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Falling crude prices and gasoline costs at the pump that consumers so often hope for might be at least partially the reason for Americans' shift towards larger, gas-guzzling vehicles and away from smaller, gas-sipping cars like the Lordstown-built Chevrolet Cruze sedan.
Friday, we saw the effects of that shift in preferences when General Motors announced plans to slash some 1,500 jobs at its local assembly and stamping plants by summer.
The announcement came just about 16 months after the company cut about 1,200 workers here in 2016. The plant's workforce will number about 1,500 by June, the lowest ever since the facility first opened in 1966. Employment there peaked at 12,000 in 1976.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Howland, on Friday promptly assigned blame on the Trump administration for attempting to lower fuel efficiency standards, saying that action has put a "thumb on the scale in favor of the larger cars and SUVs made elsewhere."
Perhaps, but whether gas prices and fuel efficiency are driving it, the fact is, Americans like their big vehicles much more than they do smaller passenger cars these days.
According to General Motors' sales figures, North American deliveries of the Chevy Silverado pickup truck reached 585,864 in 2017, up from 2016. Sales of the Equinox, a Chevy SUV, hit 290,458 in 2017, up almost 20 percent from 2016. The GMC Sierra pickup truck was purchased by 217,943 consumers in 2017, listing it among GM's top sellers.
The Cruze, meanwhile, has seen a significant dropoff in recent years. In 2017, 184,751 people took delivery of new Chevy Cruzes, down about 2.2 percent from the 188,876 that took delivery in 2016 and down further still from the 226,602 Cruze sales in 2015. That's despite it remaining among GM's top sellers overall.
The trend away from passenger cars isn't unique to Cruze sales.
According to the website for the Fairfax (Kansas) Assembly and Stamping Plant, where the Chevy Malibu is manufactured, that plant employs about 2,260 workers, down about 1,000 that were cut by GM last year.
In 2017, 185,857 new car buyers took delivery of the Malibu (including myself), down more than 18 percent from the 227,881 that took delivery of new Malibus in 2016.
Automotive News, an auto industry publication, reported last summer that the workforce cut at the Kansas Malibu plant meant GM now has no plants building passenger cars on all three shifts in any U.S. plant. At that time, however, five GM plants were still operating around the clock making pickup trucks, SUVs and crossovers.
In a statement released Friday, GM acknowledged that the market was prompting its decision. "As we look at the market for compact cars in 2018 and beyond, we believe a more stable operating approach to match market demand is a one-shift schedule."
Sadly, what brings stability to the company does the opposite for about 1,500 workers and their families -- and the reach goes even further than that.
Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill said his village still is reacting to the $1 million in revenue it lost when GM cut the plant's third shift in late 2016.
Companies that provide business services to the plant will feel the crunch. Layoffs, of course, will trigger a significant cut in spending for these local households, bringing reduced revenue for area businesses and retailers, and less sales tax revenue to local and state government.
The job loss also can trigger reduced home values.
The fact is, unless gas prices climb considerably, I don't see Americans giving up their big vehicles anytime soon. It would be the addition of another larger vehicle to the Lordstown complex production line that would generate optimism inside the plant and the Mahoning Valley.