“Stuck with the clunkers while others get the cash - Houston Chronicle” plus 4 more |
- Stuck with the clunkers while others get the cash - Houston Chronicle
- Official delays work release for RI teen boater - Boston Globe
- Demise of California's last auto plant could hurt Valley - TradingMarkets.com
- Connecticut at 2 p.m. - Hartford Courant
- As 'cash for clunkers' ramps up, new cars sell out - The State
| Stuck with the clunkers while others get the cash - Houston Chronicle Posted: 08 Aug 2009 01:22 PM PDT Melissa Phillip ChronicleTim Straney, of Glenn's Auto and Truck Parts, said a smaller inventory of used cars will raise prices of pre-owned vehicles. The wildly popular "cash for clunkers" program may have some drivers, new car dealers and automakers giddy, but not everyone is geared up about the federal giveaway. Used-car dealers say the program has been a lemon for sales, and salvage yard owners are anxious about its impact on their industry. Consumers have swarmed auto dealers in recent weeks to trade in gas-guzzling jalopies for fuel-efficient cars to cash in on federal rebates as high as $4,500. Auto dealers are then supposed to destroy the trade-in's engine and sell the vehicle to salvage yards and car auctions for scrap value. But there are potential losers in the "cash for clunkers" bonanza — and so far the biggest is the used-car market because of shrinking inventories of pre-owned vehicles, said Tim Straney, owner of Glenn's Auto and Truck Parts on Pinemont Drive. "With the slowdown in the market, new car dealers were selling less cars for the last eight months. That means fewer trade-ins," said Ken Riley, manager of Houston's Uncle Buddy's Auto Sales. "You've got a double whammy because of the cash for clunkers program." Traffic at used-car lots has dropped since the clunkers program began last month, said Douglas Clark of Clark Motors, a North Shepherd Drive company his father started in 1945. And with Congress infusing an additional $2 billion into the program, an untold number of more clunkers will see their last days. Traffic at used-car lots has dropped since the clunkers program began last month, said Douglas Clark of Clark Motors, a North Shepherd Drive company his father started in 1945. And with Congress infusing an additional $2 billion into the program, an untold number of more clunkers will see their last days. "It does seem like it's taken some buyers away from us for now," Clark said. "It seems like they are more interested in buying new cars." Loss of the enginesLast month, the company closed its FM 1960 lot because used-car sales have dropped in the last few years, a victim of the slowing economy and competitive financing from new car dealers,he said. A smaller inventory of used cars will drive up the prices of pre-owned vehicles, Straney said. He thinks the program will provide his salvage yard with more inventory but he has yet to buy any of the clunker cars. But scrap dealers won't get the best part of the clunkers — the engines. "That's the biggest chunk of money," said Straney, who recently sold a Mercedes engine for $3,750. He said the average used engine can sell for $750. The car is automatically worth 30 percent to 35 percent less than it was when the driver sold it because the program requires dealers to destroy the engine, said Michael Wilson, executive vice president of the Automotive Recyclers Association of Manassas, Va. Though salvage yard owners expect the program will eventually give them more inventory, they worry that many of the clunkers will be older, less desirable models they can't sell as easily. Darrell Dodds, owner of Scott Street Auto Parts, said he typically buys cars that are 2002 or newer and primarily sells the parts to repair shops, including those that work with insurance companies to fix wrecked vehicles. "The older cars are less desirable as parts cars," said Dodds, who expects to buy about 100 clunkers and has received about a dozen so far. "They won't be worth dismantling at all." Waiting to be reimbursedDealers are waiting until after they receive government reimbursement for the cars they bought under the program before they sell the jalopies. After dealers are paid, they have a week to destroy the engine and sell the vehicle to a scrap dealer. Salvage yards have 180 days to pick apart the car and sell it for parts before they must crush it. Jannette Patke, president ofPatkes Auto Parts on Cullen Boulevard, hopes she gets some vehicles that will help her make a little money. "I'm hoping for some real nice ones," Patke said. "I'm not really hoping for the actual clunkers."  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Official delays work release for RI teen boater - Boston Globe Posted: 08 Aug 2009 02:27 PM PDT That's because Ryan Greenberg failed to report a speeding ticket he received last month, a day after he was sentenced to 2 1/2 years for reckless boating in a July 2007 accident that killed his friend, Patrick Murphy.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Demise of California's last auto plant could hurt Valley - TradingMarkets.com Posted: 08 Aug 2009 05:16 AM PDT  FREMONT, Aug 08, 2009 (The Sacramento Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- TM | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The last auto plant in California is threatened with closure this fall, which would silence an economic engine responsible for an estimated 20,000 jobs throughout the state. Toyota Motor Corp. is considering shutting the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant, its history-making joint venture with General Motors Corp., in a move that would worsen California's recession and strike deep into the Central Valley. Though it's a mainstay of the East Bay, NUMMI's influence is widespread. Nearly half its 4,500 workers live in the Stockton-Modesto area, union leaders say. Hundreds of additional workers make parts for NUMMI at factories up and down the Valley, where unemployment is already well into the double digits. "Auto assembly plants have long supply lines," said Jeff Michael, an economist at Stockton's University of the Pacific. "There's a number of enterprises that basically have one customer, and it's that plant. While economists often talk about "ripple effects," closing NUMMI "would have the biggest ripple effect of anything I can think of," Michael said. Until now, NUMMI has long been a symbol of the rebirth of the U.S. auto industry, a successful marriage of American and Japanese manufacturing plucked from the wreckage of a dysfunctional GM plant that closed in 1982. But the collapse of the auto industry in the past year has brought NUMMI (rhymes with "roomy") to its knees. Production has fallen at least 25 percent and GM, following its bankruptcy reorganization, is pulling out of the joint venture. Production of the only GM vehicle made here, the Pontiac Vibe, is winding down. GM's departure put Toyota on the spot. With its worldwide sales down 38 percent from last year, Toyota said in late July that it is considering dissolving the joint venture, putting the plant in jeopardy. Shutdown wouldn't come for a while. Plant executives told union leaders that the government's "cash for clunkers" program had produced enough orders for Toyota Corollas and Tacoma trucks to keep the plant going through October. Beyond that, the future is cloudy. Toyota Chief Executive Akio Toyoda, a former NUMMI manager, said during a speech in Michigan last week that Toyota expects to decide soon whether to keep the plant open. Union leader Sergio Santos believes the plant can be rescued but said his membership is rattled. "It's got a lot of people scared," said Santos, president of Local 2244 of the United Auto Workers and a 19-year NUMMI veteran. California officials have gone into overdrive. Bills have been introduced in the Assembly and Senate to exempt the plant from paying sales and use taxes on new plant and equipment. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and local officials, in a recent letter to Toyota's chief executive in Tokyo, offered a trunkful of additional incentives. They include up to $29 million in interest-free loans from the city and Alameda County to retool the factory, said Fremont Mayor Bob Wasserman. "We think there's definitely a fighting chance to save the plant," said David Crane, the governor's special adviser for jobs and economic growth. California represents Toyota's largest U.S. market, making it advantageous for the company to keep the plant open, Crane added. Inside Toyota's executive suite, though, NUMMI's fate is more complicated. The company takes pride in never having closed a plant, and wouldn't be contemplating a shutdown at NUMMI if GM hadn't pulled out, said Jeffrey Liker, a University of Michigan industrial engineering professor who's written books on Toyota. But experts say Toyota has far too much manufacturing capacity, including a new plant in Mississippi that's sitting idle. Liker said NUMMI lost money last year and is likely to remain unprofitable in the foreseeable future. "They feel an obligation to California and that community," Liker said. "They definitely feel that sense of obligation, but at what cost?" A key issue might be labor expense. The UAW's contract expires Thursday, and it's widely expected that Toyota will seek concessions. Workers currently make about $28 an hour in salary, Santos said. Wages at newer, nonunion plants in the Southeast average $15 to $20 an hour, according to Automotive News. Santos wouldn't concede that wages or benefits need to fall, but he said, "If our operating costs (aren't) where they need to be, we'll go out of business." California's factories are already under siege. Some 124,000 manufacturing jobs have vanished in the past year, or one-seventh of the state's total job loss. NUMMI is the largest private employer in Alameda County. When suppliers are included, the plant is directly and indirectly responsible for 20,000 California jobs, according to the California Manufacturers & Technology Association. "They're a very important customer," said Jasper Bullock, plant manager at Pacific Coast MS Industries, a Tracy manufacturer of brake and air-conditioning parts. The 128-worker plant depends on NUMMI for the majority of its business. NUMMI's troubles have been building for months. As production volumes slumped, the UAW local voted in March to accept Friday furloughs. The furloughs have ended, thanks to the demand sparked by "cash for clunkers," but production is still lower than a year ago. "I kind of saw it coming," Santos said, referring to Toyota's shutdown warning. "We were slowing down, inventory was piling up, nobody was buying cars." NUMMI is the remnant of a once-thriving car-making industry in California. The early-'80s recession killed four major plants, in the Bay Area and Southern California, wiping out nearly 10,000 jobs. Among them was the GM plant in Fremont, which had become notorious for employee absenteeism and low product quality. When Fremont reopened as NUMMI in 1984, it was part of a grand experiment. Toyota had never before built cars in the United States, with an American work force, or teamed up with a U.S. automaker. The result was a breakthrough in U.S. manufacturing. NUMMI was among the pioneers in efficient "just in time" parts management and introduced a collaborative feel to labor relations. Productivity and quality soared. "As a GM plant, Fremont was the bottom of the list," said Harley Shaiken, an expert on auto-industry labor relations at the University of California, Berkeley. "As the new partnership, NUMMI, it became one of the most productive, highest-quality auto assembly plants in North America." Shaiken said the lessons of NUMMI were absorbed by GM executives elsewhere -- but not quickly enough to save the company from bankruptcy. "GM learned things from NUMMI and would have been in far worse shape without it," he said. Back in Fremont, NUMMI's fate is a matter of high anxiety. The plant, an enormous beige structure facing the I-880 freeway, dominates an industrial neighborhood filled with auto-body repair shops and the like. Frank Gonzalez Sr., an auto-body shop owner who worked at the old GM plant until it closed, is among those most worried. His 50-year-old son, Frank Jr., works at NUMMI. "It's going to be hard to find a job like that one," said the elder Gonzalez. "NUMMI's been good to him." Call The Bee's Dale Kasler, (916) 321-1066. Read his blog on the economy, Home Front, at www.sacbee.com/blogs. To see more of The Sacramento Bee, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.sacbee.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
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| Connecticut at 2 p.m. - Hartford Courant Posted: 08 Aug 2009 11:42 AM PDT The breaking news staffer is Jay Lindsay. The news editor is Patrick Sanders. The Hartford bureau can be reached at (860) 246-6876 or toll-free (800) 842-2068. For problems with equipment, the communications department in Hartford can be reached at (860) 246-6878 or toll-free (800) 246-6878. AP stories, along with the photos that accompany them, can also be obtained from http://www.apexchange.com. Reruns are also available from the Service Desk, (800) 838-4616. TOP STORIES: JOB TRAINING FUNDS HARTFORD -- A 13-year-old initiative that helps needy people move from welfare to work is the latest victim of Connecticut's budget impasse. Programs ranging from on-the-job training to child care stopped as of July 1 for thousands of people -- mostly women -- who receive Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, a state cash assistance program that can last 21 months. The July and August executive orders, issued by Gov. M. Jodi Rell to run the state without a permanent two-year budget in place, slashed funding for the Jobs First program, leaving just enough money to cover some staff at the state Department of Labor. By Susan Haigh. SOUND OYSTERS EAST NORWALK -- Out on Long Island Sound, where Captain Norm Bloom often can be found just outside the Harbor Islands, it now seems inconceivable that some scientists and fishermen were ready a decade ago to write off what arguably is the world's richest oyster ground. That those people turned out to be wrong was abundantly clear recently, early on a hazy morning. Bloom was in the wheelhouse of his 52-foot Mary Coleman, working south of Cockenoe Island, a sandy hump that looked from a distance to be blown by snow for its scores of roosting egrets. By Edmund Mahony, The Hartford Courant. An AP Member Feature Exchange. HORSE'S FRIEND WALLINGFORD -- Equine care, etiquette and vocabulary consume Rita Rapuano's days, from the time she first awakes on the five-acre Rap-A-Pony Farm. Rapuano, who grew up in New Haven but frequented her father's farm in Branford, has been in love with all things equestrian for as long as she can recall. Hip problems from an accident prevent her from riding today, but for the past 22 years she has assisted with births, laid horses to rest and managed the farm including three dogs and three cats. By Samaia Hernandez, Record-Journal. An AP Member Feature Exchange. SPORTS: BBA--RED SOX-YANKEES NEW YORK -- The Boston Red Sox play the third game of a four-game series at the New York Yankees. Game time 4:10 p.m. ALSO: -- CONNECTICUT BUDGET -- State officials continue closed-door budget talks next week. -- FATAL FIRE-CONN. -- Two people are dead after a house fire in Stratford. -- AUTO SHOP BODIES -- A gunman who fatally shot three men at a Windsor Locks auto repair shop in a murder-for-hire case faces sentencing. AP-ES-08-08-09 1410EDT Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Courant Recession Guide: Get tips on how to survive the recession  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| As 'cash for clunkers' ramps up, new cars sell out - The State Posted: 08 Aug 2009 12:18 PM PDT And the situation is so dire at a Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep dealership in Beaver Springs, Pa., that the owner, Michael Andretta, is essentially shutting down this weekend to repave his car lot. "I'm out of cars," Andretta said. "I do not have a single car in my dealership that qualifies for anything." Such a scenario amounts to a complete shift from earlier in the year, when hard-hit dealers saw cars pile up as consumers largely shunned big-ticket purchases. It also reflects the rampant popularity of the incentive program, which gives car owners vouchers of up to $4,500 to trade in older, gas-guzzling vehicles for new, cleaner varieties. On Friday, President Barack Obama approved another $2 billion to extend the program until Labor Day, putting consumers back in the car-buying mood. The program's first $1 billion ran out in about a week. However, industry officials say shoppers now searching for deals may need to be more flexible, given the dwindling number of cars on many lots. Customers hoping for a blue vehicle, for instance, may need to settle for a white one instead, said John McEleney, the chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association. "People are having to maybe make a second or third choice," he said. The association's chief economist, Paul Taylor, said in a statement Friday that "the overall inventory of passenger cars and light trucks can support another month of robust new vehicle sales" as automakers ramp up production. Still, even as car lots thin, some wonder whether the new infusion of government cash into the clunkers program is actually weakening consumers' resolve to go out and make a deal. During the first phase of the program, which began last month, consumers flocked into dealerships, worried that they'd miss out otherwise as the money ran out. Now, shoppers may not feel as pressured. At Crown Ford in Lynbrook, N.Y., sales manager Anthony Ciuffo said Saturday that walk-in traffic had slowed down at his dealership, although phone calls remained steady. "It seemed that there was more sense of urgency prior to passing the bill," he said. "People feel that they have a longer window of opportunity." Ciuffo said sales had been brisk earlier in the week, and that his dealership had sold out of the Focus sedan and mid-size Escape SUV - two of Ford's most popular cash-for-clunkers vehicles. Like many dealers interviewed, Ciuffo said additional cars should arrive in about a week to 10 days. But John Rogin, who owns a Buick dealership in Livonia, Mich., said he wasn't expecting the same frenzied pace that he witnessed earlier, since many of those who could afford a new car already jumped at the chance to do so when the program debuted. "This is really going to slow up," he said. "It's not going to accelerate from here." What's more, he said he's beginning to notice a changing consumer sentiment. The early excitement that came with the program is slowly morphing into bitterness among consumers discovering that their vehicles don't qualify for vouchers, he said. To be eligible, vehicles must have a combined city/highway mileage of 18 miles per gallon or less when they were new. "Right now, it's, 'Oh well, I don't qualify,' " he said. But, he said, those ineligible are now wondering: "What about me?" To be sure, dealers say they are happy with the program and thrilled with the increase in business. Paul R. Smith, general manager of a Chevy dealership in East Hartford, Conn., said the number of prospective buyers has doubled - to between 20 and 25 per day from 10 - in his showroom where car roofs sport signs that read, "If your car qualifies, this car qualifies." The Chevy dealership, on a strip occupied by several others, has sold 25 cars in the cash-for-clunkers program so far. Still, Smith worries about how many cars he'll have left until 2010 models arrive in November. "We're running out of inventory," he said. "I'm very concerned." - AP Writers Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho, and Stephen Singer in East Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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