BusinessWeek describes the experience: When you arrive at the dealership, you're checked in at the gate. You're escorted into the showroom, where you're greeted by name. Gentle tunes waft from a baby grand piano in the corner. In the service department, you find leather couches, coffee, snacks and internet access. When your new car is delivered, it's wrapped in a red ribbon and presented in a ceremony with friends and family present. Rolls? Bentley? Maybach? Nope. Toyota. In China, the Toyota Camry is a high-end car, and the dealerships treat customers accordingly. The salesmen don't pressure the customers because that'll make them think there's something wrong with the car, and they're available to take care of customers' needs 24/7. The down side? Even the top salesmen make only about $14 commission per car, and that's only if they manage to sell extras like GPS and backup sensors; otherwise they clear about $7. Perhaps they could make a bit more money running seminars on how to treat customers like customers instead of victims for their American counterparts. 

"If everything goes well in the rest of the world, we can take a couple hits in the U.S. and still be okay." Bob Lutz, GM Vice Chairman of Global Product Development. [via TTAC]. "Those emerging markets can't carry GM. We've got to get the job done in all markets." Fritz Henderson, GM Chief Financial Officer [via Automotive News, sub]. Given GM Car Czar maximum Bob Lutz' reputation for "shooting from the hip" (a.k.a. making shit up as he goes along), I'm going with Fritz' analysis. Oh wait, "Henderson also said the U.S. economy in general is faring better than the financial markets. He said he doesn't think the nation is in a recession, thanks to strength in certain sectors of the economy, such as exports." Holy Cruising Down Denial Batman! If anyone is in a recession– you know, other than the housing market– it's the U.S. automobile industry. On the other hand, Fritz also told the assembled car hacks "In terms of what we have to do — profits, cash flow, market cap — we're not the world's largest automaker." So he's down with that. But– "That's what I'm spending 100 percent of my time trying to figure out." Hmmm. Maybe it has something to do with, I dunno, product, or, I'm guessing here, branding. Anyway, if it's not a recession, what is it? Downturn? Market correction? Help Fritz out here guys; what euphemism should he use? 

U.K. car mag Autocar has published snaps of the new "baby" Rolls Royce, codenamed RR4. Autocar reckons "the new car will adopt the Phantom’s design language (reference the car’s thick C-pillar and suicide rear doors). However, it’s also significantly lower and shorter than a Phantom, has a shorter bonnet, and a much less upright grille, than its bigger sibling." Rolls-Royce sure needs something to get it out of the doldrums. Launched in 2003, BMW's $333,350 Phantom was a flop. After announcing a "ceiling" of 10k units, Rolls sold just 3703 units in four years. Meanwhile, the VW Phaeton-based Bentley Continental GT and Flying Spur are still da bomb. Bentley sold 10,014 units last year (3990 units in NA alone). RR4 aims to put Roller back in the game, albeit eventually, and above Bentley. The baby Roller will arrive in showrooms "at the end of the decade" and sticker for around £175,000 ($347,456). Where that leaves the Phantom is anyone's guess.

According to Albany’s Times Union, the New York State Thruway Authority failed to collect some $4.5m in unpaid tolls from persistent E-ZPass scofflaws using highway I90. Thruway Executive Director Michael Fleischer defended his agency. "We have been working very cooperatively to get a contractor on board to collect the small fraction of the tolls that go unpaid." That has state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's auditors questioning the authority's "management culture." Maybe it's got something to do with the Authority's proposed toll hikes for 2008, 2009 and 2010. The auditors get the connection: "Toll increases should not be a substitute for sound management practices." Meanwhile, in the tiny town of Halfmoon, officials are deciding how to deal with a large puddle at an intersection, which sometimes causes motorists to travel into the path of oncoming traffic; good thing they’ve scheduled a defensive driving class for February 16th. And in Guilderland, we learn that snow plowing a cul-de-sac is “quite a science.” And now you know the news.

Some people think TTAC has been/is being overly critical of the Tesla Roadster, particularly when it comes to their claims for driving range and recharge time. We're not the only ones expressing concern. Autobloggreen's ace scribe Sam Abuelsamid reports their experience with the range while test driving the roadster:

Driven sedately, the Tesla Roadster very likely could achieve somewhere around 220 miles or more. Perhaps even as much 250 miles in city driving with lots of regenerative braking. The problem is that this little demon doesn't really want to be driven in that manner… [Based on the readings on the charge indicator gauge] the range with the driving I did [is] somewhere between 105 and 120 miles…. According to some of the print magazine reviews, they got significantly less. Autoweek only managed 93 miles… For now, drivers of the Roadster will have to choose, exceptional performance or exceptional range, but probably not both.

So there you have it. It's a sports car you can drive like a sports car for about 100 miles, or a sports car you can drive like a Prius for about 200 miles. Either way, it's a sports car that no one will be driving until after March 17. That is, if they can get it to the airport on time.

Correction:  Under the headline "Tesla Roadster Misses Production Date," TTAC stated that the date when the first production Tesla Roadster was scheduled to be released to a customer had changed to March 26. Our report was based on information posted on another site. Darryl Siry from Tesla contacted us and insisted that the production date has not changed; it's still March 17. We look forward to seeing a California-registered, fully-functional Tesla Roadster in a private customer's hands on that date. As stated previously, if so, we will discontinue the Tesla Birth Watch. 

Thompson Financial News (via) Forbes reports that Ford wants to make a clean break with its Jaguar and Land Rover brands. When Tata Motors takes control of the "crown jewels" in Ford's never-mighty Premier Automotive Group, Alan Mulally's minions don't want to retain a minority stake in either firm. While Autoblog is busy worrying "if Tata has the infrastructure to supply Jag and L.R. with the necessary components, from drivetrains to switch knobs," the real story is that Ford's U.K. trade unions are balking at the prospect. They're [justifiably] afraid that Tata will shutter both brand's UK ops post-purchase, threatening 16,500 union jobs. To soothe the savage beast, Tata is launching a charm offensive; they're flying union reps to India to enjoy high class call girls in luxury hotels (a.k.a. "the VW plan"). Just kidding. "Ford officials and trade union members are expected to visit Tata Motors' plant at Pune in the western Indian state of Maharashtra in a fortnight to gather first hand knowledge of Tata Motors' expertise." Yeah, that ought to calm them down.

Ford Taurus is the Homer Simpson of cars– or at least that's what Ford's head of product development thinks. Earlier this month in Detroit, Alan Mulally told a seminar a "fabulous" new Taurus is coming that "is the one we should have made originally." MSNBC reports product guru Derrick Kuzak was a bit more direct when speaking to a group of analysts. He showed a slide with Homer Simpson standing above a Five Hundred, along with Superman and Mr. Incredible above smaller drawings of sleeker versions of the Taurus and explained "As you walk from a Homer Simpson design to a Superman design, it's all about millimeters matter. That's only delivered when the engineering team does not dumb down the design because of engineering and manufacturing feasibility concerns." Analysts like marketing prof David Koehler were surprised and encouraged by the Ford exec's newfound candor: "It wasn't a rogue V.P. that was frustrated with the lack of innovation." Hopefully once they've finished polishing the Taurus, they'll turn their attention to the Marge Simpson Focus.  [thanks to starlightmica for the link]

So, here's the latest chapter in the "GM wants to consolidate all its brands and build multi-branded mega-stores– oh wait, no we don't" saga. GM CEO Rick Wagoner signaled his faith in the company's tri-branded (down from octo-branded) consolidation effort by blessing the opening of a new Henry Brown Buick-Pontiac-GMC store in Gilbert, Arizona with his presence. According to The Arizona Republic newspaper, Wagoner made no bones about the reason for his visit. "The three brands at Brown's dealership have been 'channeled' together in about 40 dealerships nationwide, Wagoner said, with about 100 more to come. The Gilbert dealership is one of the first to show the new look of the stores." Wagoner didn't do a Mulally– sell a carefully prepared customer a car– but he did praise Brown as "one of the best in the business." "One of the best." Nice. 

This one comes to us as a logical extension of a factual story. The New York Times reports that the F.B.I has launched a criminal investigation into 14 companies in the sub-prime mortgage business. The feds are working with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is conducting "about three dozen civil investigations into how subprime loans were made and packaged, and how securities backed by them were valued." We're talking accounting fraud, insider trading and/or other violations surrounding loans made to borrowers with weak, or subprime, credit. Hey! That sounds like the "anyone with a pulse" zero percent financing deals that kept the moribund metal moving for the last two years or so. Not to mention the bundling of said loans and the automakers' accounting for the true cost of the risk. To wit: New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo is investigating whether Wall Street banks withheld damaging information about the loans they were packaging. Considering the amounts of money involved, if this blows-up for Detroit and other automakers, it will blow-up good. 

When Toyota got slammed by Consumer Reports (and others) for declining product quality– the brand's raison d'etre– ToMoCo CEO Katsuaki Watanabe practically committed seppuku on the spot. Of course, he didn't; Watanabe said his company would do whatever was necessary to ensure that Toyota raised the bar for its product quality worldwide. Despite Toyota's southern plants, the man wasn't just whistling Dixie. Canada's Globe and Mail reports that the automaker has put the brakes on a new assembly plant in Woodstock, Ontario to ensure product quality. “We're very optimistic that we're going to have a good ramp up but I'm going to go slow,” admitted Ray Tanguay, president of Toyota of Canada. “Quality first before anything.” Either the Mail forgot to ask– or Toyota refused to reveal– the precise reason for the holdup. Perhaps, as the Mail hints, it's got more to do with the slowdown in the North American market. Or not. In which case, point taken.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is under fire from California. Golden State regulators are trying usurp the federal agency's power to set fleet-wide fuel economy averages by classifying CO2 as a pollutant. Rather than fighting the move– debating the "facts" of global warming in the Supreme Court– the EPA is signaling its desire to weasel cut some kind of compromise. While it's unlikely the EPA will do anything to upset Congress' "35 by 2020" mpg applecart, Wardsauto.com reports that the EPA Air Quality Supremo Margo Oge stepped-up to the microphone at the Automotive News shindig and told automakers that "we must bring about an end to the horsepower arms race among auto makers and replace it with another different kind of a race, a race to produce the most affordable and desirable, low carbon-vehicle each year.” New industrial revolution, must reduce greenhouse gas emissions, college kids are green, yada yada yada, California wins but WE'LL handle it. Meanwhile, someone should tell Oge that the horsepower wars are already done; automakers are competing with each other to green-up and meet the EU and NTSA's new fuel economy regs (e.g. GM's Ultrav8tracide and Voltmania). Still, thanks for the career-boosting rhetorical carrot. 

I should have given the back office boys a week's notice that I was posting Mr. Yates’ work on TTAC. But I am acutely aware of this medium's forté: immediacy. The idea of holding onto a blog post, car review or editorial for longer than 24 hours runs counter to the nature of the beast. In fact, minutes after I have a piece locked and loaded, my trigger finger gets itchy. After getting the copy on Sunday, I decided to soft launch Brock's piece on Monday, and then announce it to the world (via a press release) on Tuesday. Monday went fine. At about 2:30pm today, the pistonhead population woke-up to Brock's return. The resulting traffic over-whelmed our servers. Reto and the Boffins rushed to their e-first aid kit and found some band-aids. We're now back up, ready to rock and roll. As for Brock's next piece, we discussed a column on Carlos Ghosn's prediction that one of The Big 2.8 is about to go bust. Obviously, I agree with the Brazilian. Mr. Yates thinks Carlos is "a clown." If that's where Brock wants to go, that's fine with me. There is no party line here at TTAC. Not for Brock Yates or any of TTAC's current or future writers or commentators, who built the foundation for the Yatesian meltdown. And for that, to all of you, thanks. 

“It can be an expensive process to install the pumps and get the infrastructure ready to sell E85, so we’re offering as much assistance as we can to those retailers that have elected to sell E85.” So sayeth Mark Walters, Biofuels Director for the Indiana Corn Marketing Council. Apparently the "as much as we can bit" amounts to $5k per eligible gas station. Big whoop. Shell Oil– which doesn't pay for any of its franchisees to sell E85– pegs the cost of a corn juice compatible storage tank at $240k. And that doesn't include the time and hassle of local planning permission, or the disruption of construction to normal trade. According to the Brownfield Network (AG News for America), "Walters says that if the state grant is increased to $20,000 as proposed, the two combined should be very attractive to retailers." But not customers. At the moment, Indiana only has 100 E85 retailers, and you can bet that's not because consumers are clamoring for the stuff. [check out the podcast with Mr. Walters at the bottom of BN's post]

Inexpensive products that promise significant improvements to your car’s performance are almost always fool’s gold. This is especially true for engine additives (*cough* STP *cough*). However, there’s one company with a sterling reputation for delivering on its promises: Redline Synthetic. Since 1979, the Benicia, California company has been selling coolants, fuel additives and lubricants to the automotive, motorcycle, marine and industrial markets. As part of their range, Redline offer a product called WaterWetter®. They claim their potion can reduce car coolant temperatures by as much as 30ºF. That’s hot! I mean, not. 

Dodge's horny longhorns at the Detroit Auto Show were just the beginning. Chrysler's Firehouse media blog reveals that the automaker's decided to put the horns back into their slogan. Last year, The Dodge Boys gelded "Grab life by the horns," transforming the brand's advertising exhortation into the Zen-like (i.e. vague) "Grab Life." Even though Dodge used "Grab Life by the Horns" since 2001, they hoped that removing the grabby part of the strapline (how butch is that?) would make the brand more appealing to female buyers. Unfortunately, the new version didn't go over well with truck buyers, who account for the most of Dodge's (not to mention Chrysler's) profits. Taking the bull by the horns, Chief Marketing Officer Deborah Meyer disclosed that that Dodge is reviving the original "Grab Life by the Horns" line for the 2009 Ram. The new version won't horn in on the car ads, though. Their automotive slogan will remain "Grab life." Perhaps they should sell that one to Buick, with a parenthetical "while you can" at the end.