NUMMI gets the ax

I live in Fremont. NUMMI is 3 miles from my house. Many people I know work there.
If Toyota shut it down, I would probably never buy another Toyota again as long as there is a substitute (even if it is inferior like Civic Hybrid). That is what I can do as a Fremont resident.
Many people drive Toyota in Silicon Valley, especially in Fremont. This will becomes a bigger market for Honda.
Sadly, my gut feeling is that Toyota will shut it down unless it is de-unionized like its all other plants.

 

WOW!!..., u 2 emotional and i dont blame u. and i am sure you will come to your senses because if you didnt.

it means

*you would not buy from Toyota, GM, Ford, or any other company that had the sense to realize that they needed to cut back in order to survive and retain the ability to provide a great product in the future,

it would also mean that

* you would only buy foreign or any other company like Honda, VW, etc that has little or no American investment here so no opportunity to create personal emotional distress... they would only funnel money out of the country.

it would also mean that

*u would deny yourself the right to buy the best car from the best company and ALSO the foreign company that has significantly more Americans working for them then any other foreign automaker.

and i have to reclarify, i dont blame you for being upset. i think that you made statements you dont mean and that is common. i do it all the time. after all, i dont like it when anyone pisses in my yard either

 

Time will tell.... As I understand it, the union's contract is up in August.... So, much of what you are hearing could simply be posturing by Toyota to get the best possible union contract.... I would also not count out the possibility that another partner might come in to replace GM. If the plant does close, I would think that Toyota would work to squarely blame GM. As has been mentioned already, the political ramifications of closing the plant in California, a very big market for Toyota, would be significant. I just do not know if enough blame could be placed in GM to overcome the political fallout.

I think it will become clear in another week or so....

 

More news:
Toyota to end Calif. joint venture with GM - Yahoo! Finance

 

I think Toyota will close the plant and it's closing will have little if any effect on Toyota's reputation.

1. Toyota will blame GM. They will say that GM pulled out of the deal and as such the plant must close down because there is not enough volume to support it.

2. NUMMI is an old GM plant that the joint venture with Toyota kept open. Toyota already saved that plant once.

Why do I think Toyota will close NUMMI?

1. They have too much production capacity in the US. The Mississippi plant sits completely unused and their new Texas plant is only running at 50% capacity. Simply, put they don't need the production capacity at NUMMI.

2. NUMMI is an UAW plant. It is Toyota's only UAW plant and Toyota would be more than happy to sever ties with the union.

3. California is a high cost of living / high tax state. As such it cost Toyota more money to do business in California then in Mississippi or Texas.

4. NUMMI is an old plant and more than likely needs more in maintenance and updating than the Texas or Mississippi plants that are less than 5 years old.

In short, it makes absolutely no sense for Toyota to keep NUMMI open. Closing NUMMI will cause hardships for those employees and the town but on the other hand communities in Texas or Mississippi will benefit. Maybe some of the NUMMI workers will be willing to relocate to keep their jobs.

 

all good reasons to close the plant, but i personally dont think the union issue carries much weight. they have made a ton of concessions and they will continue to do so if need be. also, still have to look at location and the market. Even Texas adds more than 1000 miles to transportation distances to the very large west coast market.

 

I predict Toyota will close NUMMI down and layoff all the UAW workers.
Then the Governator will offer tax incentive to Toyota to have the factory startup again with non-UAW workers.

 

The UAW doesn't have much of a presence in NorCal anyway - besides from the Ford parts warehouse in Manteca, UC Berkeley and NUMMI.

But I really hope Toyota doesn't shutter NUMMI. The UAW does or did have a scary effective propaganda machine...

 

The vast majority of cars that Toyota imports from Japan came into ports along the west coast. Both the Tacoma and Corolla are made at multiple factories including Japan so Toyota should have no problems supplying the California market with cars.

 

i guess i'll post this as an update.. since it's Official now. Toyota to halt production at Nummi

 

Another article on this Toyota closing NUMMI factory in California: AutoWeek Magazine.