EDGE Spotlight: From the dole to on-the-roll

The mood was palpably spirited on the floor of the 2011 North American International Auto Show in ways it wasn’t last year.

Attendance was up over the last several auto shows, which pays off at the dealerships.

“The excitement overflows into the show rooms,” said Rex Adkins, a sales consultant at Briarwood Ford in Saline. “I’ve been doing this for about 25 years, been to a lot of auto shows but this one to me is the best one I have seen in a long time.” 

The first day of press preview, Ford President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally, wherever he went, was encircled by a human donut of journalists. 

One reason was Ford Motor Co. announced during press preview that it was adding 7,000 new hourly and salaried jobs over the next two years and the company’s books showed an $8 billion profit last year.

Industry experts and analysts are predicting double-digit percentage gains in sales of new-car and light-trucks. 

Suppliers in southeast Michigan are beginning to replace some of the jobs they cut during the downturn.

“The auto industry is coming back strong from what has been a difficult economy,” said Paul Taylor, chief economist for the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), in a written statement. 

The NADA is predicting new-car and light-truck sales of nearly 13 million.

Two years ago sale numbers plunged to just over 10 million when both General Motors and Chrysler were teetering on calamitous loss.

“It’s like night and day,” said Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, from the floor of the auto show. “The near death experience of 18 months ago has dramatically changed and I don’t think the nation or the world realized how quickly these companies could turn on the dime when they actually had to.”

Michigan’s congressional delegation in Washington D.C. was burning the candle at both ends, staying up till the wee hour, lobbying colleagues to support the U.S. automobile industry.

“I remember standing on the floor of the Senate in December 2008 at 11:30 at night fighting for the auto industry when the bridge loans originally went down … at that moment I was literally sick to my stomach,” said U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).

Stabenow said investments in batteries, investments in re-tooling, and cash for clunkers combined with the financing support for bankruptcy helped the industry to come back.

Ford Motor Co., using the re-tooling loans and other incentives, invested $500 million to convert its Michigan Assembly Plant in the city of Wayne from manufacturing Expeditions and Navigators to the smaller Focus and the new, battery-electric version Focus for the North American market. The re-tooled plant retained 2,000 jobs. Moreover, production of battery pack assembly is moving from Mexico to Michigan, creating 1000 new jobs.

Last January, just before the auto show, General Motors produced the first lithium-ion battery at its new facility in Brownstown Township. The 160,000 square-foot GM Brownstown Assembly plant assembles batteries for GM’s electric cars with extended range including the Chevrolet Volt which is made at the Detroit-Hamtramck plant. 

“Our dealership, during the auto show, nobody gets a day off,” said Daryl Pribik, a sales consultant at Randy Wise Ford in Ortonville.

“I’ve been here three days,” said Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel during the taping of the Big 4 at the NAIAS. “I’m absolutely astounded at the turn around.”