nitroracer

Sum peepole r not teknicaly savy.

mmarshall

Some of the largest auto dealers in the country are in NoVA....not just with GM, but with a number of makes as well. An enormous number of new vehicles are sold in this area (probably second only to Los Angeles/SoCal), because of the affluence of this area, low unemployment, recession-resistant economy because of the government and its contractors, and high-paying jobs. So they often get priority from the manufacturers. In fact, when my 2018 Lacrosse was built, it was a "priority" vehicle...one of the first 2018s delivered.

Toys4RJill

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

its the lack of equal treatment and putting the burden on taxpayers to soak it

Toys4RJill

wasjr

Not sure if it has been posted but GM has announced that the Chevrolet Impala and Cadillac CT6 full-size sedans will instead be built through January 2020, keeping the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant open for an extra seven months.

Also re incentives, when Nissan selected Smyrna, TN in 1980, and GM selected Spring Hill, TN in 1985 for Saturn, the state incentive, which was essentially negotiated after the companies had tied up the land, consisted of building infrastructure around the sites as well as to the nearest interstate. Some money was also given for "training" and some local property tax abatement. A big un-publicized draw for them was the labor market and they knew that many suppliers would be able to locate nearby at much lower labor costs, resulting in lower mfg costs. Nissan is still non-union. With the Spring Hill plant being the newest plant, it is in the process of spending $300 million to build the new Cadillac SUV as well as $22 million so GM can build engines there. I read where GM has spent $2 billion at Spring Hill since 2010.

However, when Volkswagen came to Chattanooga, and Nissan moved their North America headquarters to Franklin, TN, there were substantial incentives offered. Re Volkswagen, it did not hurt that so many component suppliers were also in the area.

mmarshall

Yes, it has...Thanks.

With Nissan, it was not necessarily a matter of incentives from the State of Tennessee. Nissan, just like Toyota, got out of California simply for one reason....not because Tennessee (or Texas, as in the case of Toyota) bribed them, but because California was killing them with taxes, high costs, and over-burdening regulations.

nitroracer

Unfortunately for Big Auto in America, they've made a name off the back of this country. When you tarnish that image, well, do it at your own peril.

mmarshall

GM's image, for a time, after the buyout/bankrupcy 10 years ago, was actually pretty good.....much better than it had been before, especially back in the dark old days of the 1980s and 90s, when the company was still building junk. Mary Barra, and, to an extent, her predecessor Dan Akerson, had helped steer the company back from what Roger Smith and Bob Stempel had done to it...it was now enjoying a better reputation each year. That all stopped late last year, however, when she blew it by essentially dumping the American-sedan market and concentrating everything on SUVs and electric vehicles. That got her, her company (and Ford, to a lesser extent) into trouble, not only with the UAW and UNIFOR, but with that chunk of the public who is not truck/SUV-crazed, two national governments/legislatures whose countries would be affected by multiple plant-closings, and, of course, President Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau. She was doing quite well as a CEO for a number of years, but that's now history.

wasjr

I can certainly see that as reason to leave, but many locations wanted the headquarters. They received nearly $200 million in incentives, provided they brought 1,275 jobs. It did not hurt that Nissan's first US manufacturing plant is in Smyrna, where they have added a battery plant, and there is now an engine plant in Decherd. I believe it has worked out well for TN. Nissan's $70 million building is on 43 acres and currently employ 1,700. They have also spent for the naming rights to Nissan Stadium, home of the Titans.

mmarshall

That's nothing compared to what GM received for its buyout.

JDR76

Toys4RJill

JDR76

MattyG

Exactly. GM's woes started well before any major issues with their workers/wages. Yes the Japanese companies pay less but they don't lay off their workers.

Either way, those assembly line workers don't design the cars and measure the metrics of cost cutting vs value added quality control. The UAW/Unifor can be blamed for being shortsighted because they overvalue their members' skills. They don't have the monopoly in Detroit they once had.

But the other side of that equation is this: a corporation says it's too big to fail and it wants to save jobs. It makes promises, and ten years later it says the workers jobs it saved and their pensions it agreed to in legal/binding contractual agreements are a drag on profitability. So should people trust the word of these companies when they rely on people's short memories of past behavior?

GM. The company made money but Wall Street says; not enough, you gotta do better. Whose fault is this? The workers? Middle management? Or the CEOs and their executive types who listen to Wall Street and the activist investors who form the billionaire class?

The next step here is going to be that Mexican workers are underperforming and now you have to outsource even more. Get that Bangledeshi child laborer to build your GM product for pennies on the dollar. Wall Street will be happy. GM workers will watch from the sidelines, execs will get their golden parachutes. The beat goes on.