GM is so screwed. We are so screwed. On the occasion of Old GM’s judicial death sentence, Steve Rattner offered an instant analysis of what New GM needs to do to survive: eliminate the perception gap. “There’s often a lag between perception and reality,” the head of the Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (PTFOA) told jobbing journos. Automotive News [sub] puts it this way: “General Motors must convince consumers that the quality of its vehicles has improved to stop a decline in U.S. market share and survive after bankruptcy, a senior Obama administration official said. Steve Rattner, the head of the Treasury Department’s auto task force, said the quality of GM vehicles has improved, citing the Chevrolet Malibu as an example. But he added that consumers have to be made aware.”
Monday morning at Carmax auctions. I see a 1992 Mazda B2200 truck with only 44,000 original miles. What the . . . ? Yep, checked the Autocheck and the Carfax. It had 44,000 miles. Interior. Immaculate. Not even a stain. Five-speed? A snick-snick work of (old) art that seems ready for action. The selling price? $1900 plus $105 auction fee. Not really that bad. The old Ranger and its Mazda sibling seem to be the unofficial vehicles of North Georgia. If I lived in Deliverance country, I could see even keeping it. Today’s buys were a 1997 Cadillac Deville for $1455 (including auction fee) and a ratty Subaru Loyale that was purely for speculative purposes for $120. The engine turns but doesn’t fire. Based on the history I’m thinking it’s either old gas or a fuel pump.
Since Pontiac won’t be part of “new” GM, the brand becomes another distressed asset that will be sold off by the bankruptcy court just like the closed plants. Perhaps New GM can convince the bankruptcy court that selling off the Pontiac brand is not in the restructured company’s best interest since it would end up competing with them, but the same can be said of their other assets like factories and machinery that competitors may buy. Someone will buy the Pontiac brand and associated IP for nearly bupkis. Hell, the licensing rights for diecast GTOs and Firebirds have value. Maybe Maisto or Mattel will buy the Pontiac brand.
1) Be attentive, be aware. Scan the sides of the road, not just straight ahead (use your peripheral vision).
2. When you see deer (whether standing or moving), warning signs or simply suspect you may be driving through their habitat, slow down.
3) Use your high-beams (dim where appropriate).
4) DO NOT SWERVE to avoid a collision with a deer. A sudden loss of vehicle control is far more dangerous than animal impact. Brake and hold the wheel straight.
5) Do not stop in the middle of the road post-Bambicide. Move your vehicle off the road and out of [further] harm’s way as soon as possible.
“This is really just the beginning of all the final tuning. We are at the 50 percent point. Fundamentally, we’ve got everything directionally correct, but now we’ve got all the tuning yet to do.” Andrew Farah, Chief Engineer, Chevrolet Volt. [thanks to Justin Berkowitz for the link]
Click here for a pdf of GM’s latest incentive programs. To give you an idea of how complicated this company’s pricing has become, note that the company providing the information, AIS rebates, is an independent third party. They make a good part of their living interpreting the GM FUD for the bankrupt automaker’s dealers. Huh.
The Maywood, California City Council on Wednesday dumped the Australian company in charge of the city’s red light camera program. Since 2004, Redflex Traffic Systems has had the right to issue tickets at the intersection of Slauson and Alamo. The council voted 3-2 not to renew the five-year agreement, against the wishes of city staff who proposed new “cost neutral” contract terms. “(The) city shall be obligated to pay the cumulative balance invoiced by Redflex, in accordance with terms set forth above, to the extent of gross cash received by the city from automated red light violations,” the proposed new contract language stated. Tying the vendor’s compensation to the amount of cash received violates a state law mandating flat-rate contracts for photo enforcement systems.
Bloomberg reports on Toyota’s pickle vis-à-vis Fremont, California-based NUMMI. New GM is leaving its NUMMI ownership share in the hands of Old GM. Thus, Old GM and Toyota together own NUMMI in a 50/50 joint venture. Old GM will be selling off its moribund assets over a period of a year or more as the long slow process of liquidating the discards and paying creditors pennies on the dollar plays out. (Old GM is looking like an economic stimulus program for a small band of lawyers, accountants and realtors.)
Automotive News [sub] reports that GM’s dealers will have recourse in state courts for claims involving product-liability, warranties, compliance with lemon laws, privacy/no call laws, and environmental and tax laws. Termination disputes are to be handled by GM’s bankruptcy court, however. “We didn’t get everything we wanted,” admits Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. “But the new GM will be fully subject to state regulation.” Suthers and Nebraska AG Jon Bruning negotiated the agreement with GM on behalf of 43 other states. Already-culled dealers are the virgins in the volcano, unless their The Automobile Dealer Economic Rights Restoration Act of 2009 passes. But The General is still alive, and the dealers that survived the cull still have to do business with it. Or at least sue it. Some must die that others may live and litigate.
Commenter j_slez (who compiled GM and Toyota monthly sales since 2004 for us already) writes:
I saw the call for a log-scale GM plot, and since the change only took a minute I threw that together, even though I’m not a fan of it personally. It does help separate the lower-selling brands. Part of the point of the original is that they’re all low-selling. I replaced Pontiac with all of the “Old GM” brands – it doesn’t make much difference really.
Then I did Toyota. They’ve got a bit of a dive themselves of late.
Rumors surrounding a possible Buick Theta-based CUV are being amplified by rumors that the Saturn VUE plug-in hybrid will make it to market under a different brand. GM’s Tom Stephens confirms to Reuters that a plug-in ute will be available in 2011 (as planned), just under a different brand name. With rumors of a hybrid powertrain in the works for the forthcoming LaCrosse, green may be yet another new attribute for the brand confusion that is Buick. “We’ve got a strategy that says there are no silver bullets,” as Stephens says, curiously ignoring the Volt. “We need all of this.” Which, in a nutshell, is the attitude that is destroying Buick…
Last week, the city of Thornton, Colorado decided to drop the idea of installing red light cameras—after spending more than a year attempting to make the idea work. In the end, the city council was unable to arrive at an acceptable guarantee that, no matter what, the program would make money. A directive handed down by city leaders last year explained the primary objective. “Council’s explicit expectation was that the total costs to operate a Photo Red Light Enforcement system, including service, equipment and city staff costs, were to be equal to or less than the fines received from operating the system, thus resulting in no cost for the city to implement,” a November 2008 memo from the city manager explained.
I remember when I was 16 years old, one of my friend’s dads had a near-new Toyota Celica All-Trac. It was gorgeous. The black paint was svelte and flawless. The leather pristine. It was a true work of art. Except it had one tiny little flaw on the vehicle. The VIN was not ‘authentic’. It had been taken off another vehicle from ‘far far away’. This was in the bad old days where odometer rollbacks (which still happen) and washed titles (ditto) were still common. Today? Well, I’ll put it to you this way. Even a finance company with as many computers as NASA was screwed seven ways from Sunday by a bunch of Nigerians using an old lady’s information. The clunker auditors are going to have to keep their eyes REAL open in this ‘information age’ to catch these snakes . . . and it won’t be easy. Here’s just a small slither of stealth that can happen just on the trade-in side of the equation.
But will it be accepted? As reported yesterday, China’s BAIC has handed in a better offer for Opel. This gave everybody a reason to pause. Magna called off a board meeting that had been scheduled to give the go-ahead for Opel. GM and the German government are reading intently what BAIC proposes. BAIC proposes export of Opels to China. For a while, at least. (Read More…)
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