President Bush has pledged $4b of your taxes to Chrysler. Ultimately, the money will be under the control of the ailing American automaker’s owners, Cerberus Financial. Despite the enormous call on the public purse to fund a company whose prospects are dimmer than a 70’s porno theater, the secretive private equity group that pulls ChryCo’s strings has not opened the company’s books to full public scrutiny. Fortunately, we have a little something called the free press (and I don’t mean you Freep) ready to poke its nose into the dealings of the company about to poke its nose into the federal trough. The Wall Street Journal [sub] reports that “Public documents filed in Oakland County, Mich. show a Cerberus subsidiary called Auburn Hills Owner, LLC, bought the 458-acre complex on Aug. 3, 2007, for $325 million. That same day, Cerberus completed the deal to take over 80.1% of Chrysler from Daimler.” While the Journal seems obsessed with the fact that ChryCo employees didn’t know that Chrysler proper doesn’t own the Auburn Hills campus, the accounting behind the transaction is more interesting…

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Hyundai just released some pricing info and specs on the surprisingly decent looking Elantra “Touring,” which is essentially just a 5-door hatch version of the professionally mediocre Elantra sedan. What really sticks is the EPA fuel economy, rated at 23 city and either 30 or 31 highway with the manual or automatic, respectively. We’re still talking about a four-cylinder “compact” car here, and despite the weight of size and safety equipment, I am surprised. Hyundai’s own Sonata — with another 40 horses vs. the Elantra — has virtually the same EPA ratings. Sure, we like to trot out the Corvette as an example of a high mileage powerful car, but there are at least a dozen other examples of cars with way more power (and metal) than the Elantra touring and better fuel economy. My 2004 Honda Accord V6, which was a rather portly cruiser, returned 31 mpg on the highway. And yet, the Elantra isn’t unique. Saturn’s Astra, with a 1.8 liter engine, only musters 24/32. The Mazda3 is in the same league. Some of the more efficient cars in this segment can deliver 35 miles per gallon highway – cars like the Corolla, Focus, Civic, and Cobalt XFE. But solely from a fuel economy standpoint, I have a hard time justifying even these better ones, when their bigger counterparts like the Camry, Fusion, Accord, and Malibu offer reasonably close numbers, especially on the highway. It leaves me wondering why, when the Fusion gets 32 mpg highway from its four cylinder, we don’t have a Ford compact car with a gasoline engine that gets 38 mpg highway. But them’s the breaks.

Is your faith in your country a little shaken by recent political and economic events? Man have you come to the wrong place. We’ve found a pair of stories today which seem to jointly encapsulate every negative stereotype and overly-broad criticism of America. And by God, they aren’t jokes either. First up, we have the story of a million-dollar Mustang on eBay from the Cardomain blog. That’s right, someone is asking for a million big ones for a 1998 lambo-doored Roush Mustang with 175k on the clock. Why? To quote the eBay listing: I am selling this vehicle, which is the only material thing I truly own, because I am trying to save my home and family. I will ship this vehicle anywhere in the world at my expense. the asking price is $1,000,000.00 why?? because i am in serious financial trouble. The sale of this vehicle is targeted to any millionaire out there who is willing to help get me out of my current financial situation. this vehicle is being sold as is. Shockingly, post-bailout audacity isn’t the most nauseating story on the autoblogosphere today. Our second story is so repulsive and national-pride-obliterating that we have to hide it behind the jump. Grab a barf bag and a change of citizenship form and check it out…

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Jerry Garrett of The New York Times has “driven dozens of new cars each year for nearly 30 years.” Who knew? Even though I’m not familiar with Garrett’s car canon, it’s clear the writer’s time was well spent, in an Andy Rooney “Have you ever looked at a doorknob?” kinda way. “‘Does this bother you?'” Garrett’s rant begins. “Well, actually, shining a bright light in my eyes from out of the darkness does bother me; when I’m behind the wheel, it drives me nuts. It reminds me of an interrogation technique. This bright light in question is actually the map light. It is positioned above my rearview mirror. Of course, it renders the rearview mirror useless, but more than that, it blinds me when I drive. It is a real safety issue, but my passenger wants to read while I drive. Who would design such a thing?” Damn his eyes! Why doesn’t Garrett doesn’t name names? Anyway, the rest of his “Five Things I Hate About New Cars”? Too small sun visors, the lack of fish-eyed rear view mirrors, chimes that won’t shut up after ten dings and cars that don’t have a little arrow to show you upon which side of the car the fuel filler cap resides. And now, it’s your turn, overly-loud and cheap-sounding clicking noise or “how the Hell do I cancel these damn things” BMW signals included.

By taking a quid-pro-quo (cash for a new model) approach to its automaker bailout, the Australian government and Holden have opened themselves for significant criticism. And it’s starting to pile on. From The Australian we have reports of backlash from, among others, Australia’s Green party. And their scathing remarks are centered on the GM Cruze variant that received specific subsidization. Greens senator Christine Milne questioned why the “green car innovation fund” was being spent on something that was “neither particularly green, nor in any way innovative.” Says Milne of the SubsiCruze, “even if it is an efficient four-cylinder car, that is hardly green innovation. This is keeping the Australian car industry on life support instead of giving it a new lease of life.” Sound familiar? Getting tired of that question? Apparently Australia’s Greens expected something more revolutionary than a boring ICE compact. According to Senator Nick Xenophon, there is “nothing green about a petrol car. You can make it more efficient but that is just fiddling at the margins.” Incidentally, Xenephon goes on to destroy his credibility by suggesting Australia’s government subsidize a local version of GM’s Volt. Now we’re getting realistic! In other news from the exciting world of The New Mercantilism, Canadians are beginning to worry that their own bailout “is a very difficult situation, because we’ve got a financial plan without a business plan, and that’s the wrong way to do things,” according to Joe D’Cruz, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. How did nobody see this coming? Oh wait. (Thanks to JT for the tip)

Maximum Executive Bob Lutz is spreading the Christm, excuse me, Holiday cheer over at the GM Fastlane blog today. You see, Lutz is troubled by the amount of attention that his firm has attracted since going on the holiday handout dole. Yes, “the sheer volume of words written about the auto industry in the past month or two is enough to fill the Library of Congress (Yes, I’m employing irony),” writes Lutz, or some well-paid ghostwriter. “Some of the material generated has been ill-informed and off the mark. Some have used the same old and outdated anti-Detroit rhetoric and bias we’ve been seeing for years,” continues the man of maximum. And so, Lutz suggests a steady diet of Detroit appologia from the pantheon of bailout-backing pundits. Specifically…

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Ford has a hit on their hands with the Ford Fusion Hybrid– at least from a media standpoint. The autobogosphere is abuzz with the announcement of the gas – electric fusion Fusion’s official EPA stat of 41mpg. Of course, that’s 41mpg in the city and 36mpg on the highway. But a headline’s a headline. More interesting yet, the Fusion hybrid can motor up to 47mph on battery-power. According to Hybrid program leader Praveen Cherian, the extended all-EV mode “allows drivers to maximize fuel efficiently in many driving situations. For example, this would allow drivers to travel around their subdivision and parking areas in all-electric mode.” What’s the speed limit in a subdivision these days? And doesn’t everybody switch off the engine and glide into a parking space (sarcastic driver, closed parking lot)? I know: I’m just being churlish. This is exactly the kind of evolutionary, incremental improvement we’ve been arguing for since the site began. Now, can I be churlish some more?

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A new CNN/Opinion Research poll brings Detroit one of those good news/bad news deals. The survey of 1000 voters reveals that “63% of Americans said they supported the government’s automaker bailout unveiled Friday. But if the companies ask the government for any more money, 70% said Washington should let the companies enter bankruptcy rather than give them any additional assistance.” To paraphrase the Temptations, get ready, ’cause here it comes! Uncle Sugar is set to dole out an additional $4b, already promised under the terms of the deal. Not to mention the $25b retooling loans– which seem to have disappeared off the outrage radar. And when the final final reckoning arrives in March… “With the current credit situation, it has been very hard getting debtor protection financing, so any automaker bankruptcy would have to be assisted by the government,” said David Weiss, chief economist at Standard and Poor’s. “If one of them enters Chapter 11, they would still need government funding to avoid failing.” CNN dutifully reports that “Some analysts estimate that the cost of an auto bailout will eventually run as high as $125 billion.” MORE? You want MORE? And there’s a twist to this tale…

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Eamonn Fingleton is the author of insightful books titled “Blindside: Why Japan is still on track to overtake the US by the year 2000” and “In Praise of Hard Industries – Why manufacturing, not the new economy is the key to future prosperity.” Whoever followed his advice either has committed suicide by now, or lives in a place where sharp objects are banned. Except for Bill Clinton and Ralph Nader, who think Fingleton is a swell guy. In truth, the Tokyo-dwelling Irish author has few friends left. He just found a bunch of new ones: the editors of The Detroit Free Press (Freep).

You know the sinking price of gas has stopped the E85 industry in its tracks when the corn growers’ local government turns its back on the biofuel blend. Indiana’s jconline.com reports that “After a 60-day trial run this summer, the West Lafayette Police Department has decided to no longer fill half of its patrol fleet with E85… Chief Jason Dombkowski said last week that officers making the six-mile trip to fill up ended up cutting too much into what the department saved.” Even with the .50 a gallon federal blenders’ credit, E85 just couldn’t make the grade. “We compared it by cost per mile,” [fleet maintenance director Tim] Bullis said. “When regular unleaded and E85 were $1 apart, it was a tossup. The closer the prices became, the less effective the savings from E85.” Oh, as a quick aside, the ethanol industry’s year in review has coined a pet name to demonize retail organizations who claim that corn-based E85 drives up food prices: Big Grocery.

Well, not the test itself. The video of the test, which clearly shows the Top Gear crew pushing the Roadster back to base after, apparently, running out of juice. Only it didn’t. Wired reports that “According to Top Gear’s spokeswoman, footage showing the Roadster being pushed into the garage was filmed to show what would happen if the car’s lithium ion battery went dead.” So Top Gear didn’t drain the upteen hundred li-ion cells after 55 miles of hard-charging? “Top Gear stands by the findings in this film and is content that it offers a fair representation of the Tesla’s performance on the day it was tested,” the BBC said in a statement. Clear as mud, as the Brits would say. Does that mean we can trust Clarkson’s assertion that the Roadster requires 16 hours to charge? Or, indeed, anything he says? I’m all for infotainment, but Top Gear gets its street cred from telling the truth about cars. This is a major hit to the brand’s core.

Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) have introduced Senate Bill 3737. You can read the full text of the “Sell Fuel Efficient Cars Act of 2008” after the jump. Suffice it to say that the bill is designed to stimulate new car sales by giving low-income ($40k family income) car buyers $10k worth of “federal assistance” towards the purchase of a new vehicle. Of course, not just ANY vehicle. The car, truck, CUV or SUV (of course) must come from a carmaker “with operations in the United States, the failure of which would have a systemic adverse effect on the overall economy of the United States or a significant loss of United States jobs, as determined by the Secretary; and operated a manufacturing facility that produced automobiles or automobile components in the United States throughout the 20-year period ending on the date of the enactment of this Act.” Guess who? And now, the greenwashing…

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