You have to admire Bob Lutz' chutzpah. After his boss publicly backpedaled on when we might finally see an operational Chevy Volt electric – gas hybrid vehicle in the showrooms, he goes on the GM FastLane blog wishing the Volt a happy first birthday. How something that has yet to be birthed can have a birthday is beyond me. Maximum Bob brags about everything done since they announced their intent to build something with batteries to sell someday:

– Shuffled around 600 scientists and engineers
– Signed three contracts for battery development
– Begin testing a couple of batteries
– Opened an E-Flex design studio

And in spite of media reports of him having said otherwise, he insists "we are holding tight to our 2010 deadline." Ahhhh, the optomism and hope that comes with the start of a new year. Or the miscellaneous ramblings of a madman. We report. You decide.

At the risk of flagellating the proverbial deceased equine, the Volt's development team is falling right in step with what Rick Wagoner is saying about its possibility of seeing a showroom floor in 2010 (well, DUH!). Lyle Dennis, editor of www.gm-volt.com (no affiliation with GM) asked Rob Peterson, spokesman for the E-Flex development team, what he thought about all the negative press surrounding Rick's recent reneging. "I think people are reading more into this than what's really there. Program timing for the Volt has not changed, nor has our commitment to this program." But, taking a page from the boss' playbook, he added, "we continue to work aggressively toward our 2010 internal target, but that date is dependent on the availability of battery technology…. Only through rigorous testing of the battery…will we be able to accurately determine where we are in the development of the battery and the ultimate production date of the Volt." So there you have it: it's all about the batteries. And when they don't make their originally proclaimed date for whatever reason, they have an excuse already prepackaged and waiting on the shelf. Pretty convenient, huh?

As we've pointed out many times, Strategic Vision's methodology is based on something wacky called the "Tree of ValueCentered Knowledge," and the company is on the take. So, with that in mind, Ford scooped first overall in the 2007 Strategic Vision "most delightful" vehicle ratings. And if that seems subjective and arbitrary… Strategic breaks the "multifunction" segment into three subcagetories: small (VW Rabbit), medium (Volvo V50 Wagon) and luxury (Audi A3). Apparently, the ultimate multifunction vehicles– CUVs and SUVs– don't count. And what's this? Owners of GM's worst-selling Lambda CUV, the Saturn Outlook, are more delighted than those who bought the GMC Acadia or Buick Enclave (the Outlook won the "medium crossover" category). And if that Tahoe-sized family hauler is considered "medium," you have to wonder what they'd consider "large." Anyway, TTAC is less than delighted that anyone takes anything that Strategic Vision says seriously. The Detroit Free Press has the full list of winners.

Kelley Blue Book is one of the good guys; the organization that led the way towards pricing transparency for consumers. So it's no surprise that their Western Sales Manager Jay Campbell thinks car dealers' websites would benefit from some user generated content. Writing for Dealer Marketing Magazine, Jay uses the term CGC (Consumer Generated Content) while making his case for e-Glasnost. "Today, consumers turn to auto enthusiast sites, online forums and message boards, question and answer sites, and blogs to post their feelings. Imagine how large and untapped this opportunity is for your dealer Website?" The misplaced question mark tells the tale; the idea that car dealers would open themselves up to potentially negative comments from the great unwashed requires a leap of imagination that Evil Knieval wouldn't have attempted in his [fall into the] heyday. Although Jay's heart is in the right place (gold star from TTAC), I felt compelled to call him and see if he lives anywhere near planet Earth.

The Detroit Free Press reports that U.S. District Court Judge Robert H. Cleland has granted the United Auto Workers (UAW) and GM a gag order preventing either side from revealing the details of their $29.9 VEBA health care superfund. Cleland deemed the cone of silence necessary to protect financial, proprietary and personal information (?). To that end, he forbade the release of "documents containing information that would cause named plaintiffs, prospective class members, the UAW, GM or any other present or current employees of the UAW or GM 'annoyance, embarrassment or oppression.'" Well guess what? The UAW rank and file rightly consider the gag order a major "annoyance," as it prevents them from knowing how far up the river they've been sold. "These workers have paid for that plan over the years with forfeiture of pay, and cost of living and many other concessions that were made over the years," Jerry Tucker, a former UAW International executive board member, kvetched. "They are entitled to know everything about the plan." Given the union movement's long and ignoble history of fraud, corruption, theft, mismanagement, extortion, bribery and violence, he may have a point. This is the second time Judge Cleland has agreed to keep union members in the dark about "their" VEBA; he issued a similar order for the UAW-Chrysler filing on November 15. Ford's VEBA-related judicial filing hasn't yet gone dark, but it's only a matter of time. For shame.

You gotta love fark.com. Anyway, I've resisted the urge to blog this story because, frankly, who cares what GM's CEO thinks about driverless cars? While the media is all abuzz with Wagoner's forthcoming speech to the Consumer Electronic Show, is there anyone out there with even the slightest knowledge of GM's current technological chops who believes that the same automaker that's struggling to get their electric – gas hybrid Volt onto the streets before the next generation Prius arrives to kick its ass is about to launch a successful initiative to create the driverless car of tomorrow? Sure, we agree with the speech's basic premise– our spiritual advisor Stephan Wilkinson has convinced us that it's only a matter of time before humans are denied accelerative access (excess?). But comments like this (via foxbusiness.com) just make me laugh: "'This is not science fiction,' Larry Burns, GM's vice president for research and development, said in a recent interview" and ""Just imagine all the funerals that won't take place." Sorry guys, but I'm Jewish. I imagine non-existent funerals all the time, and they don't have driverless cars in the cortege. 

While Toyota Motors North America (TMNA) finished 2007 in overall better shape than its domestic competition, they failed to meet their goal of selling 200k of their new, full-sized, Texas-built Tundra pickups. Hope leaf springs eternal. Even as the market for large pickups follows the U.S. housing market into the crapper and fuel economy standards get tighter, ToMoCo's sticking with their goal of 300k annual sales by 2010. Toyota Division GM Bob Carter told Automotive News [sub], Downturn? What downturn? [paraphrasing] In fact, Carter predicts Tundra sales will hit the low 200ks in 2008. "There is no cause for alarm. We are on plan." When asked how long it'll take for Tundra to top the 300k mark, he clammed up. However he did mention they "have 44 Tundra models now, and in the future, that segment requires even a broader lineup than we have today." So let's see… they have a model that is selling below expectations in a market segment that is shrinking so their solution is to increase the complexity of the model line-up to generate sales. The Big 2.8 have been hiring TMNA executives right and left. With marketing logic like that, you have to wonder if Toyota's been reciprocating.

GM's spinning the fact that they're not renewing their $4.1b standby credit because they don't need it. Speaking to CNNMoney, GM spokeswoman Melisa Tezanos claimed GM never borrowed under the agreement and "a review of its capital needs for the first half of the year showed the auto maker had enough liquidity and flexibility with the standby credit pact." Texanos also said that the fact that the credit line was collateralized by GMAC "was not a factor" in GM's decision to terminate the credit revolver. We call bullshit. Our spy reports that the banks won't lend on the line since the GMAC security interest is worth less than the line, thanks to the strong potential of bankruptcy at GMAC/Cerberus-owned mortage lender Residential Capital. "Obviously, it's not good to admit you can't renew your line. Better to tell the story you don't need it now." But, they do. Although the automaker hasn't drawn upon the line of credit, it still relies on it as a backstop for certain financial transactions. Oh, and if RESCAP goes belly-up, how do you think that will affect GM's auto loans? This could get really nasty really quickly…

Engadget sends us news from the '08 Consumer Electronic Show that Pioneer has unveiled a dashtop gizmo charmingly called the AVIC-F500BT. For those who speak Geek-speak, it's "a gateway for your personal technology. Large DB with 12 million POIs, text to speech, Bluetooth, SD slot, USB, voice recognition, OEM integration. Plugs into an AUX jack on your vehicle or via custom integration. Conversation commands, 'I want to listen to Justin Timberlake.' Yes, it will control your phone and iPod, just speak your commands." We prefer to think of it as "anything Microsoft can do, we can do better;" although we don't actually know that. Yet. But the Pioneer system can run on batteries, so motorists can move it from car to car, which has GOT to be a HUGE advantage over Ford's SYNC system. Looks like we're back to the whole in-dash vs. portable sat nav deal– just in time for the debut of Lincoln's in-dash SYNC. You see? A better car is more important than better doo-dads, every time. [Thanks to starlightmica for the link.]

While the bad puns we like making with Chery's name are usually the pits, forgiving the prepositional sentence ending, the Chinese independent automaker isn't to be laughed at. Businessweek reports that in just ten years, the company has risen from relatively obscurity to become China's most successful domestically-branded auto maker, Chery now owns 7.5 percent of the PRC pie. Overall, Chery is number four in the very crowded Chinese auto market, behind the VW/FAW, GM/SAIC and VW/SAIC joint ventures. It's also one of the most aggressive Chinese companies, branching out into Russia, the Ukraine, the Middle East, Europe, Mexico and South America. Chery has factories in several overseas locations, including Iran, Egypt and Russia. They have a deal to provide engines for Fiat and manufacture Fiats and Alfa Romeos in China, as well as with Chrysler to develop a small car for the U.S. and sell Chery A1s under the Dodge banner in Mexico. With GM practically abandoning the U.S. market, is the time ripe for Chery picking up the slack and entering blossoming on American soil?

KCRG-TV reports that the Iowa legislature is getting ready to roll out the pork barrel for the ethanol industry. Previewing the Tall Corn State's upcoming legislative agenda, the TV station foreshadows the tax breaks to come, and makes it seem as if there's a passel of pistonhead demand for E85, motorists just itching for a local E85 station. "Lawmakers also expect to talk about ways to make it easier for drivers to pump ethanol into their vehicles. 'There's tens of thousands of vehicles in Iowa right now that could run on E85, but they really don't have access to the infrastructure where they can go buy it,' Rep. Kraig Paulsen (R) said." Could or would? (We sure as Hell don't recommend Iowans try and find one of 69 state stations with an E85 pump via Iowacorn.org's "E85 finder;" the Adobe player crashes your browser.) Iowa already pays 50 percent of the total cost of an E85 pump. Question: if one of the nation's top E85 producing states– a state without large ethanol transportation expenses (E85 can't go down a standard gas pipe)– needs more subsidies to convince gas stations to provide E85 pumps, what does that tell you? 

We kick off the week with my rendering of the future BMW kid-SAC (Sports Activity Coupe), the X4. BMW gave away their intentions to build this thing back in 2001, when they served us the first dish cooked with their new flame surfacing baking technique. Chief Chef Chris Bangle's concept blended concave and convex aluminum surfaces in an "interesting" asymmetrical design. The hottest feature of the car: access to the back seats via the reverse opening “hayon”. (Un)fortunately we won’t be seeing such a fancy/expensive/cool-but-unpractical solution on a production car soon– just as we didn’t get to see the dual wing doors from the Z9 Granturismo on any of the 6 Series models. However, some of the design elements of the X Coupe were really nice and able to survive the marketing/production battle. Anyway, I envision the X4 as an X Coupe with a slightly larger passenger compartment, less sharp edges (concave-convex shape blending accidents), some plastic (scratch-proof) elements in the lower part and an X6 gene transplant– just so we can be sure that the newcomer is a member of BMW's ever-burgeoning family of niche products. In fact, one wonders what else they could possibly have in store.

[For more Avarvarii photochopistry, click here.]

GM's main man told Bloomberg that he expects 75 percent of The General's car and truck sales to come from outside the U.S. within a decade. Meanwhile, while GM's setting sales records in developing markets overseas, they're losing money at home. Lots of money. To his credit, Rabid Rick did touch on that small issue with Bloomberg. GM's CEO claimed his "plan" to end those losses is about "50 to 60 percent complete." WHAT PLAN? Has anyone seen this plan or is he, like Indiana Jones, making it up as he goes along? Which ever it is, Wagoner [finally] admits things aren't quite going as expected. "Maybe the actions are a little farther along, but the results I don't think are that far along." With Wagoner conceding defeat in North America, the results probably won't get much farther along, either. What's that sound? Why, it's Toyota, Honda and Nissan letting out a war whoop as they thunder down their American happy hunting ground.

Automobile.com reports that the brand best known for symmetrical all-wheel drive and seemingly endless aesthetic affronts is set to launch the R1e electric vehicle (EV). Subie developed the EV version of its brand faithfully ugly R1 in conjunction with the Tokyo Electric Power Company. "Its battery pack affords the car a small-ish range of 50 miles, but the car can be recharged to 80-percent capacity in just eight minutes. A full charge takes about six hours." Never mind the range; EV supporters reckon most in-city journeys are less than 40 miles. Feel the longevity! "Despite the low range, Subaru says that the car has a lifespan of 120,000 miles or ten years." So not only can you go nowhere slowly, but you can do so for a long, long time. In terms of production numbers, Automobile goes for passively constructed English understatement. "Subaru isn't being overly optimistic about the EV's take-rate either, so for its first year only 100 units will be produced." But here's the real news: "To help promote electric vehicles, the Japanese government has agreed to slash the car tax and sales tax by a whopping 90-percent, and will allow the car to park in public areas and travel on toll routes at a reduced rate." What was that commentator Stu was saying about the Japanese government encouraging long term investment? 

The Chevrolet Corvette is the exception that proves the rule. It’s the one GM car that has never, ever been boring. Sure, there’ve been times when the ‘Vette lost the plot– when comparing its dynamic capabilities to a similarly priced foreign sports car was like pitting Cheese Whiz against Normandie brie. But the ‘Vette was never po-faced about it. Besides, those days are gone. As I sampled a 2008 convertible automatic with a few new upgrades, I wondered: what could GM learn from the Chevrolet Corvette?