Autoblog

Volkswagen doesn't make amphibious cars, but it may want to consider them in the future. On Saturday, a trucker hauling a load of new VWs from San Diego to Los Angeles drove off a pier and into the ocean.

Local authorities say the driver apparently "suffered from some kind of medical emergency", causing him to black out and lose control of the truck. The cab careened into the San Diego Bay at a National City marine terminal, plunging into the water. The trailer stayed on the pier, but three cars fell into the bay.

The teamster regained consciousness underwater, escaped from the tractor and swam some 13 feet to the surface where he was evacuated in reportedly good condition to a local hospital.

[Source: 10News.com via All Cars, All the Time]

According to the latest Harbour Report, Toyota leads the way in overall automaker productivity, needing only 29.93 hours to make a car. Nissan came next at 29.97 hours, with Honda third at 31.63 hours. Those numbers cover stamping, engine and transmission production, and car assembly.

When it came to domestics, GM showed the way in individual measures, leading the individual categories of engine production, transmission production, and vehicle assembly at three different plants. Honda's Marysville Plant lead the way in stamping. The Big Three gained in productivity on their import rivals, with "quality advances and more flexible labor agreements" the cause of improvements. According to Ron Harbour, head of Harbour Consulting, "General Motors essentially caught Toyota in vehicle assembly productivity" -- though the actual number for GM is 32.36 hours to make a car, which was a 2.5% improvement over the year before.

To be expected, although the domestics put up solid productivity numbers, profit-per-vehicle still lagged. Toyota and Honda made, on average, $1,200 pre-tax profit on each car sold in the US. The Big Three lost anywhere from $1,072 to $5,234 last year on every vehicle sold. Health care and pension liabilities and incentives were to blame.

[Source: Auto News]