quote:Originally posted by retiredat49: Yeah...at least people have jobs...
Too bad that those jobs no longer pay a living wage...
Your wage cut will be coming soon Pagan...
Ahhh....sooo sorrry dude. I don't have to work anymore. Better luck next time on that. LOL!
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious. Posts: 3311 | From: St. Louis | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
"Chrysler contends that it must reduce its dealer ranks to return to viability, pointing out that competitors such as Toyota have far fewer dealers yet sell more cars. Reducing its number of dealers, the automaker says, will allow the remaining locations to operate more profitably and provide better customer service."
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Does having fewer dealers really have anything to do with selling more cars or did it have to do with Toyota having a better reputation.
Sure seems like the opposite would be true... more dealers more cars sold.
Isn't that why many of these automakers put these auto malls together?
Why would less dealers make better customer service?
Seems like customer service usually has to do with customer service and the particular dealer.
If you think of a typical theory involving this idea, the more competition the more they fight to get your business, so you should get better customer service, in theory.
Isn't that why we do not want monopolies, to prevent companies from controling markets, prices etc.
Plus the more the dealers the easier it is to find one closer to you.
Just doesn't seem like these are very good arguments for some judge to consider strong information, especially considering the magnitude of the case.
It seems to go on and on.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by retiredat49: Yeah...at least people have jobs...
Too bad that those jobs no longer pay a living wage...
Your wage cut will be coming soon Pagan...
Ahhh....sooo sorrry dude. I don't have to work anymore. Better luck next time on that. LOL!
Good for you...
the fact remains that the wage and benefit cuts being forced on the middle class, will surely affect some of your friends, family, & neighbors...what do you say to them? Sooo sorry...it doesn't affect ME
I could understand your negativity towards unions if you were akin to the far right, but the majority of your posts here lead me to believe otherwise...
You are SERIOUSLY misinformed about unions and what they have done for the working class in this country...
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It's all in the timing... Posts: 4303 | From: DSA | Registered: Dec 2003
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posted
Wish....I can fully agree with you but I can see some arguement in it. I just like Retiredat49 live in Detroit area. I don't know how many GM/Chrysler dealerships are here but the Ford commercials brag about the 31 metro detroit dealerships. So lets say this...there are more F dealerships then Mercury. Saturn is seperate from a GM dealership. GM sells more cars nationally then F or Chrysler. Chrysler has just as many Dodge dealerships as Chrysler/Jeep. Ford and Mercury are identical cars....Taurus/Sable....Expedition/Navigator. Chrysler and Dodge are not nearly the same except....Town and country/Caravan. GM has some cars that look almost identical...Malibu/Impalla....Trailblazer/Envoy...etc. I think these auto makers need to cut Mercury/GMC. Chrysler is hard because Dodge trucks are big sellers so Dodge has a good reputation. But who knows.
But getting back to your point. IWish...living here we constantly try to play dealerships against each other. Now they do have some rules like I can't bring an ad in from more then 50 miles....or whatever it is. But having all these cities all crammed together where you can drive through them all in a hours time...make it tons of competition. I think they need to cut the dealerships where they have a horde of them. But same point is they MUST make the remaining dealerships bigger then with more mechanics to pick up the slack of customer service goes to crap. I think they want to kill the incentive wars. Toyota/Honda/Nissan never offered nearly what US auto makers did in incentives. I think they match it by half....so the profit margins were higher.
So to answer someone question about profit per vehicle.
My plant makes the Dodge Ram and Dodge Dakota. Each truck we makes pays my plant $1,000. Each truck also profits $7,000....so they say. Now if that is the case....we are making the new Rams and some of them cost $58,000+. That is a lot of money...its like buying a 2nd house almost. Now the Rams back in 2004 when they brought back the HEMI....well, they were selling them for $36,0000-45,000+. Today you can but a 2008 for around $22,000 built exactly the same options as the 2004. So that leads me to believe the $7,000 profit is a SCAM. I don't think its possible to know for sure. I saw a sheet on how much the metal costs per door, tailgate, etc and the costs for the metal for the entire CAB/BED. Its around $1,450 for the complete TRIM. A truck has 2 lines. TRIM and CHASSIE. Trim is everything you sit inside...including the box. Chassie is the Engine/Transmission/Suspension/etc. Well, with the Bare TRIM its $1,450. I'm guessing as others at work have...we assume the cost to build a Truck is around $5,000-7,000. We have 2,200 workers divided by 2 shifts. So 1,100 workers on a whole shift. We build 450 trucks on a 8 hour shift. So take 1,100 and divide it by 450. You get 2.44. Multiply that by 8 hours and $30 a hour. You get $586.66 labor cost per truck at my plant per vehicle. They get $1,000 back per truck. So my plant makes a profit of $313,000 per working day minus energy/part costs/etc. I think they make a killing on the cars/SUVs/Trucks. I would say they mark it up 40-120% depending on the demand for the car/truck/SUV at the current time. Think back to what I said...same truck sold for $36-45k...now can sell for $22k which they still make a profit. The extra is 63-104% mark-up on top of what they are selling them for. And they said we didn't make any money then...whatever!!!
Sorry for the educational lecture. Hope I answered your question the best of my ability...but all that crap about high labor costs is a crock of you know what. Some of the figures they came up with were as high as $87 per hour. I would take $87 per hour with no benefits period over $30 with benefits. Come on now....someone was adding some ZERO's to the numbers....or did they add the CEO/Executives bonuses in with the hourly costs and cry wolf????
Posts: 2367 | From: Detroit | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I have never been there, sounds different than here, we have a lot of dealers, but generally there spread pretty good, at least as i see it.
A freind of mine keeps trying to get me back there, he has a place on one of the rivers a few hours from Detroit. Most of his family works or worked for Ford.
Are there a lot of francised dealers or are many factory dealers. It easy if there factory ones, because they did not have to pay the francise fee, they lose nothing.
But i think the new owners are making sure they could eliminate what they want before buying, thus forcing these judges to rule in their favor.
From what i am gathering there are both and somehow i think the independents must have been protected, otherwise it seems they would not have had to rule on it.
I see things in a few years getting back to same o same o when it comes to the top guys taking big chunks out of these companies, many still do, except this time there might be more there, with less costs.
Nothing changes for the middle and lower class except less. And not just in the auto industry.
We need big changes here or were not going anywhere in the longer run, but i guess we have to take a step at a time, hopefully there going to be the right steps, i really have my doubts.
We need another new major industry to set us going again, like when the computor was new.
Or we need to close off a lot more.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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