http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/bu..._r=2&th&emc=th

 

Man that is yet another scary read. The writing is on the wall, this is going to get uglier and uglier.

 

Thats not good. They have to go somewhere.

 

That's just too much!

 

Can't see the article.

 

In essence the article points out the bad part of mass production. It's great when things are being bought, but when they're not... product still gets made. This is where sales come in to dump extra product and get rid of it... aka closeouts.

However, in the car business, this isn't as possible. Margins are razor thin already, given their mass, so they have to have people buying and buying. Shutting down a plant isn't as easy as turning off a light bulb... and turning the plant back 'on' is even worse. They'd rather have a minimal turn out of built product... and even still, it's too much just now.

So what happens is the cars, already built, but unbought, will be stored here in various lots as can be done. This is happening in the foriegn market, such as BMW, Benz, Mazdas, in this article, but it is true for all of them. They have a few months worth of supplies just sitting there waiting. There will be huge incentives if they sit too long... and that's bad for the makers, who are already hemmoraging (sp?) money as it is.

Car companies just simply cannot turn a left when needed and build what everyone wants. It's not like the 60s or 50s where it's just a stamping and a few other "small" changes, and off you go, new product (Falcon -> Mustang anyone?) Today's cars, if changed signficantly, MUST BE crash tested as well as NVH, endurance, etc. And CAFE. Further, we've become so picky about how cars work, platforms do not interchange well. So they must be planned years in advance. Hence the 3-5 year wait between signficant models, and even 15 years on some platforms!

Further, plants that are set up to build big trucks can't be retasked to build small cars easily. It's extremely expensive to do, and it is a very big deal. This is why plants that build trucks are idled instead of retasked. This is why there are shortages of popular cars as well (It's supply of *some* sort, whether plant availability or parts.)

Anyway... that's all I got. Why I did it I dunno.

 

Time to bring in the Car Crusher!!!

Anyone rember back to when GM did it to all those left over Camaro's??

 

Or to play "let's make a deal" for the people with some disposable cash.