The story about the defiled Lambo triggered a lively discussion about cars, hentai, anime, and otaku. Even about cosplay bars in Tokyo’s Akihabara (I’ve seen them all, boring.) Obviously, we had heretofore neglected a topic of high interest amongst our readership. In preparation for an even bigger role of Japanese transplants in the U.S., here some cross-cultural sensitivity training.

Never on Sunday? Not so at TTAC, a 24/7/365 world-class operation. While America Slept (WAS) is a daily round-up of the news that happened in other continents and time-zones. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or that has its wheels coming off.  Disclosure: Mostly bad news today.

Let’s get small: VeeDub doesn’t want to leave the cars-for-lilliputians segment to the Smart 42, or the Toyota iQ. Based on a chopped version of their upcoming (2010) VW Up, Wolfsburg wants to launch a fuel-sipping 2seater. Target is 2 liter per 100km (118 MPG.) Unconfirmed rumor as per Automobilwoche (sub.)  The oil-burning Smart ForTwo gets 71 MPG.

Let’s get cheap: Fiat plans low cost cars for the European market. Under a separate brand, says Automobilwoche (sub.) Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne says he wants to be the “Wal-Mart for cars.”  Chinese imports, anyone?  “Ma no!” says FIAT. Together with their Brazilian subsidiary FIASA, FIAT works on two el cheapo cars under codenames Project 326 und 327. Then there’s another one of unknown provenance.

Nothing sacred anymore at Daimler: According to Daimler’s hometown paper Stuttgarter Zeitung, “all investments which don’t add to efficiencies and competitiveness are cancelled.” Travel, overtime, outsourcing, everything needs to be cut. The whole company is under review. Grim sales numbers. Even the green may see pruning: Investments in plug-ins, hybrids and fuel cell may get chopped. More bad news to follow …

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Mining of Ford’s microsite (MICROSITE!) extravaganza – which gave us substantial info about the 2010 Fusion – has proven useful again. Now Ford has released what are at least preliminary data for the 2011 Fiesta – which should be on sale some time in the next 12 months (but when? and why not in the last 12 months?). The microsite (MICROSITE!) says “on the pavement in early 2010”

Engine will be the 1.6 liter Ti-VCT 4-banger. In Europe this engine has 118 horsepower. Ti-VCT apparently indicates twin independent variable cam timing. I assume some of TTAC’s engineering oriented readers will tell the rest of us if that’s significant or something that Yugo has been doing since 1959.

Transmission to be a Ford “Powershift” automatic – that’s a dual clutch gearbox. We blogged about this transmission in the Focus here. No word if a traditional stick will come to North America. Cue frustration, comments about “no stick no buy.” For the record, I love my DSG.

Stuff – Microsoft SYNC, Bluetooth, leather seats, standard electronic stability control. Also the Fiesta will offer “up to” seven airbags (dual front, thorax, curtain, and driver’s knee), and the use of the “up to” phrase means the value stripped out cars on dealer lots won’t have ’em.

Fire and pickaxes were used to damage speed cameras in Italy and the Czech Republic this week. On Tuesday, a speed camera was set on fire on the Boulevard D’Annunzio near the Tuscan seaside resort town of Marina di Pisa. The profitable device has been issuing at least one hundred tickets per month over the last year and a half. Firefighters arrived on the scene quickly enough to extinguish the blaze before the camera was destroyed, according to a report in La Nazione. Vigilantes in Czech town of Moravske Budejovice attacked a Traffipax speed camera with a pickaxe. A video of the incident shows the device receiving five hits on the side, although photographs of the aftermath on autoforum.cz show additional hits to the front of the housing, including one to the camera lens. A group calling itself the “Crum Patch Team” took responsibility for the attack. Describing themselves as “polite and honest” people, the members issued a statement explaining how local politicians use photo enforcement for revenue, not safety, purposes. The group added that attempts to resolve the situation through the normal political process have failed.

Now that GM has launched its PR response to Jet-Gate, Ford is also taking steps to be ensure that it is perceived as an austere, efficient company. And no, they’re not making Mulally give up his Lexus (he was already supposed to have, although ABC News appears to have caught hime in flagrante delicto with his LS430 as recently as this summer). The AP reports that post-begathon criticism has Ford staff “looking at all of our operations to reduce costs and operate more efficiently,” which just might include giving up some undisclosed number of the five jets it currently operates. “Ford’s top priority is to continue making progress on our transformation plan, and we do not want anything to distract us,” spokesman Mark Truby said in a statement. “We are exploring all cost-effective solutions for our air travel.” Ford operated nine jets in 2005, when its stock price opened the year at $13.17. Ford’s stock is currently valued at $1.43 per share.

Salão do automóvel 2008 – Stand Platinuss

How’s that air quality treatin’ ya?

GM has already announced that it’s trying to come up with no less than $5b in savings by the end of the calendar year. To assist these efforts, GM has put Jones Lang LaSalle in charge of 200m Euros worth of sell-offs and leasebacks. Together with its attempt to sell or lease its Renaissance Center headquarters, GM’s fire sale should bring in some $750m. Property Week reports that JLL’s portion of the sell-off will include non-manufacturing sites in Europe and the UK. On their selling block will be Saab’s properties in Gothenberg and Trollhatten, while Vauxhall’s Luton headquarters, GM’s headquarters in Dublin and other Chevy, GM, and Opel sites are said to be on the sale list. Including factories, GM is estimated to own some $43b in real estate around the globe.

Infowars has a story from the Latin American Herald Tribune that suggests GM could send bailout money to Brazil. The story quotes GM Brazil-Mercosur President Jaime Ardila as saying GM plans to invest $1 billion worth of American tax dollars in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market. “It wouldn’t be logical to withdraw the investment from where we’re growing, and our goal is to protect investments in emerging markets,” says Ardila. The money would be spent on a “complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012.” This news comes on the heels of an announced $3.5b automaker stimulus by Brazil’s federal and Sao Paolo state governments. Of course, the whole plan banks on Congress approving an ammendment to the already-approved $25b retooling loan program. The Detroit CEOs have until December 2 to present congress with their plans for the $25b, and if those plans are approved Congress could remove all existing “strings” on the loan program. These strings currently require the funds to be spent on retooling American plants that are over 25 years old to build more fuel-efficient vehicles. So the question now is, will GM lie to congress and tell them that they won’t send taxpayer money to Brazil, or have they already lied to their Brazilian division? Or will congress simply look the other way? So many possibilities…

Since its heyday beginnings, Wired has suffered from what my (Japanese) wife characterizes as “yellow fever:” A fetish for Japanese women. Wired’s repeat offender “Japanese Schoolgirl Watch” is legend. Actually, Japanese schoolgirls are not much to look at, unless you are a pedophile and have a yen for plaid skirts and bobby socks. How does a lowly Lambo Gallardo get into Wired? It must look like a Manhattan subway car that was attacked by spray-can-wielding Japanese schoolgirls. This $>200K Gallardo belongs Japanese Age-Soft’s CEO Yoshida. He made the money to acquire the Lambo (and other likewise tagged wheels) with hentai videogames. “Hentai” means “pervert” in Japanese, but according to my wife (bless her heart) in Japan, that can be an honorific. Painting cars with manga characters is a new and somewhat itai (painful) Japanese fad. [Again, Autoblog gets it wrong. They write “In Japan, Otaku are the rabid fans of anime.” No true. Otaku is Japanese for geek. Ota-ku is also a ward in the south of Tokyo. Go figure.]

While steering the artist formerly known as the world’s largest automaker into career suicide, GM CEO Rick Wagoner has steadfastly maintained that “bankruptcy is not an option.” As many members of TTAC’s Best and Brightest have pointed out, that kind of stonewalling A) Is insane and B) reveals guarantees a class action lawsuit against GM’s Board of Bystanders. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Board has released a statement which illustrates their feeble-mindedness, managerial paralysis, blantant cowardice and compelling desire not to end up folding shirts at a federal prison farm. “GM said the board had discussed bankruptcy but didn’t view it as a ‘viable solution to the company’s liquidity problems.’ The board “is committed to considering all options in light of circumstances as they may develop.” In other words, NO BANKRUPTCY. Unless there is. Meanwhile, the Journal hints at disagreements between Board members and Wagoner, the company’s CEO AND Chairman.

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So, the Motown millionaire’s beggars’ banquet blew town, retreating from Washington’s corridors of power to their Detroit lairs to lick their wounds. To say the CEOs of Chrysler, Ford and GM were unsuccessful in their televised attempts to “liberate” $25b from the Troubled Asset Recovery Program would be like saying the Detroit Lions are struggling to get to the Superbowl. In many ways, it was over before it started. The CEOs arrived woefully unprepared, and left with admonishments to return next month after, how do I put this delicately, getting their shit together. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Leader Harry Reid switched into CYA mode. As part of their campaign, they’ve written a letter to Detoit, telling that what needs doing the second time ’round. Having secured a copy of this missive, TTAC contacted our own Ken Elias to read between the lines on your behalf. As the automakers run out of cash, it all comes down to this.

There may be another nasty aspect to the bailout: a full-scale trade war, launched by countries that don’t (or even do) bail out their auto industries themselves. Bloomberg writes that “a U.S.-triggered spate of global carmaker-bailout proposals may spark trade disputes over whether the Americans are unfairly trying to subsidize their industry.” Egged-on by the US bailout money that may, or may not, or may, or may not be in the offing, manufacturers all over the globe are holding up their tin cups. At the same time, the European Union threatens to lodge a complaint against any U.S. bailout on the grounds that it’s unfair to the auto makers in the rest of the world, not to mention Renault, Fiat, Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW et al. China also may complain, although their complaints will ring a bit hollow, as the government owns most of the big automakers already. Probably won’t stop them. “Now that we are in the WTO, we might as well use it.” Payback is a bitch.

Even over the weekend,  TTAC never sleeps. While America Slept (WAS) is a daily round-up of the news that happened in other continents and time-zones. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or that has its wheels coming off.  Guarantee: Contents 100 percent car related (well, except for one.)

Opel: “We’re doing great.” GM should send Opel Chief Demant to DC. He knows when to say the right things: “All jobs are safe “(at least until 2010.) “We’ve got enough cash” (at least until next year.) “GM doesn’t owe us money” (at least not immediately.) “We don’t need a loan guarantee” (we didn’t really mean it.)  Germany’s government is now a) a bit miffed because they thought it was urgent, b) relieved because they can go Christmas shopping with the money saved.  Automobilwoche (sub) has the story.

Germany goes to the polls over Opel: Wary of wearing Opel’s new rose-colored glasses, Automobilwoche (sub) is running a poll. The question: “What should happen to Opel?” Here’s the tally so far.  “Opel goes it alone” – 50 percent. “Opel remains part of GM” – 15  percent. “Opel merges with BMW” – 15 percent. “Opel merges with Fiat” – 13 percent. “Opel merges with Daimler” – 7 percent. Don’t blame us, just reporting the news.

Just say no: Bernhard Mattes, chief of Ford Motor Co.’s German unit, would also make quick friends in DC. He says that Ford Deutschland can survive just fine, thank you, without a bailout from the German government, AP reports via Yahoo. Ford wouldn’t turn down a share of the loan package by the European Union, if offered. The consensus in Europe is the package is dead in the water, because it needs the consensus from the non auto making members. Dream on. And read on …

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