Los Angeles: It Is Now Your Time To Shine!
For L.A. residents and visitors, the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show is your opportunity to enjoy a truly world class event. Founded in 1907, the L.A. show continues to be one of the most 
important shows of its kind in North America, an important event where automakers from around the globe choose to make their World and/or North American debuts.
The backdrop of this year’s show is the economy, one of the toughest downturns we’ve seen in decades. Inasmuch as the current outlook is bleak, the auto show will give you a good glimpse into the future of the business. Moreover, if you are thinking about purchasing a car, you can compare models and learn how you can get behind the wheel of a new ride through various financing means.
The show is open to the public from now through the end of the month including on Thanksgiving Day. The following are the show hours for the duration of the event:
Friday, Nov. 21: 11am – 10pm
Saturday, Nov. 22: 9am – 10pm
Sunday, Nov. 23: 9am – 8pm
Monday, Nov. 24: 11am – 10pm
Tuesday, Nov. 25: 11am – 10pm
Wednesday, Nov. 26: 11am – 10pm
Thanksgiving Day: 9am – 8pm
Friday, Nov. 28: 9am – 10pm
Saturday, Nov. 29: 9am – 10pm
Sunday, Nov. 30: 9am – 8pm
Tickets are $10 for adults and free to children under the age of 12 when accompanied by a paying adult. Seniors (65+) can get in for just $7 from November 21-27 only. Discount ticket coupons are available at local car dealerships as well as at select local 7-Eleven Stores. Group ticket rates apply to scheduled groups with 50 or more visitors.
So put down that drumstick and avoid that second piece of pumpkin pie and head over to the Los Angeles Convention Center to take in one the top seasonal events in Southern California. Your waistline will be glad that you did and you’ll find the auto show to be both informative and entertaining.
Bleeding Billions, GM Opens New Russian Factory
Dmitry Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation and Carl-Peter Forster, GM Vice President and President of GM Europe at the opening of GM's flexible new assembly plant in Shushary near St. Petersburg. General Motors invested $300 million in this new plant, where 1,700 employees will eventually assemble up to 70,000 Opel Antaras, Chevrolet Captivas and - as of 2009 - Chevrolet Cruzes annually.
As U.S. lawmakers wrestle with how best to help the American auto industry, General Motors quietly opened an all new plant in St. Petersburg, Russia last week. The plant, which will help GM bolster its industry leading share of the Russian market — now standing at 11% — represents one of the bright spots for the automaker which has been beset by losses since 2004 totaling tens of billions of dollars.
Though the automaker will probably sell more than three million vehicles in 2008 for its main U.S. market, GM sells another six million vehicles in markets scattered around the world. Russian sales of GM vehicles (Opel and Chevrolet primarily) have nearly doubled for 2008, while stateside sales are down by about 20% for the year.
(Source: General Motors)
October 2008 Auto Sales: Historically Awful
As has been happening all year, auto sales for the month of October 2008 were way off the pace for the same month in 2007, pointing to a historic slide that hasn’t been seen in decades. Every single one of the Big 6 automakers — General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda and Nissan — registered drops of 23% or more led by General Motors which saw its sales fall by 45%.
Worse, sales have now dropped for twelve consecutive months, the longest losing streak in seventeen years for the auto industry. Autodata, which tracks monthly U.S. light vehicle retail sales noted that sales for October were just 838,156 units, a decrease of almost 400,000 vehicles over October 2007 or a 31.9% drop. Year to date, 11,601,104 passenger vehicles have been sold, which is nearly two million fewer cars, trucks, minivans, SUVs and crossover vehicles sold through October 2007. Year to date, sales are down by 14.6%.
For October 2008, the Big 6 saw the following decreases:
- General Motors: -45.1%
- Ford: -30.2%
- Chrysler: -34.9%
- Toyota: -23%
- Honda: -25.2%
- Nissan: -33%
The biggest drops were from Porsche (-50.1%), Suzuki (-46.7%) and Jaguar/LandRover (-45.1%). Only Ferrari registered an increase for the month, up 44%, as the automaker sold 108 cars for the month. No major auto manufacturer saw their sales increase for the month although BMW (-4.9%) and Volkswagen (-6.5%) saw the smallest monthly losses.
Bright Spots Among The Carnage
With overall sales numbers being so stark, car manufacturers are looking for some good news among the bad. Fortunately, they don’t have to look too far:
- Daimler AG sales for the year are still up, by 4.7% as the company enjoys the delivery of more than 20,000 Smart ForTwos to consumers, sales which began earlier this year.
- GM sold more than 44,000 of its big pick up trucks in October thanks to big incentives and lower gas prices which brought buyers in.
- Volkswagen is seeing the benefit of having a pair of new diesel models available for sale. The TDI Sportwagen will likely help to bolster VW sales for the remainder of this year and going forward in 2009.
- BMW is harnessing demand for the MINI Cooper as this model becomes increasingly more important to the company’s bottom line. To date, BMW has sold 10,600 more MINIs than they did for the same period in 2007.
Clearly, there is not much good news among the bad out there, but for automakers who can hold on through this protracted down turn, sales will eventually rebound. However, for those car companies in dire straits, time and money is running out, suggesting that their respective recoveries may only be realized through bankruptcy reorganization.
As I mentioned yesterday, year end sales are already starting with Volkswagen and General Motors actively discounting their vehicles. Expect other manufacturers to quickly follow suit, making this year’s year-end sales events a great time to shop for a new car.
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