Look, I hate to be the one to tell you, but the Chevrolet Volt is dead. Now that The Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (PTFOA) has slammed the electric/gas Hail Mary as a pie-in-the-sky PR-driven panacea, it time to throw in the towel. I know: “While the Volt holds promise, it is currently projected to be much more expensive than its gasoline-fueled peers and will likely need substantial reductions in manufacturing cost in order to become commercially viable.” This little ditty gives Volt boosters something to cling to and argue about (Toyota didn’t make money on the Prius for three hundred years!). Surprisingly enough, it appears that the PTFOA’s Mr. Rattner has set aside green dreams for a little something called business. So just let it go, Automotive News Europe [sub].

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Yesterday, Germany went ga-ga (in a subdued German way) about a 40 percent bounce in new car sales in March. Today, the cold shower: German exports dropped 26 percent year on year in March, and plunged by nearly a third in the first quarter, Reuters writes. “Three out of four cars assembled in Germany are exported,” VDA President Matthias Wissmann reminds us. So despite the huge jump in domestic sales, overall car production fell by a fifth a March and was down by a third in the first three months of the year.
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We’ve got the link to GM’s Report Card to the Presidential Task Force on Automobiles. Bankruptcy is no longer that which must not be mentioned. In fact, the official recognition of this inevitability hardly gets a half turn of spin. End of days for Detroit. 

Bankruptcy Considerations-In order to be prepared for events possibly precipitating a bankruptcy filing (for example, unsuccessful bond exchange or VEBA negotiations), the Company continues to evaluate its in-court restructuring options as part of contingency planning activities. The Company believes that the impact of a bankruptcy filing on its business would be substantial, on both wholesale (GM to dealers) and retail (GM dealer to customer) levels, as discussed in the February 17 submission.

General Motors continues to strongly believe that out-of-court restructuring provides the highest value outcome for its customers and this country long term. However, if the changes needed for long-term restructuring cannot be obtained out of court, the Company is prepared and would consider in-court options. Such options would be enhanced by the Administration’s commitment to back GM customer warranties, and to provide support for a rapid emergence from any in-court process.

Our Ed Niedermeyer wrote that China may have a design deficit. Daimler thinks otherwise. Daimler’s Mercedes cars are already produced in China under a joint venture agreement with Beijing Auto. Now, the car with the star will be designed in China as well. Or at least some of it. Daimler is planning to open their Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Center in China’s capital Beijing, Gasgoo writes.

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Ten. My local Chevy dealer has ten Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrids on his lot. At $56K. Each. That ain’t right. GM was going bankrupt when they unleashed this beast. They should have said screw it; let’s show those sanctimonious greenies who’s King of the World (Ma). Let’s peg the price of the Tahoe Hybrid to the Toyota Prius and run ads saying Yippie Ki Yay, Motherfucker. Have one last line of four-wheeled blow before everything goes to Hell. Instead, once again, GM walked away from a terrific vehicle in pursuit of the Next Big Thing. You heard me: the Chevrolet Tahoe Hybrid is a technological marvel that rocks. Deal.

Or not.

I almost bought a Dino, my personal choice for the world’s most beautiful car. Before making the jump into Fezza-land, I consulted an independent expert. “There are two kinds of Dinos,” he counseled. “Ones that have been completely restored and ones that need to be completely restored.” After I found a perfectly restored car, the Dino guru pointed out the next hurdle, “Will you drive it every week?” As a father of two small girls with enough work on my plate to keep me busy through several incarnations, I couldn’t hand-on-heart promise to give the Dino a proper weekly workout. “Then plan on regular rebuilds,” he said. I ended up commissioning a resto-mod Jaguar XK120. But point taken. Even modern cars don’t like sitting around doing nothing. AOL Autos warns that all those new cars piling up on lots not selling are devo. In other words, like the rest of us, they aren’t getting any newer. In fact, quite the opposite.

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Stargazer writes:

I have a slight head gasket leak in a 1993 GMC van, 350 cu. in. engine. I know that I will have to replace the gasket eventually; however, a friend suggested a head gasket sealant. This sealant drops into the radiator, and seals the leak. This friend had worked on cars professionally, so his recommendation has weight with me. Would you recommend this fix for a one hundred mile trip? I need the van to tow something.

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You know . . . when it’s moving.

More than a few members of TTAC’s esteemed B&B have been clamoring for the European specification Ford Focus—ever since Ford decided the original was just fine for the non-discriminating American customer. “If you bring it, they will buy it” our commentariot railed at the Powers That Be. Well, after sampling the latest basic Focus, I can tell you that the Euro Focus sucks just like the American Focus, just not quite as much.

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According to Frank Herbert, fear is the mind killer. Well, it’s certainly a sales killer. And now that Hyundai’s cut through the FUD to rack up some U.S. sales with its CYA buyer protection, we’re witnessing an international outbreak of MSMD (monkey see, monkey do). Stateside, Ford has lost—I mean launched its Advantage Program. GM offers customers Total Confidence (as if). And now, from the Land of Hope and Glory, Autocar reports that Volvo and Honda will pay for British buyers’ wheels for one year should they get the boot. Of course, to qualify, you have to employed first, then buy the car, then become unemployed. Kinda like betting against yourself. Anyway, if it’s a Honda, you need to be on the dole for at least three months before you get your car payment relief. If it’s a Volvo, we’re only talking about the C30, S40 and V50 models. In both cases, future deadbeats have to finance through the cars’ respective in-house lenders. Look for Honda USA to implement the plan here STAT. Meanwhile, why do I get the feeling that all these programs are opening the door to some serious fraud?

Shock! Scandal! Horror! Ousted General Motors Chairman/CEO Rick Wagoner will remain on GM’s payroll for the remainder of 2009 and will be paid his full salary for doing no work, reports the DetN. Out of your tax dollars, no less! So how much will Wagoner earn while not working for GM this year? Oh, right, one American dollar. And because not all of Wagoner’s pension is bankruptcy-proof, keeping him on the salary until December 31, 2009 actually improves the chances he’ll take another big hit to his compensation. Wagoner will receive $68,900 in annual pension payments whether GM goes bankrupt or not, but five additional annual pension payments of $4,523,400 could be wiped out if Chapter 11 occurs before Wagoner takes his first payment at the end of this year. In short, the arc of justice may be long, but it bends towards surrealism. In the form of GM’s $1 per year executive jobs bank. And just to make the whole situation even more bizarre, the DetN notes that Wagoner “cannot work for another automaker without GM’s written permission.” Because I’m sure he’s got the headhunters beating down his door.

The city of Winnipeg, Canada, has shortened the duration of the yellow warning at intersections equipped with red light cameras. The length of the yellow is the single most important factor in determining the financial success of a photo enforcement program, according to documents obtained from a red light camera vendor in 2001. The city’s signal changes came to light after a 64-year-old grandmother named Judy received a ticket in the mail claiming her minivan had run a red light on August 31, 2008. She contacted Larry Stefanuik, a former police constable who now helps motorists fight traffic tickets who began looking into the ticket. Judy’s ticket shows the intersection had been set with a 3.9 second yellow and that she entered the intersection—slowly—just 0.1 seconds after the light turned red.

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Now we have the economic literature to confirm what we all know is happening: local governments using traffic citations to make up for revenue shortfalls. According to a paper in the February Journal of Law and Economics, published by the University of Chicago, “as the economy tanks, motorists may be more likely to see red and blue in the rearview.”  Study authors Thomas Garrett, assistant vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, and Gary Wagner from the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, examined fourteen years of revenue and traffic citation data from counties in North Carolina. Revenues drop, traffic citations go up. Specifically, “a one percentage point decrease in last year’s local government revenue results in roughly a 0.32 percentage point increase in the number of traffic tickets the following year.”

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