GM had promised to have a decision by the end of March on whether it would sell or fold HUMMER. They missed that deadline along with other key targets set by the White House-appointed Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (PTFOA). Not that there wasn’t interest in the aptly named pornography-on-wheels. GM simply, well, blew it.
I’ve never noticed Poornima Gupta’s byline before. But I’ve sure noticed it now. The Reuters story “Ford says has no interest in Chrysler brands” could well be the most inane piece of non-journalism I’ve ever seen emerge from an auto show. This is news? C’mon. It’s not even grammatical (go get ’em, Jeff!). “Ford Motor Co (F.N) has no interest in acquiring any Chrysler assets or brands if the automaker is forced into bankruptcy, the president of Ford’s Americas unit said on Wednesday. ‘We’re focused right now on merging Ford around the world right now. We’re focusing on Ford, so no,’ Mark Fields said on the sidelines of the New York International Auto Show.” Seriously. She asked him that question? What ChryCo brands did she think Ford should pick-up? With what money? Still, I like this bit: “‘We do have a significant amount of liquidity and based on our assumptions … we have no plans to access any of the emergency taxpayer funds,’ Fields said.” Define “emergency.” And anyone who uses the phrase “slash cash” gets a mulligan. Or is that a mullet?
At the New York Auto Show, Susan Docherty, GM’s North America vice president for Buick-Pontiac-GMC, attempted to defend GM’s portfolio (she should have a word with Sisyphus on that task). The Detroit Free Press reports that Docherty put GM’s brand strategy (or lack thereof) into perspective during the intro for the hideous GMC Terrain (which, absent bankruptcy, would bring GM’s five-passenger SUV total to . . . in all this excitement, I’ve kinda lost track). She said Chevy and Cadillac are global brands; and there are US buyers who want something in between mass market and high end. “There are customers out there who are not interested in a volume brand but also don’t want to pay for a luxury product,” she said. Yes way. “In its marketing-speak, the Equinox ‘blends function and style into a very sporty, yet upscale compact crossover,’ while the Terrain is ‘an appealing choice for existing traditional SUV customers.'” Both of them?
Reuters would have us believe that it has “sources” close to GM’s federally mandated sale of its boat anchor brand: HUMMER. “Three bidders remain for General Motors Corp’s Hummer [sic] brand, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, adding that current offers range from $100 million to $200 million in cash, in addition to other commitments. None of the bidders are automakers. One bidder is from the United States and the other two are from overseas, the sources said, adding that the bidders include private equity and wealthy individuals.” Folks, let history be our guide.
I used to fly in to do an old auction out in Baltimore. It was a strange place reeking in decrepitude and there were a lot of weird things out there. A 130,000 mile Saab 9000 with no registered owner, ever. A couple of Peugeot 505s with huge attached bumpers that were used to push non-running junk through the block (apologies to Paul Niedermeyer). Oh, and about 300 Daewoos rotting away in no man’s land.
From Progress Michigan’s website:
“Today, JP Morgan Chase has sent a signal to the American workforce that they are more interested in churning greedy profits than saving hardworking families from poverty and joblessness,” said Jane Hamsher, founder of FireDogLake.com. “By closing out our Chase accounts and slicing up our credit cards, we’ll be signaling back to the bank that we are interested in rescuing the middle class and preventing Chase from lining its pockets. Boycott JP Morgan Chase today, and save a working American family.”
While I await direct contact with the plastic snipper (robertfarago1@gmail.com), I called Progress Michigan for a little insight into the organization and their cause. After all, if The Detroit News thinks it’s a big story, it must be a big story, right? Define “big.” To that end, I had a little chat with Emma Richardson, PM’s freelance writer. “We’re focusing on saving American jobs and the middle class,” Ms. Richardson opined. As for how bailout-sucking Chase threatens those jobs, and the reasons behind the bank’s decision not to get a buzz cut, let’s just say Ms. Richardson is slightly uninformed.
According to Google Analytics, thetruthaboutcars.com has bested the 1 million unique visits per month threshold by 819 visits. Although we’ll dip back down below the mark as our average gets dinged by the weekend fall off, huzzah! We achieved this milestone via 562,744 readers generating 2.28 pages per stop-on-by, racking-up 2,285,492 monthly page views. (Despite the picture, I trust we’re piqued, rather than peaked.) Not bad for a website that began life six years or so ago with zero visitors and no page views. Anyway, it’s not all about agglomerating eyeballs. Our average time on site stat (a.k.a. “stickiness”) clocks-in at 3:29. And we have 11,569 subscribers to our New Content Notification System—who don’t flip out when I send multiple email alerts by mistake. And there’s my real source of pride: TTAC’s engaged, alert, informed and passionate community of writers and readers. It’s you who “own” the TTAC brand of no-holds-barred rants, reviews and blogs. In the upcoming weeks, I will perform my duties with due diligence, protecting my many masters, knowing that positive changes are afoot. Until then, thanks to all of you for reading—and telling—the truth about cars.
Just kidding. I mean, both parts of the story are true: Daimler workers are protesting and Mercedes is NSFW-canning the 6.2something liter version of the M3-chasing CLK. In the case of the Daimler workers, they’re doing what German workers do: take to the streets to protest the slightest roll-back in pay or bennies. Oh, did you think this was a union protest? Nein. “Workers wearing cardboard masks of chief executive Dieter Zetsche’s face carried collection boxes as they protested against pay cuts of up to 14 per cent for the company’s 73,000 white-collar staff. They are also being asked to reduce their working week by up to five hours.” As for Daimler’s assembly workers, they’re being gummed to death. “The car maker has also put 50,000 factory workers in automotive production on shorter working hours, and plans the same for another 18,000 commercial vehicle workers after Easter.” Same money, less hours? Yeah, that’ll work. Meanwhile, back to the Galactica! It looks like AMG’s maximum thrust models (apologies to Peter North) are due for a major cutback.
Saad writes:
Mr. Mehta, how do you measure the octane rating of fuel? I have a 2008 base-model Honda Civic, with the i-VTEC 1.8L 4-cyl. It is the India-Pakistan-spec Honda Civic and is similar to the one in the US. Although it does not require premium fuel, it is recommended and I’m worried we might not find good quality petrol in the rural countryside.
Where we are going, the only signs of civilization are bombed ruins from a war in ’71. And I am weary of regular already. In the Pakistan summers, it gets really hot over here (being a Desi yourself, surely you must know, and you’re in Texas!). If regular is used while the air conditioning is on the engine timing retards terribly and it sounds as if the pistons are colliding with the valves at nearly every sudden throttle tip-in.
When Barack Obama made his state of the American auto industry speech, industry watchers lampooned the President for being the “Salesman-in-Chief.” More than a few members of the automotive punditocracy supported the idea, but said BO made a bad job of it. The Autoextremist led the charge, lambasting the Prez for using the word Voldemort—I mean “bankruptcy” in public. The Detroit News auto editor has followed the president’s lead, switching from cheerleader to salesman. And a damn good one too! (By his own admission.) “When you cruise around Macomb County in an ‘Inferno Orange’ Camaro SS. People make U-turns and follow you into parking lots. They ask if they can sit in it and want to know all the trim levels. Chevy was kind enough to drop one off for me over the weekend, and I probably sold more of the muscle car for the General than any Chevy dealer in town.” Hang on; did Chevy drop off a person or a car? [apologies to Jeff Puthuff] So . . . Manny ends his tired-aid by with a small dick joke.
Yesterday Mr. Leikanger wrote about his frustrating experiences with KitchenAid’s Espresso Pro. The compressed natural-gas powered (CNG) Honda Civic GX also has the option of quenching its thirst with a home appliance. The Phill is an electrically powered, mechanically complex, high pressure (up to 3600psi) pump. The Phill can be a pain to get serviced when it breaks down, and refurbished units are available for purchase. Oops, make that, were available. Honda of America, Fuelmaker’s sole owner, declared Fuelmaker’s bankruptcy last week and fired all of its employees. HoMoCo is liquidating the company’s assets. Huh? The maker of “America’s Greenest Car of 2008,” shooting itself in the foot?
My friend, DrDeco, just got rid of traded his ’06 300C SRT8 for an ’08 Mazdaspeed3. (Who says we have no influence?) He loves it for the most part but is being 
driven batty by numerous squeaks that seem to come from the dash down near the pedals and up around the defrost vent. Do any of you who have a Speed3 suffer from this problem or have suggestions as to what he can do to lessen the noise? Perhaps there is a TSB out that you know of that addresses this?
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