General Motors to announce big expansion of Texas SUV plant

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors will announce Tuesday that it's spending more than $1 billion to expand an SUV factory in Arlington, Texas.

The company wouldn't comment on specifics of the investment. But it has scheduled a news conference for 1 p.m. Central Time to be attended by the company's labor relations chief and the United Auto Workers vice president who handles GM.

Demand for GM's big SUVs has been so strong that the plant can't make them fast enough. The Arlington factory has about 3,800 hourly workers on three shifts making SUVs such as the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, the GMC Yukon and the Cadillac Escalade.

Sales of the SUVs are up more than 10 percent through June, according to Autodata Corp.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/45f3b0061fcc47c59c6b8f242a476ba9/general-motors-announce-big-expansion-texas-suv-plant

[chapdrum]

1. Great news!

Our country needs more SUV's and (come on industry) more "mini"vans. Not only do they use huge amounts of climate change-driving fossil fuels, they're dangerous to other vehicles (Get behind one of these military-inspired vehicles, forget about seeing the road ahead of you - but hey, no big deal; that's your problem, not theirs.).
And crank 'em out like candy bars, because you can.
Stories like this are a further indication that, as W.H. Auden put it, "[W]e would rather be ruined than changed."

[bucolic_frolic]

2. +1

In 1996, I thought the SUV's would go away. Not the first time I've
been wrong.

[CrispyQ]

6. The frist time I saw one, I thought, who would want to drive a box on wheels?

Turns out most of America by the number on the road.

[Chipper Chat]

16. I always thought they look like giant cockroaches.

That said, I wish they would locate the plant in Indiana or Ohio where there is a huge unemployed knowledgeable work force.

[LibDemAlways]

9. When my daughter started kindergarten in 1998, I

was the only mother of a child in her class of 20 who did not drive a big, gas guzzling SUV. If someone can come up with a legit reason for the stay-at-home mother of an only child to need to tool around suburbia in an Escalade, I'd like to hear it. I now substitute teach at the same school and am still surrounded by huge gas hogs. You'd think people would have wised up, but apparently the smug, entitled mindset that drives people into those things is hypnotic.

[CrispyQ]

19. I read an article several years ago in some mag in a doctor's office.

It stated that lots of parents were pressured by their kids to buy bigger/nicer cars/houses/stuff.

[LibDemAlways]

22. There's a one word answer for those

kinds of requests. No.

[CrispyQ]

23. Well, my folks never had a hard time telling me that!

I think a lot of parents also feel the pressure to keep up with the mythical Jones'.

[Travis_0004]

3. If GM doesn't build an SUV somebody else would

Would you rather they expand a plant in Mexico?

[chapdrum]

10. No

I'd rather they not be built at all, anywhere in the world.
If we insist on having them, that's great for those that do.
For those that see them as environmental blights, not so much.
My larger point: The industry will continue to deny its share of
responsibility for the climate change we're already seeing, by continuing
to spew these monstrosities.

[LanternWaste]

18. I don't think anthropogenic climate change really cares which country they're made in...

I don't think anthropogenic climate change really cares which country they're made in... but I do realize myopic humans will of course, concentrate on the short-term gains to themselves over any long term crises we assist.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

4. My thoughts, too...

... here in South Dakota, we see lots of 3/4 ton pickups with lift kits and monsterously over sized tires on them. Half of them have commercial license plates on them, it's a state law, if you have a sales tax license(which is free), and whether or not you have a legit business, you can get the commercial plates, which allows you to deduct your fuel expenses on your IRS.

It makes me cringe that I/we are subsidizing these vain folks, so they can write off their fuel bills. Seldom do any of them have a legit full time job working for themselves. The ones that do have responsible economical transportation, ie... not 4x4 nor aftermarket kitted so they get 5 mpg.

And it ultimately raises the gas prices for the rest of us, as these behemoths guzzle gas like it's lemonade on a 105 degree day.

[former9thward]

17. SUVs are subsidizing you.

They pay more in gas taxes to maintain the roadways than you do.

[Travis_0004]

24. Not quite

First off the IRS doesnt care if you have a commercial or non commercial liscense.

If you own a business you can deduct 57.5 cents per business mile or actual vehicle cost for business uses.

There are still rules to follow. You can not write off commuting miles to and from work.

Also if they pay less in taxes you are not subsiding them from the highway fund. If they bought a fuel efficent vehicle they would use less gas and pay less in gas taxes to the highway fund.

Also if I get paid 100 dollars to deliver something, and spend 20.00 in gas, your profit is 80.00 and you should be paying taxes on your 80 dollar profit. Even with tax breaks a more fuel efficent vehicle would be more profitable, but sometimes a big vehicle is needed.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

27. Good points...

... but as I said, in South Dakota, sales tax licenses are free, that qualifies you as a business owner and the perks mentioned kicked in, whether actual work miles or imagined, as I said. The heavier the vehicle, the more damage to roads, especially asphalt, so highway costs go up, intersections have to be replaced nearly every year here where the road buckles up from trucks and heavy vehicles pushing the hot summer asphalt like clay.

My point was, gas hogs are gas hogs, and these lift kitted trucks are too unstable to actually use for pulling a trailer, let alone trying to load the back of one.

[Travis_0004]

28. The IRS doesn't care if you have a sales tax liscense or not.

Even if you own a business, you can only write off business miles. Its not like somebody can get a sales tax license, write off 5 grand a year in vehicle expenses, then show the irs that their business had no income. That's a quick path to an audit.

I write off business miles, and the IRS has never once asked to see my sales tax license. They don't care about it, which is good, because I don't have one. I'm not self employed. Its a state issue. Also, the IRS doesn't care if a have a non commercial truck of a smart car, so the plates are irrelevant.

Also, semi trucks do the damage to roads. A 6,000 lbs truck is not going to do signficant damage to a road designed for 60,000 pound semi trucks.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

29. I am using the plates as proof...

... that they are milking it for all it's worth. As you said, it goes by state. Having a sales tax license pretty much proves you have a bona fide business, just another layer to obfuscate things. Back to the point, the more fuel used, the higher the prices for the rest of us, that market driven thingy.

[Adrahil]

7. Yeah, mini vans are "military inspired"

It would obviously be much better to drive two cars to carry everybody, right?

[chapdrum]

13. To be specific

I perceive SUV's as military inspired, not "mini"vans.
Am old enough to remember that somehow we transported people in automobiles before
SUV's and "mini"vans were arbitrarily created. It's always a choice as to whether or not to manufacture a product, but the choice is never ours. Peripherally related: Just like Japanese automakers have chosen to produce vehicles that are considered very reliable, the U.S. automakers have chosen a different route. The latter could opt to follow, in whole or in part, the Japanese model.
But they'd rather not. Our ceaselessly promoted "freedom of choice" will be a fond memory if/when climate change conditions worsen.

[Adrahil]

14. Simply put, I cant fit 8 people in a car.

Especially not with some expectation of comfort. And in any case, my minivan is more fuel efficient than most large sedans. And my minivan is made by a Japanese company. It's been my favorite car ever.

I will agree that way too many people pick large SUVs with no practical need for one... No need or intention to go off-road, etc. Having said that, we do get enough snow around here to make 4WD desirable if you live anywhere outside of towns.

[One_Life_To_Give]

15. They don't make these 8MPG Cars anymore

CAFE Did away with the Family Wagon like this. So now you get SUV's as an unintended consequence of CAFE Standards.

[Throd]

21. I want one of those.

[Throd]

20. How do you feel about Corvettes and Porsches?

[chapdrum]

34. The same

Especially Porsche, the fellow who was commissioned by Hitler to come up with "the people's car" aka Volkswagen.
That should've been shut down after the Allies won WWII but, of course, it wasn't.

[Tobin S.]

5. Global warming, global schwarming

Escalades come with a/c!

[tammywammy]

8. GM runs full time out there.

They built a new stamping facility. I'm glad to see an expansion of good jobs out there.

[yallerdawg]

11. Not your mother's SUV.

Three times better miles per gallon and standards keep rising.

Good union jobs! In Texas of all places!

[Amishman]

32. yes, i think a lot of people don't understand that SUVs have gotten a lot better

My wife and I are in the process of trading in her worn Volvo sedan for a small SUV. The Volvo gets about 30 MPG... both the SUVs we are considering get the same.

[yallerdawg]

33. People don't recognize...

30 mpg is victory!

Smaller carbon foot print, lighter weight, engineered and technological safety features, ever accelerating emission and mileage standards.

We can't keep fighting old fights. Progress, not perfection. Maybe not good enough for perfect people, but for the rest of us, damn good!

[Skittles]

25. gawd

I DETEST SUV's

[Mugweed]

26. Maybe they can make more cars with parts they know might kill me!

Hurray! Maybe they can make more cars knowingly installing parts that might kill me! I just loved having to get four recalls on my last car, learning that at least one of those recalls had killed people but the company kept installing them (including on my car) anyway despite knowing the facts.

[Recursion]

30. DU in mid-2015: a dozen posts shitting on GM expanding US production

[Nihil]

31. Not quite ...

> DU in mid-2015: a dozen posts shitting on GM expanding US production

DU in mid-2015: a dozen posts shitting on dumb greedy bastards who create
demand for wasteful, polluting, dangerous vehicles because "Freedumb!!"



If the demand was only from people who *need* that kind of vehicle then
GM wouldn't be expanding SUV production in the US or anywhere else.

And the world would be a better place as a result.

[chapdrum]

35. Right you are

[PersonNumber503602]

36. Here's the MPG of the their current SUV line

Buick Encore (EPA-estimated 33 mpg hwy)
Chevrolet Equinox (EPA-estimated 32 mpg hwy)
Chevrolet Trax (EPA-estimated 34 mpg hwy)
GMC Terrain (EPA-estimated 32 mpg hwy)
----------------------
2015 Nissan Altima gets 38 mpg hwy
2015 Toyota Camry gets 35 mpg hwy
2015 Ford Fusion gets 37 mpg hwy
2015 Hyundai Sonata 38 mpg hwy
2015 Ford Focus 40 mpg hwy
2015 Infiniti Q40, 27, mpg hwy

----
2015 Ford F-150 gets 26 hwy
2015 Ford Escape 32 hwy
2015 Toyota RAV4 31 hwy
HMMWV 8 mpg hwy

----
2015 Nissan LEAF, 101 hwy
2015 Toyota Prius, 48 hwy


It seems to me that most of these numbers are in the 30 - 40 mpg range. So is the actual issue with all non-hybrid vehicles or is it just with SUVs even though they aren't much lower than many smaller cars?

[tammywammy]

38. This plant builds the full sized SUVs - Tahoe, Escalade, Suburban

City/highway
Tahoe & Suburban - 16/23
Escalade - 15/22

They also build the Yukon, Yukon XL, Denali & Denali XL.

[KinMd]

37. So if you think this is not good news

then you think President Obama should have let GM go down the tubes? It's more good paying UNION jobs