“Hi Mr. Baruth. First, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to assist you and please feel free to email or call me at the number provided if you have any other questions you need answered. I have a vehicle with a MSRP of $29,995. I can sell you that for $29,482.” Interesting. In the middle of the American automotive market’s worst implosion in living memory, what car could possibly be so valuable, so desired, so smoking hot that the maximum negotiating room possible would amount to an ungenerous five hundred and thirteen dollars off sticker? Give up? It’s a Pontiac G8. A 2008-model Pontiac G8.

In invite the Best and Brightest to send me examples of big discounts on new cars for publication, from any brand. Send jpegs to robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com. BTW: I saw a TV ad today advertising Chevy Malibus for $18k. The fine print (which I barely caught): one owner cars. Desperate times.

A friend of mine just bought a brand new Dodge Ram (V8, power windows/locks, crew cab, 6-speed stick) truck for $16,000 from a local dealer. I thought the 50% savings was only on single cab, V6 strippers. Turns out, this truck was a leftover 2007 model. (not 2008)  We pulled about 2 ft of string wrapped inside the pivot point in the side view mirror.  This rig obviously had many, many balloons tied to its mirror as it waited for a new owner.  The new owner wisely insisted the fluids get changed before he took delivery of the truck.  Which brings me to this picture: I’ve been driving by another Chrysler dealership since March and the scene has not changed. (I took this picture on Tuesday)  There must be over 30 Crossfires, always sitting on the front row. I believe they stopped making Crossfires over a year ago. Maybe this isn’t newsworthy, but there’s no better sign of the times than these two outsider recent snapshots into Chrysler’s miserable sales.

I don’t even know where the 0-60 mph metric came from. Sounds like it was something Brock Yates would’va dreamed up after the Federal double knickle went into effect. But, it’s older than that. Anyhow, I bring this up because I relied on that chestnut pretty heavily for my WRX review. Why? Well, if I had to encapsulate the 2009 WRX into a single sentence it would go like this, “Everything’s worse than the 2005-2007 WRX, except that it’s so damn fast I love it.” But you know, when Farago says 800 words, he means 800 words. But I want you to understand my point. The good thing about the WRX is how freakishly it accelerates. No one records 0-75 mph times. But, we have an endless supply of 0-60 mph data for every car ever built ever (basically). So my choice was to either compare it to other fast cars you’re (hopefully) familiar with, or dig into the old metaphor bucket (Faster than Marion Jones on fresh dope. Faster than a speed freak on a roller coaster where both the speed freak and the roller coaster are on speed.). I chose the former, and man are y’all hammering me! And I can take it. Thick skin, broad shoulders, decent bench press at one point, etc. In fact, the barbs provide fodder for my QOTD, so I thank you. And so yeah, that’s my question. Is 0-60 mph a useful metric when reviewing cars. I say yes because who the hell gets to ever run a car flat out for a quarter of a mile? On public roads? But up to 60 mph? No prob. You?

Sure, Autocar. Jaguar’s gonna finally build an F-type roadster. And just in time for a “end-of-recession” 2011 launch too. Look, I’m just not ready for more pain. Weren’t you there? Didn’t you drool over the XK180 concept as far back as 1997? Didn’t an F-Type concept make you weak in the knees in 2000? And weren’t we told it would hit production? Remember that? That was nine years and five days ago. Ratan Tata thinks he can just pry that wound open, does he? “Putting exciting projects on the back burner is the thing we should not do,” eh? Ratan? Fine. Just do it already, then. And make it look like this one.

In 2005, Toyota bought around half of GM’s stake in Subaru. As ToMoCo never bought Saab, they never bothered with a Saabaru. Instead, Toyota decided to go for a return on their investment. How? By broadening the WRX’s appeal. That’s right, the WRX, Subaru’s de facto all-wheel drive, turbocharged, deformed-looking halo vehicle was going to bring home the bacon by appealing to moms. Ha ha ha. As such, the 2008 WRX was an abject failure. There’s no better proof/pudding than the fact that I spent a week with an all new 2009 WRX. Not since the 1950s has a redesign happened so fast. But big questions remain. Like just how much better is this new-for-‘09 Rex?

I think it’s great to get excited about new cars, announcements from manufacturers, spec sheets, press kit photos, and concept cars. I’m a jerk, but I’m not a jerk made of stone. With my mea-culpa qualification out of the way though, I do find it frustrating to see what I think of as undue enthusiasm. If you jump, you can see my five TTAC-spirited assessments of the product announcements of the week.

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“The first real casualty of the current recession may well be the middle-priced automobile. For years it not only provided transportation for the middle class but was a firm steppingstone on the stratified pyramid of personal material progress.” That’s from Time magazine, 1958. A different recession, in a different era. But there can be value in gazing back. That’s how we’re supposed to learn, right? To keep from doing the same stupid things over and over? Or maybe you’re more in the Conway Twitty camp. His message from the same year: It’s Only Make Believe.

Automotive News [sub] reports that Ford has less than $15b in cash, and a burn rate of “somewhere between $1.3 billion and $2.57 billion” in the fourth quarter. CEO Alan Mulally had earlier indicated that Ford had a solid $15b to work with, but a spokesman now reveals that his number is off. Ford has not closed the books on the fourth quarter yet, says Mark Truby, “however, our cash position will be lower than $15 billion. It would be premature to say anything more.” Ford is sticking by its earlier guidance that cash burn was reduced in the fourth quarter, but that’s not saying much considering the Blue Oval torched $7.7b in the third. In addition to the “under $15b” cash on hand, Ford has access to $10.7b in credit. But with nothing else to borrow against, survival until the brand’s Euro-revival takes hold could come down to a requested-but-unapproved $9b government “emergency line of credit.” Or magic. Never stop believing in magic.

The Truth About Cars: they’re hideously complicated devices that must be able to serve duty in every sort of meteorological condition. The controls required to help keep their owners comfortable in this huge and ever-changing range of temperatures and climatic conditions are subject to neglect, abuse and constant use. Not to mention simple human nature, which is simple, but not so easy to satisfy in any meaningful bio-mechanical way. So hats off to the designers, engineers and assembly workers who delivered unto us, the driving public, a sane, sensible way to control our own personal micro-climate. I present to you, gentle readers and humble auto industry-types, TTAC’s Top Ten HVAC controls 2009, with comments by our very own Best and Brightest. [Gallery below. Printed list and comments after the jump.]

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As much as U.S. automakers, especially GM, rely on China to bolster their global sales numbers and to supply cheap parts, Detroit is scared excrementless that the Chinese may apply the Western technology which had been exported to their shores, and sell cheap cars in the U.S. So far, it hasn’t happened. But it’s happening in America’s underbelly and NAFTA partner Mexico. “FAW Group Corp., one of China’s three largest domestic auto manufacturers, has begun selling new cars for as little as $6,550 in Mexico in what is believed to be the first foray by a Chinese auto-maker into North America,” Canada’s Financial Post reports. This being a Canadian paper, they are probably talking Canadian dollars, so in real money, it would be $5550. Or more like $4999. Scary.

A boatload of about 6,000 FAW cars have been brought to Mexico by Grupo Salinas, a specialty retailer. “They’re not all sold,” company spokesman Daniel McCosh said. “The higher-end and the lower-end vehicles are moving better than the mid-priced models.” That Mexican beachhead is troubling news for Detroit.
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A recently-released Kelley Blue Book survey says that nine out of ten car-shopping Americans have at least one hunk of Detroit iron on their wish list. Even more tellingly, one third of shoppers polled would only buy a car built by Ford, Chevy or Chrysler. That’s a considerable preference for America as a nation-state of ostensible origin compared to Japan (12 percent) or Germany (five percent). “Seeing the domestic automakers’ recent struggle has ignited a heightened sense of patriotism among some American car shoppers, and the latest Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research indicates that people are pulling for the Big Three to survive and thrive,” said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book. Which is one way to look at it…

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Despite the recent arrival of a Tahoe Hybrid (I’m on it), a Chevy Avalanche and whatever the Cadillac version of same is called in my daughters’ PC school parking lot, the death of the full-size SUV has been well-documented and publicized. Less well known: the mid-size SUV is even deaderer (sorry Andrew). Ward’s Dealer Business tells the tale: “SUV sales took a 39.3% plunge, going from 1.91 million units in 2007 to 1.16 million in 2008. Middle SUVs was the biggest segment loser, with sales sinking 45% in 2008. By comparison, midsize cross/utility vehicle sales were off 6.8%. ‘People are moving out of the midsize-SUV market completely and going to CUVs,’ says Matt Traylen, senior director for Automotive Lease Guide. ‘What people don’t want now is anything with ‘SUV’ in the name.'” Thank Got BMW called the honking great X5 and X6 “Sports Activity Vehicles.” And how’s this for a piercing glimpse into the obvious: “They don’t go up mountains or off-roading. They take their kids to school and go to the grocery store,” Matt says. “A lot of people are waking up and asking, ‘Why did I buy this vehicle?’” And then saying “Now what?”

China’s Passenger Car Association released their numbers for the year. For China, which was used to double digit growth, they are disappointing. Other markets, such as the U.S. would die for them. China’s full year passenger car sales rose 7.4 percent in 2008, the Association says.

Before we delve into them, be warned about Chinese numbers. China doesn’t have a “light vehicle” category. Vans or minivans, such as the GM-Wuling offerings, are counted as “commercial vehicles,” and are not in China’s passenger vehicle count. Also, to understand the market, one must be aware of China’s wild and woolly joint venture situation where cars of the same brand are made by different and often competing companies, and sold through different dealer networks.

Here are the top 10 Chinese passenger vehicle sales as Gasgoo reports them. These are real sales, not cars dumped on dealer’s lots. These are government numbers, based on cars that have been registered by owners and issued license plates. However, they count factories. They don’t count brands.

1. FAW VW: 498,867 units
2. Shanghai VW: 490,087 units
3. Shanghai GM: 468,642 units
4. FAW Toyota: 365,699 units
5. Chery: 356,092 units
6. Dongfeng Nissan: 350,621 units
7. GAC Honda: 305,997 units
8. Beijing Hyundai: 294,517 units
9. Geely: 230,420 units
10. Changan Ford: 202,797 units

Now for a closer view:
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