Tag Archives: summer

Summer Sales Keep Chevy Cruze Factory Open

Summer 2013 is almost over, and there is no denying that it has been a great summer for the auto industry. Sales are up, payment delinquencies are down, and automakers, including GM, have added weeks of production to keep up with demand for their most popular vehicles.

This week, General Motors announced that their factory in Lordstown, Ohio would be staying open an extra week. The factory, which produces the Chevrolet Cruze, would have been closed the week of August 26, but the Cruze’s U.S. sales have gone up 24 percent from January through July 2013. At the end of the July, there was only a 50-day supply for the Cruze.

GM spokesman Annalisa Bluhm explained that due to “brisk” sales, they had every reason to keep the factory open another week. “We didn’t want to lose momentum, so we decided to abstain from taking the week off.” Brisk is an understatement with 25,477 vehicles sold in July alone.

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Ford and Chrysler Shorten Shutdowns, Add More Jobs

Going into summer 2013, Ford and Chrysler are working furiously to produce more of their most popular vehicles. In an effort to keep up with the high demand, both automakers have announced that they will keep more of their plants open throughout the summer.

Typically, Ford and Chrysler will shut down their plants at certain points during the summer. Ford has a two-week summer shutdown, and Chrysler will usually shut down plants for a week or so. This year, Ford is reducing the two-week shutdown to one week, and some of the Chrysler plants will run through the whole summer with no shutdown. Ford will also add approximately 3,500 hourly jobs to keep the plants open. During that time, Ford plans to produce an additional 40,000 units.

So far this year, sales have been very good for Chrysler and Ford. Ram Trucks had a 49.3 percent volume sales increase in April with 32,124 units, and Ford had a 17.7 percent increase with 204,969 units. It is likely that sales for pickup trucks and other sporting vehicles like SUVs will increase even more as the summer goes on, so it makes perfect sense to keep the plants open longer and hire more employees.

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Road Trips, Minus the iPad

Earlier this week, we told you how rising airline ticket prices were pushing families to reconsider road trips for their summer vacations. Well, apparently we aren’t the only ones who see the road trip making a come-back.

Yesterday, the Boston Globe published a story on phone and iPad apps that will keep kids entertained on long road trips. In addition to the obvious choices like Angry Birds and YouTube, staff writer Hiawatha Bray suggested games and apps that encourage creativity. He highlighted the iMovie app for the iPad 2 and the fun-but-educational Back In Time.

At the risk of sounding old-fashioned, I hope that families don’t spend their road trips completely engrossed in their iPads. I’m not against kids keeping themselves entertained during the long, boring stretches of a road trip, but road trips are full of wonderfully unique experiences that families don’t have during a flight. I view this shift from flights to drives as a potentially positive development for families taking their summer vacation, and I sincerely hope that they take advantage of it. You can get the whole family involved with road trip games courtesy of Disney Family Fun, About.com, and MomsMinivan.com.

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Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Road Trips Returning as Airlines Increase Prices

News for the airline companies of late hasn’t been the best. The headlines have been negative for both the airlines themselves and for their customers. It’s been bankruptcies or charging more for checking luggage or just the introduction of fees just to store your bag in the overhead. Airfares themselves are on the rise. The cost of summer flights in the US are up 3 percent on average from the past year. That’s an 18 percent increase from 2010. It’s starting to be clear that flying is no longer the go-to solution for a cheap vacation.

The Car Care Council is reporting that the family road trip is coming back into style. It’s hard not to see why, especially when purchasing a plane ticket for a family can be almost four-times as expensive to just loading up the mini-van. Gas prices have also been seeing a steady decline over the last few weeks and appear to be dropping still as vacation season starts to come around. A recent survey from Mandal Research/Solutionz shows that 74 percent of respondents would much rather drive than fly to their getaway.

“Because flying is getting more expensive and gas prices are heading lower, more travelers are finding that driving their own car is the better alternative, “said Rich White, the Executive Director of the Car Care Council. “The bottom line is that travel by vehicle costs less, is more convenient, and is not as stressful as flying.”

Summer is just starting to heat up and this is the time to think about getting out. Are you ready to travel for this vacation season? Do you really want to pay for a flight that costs in the thousand dollar range, deal with the large crowds in the security check in, the hassle of getting to the airport and paying for the parking, and paying even more to check your luggage? Wouldn’t you rather pay a fraction of the cost to load the family into the car and still leave time to check out the world’s largest ball of yarn on the way to grandma’s house? Go ahead and give us some feedback in the comments.

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Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net