The usually quite reliable Chinacartimes has it from the not always reliable auto.sohu.com that Ford and Geely have reached a deal for Volvo. According to Sohu, the Chinese-owned Volvo will put a production line into Dongguan City in Guangdong Province, one of China’s rustbelts. Supposedly, the first Geely owned Volvo is a XC90 SUV.
As BS lacks the necessary puthongua, Ms. Zhang, my trusted Chinese adjutant, translated the Sohu report as follows:
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Red light cameras have returned to Northern Virginia. The city of Alexandria announced for the first time yesterday that a private company has re-installed cameras at three intersections with citations going out on July 15. Until now, the city has been quiet about the revived program, hoping to avoid a public discussion of the controversy over accidents that persuaded the legislature to shut down the program in 2005. According to a report by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), the total number of accidents increased 43 percent at the Alexandria intersections where red light cameras were used. Across the five main cities in the state using cameras, the report found an overall increase in injury accidents of 18 percent. This time, Alexandria did not consider bringing back cameras for safety purposes.
Michael writes:
Hello Sajeev, I’d like to ping your automotive wisdom with the following question. Soon I’ll be looking for a new car to replace my leased Corolla. I love power moonroofs (which my Corolla also has). My next car will be a long-term keeper, and even though I’d love to equip it with a roof orifice, I’m not sure about the longer-term reliability of power moonroofs. Are they known to start leaking, to require expensive repairs? Or is it better to buy a car without a moonroof and then have a manual sunroof installed; and would it void the car’s warranty?
I’d like to keep my next car until it falls apart — 10 years or longer. Thanks muchly for your time.
When GM CEO Fritz Henderson logged-in for a live media-only chat on GM’s FastLane blog, the headline takeaway was “I am not a fan of rebadging.” Ha! Since returning to the scene of the crime, I’ve discovered that there’s plenty of other grist for a zombie watcher’s mill—such as the fact that Henderson appeared eleven minutes late. The first words off his keyboard: “I am here.” I would have gone for “Je pense, donc je suis,” only I don’t think GM’s main man knows the difference between badonk and donc. Henderson starts with a defense of the Hail Mary-ette Chevrolet Cruze that sounds a lot like a PR spiel from 1976 (Chevy Vega). It goes downhill from there.
What is a clunker? Various dictionaries I consulted used terms like “a decrepit machine, especially an old car” or “an old or badly working piece of machinery” or “a noisy, dilapidated automobile.” Apparently there’s a new definition, courtesy of Congress: “any vehicle rated at 18 mpg or less.” The Detroit News has a link to a database to let you find out if your car would qualify for the “Cash for Clunkers” program that has passed the House and is headed for the Senate. The first thing you notice: the database has nothing to do with the condition of the vehicle in question.
I was expecting to dislike the new E-Class Coupe from Mercedes. AMG versions aside, the outgoing CLK was about as interesting to drive as a Toyota Solara, and Mercedes has already announced that there would be no AMG versions of the new car. From the early photos of E-Class Coupe, I had already determined that the large glass sunroof with its meager mesh sun protection would curry little favor with me, and the little rear quarter window spoiled the look of this frameless coupe. To make matters worse, the 2010 E-Class Coupe’s engines are carryovers from the CLK. Mercedes claims our fuel quality isn’t suitable for the new direct injected engines offered in Europe. (Translation: the US is a dumping ground for some old engine inventory.) The E-Class nomenclature is another sleight of hand, as the chassis is still derived from the C-Class. Harrumph.
China’s auto industry has more than 100 companies. The Chinese government has been strongly suggesting that this number gets more manageable through mergers and acquisitions. One of these mergers seems to be on its way.
If China’s 21st Century Business Herald (translation via Gasgoo) is not mistaken (and the Herald is far from infallible) FAW and Brilliance are talking about a wedding.
Robert — If dealers do not sign the wind-down agreements, their sales and service agreement will not be renewed in 2010, and they will not be eligible for GM assistance. However, to date, we have 99% completion of these agreements.
–John McDonald
GM Spokesman
Detroit
However?
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China is becoming the new America, while America is becoming the old China. Jack Perkowski thinks it’s happening right now. Jack is an Old China Hand and a colleague in the automotive parts business. He’s an American, and a Yale graduate. 15 years ago, he came to China and started ASIMCO, an auto component manufacturing company. In January, Perkowski left the company. The global decline in the business didn’t spare ASIMCO. Perkowski is a true Lao Wai, which literally translates into “Old Foreigner” in Mandarin. From one of the first in China, we inherited a lot of his experience. Some is chronicled in Perkowski’s book Managing the Dragon, which made the best seller lists. Most is regularly updated in Perkowski’s blog that goes by the same name. In a recent post, he left us some interesting thoughts. Some may find them revolting, even seditious.
As you’ve no doubt guessed, the above quote comes courtesy of an Obama administration official. Showing infinite reserves of credulity and restraint, the Detroit News straight-up reports that “Larry Summers, the White House’s chief economic adviser, said in an interview that Congress shouldn’t interfere in the running GM and Chrysler . . . ‘We’ve been very clear that companies needed to be run commercially, rather than politically.'” Although I was recently, correctly admonished by several of our Best and Brightest for profanity, I’m going to use my last expletive here: that’s fucking awesome.
GM dealer Jack Fitzgerald is not happy about losing some of his franchises. Unlike GM CEO Fritz Henderson, Fitzgerald has set forth a graphic-laden argument (PDF viewable online here) defending his position on the dealer cull. Here’s why Jack reckons we need H.R. 2743, mandating car dealer-protection:
As Congress and the Administration consider various proposals to restore the rights of affected auto dealers, I want to share with you the context for making such decisions. We believe that there was a fundamentally flawed analysis of the domestic auto industry that led to a misguided decision to close numerous dealerships and which will add to the nation’s unemployment misery.
Right now, Congress has before it a legislative proposal that would restore dealers’ economic rights and permit a case-by-case assessment of our dealerships. It is the best way to correct what has occurred and to put our industry on a path to growth and employment opportunities instead of the path of cannibalism, economic dislocation, and a downward spiral for the U.S. auto industry as a whole as consumers react to being abused.
Automotive News [sub] reports that a 1,400 employee auto assembly operation is moving into the former Guide Corp. plant in Monroe, LA. No word on the identity of the new tenant. Until tomorrow, anyway. So how’s about a little game of “tomorrow’s headlines today?” Here’s some grist for the mill. Financing for the deal comes courtesy of Silicon Valley venture capitalists Ray Lane and John Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. According to thedeal.com, Kleiner Perkins has over $65 million invested in Fisker. Too bad, then, that Fisker has a contract with Finnland’s Valmet. KPC&B has also invested in Th!nk—leading Autoblog‘s Sam Abuelsamid to the conclusion that the Louisiana plant will build Norwegian city EVs. Want a real dark horse? How about the mythical $35 million bid for Chrysler’s Viper business in which investors were reportedly meeting with Louisiana officials? We shall see . . . .
Now is the time to clear out the cobwebs, dust off the servers, tidy up the code, and polish the site. The frenzy of breaking (bad) news, sales and takeovers, and flamewars has somewhat subsided and we take this time now to vet some ideas we’ve been kicking around.
First, are you, our loyal readers, satisfied with the number and time of postings? More specifically, do you prefer the way we do it now with a bunch of postings made early in the morning, a few an hour until around noon PST, and then a posting or three in the afternoon; or, would you prefer we schedule the posts to publish every hour throughout the day? Does the current method give you enough time to read the article and participate in the comments?
Why did 44 percent of “nearly 1,700” CarGurus respondents prefer Pontiac to other leading discontinued GM brands? Beats me. Save Hummer and merge it with Chrysler’s “Peapod Mobility,” say I. Call it a monument to the industry. It’s the only way things could become any more, well, weird. The results of the survey were published on Ad Age yesterday. And then today, while Fritz Henderson was performing his weekly new-media ablutions, he had to go and crush the dreams of (nearly) 7480 people. Ad Age’s Jean Halliday asked, “Why can’t Pontiac be sold? Why are you just eliminating it?” and Henderson replied, “we have had success in discussions with buyers re hummer, saab and saturn, but in the end we did not see the same potential to be honest for pontiac.” Ouch. To compound the weirdness, Henderson dismissed the notion that Pontiac’s G8 would be moved to another brand by saying, “I am not a fan of rebadging.” Unless it’s called “interbuildability.” Which would have, could have allowed the G8 to be a real American muscle car (no offense to the Aussies).
Motor Trend has “learned” that a version of the oft–rumored Jag “XE” roadster might have more than just a supercharger whine. They say the 2011 (likely XF-based) “new age E-Type” (lots of luck) will include an extended-range electric version. But don’t worry heritage fans . . . there will still be a proper engine. With three cylinders. Motor Trend kids you not. At least until they mention that “whether the extended-range XE will make it beyond the concept stage is uncertain.” But only after hinting that the forthcoming XJ is also due for the EREV treatment, circa “late” 2011. Time, tide and CAFE standards wait for no automaker? MT figures an EREV Jag will compete with the Tesla Roadster. Which, considering the differences between the XF and the Elise as starting points, probably only means the EREV Jag soft-top will cost around $100K. Perhaps sir would rather look at a V8 model?
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