At the Toyota Truck plant in San Antonio, idled workers are going to classes instead of building Tundra’s. The fact that Toyota will lose money for the first time on 70 years is proof that worldwide overcapacity will be an economic drag for years to come.
CSM estimates that auto companies have enough factories to build 90 million vehicles a year. It said, however, those plants would produce only about 66 million vehicles in 2008 and even fewer next year.
I have a Prius that is at the end of a four year lease. It shows no signs of wear and I’m just going to buy it instead of getting a new car. My suspicion is that this decision is be repeated in households all over the world. Once you get out of the habit of thinking you need “this year’s model”, the idea that the planet could consume 90 million new cars a year seems pretty far fetched.
9 responses so far ↓
Rick Turner // December 23, 2008 at 8:46 am |
So maybe it’s time for that mythical 30 hour work week with compensation spread around more equitably so we can all afford more leisure time. Cut hours by 25%, raise real worker wages by 33%, cut executive pay by whatever is needed to make the bottom line work, and make products that are supposed to last a long time. Charge more for the products if need be and assure consumers that in the long run, they’re getting a better deal than in the old churn out the crap days.
JTMcPhee // December 23, 2008 at 12:37 pm |
Rick — Isn’t that un-American? Or something?
Rick Turner // December 23, 2008 at 1:03 pm |
Well, if the shit we’re in right now is the result of American thinking, then I think we need a big dose of something else, don’t you? “American thinking” needs a major revamping.
Damian McAleese // December 23, 2008 at 2:23 pm |
Making things that last… I think I remember something like that from my youth. In those days they also had “repair men”, although I think they are extinct now.
Joking aside, the reason companies like Toyota, Sony etc. will survive is because of their reputation for quality that lasts, while the cheap knock-off manufacturers will soon hit the wall.
billy-bob // December 23, 2008 at 4:30 pm |
I’m 11 years into my Honda (156k miles), and it runs like a goddamn top. It only gets the regular care and feeding specified in the manual. A couple of years back the paint orange peeled on me, so I had it sprayed down by a cheapy painter in order not to have it looking like a leper.
I’d buy another Honda in a heartbeat, although I won’t do so until this one is ready for the scrapheap.
Don’t you wish we could say all these great things about American cars? Those Detroit maggots should have listened to Edwards Deming decades ago.
RIP U.S. Automobile Industry
Rick Turner // December 23, 2008 at 7:05 pm |
Well, I’ve mentioned this before here…I do drive American iron…a 95 Saturn wagon with 150 kmiles on it that gets better gas mileage than it was rated for when it was new…and better than it’s brand new closest equivalent from GM/Saturn, and it equals the mileage of the Saturn hybrid. That’s just plain wrong. For GM not to have been able to improve on fuel efficiency in 13 years is just stupidity on their part, and for them to make a hybrid that’s no better than a near beater is equally dumb.
Kevin // December 23, 2008 at 8:32 pm |
Wasn’t there a bunch of senators whining about how when union workers get paid when idle it’s wrong and the american companies should operate more like the Japanese companies? Looks like Toyota is paying idled workers to me.
I drove a ‘92 Saturn for 10 years. I had the alternator replaced once and the muffler once, only work done other than regular maintenance. Actually that was my second Saturn as my ‘91 was totaled in an accident. I got to see most of the safety features (but no airbag at that time) in action.
I would’ve bought another one but Saturn had no hybrid models, so I got a Prius instead (when gas was still under $1.20 a gallon here in Missouri). I also felt the quality of the cars had slipped a bit since GM had made them less independent than when originally started.
My sister just got rid of a hand me down Toyota Camry from my parents. It had over 300,000 miles on it, and no major repairs on it.
rhbee1 // December 24, 2008 at 11:18 pm |
“cut executive pay by whatever is needed to make the bottom line work”
This is the best idea I’ve heard in a while. The bottom earning more might make our brightest and best rethink their job futures. Meanwhile, using the down time for classes is a great way to sustain an intelligent work force.
Our company owns two Chevy work trucks both in their 100,000s and going strong. We also own a beat around BMW that’s gone round the odometer twice and a PT Cruiser for the fancy stuff like going to the movies . . . We pay cash and plan to own them until we die or they die, which ever comes first. This reviewer hit the nail dead center I think.
JTMcPhee // December 25, 2008 at 9:30 am |
Next year my 1986 Mazda B2000 pickup will become an antique for licensing purposes here in Florida. Miles? The odomoter had obviously been tampered with when I bought it, currently at 170,000 and probably twice or three times that. It leaks enough oil that I never have to do “changes,” but other than an appetite for clutch slave cylinders, about all I have had to do is simple maintenance and replace the timing belt prophylactically and tires when the belts start showing. The alternator is oil-soaked, along with most of the engine space, which from what I was told by an old guy with a slant-six Plymouth Valiant was the best way to keep an engine alive forever. $2400 cash, maybe $1000 in maintenance (that I do myself), and lettering added to the back window in 2004 that reads, 3″ high, SUPPORT OUR TROOPS — BRING ‘EM HOME NOW! And a bumper sticker that reads, over an American-flag logo, “THESE COLORS MAY NOT RUN, BUT BLEED ‘EM LONG ENOUGH AND THEY WILL FADE….”
Amazing how much hostility can be directed at political speech by a Vietnam veteran, from patriots driving SUVs and high-end imports.