Hottest segment cools. Harvey and Irma Won’t End Carmageddon.
For the first eight months of the year, car sales by GM and Ford plunged 19%. Industry car sales fell 11%, despite record incentives. Sales of trucks – pickups, SUVs, crossovers, and vans – have been the big hope. Total truck sales are up 3% for the year, reducing the overall sales decline to 3%. Particularly crossovers have been red-hot. Every manufacturer has jumped into this booming segment. They’ve been the big hope. But now, even that hope is fading.
“Although crossovers now make up a larger share of the automotive industry, overall volumes are moderating,” General Motors told employees in a layoff notice at its Spring Hill, Tenn., assembly plant that makes the GMC Acadia and Cadillac XT5. These crossover models are among the very vehicles GM is counting on to pull it out of its sales funk.
“We believe the best way to react…is to reduce output,” the statement said.
GM will eliminate an entire overnight shift with about 1,000 workers. Some of the workers might be transferred to the engine or component manufacturing side of the plant, according to the GM spokesman.
The notice was sent on Friday. It was meticulously timed. By the time it was reported by the Wall Street Journal, the markets had already closed and no one was supposed to pay attention any longer.
Already in December 2016, GM announced that it would kick-start 2017 by temporarily closing five assembly plants, temporarily laying off 10,000 workers. But most of those employees were involved in making cars.
What GM told its employees on Friday was different: It would cut an entire shift, it would not be temporary, and the purpose would be to cut production of formerly hot crossovers.
Every automaker is pursuing the hot crossover segment with a vengeance. They’re still selling, but not as well as expected, and demand is “moderating,” as GM put it, and now overcapacity is setting in, the bane in auto manufacturing. It has been hounding plants that make cars. But now the problem is spreading the plants that make crossovers.
In June, GM already announced that it would extend its normal summer shutdown at some plants in the US.
Ford, just days ago, announced that it would idle three plants in the US and two in Mexico that employ tens of thousands of people. The shutdowns will range from one to three weeks. But they build mostly cars, whose sales have crashed as consumer went for crossovers and SUVs, presumably.
“We are continuing to match production with consumer demand, as we always do,” Ford said in a statement, which is the same lingo it always uses during these occasions.
Given that the shutdown of the Ford plants impacts car production, they’re still clinging to the script that car sales have crashed, while SUVs and crossovers are barely hanging on.
Earlier this month, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles announced that it would shut down its plant in Windsor, Ontario, for five weeks starting in October, to “balance production” of two minivans. It has already eliminated two car lines and no longer manufactures cars in the US. It has been the hardest-hit among US brands, with car sales down 22% this year, truck sales down 5%, and total sales down 7.7%. Only Hyundai (-12.7%) and Kia (-8.4%) have booked larger drops.
The plant shutdowns at GM and at Ford were announced after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma had entered the equation. The hurricanes were initially expected to cause an upsurge in new vehicle demand.
Everyone in the industry wants to know how many flood vehicles will be replaced by new cars, how many will be replaced by used cars, and how many will be repaired.
Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway owns auto insurer Geico, shed some additional light on this last Tuesday. Geico is the second largest auto insurer in Texas and the largest in Florida. Harvey, with its catastrophic flooding, has likely caused losses for Geico on 50,000 vehicles, Buffett explained. And losses in Texas are likely to exceed “by quite a margin” its losses in Florida.
In other words, the damage to vehicles in Florida was far less than in Texas. And the damage in Texas appear to be less than originally expected as those estimates have come down.
InfoNation estimated a few days ago that about 300,000 vehicles were likely damaged in the greater Houston region as a result of Harvey. It added, “Since not all vehicles will be covered by insurance or recorded as flood damaged, the number of totally damaged vehicles will never be accurately known.”
Given the new layoffs, particularly those at the GM plant that makes crossovers, which are popular in Texas, automakers may not expect a huge surge in demand for new vehicles from hurricane affected areas. They may expect that repairs and used vehicles will be called upon to a larger extent than originally hoped for.
So far this year, new vehicle sales are 321,000 units behind last year. Given the lowered expectations of demand from hurricane affected areas, the rest of the year is unlikely to fill that hole. Since sales have crashed in the hurricane affected areas in early September, and will take a while just to get back to “normal,” total sales this year across the US will likely fall further behind. Even next year, there might not be enough demand from hurricane affected areas to alter the course of the downward spiral.
Auto sales in the Houston area, already battered by the oil bust and then by Hurricane Harvey, plunged to levels not seen since the depth of the Financial Crisis. In other sectors too, the damage is becoming clearer. Read… Answers Emerge from Harvey-Hit Houston
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Yup, MAGA I see. lol
DJT isn’t responsible for manufacturers putting out junk.
(top-selling Equinox’s hideous replacement is very much unloved, Acadia has been downsized and now comes standard with a 4-cylinder, Grand Caravan is 9 years old and retooling is underway to include mandatory side airbags).
In other news, “Subaru reports all-time sales record in Aug. 2017”. Does MAGA apply here?
It’s not just GM. Did you miss that Ford was laying off thousands also? That Chrysler is for sale and the only lookers being foreign?
This comments section has taken a turn for the worse. I used to enjoy reading many of them, as there has been useful FINANCIAL commentary. Now I have to hold my nose as those foaming-at-the-mouth Trump-haters now dominate the section. I’ll continue to try to fish for the substance, but the vitriol and petulance can be so distracting. I hope Wolf addresses this as it is getting worse.
@Raymond C Rogers. I agree some of the comments are rather dark. I am sure the amount of comments during an initial blog posting launch is illustrative of the engagement of the community. For example, some blog posting ramp quickly with comments within a day and others may take a few days. I am not sure if it due to content or the comments.
Anonymous.1
Just to share a fact about the mysteries of commenting that sort of confirms what you’re saying: the number of comments are not related to the number of times that an article is read. Some of my biggest articles (40,000+) have a relatively average number of comments, and some of my articles with the most comments have not been read more than average.
I can’t wait to buy a Hurricane Harvey salty, water logged, used vehicle out of Houston Texas at a discount. If they get all bought up before I make a purchase, I may have to look to buy flooded used cars from Florida or Puerto Rico.
This in addition to the strike-induced shuttering of GM’s Chevy Equinox plant in Ontario, Canada (didn’t see this mentioned here).
3 new GM vehicles in the family, totally el cheapo interiors and clunky drivetrains. Sat in a Kia the other day, more impressive than the $65k Yukon Denali.
In the other hand construction will be in bloom thanks to all the rebuilding.
Do Millennials need to buy that many cars in the age of Uber and Lyft?
And if they do, why would they buy GM/Ford with perceived poorer quality compared to Japanese brands a lot of whose cars are made in America.
The surprise is that GM and Ford still manage to sell a lot of product. Not unlike Apple, American corporations excel in advertising.
Something I’ve said for a couple of decades now..
– American cars are designed to be sold.
– German cars are designed to be driven.
– Japanese cars are designed to be owned.
It seldom turns out to be untrue in my experience..
What a crock. I rented a “best selling” Camry last week. What a piece of crap grandma car. Squeaks and rattles galore, and only 3500 miles on the odometer. How long can Japan get away with putting out ugly, under performing mediocrity based on “perceived” quality. It’s a dirty little secret that Japans car companies only exist because of the massive currency manipulation of its central bank. When the day of reckoning comes, Japanese car companies will be forced to compete on a level playing field, and that terrifies them.
Japan is becoming a country of old people to the point newspapers already come with bigger print. So really when you call it a “granny car” is because they are literally made for old people.
Oh gosh, my wife and I recently bought a Toyota Camry with the xse package, admittedly full house loaded- leather, sunroof, gee-whiz electronics, etc. and we’ve found it to be one of the smoothest, quietest cars we’ve ever owned. The thing will run 80 plus all day long and delivers great fuel mileage. As an added bonus this American manufactured vehicle contains a higher percentage of American sourced parts than any car or truck in the world! What’s not to like? We’ll likely buy another when it’s time to trade at 60-80,000 miles.
Subaru WRX! Friend got one, it’s pretty hot.
I wanted a light pickup, and ended up with a Japanese truck. Hope it lasts as long as my Honda did.
Made in America, or Mexico?
Even Mercedes cars built or assembled outside Germany are not as good as the real deal.
The US puts tariffs on a lot of imports, so they get them assembled in the US, and it shows.
Yea, the Camry is definitely not the ‘go-to’ car it once was (nor is the Accord nor Maxima, for that matter).
Japanese cars are getting more and more American by the year – they’re pretty much all built here (KY, TN, TX) unlike the American brands who primarily build in Canada or Mexico and who jumped on the international (ie 3rd world) parts sourcing well head of the Japanese on the curve.. American style management too, most obvious at Nissan after Gohsn took over almost 2 decades ago.
It’s the saddest thing really…
An earlier post commented on the WRX – they are great cars, and still built in Japan.
Someone had mentioned trucks. I think they’re all junk – even the Japanese ones. Maybe Tacoma’s hold up better than some of the other ones. Ideally Toyota would just sell the Hilex here, but they unfortunately don’t.
I’m personally waiting for an electric (small) truck. It would be the best of all worlds for a 2nd vehicle (good mileage and could drive in any weather). Then my 1st vehicle could be a ‘fun’ car that isn’t a commuter. My bet would be on the Koreans doing this first – they’re the only companies hungry enough to try it right now. The mainstays are way too fat and bloated to ever try such a thing..
“well head of the Japanese on the curve”
Japanese and Korean’s dont want to do this. They are being forced to by the chinese, Americans, and Europeans.
look at the issues Hyundai is having in china with its chinese partner it was forced to tak eon to ente rteh chines market demanding most aggressively Hyundai stop using the Korean supply chain and start using the chinese one.
Japanes in particular always TRY to build a consistent quality product. They only build cars in America, to get market access, they complain about the worker related quality control issues in America, all the time.
Post WW II America made some good very cool cars by 9166 that was over in the mass lines the last of them being Icons like 68/69 mustangs camaros, then it all went down hill very fast, and very badly.
The last good American cars were the 70/71 dodge charger/challenger lines and the Plymouth clones of them, simply as they were Horsepower Animals. Dodge vipers were in that class also but the build quality was garbage, The price made them untenable.
Crossovers are just dooted up cars with an extra driveshaft (maybe).
Their explosive popularity reminds me of minivans in the late ’80s, which weren’t station wagons, you know, because the back seat faced forward.
CUVs aren’t station wagons because AWD — or *could* have it. These switcheroos always have a stale date.
All this is easily solved by my own new financial innovation:
MORTGAGES ON CARS
Yes that’s right by extending the period you buy your car to 25+ years, we can all live in a land of prosperity in which we drive around in brand new expensive motor cars EVEN IF WE’RE ON WELFARE.
You heard it here first. I’m not even sure myself whether I’m joking or not TBH, in this bizarre world of debt-fuelled lunacy anything is possible.
Already moving in that direction…..84 month loans becoming the norm…
How else is a buyer going to afford the negative equity attached to the previous vehicles AND cover the new vehicle money?
Im surprised home mortgages havent moved out past 30 years. Seems logical to me. Other countries are already there.
The article brings back memories of 2008 when I was in the Motor manufacturing industry (car bumpers).
Reduced shifts, working 4 day weeks for a 10% salary reduction (quite nice), laying off permanent manufacturing workers off and all temp staff (which was terrible), reducing capex spend to zero.
2010 China rescued the Motor Industry, next time there won’t be another China.
GM in Europe then were terrible (we couldn’t wait to get out of the contract with them) and they got left behind by all their other competitors in 2010. Everyone else seemed to raise their game in the models coming out, GM didn’t.
Why would they raise their game? Its been a bailout each and every time when things go bad. And yes, management gets huge bonuses to boot, good years or bad, and this pretty much goes for all of the TBTF out there.
It must have been the Presidents’ faults back then, too, right?!
You really should have Lemming for a screen name. Because no matter what your perceived hero does or says, he’s not at fault right? Seeing as nothing is his creation or fault, what’s he running his big mouth off every day about? What’s the reasoning for all the 180’s then if he can’t do anything about it? Why do people like you continue to support that sort of crap? And yes I do agree with any athlete or anyone else’s right to kneel if they want to. Only tyrants would have their own brand of so called patriotism forced upon people. I see you support that too. You can wallow in it all you want.
Keep the tears and harassments flowing, John; you’re making the 2020 re-election soo easy!
Carlada I voted for Trump but he’s flip flopped on just about every issue and surrounded himself with so many deep swamp creatures like that Munchkin creep that it horrifies me Good luck with 2020 He’s going to need it assuming there’s anything left at that point
I don’t know why anyone is surprised that car sales are dropping. Before you can buy a car you first have to have money. And since the average middle class worker (with maxed out credit) hasn’t gotten a raise in 30 years coupled with the ever rising cost of rent, where’s the extra money to make a car payment supposed to come from?
And in 20 years, with self-driving cars dominating cities, total car sales will be half of what they are today putting further pressure on inefficient car companies. Chrysler will be dead by then and GM and Ford may be on life support unless they can clearly see the future and adapt.
Disagree . Yes, one needs money to buy a car, but you need less money to buy a simpler or smaller car. What we have seen in cars is that every improvement in engineering for autos increases car prices. What we have seen in wages is that every improvement in engineering society wide decreases pay checks for everyone but engineeers.
The 2 trends are in conflict. A more likely outcome will be much simpler cheaper cars by the tens of millions with the wealthy only having self-drivers.
A people’s car.. It’s worked before.
I’m thinking with Wolfstreet’s recent articles on Walmart ( and Amazon) gearing up for home delivery of groceries and everything else the need for a private car is pretty much ending for those who are retired or don’t have a long commute.
I’ve got a car and truck and I don’t drive but around 5000 miles per year and insurance alone on them runs about $1400 per year. For the cost of insurance and registering the vehicles for a year I could buy a pretty nice electric bicycle and they have a 20 mile range and go about 20 mph on battery alone. That would meet 90% of my driving needs.
The only drawback is safety and, here in Florida, thunderstorms. Building dedicated bike paths is a lot cheaper than expanding roads and, in most areas could be done by just widening sidewalks a couple of feet and paving them. Maybe the electric bicycle is the future not the EV.
Unit472 here in southern Turkey everybody has one of those electric scooters Some are three wheelers and some even have a pickup truck like bed on them for healing stuff around I’m thinking of getting one and charging it with solar panels that I’m going to use for my Well and pool pumps With gasoline at over 5 dollars a gallon using it for local stuff seems to make a lot of sense
unit472 – Two wheels are the way to go if you need to go as inexpensively as possible, and don’t have to carry a lot of cargo. Even the first motorized vehicles were motorcycles, because two wheels were much easier to deal with, and you got the most “go” out of the primitive engines of the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_motorcycle
Electric bikes are all over the place now, and a lot of them are not even very obviously electric. You have to look; does the rider not pedal and are they not dressed like the kind of bicyclist who goes that fast on their own?
When the recession hit, I asked myself, Where are all the mopeds? Where are the motor scooters? Because when there were gas panics in the 70s when I was a kid, mopeds got very popular. But that was on an island. But where I am, public transit is becoming more and more popular, there are more bike lanes all the time, and I see people using all sorts of alternatives to a car, like bicycles electric and otherwise, Razor scooters, motor scooters and bikes, etc.
Last night I was enjoying a Foster’s on the balcony at Whole Foods and it was hilarious seeing all the people being picked up by their Ubers on Santa Clara st.
You sound like you’d be better off owning a compact hatchback and just renting a SUV/truck when you need its features.
Car renting never been easier especially as the major car rental companies have moved beyond their traditional airport base.
uber ban in London is a gamechanger for the sharing economy more cities will follow those companies have to play by the rules with regulations and taxes.If not the will be shut down the sharing economy is is trouble if they don,t adapt to countries laws.
yes the economy is florida is going to suffer a lot so many beautiful islands destroyed so sad the economy is totally destroy in many places.the keys are beautiful places sint marteen is also a beautiful place the boardwalk in philipsburg was an amazing place
I think Uber will make some changes and fix some things and appologize and regain its license to operate in London.
But it will be a turning point in another way: Uber will be less aggressive in its efforts to just plow over everyone — as the new CEO Khosrowshahi told employees and drivers: “the truth is that there is a high cost to bad reputation.”
Is not just bad reputation, thry have broken the law, they have covered for crimes, they are accused of stealing and copyright violation….
Google will do it’s best to sink Uber because Uber apparently stole from them.
Google already partnered with Lyft that’s basically Uber without such a bad rep.
Go a Google search right now and count how many of the top ten results you get are about Uber breaking some law or doing something unethical.
Raxadian – thanks for the info. I had an idea Lyft at the very least isn’t quite as evil as Uber but it sounds like it’s really been bad. Someday when I get a smart phone, and if I happen to need a lift, I’ll call Lyft.
We bought a car on 09-16. Saw a Ford Escape & Kia Soul both at 17k new clicking around dealers on the Web. Got to Ford, the 17k was a hoax, $23k and firm was their price. Everybody’s time was wasted by fake pricing.
Went over to Kia, silly hamster ads in view, 17k was 17k, no flim-flam, so we got that. The Escape may be a bit nicer, but for a commuter car its too nice, too big, too expensive. Ford had their chance, 10 years before we buy again.
Hi Wolf,
To see what’s happened in London with Uber is highly unusual, the authorities wouldn’t have done what they’ve done without good reason.
It will also take far more than an apology to get back on board.
Ironically a Bloomberg article a day ago blamed the Uber issue on Brexit.
WR: Thank you for tracking U.S. auto sales so well in your blog.
Commenters: Let’s keep the politics out of it. This is an economic blog. BTW, I’m non-partisan, and so I don’t really like either side of the isle (Repuli-crat party). Let’s stick to the topic. Note: bashing Socialism is OK, since it’s already been proven to be a failed economic construct.
Back to the blog post. My comment here. Let’s get back to free markets. All of this intervention (visible hand/machinations of the Fed), easy credit, ultra-low rates is massively distorting the economy and “markets”. Where is price discovery? Plenty of moral hazard though… Adam Smith is spinning in his grave. On autos: Demand pulled forward. Nothing else. Pretty much everyone that wants a new/used/leased auto now has one thanks to ridiculous incentives, sub-prime loans, etc. At some point incentives and cheap financing reduce profit margins to zero. “Are we there yet?” (rhetorical). The cycle has peaked, and there’s going to be a huge air pocket since no buyers left. The next downturn will likely be as bad as 2008-09 due to the gi-normous debt expansion.
“You cannot spend your way out of recession or borrow your way out of debt.” – Daniel Hannan, Member of the European Parliament
When, if ever, will we learn?
I didn’t notice a lot of comments on the fact that GM’s closures are “permanent”. I assume that means that when demand picks up they will do the production at their factories in China. I can imagine the day in the not too distant future when only foreign (whatever that means) companies will be making cars in the U.S. while U.S. companies (again, whatever that means) will be making all of their cars overseas. We certainly live in interesting times.
I think you’re first mistake is assuming that demand will pick up at all Who in their right mind would buy any GM product anyway? I surely would not and never have
“Not temporary” – that’s the phrase I chose – means that these layoffs are not for a fixed period of time, as most of the other layoffs have been. Prior layoffs have largely been for a certain number of weeks. This time, they eliminated an entire shift, and that’s it. They can bring back that shift if they need to, but that’s not part of the announced plan at the moment.
I wonder which lines of production will start running again- those in Mexico or the United States?
Yeah, we’ll see. But US brands better figure out how to sell cars again because this is hitting the pain threshold.
“Yeah, we’ll see. But US brands better figure out how to sell cars again because this is hitting the pain threshold.”
Should they not be figuring out ,how to make cars in America, that Americans want to buy, at a profit first????????????
And concerning GM’s China strategy: the Buick Envision crossover is made in China and imported to the US. One of the trailblazers. There will be more.
As I was about to say GM effectively a chinese company today still PERMANENTLY laying of workers in the US.
Whilst importing MORE cars from CHINA.
Going to do something about this abuse of the American worker. And this exploitation of America. By GM.
Just another data point that auto sales are continuing to slow up.
Debt has maxed out again but at a lower interest rate. I guess there could be one more step down with the 10 year going to near 0.
Yup and then what Negative rates ? Has anyone bothered to take a gander at the Velocity of money chart It’s NOT good
M2…..https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2V
there are many persons affected by the hurricanes and flooding that do not have flood insurance because they were not required to. many of these people will not use their auto insurance settlement to buy a new car, they will use that money to rebuild their home, or to support their families until they are able to get back to work. they can buy back the totaled car and get it fixed. I have used auto insurance settlement from an accident on my home, as well as christmas money, and live with the dents in my vehicle.
The price of building materials has already gone up. i just paid $65 for one 2X12X20 ft. pressure treated board. i live in a rural area and the prices may not be as high for other areas, but they have all gone up.
many of the people in the hurricane/flood affected areas will not have a job for months. I have to wonder, what the christmas retail season bring?
Just yesterday, I read somewhere that the federal funds approved for the Baton Rouge, LA flood, over a billion dollars, have yet to be distributed to many flood victims. It has now been over a year since that flood. The state is “trying” to come up with a better or more standardize application process. People quoted in the story are disgusted. The federal funds are being held hostage by the state. This is just a window in to what you can look forward to, unfortunately.
People in LA voted for corrupt, incompetent Democrat patronage and graft rackets, then boo hoo when the hacks they elected prove to be mendacious bumbling incompetents. Hey LA voters, maybe next time you shouldn’t vote for crooks.
In this country there are no other alternatives–they’re all crooks, if they were honest they wouldn’t get elected.
This month marks the end of auto production in Australia. Holden (Australian GM brand) is shutting down as is Toyota.
Now the only cars sold in Australia will be imports.
And I wouldn’t buy a GM or Holden regardless of the price – we used to call the Captiva a “Craptiva”. Guess why………..
I sometimes wondered how much work the workshop would have had if it weren’t for recalls and warranty repairs.
Some cars came in three or four times before they were fixed. The airbag recall for Honda was and continues to be a mess.
There were articles in the press about how the company didn’t have enough airbags so they did a partial replacement of what was in stock. Then did another recall to replace the other airbags. And then believe it or not did ANOTHER recall to replace the airbags that were replaced because they were faulty too!!
Took a while but it finally came out in the news.
Glad I don’t work there anymore.
The aibag issues spanned multiple companies. Many of these parts are made by the same maufacturer. I got one for my Toyota. Relatives have gotten them for other for Kia and Mazda. We compared the class-action notices. All were from the same supplier. Not sure if that extends to some of the others, but something to pay attention to.
There seems to be a lot of disrespect for GM products here. I’ve always used GM trucks (currently Chevy Express van) and found them to be dependable, comfortable, and efficient. I’ll continue to use them. I don’t buy them new; the best value point seems to be a vehicle coming off a three-year commercial lease.
I’ve been driving a Holden Commodore rebadged as a Pontiac G8 (base model) for 9 years. It’s my W2 wage slave version of a BMW 535. Major screwup by GM killing off all their RWD sedans and leaving us with lackluster FWD options. But then again, I’m one who would be happy with a 1968 C10 pickup with a 250 ticker inline six and a three on the tree manual.
This story is obviously fake news. Janet Yellen and the rest of our omniscient central planners inform us that our economic expansion is robust, just not robust enough to raise rates. The important thing is, stock markets are hitting new Ponzi-like highs. And those 94.5 million people “out of the work force” but not unemployed? Obviously they’re the beneficiaries of the Fed’s vaunted “wealth effect” after the latter lavished trillions in “stimulus” on its oligarch cohorts.
Well Gershon I’m one of those 94 million and I’m now working over here on our new hotel Worked My behind off since 1966 most weeks 7 days when you include working on my own house In 2015 I gave up and expatriated to save what I had left I just opened an account at ING Bank paying 4 percent on USD accounts
Carmageddon? Is that what’s driving GM stock to new highs, not to mention Norfolk Southern who’s locomotives are buried somewhere in the desert?.
ITS NO WONDER SALES ARE IN THE SHIT HOUSE WHEN THE AMERICAN WORKER CAN NO LONGER AFFORD THE PRODUCTS MADE IN AMERICA ITS GAME OVER. SINCE WHEN HAVE YOU HEARD OF 72 MONTH FINANCE. WHICH WILL GET YOUR PAYMENT DOWN TO A MANAGEABLE 400 A MONTH. OH ADD FULL COVERAGE INSURANCE. all so you can drive back and forth to work 6 days a week and barely make it….. HAHAHAHAHA…hell my first house didnt cost that much…
In the future, please try to locate the CapsLock key sooner. Thanks.
Don’t forget the property tax and registration fees $$$$$$. My car’s registration finally dropped this year; the state delayed rate drops for years. It was a nice ‘surprise’—I think my next car will be equally as old.
GM used 90% of its free cash flow to pay its shareholders versus something more useful in the long-run like R&D.
— GM expects to return approximately $7 billion in cash to shareholders in 2017, bringing total cash returns to shareholders to approximately $25 billion since 2012. This represents approximately half its current market capitalization and more than 90% of its adjusted automotive free cash flow over the same period.
http://www.gm.com/mol/m-2017-mar-0328-shareholder.html
I wish someone would make a small pickup again. I really liked our Ford Courier, and Chevy Luv.
“I wish someone would make a small pickup again. I really liked our Ford Courier, and Chevy Luv.”
They still make them At least eth Ford they just dont sell them in teh US.
Import one.
Go one better although more expensive buy a Hilux 2WD or 4 WD Assembled only the Philippines now with good quality control and Bullet proof (Well almost(Again not sold in America)) Available in LHD.