New Car anyone??

Unsold cars

These photographs are so compelling in their message, that I felt I ought publish them, to spread the word about the Global Financial Crisis and its impact on the consumer market, specifically in vehicle sales (or the lack of them - around the world).

These photographs are unable to be sourced (credited) as they were received anonymously, via email today. Normally I do not publish other people's photographs, but these are unsigned, and in the public area anyway. And I publish them to help you realise quite how bad the global economy is faring.

(Above) Nissan has announced plans to cut its Sunderland workforce by 1,200.
Thousands of unsold cars are stored around the factory's test track.


(Above) Honda is halting production at its Swindon plant in April and May, extending the two-month
closure announced before Christmas to four months. Honda and Japanese rival Toyota are both cutting production in Japan and elsewhere. Pictured, Hondas await export at a pier in Tokyo.


(Above) Earlier this week, Jaguar Land Rover said 450 British jobs would go.


(Above) The open car storage areas in Corby , Northamptonshire, are reaching full capacity.


(Above) Imported cars stored at Sheerness open storage are awaiting delivery to dealers.


(Above) Imported cars fill the 150-acre site at the Toyota distribution centre in Long Beach, California.


(Above) The build-up of imported cars at the port of Newark, New Jersey.


(Above) Stocks of Ford trucks in Detroit, Michigan.


(Above) New cars jam the dockside at the port of Valencia in Spain.


(Above) Peugeot cars await shipment to Italian dealers at the port of Civitavecchia.


(Above) Unsold cars at Avonmouth Docks near Bristol.


(Above) With many manufacturers on extended Christmas shutdown, the number of cars rolling off
production lines in December fell 47.5% to just 53,823.


(Above) Thousands of new cars are stored on the runway at the disused
Upper Heyford airbase near Bicester, Oxfordshire
on December 18, 2008.


(Above) Sales of new cars in the UK have slumped to a 12-year-low and production of cars at Honda in Swindon has been halted for a unprecedented four-month period because of the collapse in global sales and represents the longest continuous halt in production at any UK car plant. The announcement comes on a day when the EU's Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen warned the outlook for the European car industry was 'brutal' and predicted not all European manufacturers would survive the crisis.

*****

Have they been reading my blog?
Today this report has appeared in the Australian media:
"GM and Chrysler have said they need as much as $US21.6 billion ($34 billion) in new (US) federal aid, more than doubling what the company has already received from the US Government, and must get cash next month to survive.

"GM has also examined three bankruptcy scenarios, with price tags of as much as $US100 billion, and that all were less- favourable options than a rescue. GM said it plans to close an additional five US plants by 2012 and cut 47,000 jobs globally by the end of 2009.
...
"GM said it needs at least $US9.1 billion more in aid, or as much as $US16.6 billion should the economy worsen. The biggest US automaker has received $US13.4 billion since December.
"Chrysler, the third largest US automaker, said it needs an additional $US5 billion by March 31 after receiving an initial installment of $US4 billion. Chrysler also said it needs to eliminate an additional 3,000 jobs after shedding 32,000 through the end of last year."
Source: ABC News website 18.2.09
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/18/2494422.htm