The WSJ reports that the Treasury has turned down an $8-$10 billion request by the OEM Supplier Association for aid to struggling auto supply firms. Department of The Treasury spokesfolks refuse to shed any light on the issue, but OEMSA President Neil De Koker tells the WSJ that PTFOA member Ron Bloom spiked the request because “they felt that unless we see chaos or a disorderly situation arising where have assembly-line shutdown due to lack of ability to get parts or stuff like that, then we would relook at this sitation, but that at the present time we believe everything is working.” The Journal goes as far as to credit this with decision with signaling “that the Obama administration wants to draw the line on how much taxpayer money it will spend on the U.S. auto industry.” That, or they know that supplier bankruptcies have been part and parcel of the US car biz for years now, and they’re keeping the powder dry for future OEM requests.

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This morning, bankrupt automaker General Motors, their failed SAAB subsidiary, low-volume independent automaker Koenigsegg, and the Swedish government signed a deal for Saab’s future. Oh yeah, and some guy named Mark Bishop, an “American investor.” Who he? Can you say “junk bonds” and “sub-prime”? But before we look at Bishop’s CV, let’s break this deal down to its constituent parts . . .

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Anecdotally, it seems like almost everyone has had one of the “your vehicle warranty is about to expire” robo-calls sometime in the last year or so. Hopefully a civil suit by the FTC will cut back on some of the annoyance. Fox News reports that the scheme, allegedly perpetrated by Christopher Cowart, James and Maureen Dunne, and Kamian Kohlfeld, netted $10 million in fraudulent income. The scheme reportedly violated the Federal Trade Commission Act by misrepresenting or omitting material facts in their sales pitches, and that they violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule by “flatly ignoring” rules that prerecorded calls disclose the identity of the seller “promptly, and in a clear and conspicuous manner.” Read the whole sordid story at Fox to hear how these charming characters are trying to pass blame off on each other. And remember, there’s a special place in hell for people like this.

Good morning class, and welcome to GM’s Deadly Sins 101. In this seminar we will review and analyze some of the most critical blunders GM made over the decades, focusing on the ill-conceived, unreliable, ugly, and just plain mediocre products that destroyed the company. I struggled mightily with the decision as to the first example, given all the boners available to me. But here it is, GM’s Deadly Sin #1: The 1986 Buick Riviera.

Am I the only one who misread this Autoblog headline? Yes, I read “porno” instead of “promo.” So, yes, my mind is in the gutter. But so is Detroit. Autoblog’s wistful nostalgia does absolutely nothing to convey the horror of modern-day Motown. For that, you need to turn to the Wall Street Journal. Their article about the death of retail in the Motor City is, perhaps, one of the most depressing dispatches from the Motown Meltdown that I’ve ever read. To wit: “Last week, Lochmoor Chrysler Jeep on Detroit’s East Side stopped selling Chrysler products, one of the 789 franchises Chrysler Group LLC is dropping from its retail network. It was Detroit’s last Chrysler Jeep store . . . Hundreds of buildings were left vacant by the nearly one million residents who have left. Thousands of businesses have closed since the city’s population peaked six decades ago . . . Meanwhile, the former Lochmoor Chrysler Jeep is now Lochmoor Automotive Group, a used-car dealership and repair shop. Gina Russo, daughter of the dealer’s longtime owner, is being groomed to take over the family business. She has agreed to start selling small pickup trucks made by India’s Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.”

In order to show visiting US Air Force Academy cadets the wonders of Europe, I ditched my Carrera, whose back seats are merely a nice gesture, for a lumbering Mercedes-Benz GLK. After four hours of driving the speed limited Autoroutes, we arrived at the Eiffel Tower, to throngs of drunk rugby fans celebrating the USAP win that day. Leaving the Mardi Gras spectacle we wandered around the veritable maze of streets that constitute the Seventh Arrondissement. Dodging rugby hooligans whose intentions seemed suspect (as some of us were wearing the opposing team colors), I never expected to stumble upon something so beautiful, so elegant, so alien as a 1955 Bentley S1 Fastback Mulliner parked on a curb in a hidden away section of Paris.

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If it walks like a lame duck, talks like a lame duck . . . . During an interview with Fritz Henderson, the New York Times asked the GM CEO if the bankrupt automaker needed someone from outside GM to inject a little fresh blood. Fritz didn’t care for the insinuation. “Carlos Ghosn was no outsider [when he turned around Nissan]. Lee Iacocca wasn’t an industry outsider when he took over at Chrysler.” That’s right, Fritz, but neither of them had spent their entire working life sipping the corporate Kool-Aid at the company they saved. You, on the other hand, have never tasted any flavor but GM Grape. As former GM Director and current behind-the-scenes talent spotter Jerry York points out, “Fritz might be 20 percent better than Wagoner, or maybe 50 percent better, but the question is, is that good enough?” Talk about damned by faint praise . . . What’s the bet that the new, government-appointed BOD’s answers “no” after they “evaluate whether Mr. Henderson deserves to hold his job more permanently”? Place your wagers on Henderson’s defenestration date below.

The Monroe (Louisiana) News Star proclaims, “A deal has been signed that will bring about 1,400 jobs” to an abandoned plant in Ouachita Parish. Whatta deal! But wait—just what company is the area’s economic salvation? It’s a “startup company [which] will assemble new autos in the plant.” The official announcement isn’t until tomorrow, but the deal “known as Project Liberty, involves famed Silicon Valley venture capitalists Ray Lane and John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.” The AP cites Monroe City Council member Arthur Gilmore as saying the plant will build “fuel-efficient vehicles.” Nothing more was given about the company except to say it’s “relatively young” and “has a very unique business model and product.” OK . . . here’s where we have to make the obligatory comparison to Tucker and DeLorean. Oh yeah, and let’s toss in a reference to New Mexico and Tesla’s WhiteStar project. More to come following Gov. Bobby Jindal’s announcement about the deal tomorrow.

File this one under “You’re Talking a Lot, But You’re Not Saying Anything.” The Detroit News‘ “wide ranging” interview Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (PTFOA) jefe Steve Rattner’s ranges entirely over well-trodden ground. In fact, you’ve got to give the DetN credit for publishing an entire pow-wow with the man behind the meltdown without revealing a GD thing. Well, other than the between the lines stuff. Like the “I’m a car guy now” subtext to this lump of coal: “We found that the game plan that we had designed back in the March time period actually worked,” “Chooch” Rattner told the Detroit News. “It’s like you build a new car and you take it out and you test drive it and it actually works. It made us feel pretty good going into GM — even though we know GM is bigger and more complicated — that we should be able to accomplish a similar result albeit over a slightly longer period of time.” I like that sense of surprise: this thing actually works! Wing and a prayer GM engineering at its best. Anyway, more . . .

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Spain’s Congress of Deputies last Wednesday gave approval to a measure that makes it a crime to use a GPS (a.k.a. satellite navigation) device while behind the wheel. The provision appeared as part of a broader legislation designed to update the traffic code with measures that encourage motorists to pay fines without challenge. Radar detectors are already illegal in Spain. But because satellite navigation devices come as factory options on most modern vehicles, officials could not easily outlaw their ownership. Instead, government ministers proposed to restrict GPS use since the devices are increasingly being loaded with maps that warn motorists of locations where speed cameras are in use.

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walterrobin writes:

Recently we took our 2005 Murano with 75,000 miles on it into the mechanic for the 70k maintenance. It was making a bit more noise than we thought it should and the mechanic says from a cold start this morning it sound even worse. He says the oil stick did not register and he believes it is 2 qts down. We put in synthetic about 7k miles ago. He suggests while it is in ‘decent’ shape (after an oil change and oil treatment/flush) we should consider trading it in.

The feedback on Murano repair history that I’ve seen says they have the ability to drive for quite a few more miles than 75k. We had planned to keep it for at least a few more years but the mechanic says he believes we may be at risk of losing an engine in a few thousand miles.

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Years ago, I was in a new Volkswagen factory. Different cars of different brands were rolling down the same assembly line, most of the work done by robots. A huge stamping machine made fifty fenders, dropped the tool into a storage bin, grabbed another tool and made eighty doors. I said to the guy who showed me the factory: “Soon, you can ship the tooling to another factory via e-mail.”

“Sure,” the guy said. “As long as they all have a setup like this.” This is what Ford seems to be doing.

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European car sales are not out of the woods yet. But they are on the rutted logging road to recovery. That’s the bottom line of the May sales report of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association ACEA.

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