According to Time magazine, a federal highway bill moving through congress would require mandatory breathalyzer ignition interlocks be placed on all cars belonging to DUI convicts. The interlocks would require the driver to pass a blood-alcohol level breath test before an equipped vehicle can be started. Currently several states require interlocks for citizens convicted of DUIs, while others require them only for repeat offenders. The highway bill would block federal infrastructure funds to any state that does not approve mandatory interlock laws. Mandatory interlocks have been a hotly–debated topic for some time, but few had expected the old highway-funding canard to be warmed up for the battle.

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Toyota‘s sales last month fell 34.6 percent, moving 131,654 units. Bread-and-butter Camry and Corolla sales were down 39 and 54.6 percent respectively. In contrast to calls by the media and government for greater efficiency, sales of the frugal Yaris were down 40 percent, although Prius sales increased 6 percent to nearly 13,000 units. Scion nameplates were all down by 60 percent or more. RAV4 continues to be one of Toyota’s most resilient models, holding steady with a .6 percent increase to just over 10,000 units sold in June. Highlander held on with only a 3.8 percent drop in sales, but other SUVs were off by between 38 percent (Land Cruiser) and 80 percent (FJ Cruiser). On the Lexus front, the RX was up 21 percent and the IS dropped a mere 23 percent. Otherwise Lexus results ranged from mediocre (ES down 34 percent) to bad (GS, LX both down over 60 percent.)

“Retail improvements reflect increasing consumer confidence in GM’s long-term viability: Compared with May, 20 percent jump in cars, 13 percent boost in crossover deliveries.” Sure. I believe that. Consumers bought GM products because they thought, yup, New GM is here to stay! You know . . . when it gets here. Meanwhile, what the hell. We’ll buy a car from Old GM. Comparing June sales to May sales is, at best, disingenuous. (So much for Fritz’ Henderson transparency pledge to the Senate.) Last month was crap, this month is crap, but this month’s retail sales are less crap than last month’s. Anyway, the bottom line is still the bottom line: GM’s sales sunk 33.6 percent in June compared to last June, which, as I pointed out, was a horrible month in an of itself. Make way for the taxpayer-funded spin meisters!

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Chrysler press release: “Overall industry figures for June 2009 are projected to come in at an estimated 9.7 million SAAR. ”
Expected around 10 million . . . depending on who was doing the expecting.

Automotive News:

BMW Group –20.3 percent
Chrysler –41.9 percent
Daimler AG –26.4 percent
Ford Motor Co. –10.7 percent
General Motors –33.4 percent
Honda –29.5 percent
Hyundai Group not reported yet
Jaguar Land Rover not reported yet
Maserati –47.9 percent
Mazda not reported yet
Mitsubishi not reported yet
Nissan –23.1 percent
Porsche –66.0 percent
Subaru +3.4 percent
Suzuki –78.0 percent
Toyota –31.9 percent
VW -21.3 percent
Other –23.7 percent
TOTAL –28.4 percent

First six months 4,177,830 units sold, –37.2 percent

Update follows

But, like Ford, Chrysler is talking retail. As in Chrysler increased “retail market share more than 1 percentage point compared with June 2008.” Actually retail sales declined 16 percent, and combined with a 95 percent drop in fleet sales (despite selling nearly 3k vehicles to the feds in a single go), Chrysler’s overall sales are down 42 percent compared to June 2008. When sales were off 36 percent year-on-year. Talk about bad to worse.

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Straight from the horse’s mouth:

GM management has noticed the continuing high trading volume in GM’s common stock at prices in excess of $1. GM management continues to remind investors of its strong belief that there will be no value for the common stockholders in the bankruptcy liquidation process, even under the most optimistic of scenarios. Stockholders of a company in chapter 11 generally receive value only if all claims of the company’s secured and unsecured creditors are fully satisfied. In this case, GM management strongly believes all such claims will not be fully satisfied, leading to its conclusion that GM common stock will have no value.

The 7-Series, one of the last remaining holdouts in the super-luxury category to not offer AWD, will get BMW’s boringly-named xDrive all wheel drive this coming fall on the 750i and long wheelbase 750Li models. According to the press release, up to 80% of the power goes to the rear wheels, and a new computer system called “Active Chassis Management” can eat 30 hot dogs in under a minute. Here in the Northeast, nearly every new S-Class on the road has 4Matic, Audi has offered Quattro on its big sedans for 20 years and even Lexus joined the game by offering AWD on the newest LS. (I omit Jaguar’s XJ, of course, because it sells so badly that Tata won’t even report Jaguar’s sales by model). So all is well that ends well: BMW gets a slightly more competitive 7-Series, rich people don’t have to leave the 7-Series at home and take the winter-beater Range Rover, and the rest of us get to look at even more badges and stickers on the side of BMW’s cars.

Before the Friends of the Blue Oval get out their Woo-Hoos, it behooves anyone looking at any of June’s new car sales figures to remember that today’s percentages are all stated in relation to June 2008, which was a tremendously crap month for car dealers. Industry-wide, sales fell 18 percent, as gas prices rose and America’s economic bubble popped like a festering . . . you get the idea. If not, clock this factoid: June ’09 marks the 24th year-over-year monthly decline in the last 25 months. Rose tinted glasses crushed under the jackboot of reality, let’s continue . . . “Ford, Lincoln and Mercury sales totaled 148,153, down 11 percent versus a year ago, which is believed to be the month’s lowest decline among major auto manufacturers.” Yes, it’s that bad out there that doing less bad than the other guys is considered a major victory. Click here for full results. Jump for instant analysis (just add page views). (Read More…)

In the wake of JD Powers’ Initial Quality Survey, several other lesser-known awards are giving OEMs a whole new reason to cobble together a press release touting their top place, improvement or mere presence in one of these meaningless satisfaction surveys. And why not? It’s summer, and things (sales, in specific) are slow. And the award fandango is win-win. The awards allow OEMs to ridiculously inflate the importance of their results, while publicizing the research firms that created the awards. Case in point, the Dodge Ram.

A month ago, we reported that GM offered to buy back Opel some day “when we do better after a restructuring phase.” Offered? GM downright demands the right to buy back Opel after a buyer has successfully resuscitated and restructured Opel.

The rumors of such a demand have been around for a while. GM is pretty much the only one on the planet who thinks this is a swell idea.

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The E85 industry is tanking. Despite federal mandates designed to foist the fuel on a suspecting public, and Transportation Secretary Chu’s determination to make all new vehicles Flex-Fuel capable (EPA credits for everyone!), the E85 industry is on the brink of extinction. Consumer demand (such as it wasn’t) is plummeting. Meanwhile, environmentalists threaten to expose the corn-for-fuel process as, gasp, carbon-positive. Evidence of pumps with ten-foot pole marks comes to us from Minnesota, the state with the highest number of E85 outlets in the land. Here’s the Star Tribune’s report, which can’t resist using the boosterrific term “clean burning” whilst charting the corn-based fuel’s demise:

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General Motors is launching a fourth of July sale: “Buy and Say Goodbye.” From July 1 to July 6, the bankrupt automaker’s offering 0% financing for up to 72 months on “most” of its dead brand walking Pontiac models and “some other vehicles.” More specifically, “select 2009 and 2010 vehicles in dealer stock including Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra regular, extended and crew cab light-duty pickups; Chevrolet Suburban and GMC Yukon XL SUVs; Chevrolet Impala; and the Pontiac models: Vibe, G3, G5, G6 and G8.” But wait! There’s more! “Many other vehicles will have reduced rate financing of 0 percent for up to 60 months for well-qualified buyers. A full list of current offers, conditions, and eligible vehicles, is available at: http://www.gm.com/shop/currentoffers/.” Not yet it isn’t. So that’s number six on our list of reasons why this sale is dumber than toast. Counting down . . .

Today’s the day automakers reveal their US new car sales numbers for June. For the last umpteen years, Chrysler has greeted the gloaming with a conference call with jobbing journos and anxious analysts: a spinmeisterfest wherein ChryCo would attempt to explain away their hemorrhaging bottom line with talk of The Next Big Thing (electric minivans!). Ah, but this is NEW Chrysler (a.k.a. Fiatsler). The Italian stallion running the US taxpayer-supported company has decreed the American part of his fiefdom should stay shtum on its stinking, sinking sales. (I guess he missed GM CEO Fritz Henderson’s transparency pledge.) In fact, Ohio.com reports that Chrysler’s  top suits have said anything about anything since the company emerged from bankruptcy. All except the boss, of course, who told Bloomberg that ChryCo’s cash burn is returning to simmer. Oh, Sergio!

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