Indianapolis Buys Japanese Car Fleet

Most of us have heard by now of Mayor Ballard's decision to buy a fleet of vehicles from a Japanese company instead of an American one.

Mayor Greg Ballard's administration bought 85 hybrid Camry sedans for $25,770 each to use as unmarked nonpursuit police cars for detectives and administrators, The Star reported Thursday, noting Penske Chevrolet protested when the city refused lower-priced Chevrolet Malibu hybrids.

Penske Chevrolet is clearly upset with the decision because they lost the sale. Andy Mohr's Toyota dealership is very happy with the decision. Labor leaders like Bill Matthews are siding with Penske.

"We're going to have layoffs before Christmas because sales of the Malibu have gone down," said Bill Matthews, bargaining chairman of United Auto Workers Local 23. "The mayor overpaid for the Camrys and should have bought Malibus to support workers in Indianapolis, but he chose not to do it.''

The purchase couldn't have come at a worse time for the American car industry. The Big 3 are in Washington begging for a bailout and there are millions of jobs on the line. GM and Chrysler have warned that they don't have enough cash to operate through the end of the year. Ford isn't in much better shape.

Indiana is particularly vulnerable to a collapse of the domestic auto industry. Too many people think of the industry in terms of where the car is assembled, which is mostly in Michigan. But Indiana has the 5th highest number of workers of workers dedicated to car/parts manufacturing. People like John Lancaster and his employees:

"People don't realize the importance of our industry," said Lancaster, a metallurgical engineer who heads the General Motors aluminum foundry in Bedford, about 25 miles south of Bloomington.

Lancaster said GM Bedford employed about 1,500 workers two decades ago. Today, the 517 workers in the Southern Indiana plant pour 700,000 pounds of aluminum a day, creating 11,000 transmission casings for almost every GM vehicle made in North America.

Reforms over the years have streamlined operations in the 1 million-square-foot plant.

What GM Bedford now needs is what GM needs, Lancaster said -- cash.

His plant is completing the first year of a $114 million, multi-year modernization that is part of GM's move to fuel-efficient six-speed transmissions.

"We've had to slow down all that spending," Lancaster said.

If taxpayers provide an infusion, he counts on getting the cash for the next round of equipment.

And if taxpayers don't provide that infusion, it is likely that GM will go under, and all the jobs associated with it will disappear. Tens of thousands more Hoosiers will join the unemployment lines, and Mitch Daniels will regret getting reelected.

Which brings us back to Ballard's folly. Parts for the Chevy Malibu are built in Indianapolis and in surrounding cities. Ballard had an obligation not just to save a few theoretical pennies on fuel economy, but to support local jobs.

I know there can be a realistic discussion of what constitutes "American" these days. Under NAFTA, we have GM cars whose parts are made in Mexico and assembled in Canada, and they classify as an American car. Toyotas parts are made in the US and assembled in the US for the most part (Ballard's Camrys are built in Kentucky), and they are still called foreign.

But I think that debate is one for another day, when a large and important employer in our state is not on the brink of disaster.