There are plenty of auto industry execs who see car enthusiasts a bunch of Buddy Pines. I'm talking about the sycophantic fan in The Incredibles: a boy whose ambition to be Mr. Incredible's sidekick foundered on his abject lack of superpowers. In fact, Buddy Pine's pathetic devotion put Mr. Incredible in harm's way, and, eventually, turned Pine from a fan into Mr. Incredible's murderous stalker. The truth about car fans is far better represented by a cartoon panel that shows a King looking down on his troops as they head into battle. A man stands next to him holding a machine gun. "I don't have time for salesmen now!" the King shouts. I was reminded of the image when I discovered that Jaguar is finally consigning the X-Type to the scrap heap of history. Enthusiasts had been warning Ford that they were killing Jag from Day One, when it was clear FoMoCo knew about as much about careful parenting as Cronos. The X-Type turned out to be the British brand's ultimate indignity– and that's saying something. If Ford and Jag had listened to Jaguar's most passionate if amateur guardians they could have, well, it breaks your heart to see the XK120 and E-Type's descendants descend into the abyss. Keep this in mind when you comment here and elsewhere, and rest assured that there will come a day when car companies realize they have to let us inside the factory gates. For their own good. 

The Detroit News reports that the United Auto Workers' (UAW) local officials have accepted the tentative contract agreement with Chrysler. Despite the vote, some high-ranking UAW officials- including the head of the UAW bargaining committee- aren't what you'd call sold on the deal. Citing issues with job guarantees (i.e. there aren't any) and the two-tier wage agreement (no provision for temporary workers' transition to full-time employment), they plan to campaign against the Chrysler agreement's ratification. UAW boss Ron Gettelfinger doesn't appear worried at the prospect of an internal rift, assuring Automotive News [AN, sub] that the contract vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the agreement. Yes, well, the exact results of the vote were not released, and AN forgot to ask Big Ron to define "overwhelmingly." Chrysler's 45k rank and file UAW members will vote on the proposed Chrysler contract later this week. Gettlefinger is confident this his union brothers and sisters will accept the new agreement as he moves on to capitulate negotiate with Ford.

When the United Auto Workers (UAW) concluded their strike against GM in two days, plenty of people reckoned the industrial action was designed to put the fear of God into union members, rather than wrest new concessions from GM. If so, it worked a treat; 66 percent of the UAW rank and file approved the new contract the following week. When the UAW strike against Chrysler lasted six hours, the strikelet scared no one. In fact, Bloomberg reports that the head of the UAW's negotiating committee at Chrysler will tell his union brothers and sisters to reject the accord. Doh! He forgot the job guarantees! "Virtually no Chrysler plant received commitments beyond the scope of their current product," Bill Parker revealed. "The plant- by-plant threats we've experienced in the past will continue." Parker's also says the settlement fails to match the GM accord's assurances that Chrysler's current temporary workers will move into full-time jobs. So why is the UAW lead negotiator disavowing his own agreement? You guessed it: union politics. Parker is part of an anti-Gettelfinger faction called "New Directions." This could get interesting…

The Truth About Cars (TTAC) strives to report on all things automotive with the complete, unvarnished, unadulterated, no-holds-barred truth. All our authors write from a single-minded perspective: the consumer’s interests are more important than those of the industry. All our commentators keep us– and the industry– honest. In other words, we’re all a bunch of troublemakers. And it’s time once again to make some trouble. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m proud to announce that nominations are now open for TTAC’s second annual Ten Worst Awards. 

We're happy that Washington Post car columnist Warren Brown is happy with the "new" GM. But methinks he protests too little. In his latest minimus opus, Brown begins by admitting that "it's too early for General Motors to declare 'mission accomplished'"– even though that expression has been considered ironic since GWB gave a post-Iraq invasion press conference on the U.S.S. Lincoln. Anyway, if that's not scary enough, Warren reveals there's a "discernible note of confidence in the voices of GM's top executives today" and "smiles on the faces of the company's designers, engineers, vehicle line executives, marketing and communications people." And that's because GM's "changed its culture from one of authoritarian control with little regard for consumers or rank-and-file employees to one in which car people — designers, engineers and marketers — have been empowered to go full blast in anticipating and meeting consumer needs and demands." Wow! On the tangible proof side, Brown lauds the new Chevrolet Malibu, Cadillac CTS, Saturn Sky, GMC Acadia, Saturn Outlook and Buick Enclave (Shhh! Don't tell Warren's readers that the last three are the same vehicle.) As for actual factual evidence of this turnaround, Warren cites the Sky "stealing sales from the iconic MX-5 Miata," GM's slight sales increase during the last two months and, uh, that's it. With a cheering section like this, who needs PR?

The Daily Telegraph reveals that the Labour govenment has ditched plans to introduce a "pay-as-you-go" pricing scheme for UK motorists. The move comes after an on-line petition against so-called road pricing (a.k.a. "Electronic Road Pricing" or ERP) garnered an unprecedented 1.8m signatures. The Telegraph, which lead a journalistic campaign to strangle the idea in its metaphorical, non-MTV crib, predicts that the Department for Transport will officially signal a shift from national road pricing to local schemes (a la London's Congestion Charge) in a statement to Parliament next week, as follows: "We agree that there are congestion problems on parts of the strategic road network, but 88 per cent of congestion is in urban areas. Therefore it is sensible to prioritise the assessment of road pricing in these areas." Reading between the lines, the government has left the door open to local or country officials seeking to introduce ERP schemes on national or trunk roads within their territory. In other words, the battleground has now shifted to Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle. Watch this space (and we're not charging you for it either). 

When Cerberus rescued Daimler bought Chrysler, pundits predicted a radical reinvention. Oh well. But that hasn't stopped the irrepressible Jason Vines. Chrysler's Spinmeister's got another story to tell, and The Financial Times is happy to tell it: "Chrysler cuts a dash with speed and decisiveness." Aside from the six-hour resolution to the United Auto Workers' strikelet, "signs of the new urgency include a swift move to bring down swollen inventories of slow-selling models. Five plants were idled last week, and four will shut this week… According to Mr Press, the production cutback was sealed during a seven-minute conference call between Mr Nardelli and a Cerberus executive." (Did we tell you that phone call would be PR fodder?) Other than that, "Frank Klegon, head of product development, observes that Mr Nardelli 'lets me know what he thinks, a lot.'" And Steven Landry, head of North American sales, says “they want to fix things quick." The FT buries the real bombshell (as have we) for the end of the piece. Speaking at the National Automobile Dealers Association in Vegas, Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli answered a dealer's questions about the possibility of Cerberus "spinning off" Chrysler bits and pieces. "While he did not exclude a future spin-off, he said Cerberus would wait at least until Chrysler is once again profitable." Huh.  

The "new" Ford Focus rests atop eight-year-old underpinnings. But the car's PR campaign uses cutting edge (so to speak) New Media techniques. Cnet.com reports that FoMoCo's launching the '08 Focus with the spin industry's latest jargoneriffic widget: a Social Media News Release (SMNR). Ironically enough (at least for Nissan fans), the SMNR was created by SHIFT Communications as "a viable new format to spark and cultivate online conversations about a product." In case you can't be bothered to click through to a release on the hot new Focus, the non non-viable digital press release contains "boilerplate statements," loads o' links, podcasts, a webpage or five, links to old stories, pre-approved quotes, eye candy photos, graphics and YouTubeage. We were expecting some new level of interactivity– IM or webinars with people within the company, connections to other journalists or links to Foci forums, but no; it's same old you-know-what is a new wrapper. Clearly, the "fourth wall" between automakers and their customers is still bricked-up. Perhaps Ford's new marketing maven from Lexus could have a look at this…

Does the average American consumer know or care that GM owns Saturn? Or Toyota Scion? Nope. TTAC has been arguing since ever that brands are the heart and soul of any and all car companies; it's how people perceive the products vying for their patronage. Automotive News [AN, sub] has run an analysis of U.S. car sales by brand for the first nine months of '07, and there's blood all over the carpet. A cataclysmic shift leaves Toyota the undisputed king of cars. "The Japanese juggernaut slashed the retail sales gap with GM by 40 percent during the first eight months of 2007… GM's retail advantage dropped from 487,235 vehicles for that period last year to 282,677 vehicles this year. If current trends continue, AN predicts ToMoCo will wrest the overall number one spot from GM within four years (by 2011). In fact, the Chevrolet Impala is the only domestic vehicle that appears in the nine-month top-10 automotive list, trailing the Toyota Camry by over 100k units. (Take fleet sales out of that equation…) Meanwhile, "Honda has quiely risen to number three in U.S. car sales, looking at achieving 10 percent of the U.S. light-vehicle market by year's end. Ford has tanked. The Blue Oval Boyz' overall sales are down 13.3 percent. They've lost sales every month this year and dropped nearly two points of market share. In the upmarket automotive arena, Lexus is set to topple Cadillac as America's favorite luxury brand, heading for '07 totals that will beat Cadillac's best ever sales year. 

I remember the afternoon Nancy Reagan sashayed into CNN for an in-studio interview. I was tethered to camera two, panning its unblinking eye left and right six inches– as I had done for eight hours a day for the previous year-and-a-half. To say I was numb with boredom and seething with resentment is like suggesting that Osama Bin Laden would be persona non grata at a U.S. Marines' barracks. Of course, this was a kindler gentler time, when the CIA was busy training Osama and his cronies to terrorise the Russians in Afghanistan. Anyway, Nance was deeply involved in her "Just Say No" anti-drugs campaign. Her interviewers: Don Farmer and Chris Curl (whose long-suffering though minion-squashing producer Katie Couric dreamed of better days). At some point, Don asked The First Lady "So how did your children avoid taking drugs?" I nearly snorked. The previous winter, I'd had the good fortune to ski with Ron Jr. in Aspen Colorado. On the lift up Ajax, Ron and I had partaken of a particularly fine bud of Maui Wowee nestled in the bowl of my erotically shaped meerschaum pipe. I don't remember what Nancy said, or how in the world I kept my mouth shut (a skill that remains undeveloped some twenty-plus years later), but I do remember thinking that truth is the first casualty of minimum wage Hell. (Or something like that.) As TTAC heads towards adding video, you can rest assured that we will continue to pull no punches– and leave those buds unsmoked.

Car buffs around the world have wasted countless hours debating whether the automotive stunt work in Bullitt or The French Connection qualifies as The Mother of All Car Chases. Obviously, Bullitt is the correct answer. Bud Ekins was the man behind the man behind the wheel. But first, Ekins performed the over-the-fence motorbike jump in "The Great Escape;" the most famous motorcycle stunt ever performed in a movie. After that immortal movie moment, motor mad actor Steve McQueen tapped Ekins to create the superhuman driving in "Bullitt." The movie earned Ekins his place in Hollywood legend– even though the studio insisted on crediting McQueen with the driving. (Ekins didn't mind; he valued his friendship with McQueen more than industry accolades.) Ekins went on to work on other super-stunt films such as "Blues Brothers" ("They got everything in this mall") and "Diamonds are Forever" (two wheel driving through an alley). When his pal and fellow race car driver McQueen died in 1980, Ekins retired from stunt driving, heartbroken. He spent his remaining days restoring and collecting Triumph motorbikes. His only regret in life? "Opening a Triumph dealership, instead of working for Honda."

Ford Model T. Volkswagen Type 1. Tata People's Car. Tata what? Next fall, Indian automaker Tata plans to introduce a $2,500 car to put India's masses on wheels, just as Ford and VW did in their home countries. The New York Times reports that Tata is one of several automakers who want a piece of the entry-level pie in what will soon be the world's fastest-growing car market. (Maruti Suzuki currently controls more than 50 percent of that market, with models as low as $5k.) As Tata moves even further down market, they're joined by Honda, VW (Skoda), Toyota, Renault-Nissan and Ford. While critics are worried about the safety of such cheap cars, the automakers all say they'll meet local safety standards (how reassuring is that?). Needless to say, environmentalists are expressing concerns that more cars on India's roads will exacerbate India's air pollution problem.  

Carmakers should add more flash and trash to their web sites. Words of wisdom from CarGurus.com CEO Langley Steinart. Speaking with Advertising Age [sub], Steinart asserted that a six-month study of shoppers on his website indicated that 62 percent of pages viewed consisted of photos and videos. Based on this info, he uncategorically concludes that online shoppers "first and foremost want videos." He was shocked (shocked I tell you) to discover that car-shopping web surfers have to read automakers' websites to glean information about a car. "You have to fall in love with the car visually. Are you going to fall in love over braking power?" Regarding the science behind his study, Mr. Steinart admits he has no way of knowing his site's demographics– other than they "cut across all ages." The Guru-in-Chief also couldn't say how may visitors to his site are shopping for a vehicle (instead of reading editorials and blogs or looking for parts, accessories or automotive epiphanies). With his ability to make leaps of logic in a single bound, we reckon Steinart has a bright future in marketing research.

No seriously. The Kingdom of Norway may become the first nation on God's green Earth to ban all gasoline-only cars. Citing Brazil's success with bioethanol as their rationale, Norwegian lawmakers are considering ditching petrol-only machines completely, in favor of biofuel-powered transportation. The United Press International reports that Center Party committee member Jenny Klinge feels banning sales of gasoline-powered cars to her country's 4.7m residents "would pressure the automobile industry into developing technology faster than it otherwise would." The Norwegian Transport ministry is trying to determine if such a ban would be legal. Meanwhile, Norway's many corn, soybean, and sugar cane farmers are excited about the prospects of a new market for their crops.

Sorry, I get confused sometimes, what with all these domestic automaker-sponsored surveys that surprise! reveal that their products' quality is nearasdammit as good as their competitions'. Initially. In some cases. If you're comparing a lack of defects– as opposed to some other, more consumercentric measure of quality. Anyway, once again Ford paid RDA Group of Bloomfield Hills to survey 31k car buyers who'd lived with their new whip for all of 90 days. The Detroit News (DTN) dutifully reports that "2007 model year Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars and trucks had 1,395 quality issues per 1,000 vehicles, compared with 1,381 per 1,000 vehicles for 2007 Toyota, Lexus and Scion cars and trucks." (Honda came first.) Just in case you suspect that shock! Ford's patronage might have influenced the outcome, the DTN assures us that "The firm conducts similar studies for other automakers [Ed. with similar results?]," and "its findings have hewed close to those of the closely watched annual initial quality survey independently conducted by J.D. Power and Associates." Bennie Fowler, Ford's quality chief, told the DTN that Ford's "trying to listen to its customers and take their concern to heart." As Yoda would say, NO TRYING! Either do or don't do.