Mishawaka: Awaiting Word of Hummer's Fate

By Eamonn Brennan
Cars.com

Large and foreboding, the Hummer H2 casts a long shadow over the road — a huge, rumbling symbol of America’s gas-guzzling history.

That same shadow hangs over Mishawaka, where employees have been building the hulking vehicle since late 2001. A few years ago, the plant couldn’t build H2s fast enough, but now with gas prices higher than ever, demand for large vehicles dwindling and Hummer sales in the tank, GM is talking about selling off the brand. Just yesterday, GM announced it would scale back production of H2s at the plant by one-third. GM spokesman Tony Sapienza said the company was confident AM General wouldn’t be forced to lay off any employees, but the people of Mishawaka are uncertain about the fate of the plant’s workers.

“It’s frightening,” said Phil Damico, chairman of business development at the South Bend Chamber of Commerce. “That we could have a number of employees out looking for jobs — it would be a huge deal.”

“The overall community could really be affected,” said Ed McNamara, owner of City-Wide Liquors, which has operated for 17 years on Bittersweet Road, just blocks away from the AM General plant where Hummer builds its SUVs. “That’s a lot of money being pulled out of the community.”

Greensburg: Honda Plant Promises Jobs, But Not for All

By Eamonn Brennan
Cars.com

Greensburg sits quietly off Interstate 74 in eastern Indiana, halfway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati, and has just one distinguishing feature: a small, oddly persistent tree that’s been growing out of the top of its scenic courthouse building since 1870.

“Before Honda came here, that tree was the most notable thing about our town,” said Neil Cortus, an office manager at Sweet’s Auto Repair in Greensburg.

That’s about to change.

Foreign Automakers Set Up Shop in the Heartland

By Patrick Olsen and Eamonn Brennan
Cars.com

In the past 19 years, foreign automakers with no less a profile than Toyota, Honda and Subaru have set up shop in middle America. Why do foreign automakers find Indiana so appealing? How have they managed to build plants in the Rust Belt, which used to be very union-friendly territory? And where have the Big Three — headquartered just over the border in Michigan — gone?

Indiana: The Pain and Promise of U.S. Automaking

By Patrick Olsen
Cars.com

As a souring economy and soaring gas prices change the face of the U.S. car market, automakers find themselves at a crossroads. American consumers are turning away from large SUVs and pickup trucks, and car companies need to build smaller, more fuel-efficient cars — but still make a profit doing so. While the Big Three have found it difficult to adapt to this shift in buying attitudes, foreign automakers have been able to move more adroitly, but even some of them have been caught in the swirl of the storm.

Four Indiana cities highlight how high gas prices and environmental and economic concerns have forced the auto industry to change its ways or get left behind:

• In Greensburg, Honda will take advantage of increased demand for fuel-efficient cars by building more of the gas-sipping Civic beginning this fall. In May, the Civic grabbed the title (at least for a month) of the nation's best-selling model as gas prices passed $4 a gallon.
• In Mishawaka, Hummer workers at one of the last two Big Three plants left in the state are waiting to learn their fate. GM says it would like to sell or — barring that — dump the Hummer nameplate, which many critics call a symbol of American gas-guzzling excess.
• As the green movement picks up speed, Subaru is making vehicles at a “zero-landfill” plant in Lafayette, meaning all its waste is recycled or reused.
• In Princeton, workers face an impending three-month slowdown as Toyota quits building pickups there and temporarily silences the Sequoia line. Toyota is celebrating 10 years in Indiana, but it's also feeling some of the same pains as the Big Three.

Over the next five days, we’ll offer an in-depth look at automotive manufacturing in the Crossroads of America, which serves as a microcosm of what's happening in this global industry.