Another interesting week in the auto biz bites the dust as the odd glimmer of hope is tempered by caution.
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The tiny glints of light were in Brazil, where Our Man reported a February uptick and the recall of some furloughed workers to Renault, we had an earlier story on this as well, and in Italy, where Fiat has summoned back 1,000 workers to crank out a week’s worth of Alfa Mito hatchbacks and Lancia Thesis sedans. And Toyota plans a May production boost.
OK, so it’s not Miracle Recovery City yet, by any means, but it’s a start. Caution is still the watchword, though, as we found when talking to JD Power this week – in Europe they are picking stabilisation in the fourth quarter and a gradual improvement from there. Eminent UK industry commentator Garyl Rhys, however, does not see full recovery until 2013, so we’re in for a long haul.
Meanwhile, many eyes this week were on the US, where GM and Chrysler duly submitted recovery plans to the US government on 17 February. Chrysler asked for US$2bn on top of its earlier $7bn federal loan request, said it would axe another 3,000 workers, 100,000 units of capacity and three model lines and launch new models, including electrics. Apart from a senator’s suggestion a merger with Fiat might help, it’s largely passed without much comment, which is more than can be said for GM’s plans.
Their document dooms about 46,000 jobs (20,000 in the US), five additional factories, the Saab, Hummer and Saturn brands, over 2,100 US dealers and could require up to another US$16.6bn in federal loans plus “funding support” from Canada, Germany, the UK, Sweden and Thailand.
Reaction has been swift. Saab today filed for reorganisation in Swedish court, planning to bring everything to do with the brand back to Sweden. Discussions about Opel – and by extension its British cousin, Vauxhall – have barely been out of the news since Wednesday. And the entire Saturn dealer network in the US could be made available to another automaker – if you fancy marketing your Chinese or Indian cars there, this could be a great opportunity.
This side of the pond, bad news continued to roll in. After running a seven day plant since soon after relaunching the iconic brand back in ’01, BMW was forced to bring Mini output back to five days, in line with German plants, provoking a row with the Unite union. Supplier GKN shut two UK factories and consolidated. And then, today, there were the gloomy January production numbers.
On the other hand, Honda had good news this week as orders for the new Insight hybrid in Japan hit 10,000 in 10 days (though it reportedly will cost us Brits GBP1,000 more at GBP15,000 as currency and costs go the wrong way ahead of the April launch), BMW found a new niche with the 5-series hatchb…, er, GT, with clever two-mode boot arrangement like the new Skoda Superb, Proton rolled out a new MPV and Hyundai launched its third-generation luxury Equus sedan.
In two weeks, there’s the Geneva show to look forward to. The gossip this year is going to be really interesting.
Enjoy your weekend,
Graeme Roberts
Deputy/News Editor
just-auto.com
