A petition-based initiative to allow more off-street parking in San Francisco has made it onto the ballot for the next local election. City Supervisors countermanded the move by amending a funding provision for the city's public transport (MUNI) that would insert the city's current parking restrictions into the City Charter. As The San Francisco Chronicle points out, if voters approve BOTH measures, the Muni measure would take precedence. Jim Ross, campaign manager for the parking measure, expressed his dismayed that it's become an either-or choice between additional parking and mass transit. "There's room for people to have parking and room for the city to have a good transit system. This doesn't have to be black or white." The chief sponsor of the MUNI measure disagrees: "This is about San Francisco's destiny," Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin asserted. "Voters will have to ask themselves: Do you want San Francisco to be more like Paris or Los Angeles?"

House politicians burning the midnight oil have passed a $16b bill designed to reduce our dependence on imported energy. While the bill must be reconciled with the Senate version and the President is already threatening a veto (as expected), its provisions clearly indicate which way the wind [farm] is blowing. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the bill repeals tax breaks to the oil and gas industry, to the tune of $16b. On the automotive front, it provides $4k tax breaks for hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars, hands out loan guarantees and "other assistance" for advanced diesel and hybrid battery technology, and mandates $3.5b in tax credits for E-85 pump installation. The hotly-debated proposal to raise the federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards didn't get a look in. The champion of the hike, Massachusetts Democrat Representative Edward Markey, put his hands in the air like he just didn't care. "This is the historic break with the fossil-fuel past and the beginning of the solar-wind renewable era in the United States," the chairman of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming told The Boston Globe. "People will look back at this as the turning point where Congress began to embrace renewable energy." 

The Age is reporting two more hoon-related incidents, less than a day after a street race gone bad killed an elderly couple in Sydney, Australia. The first arrest involved two Pulsar hatchbacks racing side-by-side. Police allege that the vehicle on the wrong side of the road in Guildford struck a car making a right hand turn, sending both drivers to hospital. That accident comes hot on the heels of another arrest in St. Marys, where police nabbed two more alleged street racers: a 17-year-old Toyota Camry driver (with two 16-year-old passengers) and a 21-year-old disqualified driver helming a Daihatsu Charade. Police have responded to the hoonage with plenty of tough talk, promising increased retribution. "You have to question whether, as in the case of the United States, the solution to this problem is, in part, the compacting of vehicles into a cube dropped on the front lawn of their homes," Mr Moroney told reporters. "Maybe that's the message that they've got to understand."

IBNLive.com is reporting a plot to topple Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit, financed by "millionaire contractor" Ashok Malhotra. Malhotra, who runs a canteen in the Delhi Assembly, stands accused of bribing Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) to oust Dikshit. The Central Bureau of Investigation raided Malhotra's house last week and discovered a fleet of 52 luxury cars with VIP number plates, 15 of which were allegedly slated for MLAs opposing Dikshit. According MLA Brahm Pal, ‘gifting’ luxury cars for political favors from MLAs is no biggie. “Everyone knows about these kind of things. Luxury cars are offered to MLAs, ministers to gain support in order to evict a politician from his post."

The question comes from Zimbabwe's Deputy Information minister, Bright Matonga, who wants to know if critics of President Robert Mugabe want the president to travel in a pick-up truck. Matonga was defending his president's modified Mercedes S-Class limousines to AllAfrica.com. According to the news report, Mugabe rides in an up-armored stretch S that cost $1.4m. The President also decreed that his 30 ministers should attend to their duties in a fleet of S350s, replacing their E230s, which they could buy from the government for ZIM $5m ($19,595). Spinmeister Matonga refused to discuss the details: "This is a security issue and we don't discuss security issues with anybody. If government decides to buy vehicles for the president or cabinet ministers it is justified because we're a very responsible government."

Washington Post columnist Warren Brown doesn't have very much nice to say about the new Jaguar XJR. (Sit over here, Warren.) He reckons the model's lower-priced competition taunts it with an automotive rendition of "Anything you can do, I can do better:" "Where is the prestige in the XJR Supercharged sedan's 400-horsepower V-8 engine in a world where 200-horsepower engines for pitifully ordinary cars are the norm, and where anyone who can spend $30,000 can get a big 5.7-liter, 340-horsepower Dodge Hemi V-8 that would give any Jaguar a run for its money?" After dissing the Jag's sat nav and safety as pedestrian, Warren pronounces a paradigm shift. Apparently luxury car buyers are moving away from "excessive horsepower" towards cars that "show the world they are committed to clean and green living." After a huge metaphorical sigh, the self-pronounced old-fashioned snob writes the ungreen luxury car a fitting, politically correct epitaph: "Those days have disappeared — effectively erased by technology that has empowered the masses, and made irrelevant by a rapidly growing global appetite for oil, a natural resource that is getting more difficult to develop. In that world, the high-end Jaguar has become a dinosaur."  

Right from the start of the bun fight debate over raising Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, TTAC has stressed that one of the central issues is the so-called "Two Fleet" rule. As it currently stands, there are two CAFE mpg standards: one for domestically-produced automobiles and one for imported vehicles. If the Two Fleet rule is eliminated, if CAFE requirements are based on an automaker's entire lineup regardless of its origin, The Big 2.8 will shut down its highly unprofitable U.S. small car production. Needless to say, this has not escaped the attention of The United Auto Workers. The Detroit Free Press reports that the UAW has read Representative Edward Markey's revised CAFE legislation and discovered some hidden language killing the Two Fleet rule. Pleased with this they are not. "The UAW deeply regrets that, in a desperate effort to gain a few votes, Representative Markey apparently decided to abandon his past position on this critically important jobs issue," UAW legislative director Alan Reuther said. "The revised Markey proposal would enable auto manufacturers to offshore all of their small-car production, and would thereby threaten the jobs of thousands of American workers." We're not sure how closing unprofitable American factories would gain any votes for Rep. Markey, but it sure would make some American auto execs happy.  

As president and CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, representing BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota and Volkswagen, I can speak firsthand about the radical transformation that has been taking place within this global industry. For starters, let me be especially clear on this particular item: automakers support increasing Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. In fact, today’s auto industry is currently advocating for the largest CAFE increase in U.S. history.

The Alliance supports an unprecedented 30 percent to 40 percent CAFE increase over the next 15 years. We believe it’s time to end the debate. We urge Congress to act now, so we can continue with the hard work needed to further our efforts to improve fuel economy. To find the basis for an argument that the auto industry feels otherwise, one would have to dig pretty deep into the archives.

Physorg.com reports that mischief-makers (or worse) can hack Europe's Radio Data System with relative impunity, sending in-car sat nav systems spurious information. Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco from consultants Inverse Path demonstrated their hack to security professionals meeting in Las Vegas for the annual Black Hat digital self-defense conference. "We can create bad weather, fresh snow, full car parks, accidents… close bridges, roads or tunnels, and the SatNav will pop-up a detour." The Italian hackers also claimed they could trigger pre-programmed alerts: "air raid," "bomb," "bull fight," and "boxing match." While Barisani called his handiwork the "keep your parents from getting home attack," the breach highlights the dangers of the growing field of automotive telemetrics. 

Even as United Auto Workers (UAW) contract negotiations are underway with The Big 2.8, 13 News reports almost 100 temp employees at Chrysler's Belvidere, Illinois, assembly plant have filed a lawsuit protesting their contract. The temps have "little union representation," no dental, vision or prescription health care benefits. Their benefits and wages are the result of an agreement between Chrysler and the UAW– to whom they're expected to pay union dues. Even the UAW is split on how this should be resolved. Leadership at Local 1268 wants to see the temps made full time, but some workers fear if they do, it would result in diminished benefits for everyone. Chrysler, of course, has filed a motion to dismiss the suit.

According to Mike Levine at Pickuptruck.com, the all-new Toyota Tundra has surpassed the new(ish) GMT900 GMC Sierra 1500 in year-to-date sales. Officially, GM claims to have sold 115,185 Sierras. However, there's a bit of cloak and dagger math here. This figure includes 2006 models, and 'Sierra Classics', both built on the GMT800 platform, as well as heavy duty models. After peeling back these layers of confusion and misdirection, Mr. Levine reckons GM has sold only 76,700 brand new(ish) GMT900 Sierras. Toyota on the other hand has sold 97,290 (not quite fully) box(ed) fresh Tundras. This puts the Tundra at number four in full sized truck sales, and marks the first time a foreign automaker has sold more trucks than a domestic— in the history of the world, ever. If current sales trends continue, the Tundra will pass the Sierra in gross sales (i.e. with GM's gorilla math) by October. Currently GM gives up to $2000 in rebates to its new Sierra customers and Toyota offers up to $2,500. May you tow in interesting times.

Toyota's enjoying record financial prosperity; year-on-year, the world's largest automobile manufucturer's Q2 operating profits rose 31.8 percent (675.43 billion yen vs. 512.42 billion yen). The lion's share of Toyota's success stems from strong U.S. sales of high margin models (Tundra and Lexus LS), bolstered by a weak yen. Meanwhile, back at home, bleh. ToMoCo's domestic sales slumped 10 percent, dropping 43k vehicles compared to last year. Speaking to the Japan Times, Yoshihiro Okumura, from Tokyo's Chiba-gin Asset Management Co. says the downturn reflects a shrinking domestic pie. "It's becoming more difficult to make a large profit in Japan, as the market is shrinking and people aren't buying cars." In an attempt to spur sales, Toyota has unleashed  11 new or redesigned cars in the past 16 months. 

Although Isetta fans need not get too excited, CARSguide reveals that BMW is considering developing a car more mini than MINI, based on the MINI. BMW has ordered work on prototypes of a car smaller than anything they currently offer, in hopes of helping lower the company's CO2 emissions fleet average. As evidenced by Fiat's initial success with its resurrected Cinquecento, Europe's "city car" segment is growing fast.  As European manufacturers face rising gas prices, tighter emission standards and burdensome taxes on their products, the supermini class should continue to expand. What's next, a Euro-kei car?

Australia is in the middle of an anti-hooning jihad, confiscating the cars of street racers, donut makers and anyone else who dares hoon on the country's highways and byways. Last night, Perth police confiscated three cars in an hour, in the aptly named (at least for the coppers) Success. 720 ABC Perth reports that a 17-year-old girl and two men were booked for "creating undue and excessive noise. Although the vehicles were only impounded for 48 hours (plus steep fines), the country's law enforcement officials are happy to crush tasty tunermobiles owned by more accelerative hoonatics. The crackdown stems from the lethal consequence of illegal street racing, yet there isn't any scientific data on the overall perils of hooning. According to ABC Queensland, a researcher from Queensland University of Technology aims to redress that deficiency with a study for the school's Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety. Nerida Leal wants to keep it real: "Ill ask whether they think it's been effective, [and] whether they've come into contact with a police officer as part of an anti-hooning operation." 

Mercedes currently offers American consumers a choice of thirteen different model lines. What a difference from the Mercedes Benz of 1987, when only four U.S.-legal models wore the three pointed star. Back then, the Mercedes brand was renowned for fastidious, brick-shit-house over-engineering. Today, Benzes are known for many things, but mechanical robustness and reliability ain’t two of them. If anything, Mercedes has earned itself a reputation for persistent electrical gremlins and multitudinous mechanical misfires. Fresh from its divorce from Chrysler, Mercedes would like us to believe that the new C-Class represents a return to form. When you wish upon a star…