From early indications, we assumed that May car sales would be great in China. Yet, we admit being kept speechless by the news that China’s car sales rocketed up 55 percent in May. That’s the most since the beginning of this year, data from China Passenger Car Association shows. And it’s the biggest growth China has seen in a long time.
Boston.com reports that “The Little Tikes Cozy Coupe outsold every car in the United States in 2008 with more than 457,000 units delivered . . . The company has sold more than 10 million Coupes worldwide in the model’s 30-year run.” [Thanks to Dangerous Dave—not shown—for the link]
This one has less hilarity. But it is German, I mean germane to The Truth About Cars.
1973, at the tender age of 24, I defected to the enemy. BS, the former muckraking journalist, became a copywriter in a hotshot advertising agency. As the saying went, I didn’t sell out, I cashed in: As a junior copywriter, I was paid twice as much of what I had made before as the editor in chief of a muckraking journal.
Raking muck had paid shit. Advertising was paradise. Work was easy, no more nerve-racking and downright dangerous undercover research, just sit and write. Powered by pilsener. Soon, my salary multiplied. Times were good.
They put me on the Volkswagen account. I didn’t have the vaguest idea about cars. I didn’t even have a driver’s license. This qualified me as an utterly unbiased and unbelievably gullible tool of automotive propaganda.
One of my first jobs was to launch a new Volkswagen with a funny name: “Golf.”
Regular readers will know that we’ve taken Washington Post carmudgeon Warren Brown to task for his shameless Motown cheerleading up to and through the federal bailout. You may have also noticed a huge disconnect between Warren’s blind bailout boosterism and his paper’s entirely skeptical stance on federal intervention in the U.S. automotive industry. In an ironic twist of fate, Warren’s decided to take the WaPo’s latest buyout offer—and do so with all of the grace displayed by his bailout boosting pals in The Motor City. He leaves the paper spilling vitriol all over his colleague’s rejection of Uncle Sam’s “investment” in Government Motors.
We the people now own about 60 percent of General Motors. Thank God. I know the old joke about being from the government and here to help; I’m familiar the anti-socialist swell that’s been rising since Obama’s inauguration. I am also convinced that right now federal control of what was once the world’s largest car marker could be the greatest thing to happen to the company since Alfred P. Sloan.
“Inside the Obama White House” (which re-airs today at 12 p.m. EST on NBC) gives us a rare glimpse inside the US President’s limousine, known as Cadillac One. This isn’t “The Beast,” the newest limo built by GM and delivered shortly before Obama’s inauguration, but one delivered while G. W. Bush was still in office. This DTS-lookalike-but-not-really is rumored to have an Escalade powertrain including all-wheel drive. I did a cursory search and came up with bupkis on other video shot from inside a moving US presidential limo, so what can we learn? Ignore the chitchat between the President and Brian Williams and listen to the super-annoying rattle and the surprisingly-noticeable exhaust note. Also, note the dearth of luxury on the inside: cloth seats, vinyl trim, etc. Oooh, and they weren’t wearing their seatbelts!!!
The question/headline comes to us straight from Automotive News [AN, sub]. Is there ANYONE who DOESN’T see this as a possibility? Probability? Certainty? Done deal? Meanwhile, I love this riff from AN‘s unnamed writer: “Two decades ago, Texas tycoon Ross Perot dubbed his fellow GM directors ‘pet rocks’ who sat silently beside then-CEO Roger Smith. More recently, the board was considered too close to former CEO and Chairman Rick Wagoner, who was ousted by President Barack Obama’s administration in March after the company lost tens of billions under his watch. New blood for GM’s board may be a welcome thing.”
USA Today is in the thrall of . . . the Ford Escape Hybrid. As is the President of these here United States, who traded his gas-hungry Chrysler 300C for the gas – electric trucklette. No surprise, then, that we’ve heard rumors of shortages. Well, not rumors, exactly. More like an open admission by FoMoCo’s El Presidente del Americas. “We are constrained by the amount of components, including batteries, that the supply base can provide us,” Mark Fields said in December ’08. Same spin again in January ’09, via a Blue Oval Boy on Edmunds. The scuttlebutt: Ford loses money on every Escape Hybrid they sell; so it sells as few as possible. Of course, that doesn’t stop The Glass House Gang from using the vehicle to earn brownie points with the MSM . . .
Should Californians snitch on drivers who avoid the state’s motoring taxes by driving around on out-of-state plates? Yes! says the California Highway Patrol, who’ve established the Californians Help Eliminate All The Evasive Registration Scofflaws or CHEATERS program. The OC Register reports (in its own passively constructed sort of way) that it’s not about the money. Just kidding. It is. “Last year there were fees collected on 3,383 out-of-state license plate violations, which resulted in the collection of more than $1 million in fees, or an average of $297.58 per case, according to the CHP. Since the start of the program in 2004, $4 million has been collected in fees . . .
Supporters of the use of photo enforcement around the country insist red light cameras and speed cameras are primarily designed to “save lives.” When faced with independent studies showing the overall number of accidents can actually increase where intersection cameras are installed (view studies), supporters like Illinois state Senator John J. Millner (R-St. Charles) counter that the type of accidents caused by red light cameras is not worth worrying about. “This does save lives,” Millner said during a 2006 debate on expanding the use of red light cameras. “Will there be more rear-end accidents? Perhaps there may, but those typically aren’t life threatening. The T-bone accidents are. This saves lives.”
Wendy Wiedeking can go easier on the Klonopin. If the sources of the German magazine Focus aren’t mistaken, Porsche’s CEO has found someone who can help him out of his financial predicament: His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. The Emir of Qatar gave Wiedeking his royal word that he will shake loose several billions on Porsche’s behalf. Or rather the Sheikh’s sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) will fork over the money. Focus says they have a handshake, but no signed paper because two options are on the table: the Sheikh buys shares of Porsche . . . or Volkswagen.
No, I don’t mean that Lemonheads singer Evan Dando is suing GM for forcing him to write the song. I mean that Dando is taking the zombie automaker to federal court for violating his copyright on The Lemonheads song “It’s a Shame About Ray.” Dando’s lawsuit alleges that the dirge was re-recorded and included in a 2008 series of TV campaign for Chevrolet and Buick—without paying him bupkis. It’s a strange time to sue GM for anything, as chances are that any damages would be buried with the “old” GM, leaving New GM to walk away humming something a lot more cheerful. [original questionable recording replaced with ad in question]
China’s central government clearly isn’t enthralled with Tengzhong getting intimate with Hummer. If you want to get a feel for how they really feel, all you need to do is read Xinhua, their official news agency. Xinhua speaks for China’s government – with plausible deniability if something goes wrong. As far as Hummer goes, every single day, Xinhua has sown FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) about the marriage.
Today’s Hummer deathwatch, Xinhua style, opens as follows:
“General Motor’s Hummer is considered as an exaggerated and extreme example of a disregard for the environment and there are significant brand negatives for the Chinese company Tengzhong to buy it.” Make the jump for more death sentences ….
Provided, that is, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) turns down Indiana’s request to overrule the sale of assets from Old, Crap Chrysler to New, Italian-controlled Chrysler. This after the U.S. Appeals Court told the gearbox-factory-jilted state’s lawyers to piss off. Or, more specifically, “You can’t wait for a better deal to come in from Studebaker.” Wait schmait; the three judges returned their decision about 10 minutes after Indiana’s lawyers finished their arguments. “There’s one more stop on the train,” Tom Lauria, a lawyer for the Indiana pension funds said, after the court’s ruling. Yes, well, New Chrysler left the station a while ago. One of our Best and Brightest has an interesting take on this (after the jump), but again, I reckon this is a done deal.
Not much info here, but the story’s major thread is clear enough. After discovering that Massachusetts Congressional Representative Barney Frank won a reprieve for a local GM operation, Michigan Reps are looking for some of the same non-action for their constituents. The Detroit Free Press is uncharacteristically tight-lipped (uninformed?) about the who, when and where—although we know the what and why (staying elected). “Michigan members of Congress summoned the chief executive of General Motors Corp. to a meeting next week after the company bowed to pressure from U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and delayed the closing of a parts warehouse in his district.” The Detroit News is more forthcoming, indicating that it’s the entire Michigan congressional delegation asking for various stays. This after Dingell’s open letter to Fritz on the first . . .
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