AutoBild reports that Audi will be dropping Lamborghini-sourced V10s from its R8, RS6 and S8 models. AB blames the V10’s weight, thirst and complexity for the move, although one might guess brand strategy played a role in the decision as well. With over twice as many brands as GM, the Volkswagen Group has to work hard at not competing with itself, and keeping V10s in the Lamborghini camp seems like a good place to start. But Audi’s long-soldiering aluminum 4.2 V8, which has seen duty in everything from the R8 to the RS4, has also earned eight-cylinder engines a home in the Audi brand. And since that engine is used by independent supercar manufacturers from Spyker to Gumpert, there’s no shame in giving up a pair of cylinders. Besides, with the new S4 downsized to a supercharged V6, there’s room at the top of the range for an eight-pot. And guess what? There’s a new one in the works. AutoBild says an Audi-only 4.0 V8 is being developed which will make up to 550 hp and 515 lb·ft of twist in its highest state of tune. And even that won’t be the be-all and end-all of Audi performance: an R5 coupe is set to debut towards the end of 2011, powered by a 375 hp 2.5 liter turbo-five that harks back to the Ur-Quattro.
Years ago, I would see tires with a pattern. That pattern was cut to the base of the tire, and but for tread wear indicators, the pattern of the tire did not change from new to bald. I now have a set of General UHP tires, reviewed on this site. I’ve been happy with the UHP’s overall—while not the Pilot Sports they replaced, they are 9/10’s of the PS for 1/3 the price. Now the tires approach the halfway point of tread wear. The tread blocks and pattern will change in a few places. I’ve noted this on other tires as well. Why do tire makers “tier” the tread patterns today? What advantage will accrue? Do they make the tires louder at the end of service life to encourage replacement? (my last set of Pilot Sports were way loud at the end). Is the rubber formula different and if so, why?
Daniel Howes’ column fortheDetroit News is based on an interview with GM CEO Fritz Henderson, while the latter was embarked on a national dealer handholding tour [your name suggestions below]. And here’s the first money shot: “It’s just really good to be back in the car business.” Howes reads TTAC; I’ve taken him to task many times for his transformation from kick-ass European correspondent to Motown pom-pom waver and, at best, chronic fence sitter. “Now, before all the cynics glom on to that single sentence as proof — proof, I tell you — that GM’s leadership is back to the bad ol’ days of denial, I’d offer this: There is more that’s changing inside GM today than staying the same, starting with the fact that the CEO and key leaders of his management team spend a whole lot more time talking about cars and trucks than the nonautomotive headache du jour.” This is all kinds of wrong.
No car is perfect. Regardless of the myth of brands, a Toyota can get engine sludge. A Honda transmission can go south for eternity. Even the vault that is an old Mercedes will need to be lined with the insulation of greenbacks from time to tomb. There are definitely tendencies when it comes to cars. But no absolutes. Nada. Like the game of baseball, the winners are threshed out through experience. What makes the real difference in all that time?
Jim Tarbox is not a man who suffers in silence. Since New Chrysler handed his Jeep dealership its walking papers, Tarbox has been a man on a mission. “I was a top performing dealer,” Tarbox told me. “The executives terminated my dealer out of spite.” Tarbox ain’t just whistling Dixie. The video above features audio from U.S. Bankruptcy Court testimony from Peter Grady, Chrysler Director of Dealer Operations. Tarbox’s lawyer, Len Bellavia, confronts Grady re: a letter that says, in no uncertain terms, that New Chrysler shit-canned Tarbox because of a prior territorial beef. “He is a belligerent combative dealer who litigates and protests any new Jeep franchise in the Provo [Providence, Rhode Island] area. So management made decision to cut him. He has not operated in good faith.” Uh, what about selecting dealers to cull based on an objective, performance-related formula? Grady agrees to the idea, in principle. In practice . . .
I’m old enough to remember when Mercedes used the tagline “engineered like no other car in the world,” and no one questioned it. When the 1986 W124 E-Class was introduced, Car & Driver proclaimed it “the best car in the world.” In the quarter-century since, Mercedes’ position in the automotive pecking order has become less […]
This is good — the money on the trucks. The money on the 2010 models is a nonevent because there aren’t any of them in stock . . . The incentives are good advertising to get people in the door, then we can sell them whatever we have in stock.
Tommy Brasher, owner of Brasher Motor Co. of Weimar, Texas, on GM’s decision to hold a “Truck Month” sale after all. Maybe we didn’t get the memo, but GM’s Bob Lutz said last week that GM would forgo the celebration of lost profits for fear it would hamstring the “May The Best Car Win” campaign. After all, the whole point of “May The Best Car Win” is to convince consumers that GM products are worth shopping even when they don’t have cash on the hood. But with trucks cramming the lots and in-demand models nowhere to be found, GM went ahead and sacrificed perception for what spokesfolks call a “competitive response” to Ford’s Truck Month. Old habits die hard.
I have a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer LT 4×4 with less than 134,000 miles. It has been a great vehicle – a dozen trips around the country, suburban family driving, and daily commuting – with the only real mechanical issue being a replaced fuel pump at about 70,000 miles. Now I have two conditions that I wonder if the best and brightest can help diagnose.
The Los Angeles Times reports Toyota has requested $2m in state training funds for workers at its NUMMI plant. The only problem? Toyota has already announced plans to close the Fremont, California, factory. The State of California’s Employment Training Panel had previously agreed to pay back the $2m Toyota spent for training at NUMMI, but since then Toyota and GM made the decision to end their joint venture at NUMMI and end production there. Toyota’s argument was summarized in a statement by NUMMI saying, “These skills have made our team members greater contributors to NUMMI and will make them more attractive to prospective employers when they conclude their employment here in April 2010.” But don’t count on that argument gaining much traction.
We obviously were micromanaging our cash — down to the penny, down to the minute — because that was our lifeblood
GM Spokesman Dan Flores in an Automotive News [sub] story on GM’s decision to pay suppliers weekly instead of monthly. The savage irony? By making payments monthly, GM actually had a harder time managing its dwindling cash pile during the bad old days referenced by Flores. And now? “We’re not going to save money by doing this,” says Flores. “But it’s a better, more reasonable, smarter way to run the business.” On the downside, the changes won’t mean suppliers will get paid any sooner as GM plans on maintaining the 47-day lag between supplier delivery and payment. Plus ça change…
Automotive News [sub] reports that Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has ordered facelifts of five ChryCo models within the next year and a half. Although it might actually be more accurate to describe the refresh order as being for five nameplates of two basic “models”. After all, the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Caravan minivans are nearly identical under the skin, as are the Dodge Caliber, Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot. Apparently the PT Cruiser will be updated as well, although on an unspecified timeline. Besides the obvious question this brings up (why, God, why would they waste precious publicly-funded resources reheating unwanted leftovers?) there’s the issue of how Chrysler will get these updates to market on an accelerated timeline. Apparently the answer is that Chrysler plans on rehiring an undisclosed number of recently-fired designers, engineers and developers and giving them overtime. Paging Mike Donoughe! Meanwhile, Marchionne’s plan must still be approved by the Chrysler BoD and the Presidential Task Force on Autos.
Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP), will audit the closure of 2,139 GM and Chrysler dealerships, reports Automotive News [sub]. Barofsky told members of the Senate Banking Committee [download PDF of Barofsky’s testimony here] that his office “will examine the process used by General Motors and Chrysler to identify which automotive dealerships should be maintained or terminated” [start your own audit of GM’s cull here]. Barofsky also indicated that he would conduct a separate audit of “governance issues when the U.S. government has obtained a large ownership interest in a particular institution.” Though he didn’t explicitly confirm that the “particular institution” is GM, that seems to be a safe conclusion, given the Treasury’s 60 percent stake in The General. “The extent of government involvement in management” is said to be the focus of Barofsky’s GM audit, along with “risk management, monitoring, internal controls, performance measures and transparency.” In other words, we’re going to be learning a lot more about post-bailout GM… at some point. Maybe. Barofsky didn’t indicate when his audits would be complete of whether the information would be made public.
What started out a couple months ago as a “Slow Boat to China,” today feels more like the Voyage of the Damned. Yesterday I filed this “Opening Brief” (plus the Sale Opinion at Appendix A and the Sale Order and MPA at Appendix B) on behalf of my five clients in our appeal of the GM Sale Order: Callan Campbell, et al., v.Motors Liquidation Company, Case No. 09-6818 (NRB) (S.D.N.Y.). This appeal is the only one pending that challenges the abhorrent treatment of preexisting products liability claims in either the GM or Chrysler bankruptcy cases. When I first got involved in the case three months ago, I summarized here the injuries and the myriad adversities faced by my clients on a daily basis. I wrote: “The sad, and all too tragic, stories of my clients, taken from the filed objection, are set forth below. The only thing my clients did wrong here was buy a GM car. For this act of brand loyalty, they have paid dearly. It’s not enough that people lose their lives and get severely injured from design defects and product flaws, now they and their loved ones get thrown under the bus!”
Forbes reports GM is creating a China Science Lab at its Shanghai manufacturing facilities where development work will take place on advanced vehicle technologies. GM won’t disclose the extent of its investment in the lab, but has said it will hire 100 employees from China and abroad to form the initial staff. John Du, the former manager of Intel’s China Research Center, will supervise work at the new lab, which will focus on “advanced engine technology, battery cells, safety research, driverless vehicles and light materials.” Which begs the question, has anyone told the Michigan Economic Development Corporation about this? Seriously, this seems like exactly the kind of high tech, green-jobs opportunity that Michigan’s politicians are constantly giving GM massive tax breaks for. Not to mention the raft of federal incentives, bailouts and green car-development initiatives. But, as GM’s Alan Taub puts it, “China has begun emerging as a world class research hub for automotive technology.” That and China has begun emerging as the only thing keeping GM going. Er, except for our federal incentives, bailouts and green car-development initiatives.
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