Department of Energy “retooling loans” – $25b

GM and Chrysler “bridging loans” – $17.4b

U.S. Treasury “investment”in GMAC  – $5b

U.S. Treasury supplement to GM for GMAC – $1b

TOTAL – $48.4b

United Auto Workers’ (UAW) boss Big Ron Gettelfinger pops his head above the PR parapet every now and again to defend his members’ right to the wages and benefits that they’ve negotiated from Detroit’s failing automakers. But in the main, the UAW’s Big Cheese remains tight-lipped about the finer points of the union’s contract, strategy, golf course, JOBS bank, election process, internal dissent, balloting procedures, etc. (not to mention embezzlement and corruption). So when The Detroit News offered Ronny G unedited space within their precious pages, you’d hardly expect anything other than broad strokes (so to speak). You know: Wall Street vs. Main Street, investing in America; that sort of thing. One exception: Ron takes on the “myth” that UAW work rules rule the rotting roost. “According to the Harbour Report — the standard for measuring auto plant productivity — all 10 of the most efficient plants in North America are union plants. Union workers get the job done in less hours per vehicle than the competition. For example, according to 2008 Harbour data, it takes UAW members in Kansas City just over 19 hours to assemble a Ford F-series pick-up. It takes more than 32 hours to assemble the Toyota Tundra, a similar vehicle, at a non-union plant in Princeton, Indiana.”

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Yesterday, I called Autoblog (AB) to task for blogging pistonhead paraphernalia without disclosing whether they received swag for their efforts. AB jeffe Damon Lavrinc revealed his team follows AOL’s strict policy: no freebies and return any review items post post. So I removed my post. And now I’ve found Michael Banovsky’s over-punctuated, redundantly-named blog Cars, Culture, and Etc. Banovsky asserts that he’s not on the gravy train, and when he is, he donates the resulting air miles to Doctors Without Borders (perhaps there’s a Barnes and Noble nearby?). Underneath the post, Carkeys.ca’s Kevin “Crash” Corrigan defends pocketing payola. “Whilst I applaud you for donating your air miles to charity, I think that I should say something from the flip side of the coin. Unlike the print guys, us web-based journos are rarely given ‘expensive’ gifts. In nearly 5 years of writing, the most pricey gift that I have received is a toy car. In fact, I’ve been given a few of them (Approx 6-7). Now I collect models cars, as do probably most most of us car guys, so that’s quite nice. On the other hand, does anyone truly believe that any of us could be brought off with a $10-30 model car?? Let’s look at this from another angle…I worked in the building trade for several years, and every year we were given bottles of booze from the suppliers. My father who owned a large company and often received crates of the stuff!”

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Print is so dead. How anyone could expect a magazine with a two-month lead time to compete with the internet on the news front? It’s like pitting a semaphore line against G3 cell service. In case they don’t know it, the buff book’s business model is as dead as the carmakers’ they support. And while we await the car mag medium’s reinvention and rebirth (U.S. Evo please), we get to admire their attempts to remain au courant. I mean, poor todd lassa. Not only is the Motor Trend scribe’s name chronically under capitalized, but he also had to decide whether or not Red Ink Rick Wagoner would still be at the helm of GM in January 2009. What are the odds, eh? Unfortunately, todd erred on the side of common sense.

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They say the longer the job title, the smaller the job. In the automotive world, the longer the model name, the more hype, money and technology involved. For those of you new to this game, the BMW X5 xDrive 35d is BMW’s biggest SUV with all wheel-drive and a diesel engine. (No, it’s not a 3.5-liter powerplant, but alphanumerics outpaced pedantry a long time ago.) No matter what you call it, I’m an unabashed fan of the modern diesel-powered vehicle. With diesel more expensive that gas, and an intimate understanding of the overarching importance of depreciation, it’s not diesel’s fuel-efficiency that flicks my wick. I enjoy the beefy, progressive power delivery. The X5 xDrive 35d may be a belated entry into the diesel SUV market, but it’s no slacker underfoot.

Ever since one-time (and one time only) TTAC contributor Gary Witzenburg’s column appeared on Autobloggreen (ABG), we’ve been asking huh? Witzenberg is the Detroit apologist’s apologist; he wears his mountainous shoulder chip on his sleeve as a badge of honor. I guess Gazza lured ABG into giving him a job with promises to reveal “the truth” behind GM’s failed EV-1 program; during whose short and unhappy life the divine Mr. W served as GM spinmeister. That “truth” turned out to be, you guessed it, an apologist’s perspective. Since the series, which runs directly counter to the “Who Killed the Electric Car?” meme that ABG’s base holds sacred, Witzenburg has resumed his relentless campaign against the barbarians outside the gates of Fortress Detroit. This week’s magnum opus could well be his swan song, and quite the article it is too. If ever you wanted a round-up of all Motown’s mainstream defenders’ spurious arguments in favor of Detroit and its $64b and counting call on the public purse, well, here it is. I won’t bother to quote from Gary’s work, as we’ve skewered every one of these sacred [to him] cows before. Suffice it to say, it’s only a matter of time before Gary and ABG part company. He is a gas guzzler amongst hybrids, if you know what I mean.

Sales is one of the few professions where employees must maintain a positive attitude– no matter what. John Candy’s curtain ring sales in the movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” exemplifies this “never say die even when you’re dying” job requirement. Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” is the excruciatingly pathetic flip-side. MLive gives us sample of latter day unfettered optimism. “‘Traffic started picking up with the announcement that GM had the loan money,’ said Bob Johnson, new car sales manager at McDonald Pontiac, Cadillac, GMC Truck, 5155 State in Saginaw Township. ‘Then they came back with the GMAC rates. People are starting to loosen their belts.'” ML pauses for a quick reality check: “The Detroit automakers are trying to weather the biggest automobile sales slump in more than 26 years. Forecasts for December range near 10 million and actual sales could prove the lowest since August 1982.” And then we’re off for another spin around fantasyland. “Savvy buyers know the kind of deals available, said Rob Roy, news car sales manager at Draper Chevrolet, Dodge, Toyota, 4200 Bay in Saginaw Township. ‘They’re aware of the incentives,’ he said. ‘But it doesn’t matter what brought them in. Business has been good since (Dec.) 26th.'” For which part of the biz, Bob? Chevrolet, Dodge, Toyota or all three? Not specified. More of the same after the jump, plus doom and gloom and things go boom– in Bloomberg’s blog!

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“For many of these employees, mass transportation may add hours to their travel schedule.” Shock horror! Is The New York Times defending private transportation over public? Maybe. And you sure gotta look for it; the statement is buried in the middle of Michael Barbaro’s story about Big Apple Mayor Bloomberg’s latest executive fiat, “ordering city agencies like the police, parks and health departments to give up nearly 700 city-owned cars, a cherished perk for their workers.” (I think Barbaro added that last bit.) Hizzoner’s beancounters reckon the move will save the City $20m over two years. The Gray Lady says that an indeterminate number of the vehicles being shipped off to the worst resale market since the Paleolithic Era will be Toyota Priora. In fact, “The city estimates that most of the cars have a resale value of about $2,000 at auction.” Despite the aforementioned loss of bureaucratic efficiency and a depreciation hit that makes John Gotti look like social worker, the paper welcomes the move. Kinda. “It would help blunt criticism that City Hall practices a form of vehicular hypocrisy, telling ordinary New Yorkers to use mass transportation while at times clogging the streets with its own city-issued cars.” Amen. I think.

“GM has received the first tranche of $4B from the Federal Government and we look forward to working with the government on all elements of the loan agreement and our viability plan. We appreciate the Administration extending a financial bridge to GM at this critical time for the U.S. auto industry.

“GM remains committed to providing great cars, trucks and crossovers, as well as leading technologies, to our customers. We are committed to successfully executing the plan we submitted on December 2 and remain confident in the future of General Motors.”

It got a little quiet recently about Chinese automakers ogling American automakers-in-distress. London’s Financial Times (sub) decided it’s time to rekindle the flames. “China is the world’s second-largest car market,” the pink sheet writes today, “and rumors swirl ceaselessly about a Chinese carmaker buying Chrysler or General Motors. It is a remarkable transformation and one that cannot be halted, even by the global economic recession.” After waxing prose about the end of the “stratospheric double-digit growth of recent years,” and snidely remarking that “industry analysts are still expecting high single-digit growth for 2008 and possibly 2009 as well. Much of the rest of the global car industry would be happy to see such numbers,” the FT gets right to the point:

“No one expects the Chinese government to step in with a Washington-style bail-out, but last month Chery announced that it had arranged RMB10b ($1.46b) in financing from China’s Export Import Bank to fund overseas activities, and then immediately said it was calling off a small-car partnership with Chrysler – fueling speculation that Chery’s real intent was to buy the troubled US carmaker.”

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A – due to worldwide holiday inertia – very short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. Until Jan 4, 2009, WAS is being filed from Tokyo.

Hyundai sees trouble ahead: Hyundai’s Vice Chairman Choi Jae Kook gave employees an uplifting New Year’s speech, writes Bloomberg. Choi said, Hyundai expects global industrywide vehicle sales to fall at least 7.7 percent next year. Sales may fall below 60 million from an expected total of about 65 million this year, “Next year will be a critical time for all automakers as there could be a big industrywide shake-up” amid slowing sales and overcapacity, Choi said. Global industry capacity stands at about 90 million vehicles a year, Choi said. That is an untenable capacity utilization of 66 percent. Hyundai and Kia have a combined annual capacity of 5.3m vehicles. According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, Hyundai’s “total global sales in 2008 reached 4.8 million vehicles, down from 3.96 million units in the previous year.” Of course, this doesn’t make any sense, but other news outlets print it anyway.
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Auburn Hills, Mich., Dec 31, 2008  –  “We recognize the magnitude of the effort by the Treasury Department to complete these multiple financial arrangements quickly and sequentially. The discussions relating to Chrysler LLC have been positive and productive, and we look forward to finalizing the details of our financial assistance in the immediate future.”

You just know they’re going to get it wrong. And so they do. Number One: Full-Size Pickup Trucks. Huh? If any market segment is likely NOT to restore The Big 2.8 to glowing good health, it’s the PU segment. But no. I mean yes! “The Dodge Ram is new for 2009, as is the top-selling Ford F-150, while the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra twins combine to sell more than any of them. With the Toyota Tundra in retreat and Nissan ready to surrender the segment (they’ll be getting their next generation of Titans from Dodge), cheap gas should keep buyers putting their money into these profit centers.” And if the housing market stays in the toilet, the market remains saturated with trucks or the price of gas goes up? * crickets chirping * No wait! Number Two: American Muscle. Huh? Talk about carving-up smaller pieces a decreasing pie. Nope. Fox is saying halo to the new Camaro, Challenger and Mustang. “Forget for a moment all of the goody two-shoes environmentally conscious cars Washington wants the Detroit 3 to build: These are the ones that look best in the commercials and get shoppers into showrooms. They may not sell in huge numbers, but you can’t pay for the kind of pride they bring to a brand’s image.” Apparently, you– I mean “we” can. Number Three…

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And here’s the kicker: the French Interior Ministry described the night as “rather calm and without major incident.” Dow Jones [via NASDAQ] gives us the exact stats: “The interior ministry had earlier said 445 vehicles were set on fire overnight, but later revised that figure to 1,147. The number of arrests and cars torched topped last year’s tally of 259 people detained and 372 vehicles burned.” So, uh how could that possibly be construed as a calm? It all depends whose car is set alight. “‘There were very few targetings of fire trucks and clashes with security forces, in particular in the suburbs,’ noted the interior ministry in a statement. When clashes occurred, they were ‘brief and sporadic,’ it added. There was no damage to buildings.” Oh, that’s alright then. And how did the Parisians authorities accomplish this little feat? “France mobilized 35,000 police and 50,000 firefighters to maintain order during the New Year fete.”

Click on over to Chrysler’s blog for a look at the anger unleashed by the ailing automaker’s full-page (and Google key word) “Thank You” ads. (Either glasnost has suddenly infected ChryCo’s secretive owners or, more likely, the site’s moderator took the week off.) The first comment by RightKlik.net: “Hey Chrysler! You’re not welcome. You took my hard earned tax dollars without congressional approval. This is not the time for a ‘thank you.’ This would be a good time for a refund…and an apology.” With a few notable though still critical exceptions, it gets progressively angry from there. spalind: “Bunch of scumbags…Nardopey and Cerberdolts can stick it…the VAST majority of the American public is against any sort of bailout for you or GM and yet you steal our money anyway…Are you and the other CEOs and investment bankers going to come bail me out when I lose my job??  Didn’t think so… I’ll NEVER buy a Chrysler or GM product–EVER–and either will any of my current or future family members I will make sure of it…” There is only a handful of positive response, like this one by corie: “think the Thank you was a great idea. It would be nice for every person connected to employment in the automotive industry to say thank you to every person driving an american made car. Thank you to those who BUY AMERICAN!” But as this non-scientific sampling indicates, there’s a bailout blowback blowin’ in the wind. When GM, Chrysler and then Ford return to the well, they’d do well to play their PR cards more carefully than this early and deeply reviled attempt.