Ovaltine

Hyundai’s Swift Growth Lifts Alabama’s Economy http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/business/19hyundai.html?_r=1&emc=eta1 While Michigan’s dependence on the auto industry caused it to have one of the nation highest unemployment rates in recent years, the presence of Hyundai and Kia has helped Alabama keep its jobless rate among the lowest in the Southeast even as textile mills continue to close. “As far as the pay, nobody else around here can compete with them,” said Richard Watson, a former auto mechanic who was out of work for a year and a half before getting a temporary job at the Kia plant in West Point, Ga., last fall. He said some of his co-workers drove two hours each way because the plant’s jobs were in such demand. Hyundai is running its Montgomery plant, which employs 2,650, around the clock on weekdays and occasional Saturdays to keep up with demand. Last summer, it moved production of its Santa Fe sport utility vehicle 95 miles northeast to the Kia plant to free capacity in Montgomery. Kia recently hired 600 additional workers to operate a second shift for the Santa Fe and plans a third, with 1,000 more jobs. “These jobs have good salaries and good fringe benefits, and are more self-fulfilling” than the ones that have left the area, said Seth Hammett, director of the Alabama Development Office. “The automobile business has really been good for Alabama.” More than 50 companies have followed Hyundai to the Montgomery area from Korea, with executives and their families in tow. The city’s Korean population has jumped from about 100 before Hyundai to more than 3,000 today, said Su Yong Sim, president of the Korean-American Association of Greater Montgomery and a contractor who moved from Houston to help build part of the Hyundai plant. For more than a year, workers at the Hyundai plant have been putting in 10 hours of overtime a week as part of their regular schedule, plus occasional Saturdays. With an average regular wage of about $20 an hour, the additional overtime hours mean workers here are earning more than many workers at the unionized plants up north. The United Automobile Workers union has long tried to organize plants in the United States operated by foreign carmakers, most of which are in the South, but has yet to succeed anywhere. ---------------------------- I *wish* Michigan could find a way to attract some of the foreign transplant production business up HERE!!! I suspect that it will mean overcoming a LITTLE impediment called "becoming a Right-to-Work state". -Ovaltine

Great video! I agree that the sound of that 427 is absolutely wicked. The punks these days with their "fart can" 4-cylinders will NEVER know what they missed. I agree with those that hope this example gets restored someday. With the life it's led, it's earned it. We had a '63 Galaxie 500 (4-door) with a 352 in it when I was about 5 years old. My brother got to turn it into a "field bomber" when the folks picked up the brand new '68 Country Squire LTD wagon with the 390! Woo-hoo! ;-) My first car, a maroon '72 'Bird with white vinyl top and the obligatory ghetto/Landau bars, had a 429 in it, and sounded a lot like this car after I replaced with the stock exhaust with bullet mufflers: Fun with big-block Fords! (EXCEPT at the gas pump!) -Ovaltine

I've noticed that most of the new Fords have the dimly lit vertical LED "foglights" in their lower front fascias. Are these strictly for aesthetics, or do they have a "bright" mode to provide any real function? They look kind of cool, but I personally wouldn't trade these for actual functional driving/fog lights. -Ovaltine

The crampedness of the interior is what's going to be the limiting factor in marketing this car here in NA. I sat in the models at the NA Auto Show this year, and found my head up in the hole by the sunroof(s), with the top of my head nearly touching the glass. I'm only 6' too, btw. This was on the passenger side, which didn't appear to be adjustable for height. I had to practically lay the seatback 1/2 the way down to get my head out of the ceiling. The non-sunroof version wasn't much better either. WAY too cramped and claustrophobic for me! I then went over to the Mini display, and found that those fit me like a glove. Plenty of head and leg room, with a very comfortable driving position. The 500 is a 'FAIL' IMHO for this reason alone. Good luck, ChryCo/Fiat. -Ovaltine

Glad to hear it. I'm eager to see what "Foci" look like out in the "wild". -Ovaltine

Does anyone have any scuttle on what's going on over in Wayne at the new Focus plant? My source there says that things are in a bit of disarray over there right now. I'm sure it will all be worked out before the first one ships. I'm just curious if this means there's going to be any delays in when they start shipping. -Ovaltine

It's hard to believe that they're STILL selling this (essentially same) car on Ford dealer's lots.....TODAY! B) http://hubpages.com/...-to-Low-Ratings (scroll down) That being said, I agree with the philosophy that driving '90s (or earlier) era compact vehicles is probably not a good idea in this day and age. Heck.... even when I'm out in my '88 5.0 'Stang, I sometimes wonder what I'd look like if some a**hole whacks me. I've read that the doors can be pinched shut if the old Fox bodies get hit from behind with any force. That's one of the reasons I keep the car's tire iron under the passenger seat -- just in case I need to break a window to get out! -Ovaltine

Doh!!! Thanks MF! Realizing that fact has made the concept go from lame to "pretty slick" in an instant! I should have guessed that, although I swear I saw a pic where it was on both sides. I wonder if someone did a horizontal flip of a pic, like is known to happen online sometimes! Here's a pic showing the "clean design" driver's side. -Ovaltine

Minor quibbles.... - The LARGE black trapezoidal lower grill with the body-colored dividers doesn't do anything for me. - What's with the weird little quasi-oval body-colored panels that sit below the side "wings" of the taillights of the hatchback? It makes the design of the taillight and quarter panel look like an afterthought. -Ovaltine

What will your rationalization be once they (including the WHOLE vehicle) are being engineered over there as well? See: http://docs.google.c...lQhTbqt446eW5hw Will the "...well at least the PROFITS stay over here!" mantra be trotted out? Methinks the title of the article isn't all that far-fetched, unfortunate as it is...... -Ovaltine

Your explanation nails it DW, from how I've been told it works. If nothing else, it can't HURT to work the purchase timing that way! -Ovaltine

Awwwwww..... that '04 Spectra's STILL just a piece of crap, Mettech! You just wait! You've got to give it another 16k miles before the symptoms really start to manifest themselves! You just wait and see, I tell ya! :shades: -Ovaltine

"From what my friends have experienced, its fine for the first few years, then it's downhill after that. " THAT'S the post I was responding to. And with that as the measuring criteria, I think my experience (and Intrepidatious' as well) put that "fallacy" to rest. -Ovaltine

Agreed! My 2004.5 Spectra is pushing 80k miles now, and has been one of the most trouble free vehicles I've EVER owned. -Ovaltine

Keep in mind that a *strong* negotiator will probably still get a good deal out-the-door on the H/K products, regardless of the sticker price. Esp. if it's month-end and there's a decent incentive on the hood. -Ovaltine

"In a move to continue and distance itself from its corporate heritage, General Motors is dropping the 36-year-old Goodwrench car mechanic brand in the United States...." Maybe GM's quietly grooming "Gary and Ace", er, I mean "Max and Al" to also take over the Goodwrench marketing duties? In fact, here they are in the latest GM concept vehicle, the Chevy Cruise®..... :lol: -Ovaltine

As long as the build quality and durability's there, and the price point (with deals) is realistic, I think Kia's going to be selling ALOT of new Optima's and Cadenza's. I think these new designs are rockin'. -Ovaltine

Which supports the old adage: "Perception always lags the reality"...... -Ovaltine

I think that they'd agree with Subaru. That's why they're launching THIS 3rd generation model very soon: NOTE: The Subaru ad actually uses a 1st generation Optima in it. That was the Sonata-clone given to Kia by Hyundai, right after Kia was taken over by Hyundai. -Ovaltine

It looks like the outgoing Kia 2010 Optima...... -Ovaltine

And don't forget about those good 'ole TFI ignition modules too! Mounting those heat-sensitive little buggers right above the exhaust manifolds of the Escorts and Tempos sure was a GREAT idea....NOT! Once they fatigued and fried, you'd get a couple of RPM bounces on the tach, and off to the shoulder of the road you'd coast. Deader than a doornail. As the former owner of both an 1.6L Escort and a 2.3L Tempo, I soon learned the value of the prophylatic replacement of a TFI module. My '88 5.0L Mustang's distributor is positioned quite a ways away from the factory headers, so my original is still functioning after 67k miles. Reading the following article DOES make me wonder if I shouldn't replace it at some point. http://www.autosafet...lass-settlement Excerpt(s): In a landmark decision on August 29,2000, in Howard v. Ford Motor Co., (Case No. 763785-2, Alameda County Superior Court, California State Judge Michael Ballachey announced he would order the recall of 1.8 million 1983-95 Ford vehicles in California with defective ignition modules that fail and cause dangerous stalls on highways. Vehicles with the distributor mounted TFI module have a 9% higher fatal crash rate than those with a different module system. Ford Motor Company has known about this problem since it began, yet concealed it from consumers and government regulators for well over a decade. Just as in Firestone tires on Ford Explorers, a prime instrument in Ford's cover up was secrecy agreements in product liability lawsuits. Over 900 product liability lawsuits have been filed against Ford on these vehicles with protective orders and confidential settlement agreements entered in many. Rather than bearing the expense of moving the TFI module to a cooler location away from the engine, a solution that Ford engineers recommended to management for years, Ford decided to employ a less costly solution: to leave the module on the distributor, but make it last long enough to function during the warranty period, thereby forcing consumers to bear the cost of post-warranty failures that Ford knew would continue to occur in large numbers. As a result, over 13 million replacement TFI modules (which are designed to last for the life of the vehicle without maintenance or repair) have been sold to consumers at a cost of nearly $2 billion. Despite an extraordinary number of complaints from consumers, Ford managed to conceal the TFI problem from government regulators. From 1983 through 1989 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted five separate investigations into stalling complaints by Ford customers. In response to these investigations, Ford concealed what it knew about the TFI problem and persuaded NHTSA to close each investigation without taking action. As a result of the class action, NHTSA opened an investigation in 1997, in which it concluded that Ford had withheld key documents during earlier investigations. By then, the 8-year statute of limitations on NHTSA's authority to order a recall had expired, preventing NHTSA from taking any meaningful enforcement action. Just as in Firestone tires on Ford Explorers, the TFI product liability cases against Ford involve tragic injuries. In Phan v Budget Rent a Car & Ford Motor Co., there were two deaths, one quadriplegic and four other injuries when a 1990 Mercury Sable stalled at highway speeds. -Ovaltine

A caller in to Drew and Mike on WRIF (who said he has worked in both domestic and foreign-owned plants) claimed that the foreign plant he worked in had zero tolerance for the type of blatant shenanigans that was shown on Fox2. I'm sure that someone sneaking a nip or two into their coffee/soda, etc. could still happen of course. But I doubt that the acts would be as public as the ChryCo workers'. -Ovaltine

Re: #1 - "Corrective action" can come in both active and inactive modes. The union COULD withhold their usual "full court press" termination prevention tactics for this group of individuals. Letting these guys "swing in the wind" for once would INDEED be a corrective action taken by the union. At least in my book it would be. Re: #2 - Point taken, and as Rob Wolchek said, just get the goods on an exec group that hits BT's regularly down in Dearborn (if that still goes on like it did back in the late 80's/early 90's), and I'll bet he'll be there! -Ovaltine

Who watched last night's "Let It Rip" segment on www.myfoxdetroit.com regarding this story? http://www.myfoxdetr...g-20100923-wpms All I can say is that the person representing the UAW point of view did EVERYTHING he could, to not actually condemn these turds. About the harshest he was on them was when he deflected and pointed out how the majority of Chrysler's unionized workforce DOESN'T participate in similar behaviors. If the UAW higher-ups subscribe to that same mentality, then one thing we CAN be sure of is that any real corrective actions against the group shown in the video most CERTAINLY won't be coming from UAW management. -Ovaltine

Here's a page that discusses one person's Hyundai experience. http://answers.edmunds.com/question-Hyundai-Elantra-Blue-2-wks-I-noticed-scratches-inside-driver-dr-plastic-fixable-103734.aspx There's an Accord owner on there talking about it too. I also found some Subaru owners discussing this topic. Is this an Asian car thing, I wonder? The interior plastic panels on my Jeep Compass wear like iron, and the majority of panels on my 2004 Kia are all soft touch plastics (or super tough hard) which don't mar at all. -Ovaltine