While you might think that a savvy American automaker would stay well away from the political fray, the Buloxi Sun Herald reports that GM is still catering to its republican "base." After hooking-up with conservative talk radio hosts Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh last year, GM has now secured itself the honor of being the Official Vehicle Provider for this year's G.O.P. convention in Minnesota. And yes, I'm aware that this is not new news. "GM and the Republican National Convention have enjoyed a strong partnership for the last seven conventions," revealed convention President and Chief Executive Officer Maria Cino. "We look forward to working with GM once again to keep our convention moving smoothly." But this time they'll also be moved cleanly; GM's G.O.P. fleet will consist "primarily: of flexible-fuel and hybrid models. "This is an outstanding venue for a great number and variety of people to see first-hand how GM is leading the way with more products with more fuel and technology choices for consumers," said Ken W. Cole, GM vice president for Global Public Policy and Government Relations. Somehow I doubt the public education will include a Cadillac Escalade Hybrid.

CNN reports that Jane Hambleton of Fort Dodge Iowa discovered booze stashed under the driver’s seat of her 19-year-old son’s car. Hambleton immediately placed this for-sale ad in a local newspaper: “OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet.” Prospective used-car buyers aside, Hambleton says she’s received more than 70 phone calls from the likes of emergency room technicians, nurses and even school counselors who phoned in to congratulate her for being a “responsible parent.” The hapless teenager– who claims the alcohol was left in his car by a passenger– is "very, very unhappy."  While the car has been sold, Hambleton is letting the ad run an extra week. Common sense from the nation’s heartland.

What do old transmission parts, license plates and inner tubes have in common? Other than being set dressing for Sanford and Son, they're the latest in chichi home and fashion accessories. Wall Street Journal reports that several artists and designers are raiding the junkyards and landfills to make, among other things, purses from inner tubes, lamps from transmission gears and jewelry from old license plates. The benefit, according to WSJ's Elva Ramirez, is "feel-good points for reducing landfills one tire and gear-shift cog at a time." So what's next– a set of bookends made from a pair of smart cars?

Japanese motor vehicle sales fell 7.6 percent in 2007; Toyota was down 6.2 percent. Still, Bloomberg reports that the Toyota Corolla managed to retain its five-year standing as Japan's best-selling passenger car (excluding minicars). Corolla sales increased by 2.7 percent last year, almost 150K units found new homes. The Toyota Schvitz… er… Vitz (a.k.a. Yaris) was Japan's second-best-selling car, clocking over 121k sales (up 3.2 percent). Toyota better be careful, though– Honda's having a Fit to unseat them. The redesigned Fit went on sale in October and became Japan's best-seller in December (again, excluding minicars). The fit outran the Corolla by a margin of almost two to one. That's a 144.1 percent increase over December 2006. The Fit's annual sales rose by 14.5 percent, scooping third in overall sales. If you don't exclude minicars, Suzuki reigned supreme in 2007. The brand sold over 225k Wagon R kei cars. Now if they'd just pop a Hayabusa engine into a few of them and send them our way…

Ironically enough, Jung observed "there is no scientific test that would prove the discrepancy between perception and reality." Scanning the results of Consumer Reports (CR) automotive brand perception survey, Toyota execs must be muttering "thank God for that," while GM shouts "See? Told ya!" The CR survey evaluates how American consumers perceive car companies in seven key areas: safety, quality, value, performance, environmental friendliness, design and innovation. Toyota ranked first in overall brand perception, racking-up a score of 189. Honda snagged second place, scoring 146. Ford was the highest ranked American brand, placing third with 112 points. While Chevrolet and GMC made the "best" list, Buick was amongst Audi (!) and Acura at the bottom of the league table. Here are the winning brands in the seven categories (listed in order of importance according to respondents):

Safety – Volvo
Quality – Toyota
Value – Honda
Performance – BMW
Green – Toyota
Design/Style – Mercedes
Technology Innovation – Toyota

(For an explanation of CR's methodology, see the bottom of the linked page below.)

If there's one thing I can't stand (which is a lie, obviously) it's a made-up quote. It's easy enough to do. First, analyze some industry trend using your informed insight and common sense. Then, make up a quote, attribute it to an unnamed source and call it news. Edmunds' Inside Line [allegedly] shows us how it's done. First, the warm-up. "Supplier sources familiar with the product cycle plans at Chrysler tell Inside Line that the automaker is 'trying to move investment up' in the effort to improve the Sebring, Avenger and Sebring Convertible even earlier than originally planned." And then, the pitch! "'The interiors are too cheap,' said one highly placed industry source. 'We call it 'the Sebring problem.' That vehicle is dying on the vine and it's only a year old. They got cheap on everybody and said 'the customer doesn't mind hard plastic and ugly grain [in the cabin].'" Anita claims these same sources say Chrysler is considering dumping the Viper to pay for the Sebring, Avenger and Sebring Convertible fix. (Which Autoblog reports as gospel.) How about either doing the hard work of proper journalism or just fess-up to your own analysis?

Nobody other than the Trollhatten Saab (and probably not them if they were honest) seems happy with what happened with Saab's design direction since GM bought the Scandinavians. The General replaced the aeronautical roots of the original 9-something models with a cheap, cost-effective farrago born from Subaru, Opel, Chevrolet (!) and/or other shared-components from GM’s scrapyard. Luckily for the few remaining SAAB fans, faith smiled on the brand in 2006, when they got to see the Aero X concept. The X is a very subtle blend of aeronautical inspired elements and pure SAAB DNA, packed in a modern (but somehow immortal) shape. The Aero X resurrected the spirit of the brand. Unlike most show cars, many of the Aero X' styling elements are fit for production– especially if we consider the sportier vehicles of the brand, like the 9-3 Cabrio. Here I tried to mix some Aero X touch lines with the requirements of a convertible, keeping in mind that the vehicle should be producible in the current GM environment. Is there any life in the old girl? Thanks to the Aero X, if there's the will, there's a way.

[For more Avarvarii photochopistry, click here.]

As TTAC scribe Megan Benoit wrote in her Enclave review, when better Buicks are built, they'll be built in China. And so it is. GM has released this press shot of the designed-in-China Buick Riviera concept, headed for the (TTAC-attended) North American International Auto Show. Just in case you didn't get the message that the storied Buick brand is now [more or less] a foreign nameplate, note that the gull-winged, carbon fiber-clad concept car debuted at the Shanghai Auto Show. Although GM says the Riviera is supposed to showcase Buick's forthcoming global design language, I reckon all that means is that the portholes and the Paul Weller grill stay. It's a shame that GM didn't look for the same kind of Euro-American design genius that informed legendary designer Bill Mitchell's first Buick Riviera, but at least they didn't call it the CX10.  

Despite the potential (if not actual) cratering of the U.S. new car market, Toyota reckons it will rack-up seven percent more sales abroad in '08 than '07. CNNMoney reports that Toyota '07 sales rose six percent to 9.37m vehicles. Sniffing big business in the expanding Russian and Chinese markets, Toyota reiterated its previous forecast for a big boost in total global sales in 2008, heading for 9.85m new car sales. Although Toyota's doemstic (i.e. Japanese) sales fell four percent in '07, down to 2.228m vehicles, their soothsayers say the market has stabilized, and will remain flat for '08. Whether all this will be enough to (once again?) wrest the "world's largest automaker" crown from GM remains to be seen; GM is also doing land office business in China, South America and Russia. But if we're talking profitability, well, Detroiters may not want to go there… 

Thinking about taking a road trip this year? Not so fast Bucko! No, really. Not so fast– especially if you're going to be traveling the I-95 corridor in the eastern U.S. Forbes has compiled a list of the ten most expensive states for speeding tickets, and half of them are along I-95. Virginia, the only newcomer to the list, jumps directly to the top. While NHTSA says the national median for a first offender is about $200, lead-footed drivers in the Old Dominion State can be hit with an incredible $1,350 fine for their first offense, thanks to a $1,050 surcharge added last year. The most expensive places to get stopped for speeding and their maximum fine for the first offense are:

Virginia – $1,350
Georgia – $1,000
Illinois – $1,000
Nevada – $1,000
New Hampshire – $1,000
North Carolina – $1,000
Utah – $750
Oregon – $600
Kansas – $500
Maryland – $500

Carburetors, fuel injection, headlights, satellite radios, ECU, ABS, air conditioning, drive-by-wire— today’s automotive technologies are variations on well-established themes. If “Crazy Henry” Ford resurrected, he’d have little problem driving– or understanding– a modern car. While automakers continue to tweak automotive systems for greater ergonomics, power, fuel economy and reliability; the improvements are evolutionary, not revolutionary. Even alternative powerplants aren’t game changers. But something else is…

While GM STILL hasn't made up its mind whether or not to build a rear wheel-drive Impala (or anything else for that matter), Ford has declared its intention to reclaim the big ass rear wheel-drive (RWD) American sedan market, once dominated by the brand's Panther platform. Automotive News [sub] reports that FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally broke the news while breaking bread with journalists in "suburban Detroit" (Grosse Point blank?). "It’s important going forward,” Big Al admitted, with enough understatement to shame a British peer. Did I say American sedan? "Executives acknowledge they can build the vehicles using a new global rwd platform being developed in Ford’s Australian operations." So, are we looking at a GM-like imported Aussie Pontiac G8-type deal? Not necessarily. “There are good reasons not to: currency, freight,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford group vice president of global manufacturing. Uh huh. No word yet what, when or where, but we sure as Hell get the why. 

Money.net reports that various U.K. authorities have destroyed some 45k uninsured vehicles during the first nine months of '07. Which is OK with Nick Starling, director of general insurance at the Association of British Insurers. "These figures show that the determination of the insurance industry and the police to drive them [uninsured motorists] from our roads is beginning to bear fruit." The Manchester Evening News says their local constabulary can claim 10k of that total. "Since January 2006 we have seized more than 25,000 vehicles," boasts Sgt Mark Beales of the Greater Manchester Police's traffic section. "We will continue to ensure there is no hiding place for those who break the law." While the Association of British Drivers (ABD) doesn't dispute the police's right to confiscate uninsured motorists' vehicles, ABD Environment spokesman Ben Adams argues "This government is so venomously anti-car, that confiscated vehicles are thoughtlessly crushed out of sheer spite. They claim the environment to be their top priority yet it appears they are encouraging the mindless destruction of huge resources of used parts that could be recycled and destroying serviceable cars." Fair dues?

Driverless cars, intra-traffic electronic crash avoidance, plug-in electric hybrids, fuel cells, expanding foreign markets– GM CEO Rick Wagoner is on a tear, talking about everything and anything except, you know, the fact that GM NA isn't making a profit or, God forbid, predicting when it might be back in black. So what the Hell, let's add E85 to the list. C/Net reports that Rabid Rick reckons we need to increase the number of American gas stations selling E85 from the current 1400ish level to 15k to 20k (out of approximately 170k total). To serve corn juice to all those GM Flex-Fuel vehicles earning the company federal fuel economy credits, GM claims it's been working with big box retailers "like Wal-Mart and Target" to install ethanol pumps. "It has been remarkably difficult to get pumps installed," Mr. Wagoner admitted. "We've been doing more work than I thought we would need to." I think that's Rick's way of saying it ain't happening– which makes sense as Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg told us "we don't have a timeline for E85 implementation." In any case, Rick's well-up on the farm-based limitations of increasing E85 distribution ten-fold. "To get beyond a certain level, it is going to have to go beyond grain-based in the U.S.," he said. By then we should all be driving around in flex-fuel E-flex Volts.