What happens at Detroit Auto Show has impact in Ohio
Published: Monday, January 10, 2011, 6:00 PM
By Robert Schoenberger
DETROIT -- What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but what happens in Detroit during the auto show ripples down to Parma, Cleveland, Lordstown and dozens of other communities across Ohio.
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The biggest launch Monday was the concept version of Honda's 2012 Civic compact car, a vehicle that will go on sale in a few months. The car has a dual impact on Ohio. |
The biggest launch Monday was the concept version of Honda's 2012 Civic compact car, a vehicle that will go on sale in a few months. The car has a dual impact on Ohio.
Workers in Russells Point, near Lima, will make transmissions for the Civic which will come out of plants in Indiana and Canada. About 30 miles west of there, workers in Anna, Ohio, will make the Civic's engine.
Indirectly, the new Civic could have an impact on General Motors' plant in Lordstown. The Chevrolet Cruze from that plant and the Civic will compete directly, along with the recently released Hyundai Elantra and Ford's upcoming 2012 Focus.
Analysts expect 2011 to be brutally competitive in the small car space as all of those vehicles try to latch on to buyers.
"It's a very exciting time to be a consumer," said American Honda vice president John Mendel. "There's so much coming to market. There's so many good vehicles coming out."
Two other product launches that could impact workers in Ohio both came from GM. The Buick Verano, a Cruze-sized car for that brand, will be built in Michigan, but 15 of the vehicle's stamped parts will come out of GM's metal plant in Parma. Parma makes similar parts for the Cruze.
GM's global design director Ed Welburn said GM could have saved money by sharing more parts between the two cars, but it wanted consumers to see a clear difference between the mass-market Cruze and the upscale Verano.
"We can still share some parts, but we have to be selective," Welburn said. "It's the stuff that people don't touch or see, some very expensive parts that people don't touch or see."
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| Chevrolet announced Monday that its all-new, U.S. built small car will be called the Chevrolet Sonic in North America. |
GM President for North America Mark Reuss said the launch of the Sonic will limit how the automaker markets the Cruze.
With the Cruze's predecessor, the Chevrolet Cobalt, GM targeted younger buyers by offering two-door models, four-door models and SS super sport models. The company has no plans to offer the Cruze as anything other than a four-door sedan, foregoing even the hatchback model offered in Europe.
"Just because we can do some of this stuff doesn't me that we should," Ruess said during an interview. He added that offering multiple body styles and specialty editions of the Cruze would make the car feel like an entry level kid's car, not the more premium compact GM has marketed it as.
"I want the Sonic to be the car in the Chevrolet showroom that's very different from the Cruze," Reuss said. "We don't want to eat each other's lunch."
Reuss and other automotive executives believe that the compact car segment is moving more upscale, and that 2011 will be a big year for the class.
Ford sales analyst George Pipas said rising gas prices and an improving economy could boost compact sales. Compacts are most popular with young buyers, and that group has been hit especially hard by the ongoing economic slump.
If the economy improves and those young people start getting jobs, Pipas said sales could improve for just about everyone in the class.
Honda's Mendel agreed, saying "As jobs come back, the market for first-time buyers will expand."
Ford also showed off several new small cars at the show. If the United Auto Workers Local 1250 in Brook Park has anything to say about it during contract talks this summer, those product launches could impact Northeast Ohio.
Ford unveiled the Vertek concept, a small sport utility that will become the next generation of the Escape, and several versions of the C-Max minivan. All of those vehicles are based off of Ford's Focus and all will need small, four-cylinder engines.
Ford had promised to make those engines in Brook Park during contract negotiations in 2009, but workers in other parts of the country rejected that deal. UAW Local 1250 has made winning those engines its priority for talks this year.
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Because of the expansion of the Focus lineup and the planned restart of its Louisville Assembly Plant next year, Ford expects to add 7,000 jobs over the next two years.
Other than the Focus plant, Kentucky and its headquarters, Ford isn't saying where those new workers are coming. Some could come to Ohio if the automaker expands operations in Brook Park, Avon Lake or Walton Hills, but it won't be clear where the company plans to add until contract negotiations with the UAW end later this year.
In addition to the product launches, both Ford and GM had reason to celebrate Monday.
GM won the Car of the Year award from automotive journalists for its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. Ford took Truck of the Year honors for its redesigned Explorer SUV.
