The Detroit Lions Winning A Playoff Game Is So Rare That GM Will Halt Production

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I am, first and foremost, a baseball fan, partially because the sheer volume of games means that you don’t often need to harness all your hopes to the chaos of one single match the way you have to with football. Take the poor Detroit Lions, who last won a playoff game so long ago you could have watched them win and walked into a GMC dealer to buy a Syclone (and then watch them lose while the “new car” smell still lingered). But alas, the Lions are resurgent, and GM has taken notice.

As much as people love consigning their emotional well-being to football teams, there’s a whole different class of people who do basically the same thing with Tesla stock. Those people had a bad day yesterday. We’ll talk about that in this installment of The Morning Dump, as well.

Building Cars Is Hard (BCIH, we should probably shorten that) and Apple has realizzed that again, once more delaying its electric car. At the same time, it sounds like Apple is backtracking a bit on automated driving.

Finally, Biden is vetoing a bill that would ban certain materials coming from China in EV chargers.

GM Delaying Flint Third Shift For Lions Game

Flint Assembly

We all know that Detroit-area residents, and, especially, the GM employees in Flint, Michigan have had it good for so long. Nothing bad ever happens to people in Flint, Michigan. It’s paradise, really. It therefore felt almost karmic that the local-ish football team, the mighty Lions of Detroit, have somehow managed to lose nine playoff games in a row going back to the 1991 Conference Championship.

If you were in Michigan and alive in the 1990s, you’d have had to endure losing the Wild Card round of the playoffs five times in seven years. That’s rough. That’s super rough. I once watched my dad legit tear up after the Buffalo Bills managed a historic comeback against the Houston Oilers in the AFC Championship when I was 10, but that was just one game. This is a lifetime for some folks in Flint.

Now that the Texans have been knocked out I’m definitely pulling for the Detroit Lions, who have managed a close victory over the LA Rams in the Wild Card round and a one-score victory against the Buccaneers of Tampa Bay a few days ago, setting up only the second Conference Championship game in Lions history against the 49ers.

I’m not alone. General Motors is going to delay the third shift on Sunday at its Flint, Michigan plant where the company builds HD Silverados and Sierras, which are highly profitable lines and vehicles.

There’s a great thread about this on Reddit and I love the comment from the poster:

In my 13+ years at GM I’ve never seen a postponement to start the week…even 2 feet of snow wouldn’t do it lol. This is for the city! Go Lions!

Some of the quotes in this thread are pretty great, including:

Translation: We know it’s unlikely 80% caught the same 24 hour bug so we’re just going to shut down for the day

I’m not expecting David to be any use on Monday if the Lions win. [Ed Note: True. -DT]. Here’s another one from Reddit:

I put in for the Sunday and Monday the day after the lions clinched the division.

I was like ya know, I’ve had to work the night of the Super Bowl the last 5 years…. I should play this one safe.

Props to the Detroit Free Press for following up with other automakers:

Ford Motor Co. did not immediately provide a comment on whether it has any plants that may need shift adjustments for the game.

Stellantis spokeswoman Jodi Tinson sent the Free Press the following statement in an email: “Stellantis is proud of our hometown team, the Detroit Lions, and all of the excitement their victories to date have generated for the City. While we celebrate that success and root for another win against the San Francisco 49ers, Stellantis will run normal production schedules on Sunday to meet the expectations of our customers and dealers.”

Booooooo! BOOOO CARLOS TAVERES! BOOOOO.

Tesla Loses 8% Of Value As Elon Musk Admits EV Growth Is Going To Slow

Tesla Model 3 Old
Photo: Tesla

Excuse me while I get super Millennial here, but as a mall-prowling youth I spent some of my time in a clothing/culture store called Gadzooks (it was the ’90s and this seemed normal). It was a clever move for a retailer to focus on the teens that actually inhabited ’90s malls, especially in Texas where the chain began and it was normally 9,000 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

The brand was a success and started spreading out beyond Texas. Unfortunately, Gadzooks expanded super fast and built stores in every mall it could find space in, sort of overestimating the appeal.

I say all of this because there’s clearly a growing demand for electric cars, but that demand probably isn’t going to be huge, linear growth anymore. At some point the early people who can justify the cost and life changes will have EVs and other people will need to be persuaded.

A person who agrees with me is Tesla CEO Elon Musk, according to Reuters:

Musk said growth would be “notably lower” as Tesla focuses on a cheaper, next-generation electric vehicle to be made at its Texas factory in the second half of 2025, which is expected to spark the next boom in deliveries.

But his remarks fell flat with investors, with Tesla set to lose more than $50 billion in market value, if premarket loss hold. Its stock was already down 16.4% this month, as of last close.

“The Tesla headlines have essentially gone from bad to worse,” said TD Cowen analysts, noting that the fourth-quarter revenue and profit were also below expectations.

Gadzooks!

Biden’s EV Charger Conundrum

Electrify America Charging Station New Jersey EV mandate

One of the ways to increase adoption of electric vehicles is to fix the country’s under-built, crappy EV charging network. The problem? America is woefully behind on the technology and materials to do so, but one of the cornerstones of America’s policy towards electrification is to move away from a reliance on foreign (mostly Chinese) tech and materials.

An industry can’t be spun up overnight so the choice is between delaying the rollout of our charging networks in order to give time to domestic (or at least friendlier) sources, which will lower demand for electric cars, OR swallowing some foreign goods. This is even more complex because even the American-built chargers, from American companies, creating American jobs… sometimes need materials from China.

The Biden White House has decided to use a Reagan-era waiver that allows federal money to be spent on certain projects that require goods or materials from countries without free trade agreements. Both the House and the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a GOP-led bill that would basically reverse that.

Here’s how ABC News sums it up:

Supporters said the congressional measure would keep China out of the supply chain for EV chargers, a politically potent idea that appeals to lawmakers in both parties.

“If we’re going to spend $5 billion of taxpayer money to build electric vehicle charging stations for the United States, it should be made by Americans in America using American products,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who introduced the resolution last year.

The Senate approved the measure, 50-48, i n November, despite a White House veto threat. Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, along with independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, joined Republicans to approve the measure.

President Biden ultimately vetoed the bill, which may come up later this year.

Apple Is Going To Stop At Level 2+ Autonomy

Apple Imac
Source: Apple

Remember when we all clowned on MotorTrend back in 2016 for having an “exclusive” look at the Apple Car that was just a render for a car that was supposedly coming this year and would be a self-driving EV? Yeah, no shock, the car isn’t going to come out in 2024 and now we’re learning it’s not even going to be self-driving.

Per Bloomberg:

After previously envisioning a truly driverless car, the company is now working on an EV with more limited features, according to people with knowledge of the project. Even so, Apple’s goal for a release date continues to slip. With the latest changes, the company looks to introduce the car in 2028 at the earliest, roughly two years after a recent projection, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.

Apple’s secretive effort to create a car is one of the most ambitious endeavors in its history, and one of its more tumultuous. Since it began taking shape in 2014, the project — codenamed Titan and T172 — has seen several bosses come and go. There have been multiple rounds of layoffs, key changes in strategy and numerous delays. But it remains one of the company’s potential next big things — an entirely new category for the device maker that could help reinvigorate sales growth. Apple’s revenue stalled last year as it contended with a maturing smartphone industry and a slowdown in China, its biggest overseas market.

BIHC. Also, as utterly silly as the MotorTrend cover was, a small part of me was upset eight years ago that I didn’t think of doing that first.

What I’m Listening To While I Write This

It’s grey and cold outside and I’m perhaps a bit homesick for Texas, so a little “The Late Townes Van Zandt” from “Townes Van Zandt” seems in order.

The Big Question

Lions or 49ers, who you got? Also, how does this make you feel about Stellantis?

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125 thoughts on “The Detroit Lions Winning A Playoff Game Is So Rare That GM Will Halt Production

  1. Stellantis can afford to idle their Michigan plants for a few hours for the game, and might even benefit.

    Let’s go through their list of Detroit area plants (data from Wikipedia):
    -Detroit Jefferson & Mack – Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango (the GC had a 167 day supply in December)
    -Dundee Engine – Pentastar and Tigershark engines
    -Sterling Heights Assembly – Ram 1500
    -Sterling Heights Stamping – ‘metal stampings’
    -Trenton Engine – Pentastar engines
    -Warren Assembly – Ram 1500 Classic and Jeep Wagoneer (1500 Classic had a 250 day supply in September and the Wagoneer has infamously been having sales issues)

    Bonus (idk if Toledoans identify more with the Lions or the Ohio team):
    -Toledo North – Jeep Wrangler (still selling quite well)
    -Toledo South – Jeep Gladiator (200 day supply in December)
    -Toledo Machining – ‘steering columns and torque converters’

    1. Right? They need to meet the expectations of their customers and dealers? Their dealers are probably screaming for rebates, not more inventory.

    2. Well, Michigan lost Toledo (and some land) to Ohio in the savage Toledo War of 1835, so… I guess it’s where your loyalties lie on that one

      Also, hard to imagine having to cross shop the Lions and Browns

  2. I don’t have a dog in the fight, but I think the 49ers are going to win. Donno, just hope it is a good game.

    I don’t, as a rule, think about Stellantis much at all. Not going to start now. Keeps me from getting depressed.

    1. YOU!!!! (pointing and gesturing wildly) Are the reason this country is going down the circulating poop disposer.

      If there is ever a time to sow division and strife, it is now in the football universe. Only one team is supposed to have fun (fingers now crossed that it is my team of choice) and the other team will have a painful, humiliating defeat that will demoralize their fans for years to come. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. The natural order you could say.

  3. Love the crosstown shot by GM and that is what this is and nothing more. Ford owns the Lions and if GM can my them look bad they will. Chrysler as always being the odd out does not surprise.

    Go Lions!

  4. Lions. It’s easy to root for the underdog, and Detroit deserves a little happiness. And I’ll be pulling for them over the Ravens in the Super Bowl (as a Broncos fan I obviously want to see the Chiefs sent home humiliated by Baltimore).

  5. Booooooo! BOOOO CARLOS TAVERES! BOOOOO.

    This is one of many reasons I love this site.

    As for American football….rooting for the Lions. One of the many franchises to have no Super Bowl wins, and they’re the last ones out of the four playing this weekend.

  6. As a lifelong Bears fan, I can’t hate the Lions the way I hate the Vikings, or the way I absolutely LOATHE that Socialist team from that place where everything smells like a paper mill. The Lions and Bears haven’t both been good since the Eisenhower administration, so they’ve never really vexed the Bears.
    I also can’t hate the City of Detroit. They have everything that sucks about Chicago (urban blight, loss of factories, THE WEATHER) but without the things that make Chicago great (world-class culture and cuisine, the highest GMP per capita of any city on earth, a highly diversified economy whereby no single sector employs more than 14% of the workforce).
    The people of Detroit deserve this, and I hope they win it all.

    1.  the highest GMP per capita of any city on earth

      Do you mean GDP? Cause if so, Chicago isn’t even the highest GDP per capita in Illinois and barely makes the top 30 in the US, let alone the world. If not GDP… what the heck is GMP?

      1. Certainly better than most cities, but not enough to make up for mile after mile of empty, abandoned infrastructure. Take a look on Google Earth at northwest Detroit- the urban gray gives way to rural green in a way that is striking.

        1. Now you are talking about two totally different things, but whatever. The last thing I want to do while watching The Price Is Right is to have a serious debate about the subjective differences between cities, lol

    2. To be fair, the quarterbacks for the socialist team own the Bears, so I think that makes the Bears socialist, too.

      As much as I would like a fairytale ending for the Detroit franchise, I think the 49ers will find a way to win (again).

        1. Be careful what you ask for. Corey Wootton helped hasten the end of one socialist quarterback, and in so doing start the career of another, who went on to make matters worse for the Bears.

          Bringing our discussion back to this web site’s mission, there’s no internet record I can find of Wootten’s daily driver, his opinion on taillights, or his thoughts on fonts used in the gauges of German vehicles.

      1. LOL!!! (Also, Go Pack Go 🙂

        I’m rooting for the Niners here as I’m an Iowa State alum and seeing Purdy go from there to potentially winning a Superbowl as Mr. Irrelevant is a pretty sweet thing.

        1. Murders per 1,000 pop

          1. St. Louis, MO (69.4)
          2. Baltimore, MD (51.1)
          3. New Orleans, LA (40.6)
          4. Detroit, MI (39.7)
          5. Cleveland, OH (33.7)
          6. Las Vegas, NV (31.4)
          7. Kansas City, MO (31.2)
          8. Memphis, TN (27.1)
          9. Newark, NJ (25.6)
          10. Chicago, IL (24)
          11. Cincinnati, OH (23.8)
          12. Philadelphia, PA (20.2)
          13. Milwaukee, WI (20.0)
          14. Tulsa, OK (18.6)
          15. Pittsburgh, PA (18.4)
          16. Indianapolis, IN (17.7)
          17. Louisville, KY (17.5)
          18. Oakland, CA (17.1)
          19. Washington D.C. (17.0)
          20. Atlanta, GA (16.7)
          1. Dude, I was just making a lame joke. I love Detroit and Chicago, and even if I didn’t, I don’t need to shit on one city to defend the other (which you did in your original post).
            Anyway, sorry the Bears suck.

    3. As a resident of Wisconsin I am legally obligated to support the Packers and hate the Vikings, Bears, and Lions. At risk of prosecution, I am cheering for the Lions this week and then in the Super Bowl.

  7. That’s the problem with wallstreet. If you’re not making them money, then you’re gone to them. Doesn’t matter what the reasons are. They know/knew EV adoption has been slowing, but it doesn’t matter to them, they just want the money.

    What about the poor 2nd shift workers that ARE working during the game?

    1. “What about the poor 2nd shift workers that ARE working during the game?”

      Let’s just say that there is going to be a massive outbreak of 24 hour bugs in Michigan if the Lions win on Sunday. The execs won’t say it, but that 2nd shift is probably going to be running very shorthanded.

      1. I wouldn’t want to buy a car manufactured in Detroit this Sunday.

        I’m an office drone, but I already have my Monday morning blocked for “Working Time.”

    2. In all seriousness, I took that to mean that 3rd shift starting Sunday night is the first shift of the week. Second shift would not be working on Sunday during the game as it’s their weekend.

      As someone who’s worked 3rd shift before I like the arrangement. I had to do it M-F instead of Su-Th and was always going to work when my friends were out on Fri night.

  8. There isn’t a chance in hell that I will be at work all bright eyed and bushy tailed at 7:30am on the Monday after the Super Bowl if the Lions are in it. Shit, if they win I wouldn’t assume anything for the rest of the week! Kneecaps and grit are on the menu!

    1. Funny, but humans obsess over other things equally as stupid.

      It’s just a little diversion, something unimportant to focus your mind on a little. It’s okay.

      1. Truly, in high school and early college I had a strong dislike of sports, because I thought they were distractions and pulling our attention from things that are important in the world.

        These days, I can appreciate sports for being distractions and pulling our attention from things that are important in the world. (Because what’s important tends to be anxiety and depression-inducing.)
        But really, YouTube channels like Secret Base can make the stories and even the math/statistics exciting.

  9. As a 49ers fan, I am going for them, but I appreciate what this has done for Detroit. For a town to have suffered this long without getting to the playoffs is painful, and I am happy they have made it this far. I want the game to be as close as possible so they feel like either side could have won.

    Now for the hot takes.

    As for the companies, Stellantis continues to reverse their course in the goodwill department. Part of that might be they just have massive identity issues after being owned by so many different parent companies.

    And I would hope that Ford follows suit, but then again in keeping with Ford family history…maybe not.

    1. The Lions play their home games at FORD Field. Ford should absolutely delay the third shift and shut down the second in time for people to get to their homes/bars to watch the game!

      (Also: boooo hisssssss at the 49ers)

    2. On my last visit some 20 years ago to Detroit they were complaining about the Lions and the Tigers. Most of the area outside downtown looked as if it had been hit by a neutron bomb. Blocks upon blocks of once beautiful multi-story, now literally crumbling houses. Same with commercial buildings. The convenience stores only let in one customer at a time and everything was walled off behind bulletproof glass including the clerk. People stared at us hungrily like empty eyed zombies as we drove by. Detroit made the pictures of Chernobyl at it’s worst look like a utopian paradise.

      The “suffering” of sports nerds.

      (tiny violin meme)

  10. Agree w/ the GM decision, cut your losses and drop a shift or two. Gain employee and public good will.
    I agree with the Tesla assessment, I think we are at a bit of a plateau until charging improves and EV cost drops. The early adopters are spoken for.

  11. GM is going to suspend production for the Lions game? You’re yanking my supply chain. Also, I’m sure the Ford family, who own the Lions, are grateful for the gesture.

  12. Kudos to GM for acknowledging reality and putting their workers first. I’m not even a huge sports fan and even I would be coming down with a case of the Playoff Flu if I was an autoworker in Detroit. This kind of decision is just good management, IMHO. When it’s clear that most companies in the US only pay lip-service to employee mental health and work-life-balance, and that they put profits ahead of workers even when their decisions don’t result in profits and make their workers unhappy (https://www.businessinsider.com/rto-policies-dont-improve-employee-performance-company-value-controlling-bosses-2024-1?op=1), it’s refreshing to see a major manufacturer make such a decision.

    Oh and I’m definitely rooting for the Lions even though I think they’ll ultimately get squashed by either the Ravens or the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

    And Stellantis sucks, but that has nothing to do with their decision to keep their shifts unchanged on Sunday.

      1. In the past week we’ve had freezing weather busting pipes then a warmup to the 60 accompanied by 3 straight days of flooding rain so the little bit of news I’ve caught hasn’t mentioned the Texans. Oh well, better luck to them next year I guess.

          1. No worries dude, you weren’t insensitive, I was just explaining how I may have missed that news with all that’s been going on this week. We can handle all that weather foolishment as long as the power stays on.

    1. Never understood spending $80 to wear another mans work uniform with your favorite companies logo on it. Whatever makes you happy though, I don’t hate.

      1. “I don’t hate.”

        Sports fans do though. They hate a LOT!

        Try wearing another mans work uniform with your favorite company’s logo on it around a group of sports nerds who are wearing a different man’s work uniform with a different company’s logo on it. You might end up dead.

        Even Star Trek/Wars nerds don’t hate on each other that much. Religious nerds do though.

  13. Since the Lions are owned by a Ford, it is big of GM to support them. As a Detroit native who went to games at the old stadium in 2 feet of snow, I can say that my fellow Michiganders deserve this. Go Lions.

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