There were plenty of entertaining moments on last night’s Autoline After Hours. Fortress Detroit’s ugly bunker mentality proved at every turn what people (specifically, former GM consultants) mean when they accuse the American auto industry of problems of culture (with footnotes!). But TTAC is here to help. And our first suggestion to those feeling threatened by the collapse of their comfortable, familiar world is to read more. Seriously. “You don’t think Toyota makes any money on their hybrids do you?” asked one torpid apologist. Unless the Nikkei (via Green Car Congress) is part of the dreaded “we hate Detroit” conspiracy, it turns out that Toyota does make money on their hybrids.

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Bankruptcylitigationblog.com provides its readers—and there’s bound to be a whole new audience these days—with a ChryCo C11 crib sheet. The facts are predictably startling (if that makes any sense). The top 50 unsecured creditors’ claims total $730 million, with total trade at about $1.5 billion. The senior lenders’ claims total $6.9 billion. As you know, Chrysler owes the you, the people, $4 billion for your extremely generous bridge loans to nowhere (secured by a third priority lien). Chrysler owes Cerberus and Damiler AG $2 billion (secured by a second priority lien). Chrysler owes the United Auto Workers VEBA health care fund approximately $8.5 billion. Also highlighted: German automaker Daimler paid $37 billion for Chrysler when it purchased it in 1998. And lost it all. The “smartest guys in the room” (a.k.a. Cerberus) paid $7.4 billion for an 80 percent stake in Chrysler in May 2007. And lost it all. Checking the balance sheet, Chrysler has $52.6 billion in real liabilities, broken into the following categories: Trade and Related Payables ($5.7B), Accrued Expenses and Other Liabilities ($33B) and Financial Liabilities ($13.9B). The bloggers’ summary of the new plan after the jump.

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Officials representing Livingston Parish, Louisiana have canceled speeding tickets for all motorists caught in a notorious speed camera trap on Interstate 12. After numerous public complaints, officials were forced to admit 2488 citations were unfairly issued between January 26 and February 5, according to the Baton Rouge Business Report. Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia has operated the speed camera van on the parish’s behalf since January. As a productivity incentive, the company pockets $33 for every ticket it issues. Redflex found the most profitable position was around mile marker 15 on I-12 where the speed limit drops from 70 MPH to 60. Because there is no perceptible change in the freeway at the location, those who missed or ignored the sign became the targets for an instant ticket.

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Heathroi writes:

Remember the Focus with the wandering rear that I thought (ha!) might need lower profile tires?

Well as an update, it didn’t need tires at all. It needed new bushings all though the rear suspension. Which turned into a mammoth job of taking the rear suspension apart, cutting rusted bolts, frequent trips to the ford dealer for new control arms and lower A arms but back together in working order, like its new again.

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Announcing Chrysler’s bankruptcy, President Obama vilified the “investment firms and hedge funds” who decided to “hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer funded bailout.” No, not the existing unjustified taxpayer funded bailout. The new one. “Some demanded twice the return that we bludgeoned the other TARP-supported lenders into accepting.” Obama didn’t say that; but he would have if his daughter had made the same birthday wish as Max Reede. Anyway, it turns out the Presidential Task Force on Automobiles can’t stand losing, they can’t they can’t they cant stand losing, they can’t they can’t they can’t stand losing to hedge funds. “I don’t stand with those who held out when everybody else is making sacrifices,” Obama chided con multo vigore. As intended, Obama’s remarks triggered a shit storm from both his supporters and the business community.

TTAC commentator and bankruptcy lawyer Toxicroach’s hits keep happening. This time, the member of our Best & Brightest sends us a filing by the US government (download pdf here) in support of Fiatsler’s motion to extend its filing (download pdf here).

Check out the Treasury motion in support. I think you will have a laugh a minute with that one. Then you will cry. The lease rejection—quick Google of some of the addresses . . . apparently, $60K a month gets you a Dodge dealership. They are dumping multiple car rental places and dealerships. Must be some pretty lame properties to get rejected on day one.

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TTAC commentator and bankruptcy lawyer Toxicroach reports on another motion (filing extension) in the Chrysler C11 case (download pdf here):

Chrysler are asking for 60 days to file the complete petition. Basically, as far as I can tell, they are trying to get this deal done before they actually have to release any relevant information about the company to the public. They are filing an absolute flurry of motions to get court permission to operate the company . . . but they are trying to act like they can’t fill out the schedules in a timely manner. Stunning. I’m interpreting this as some kind of ruse to keep information private until its no longer relevant.

We have a new sub-series to our new series: the Toxicroach papers. Turns out our longtime member of the TTAC’s Best and Brightest is a bankruptcy lawyer with access to the Chrysler C11 filing. He’s going to present these documents for our edification with some “what’s it all about, Tony?” analysis. We begin with a motion from Chrysler (download pdf here) to do what they should have done a decade or more ago: consolidate.

Check this out—the last half is mostly about them consolidating the 25 cases into one for the sake of efficiency, but the first half lays out in pretty decent detail exactly what the plan is.

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