the guide price of the actual car."

I wonder if Mr. Gleeson is ready for the bashing he will get from the GM/Big Oil conspiracy wackos.