Buzz Hargrove doesn't mince his words. As demonstrated in Part 1 of this interview, the outgoing Canadian Auto Workers leader is fully aware of the Detroit domestics' dire financial peril. What's more, Buzz understands the balance between his members' welfare and the health of the automotive industry. Or lack thereof. "My first responsibility is to look after the interests of my members," Buzz admits. "But I tell my boys to look after the industry too. At every meeting." So, how's that going?

WSBTV.com seems somewhat surprised by a J.D. Power study that shows the obvious reveals a new trend: sporty crossovers appeal to younger women. Roger that. Women are generally attracted to the appearance of sportiness (witness the VW Tiguan's 61.7 percent female ownership and relatively dismal performance). J.D.'s mob says they also go for utility. Also "revealed:" women like 'tried and true' safety features (newer technological safety advancements tend to come with high price tags– something more 'rational' women tend to avoid when purchasing vehicles. No doubt crossovers appeal to women who are a bit gun-shy on a gas-guzzling SUV, but still want space, a higher riding position and the eventual child-hauling ability (yes, some women do think that far in advance). Another non-stunner: 90 percent of Corvette and Porsche 911 purchasers are men. Mid-life crises? What mid-life crisis? The real surprise: automakers still aren't marketing to women. J.D. reckons women account for about half of all auto purchases, and influence 80 to 90 percent of all auto-purchasing decisions. You'd think they'd be marketing something more than Beetles and Mercuries to the ladies by now…

A month or two ago, I had the brilliant idea to enter a rental car into a car show, and see what I would win. The Avis Hummer H3 I spent untold hours detailing won first place in the truck category. Being only slightly insane, I decided to try another rental car challenge (due to my Porsche still being in various pieces), and enter a weekend special into an SCCA Autocross. Nearly winning my division last year, I believed that winning was mainly due to the driver, not the car, so of course I would come out on top no matter what I was driving. $78 later in rental fees and race entry fees, I had a 2008 Subaru Outback, with a 173bhp, AWD and lots of cargo space. Despite ripping nearly 150lbs of weight out of the car, the Subie couldn't have been more disastrous. The Sportshift always held the wrong gear, and wouldn't let you shift manually under extreme maneuvers. The steering became so imprecise that I was no longer driving the car, I was guiding it. The AWD made the car understeer, or oversteer, in a completely unpredictable manner. The lack of low end power had me uttering strings of curses upon exiting nearly every corner. I was easily outrun by a similar 2.5-liter equipped Impreza. I was outrun by a Honda Civic, a Dodge Neon, and an automatic-equipped Toyota Echo. And then we loaded the wagon up with five people, kept to the starting line, and learned the joys of e-braking through the corners, where the Outback stopped skittering, and literally "hopped" around the bends. As a race car, the Scooby gets one-star. But I suppose you already guessed that.

With the McLaren-Mercedes SLR set to end production, McLaren wants to build a new supercar of its own (front mid-engine THIS). Auto Motor und Sport reports that Mercedes, which owns some 40 percent of McLaren, reckon the new hot rod would compete with its forthcoming Gullwing super-SL. And? Racing boss Ron Dennis and partner Mansour Ojjeh each own 15 percent of McLaren; the royal family of Bahrain own the other 30 percent. They're all hot for a new McLaren road car. Accordingly, two mid-engined prototypes are currently undergoing track testing, one of which sports a German-built V10 race engine. Mercedes is livid, threatening to cut all payments to McLaren if it doesn't halt development plans. Ultimately, Mercedes is going to have to bite the bullet and buy out the last 11 percent of McLaren if they want to call the shots (outbidding the royal family of Bahrain ain't gonna be easy). Meanwhile everyone has to make nice and work together on the F1 circuit, where McLaren-Mercedes pilot Lewis Hamilton is kicking ass and taking names. So who's writing the novel?

Nothing in Chrysler's dated portfolio needs attention more than its Camcord-fighting D-segment offerings, the Avenger/Sebring. The March departure of the lead on the Avengbring replacement didn't bode well. Motor Trend now reports that Project D is heading for disaster, gobbling-up huge engineering and design resources. Chrysler's in crisis mode. Option one: an all-new platform. No money. No way. Option two: deploy an existing chassis (e.g.  Nissan's Altima) and wrap it in new sheetmetal. Option C: rip off another automaker's work wholesale, a la VW Routan. Needless to say, these cop-out options will do nothing to improve Chrysler's rep for mediocre products. Then again a badge-engineered Altima might be better than what Chrysler can cobble together on a shoestring. Either way, with Project D seemingly doomed to mediocrity, what else can keep Chrysler alive? Hybrid minivans? Cherys? Government bailouts? Not good. 

BMW's Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) is an F1 innovation: a regenerative braking system which generates electricity to boost power. And while it helps F1 look green and well-behaved, the technology's run into a few… issues. Like when the Red Bull team had to vacate its headquarters due to a fire scare. Or when a BMW-Sauber team technician got zapped by the system in the video above. But crazy innovators that they are, BMW hasn't been scared off from KERS by mere video footage of its mechanic being lifted off the ground by a few thousand volts. Auto Motor und Sport reports that BMW is looking into developing hybrid options for its M-line. Since standard parallel hybrid systems don't offer much performance boost, Bee-Em are looking at using KERS on road-going models. After all, KERS gives F1 cars a .2 to .3 second per lap advantage. Wow! Of course the fact that KERS is five times lighter and smaller than any comparable road car's hybrid elements means expense will be high (as it always is for those precious extra tenths of a second). Accordingly, BMW isn't announcing when KERS will arrive for M-line vehicles. Shocking! (Video Hat Tip to Jalopnik)

Autocar UK reports that Fiat's performance brand Abarth is developing a mid-engined sports car. The restyled next gen Lotus Elise will feature a next gen Fiat turbo-charged, direct-injection, air-valve four-cylinder engine with 240hp. So, where are we? Lotus makes several Elise variants, from the Exige (racer) to the Europa (chiropractor's best friend). The Elise also underpins Rinnspeed's sQuba, Tesla's Roadster and Vauxhall/Opel's VX220/Speedster. Meanwhile, Lotus is delaying the release of a new Esprit. Does this mean Hethel's shortchanging its own models to work on its 340 development projects for 147 clients? Hey, you can't argue with $4m profit– especially after years of losses. And with a zingy Italian engine, the Elise-based sportster could ascend from the perfect to the sublime. You know; if you can get in.

There is no question that China's leaders want the Olympics to showcase/enhance The People's Republic's international prestige and power, in that 1936 Berlin kinda way. There's also no question that Beijing's air quality sucks, Big Style. To rectify that politically intolerable situation, The Powers That Be have relocated the city's major polluter (Oy! Beijing Shougang Group! Take your steel plant and piss off!). They've also banned half the city's 3.3m vehicles. Nope. Not good enough. Mother nature is not cooperating, with high humidity, light winds and high temps. As xinhuanet.com reports, China's ready to do whatever it takes to let Olympic athletes gulp great quantities of healthy O2. "A more radical measure would be to allow only vehicles on which had the last number of the license plate matched the last number of the day of the month, effectively banning 90 percent of privately owned cars." Eurozone ministers must be green with envy! Unfortunately… "I cannot ensure whether the government will take these measures," Professor Zhu Tong, air quality adviser to the Beijing Olympics reports, sadly. "Even if the measures are strengthened, the enforcement will last only three or four days." Oh. That's alright then.

Buzz Hargrove describes himself as "full of piss and vinegar." Well exactly. The combative Canadian has been instrumental in his country's union movement since 1964, when he represented a couple of thousand employees in Chrysler's Windsor plant. Now, having announced his 2009 departure from the Canadian Auto Workers' (CAW) presidency, Hargrove's enthusiasm for the labour movement remains undimmed. "I still love it," he says. "If I were 55, not 65, I'd be doing this for another 10 years." That said, Hargrove doesn't think Ford, GM or Chrysler will last that long.

I would have simply noted the return of the "Tata Motors Hearts Daimler" Autoblog blog in an update in the original blog, but there are two things that need saying. First, thanks Autoblog for removing the slam and keeping the link to TTAC. That was big of you. Second, we don't expect perfection from anyone. Which brings me to a mea culpa. I've pulled the last Tesla Death Watch because, well, it was bullshit. Wired's original blog on the subject suggested that Roadster Number 6's crash may have had something to do with the fact that the car runs silent, runs fast. Obviously, we weren't buying that. But my post on the pile-up cast doubt on the performance of the Roadster's airbags (airbag?). After considering several of our Best and Brightest's comments, I decided that I had no factual basis to make any such accusation. Or even imply it. I apologize for my over-zealous reaction. We will, of course, monitor the situation and report the truth of the matter. 

ChryCo NA Sales Veep Steven Landry tells the media not to worry about the company's exit from the lease business. Cause every little thing's gonna be all right. Here are his four little birdies, verbatim [TTAC comments in brackets].

1) Chrysler's dealers are still able to offer customers lease financing arrangements with other financial institutions, separate from Chrysler Financial. [ED: This on the very same day Chase Auto Finance announced it's withdrawing financing for Chrysler vehicles.]

2) Current vehicle owners, Chrysler employees and retirees with leased vehicles through Chrysler Financial will not be affected by this shift, and the terms of their contract will remain in force. Chrysler Financial will continue to support and service current Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge lease and balloon-contract holders. [So no repo man… yet]

3) Should current lessees purchase their existing lease vehicle, or a new Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge vehicle at the end of their existing lease, Chrysler Financial will waive the disposition fee. Chrysler is also offering a loyalty bonus of up to $750 incremental to most other incentives with the purchase of a new vehicle. Chrysler wants to keep these customers in our family! [when a press release throws a spear (!) you know they're desperate]

4) Chrysler employee lease/company car programs for current and retired salary Chrysler employees, in which vehicles are obtained through the company, are not affected. [translation: our execs will continue to get cheap cars]

To all U.S. Dealers:

The announcement last week that Chrysler was discontinuing all leasing in the United States was big news and widely covered. You may also be aware that Chrysler had previously announced the discontinuation of incentivized leasing in Canada.  Yesterday, GMAC in Canada announced it will exit incentivized leasing on August 1. Further, it is worth noting Ford Motor Company and Honda Motor Company recently announced they were taking an impairment against their lease portfolios. Suffice it to say, numerous factors are driving up the risks and costs of leasing and therefore, it is coming under increased scrutiny across the industry.

All of this has prompted numerous inquiries from our dealers regarding GM vehicle lease business in the United States.

Obviously, current financial pressures will continue to affect our perspective on leasing. That said, while we obviously can't make guarantees, we are in the market today with competitive programs to make GMAC leasing more affordable and plan on continuing to offer this financing alternative as part of our August incentive play on '08 and '09 models (with some adjustments and exceptions).

Over the last few years and months, lease vehicles have become a smaller percentage of our sales, and we do see this trend continuing due to the relative high cost and risk compared to traditional cash or APR business. This is why we offer a balanced menu of cash incentives, APR and leasing programs to make GMAC financing an affordable alternative on almost every product in our lineup.

Rest assured we will make every effort to stay aggressive in this hypercompetitive market.
Thanks for your support.

Mark LaNeve
Vice President
Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing

In the rush to get a blog post ready, I often skim the end of an article, after digesting the headline. At the very tail of The Detroit News' piece on the Chevy Volt non-reveal reveal of its maybe-not-so-sexy after all design, I caught this little gem: "In a related matter, GM won tax breaks in Ohio this week to build the Cruze, which will get 45 miles per gallon, at its Lordstown assembly plant." (Nice bit of cheerleading, that hat tip on the Cruze's mpgs.) So, here's the bottom line: "The automaker won a 15-year, 75 percent state tax credit worth $77.7 million. It also won a $4.4 million tax credit to create at least 200 jobs at the plant." "Won." I like that. Anyway, while state tax breaks are de rigeur for all domestic car manufacturers these days, from Ohio-built sedans to Bubba-built Bama Benzs, how is this write-off "a related matter" to the piug-in electric – gas hybrid Volt? Will they look similarly anodyne? Should we expect state AND federal tax breaks for GM's plug-in Hail Mary? You bet we should. But that's the subject of an other story. Well, at least for us. 

Engineered like no other car in the world. At some point in the 90's, Mercedes dropped their longstanding ad campaign. And no wonder. The promise had become a snigger-worthy ironic joke. That said, it stopped being funny when it started being you making regular pilgrimages to your local dealership. Mercedes trumpets its new C-Class as a return to the legendary, over-engineered cars of Mercedes-Benz's past. Heading straight to the very bottom of the range, will the cheapest and most basic of all "true" Benzes right 15 years of wrong?