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TechnoratiGM Reshuffling Won't Solve the Problem
Rick Wagoner's ouster by President Obama hardly fixes General Motors' wagon. The extent to which GM did not get it, refused to get it, and never will get it was evident late last week. The same day that the government posted new fuel economy standards that raise the industry-wide vehicle standard to 27.3 miles per gallon in 2011, GM proudly announced the 2009 Cadillac Escalade Platinum Hybrid, "the most technically advanced large luxury SUV yet."
By combining electric power with gasoline, the Escalade will deliver 20 miles per gallon in the city. "This is the ultimate Escalade," said Mark McNabb, a Cadillac vice president, ". . . for the changing priorities of luxury consumers who want dramatic design and technology combined with fuel efficiency."
Meanwhile, automotive writers in the United States and Canada have been taking test spins of the 2010 Toyota Prius. Toyota claims it will get 50 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving. Reviewers have been getting 60 and even 70 miles per gallon. A model of the 2009 Prius earned best-car value honors from Consumer Reports. Los Angeles Times business writer Dan Neil calculated that a far better stimulus than the one being proposed for the US auto industry and clean energy might be for the government to spend $46 billion a year for 10 years to provide Americans 20 million US-assembled Priuses and get cars that get 15 miles per gallon off the road. That would eventually save 170 days worth of OPEC oil a year.
"That will give Hugo Chavez insomnia like a case of Red Bull," Neil wrote.
That is a huge hint that as earnest as Obama may be in wanting to save Detroit, the issue is no longer whether the car maker is American. It is whether the car is made in America. In a speech yesterday in which he gave GM 60 more days to restructure and Chrysler 30 days to merge with Fiat or another automaker, Obama bravely held out hope for a turnaround by saying that the North American Car of the Year in 2008 was from GM and that Buick tied for first place as the most reliable car in the world (in rankings this month by J.D. Power and Associates).
"No one can deny that our auto industry has made meaningful progress in recent years, and this doesn't get talked about often enough," Obama said.
The problem for Obama is that progress on individual cars does not deny the dismal overall picture. Of the very J.D. Power ranking for Buick cited by Obama, USA Today reported that overall, GM cars "were all over the map. Cadillac placed a respectable ninth. GMC, Chevrolet, Saturn, Pontiac, Hummer, and Saab, however, were below the overall average, even though some Buicks share common chassis or are built on the same lines."
And, of course, there is a reason Obama had to reach back to 2008 for a US automaker champion of the North American award, because in 2009 it was won by a Hyundai. After its annual testing of vehicles, Consumer Reports recommended 100 percent of Subaru vehicles, 95 percent of Hondas, 89 percent of Toyotas, and 70 percent of Fords. Only 17 percent of GM cars and zero percent of Chryslers were recommended. None of the 41 cars that earned a "best-value" designation from Consumer Reports were from GM, Chrysler, or Ford.
Instead of rearranging the board chairs on this Titanic, Obama is better off planning how to let GM and Chrysler sink in a manner that does not suck down the overall economy. Let Ford or foreign automakers who pledge to expand US operations absorb the few reliable and fuel-efficient sedans Americans make, trim down the plethora of pickup trucks and minivans, and do away with large SUVs, where no amount of green technology can disguise the rolling smokestack.
Obama yesterday said he was confident the auto industry could once again "tap into that same ingenuity and resilience" it once had. It is too late. The engines from Japan are passing 50 miles per gallon. GM still brags about a Jurassic that gets 20.
14 Comments so far
Show AllPut another nail in the coffin of american manufacturing - making things. We are better at manipulation and financial services whatever they really are. I guess that means hedge funds and derivatives - yow- that is what our economy is based on. Yes, the auto makers should change in many ways but this industry was a place where a lot of good jobs were made for the average american. Paid for a lot. They weren't the ones on Wall Street with huge bonuses who have been bailed out at a much, much higher level than the auto industry.
People may be smug but I think this will accelerate a depression. And in all of this you can see how americans hate each other. They just can't wait. The ones who should really be paying are laughing as they loot the treasury and the american taxpayers.
It's the end of the world as we know it. GM, Ford and Chrysler are dead except as welfare operations. The people left who can afford to buy new cars just got their retirements looted by Wall Street and the rest of us don't have the jobs or the credit to buy even the used cars.
Auto dealership owners are committing suicides, stealing their own cars ala the movie Fargo and torching the cars as they sit on the lot so they can collect the insurance money.
America is acting like stunned bull at the meat packing plant. Running around in circles unable to see a clear way out of the certain death it can smell.
Destroying the job security of US workers wasn't such a good idea was it?
I think that we seriously need to rethink how the automobile industry is oriented. Given that it has viciously denied anything related to global warming, has sued California for emissions standards, squeezed more and more concessions out of its workers, and is now asking for money, society needs to think - is this how we want our industry to function?
And how do we want to reform it if we aren't happy? And why the hell aren't people asking this question in large numbers?
For many years built in obsolesence was the auto industry's business model. That model changed slightly and gradually from the fifties until the nineties as more reliable cars that were user friendly appeared.
When the PC became commercially viable in the 1980's, the computer industry's built in obsolescence business model beat the hell out of any built in obsolescence we ever witnessed in the automobile industry. The auto industry then decided to make sure that their built in obsolescence business model would be at least as good as the computer industry's. Cars that can't be fixed by anybody other than the manufacturer is what we now have. The European auto manufacturers have perfected this much better than the US or Japanese companies.
Just let GM die off already. Big Auto has been doing nothing but stifling innovative thinking and creativity. Why don't we just allow for local businesses to come up with their ideas of their own for a change and then let's exchange? My own cousin used to dream of being able to invent a newer type of car and maybe even run his own local auto business with it but sadly our current system gives Big Auto the power to crush such dreams and now all he can do is work as an auto repair mechanic ! Give smaller businesses and non-monied thinkers a chance !
Jennifer--You have taken the words out of my mouth. Bankruptcy is the place for these things to happen. The bigness of business has stifled the entrepreneurs like your cousin and its time for renewal. This actually is the "creative destruction" of capitalism. Interesting how many so-called capitalists resist this essential feature of the system.
Hi Cassandra,
Pleased to meet you. I often wonder what capitalism is anymore especially with the way these blatant bailouts for Wall $treet are going. Thanks for bringing up the double standards of capitalism. The thought had slipped my mind when I posted a similar comment under http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/31-4 where I again mentioned my cousin's dream and then as I remembered some more of it, I was in tears for the victim my cousin became as a result of the double standard faux "capitalism".
By the way, I love the way this site presents ideas and well meaning discussions from most folks which not even Alternet.org could deliver. On that site, I once brought up that issue. Sadly, an Obamabot gave her rightwing attack talk since she was from Detroit and probably was scared of Big Auto. I do apologize if I sounded a bit too rough then. I was just angry that the obvious reasons foreign made cars had their advantages over the US's were not discussed.
http://www.alternet.org/story/126714/why_you_can%27t_buy_a_new_car_online/
Below is my post on that article and my battling that Obamabot:
What NONSENSE !! Both parties are tied to big auto and stifling real growth and creativity !!!
Posted by: Jennifer Bedingfield on Feb 13, 2009 1:11 PM
Why aren't the Democrats pushing for allowing young people interested in newer innovations and even inventions in travel to put forth their work? Why do they keep supporting Big Auto's pro-fascist actions of buying out patents and slapping frivolous lawsuits? And why does Detroit have to dominate auto? Why can't locals set up their own businesses and be decentralized? That is why the foreign auto giants are winning and are a growing segment of the foreign companies slowly but steadily shackling America and putting her to a chastity belt !! Solve these problems and then you can complain about not being able to purchase online.
No. YOU push, you solve.
Posted by: Beck on Feb 14, 2009 2:26 PM
Whatever needs pushed and solved. Do it.
"Personal responsibility", blah-blah-blah - Rightwing fascist talk.
Posted by: Jennifer Bedingfield on Feb 14, 2009 8:18 PM
Your support of Big Auto hacks such as Levin, Dingell, Stabenow, etc ... is what has to stop first. Detroit's doing shitty because of rightwing Obamabot fascists such as yourself !
WTF, in regard to your comments on batteries in cars like the Prius, I would like to add the following. I think that your comments are valid in today's world. However, with economies of scale the cost of the new type batteries (lithium ion?) should come down considerably. Also, they need not be scrapped when their useful life is over. They can be recycled back to the original manufacturer for disassembly into the raw components and remanufactured into new batteries. Just a thought. Meanwhile, my '04 Accord is paid for, has 45K miles on it, and I plan to run it until the wheels fall off, hopefully somewhere around 250K miles. Possibly then I can replace it with a used Prius.
ekaton
Thanks for writing. I agree with you that batteries can be "recycled", but anyone who has had to buy "recycled" batteries for their obsolete laptop or cell phone, know that the life of such batteries is months to a couple of years, which will not inspire much consumer confidence in older hybrids.
The youngest of our 3 cars turns 20 this year, 2 of them Hondas, and I maintain them all myself. Engines with 40K miles can be bought from Japan for less than $700, and most everything else I can pick up from scrap yards. You could get an easy 500K miles out of the mechanical components of your Accord. Maintaining the mechanical components is easy, but the electronics, even on these old cars, is frightening.
One only has to look at the reliability of 10+ year old BMWs, which is horrifyingly bad, mostly sidelined for electrical problems. Modern American autos now match those older BMWs for electronic complexity.
New Cadillacs are assembled by first placing the wiring loom in the unibody, and then tested. If the wiring loom fails, the car is crushed rather than trying to troubleshoot the electrical gremlin because it is cheaper to crush than repair.
A subsequent commenter talks about computer built-in obsolescence; the auto industry is using increasingly sophisticated electronics that mirrors the computer industry. Ouch!
Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins - Native American proverb.
The comment about built in computer obsolescence is unfair. Since 1980 computer components have become twice as fast, store twice as much and cost half the price about every 12-24 months. Sure it looks like obsolescence but represents engineering advances. Anyway my 4 year old computers work just as well as ever. I understand that some people need the latest model. My digital camera has almost 3 mega-pixels. I decided to wait until that level of capability was achieved and while it is now obsolete I have not replaced it.
The computers in your car only need to work fast enough for its maximum speed, any faster is just spare cycles.
The big difference between the components in your computer, and those in a car is that your laptop is not left outside to cycle through large temperature variations, is not driven thousands of miles through rain and filthy roads. It is the connections that are the problems. Cars operate in an extremely hostile environment. Computers get it easy.
Ever heard of "tin whiskers"? Since lead was stopped being used in solder, we are finding (there is a NASA report somewhere) electrical components that use leadfree solder are forming these tin whiskers, leading to very low-voltage shorts and subsequent non-linear, intermittent behavior that gets worse over years, eventually leading to complete failure.
Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins - Native American proverb.
It may have been OK for Snobama to can Rick Wagoner if he had first canned Ben Bernanke and the other financial industry crooks that caused the meltdown and are making it worse.
The fact that snobama staffed his administration with financial industry insiders that caused the problems adds insult to injury.
GM doesn't get it. Neither does the author of this article, D. Z Jackson.
Jackson crows that the future of the "urban" automobile is the Prius. Get ready for a shock: When the Prius reaches it's battery's end-life of around 5 years, a new battery (and the disposal of the old battery) is a very significant cost, for both the the owner and the environment. Make no mistake, the manufacture and disposal of batteries from hybrid or all-electric autos, because of the potential scale, will make managing nuclear waste appear trivial.
I envisage Prius' filling scrap yards at an alarming rate, because of the cost to replace and dispose of the batteries.
Auto companies would be wise to produce product with a mean-time-to-replace of 40 or more years, not the existing 10 years. Unfortunately, the cult of consumerism has darkened user's views of the products they use.
Crowing about the JD Power reports is just fodder for consumers. I can guarantee that Mustangs and VWs made in the 60s will still be running, long after all 2009 Buicks have made their way to land fill. Why? The electronics and difficulty of manufacturing (and installing) parts on cars made in the past 15 years is escalating far faster than for simpler and more mechanical autos. The JD Power reports look at reliability in the first couple of years of ownership. Few, if any, of these new cars will survive to their 30th birthday.
Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins - Native American proverb.
"When the Prius reaches it's battery's end-life of around 5 years, a new battery (and the disposal of the old battery) is a very significant cost, for both the the owner and the environment."
Where have you been for the last five years ? That's a classic hybrid myth that has been trashed a million times since then...
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http://tinyurl.com/2eq9qh
And Toyota claims that not one has required a battery replacement due to malfunction or "wearing out." The only replacement batteries sold--at the retail price of $3000--have been for cars that were involved in accidents. Toyota further claims that the nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery packs used in all Prius models are expected to last the life of the car with very little to no degradation in power capability.
To get maximum life out of the Prius battery pack, the car's computer brain does not allow the battery to fully charge or discharge. Toyota says that for the best service life, the Prius battery likes to be kept at about a 60 percent charge. In normal operation, the system usually lets the charge level vary only 10-15 percentage points. Therefore, the battery is rarely more than 75 percent charged, or less than 45 percent charged.
According to Toyota, the life of the Prius battery pack is determined more by mileage than by time, and it has been tested to 180,000 miles. Supporting this are first- and second-generation Prius taxis in Canada that have reportedly traveled more than 200,000 miles without suffering any battery problems.
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At an average 15,000 miles/year, at least 200,000 miles equates to at least 13 years, easily, on the Prius battery. Who told you *5* years ???
And the Nickel metal hydride batteries in the Prius can be fully recycled:
http://www.hybridcars.com/faq.html#battery