Word: detroit
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...landscape of the U.S. auto industry, in other words, is about to be radically reshaped. So what will its future look like? It's difficult to imagine today, with consumers hunkering down, car loans drying up and the Detroit Three struggling to survive, but the global car business may be on the verge of a big upswing in demand. Companies that can meet consumers' needs for fuel-efficient yet stylish cars - and that have flexible manufacturing plants to turn out the hot products on demand - are likely to find huge opportunities for growth once the economy recovers. That's partly...
...First Things First Before planning for the future, however, Detroit still has to get through the present. GM has been on life support since Dec. 19, when the outgoing Bush Administration threw it a short-term loan and told the company that it had until March 31 to come up with a plan for its long-term survival. It did - but its strategy was premised on projections that car sales would begin to pick up this year after last year's dismal industry performance, in which sales sank 18%, to 13.2 million units. But the pickup hasn't happened...
...union nor the bondholders are happy about the task force's approach. The UAW feels particularly aggrieved because it has agreed to an unending series of givebacks over the past 20 years. Even before this latest crisis, the UAW had assented to the 2007 contract, which would have put Detroit's labor cost per car within a couple of hundred dollars of Toyota's and the other transplants'. That isn't enough, in the view of the task force, because consumers are willing to pay more for the foreign badges, and the Detroit Three need to earn more on domestic...
...Down the Road Anyone who is in business in 2012 will get business. For all their problems, there's no question that the Detroit Three will have some competitive cars. GM has already made the case with its award-winning Chevy Malibu. The 2009 Buick LaCrosse recently topped all midsize competitors in the dependability ratings of J.D. Power & Associates. That's a positive sign, given that Buick is such an important brand for GM in China. Ford, which is in the best shape of the Detroit Three, has found success in its new Edge, in its F-150 pickup...
...that's what is required to get the job done. GM's new CEO, Frederick A. Henderson, basically repeated that message at his Tuesday-morning press conference, even going so far as to say that bankruptcy was now "more probable," though not desirable. (See pictures of the remains of Detroit...