VOLKSWAGEN LAUNCHES MULTI-PLATFORM POLLING INITIATIVE TO FIND OUT “WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT." We could start with upper and lower case typography, proceed to cheap, reliable transportation, detour to a dealership that isn't a stealership and call it good. Of course, VW's not really asking for your (or anyone else's) opinion. At best, they're looking to confirm their expensive research data. But the real point of this campaign, like the Chrysler Listens marketing mishegas: pretend to be web 2.0 to spread your pre-established marketing message. But don't make my word for it. "Utilizing media, technology and user-generated content like never before, the campaign allows consumers to engage in live online and mobile polling. A real-time mouthpiece of the people’s collective voice, user-generated live polling begins at the hub site, vw.com/whatthepeoplewant, and then spreads across the web and in-market. The initiative is part of Volkswagen’s new global brand platform, Das Auto, and underscores its fundamental message of It’s what the people want." Their emphasis– which sounds a bit, uh, forceful. Oh, and VW claims that it already "knows" that "65% of the people want boxers not briefs." Yeah, that info will help re-build your brand…

Most people drive the Acura Integra like they stole it. Mostly, it's because they have. Or, more accurately, someone else did. Model years ‘94 to ‘01 regularly grace the zenith of the annual top ten most stolen automobiles. Moral outrage aside, the Integra's tendency to disappear is entirely understandable. It's a cheap, fast, infinitely modifiable and reliable automobile that appeals to teenage boys, college students, financially-strapped pistonheads, rice rocketeers and thrifty professionals looking for a set of hot wheels (so to speak).

The last gen U.S. S-Class lineup included a short wheelbase model with a 240hp 3.7-liter V6. Yes, the S350 was out there. Somewhere. In terms of sales? Nowhere. Hence today's U.S. S-Class consists of the S550 and S600 and variants. But now that federal fuel economy standards are promising nay demanding a higher love, is the time right to offer a new S350 or twin-turbo six-pot 735 to the American market? Overseas, such engine and car combination are, of course, de rigeur. Stateside, Merc and Bimmer have maintained their prestige and justified their high costs by cramming gadgets into the cars and upping standard horsepower again and again. On the other hand, only two years ago the S500 had 300 horsepower; the 3.6-liter V6 in the Benz SLK350 offers 269 horses. And BMW's 7-Series launched with 325 horses– a number that's not far removed from the twin-turbo I6' probable output. So why not? Many buyers of vehicles north of $60k just want the best, the most, the top of the line. An engine shared with a puny C-Class or 1-Series? They might just say no thanks. Are the two German automakers between Iraq's impact and a hard place?

Even The Detroit News had a hard time spinning GM CEO Rick Wagoner's gi-normous pay rise as anything other than a travesty. But you gotta give home town scribe Sharon Terlep credit for trying. (Or not.) Her report on Red Ink Rick's $14.4m 2007 compensation waits until all of paragraph four before defending the man whose administration of the American automaker hasn't seen a profit since 2004. Terlep turns to Wall Street analyst John Casesa to do the deed. "There's a broad recognition that you've got to pay someone a lot of money to do this job," Casesa prevaricates. And then the quote above. Ah, so Rick's bottom line performance has been hamstrung by uncontrollable factors… Terlep underlines the point. "Broad economic forces, from soaring oil process to the collapsing U.S. housing market, have slammed GM and the domestic auto industry as the companies work to execute sweeping restructuring plans." So GM's $38.7b loss during the time of Wagoner's $14.4m pay package isnt' really Rick's fault, is it? In fact, he's something of a bargain! "Apart from the labor deal, Wagoner has overseen structural cost cuts that amount to $9 billion a year in savings." So that's alright then. 

TTAC slots all its blog posts into categories. I sometimes have trouble figuring-out which box to tick. If I'm stumped, I can create a new category. But then I have to wonder how many posts will fit the new attribution, and the wisdom of creating a drop-down menu that's longer than an E85 producer's list of tax deductions. And then there's the name of the category. For example, this post could go into "We Can't Make This Shit Up," "and "Who Believes This Shit?" Or both. I mean, c'mon. If you wanted to eavesdrop on Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking– as Wendy's in full takeover mode looking to kick some major status quo ass– why would you use a baby monitor for the job? But it's true. Or not. Spiegel [via Automotive News, sub] reports that "a security firm found a switched-on babyphone behind a sofa in the room where Wendelin Wiedeking was going to stay for a supervisory board meeting of Volkswagen." In this brave new world of electronic eavesdropping, where experts can listen to conversation by pointing a laser at a window in the room, where a "bug" can be smaller than the chances of Jalopnik/Autoblog not carrying this story, why would a VW spy use a babyphone (a.k.a. baby monitor or kiddiespy)? If they did, what does that tell you about the automaker's mastery of technology. If they didn't, what does that tell you about Porsche's disinformation efforts? Crime and punishment? High Finance? Sure.

I know we've already reported GM CEO Rick Wagoner and his cronies' '07 pay hikes, cynically released on a Friday to avoid full media scrutiny. But I thought it was worth repeating to place this compensation in perspective. To wit: Standard & Poor's is signaling [via Forbes] that the credit rating service "may as yet downgrade General Motors Corp. (GM), after the agency downgraded GM's 49 percent-owned units GMAC LLC and Residential Capital LLC. The downgrades were triggered by the resignation of the only independent directors at Residential Capital, and the union strikes at American Axle, which have shuttered 30 GM factories. Although we expect these labor issues to be resolved, the timing, and therefore the full extent, of their effect on GM's liquidity is unknown. We expect the American Axle strike to contribute to a very large use of cash in GM's first-quarter 2008 results, which GM will announce in the next few weeks, and the effect will be magnified by the timing of GM's payables and  receivables." If S&P downgrades GM, the extra cost of borrowing will add tens of millions to GM's cash burn. So those execs salaries are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to measuring their true cost to shareholders, employees, suppliers, dealers and customers.

E85 is, indisputably, a less efficient energy source than normal gas. (In other words, you get less miles per tank with E85 than non-E85 fuel.) According to a study based on EPA data by the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at Ohio State University, the "E85 penalty" varies according to vehicles and vehicle types, and city or highway driving. "The mean fuel economy of E85 in city driving is 73.42% that of gasoline, with a range of 66.89% to 81.33%. In highway driving, the mean fuel economy is 73.4% that of gasoline, with a range of 67.61% to 81.53%." OK, so the American Automobile Association tracks fuel prices for both blends. "Over the course of time that AAA has been tracking adjusted E85 prices, they’ve never fallen below the daily price of regular gasoline," The Wall Street Journal reports. "Since early October, adjusted E85’s price spread over regular gasoline has varied widely, between 4% and 12%, suggesting there’s at least some potential for improvement. However, Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Survey newsletter… says it’s 'extremely unlikely' that the adjusted E85 price can ever fully close the gap with retail gasoline." I dunno. E85 is already heavily subsidized from the field to the pump; what's the bet that [more of] your tax dollars "help" close that gap?

TTAC is a content machine. Our [barely paid] team of writers is as prolific as it is talented. Our [unpaid] commentators are the autoblogosphere's Best and Brightest, and they're not shy about coming forward. And whatever you think about my literary skills, my OCD makes me one keyboard tapping fool. Of one thing I am especially proud: although TTAC was late to the blogging game and don't have a tenth of the resources of the big sites, we kick ass. We blog the big ones, and blog them according to our branding remit. It occasionally annoys me that my competition doesn't. Just the other day, Justin took a shot at Autoblog for being a "press release funnel." I thought it was a bit OTT. And then I read AB's blog about Subaru's new ad campaign, which (not-so-coincidentally) we covered here. AB republished the entire Subaru press release. No biggie, I thought. Fills the space. And then I rethinked. Why would AB hand deliver its audience to Subaru like that, without any filtration? Its antithetical to my idea of what blogging is all about: added perspective. Exercising editorial judgment. Less poetically, or perhaps more, it's about NOT kissing ass. I remain committed to this vision. So, how are we doing?

After reading Samir Syed’s Guide to the RESCAP/GMAC Crisis, TTAC's Deep Throat emailed to fit a missing piece of the puzzle. "The fear of a Rescap bankruptcy– or additional capital injections from GMAC– is weakenening GMAC’s own balance sheet and thus making it more difficult/expensive for its own financing. This in turn hurts GM’s dealers' ability to access GMAC for retail customers at competitive rates without massive rate subvention by GM… The cost of dealer wholesale financing is going through the roof. But it’s already happening, as smart lenders are poaching GM dealers for the better credit customers… and trying to win floor plan business (a huge uphill struggle as something like 80 percent or more of GM dealers use GMAC for wholesale. The bottom line: Moody’s is calling the future correctly with its downgrade."

Awesome. No really. I'm in awe. At the very moment GM NA's cash flow has gone bye-bye (thanks to union strikes at American Axle and GM factories), just days before the automaker gives the world the gory details of its American cash conflagration, the General reveals that it's bumped-up– sorry, "restored" its top suit's salary. CEO Rick Wagoner's paycheck returns to its 2003 – 2006 levels, from the "reduced" $1.65m back to $2.2m. But don't get to feeling what the Hell, it's only a $570k jump, and it WAS his old salary. Automotive News reports that Rick's TOTAL compensation for '07 was $14.4m, or $39,452.05 per day (including weekends). Meanwhile, Car Czar "Maximum" Bob Lutz gets a nice little "thank you" for winning TTAC's Bob Lutz Award: a base salary "boost" from $1.3m p.a. to $1.75m (so much for "I gave at the office"). MB's total compensation for '07: $6.9m. Newly promoted GM COO (from CFO) Fritz Henderson gets $1.8m; total pay package $7.6m. Friends of GM are free to defend this pay-out (supply – demand), but I find the fact that these guys are raking in MORE money as 32 GM factories are off-line, as GM struggles for its survival, appalling. But you knew that…

There’s an often-repeated statistic: U.S. Buick dealers sell just four cars per dealer per month. It’s true, but c’mon; that was last year’s totals. In March, Buick sales slipped to three cars per dealer. Thanks to TTAC’s Frank Williams, I’ve had a chance to examine the exact dealer and sales stats for the Beyond Precision people. Having deconstructed the data, I can declare that this seemingly absurd three cars a month number, while strictly true, isn’t the whole story. The “whole story” is much worse.   

Commentator menno posted this on the Oil Headed for $225 A Barrel? thread. It's a Hell of a good question, so I ripped it and started this discussion… "By the way, what’s the general consensus of our little group of avid TTACers, as to when the tipping point for the average Joe and Jane driver of America will be, causing them to say ENOUGH! and give up their [full size] SUV’s to go buy something a little more sensible?

$4 a gallon?

$5 a gallon?

$6 a gallon?

$7 a gallon?

or $8 a gallon?"

As billions pour into projects aimed at making the Canadian prairies the world's largest exporter of crude oil, supposedly insulating Canada from an American economic downturn, two major Canadian news sources foreshadow a gloomy future for The Great White North. Canwest News (via Canada.com) quotes a study conducted by CIBC World Markets (the investment arm of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) that suggests oil prices could surge to $225 per barrel by 2012. That would push Canadian gasoline prices to about $2.25/L (or about $8 gallon at current exchange rates). According to Jeff Rubin, World Market's chief economist, oil supplies are static; demand isn't. "[For] every extra driver that gets a car and goes on the road in those (developing) countries in the next five to six years, somebody's having to get off the road in the OECD countries." Meanwhile, Montréal's La Presse ran the results of a study conducted by energy analyst and longtime doom-and-gloomer Patrick Déry. He predicted Peak Oil's (long-awaited?) arrival in 2018; Québec and other net importers of energy will run out of oil supply by 2030. 

American Axle (AA) posted a $27m first quarter loss today. AA CEO Dick Dauch told the Detroit Free Press "AAM's first-quarter 2008 results were severely impacted by the strike called by the International UAW at AA's original U.S. locations." The loss is quite the comedown from last year's first quarter profit of $15.7m. Robert W. Baird & Co equity analysts David Leiker said the impact of the strike was about 40 percent larger than he was expecting., "We continue to recommend investors avoid the stock due to questions regarding the company's long-term growth opportunities." As if to illustrate Leiker's point, hundreds of strikers picketed AA headquarters in Detroit, after negotiations broke down late last week. AA had offered a wage and benefit package, claiming it's "substantially higher than $30 an hour and is higher than what its competitors pay UAW members." The UAW (perhaps waiting for AA to post its losses) rejected the offer. The strike will officially enter its third month tomorrow with 3,650 AA employees on strike and some 30 GM plants shut down or in limited production. 

Plug-in Volt, hydrogen fuel cell Equinox, two-mode hybrid Tahoe, belt-assist hybrid Malibu, yada, yada, yada. With all this high mileage hype, how come GM's not making a big deal out of the XFE (eXtra Fuel Efficiency) Cobalt? If it weren't for our good friend at AUTOSAVANT, we would've never known that as of May 17, all Cobalts with the five-speed manual tranny get 36 mpg on the highway. (That's second in its class to the Honda Civic Hybrid AND the Cobalt XFE offers class-leading hp from its 2.2-liter Ecotec engine.) GM squeezed the last few mpgs from the Cobalt by calibrating the engine, decreasing the tires' rolling resistance and (probably) offering a taller fifth gear. These are exactly the kind of common-sense efficiency improvements Chevy (et al) should spread across their lineup. Yes, well, come the '09 model year, the Cobalt sedan will no longer be available with a manual transmission. So if you want best-in-class horsepower and efficiency from a four-door, buy a Cobalt XFE now or you'll be looking at the Civic. Because practical, efficient cars just aren't Chevy's future, are they? Oh wait…