Automakers: Page 430

A Talk With Rick Wagoner --NAO chief upbeat in pre-strike interview

Several weeks before the UAW struck General Motors Corp.'s stamping plant and Delphi Automotive Systems' plant in Flint, G. Richard Wagoner, president of GM North American Operations spoke with WAW Senior Editor Greg Gardner. Here are excerpts from that interview:Q - With the transfer of Lou Hughes (president of GM International Operations) and other international executives from Zurich to Detroit,

By GREG GARDNER • July 1, 1998

Automotive Aftershocks?

NEW DELHI - Despite India's newly shaky status in the world community after its muscle-flexing May nuclear tests, its throng of automakers aren't likely to feel any aftershocks.No less than 15 vehicle makers, including the world's biggest, already are - or soon will be - fighting for a share of India's petite and increasingly cutthroat car market, which grew only 1% to 416,408 units in fiscal year

By Mack Chrysler • July 1, 1998

Explore the Trendline➔

Artificial Intelligence

Automakers and dealers alike are increasingly seeing the use case for AI within their operations. Explore some use cases in this trendline.

By WardsAuto staff

Ford’s New Brazil Plant Empowers Suppliers

In yet another step toward integrating suppliers more closely into the actual production of a vehicle, Ford Motor Co.'s new assembly plant near Porto Alegre, Brazil, will use extensive supplier-built modules for a small sedan or car-based sport/utility vehicle.One supplier will deliver a "rolling chassis," much like Dana Corp. is doing at Chrysler Corp.'s new pickup truck plant in Brazil. Other suppliers

July 1, 1998

Reversal of Fortunes GM’s NAO comeback stymied by strikes

Reversal of FortunesJust as General Motors Corp.'s North American Operations were starting to show some profit punch, the United Auto Workers union put on the gloves, effectively knocking out the automotive giant in June.And more bad news may be coming. Even after strikes at two key plants in Flint (MI) are settled, GM's war with the UAW likely will continue through the summer. The next front: a Flint

By GREG GARDNER • July 1, 1998

Home Away from Home Fiat targets Argentina with a new plant and products

BUENOS AIRES - It may be an ocean away, but Argentina is like home for Fiat SpA.The Italian company has turned the South American country into a little Italy, replicating everything from its most successful car plant to its dominance in car sales.The centerpiece in all this is the new, state-of-the-art facility at Cordoba, a key component of Fiat's world-car strategy, plus two strong brands - each

By Andrea Wielgat • July 1, 1998

Audi-Cosworth Deal; Ford Says ‘No Thanks’

With Volkswagen AG's Audi Div. about to acquire Cosworth, the British racing-engine and automotive engineering specialty company, some companies' Cosworth services may be left out in the cold. The most notable will be Ford Motor Co. Ford has had a long relationship with Cosworth and currently depends heavily on the British developer of racing engines for its CART and Formula One powertrains.Ford apparently

July 1, 1998

Jeep Ain’t Asleep

The public relations folks at Chrysler Corp. won't let me tell you how the 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee stacked up against its soon-to-be corporate cousin the Mercedes-Benz ML320 during some muddy boulder-crunching off-road maneuvering last March in Chelsea . . . at least not for another couple of months.But here's a good bit of what Jeep engineers told me about their flagship sport/ute before I jumped

By GREG GARDNER • July 1, 1998

Putting People Before Strategy --Daimler-Chrysler can learn from suppliermergers

Mike Plumley understands merger-mania from the front lines.Three years ago his family-owned Plumley Co. was an independent supplier making hoses and gaskets in Tennessee. Today it's a division of Dana Corp.Mike Plumley and his three brothers owned the company. Two wanted to grow the business, but the other two siblings wanted out."We could have bought out our brothers, but the first recession probably

By TOM MURPHY and JEFF GREEN • July 1, 1998

GM Stumbles, Fumbles Overseas International Operations take a hit

The road to China, Thailand, Russia and Brazil runs through Detroit.At least it will for General Motors Corp., which over the next few months is shifting its International Operations (IO) command center out of Zurich back to the Motor City.The move comes on the heels of some unexpected stumbling at GMIO - part self-inflicted, part global economics - that sent the group's earnings plunging 69% in 1997

By David E. Zoia • July 1, 1998

Let the Good Times Roll

Talk to purchasing executives such as General Motors Corp.'s Harold R. Kutner, Chrysler Corp.'s Thomas W. Sidlik or Ford Motor Co.'s Carlos E. Mazzorin and you get the impression the good times can roll forever.Global purchasing in larger volumes than ever, flat or falling commodity prices, even collapsing Asian currencies all are helping to keep auto parts prices under control.The continuing exodus

July 1, 1998

Ford’s Frenzied “F” Facelift

Okay, Ford Motor Co. might not like the insinuation that its slight '99 facelift of the immensely popular F-Series light-duty truck line (F-150/F-250) is "frenzied," but let's put it this way: before the total remake of the F-Series for '97, it had been 17 years since the last all-new F truck. Now, just a bit more than two years into the new generation, Ford's throwing a facelift at it.What's the

By Bill Visnic • July 1, 1998

Is QS-9000 Working? Quality standard still has doubters

There's not a great deal of middle ground when it comes to QS-9000 quality certification. And it doesn't seem to matter if you work for a supplier or an automaker; the questions about the effectiveness of the Big Three's quality standard persist.For supplier respondents, the good news is that 46% say their manufacturing process and product quality have improved, thanks to QS-9000. The remaining 54%

July 1, 1998

Kerkorian, Eaton are Deal’s Biggest Winners

Forget the talk about synergies, global strategies and complementary product lines. Kirk Kerkorian, Chrys-ler's largest shareholder, will emerge from the Daimler Chrysler mega-merger with a profit of about $4.8 billion. Chrysler Chairman Robert E. Eaton, meanwhile, will receive shares in the new company that will be worth $106.5 million, based on data filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission

June 1, 1998

A Bigger, Leaner Machine DaimlerChrysler merger puts more of a squeeze onsuppliers

The champagne bottles are in the recycling plant. Investment bankers have spent their fees on new yachts.Now Co-chairmen Juergen Schrempp of Daimler-Benz AG and Robert J. Eaton of Chrysler Corp. have to make this deal, the biggest industrial merger ever, work.It may take years. And it'll have an impact on every one of their constituencies: Their salaried work forces, unions, customers and, perhaps

By GREG GARDNER • June 1, 1998

Ispat/Inland Deal Promises Lower Costs--Cheaper raw materials key to strategy

Daimler-Benz AG isn't the only major European company that's caused a stir recently by going shopping in the U.S. Ispat International NV, a major global steel company based in the Netherlands, created a furor last March with its purchase of Inland Steel Co., one of the industry's largest integrated steel producers.The investment is small compared to the DiamlerChrysler deal - only $1.43 billion -

By Drew Winter • June 1, 1998

Chrysler Brings New V-6 to Daimler Marriage

No one disputes the technical prowess of Daimler-Benz AG and its famed Mercedes-Benz cars.But in the pending merger of the German company with Chrysler Corp. to form DailmerChrysler AG, don't overlook technology the U.S. company brings to the marriage.A prime example is the new 3.5L, 253-hp V-6 engine powering the 1999 Chrysler LHS and 300 M models that go on sale this summer (see New Wheels p.56),

By David C. Smith • June 1, 1998

Is Bigger Really Better?--DaimlerChrysler merger faces hurdles

If size alone assures success, General Motors Corp. should be on top of the world.Instead, GM - still the largest automaker - continues to wrestle with a multitude of challenges, not the least of which is its sheer size. Despite years of trying, GM's costs remain too high. Its once-vaunted design leadership has been co-opted by competitors. And it takes GM longer to bring new products to market, which

By David C. Smith • June 1, 1998

The Ultimate Outsource ---DaimlerChrysler is a German company

The big news is the merger of Chrysler Corp. and Daimler-Benz AG. As a former Chrysler executive, what are my thoughts?What immediately comes to mind is that this must be really big because it replaced President Clinton and his escapades on the front page.Another thing I notice is that American newspapers seem to be very positive about the merger. If it was the other way around, I'm sure the German

By STEPHAN SHARF • June 1, 1998

Porsche Points the Way--911’s all-new chassis gets light on high-strength steel

The steel industry's rapid mobilization to maintain steel's competitiveness in the automotive sector is one of the more successful concerted supplier efforts in memory. The Ultra Light Steel Auto Body (ULSAB) consortium, made up of 35 steel producers representing 18 nations, recently put the finishing touches on its prototype body-in-white that weighs, on average, 25% less than standard-steel bodies

By Bill Visnic • June 1, 1998

DaimlerChrysler: The ‘What Ifs?’

1. Let's start with Chrysler Chairman Bob Eaton. He was GM blue all the way when Lee Iacocca in 1991 bypassed his obvious successor, then-President Bob Lutz, and recruited Mr. Eaton from GM, where he headed International Operations.What if GM had managed to keep him in the fold? Without his low-key, but very product-oriented, leadership Chrysler may not have been the prize Daimler-Benz AG was looking

June 1, 1998

Culture Clash?---Chrysler, DaimlerBenz miles apart

You know both companies, so write about the potential "culture clash," Editor in-Chief Dave Smith suggested.OK, these two cultures, Chrysler and Daimler, can't clash because they don't even intersect. They could be operating on different planets.Let me give you an example:Earlier this year, the newest Mercedes, the tiny A Class, rolled over in the infamous Swedish moose test. After some confusion

By Jerry Flint • June 1, 1998

BMW Investing $600 Million to Expand in SC And Build E53 SUV

Outbid by Volkswagen for Rolls-Royce and overshadowed by Daimler-Benz's $38-billion merger with Chrys-ler, BMW could be licking its wounds.Instead, buoyed by the success of its sporty Z3 roadster, the other German luxury carmaker is expanding its first U.S. plant in Spartanburg County, SC, to build a 2000 model sports-activity vehicle that handles like a sedan but shares some of the bulk of a truck.BMW

June 1, 1998

Cadillac tests hands-off diagnostics

With its service manuals already about 120,000 pages long and expected to grow to 200,000 pages by 2000, General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac Motor Div. is testing Smart Mentor, a real-time mentoring program that guides technicians in repairing a car. Pilot models of Smart Mentor now are being tested at three Cadillac dealerships in Sarasota, FL, Troy, MI and Alexandria, VA.Smart Mentor was produced by

By Herb Shuldiner • June 1, 1998

DaimlerChrysler will Face Wide Gap in Executive Pay

It's no secret that German executives are paid far less than their American counterparts, and that could be a disincentive for Chrysler managers to stay around after the mega-merger is consummated, says Graef Crystal, an executive compensation analyst and consultant."I definitely foresee problems," says Mr. Crystal, who advised Volkswagen of America 20 years ago after it opened its assembly plant

June 1, 1998

Who’s Next?--DaimlerChrysler deal gets rumor mill spinning

Now what?The seismograph is still shaking from the pending DaimlerChrysler merger of the century, but the buzz already has shifted to who's next to spring a mega-deal.Just as the Citicorp-Travelers merger ignited a flurry of shotgun weddings in the banking industry, so will DaimlerChrysler's amalgamation trigger even higher stakes combinations among carmakers."There's no doubt this will precipitate

By ANDREA WIELGAT and BARBARA McCLELLAN • June 1, 1998