When I go to the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), I like to get downtown early, around 7 AM. That way I don’t have to wait in any lines for credentials and I can get my favorite free parking spot about a block from Cobo Hall. While waiting for the press conferences to begin today, I stopped at the Tesla booth to say hi to Rachel Konrad, head of communications. Tesla first appearance at NAIAS consists of a small booth next to the Lotus display. Tesla’s displayed a naked Roadster chassis, which laid the car’s Lotus roots bare. But Konrad was emphatic: only a small percentage of components are shared with the Elise. She said that 150 not-Elise Roadsters have been delivered. They’re completing 15 vehicles a week, with 1100 people on a waiting list. Their facility has an ultimate capacity of 40 cars a week. With production proceeding, albeit at a relatively slow pace, Tesla has grown their company beyond Tucker stage (50 units built). It remains to be seen if they surpass Bricklin (2854 SV1s) and DeLorean (~9000 DMC-12s). In the meantime, they’re building real cars. I know because I got to drive one…

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Ford’s El Presidente de las Americas has been out and about, doing the rounds, talking up the company’s prospects to the media. And Mark Fields has a good story to tell: Ford’s not Chrysler or GM. Thankfully, Bloomberg cuts through the chatter to ask the key question: at what point would FoMoCo tap into Uncle Sugar’s Blue Oval-shaped $9b bailout– I mean, line of credit? Fields said he’ll only proffer the begging bowl if “the economy continues to deteriorate well beyond our assumptions.” Define “well beyond.” Nope. Well, at least we get a look at Ford’s assumptions. “Ford Motor Co. is forecasting that this year’s U.S. sales of cars and light trucks may fall as much as 9 percent from 2008, when they reached a 16-year low. Industry sales will be 12 million to 12.5 million, with the first half weaker than the final six months.” “After the last couple years, we hope we’re at a bottom because it’s a pretty low level of activity for the industry,” Fields said. Again with the hope. Oh, and did I mention that Ford CEO Alan Mulally didn’t get the memo on the 12m bailout floor?

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One of our economy’s biggest engines is brand loyalty: both trying to keep it and trying to break it. If you’ve seen the first episode of the most excellent Mad Men, you’ll remember the scene where Don Draper is trying to figure out why his waiter smokes X brand of cigarettes, while simultaneously musing about what makes Lucky Strikes so damn special. I mention this not only because i’m a recent convert to Mad Men but because I’ve got to reattach the rear view mirror on my fiancee’s Focus. See, I grew up in a GM household. My dad’s dad was a Buick/Cadillac man and once my father got Renaults and Datsun Zs out of his system (i.e. my sister and I were born) it was Buicks, Chevys and Pontiacs to haul us around. Until he discovered Acura. But I digress. One of the big reasons we were GM-only, was because of my mom’s Ford Falcon. I can still see my dad’s eyes rolling back in his head while he says, “three valve jobs.” Never again. At least for my Mom. Me? I’d buy a Ford, despite this POS focus. But after how I was treated by Chrysler after my father died and I had to deal with his leased Jeep (nightmare), I can easily say never again. You?

After a weekend of concept-touting and audacious hoping, Detroit is praying that the bitter taste of bailout beggary will be cleansed by the redemptive powers of PR. From the sight of hundreds of rallying GM workers to a lineup of future concepts, the North American International Auto Show played host to a number of highly-managed media messages aimed at convincing skeptics that it’s no longer such a lonely world for American automakers. But the emphasis on public relations highlights how far Detroit still has to go, and fails to mask the desperate need for, well, bankruptcy. And while cheerleaders for a largely-imagined Detroit renaissance hold on to that feeling, time marches remorselessly on.

I know: shooting fish in a barrel. (“If only those damn fish would keep still. Martha? Martha! Where are my reading glasses? Damn! I dropped them. In the barrel! I said… Oh never mind.”) But Automotive News [sub] is reporting that Buick is changing its tagline– again– without telling us the new motto. Just in case you’ve forgotten (“Martha? Martha! Where’s my damn medication?”), Buick’s current tagline is “Drive Beautiful.” In the past, we’ve been asked “Wouldn’t You Really Rather Have a Buick?” and told “You’re Better Off With a Buick.” Buick was once “The Beautiful Buy” (hence the outgoing motto), although before that it was more of a head than heart deal, apostrophes be damned (“Smart Buy’s Buick”). And we all know that “When Better Automobiles [crossovers? minivans? SUVs?] Are Built, Buick Will Build Them.” Oh, I forgot “The Solid Feeling.” And the wartime “Buick Powers the Liberator.” And “Better Buy Buick.” And “Buy Buick’s Best.” And “Buick’s the Beauty.” And “It’s Buick Again.” [thanks to oldcarandtruckads.com]

Automotive News [sub] reports that the Tokyo Auto Show could be canceled this year. Debate is raging within the Japan Automobile Manufacturing Association (JAMA) which hosts the show, as foreign automakers stay away and even domestics brands call for a cancelation. But JAMA won’t reveal the confirmed no-shows, and insists that the things must go on in the business of show. “A couple companies are not in favor of organizing the show under these conditions, but that is not JAMA’s opinion,” says Toshihiro Iwatake, JAMA’s executive director and secretary general. “We think the motor show is a symbol of industrial prosperity,” he said. “We have to show that our industry is healthy.” And though Japan’s automakers are as healthy as can be expected, Japan’s cratering domestic market (set to fall under 5m units in 2009) makes America’s down year look like China’s down year. If the Tokyo show is canceled, it won’t be back until 2011. By which time, Japan could be well on its way to becoming a “kuruma banare,” or demotorized society.

GM can fix its own problems. Really. They don’t need a miracle cure or a piece of technology fabricated at MIT’s advanced labs. They don’t need a new financing scheme developed by the alchemists on Wall Street. Nor do they need Nancy Pelosi & Co. to fashion tnier future. What they need to survive can be summed-up in two words: truth and honesty. If GM would be honest about its products, finances, dealers, marketing, reliability, (lack of) executive talent, and on and on– it could begin to resurrect itself. Until and unless GM gets glasnost, the automaker will remain forever stuck in the quagmire of its own making, relegated to the support of the taxpayers, always looking for its next fix. To understand the possibilities, compare and contrast GM’s perfidy with “One Ford”….

The city of Ventura, California escaped paying an Australian red light camera contractor more than $1.7 million as of last June by exercising a questionable contract provision. Under state law, municipalities are required to pay a single flat-rate fee to the private companies that own and operate automated ticketing machines. Ventura claims that it does not owe any money at all because, on May 22, 2006, it signed a contract with Redflex with a “cost-neutrality” clause. “In order to ensure cost neutrality to the customer, customer will only be obligated to pay Redflex from the gross cash receipts received from Ventura County after first deducting customer operating costs,” the contract states. “Cost neutrality is assured to the customer using this methodology as the customer will never pay Redflex more than the actual cash received from Ventura County after deducting customer operating costs.”

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“I’ve never quite been in this situation before of getting a massive pay cut, no bonus, no longer allowed to stay in decent hotels, no corporate airplane,” GM Car Czar Bob Lutz tells NPR radio. “I have to stand in line at the Northwest counter. I’ve never quite experienced this before. I’ll let you know a year from now what it’s like.” Hopefully not. Meanwhile and before that, Maximum Bob was busy comparing the Chevy Malibu to the VW Phaeton. On one level, I’m down with that. The VW Phaeton was a stunning car, in an absurdly misbranded, high-tech kinda way. I mean, we’re talking about a vehicle that automatically adjusts the angle of its sunroof at speed to protect occupants from sonic distress. But during his don’t call it The Detroit Auto Show interview, GM Car Czar Bob Lutz proudly reveals that the Chevy Malibu took its styling cues from the ill-fated Phaeton. What styling cues? Of course, there’s more Maximum Bobage to be savored here.

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No really. (Remember: we don’t diss Autoblog any more.) Scribe Sam “Is There a Draft Out There” Abuelsamid has noticed a new technology on the otherwise Lincoln WTF– I mean Concept C that’s way cool. I think. “Take a close look at the brake caliper in the photo above. Typically, the brake rotor is attached to the wheel hub and the caliper grips the disk from the out edge. On the Concept C, the braking surface is attached to the inside edge of the wheel rim with caliper wrapping around the inside edge of the rotor… An internal caliper mount has the advantage of allowing a larger effective radius for where the braking force is applied. Since torque is defined as a force applied at a distance from a pivot point, the greater the distance, the greater the braking force. Such a setup allows more brake force with a smaller caliper, which in turn can provide better brake feel since the fluid displacement is smaller. The downside is that changing wheels becomes a much more complicated matter since the brake hardware is mounted on the wheel.” Man, I’ve got to get out more.

The federal bailout bucks propping-up GM and Chrysler’s bankrupt businesses come with political strings attached– that will turn into piano wire with each successive snuffle at the trough. And so it begins… Yesterday’s New York Times editorial called for higher federally mandated fuel economy standards. “[Now that Bush is history] The Obama administration now has a free hand to set its own standards that will save consumers money at the pump, reduce oil dependency and greenhouse gases, and help make the American car companies more competitive. The 2007 energy bill required new cars and trucks to meet a fleetwide average of 35 miles per gallon by 2020, a 40 percent increase over today’s average of 25 m.p.g. Congress intended this as a floor, not a ceiling, and ordered the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to write specific regulations.” Uh-oh…

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As Detroit’s struggles prove, life is a fight for resources. If you can’t get enough resources, you die. Well, in Motown’s case, you receive massive taxpayer subsidies and then you die. Taking it down to the personal level, the resources needed for survival form what Abraham Maslow called “a hierarchy of needs.” The most basic of these are lumped together: air, water, food and sex. Yup, sex is at the bottom of the pyramid. So it’s no wonder that exhibitors at The North American International Show (NAIAS) pay young, attractive females to pose next to their vehicles. It appeals to the mostly male jobbing journos’ most basic needs (after securing shrimp), drawing their attention to the automakers’ vehicles. It’s effective, morally reprehensible and now, self-defeating.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is joining a larger veteran’s initiative to create a new program “to increase awareness of the importance of safe driving among newly-demobilized veterans.” Of course, the press release made no mention of the budget for said program. (In fact, they’re studying what to study.) But it did make a case– somewhat– that veterans’ safety needs differ than that of the general population. “According to the Department of Transportation, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for all Americans between the ages of eight through 34. Men constitute about 70 percent of all traffic deaths. In the past decade, both deaths and injuries from motor vehicle crashes have gone down in the United States, due to increases in seat-belt use and decreases in alcohol involvement, among other factors. Nonetheless, motor vehicle accidents remain a major concern in the military and among veterans as the greatest cause of accidental fatalities. Several studies have reported an increase in post-deployment deaths [ED: percentage auto-related?] among military personnel who served in a combat zone compared to their non-deployed counterparts, who are in the military but not deployed to a war, after both the Vietnam War and the 1991 Gulf War. Preliminary evidence also indicates this is the case with veterans from the Global War on Terror.” Citations? None. Intentions? Honorable. Boondoggle potential? Enormous.

Can you say price war? How else is Toyota going to shift 180k Priora when the market for hybrids has tanked (Prius sales down 44.7 percent in December) and Honda’s Insight has arrived to do battle? In their best year, Toyota shifted 181,221 gas – electric hybrids. The obvious answer: they’re not– barring a sudden recovery of the American automotive market and an increase in fuel prices. (Federal gas tax hike?) Could be. As far as the Insight’s concerned, ToMoCo isn’t. US Prez Jim Lentz told Ward’s Auto there’s room in the market for three hybrids. “You’re going to have Honda at the entry end. You’re going to have Prius kind of in the center, and you’re going to have (the) Lexus (HS 250h) on the luxury side,” he says. “It gives consumers clear choices, a large array of hybrid products.” So much for the Ford Fusion or any GM hybrid, then. Sad; but true?