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GM to add 1,200 workers at 2 Michigan factories

DETROIT — General Motors is adding 1,200 jobs at two Michigan factories to build midsize SUVs and two new luxury sedans. GM said Friday that its Lansing Delta Township plant will get a third shift and 800 more workers to build the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave SUVs, which have three rows of seats. The Lansing Grand River plant will get a second shift and 400 more workers to build two new Cadillac sedans, the CT4 and CT5. Employees laid off at other GM factories will fill the new jobs first, then workers will be added, GM spokesman Dan Flores said. The company has not determined yet how many new people will be needed, he said. Both additional shifts will start working sometime between April and June, the company said. Lansing Delta Township now employs about 2,500 salaried and blue-collar workers, while the Grand River plant has 1,400. GM sold more than 147,000 Traverse SUVs in the U.S. last year, a 0.4% increase from 2018. Enclave sales were up 3% to just over 51,000, according to Autodata Corp. Related Video:

U.S. new-vehicle sales in 2018 rise slightly to 17.27 million [UPDATE]

DETROIT — Sales of new vehicles in the U.S. rose slightly in 2018, defying predictions and highlighting a strong economy. Automakers reported an increase of 0.3 percent over a year ago to 17.27 million vehicles. The increase came despite rising interest rates, a volatile stock market, and rising car and truck prices that pushed some buyers out of the new-vehicle market. Industry analysts and automakers said strong economic fundamentals pushed up sales and should keep them near historic highs in 2019. "Economic conditions in the U.S. are favorable and should continue to be supportive of vehicle sales at or around their current run rate," Ford Chief Economist Emily Kolinski Morris said after the company and other automakers announced their sales numbers Thursday. That auto sales remain near the 2016 record of 17.55 million is a testimonial to the strength of the economy, said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. The job market, he said, has created new employment, and wage growth has accelerated. "That's fundamental to selling anything," he said. "If there are lots of jobs and people are getting bigger paychecks, they will buy more." The unemployment rate is 3.7 percent, a 49-year low. The economy is thought to have grown close to 3 percent last year, its best performance in more than a decade. Consumers, the main driver of the economy, are spending freely. The Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate four times in 2018 but is only expected to raise it twice this year. Auto sales also were helped by low gasoline prices and rising home values, Zandi said. It all means that people are likely to keep buying new vehicles this year even as they grow more expensive. The Edmunds.com auto-pricing site estimates that the average new vehicle price hit a record $35,957 in December, about 2 percent higher than the previous year. It will be harder for automakers to keep the sales pace above 17 million because they have been enticing buyers for several years now with low-interest financing and other incentives, Zandi said. He predicts more deals in the coming year as job growth slows and credit tightens for higher-risk buyers. Edmunds, which provides content, including automotive tips and reviews, for distribution by The Associated Press, predicts that sales will drop this year to 16.9 million.

Crowd lifts Cadillac to free pedestrian after two vehicles barrel toward him

An elderly Missourian is lucky to be alive today after a car that had pinned him to the ground was lifted off him by witnesses. According to WDAF, Orlando Gentry and Troy Robertson were working at a Kansas City, Mo., clothing store when a stolen minivan careened through a red light at 35th and Prospect and was immediately T-boned by a woman driving a gold Cadillac. The impact drove both vehicles up onto the sidewalk at the corner, side by side, directly at pedestrian Carlos Green. "We was out here with our kids, and we was at work, and the next thing we heard was a boom!" Gentry told WDAF. "Man, those cars came out of nowhere, and Carlos was just helpless," Robertson said. Gentry tried to escape but was caught between the vehicles and pinned beneath the Caddy. Then a light pole punctuated the crash by falling on top of the Caddy - and almost on top of Carlos Green. "Yeah, he tried to jump out of the way, but he just got pinned underneath the Cadillac. He definitely hurt his right leg. When I saw all that, I screamed, 'Somebody help me help get this car off Carlos,'" Robertson said. He, Gentry and passersby lifted the heavy Caddy off Green so he could crawl free. Thankfully, Green wasn't seriously injured. He was discharged from an area hospital bruised, with one leg in a cast, but ultimately healthy. The woman driving the Cadillac was unhurt, but the two men driving the minivan ran off during the confusion. Kansas City police are looking for the escaped car thieves. This is the second time in as many weeks that people banded together to lift a car off someone. On May 9 in Philadelphia, a group of good Samaritans lifted an SUV off a little girl who had been run down and pinned beneath an SUV tire. Related Video: