Posted on 06/03/2008 7:45:18 AM PDT by tobyhill
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — General Motors is closing four truck and SUV plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico as surging fuel prices hasten a dramatic shift to smaller vehicles.
CEO Rick Wagoner said Tuesday before the automaker's annual meeting in Delaware the plants to be closed are in Oshawa, Ontario; Moraine, Ohio; Janesville, Wis.; and Toluca, Mexico. He also said the iconic Hummer brand will be reviewed and potentially sold or revamped.
Wagoner said the GM board has approved production of a new small Chevrolet car at a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, in mid-2010 and the Chevy Volt electric vehicle in Detroit.
Wagoner announced the moves in response to slumping sales of pickups and SUVs brought on by high oil prices. He said a market shift to smaller vehicles is permanent.
GM shares rose 25 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $17.69 in morning trading.
The cuts will affect about 2,500 workers at each of the four facilities, although Wagoner did not know exact numbers. Many will be able to take openings created when 19,000 more U.S. hourly workers leave later this year through early retirement and buyout offers.
He said the company has no plans to allocate products to the four plants in the future.
"We really would not foresee the likely prospect of new products in the plants that we're announcing today that we'll cease production in," he told a Moraine, Ohio, city official who asked a question in a telephone conference call.
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...
We can argue till we are blue in the face about global warning and how it is influencing oil prices...but the reality is that whatever happens in the future regarding future supplies/opening new oil fields/extraction, etc., we are still dealing with China, India, etc. buying up everything else we don’t buy (Market Supply). Also, policy change will take eons to occur...
Prices will remain high, and people will simply quick buying SUV’s & Trucks unless they can afford to pay for the gas...I have a huge SUV, and it is hitting my pocket book ($130 per fill up). Unless I feel confident that prices will go down and stay down in the long term, I will never buy such a large vehicle again. I have just paid it off and have thought of ways to sell or get rid of it..Paid $35K - can only get $12K for it now-—I can’t justify buying a new vehicle at this time to get the payback needed within a reasonable time. I will keep it for the foreseable future and use our other car to do most of the local commuting. Many are in the same position I’m in, but I’m not looking for a government hand-out, or a government solution. I made a bad choice and will have to live with it...
Um...SUV’s already average 20 MPG....
The GW BS has created a political environment, where high gas prices are not only tolerated — they're celebrated (in secret, in the ante-rooms for the show trials for the oil industry).
Spending over $40 to fill up my Corolla twice a week hurts.
Politicians, both Republican and Democrat, have fought oil drilling since long before global warming was ever heard of. They still are.
You laid 2 cause out, supply and demand. Of the two cause one of them is strictly confined by global warming, SUPPLY.
LOL! You're dreaming. They'll blame Big Industry and the Bush\Cheney\Halliburton oil "conspiracy".
That’s about where I am...I have a ‘96 Ram 1500 half-ton with a 26-gallon tank. 11 mpg around town. Fortunately I only have to drive it one or two days a week now, mostly I drive my wife’s little Focus (23-25 mpg) and she stays at home. But still, in a few weeks, when I do finally have to refill the tank, I’m looking at $80 minimum.
}:-)4
but Global Warming is their latest excuse to prohibit drilling even at the expense of $4.25 a gallon.
Right. Blame the global warmists for forcing the polar bear to be listed under the Endangered Species Act, thus SCREWING the oil exploration leases coming up for sale inland and off the coast of Alaska, too.
I’ve been thinking about buying a sports sedan or a sports car. Given the way fuel prices are, they ought to be getting pretty cheap.
Some of the professions seeing the biggest job loss are IT, engineering, financial, service, and medical admin. None of those are unionized. The fact is that you could do away withe Unions tomorrow and unless people are willing to work for a fraction of their current salary, jobs will still stream overseas.
Are you really that obtuse? If you have a more fuel efficient vehicle, you don’t have to fill up as often. I get over 30 MPG on my car, a Honda Accord Hybrid, and I’ll bet it cost less than whatever gas-guzzler you’re driving.
It is available in print again. Ironically it is sold by the Mises Institute itself: http://www.mises.org/store/Vampire-Economy-Doing-Business-Under-Fascism-The-P371.aspx
If you apply this to our energy sector I think you will see that the socialists have already nationalized this industry.
As I’ve been accuse of having a dream. I have a dream that one day the union bums will wake up and realize that the Democrats that they keep electing have used Global Warming to literally put them out of a job. GM was the first to go “Green” with their Flex Fuel trucks and SUVS but look at what’s still happening to them.
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