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Byline: Brian Corbett with Alisa Priddle and Drew Winter

In one of the most dramatic changes to the U.S. factory network since the Industrial Revolution introduced mass production and power-driven tools two centuries ago, the auto industry is shifting output to the Southern countryside and away from regions home to generations of assembly line workers.

The relocation of automotive manufacturing is threatening the economic future of East Coast and Midwestern states and creating a whirlwind of investment from Mississippi to South Carolina.

"I refer to it as the 'Manufacturing Revolution,'" says Tony Grande, Tennessee Economic Development Corp. director.

The auto industry is leaving behind logistics nightmares, unions and higher tax and property expenses for centralized locations in right-to-work states where land values are low and government incentives are extraordinary.

Midwestern states - and Canada's Ontario province - are struggling to hold on to an industry that delivered national prominence and a large, well-paid middle class. "The trends are not positive," says Canadian Auto Workers union President Buzz Hargrove.

However, it's North America's East Coast that is getting hit the hardest. A number of auto factories have closed there since the 1980s. General Motors Corp. facilities in Tarrytown (now called Sleepy Hollow), NY; Clark, NJ; and Framingham, MA, are just a few.

There is a chance six more East Coast assembly plants could be shuttered by 2005.

As part of its revitalization plan, Ford Motor Co. will idle its Edison, NJ, plant. GM's Ste. Therese, Que., Canada, facility goes dark this fall, and plants in Linden, NJ, and Baltimore will close in 2005 unless new products are assigned. That's more than 13,000 jobs lost, not including those from the supplier ranks and other spin-off employment.

It could get worse. GM's Wilmington, DE, facility has dodged death a couple of times and currently makes only one vehicle - the slow-selling Saturn L-Series - on one shift. The Chrysler Group's Newark, DE, plant could be a goner, too, if the Auburn Hills, MI-based company needs to cut capacity again.

Meanwhile, the auto industry is flocking southward like migrating birds in the fall. Once known for producing cotton and tobacco, Dixieland today might be better recognized for producing cars and trucks.

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RICHMOND, TEXAS -- On a recent sweltering Wednesday afternoon in early August, one brave couple was browsing the Price 1 used car lot in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart supercenter 30 miles southwest of Houston. At another Price1 location in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart discount store on the other side of town, another couple was eyeing a selection of 60 used cars and trucks.

Houston in the summer might not seem like the best time to conduct a five-store test of used car lots, but Wal-Mart and the Asbury Automotive Group, the company operating the Price1 stores, may actually benefit from the heat as they look to reinvent the used car buying business. That's because the key to making the experiment work is to get people inside a cool cinder block building, which is painted gray and blue with a red stripe to resemble the nearby Wal-Mart store, so a salesman can explain how the Price1 system works.

"It is a very non-confrontational selling system that we have created," said Jay Joslin, Price1 sales director for the five-store test. "Within the first five minutes, customers can know the price of the vehicle and their approximate monthly payments."

Customers are still greeted by a salesman when they step on the lot, as they are at other car lots, but that salesman's first priority is to educate them about the Price 1 "no haggle" philosophy and process. To that end, customers are brought inside a 1,500-square-foot building that serves as an office and the salesman takes them through a slide presentation. One of the first points made is that the salesmen don't receive a commission, but they are eligible for a bonus if they score high enough on customer service inquiries conducted by telephone with those who purchase a vehicle.

The salesmen also diffuse the typical misgivings people have about buying a used car by explaining an array of benefits unique to Price 1. For example, there is a five-day, "no questions asked" return policy and customers also can exchange the vehicle within 30 days. Vehicles come with a 99-day or 3,300-mile warranty and a 12-month roadside assistance plan. None of the vehicles are older than five years or have more than 75,000 miles.

"What we try to do is give our customers the same degree of confidence as a new car buyer and it is all included in one low price," said David Kahn, a salesman at the Price1 store in Richmond.

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Truckmakers have picked up on a trend that seems to be gaining momentum, and with the introduction of the versatile Chevrolet Avalanche (see story p.32) the idea hits critical mass. Flexibility or reconfigurability in trucks has moved from the realms of aftermarket shops and SEMA shows into the CAD tubes of OEM engineers.

"We looked at how many people with pickup trucks put caps and covers on them," says Tony Posawatz, assistant VLE for GM full-size trucks. "It was astounding. And people did it with their hard-earned dollars. So we got creative, looked at our arsenal of parts and hardware and we knew we could do it better and with greater flexibility than the aftermarket."

The result is Avalanche, a half-pickup, half-sport-utility hybrid with a unique removable midgate. Ford and Daimler-Chrysler feign disinterest but at the same time watch closely to see who steps up with a checkbook to take the bait.

Gordon Heidacker, senior manager of truck operations at DCX, says he has seen the Avalanche, but hasn't seen any market research that indicates customers want an eight-foot bed with a Quad Cab. He also takes a wait-and-see approach on GM hitting its sales targets.

"The extent to which the truck will catch on is a subject of debate around the industry and company," says Posawatz. "But my perspective is that this is clearly not a niche; this is big. It will disrupt the pickup market"

A senior product planner from Ford commented that flexibility is a good gimmick, but not something to hang a new segment off of. "Consider a feature like our bed extender," they offered. "It was raved about as being so clever when we introduced it, but that only lasts so long. After that, the people that need it buy it and the people who don't forget about it. I think Avalanche has a better chance to sell its unique styling than its flexibility. Very few people need that."

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With so many new products and huge market growth in SUVs and full-size trucks in recent years, the compact/mid-size pickup market has seemed largely forgotten. Now comes General Motors ahead of the game this time--with a pair of excellent new entries that raise the bar several notches in this still-important segment.

These all-new GMT355 Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon trucks "are not evolutions of the S-10 and Sonoma, pickup versions of the TrailBlazer/Envoy or joint-venture vehicles with Isuzu," says assistant vehicle chief engineer Al Oppenheiser. What they ,are is bigger and substantially better than their 22-year-old GM predecessors and best-in-class in nearly every way, according to GM.

They share no parts save a seat frame with the venerable S-10 and Sonoma trucks they replace. And they share little in common with those GMT360/370 mid-size SUV stablemates except 2.8L I-4 and 3.5L I-5 derivations of the widely praised 4.2L DOHC VVT I-6 engine.

Comparing the base louts and the five to competitive standard V-6s, they offer better power, torque, economy and range, plus the largest interiors on regular and crew-cabs, the largest bed volumes ,and the most cargo tie-downs in their class. They also have at least two important exclusives: head curtain side air bags and a dual-position locking tailgate.

Besides the two available engines, they offer choices among two transmissions (5-speed manual and 4-speed automatic), two drive-lines (2wd and 4wd), three suspensions (sport, heavy-duty and Z-71 off-road), three cabs (Standard, Extended and Crew) and three trim levels. All-new configurations include a 2wd Crew Cab and a 2wd high-stance Z71 with the appearance and stance of the 4wd Z71, but without the transfer case,

Why not base them on GM's highly successful GMT360/370 mid-size SUV platform? Partly because--with the addition of the Suzuki Ascender, Buick Ranier and soon-to-come Saab 9-7 derivative--that component set will enjoy more than enough volume to keep its plants and suppliers busy. And largely because their missions are very different.

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Meridian Automotive Systems Inc., which supplies bumpers and other parts to Ford Motor, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler, said it wants to go public. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying it wants to raise up to $173 million through the sale of common stock. The preliminary document did not indicate the number of shares, the price range or even the exchange it wants to be listed on. All of that information is expected in later filings.

Meridian is also offering $250 million in senior subordinated notes due 2012 and replacing an existing senior credit facility with a $150 million term loan and a $125 million revolving facility. It plans to use the money from the IPO, the notes offering and the new credit facility to primarily repay outstanding debt.

Meridian said it supplies parts for 15 of the 20 best selling vehicles in North America as well as a large number of popular lights trucks, sport utility vehicles and passenger cars, according to the SEC filing.

The company has posted significant net losses in 2000 and 2001 as well as the first six months ended June 30, 2002. After posting net income of $10.4 million in 1999, Meridian reported net losses of $12 million in 2000 and $57 million the year after that. It also recorded a net loss of $6.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2002 before the cumulative effect of an accounting change. The net losses resulted primarily from debt-related interest costs, the company said. As of the end of June, consolidated total debt was nearly $500 million, according to the filing.

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Given the frequency that OEMs are talking about interiors of late, you might think that they just noticed that people actually sit in cars and trucks. Those pronouncements are music to the ears of people like Bill Fluharty. That's because he's vice president of Industrial Design at Johnson Controls, one of the leading interiors and systems suppliers.

Asked for his take on what seems like a belated discovery, particularly late when it comes to U.S.-based OEMs, Fluharty answers by pointing to two aspects of vehicles that are still incredibly important with regard to vehicle development, two aspects that have pretty much eclipsed (until now, perhaps) the vehicle interior:

1. The exterior. Fluharty calls this "the image side of the automobile." He explains, "From a marketing standpoint, it's important to develop an exterior that will draw in the consumer. And when they sit in the vehicle, they like being seen in it because of what it projects about them." So it is a matter of outside appearance being more important.

2. The engine. "During the last three years, American manufacturers have marketed more power, more power, more power. It's a little of the NASCAR sensibility." He adds that when it came to investment during the past decade, the money has been pretty much focused under the hood.

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The road to the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles has taken an interesting turn.

On Tuesday, February 10, 2004, Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham and Texas Governor Rick Perry threw the switch on the first of some 400 to 500 General Motor's PEM automotive fuel cell power modules that will serve as stationary power plants, making electricity for Dow Chemical's Freeport, Texas, manufacturing facility.

This initial stack, mounted inside of a 40-ft. trailer and monitored remotely from GM's Honeoye Falls, N.Y., fuel cell research and development center, will serve as the test module, making sure that the units will run properly on the hydrogen produced by Dow. If all goes as planned, this 75 kW unit will be replaced this summer with another trailer housing the first industrial scale unit, made up of 14 modules capable of generating 1 MW of electricity. The final goal is to have 400 to 500 power modules generating 35 MW of electricity--enough to power 25,000 homes, yet still only two percent of the total electricity used by the Dow facility.

The trailer is parked in the facilities power station that currently uses cogeneration to produce all of the steam and electricity for Dow's largest facility with 75 production plants covering some 30-sq.ml.

You might ask yourself what would bring the world's largest auto manufacturer and the world's largest chemical producer together to advance fuel cell technology. The answer to that question is a commercially viable agreement that was made in hydrogen heaven.

Hydrogen is a byproduct of several of Dow's manufacturing operations and up until now, the 'fuel' in fuel cell was piped to the power station and used to heat boilers for making steam, sold off to companies like Air Products for resale to industry or vented into the atmosphere. Now some of that hydrogen will be used to run the GM fuel cells.

"We started talking to Dow in late 2002," says Timothy E. Vail, director fuel cell commercialization, GM fuel cell activity, "and it's kind of an interesting mix. Dow needed to get more value from its hydrogen strength and we needed a place to put our technology."

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ANNA, OH - Ever since the recent press previews at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the Motown speculation machine has been spinning tales of a pickup truck in the near future for American Honda Motor Co. Inc.

Don't believe any of them, American Honda executives say.

True, competitor Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. is entering the fullsize segment later this year with its new Titan pickup. And it's true that Honda engineers, including Charlie Baker, Honda's executive chief engineer for the new Accord, were spotted at the Detroit show examining the Titan closely after the media thinned out.

But to enter the fullsize pickup segment, Honda would need a V-8 engine and a body-on-frame architecture. The auto maker has no experience with either. Honda's Anna, OH, engine plant produces only 4- and 6-cyl. engines, and Senior Vice President Larry Jutte says there are no plans for Anna or Honda's new plant in Lincoln, AL, to produce V-8s.

"As you can see from the performance on the V-6, there's not a big strong push for that (V-8)," Jutte tells Ward's following a media event to celebrate the production of the 10-millionth automotive engine at Anna.

The plant opened in 1985, first producing motorcycle engines. Output of Anna's first car engines, for the subcompact Civic, began a year later.

The all-new 3L V-6, which powers the Accord, produces an impressive 240 hp and recently received a Ward's Best Engines award for 2003.

Why doesn't Honda need a V-8, given that big engines are integral to the North American market?

"Our engineers continue to refine the base engines that we have, getting more and more out of less and less," Jutte says, adding the absence of a V-8 hasn't hurt the auto maker, which had an "outstanding" sales year in 2002 with its existing powertrain options.

Anna has three assembly lines, producing a variety of 4-cyl. and V-6 engines.

This summer, one of the 4-cyl. lines will shut down and be replaced with a new line at the plant that produces both 4-cyl. and V-6 engines.

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Fabco Automotive Corp. recently opened a new facility in Livermore, Calif., and moved its entire operation from its old facility in Emeryville, Calif. "Our decision to leave our previous facility in Emeryville after 85 years was driven by the changes that have taken place in our product line and the need to optimize certain manufacturing operations," said Al Sunderland, president of Fabco.

"Our decision to move to our new facility has allowed us to incorporate structured manufacturing areas dedicated to specific operations and products. In turn, our efficiencies have increased allowing us to meet the growing demand for our products from customers throughout North America."

Fabco offers a wide variety of products in addition to the wide array of specially modified all-wheel drive trucks it produces each year. These products include liquid transfer pumps, diesel marine engines, fire trucks, agricultural machines, flexible drive couplings and a wide range of transfer cases and steerable drive axles.

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The pessimist sees the glass half empty and the optimist sees it half full. The engineer, of course, sees the glass as being twice as big as it has to be.

Then there's the Lawrenceburg, Tenn., glass encapsulation plant of Dura Automotive. Folks there see the glass as being exactly where they want it when they want it--to sequence exactly with the build schedule for Ford's Louisville and St. Louis assembly plants. Lawrenceburg is said to be the largest window encapsulation plant in the world.

The plant produces sliding windows for pickup trucks, quarter windows with lights and lift gate assemblies at a volume of approximately 480,000 units per year.

The lift gate assemblies for Ford's Explorer, Mountaineer and Aviator are produced on an In-Line Vehicle Sequence System (ILVS) that matches up exactly with Ford's build sequence at Louisville and St. Louis. It ships between four to eight truck loads of liftgates per day to those plants.

Because of the variety of colors available on those vehicles, and the different glass tints, as well as badge specific appliques, there is currently a matrix of 106 lift gate combinations that Dura builds for Ford's SUVs. The system is capable of handling up to 200 different combinations.

Denzil Abney, director of engineer, Eddie Haygood, manufacturing engineer, Mike Roberson, process engineer, and Allison Sanders, production scheduler, all Dura employees at Lawrenceburg, explained the system to us.

Lawrenceburg provides PVC and RIM encapsulation for other customers also including Chrysler, Nissan, Honda, Subaru and GM. For the Explorer, Mountaineer and Aviator, the lift gates are all RIM encapsulations.

The ILVS program was launched in February 2000 for the Explorer/Mountaineer vehicles and then later extended to the lower volume Lincoln Aviator. Lawrenceburg produces on the order of 10,000 lift gates per week for Explorer/Mountaineer versus 600-700 per week for the Aviator. There's a separate high volume line and low volume line.

"The Aviator lift gate is supplied only to St. Louis, but the Explorer lift gate is supplied to St. Louis and Louisville," explained Abney. "The Explorer line is a large one with one segment of it dedicated to St. Louis and another segment to Louisville."

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Dana has unveiled a new piston-ring coating technology that builds on the PCF 380 piston-ring coating Dana currently supplies to several heavy-duty OEM engine manufacturers, including Ford's 6.0L Power Stroke V-8. Taking into consideration the durability expectations and lower duty cycles of passenger car diesels, Dana's new PCF-480 piston ring coating was formulated to decrease wear on both the ring and bore surfaces, reducing oil consumption and lowering emissions.

"For several years we've had a high performance, heavy-duty diesel engine coating that we call PCF 380. That mating has been quite successful in 10 to 15L sized diesel engines used in North American heavy-duty trucks," says Mike Kestner, director of R&D, Perfect Circle Division, at Dana. "We needed to develop a coating using some of the same principles as PCF 380, only for the diesel passenger car market, which primarily exists in Europe right at the moment."

While PCF 480 adapts the technology that Dana developed for the PCF 380, the two are stand-alone products designed for different performance levels.

"The PCF 380 and PCF 480 are targeting different applications," says Kestner. "The heavy-duty diesel market requires durability of a power cylinder--the piston, the rings and the cylinder--to be on the order of 1 million miles, which demands a very premium level performance of those mater's. In the passenger car diesel market, the durability requirements are maybe about 300,000 miles. The PCF 380 coating would work in passenger car diesels but the fact that it's a premium coating really puts it in a price category that is too high for that market. And because of the durability requirements, I really don't see the PCF 480 coating meeting the overall demands of the heavy-duty diesel engines," Kestner says.

PCF 480 is a thermally applied coating, filling the groove on the piston-ring face. According to Dana, internal coating is improved compared to standard thermally applied coatings and optimized for light-duty applications.

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Surmounting a wave of unfavorable publicity and serious design flaws in the Army's High Mobility Trailer (HMT), an Integrated Product Team (IPT) at the U.S. Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) successfully solved design problems in the HMT that were deadlining the fleet of trailers and delaying full delivery and fielding. The HMT, which will be fielded in three versions, is a new family of trailers designed to be towed by the Army's inimitable "Humvee" -- officially known as the HMMWV, or High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle.

Led by the Project Manager for Light Tactical Vehicles (PM-LTV), the IPT, which included acquisition managers, engineers, logisticians, and testers, developed a materiel solution through extensive use of modeling and simulation, tested the redesign and approved its application, and are currently fielding the HMT. In so doing, they are providing soldiers in the field with an outstanding trailer capable of living up to its name.

In 1984, the Army began producing a 1 1/4-ton HMMWV to replace the venerable M151 series 1/4-ton Jeep and companion M416 1/4-ton trailer as the Army's primary light tactical vehicle. Each of the lightest HMMWVs would replace a set of two Jeeps and three trailers. As the HMMWV proliferated in the Army, units began using it to tow the M101 3/4-ton utility trailer.

The M101 was designed in 1952 to be towed by the M37 3/4-ton truck and has been paired with a variety of prime movers since then, such as the M880 series pickup truck and the Commercial Utility Cargo Vehicle. The HMMWV could tow the M101 without incident on roads, but it was not at all suitable for cross-country travel behind the highly mobile HMMWV. The M101 had a narrower track width than the HMMWV, causing stability problems; and its suspension did not provide adequate wheel travel and ride dynamics, causing a loss of mobility in the truck/trailer system.

When towing the M101 trailer cross-country, the HMMWV was forced to slow down to minimize trailer wear and tear and preclude the propensity for trailer rollovers. The Army needed a family of HMTs to match the HMMWV's mobility and to reduce the number of trucks and trailers needed to perform unit missions.

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Advances in materials technology are allowing suppliers to meet three of the biggest concerns with carmakers today--reducing vehicle weight, lowering costs and improving fuel efficiency. And they are able to do so without compromising vehicle safety and performance.

New manufacturing processes and forming technologies are helping to make new materials more attractive to manufacturers on a cost basis. And thanks to the efforts of programs like the Department of Energy's Automotive Lightweighting Program, more and more companies are being introduced to new materials and new applications for materials they might have taken for granted in the past.

"For the last 70 years, mild steel was the king of the hill," says Joseph Carpenter, technology area development manager, automotive lightweighting materials, Office of Freedom Car and Vehicle Technologies at the Department of Energy. "But today, it's getting to be a horserace between materials.

"In a lot of ways, we are in an age of cars like the early 1900s," says Carpenter. "There were a variety of materials used back then--cars made of wood, cars made of steel, there were steam cars and battery cars. No one really knew at that time what the final outcome was going to be. Today, there are alternative technologies on the horizon that could change the auto industry again. We don't know for sure what the fuel cell systems will be like, or the use of hydrogen for example. As the technologies change, so will the materials. It's important for manufacturers to keep their options open."

In Carpenter's opinion, it's going to come down to costs. "Lightweighting is a priority for car makers, and so is cost reduction. There are a Jot of technically viable materials avail-able today that carmakers can choose from to meet their needs. Magnesium is growing in popularity, as are carbon fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites," adds Carpenter. "High strength steel has been demonstrated to provide considerable weight reductions. And then there are the glass reinforced polymers and the advances in aluminum. This is really an interesting time for material usage in automobiles," says Carpenter.

As materials have evolved over the years, their usage in automobiles has changed. Following is a look at a variety of materials popular in today's automobiles and the trends that affect them.

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Though Ford and General Motors have scaled back vehicle production in the last quarter of 2004 to reduce some overcapacity, 2005 should produce sales volumes near or even a little bit higher than 2004. Strong sales predicted for the fourth quarter of 2004 should bring the final number near 16.8 million vehicles. Analysts are looking at a one to one-and-a-half percent increase in 2005.

"We'll see some pull ahead and because of that we're expecting the first quarter of '05 to be a struggle," says Joe Barker, manager, North American sales analysis at CSM Worldwide. "But after the first quarter, we're expecting the balance of the year to be a pretty good year."

The sales increase in 2005 will be fueled, not only by a strong fourth quarter in 2004, but also by a glut of new product coming to North American showrooms, as well as additional capacity from new manufacturing plants from Toyota in Texas and Hyundai in Alabama.

Pete Langlois of the Ernst & Young Center for Business Knowledge is a little less optimistic about sales for 2005. He says that while all the new product coming for '05 should help push sales up near the 17 million level he's concerned that while the U.S. economy showed greater GNP growth over the course of 2004 than it did in 2003, that auto sales remained flat even though the manufacturers were doling out record incentives.

"That worries me in the sense that we had great economic growth, we threw more money at people and yet we still, at best, are matching the sales level," Langlois says.

Langlois feels that the automakers are not seeing any sales growth because the strong growth in GNP hasn't translated into wage growth_

"I'm optimistic about next year," Langlois adds, "but until I see the wage growth improve, then sales will probably drop a little bit, to about 16.5."

Market Share

The Domestic Big 3 can expect a further erosion of its market share in 2005 due largely to the increased capacity from the new domestics.

"The next year we're projecting GM to be down to about 27 percent," Barker says. "That's down from 27.8 to 27.9 for this year."

Aside from the added new domestic capacity, Barker credits GM's drop in market share to the fewer number of new products, compared to the other domestic manufacturers.

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The expectations of both drivers and passengers for electronic entertainment, communications and information have escalated since the introduction of the pioneering first practical auto radio, the Motorola branded AM car radio introduced in the 1930s by Galvin Manufacturing (who later changed their name to Motorola).

The latest cars, SUVs and trucks offer stock and premium entertainment packages beyond our wildest visions. DVD video with multiple fold fold-down LCD panel displays with fiber optic interconnection, navigation systems, Satellite/HD radio, mobile video and, THX surround sound.

Next generation electronic features and functionality will lend themselves to OEM equipped vehicles as designers struggle with size and weight reduction, long-term stability, environmental robustness, integration into larger assemblies and subsystems and the occasional request for cost down.

The Final Frontier

Interior space continues to get scarce and autosound aftermarket installers this year are confronted with a number of vehicles with none of the usual odd corners to install amplifiers, subwoofers and other electronic boxes. But while the OE interior engineers get to the scene first, the land grab is just as intense. While dashboard space is being eaten up by climate controls, air conditioning, air bags, navigation displays and so on, audio engineers are finding innovative technology in both audio electronics and speakers that provide significant space savings.

Until Panasonic introduced the first in-dash receiver utilizing high-power switching amplifiers this year (MXE CQ-C9800U CD receiver, 60Wx 4). the commonmost head end units was were limited in fewer than 20 watts per channel (with Alpine's V-Drive the former champion, at 26W x 4). Additional power and channels required amplifiers under the seat, built onto the speakers, or crammed into some other available space.

Higher power, in-dash head-end units have three significant implications for OEM designers. The Panasonic head unit offers more real power then many outboard amplifiers. A big impact is the space and heat savings. With the extra space created by getting rid of the heat sinks, OEMs can add better digital signal processors and bigger LCD monitors.

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Marty Linn maintains that flexibility is key today at General Motors' manufacturing operations. Consequently, engineers at the vehicle manufacturer are finding or developing the ways and means to increase the organization's ability to handle variations within the plants in short order. Linn knows more than a little something about this activity, as he is the principle engineer of Robotics within GM's Controls, Conveyors, Robotics & Welding Group (CCRW). Prior to taking this position at the start of 2004, he spent two years as a Total Integration engineer for Advanced Technology for the Body-in-White Group. And for about five years before that, he was the principal engineer for Robotics, Welding & C-Flex within CCRW. One of the things that is consistent about all of these positions is that they are focused on increasing flexibility. Which is one of the things that General Motors is aggressively pursuing. In fact, Linn says, "We want to be the most flexible auto manufacturer in the world." The plan is not to simply have assembly plants being capable of building variations off of a single product architecture, but of actually building multiple architectures in a single plant. In order to achieve this capability, it means the utilization of robots.

ROBOTS ABOUND. Linn says, "We use robots in every North American assembly plant." The roll call of the robots is pretty much what's expected. The big hitter: spot welding in the body shop. There is, he says, some arc welding, too. And there are material handling and material dispensing. The paint shops are heavily roboticized. And the metal components that are produced for assembly by the GM Metal Fabricating Div. have likely undergone press-to-press transfer with robots. "Robots are specified almost as commodities in every area of our assembly plants." Linn adds that there are numerous applications of the "bread-and-butter spot welding robot," but goes on to note, "In the last four years I've seen more and more applications of things like robots on 7th-axis slides for more capability." They're doing more "cooperative" operations, as when, say, one robot holds a part and two others weld it.

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Who knew that GM's five-year-old Fleet and Commercial Operations (FCO) accounts for 1.3 to 1.5 million vehicles a year-some 28 percent of GM's U. S. sales? On the commercial side alone, consider that more than 14 million U.S. businesses, from morn and pop grocers to giant retailers, own vehicles. While GM divisions traditionally have had their own fleet and commercial departments, they were consolidated in 1999. FCO now represents all GM car and truck divisions and products ranging from small cars to massive "medium-duty" trucks, with business sub-divided into three categories: rental, commercial and government.

Medium Duty

Chevrolet Kodiak medium-duty workhorses, in regular and crew cab configurations with wheelbases ranging from 152 to 235 in., get available factory-engineered 4WD for 2005. Enhancing their off-road capability is an electronically controlled New Venture Gear Model NV273 2-speed transfer case with a dash-mounted rotary selector switch for 4L 4H and 2H drive settings. Power choices are standard Vortec 8100MD gas V-8 or optional Duramax 6600 Turbo Diesel V-8, both driving through an Allison 1000 Series 5-speed automatic transmission.

Commercial Vans

GM's Stabilitrak stability control system became standard on GMC Savana and Chevy Express long-whedbase 12-and 15-passenger vans late in the '04 modal year and expands to regular-wheelbase 12-passenger models for '05. Four engines are available: 200-hp Vortec 4300 V-6, 275-hp Vortec 4800 V-8, 285-hp Vortec 5300 V-8 and 300-hp Vortec 6000 V-8. All are mated to either a Hydra-Matic 4L60-E or a 4L80-E transmission with a unique tow/haul feature that improves the predictability and reduces the frequency of shifting during towing.

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