Automakers: Page 441

Why is Charlie Baker special?

You've heard of global sourcing of components, and the concept of global manufacturing is old hat. But As the relatively weak dollar and trade pressures lure German and Japanese automakers to boost their investments in the U.S., and American automakers increasingly expand overseas in search of new markets and better economies of scale, these megatrends are changing the lives of not just the workers

By Drew Winter, GREG GARDNER, Visnic, Bill • March 1, 1996

Hey buddy, can you spare a gear? Expect more - and less - from transmissions

Mike Kluger manager-automatic transmission technology section at Southwest Research Institute (SWRI), has authored or co-authored numerous SAE papers relating to transmission technology and SWRI tests. He also evaluates transmissions for many of the world's major automakers. Mr. Kluger recently shared his thoughts on near-term automatic-transmission development with WAW.The industry has experienced

By Kluger, Mike • March 1, 1996

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

Japan: one size doesn’t fit all; matching models to markets is key global strategy.

TOKYO - Global engineering has been a natural fit for Japanese automotive designers and engineers. After all, they are firm believers in matching models to markets. Because tastes, policies and regulationsvary, they feel one-size-fits-all "world cars" are limited in appeal and saleability. Consequently, all major Japanese automakers have established research and development centers in the U.S. and

By Mack Chrysler • March 1, 1996

JCI, Chivas Products get GM business for 2000

General Motors Corp., Johnson Controls Inc. and Chivas Products Ltd. are combining for a large boost to Detroit's new federal Empowerment Zone. GM announces it will award JCI and Chivas a six-year contract worth an estimated $900 million to produce interior components and systems for model-year 2000 vehicles and beyond.Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer and Harold Kutner, GM's purchasing vice president,

March 1, 1996

Snake’s alive!

Skies were overcast and conditions rainy at Daytona International Speedway early in February for the Rolex 24-hour endurance race, but the outlook for the Dodge Viper GTS-R -- Chrysler Corp.'s race-only version of the '96 Viper GTS Coupe -- is bright indeed.Canaska/Southwind, the automaker's North American development team, put a new Viper GTS-R in the eighth position (out of 76) on the starting grid,

By Tim Keenan • March 1, 1996

007’s BMW Z3: U.S.-built roadster expands German automaker’s world-car tradition

With all the fanfare surrounding the introduction of Ford Motor Co.'s Mondeo in Europe and the Contour/Mystique stateside, one might think that they were the first-ever world cars.BMW AG likes to note that it has been building and selling cars around the globe for many years, although not with the kind of volume and differentiation of the Ford effort.BMW's latest is the Z3 roadster, which will be

By Tim Keenan • March 1, 1996

Escort: Ford’s 15 years on a learning curve.

VPCs, VLEs, brand managers. Nineties-speak for today's efforts at organizing the oft-blurry idea of world-car management and engineering structure.In 1980, it was "project centers" that Ford Motor Co. concocted for its first fullbore crack at developing a vehicle for global markets -- the 1981 Escort.Louis R. Ross, at the time Ford's executive vice president-car product development, explained that

By Bill Visnic • March 1, 1996

A different kind of car guy: Verbal becomes first African American tohead SAE

The new president of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) is a different kind of car guy.Claude Verbal, 53, is a licensed hypno-therapist who meditates every day and wears double-breasted suits. During his 32-year career at General Motors Corp., he has worked as a design engineer, an operations and manufacturing engineer and he's now the plant manager of Gm's Service Parts Operation in Lansing,

By Frank Washington • March 1, 1996

Ford Credit rolls the dice

With consumer debt at or near record levels and incomes growing hardly at all, Ford Motor Credit Co. is forming a new subsidiary whose strategy is to find customers who haven't qualified through conventional lending channels and take a chance on them. It's called "sub-prime" financing because the borrowers' credit records indicate they may not be able to repay. The incentive for Ford Credit: charging

March 1, 1996

Catera tests GM’s global strategy

While Acura is launching its first American-engineered model, Cadillac is leveraging General Motors Corp.'s European resources, gussying up the Opel Omega platform into the long-awaited Catera.This project, which has been in the works for more than three years, is not driven by currency forces. To build on its rather sparse cadre of under-50 buyers, Cadillac clearly needs to offer an entry-level rear-drive

By Gardner, Greg • March 1, 1996

GM VLEs learn to lean to the left

When it comes to reinventing itself, General Motors Corp. is quite familiar with consultants. Kinsey & Co., A.T. Kearney Inc., you name it, any major consulting firm worth its fees, has taken a whack at the organizational thicket enshrouding the world's largest automaker.But for guiding the training of GM's 13 vehicle line executives, GM has linked up with Alfredo (Fred) M. Kofman, an Argentine-born,

March 1, 1996

Automakers need 250,000 more workers

Just when the job-eating, downsizing management mindset seems to be spinning out of control, here comes a group of cock-eyed optimists from the University of Michigan's Office for the Study of Automotive Transportation.The Big Three will hire 250,000 over the next eight years -- that's in the United States alone. Up to 129,000 of those hires could happen in Michigan.That's the thrust of "Driving America's

March 1, 1996

Takata goes green

Because of possible disposal problems with conventional sodium azide-fueled inflators, air bag producers are racing to develop more environmentally friendly versions (see WAW--June '95, p. 41). Takata Inc. claims to be the first supplier to provide automakers with an "ultra-downsized, environmentally friendly, non-azide inflator for the '96 model year." The new air bags will be used on four vehicle

March 1, 1996

Vectra-based Saturn running behind schedule

Saturn Corp.'s Project Innovate, the program aimed at creating a midsize move-up car from an Adam Opel AG Vectra platform, is running behind schedule, say Saturn insiders. The car, which is Elated for a 1999 model year intro and would be built at General Motors Corp.'s Wilmington, DE, plant, will not be a rebadged Vectra, says Saturn President Donald W. Hudler. It will be wrapped in Saturn's patented

March 1, 1996

GM flips EV1 ‘on’ switch

A spate of technically intriguing vehicles have cropped up recently, some nearly ready for the road, others still in the dream stage. WAW takes a close look at a selection on the following seven editorial pages, starting with General Motors Corp.'s EV1 electric car and including Delco Electronics SSE and Chrysler Corp.'s Prowler and Viper Coupe.Whether or not General Motors Corp. makes money on its

By Gardner, Greg • March 1, 1996

Vive la difference: Ford’s Richard Parry-Jones relishes challenges ofworld cars.

Ford Motor Co.'s ambitious Ford 2000 program puts unprecedented responsibility on the automaker's Europe-based small/medium front-drive vehicle program center (VPC) -- some 40% of the automaker's worldwide volume.But Richard Parry-Jones, Ford's British-born vice president in charge of that center, has experience with world cars and welcomes the challenge.Mr. Parry-Jones' shepherding of the CDW27 project

By ROB CLEVELAND • March 1, 1996

ABD develops new suspension test rig

High consumer expectations are leading automakers to demand higher quality components from their suppliers. The testing equipment industry, in turn, is coming up with faster and more accurate methods of certifying automotive components.England-based Anthony Best Dynamics Ltd. recently unveiled a new system for measuring vehicle suspension characteristics. The Suspension Parameter Measurement Machine

By Tim Keenan • March 1, 1996

Ford offers leaner Taurus, plans ‘superdoor’ for Windstar

From $600 rebates to the new no-frills Taurus and Sable, Ford is finally getting the message about affordability. The bare-bones midsize sedans, both available in April, will come without cruise control, floor mats, power door locks or a cassette player. All interiors will be gray. You can have any exterior color you want as long as it's white, red, gray, silver or green. The Taurus G will be stickered

March 1, 1996

ASTEC leads Delphi global push

TOKYO - In one corner of Genera Motors Corp.'s Asian Technical center (ASTEC) on the outskirts of Tokyo engineers are busy dismantling Nissan Pulsar.Although the tear-down under way is part of an exercise modeled after Gm's Mona Lisa program to determine best-in-class parts used in the States, this car holds little interest for those focused on the U.S. market. "The U.S. doesn't understand the market

By David E. Zoia • March 1, 1996

Honda’s small sport-ute will come to U.S. next year

First came the Kia Sportage, then Toyota's RAV4, so Honda is Americanizing its CR-V small sport/utility for introduction in the U.S. by early 1997. The CR-V will be built to U.S. safety and emission specifications with a 2L, 4-cyl. engine and full-time 4-wheeldrive. Its overall length (1 76.4 ins. or 4,480 mm.) is about the same as the Honda Passport, but it will have considerably less cargo volume,

March 1, 1996

Chrysler’s Prowler: more than a material showcase, it’s a real product

Anyone wondering why Chrysler Corp. has some of the world's lowest product-development costs should visit their local Plymouth showroom early next year. Sitting there, briefly, in a few lucky dealerships, will be one of the more technologically impressive production vehicles to come along in some time.Even if you hate its retro-style looks, pull your nose up at its mundane 3.5L engine, and sneer at

By Drew Winter • March 1, 1996

Tinkerers be damned

Ford's F-series full-size pickups have been the best-selling pickups in the U.S. over the last 19 years. In 1995, Ford sold 662,410 F-trucks, only slightly less than the 675,000 General Motors Corp.'s Chevrolet and GMC0 divisions sold combined. Tinkering with success should not be taken lightly, as witness the slow start for Ford's radically re-designed 1996 Taurus and Sable models. In developing

By David Smith, Stoddard, Haig, Neff, Natalie • Feb. 1, 1996

Straight talk in teamland

Team development has been deemed the holy grail, the organizational wonder drug that is transforming the U.S. automotive industry into a competitive powerhouse.But it's not "an immaculate conception," says G. Glenn Gardner, who led Chrysler Corp.'s full-size LH platform team from start-up in 1988 until the cars moved into production during 1992.Mr. Gardner retired in 1994 as general manager of Chrysler's

By McCann, Hugh • Feb. 1, 1996

Toyota recycles ASR

Toyota Motor Corp. says it has developed the world's first technology to sort and extract polyurethane foam and fabric granules from automotive shredder residue (ASR). The sorted material is used to mass-produce automotive soundproofing products in the form of a mat lining. ASR, usually disposed of in landfills, is a mixture of ground-up plastics, rubber, fabrics and dirt remaining after a vehicle

Feb. 1, 1996

The Russians are coming

Russian automaker Avto VAZ Inc., in an unprecedented move, will soon begin assembling small cars in Uruguay and Colombia -- mainly for export to Mercosur and Andean Pact nations. The company will begin early this year by manufacturing 300 units a month in Cali, Colombia, through a joint venture, says Rafael Anssens, sales manager for Motores Internacionales SA in Panama, which has exclusive Lada distribution

Feb. 1, 1996