Priced Right! Sporty And Economical! on 2040-cars

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2019 Kia Sorento | Revised styling, more features, loses turbo-4 option

Apparently a diesel engine option will eventually arrive.

Foreign automakers pay from $38 to $65 per hour to non-union workers

As leaders for the United Auto Workers gather in Detroit for their Special Convention on Collective Bargaining to work out the negotiating stance for this year's new labor agreements with the Detroit 3 automakers, what they most want to do is figure out how to eliminate the two-tier wage scale. However, the lower Tier 2 wage has allowed the domestic automakers to reduce their labor costs, hire more workers, and compete better with their import competition. As it stands, per-hour labor rates including benefits are $58 at General Motors, $57 at Ford, and $48 at Fiat-Chrysler – a reflection of FCA's much greater number of Tier 2 workers. The Center for Automotive Research released a study of labor rates (including benefits) that put numbers to what the imports pay: Mercedes-Benz pays the most, at an average of $65 per hour, Volkswagen pays the least, at $38 per hour, and BMW is just a hair above that at $39 per hour. Among the Detroit competitors, Honda workers earn an average of $49 per hour, at Toyota it's $48 per hour, Nissan is $42 per hour, and Hyundai-Kia pays $41 per hour. The lower import wages are aided by their greater use of temporary workers compared to the domestics. Automotive News says the ten-dollar gap between those foreign camakers and the domestics turns out to about an extra $250 per car in labor, which adds up quickly when you're pumping out many millions of cars. That $250-per-car number is one that, come negotiating time, the Detroit 3 will want to reduce, as the UAW is trying to raise both Tier 1 and Tier 2 wages. Another wrinkle is that the domestic carmakers are considering the wide adoption of a third wage level lower than Tier 2. Some workers who do minor tasks like assembling parts trays kits and battery packs already make less than Tier 2, but the UAW will be quite wary about cementing yet another wage scale at the bottom of the system while it's trying to fight a bigger battle at the top. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req., BloombergImage Credit: AP Photo/Erik Schelzig Earnings/Financials UAW/Unions BMW Chevrolet Fiat Ford GM Honda Hyundai Kia Mercedes-Benz Nissan Toyota Volkswagen labor wages collective bargaining labor costs

Kia's Imagine concept is a high-riding, electric sedan

Kia released teaser images of its Geneva-bound concept car late last month. The one detail that stayed with us the most was the fact that the futuristic dashboard consisted of 21 small screens side by side. Kia was in on the joke, calling it a "humorous riposte" to the industry's obsession with implementing screens. But the rest of the concept car, shown today, is no joke. The ' Imagine by Kia' concept is a swoopily shaped, somewhat muscular, high-riding, all-electric sedan with suicide doors, which might or might not introduce some interesting new design themes for future Kias. There's a new logo, which is far more stylish than the existing one, and the front features a LED DRL arrangement that frames the headlights like the car wore stylish glasses. It's a bit like the Saab 9-5 "Dame Edna" facelift, but far better realized, and the "Tiger Mask" Kia front end treatment has been developed further. The roof and the windscreen are a single piece of glass, in the style of the Tesla Model 3, and the Imagine also features a frunk in addition to the trunk. But the concept is far taller than the Model 3 and more aggressively shaped, riding on 22-inch alloy wheels with acrylic glass inserts and with bespoke Goodyear tires and featuring sharp strakes on the curvy bodywork. The paintwork is said to consist of six hand-applied layers of chrome-effect paint with a bronze tint on top. And about those tires: they themselves are a Goodyear concept, called IntelliGrip, which means they detect and convey road conditions to the car and driver and adjust handling attributes accordingly. Related Video: