The New York Times has brought it to our attention that you can now buy speeding ticket insurance! Ticket Assurance will cover the cost of up to three moving or non-moving violations and two tow truck calls per year for $15.95 per month. The firm was founded by an Atlanta-area businessman who was inconvenienced as much by the process of dealing with taffic courts as he was by the fines he’d receive for speeding. “I didn’t want to take time out of my day to plead my case for something I knew was wrong,” says Terrence Byrd. “I thought there should be someone who should handle this.” So he started the firm which now has about 1,700 customers in 23 states. Subscribers are only covered for moving violation fines of $1k per year ($500 for non-moving), but Byrd says membership pays for itself if you receive $200 in fines per year. DUI, reckless driving and felony charges are not covered, nor are single moving violation fines of more than $350. All the restrictions take away much of the advantage over a radar detector, but if you know you are going to be speeding a lot, it might be worth the peace of mind.

Consumer Reports has released its annual auto issue and scorecard, and the results are hardly shocking. CR loves them some Toyota, Honda and Subaru, singling out the big H as building the most reliable lineup of vehicles (Element excepted). Toyota came in second, with the Prius winning top spot in CR’s new “value” ranking. Only Toyota’s Yaris and FJ Cruiser were unable to earn a “recommend” grade from the report. Mercedes has improved its reliability, reckons CR, but European brands are still lagging. On the American front, Ford is singled out as the high point among the American automakers, as “some Ford models now rival their competitors” from Japan. Too bad they’re the F150 and Flex, which compete for a shrinking market segments. Unfortunately, that’s as good as the news gets for Detroit.

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Today, management of Opel presented a rescue plan to the Supervisory Board of the Opel GmbH. The bottom line of the plan: A decoupling from GM. According to Automobilwoche [sub,]  the plan and the decoupling has been approved by the Supervisory Board. The head of the Supervisory Board is Carl-Peter Forster, who’s main job description is Head of General Motors Europe. It looks like GM will let Opel go. Well, not quite yet.

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Sheikh Mohamed Al-Najimi of the Saudi Islamic Jurisprudence Academy has advised the Muslim community (via Al Arabiya) that burning ethanol and other alcohol fuels could be a sin. Al-Najimi said that ethanol runs afoul of the Prophet Mohammed’s ban on the sale, consumption, processing, and handling of all forms of alcohol. He does stress that this is not an official Fatwa, or religious edict, meaning ethanol is not officially banned by Sharia, or Islamic law. Yet. But hey, as long as this little guy gets beheaded on YouTube we’ll call it good. To be completely fair though, this isn’t entirely surprising. It’s hard to imagine that ethanol is wildly popular when you live on top of oceans of the real thing. Meanwhile, back in the decadent west, moral clarity (like oil) is a little harder to come by.

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In a 2-1 decision, The Eighth District Ohio Court of Appeals ruled last week that Cleveland couldn’t issue red light camera and speed camera tickets to the drivers of leased vehicles. The dispute arose after a pair of speed camera tickets were mailed to the Dickson and Campbell law firm in January 2007. Attorney Blake A. Dickson noticed that under Cleveland’s ticketing ordinance, only the registered owner of a vehicle could be held liable for an automated ticket. He then appealed the $100 fines before the Cleveland Parking Violations Bureau, arguing that his law firm leased the car from VW Credit Leasing, the registered owner. “OK. Well, we are going to go after the [lessee] then, sir,” the hearing officer said as he declared the firm guilty.

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You just know it’s got to be GM. And so it is. The words flew out of the mouth of Steve Tihanyi, the man who oversees GM’s sponsorships. Or, more accurately, the elimination of GM sponsorships. After all, in Bailout Nation, you can’t be seen to be having a good time on the taxpayer’s nickel. (Although GM spokeswoman Kelly Cusinato helpfully pointed out that there are no advertising or marketing restrictions attached to the government loans or the company’s viability plan.) The latest casualty: GM’s 25-year sponsorship of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Bloomberg:

The company will slash by at least 60 percent on-site spending at the Final Four, even though this year it will be held blocks from GM’s headquarters in Detroit. The company is trimming dealer-incentive trips to the championship rounds and billboards downtown. Tihanyi wouldn’t comment on how much the 60 percent cut in on-site promotion and entertainment would save.

’Cause that would be telling. Oh, and Bloomies forgot to mention that GM’s not going to use its swanky skybox seats at this year’s final four. What’s the bet they’ll go empty?

Former Ford CEO Jac Nasser’s abrasive public persona during the Firestone tire debacle makes him the most memorable chapter in the Ford Explorer story. Like many famous Blue Oval products, the bean-counted SUV that rode on “traction B, temperature C”-rated donuts suffered a never-ending assault from the Big Chief himself. And now that the Explorer is gasping for breath, waiting for a Flex-based CUV to snatch its storied past, its nice to know the original never forgot its mission.

Not literally. But close enough. At this point, GM would gladly transfer ownership of its German division to Daimler for about the same price Cerberus paid Daimler for Chrysler (without withholding a 19.99 percent share). Yesterday, GM’s European workers took the streets in Austria, Belgium, France, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Britain. They were protesting fact that their employers may stop paying them to build cars no one will buy. The International Herald Tribune ties cause to effect (not terribly difficult but needs must): “Targets outlined in the [congressional viability] report included the elimination of 47,000 jobs worldwide, including 26,000 outside the United States, $6 billion in grants from governments abroad by 2010 and labor-cost savings in Europe of $1.2 billion.” GM will no doubt use the industrial actions as a gun to the head of foreign governments, extorting bailout bucks in the great American tradition. (Collusion anyone?) Students of the Roman Empire know the deal: the foreign outposts revolt as the center no longer holds. Or, as Chinua Achebe pointed out, things fall apart.

An 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. Note: This week-end, BS will change his location to Berlin for a few weeks. WAS will be filed as time allows—or not, as RF fancies to say.

Daimler may buy Opel plant: Opel has contacted Daimler over plans to sell its Corsa-building Eisenach plant. The Financial Times Deutschland [via Reuters] bases its story on “government sources,” who also claim that Opel’s Astra and Zafira-producing Bochum plant is on the chopping block. Daimler management board member, Thomas Weber, said a takeover of Opel is not on the cards. “That also goes for Volvo or Saab,” Weber told Reuters. Meanwhile, Opel’s management is about to present their supervisory board with a restructuring plan. It’s expected to call for thousands of job cost and closure of one or more plants. Opel dealers have signaled a willingness to help secure their livelihoods by taking some form of equity stake in an independent company—an automaker without the excess workers and capacity, presumably.

And here comes the trade war: France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy wants the World Trade Organization to consider the legality of American aid to its domestic automakers. “We need to see if the U.S. aid is compatible with the WTO,” Sarkozy said in eastern France at a roundtable discussion on the car industry on Thursday, reported by  Automotive News [sub]. [NB: This is the same Nicolas Sarkozy who recently announced protectionist aid for French automakers and called for a coordinated European plan to help the E.U.’s car industry.]  EU competition authorities are scrutinizing car industry support from governments in France, Spain, Britain, Italy, Germany and Sweden. Separately, European Transport Commissioner, Antonio Tajani, said Europe’s lawmakers would consider appealing to the WTO if US aid made conditions unfair for European manufacturers.
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“Your camera can create clean cars.” That was the subject head on a mass mailing I received from the Sierra Club’s Greg Haegele. This was merely a gimmick—a “photo” petition to the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA is considering rescinding the Bush Administration’s decision to block California and other states from implementing CO₂ emissions standards for cars, and the Sierra Club is leading the cheering section. While I am all in favor of reducing CO₂ emissions and fast, while rescinding the Bush legislation might well be a good idea, I’m dismayed by the way so many advocates of reducing greenhouse gases focus on micromanaging automotive reductions rather than on the big picture. To be sure, Ann Mesnikoff of the Sierra Club says the group is also working on cap and trade, a big picture approach to greenhouse gas mitigation. But what is it with anti-anthropogenic global warming (AGW) crusaders and cars?

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Somewhere in the background, a White House spinmeister is busy telling the cross-dressing Fox News anchor (if he doesn’t, he should) that his viewers should chill about the $3.6 trillion deficit generated by her boss’ budget. “The average taxpayer knows that this is an investment in America that will reinvigorate the economy and, thus, generate new tax revenues and hey, presto! It will make itself disappear!” Or some such crap. The average person knows his or her government is out of control. They are also increasingly aware that GM is doomed. As I stated in last General Motors Death Watch, as the enormity of this collapse reveals itself (-$3,529,166.67 per hour) the American taxpayer will draw a line in the metaphorical sand. In fact, the coming tussle over the Detroit bailout could be the beginning of the end of Bailout Nation. We shall see. Meanwhile, lightly used Ford GTs are selling for $130K, a 2000 Ferrari 360 is going for $90K and today’s Maserati GranTurismo (or a Quattroporte) can be had for less than $100K. At the low end, prices are also slip sliding away. And yet, it’s still not time to buy. How scary is that?

What do you do when you’re out of time? Get rid of all your clocks! GM has already taken the humiliating measure of cutting clock maintenance from the RenCen budget, and Chrysler is now following suit. William Wolf of Chrysler Paint, Pilot and Facility Operations notes over at Chrysler Blog that “every little bit helps.” But Wolf wasn’t satisfied with the mere $10K in savings that cutting clocks yielded. Eliminating rooftop parking to save plowing costs will save over $300K, while halving the number of fluorescent bulbs at the Auburn Hills Chrysler Technical Center will yield $400K. And despite the bitter Michigan winter, Chrysler has dropped the temperature at the CTC by four degrees, saving $70K annually. And yet, somehow, not everyone’s happy.

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Shortly after Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood expressed his enthusiasm for a nationwide pay-per-mile tax scheme, the White House reacted by denying any plans for the car-monitoring fee system. “[Pay-per-mile] is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told the WaPo at a press conference, kicking off a merry little game of gotcha. “So was Secretary LaHood speaking out of turn here?” an AP reporter asked at the briefing. “I would direct you to Secretary LaHood on that,” Gibbs said. “Well, we actually interviewed him,” the reporter noted. “Well, call him back,” Gibbs said. Transportation Department officials later “clarified” that LaHood’s comments “were part of a long interview about a range of transportation issues and that he never specifically advocated taxing drivers by the mile.” Well that clears everything up now, doesn’t it?