Quick: name a Hyundai sports sedan. Can’t do it, can you? If there’s ever been one, I’m not aware of it. No, the late unlamented Hyundai Elantra GT doesn’t count. Even with a red “GT” on the rump, the suspension tuning decidedly prioritized ride quality over handling. Perhaps “GT” means “standard leather” in Korean? But let’s not count Hyundai out just yet; there’s no Sonata GT in the lineup at the moment. Meanwhile, for 2009, the Korean manufacturer has quietly dipped a toe into the sport sedan pool by adding a “sport suspension” to the Sonata SE. This site has deemed the Sonata—in GLS form—“a great car for people who don’t care all that much about cars.” Do firmer springs and dampers transform the midsize sedan into “a great car for people who do care about cars?”

Manny Lopez is Motown’s head cheerleader. So when the Managing Ed of The Detroit News‘ auto section sits down to pen an opinion piece on the Employee Free Choice Act—the Orwellian federal legislation eliminating secret ballots for unionization—you know you’re in for a good time. As Stevie Ray Vaughan was wont to croon, who do you love? “Michigan’s business environment can’t afford the Employee Free Choice Act.” So that’s it, then. I’m not quite sure how Manny can square his opposition to the legislation with his support for the United Auto Workers. But I’m all ears.

For sure, the UAW helped make workplaces safer and increased wages and benefits. But we have to carefully examine the economic impact this special interest legislation would have on Michigan.

“This could have tremendous consequences for the auto industry,” Paul Kersey, director of labor policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, told me Tuesday. “And the costs could be very substantial.”

Costs. Got it. But what are they?

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Thanks for all your comments. I have read and fully considered every one, and will continue to do so as this process evolves. This is your website. While we have to to make a buck, I don’t want to screw it up. I won’t make any changes without running them by you first. And with your help, my thinking has moved from oh shit to well maybe… I don’t have much time to create a game plan that will suit us all. But I will do my level best. Keeping in mind that I am open to debate on any and all points, here are some thoughts:

* Paid comments – Many of you have suggested charging readers to access the comments section, or the ability to make comments. I’m not feeling it. The Best and Brightest ARE TTAC. I don’t want to discourage readers who want to add to our collective knowledge. By the same token, charging people for providing TTAC with content doesn’t make sense to me.

* Payment process – Must be unobtrusive, fair (no automatic roll-over) and fast. Who’d want it any other way? Donations are great, but I need reliable income.

* TTAC ‘Tude Merchandise – I’m well into this, mate. I’m going to launch some products even before we sort the rest of this NSFW out.

Two-Tier TTAC – I agree completely with all of you who’ve warned me that hiding all—or even most—of TTAC behind a wall would be suicide. As one of our commentators said, you got to give ’em a taste. The big question, perhaps the only question: what’s free and what’s pay? This is the big Kahuna. What do we do that’s worth cash money? Let’s go ahead and jump. Jump!

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Those of you who predicted that taxpayer bailouts for the auto industry would lead to a Pelosi-mobile (a.k.a. direct government interference in the types of product built) now have a poster child: the Land Rover LRX. Land Rover has just announced that Her Majesty’s Government will bestow upon the automaker a £27M grant to build “the smallest, lightest and most efficient vehicle it has ever produced.” That is, of course, ignoring the fact that Land Rover is owned by Tata Motors, a company that builds millions of vehicles that are smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient than anything Land Rover builds. And for those of you who thought the grant replaces bailout bucks . . . “The grant offer will be made available under the Government’s Grant for Business Investment scheme and is an important contribution towards the overall £400 million cost of the project. This is separate from the broader automotive support package currently being unveiled by the Government.” Still, you know, Halewood, which, the press release reminds us, employs 2000 people. By that measure, the grant represents a “downpayment” of £13,500 per worker. In the UK, these are the good old days!

It’s do or die time. Although TTAC’s site traffic continues it slow, organic growth—knocking on 1 mil uniques per month—the web-wide advertising downturn has taken its toll. Revenues have fallen by two-thirds. TTAC’s owners have looked at the books and read us the riot act. Either we replace the lost ad bucks with subscription income or that’s it: lights out. Our goal: 5000 subs at $12 per year ($1 per month) by June 1. I know: been here, didn’t do that. Before NameMedia bought TTAC, I asked our then-nascent Best and Brightest about going sub. The overwhelming response: fuhgeddaboutit [paraphrasing]. Surfers are not going to pay for something they can get for free (and don’t tell me you’re special). So what’s changed? Choice. We don’t have any. To keep the site alive, we have to make this work. How?

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Developing. Actually, not.

That’s including the delivery charge, kids. And despite the fact that it’s priced only $2K and some change over a base Prius (which boasts a significantly better EPA rating) Honda is reporting 18K orders as of Monday, says the WSJ. Whether the Insight ever approaches the Prius’s 240+K sales remains to be seen. For the moment though, economy seems to make a stronger argument than environmentalism.

No, not that! Anything but that! Oh, hang on; if you’re an environmentalist, that’s a good thing, right? Less carbon in the atmos. Less congestion. (Bonus! The remaining drivers can zip about faster!) But the majority party isn’t against cars per se, are they? They just want smaller, cleaner cars. And OK, yes, lots of busses and trains and people riding them (presumably), which would, ideally, mean less cars. But we can’t really have less cars ’cause then Detroit would go out of business and working class people would get the shaft (again). I know! Maybe we could have less smaller, cleaner cars—as long as all of them were built in Detroit. By union workers. But what about the people who work for the transplants? Um . . .

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The thesis that name and form are inseparable, a truth endorsed by both the Theravedan Bhuddist text Visuddhi-Magga and Paul Niedermeyer, has found new support in the recently-released Polk Loyalty Study (PDF) (via PR Newswire). Studying brand repurchase and defection rates in Q1 2008, Polk and Co found that 55 percent of owners whose model was discontinued prior to re-entering the market defected to another brand. That compares to 47 percent defection for owners of non-discontinued models from the same brand. The elder Niedermeyer was particularly prescient in pointing out how this dynamic has hurt GM in particular, thanks to its pathological renaming of mid-sized and smaller offerings. This “same name dividend” is as high as 12.7 percent for compact cars according to the report, but fades to a “negligible impact” for large cars and pickups. The Cavalier to Cobalt transition in specific is said by the report to have cost GM “millions in potential sales.”

“I think the first duty of a leader is to keep his company in the black. To accept—and announce—at the beginning of the year that you will lose money is the worst sign of leadership you could give to your troops,” Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne tells Automotive News Europe [sub]. “Car markets have gone from bad to horrible so far this year, but I will fight like hell to keep Fiat Group Automobiles profitable in 2009. Running an automaker these days is like driving in dense fog. You have just 100 meters of visibility so you must continuously adapt to what you suddenly face. Nevertheless, I refuse to accept even the idea that our auto operations will lose money.” Man, is he going to love working with Jim Press.

Ford gets props from anti-bailout folks for being the only Detroit automaker to not seek TARP bailout loans. But as several stories today indicate, Detroit’s putative last man standing is still seeking government sugar, if only in less direct ways than its hapless competitors. Automotive News [sub] reports that Ford is requesting the German government to extend its cash-for-clunker rebate, threatening temporary plant shutdowns if the handout sunsets at the pre-arranged 600K unit mark. “The bonus is smart, simple, and it works,” says Ford sales poobah Ingvar Sviggum. “Here is my appeal to the German government: The bonus is good for the auto industry, the country and for the consumer. So please stay with it. If the scrapping premium is not extended, there will be a dramatic decline in demand in the second half of the year as a result.” Just over 200K of the rebates have been claimed, leaving about 400K still to be claimed in the measure’s original run. But, y’ know, extend it anyway. Or else.

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Germany’s Lidl chain of low-cost grocery stores has begun selling Opel Corsas and VW Polo Crosses online, reports The Age. In partnership with German distributor ATG-Automobile, Lidl is selling the subcompact commuters at about 25 percent below the suggested retail price (11K euros for the Corsa, 14K euros for the VW), offering Germans a new, low-cost way to cash in on Germany’s clunker-culling measure. Some argue that the online sales approach has been tried without success, as Germans prefer to do business with a dealership. “I think it will be very difficult for Lidl,” says Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of Gelsenkirchen’s Center for Automotive Research. “People don’t want to buy high-value products from a discount grocery store.” Noting that Quelle, a German online marketplace, tried to sell cars online about five years ago, Dudenhoeffer says “it didn’t work, even though their site was visited fairly heavily.” As the automotive industry reinvents itself, however, OEMs will look to every possible sales outlet, transforming the dealer-only approach that has defined the business for years. Whether this approach pays off remains to be seen.

Rambling along the streets of Eugene, I encounter cars that unleash memories and musings. Today’s nostalgia comes courtesy of the 1971 Cadillac Coupe DeVille.

1971 was a very BIG year for Cadillac, as well as for US workers and me. And in a number of ways, things haven’t been quite the same for any of us since. When this 1971 Coupe DeVille first rolled off the assembly line, it was the biggest ever, a full nineteen feet long and almost seven feet wide. And it remains the high-water mark for American cars. The ’71 Caddy was the quintessential land barge. It floated along serenely and optimistically across America on the still youthful and un-crowded interstate system, its 7.7 liter V8 slurping a gallon of 39 cents gas every 12 blissfully isolated mile.

When China reported January sales that were higher than in the US, detractors said: “Yeah, but China was down also.” To be exact, in January, China was down 14.35 percent, while the US had declined 37.1 percent.  Old China hands pointed out that the January sales numbers were exceptional, given the fact that there was a complete sales week missing in January, due to the early start of the Chinese New Year, where all of China is shut, closed, guan. Some of the same old China hands prognosticated that due to the same fact, February might be a roaring success. But who listens to old China hands? Okay, folks, listen up:

China vehicle sales surged 25 percent in February, the first gain in four months, Bloomberg reports. Sales of passenger cars, buses and trucks climbed to 827,600, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said today in Beijing.

And why would that be?

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