truth about domestics

According to an article in The Detroit News, some Lincoln dealers are a bit upset about how long the Lincoln transformation is taking.  They are also upset about the fact that an MKS costs $10,000 more than its sibling D-car, the Ford Taurus.  Many dealers complain that the cross shopping isn’t happening between Lincoln and Audi/Mercedes/BMW/Lexus, but instead people are cross shopping Lincoln with Ford.  I for one am glad that vehicles like the MKS/Taurus and MKT/Flex have different top hats completely, but I think the other vehicles in Lincoln’s lineup need to follow suit.  The 2011 Ford Edge and MKX didn’t go far enough in my book to separate the two models from each other.  Customers want to feel like they got a car that is more special than a fancy Ford since they paid a good deal more for it.  For the full story, head on over to The Detroit News.

(Image source: Lincoln)

Executives at GM were probably thrilled that they were able to tell employees before they left for the Christmas holiday break that merit raises were being reinstated for 2010.  This is good news, as raises were frozen last year due to GM’s bankruptcy and government bailout situation.  The raises are to cover things like inflation and to keep GM’s employees competitive with other employees at GM and other companies.  For more on the story, head on over to the Detroit News.

(Image source: GM)

Chrysler has decided to keep things low key at this January’s Detroit Auto Show by skipping a press conference altogether.  This seems odd to me, as well as many auto industry insiders who feel that Chrysler needs to start talking about new product in the pipeline.  Last year saw some very sharp concepts roll out, such as the 200C above, but this year the best we can hope for are several limited edition models.  For more, head on over to the Detroit News.

(Image source: Chrysler)

I found this article today in the Detroit News about what Chrysler is doing to conserve cash, and what they will be doing in the near term to help increase sales.  I think it’s a very interesting look into the struggles and cuts the automaker has had to make in order to survive bankruptcy restructuring and continue to produce and sell cars right here in the good old U.S. of A.  For more, head on over to the Detroit News.

(Image source: Wikimedia)

Quite a bold statement, especially coming from an automaker who didn’t win any big awards from Consumer Reports or JD Power and Associates for their quality – or lack thereof.  Chrysler states that they are going to be fighting their poor quality reputation hard through a number of techniques.  The first involves increased staffing.  The original quality group had only around 200 people.  Through some new hires and some head reallocation, Chrysler plans to have around 1,700 in the quality group now.  It has also adopted Fiat’s “world class” manufacturing system.  Costs have already been cut this year in terms of warranty spend, and fixes are now taking place far quicker than in the past years.  For more details, head on over to Autoblog or The Detroit News.

(Image source: Chrysler)