As we fumble towards a more complete understanding of Toyota’s stunning fall from grace, we’ve only uncovered a single class of people who truly stand to benefit from the last several weeks of hysteria: the lawyers, of course. Thanks to Toyota’s deep reserves of cash, every single possible damage incurred in the last several weeks will be picked over for an opportunity to sue the world’s largest automaker, and already the suits have crossed over into the realm of the absurd. Automotive News [sub] reports on latest class-action suit charge against Toyota, which seeks damages from the automaker for diminished resale value and lost use of recalled vehicles. These charges have been filed as class-action suits in “at least 30 states,” and lawyers suggest that the damages could run as high as $2b. Ford paid Explorer owners $500 a piece when it settled similar class-action suits in the wake of its Firestone safety scandal.

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Fifteen years ago, Nissan’s Maxima was one of a handful of genuinely sporting four-doors that wouldn’t saddle you with German car payments or reliability. After a decade of letting dozens of overpowered family haulers whittle away at the Maxima’s individualism, Nissan upped the game for 2009.

In the let’s-do-something-anything dept., Toyota engineers are now re-jigging the keyless ignition button, reports Das Autohaus in Germany. According to a Toyota corporate spokesperson, the re-jigged button will cut the engine when the button is pressed three times in rapid succession. (Read More…)

And yet again, the reports of Chinese cars flooding worldwide markets have been greatly exaggerated. The reverse is true: Chinese car exports are a disaster. China’s already anemic auto exports dropped 46 percent in 2009. That according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) data reported in China Daily. (Read More…)

Click to enrage … we mean, enlarge

According to the MSM and many on-line pundits, the NHTSA has been drowning in customer complaints about Toyotas for years. Supposedly, the warnings were thrown in the wind.

Edmunds went through the pain of sifting through NHTSA’s complaint database from 2001 through Feb. 3, 2010 . After the counting was done, Edmunds came to a startling conclusion: The deluge of complaints is a myth, to put it charitably. “Fabrication” would be a better word. Amongst 20 brands, “Toyota ranks 17th among automakers in the overall number of complaints per vehicle sold,” says Edmunds. NHTSA’s own data shows: Only drivers of Mercedes Benz, Porsches and Smarts have less to kvetch than Toyota owners. (Read More…)

The Orlando Sentinel reports that “a couple of years ago,” Seminole County’s Lake Mary High School made the curious decision to ditch its previous mascot (now known as “the old goat”), and adopt the Dodge Ram logo as its own. Chrysler only just found out, thanks to a local tipster, despite the logo’s presence on gym floors, t-shirts and athletic uniforms. Needless to say, a cease-and-desist showed up, and Lake Mary will be having to live with “the old goat” from now on. As Chrysler’s lawyer puts it [via Overlawyered]:

As I am sure you can appreciate from your years of work with the board, control of use of a mark by enthusiastic students and parents is quite simply not practical, and I know the school and board would not want to be in the position of censoring student expression associated with the design,

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No, there’s no Mark III, V or VI to be found here, at least for now. Just as well. But I’ve been sitting on this Mark VII for almost a year, from the looks of the daffodils blooming (and they are, hereabouts). But the Mark VII was a different animal altogether. Quite the radical break, but then Ford had more than hit the end of the road with the ugly, boxy wallowing stuff they’d been pushing out the door for decades. Their near-brush with bankruptcy in 1980 resulted in a whole new regime and approach: headed by the pragmatic but car enthusiast Donald Petersen. But development money was tight, so the Town Car became immortal. But a relatively low-budget solution to the dead-end Mark VI was handy in the form of the new aero-Thunderbird. (Read More…)

The Wall Street Journal reports that Renault had a terrible 2009. The French automaker recorded € 3.07 billion in losses (coincidentally, about the same amount it last received in French government bailout loans), including €1.56 billion absorbed from Nissan and its 21% stake in Volvo trucks. And if that weren’t bad enough, Renault’s revenue dropped 11%, on top of a 3.1% decline the year before. And there’s precious little light at the end of the tunnel either, as Renault’s all-important European market is projected to swoon by as much as ten percent next year. The only bright spot in this rather dour mess is the fact that Renault managed to reduce their net debt by €2.02 billion to €5.92 billion. Renault and Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn, said that this action was imperative in order to improve their credit rating. This is presumably because Renault want to build a production plant in Algeria and establish themselves in China [Ed: already?] and will need the capital in a chilly credit market. Mr Ghosn went on to say that he expects to get €1 billion in synergies from Renault and Nissan. In other words, cost cutting. With French government already tugging at the strings, and investments in another moribund, state-rescued Russian automaker, Ghosn’s job is probably not the most envied in the auto industry. Except perhaps for a chap named Akio…

Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne was supposed to give a speech in conjunction with the Chicago Auto Show today, but backed out at the last minute, sending Dodge honcho Ralph Gilles in his place. The Chicago Sun Times was able to snag an interview with the globetrotting CEO though, and it features some of Sergio’s more candid (if confusing) comments on the state of new product development at the New New Chrysler. Of particular interest is his very apt criticism of Cerberus’s mismanagement of new product development, specifically the decision to replace the 300 before the Sebring.

The biggest market segments in the United States are the C [midsize cars] and D [large luxury vehicles] segments. If you only have a dollar to spend that’s where you go spend it, especially if you’ve got products that are structurally not working.

The decision was made to invest elsewhere. So we developed a brand-new platform for the 300, a decision that took capital that may have been required elsewhere to go play in a different sandbox. Until you’re clear about where you need the money, where the money needs to be spent to ensure longterm survival – that part of it was substantially missing.

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Ironically, the Continental Mark IV is the most “American” car ever. It’s the ultimate counterpart to that most continental/ European car ever, the VW Rabbit/Golf Mk  I that appeared about the same time. The Golf was a brilliant triumph of modern design: space efficiency, economy, light weight, visibility, sparkling performance and handling. And in Europe, the Golf became known as the “classless” car; one that didn’t make a statement about its owner. The Mark? Well, take all those qualities,  turn them upside down, inside out, and then toss them out the window.  Americans have long had ambivalence about “modern” anyway; it hinted at socialistic and intellectual influences that didn’t always sit so well. The most modern American car ever was the Corvair, and look how that turned out. Even the Kennedy Lincolns were a touch too modern. America was ripe for the first true post-modern car, and Ford was the obvious company to make it.  (Read More…)

Despite spending $264.1 million on measured media in the first 11 months of 2009, up 16.5 percent from the year-ago period [per AdAge monitoring] while sales fell nearly 27 percent, Automotive News [sub] reports that Acura is upping its 2010 ad spend by 50 percent. According to Acura’s advertising boss Steven Center, Acura’s awareness levels have been consistently high, but consumers didn’t perceive it being as prestigious as other luxury brands. By boosting advertising of new products like the ZDX and TSX Sportwagon, Center hopes to close the gap with the premium perceptions of its German competitors. Center explains:

Our messaging for years has been too ill-focused and not about the product. The ads weren’t making the point and the point is: What is it about Acura that makes it better? We want to have the emotion of BMW without the hardware,

You know, instead of being seen as higher-content, uglified Hondas. Yeah, more advertising should help with that.

Yes, they’ve got themselves one heck of a problem down Pentastar way: the boffins have done the math and reckon some 67 percent of Chrysler Group minivan buyers are previous owners. That’s a good thing when it comes to polishing your R.L. Polk Owner Loyalty award, but it’s not exactly helping Chrysler make inroads on volume or market share. Which is where the “Minivan Pledge” comes in. “It’s Time To Drive Detroit Again: The Best Minivans In The Industry Just Got Better,” shouts the headline of Chrysler’s release announcing a 60-day money-back guarantee for buyers who trade in a competitive product towards a 2010 minivan. “‘Minivan Pledge’ gives competitive owners the peace of mind to ‘try us again,’” is the pitch. The only problem: everyone knows it takes at least 90 days for a Chrysler minivan to eat its own transmission.

Jason writes:

Sajeev, I have a 2002 Mercedes C320.  I replaced the pre-cat O2 sensors at 94k miles as recommended by my service technician.  This was in the summer of last year, so roughly a year and a half ago.  Since then I have had the CEL twice for O2 heater circuit malfunction on the pre-cat sensor on the driver’s side.  The first time I replaced the sensor and that was six weeks ago.  Yesterday I start the car up and it’s back (verified at the Advance store with OBDII).  Have I received two bad O2 sensors in a row, or could I have something going on with the car that is causing the O2 sensors to have problems?

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Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s get-tough quotes during the Toyota recall have generated significant backlash against an administration that is already knee-deep in the automotive industry. The governors of Mississippi, Kentucky, Indiana and Alabama (all of which host Toyota plants) laid into the NHTSA and Obama administration in a letter covered by the Detroit News. The governors argue:

Despite the federal government’s obvious conflict of interest because of its huge financial stake in some of Toyota’s competitors … it has spoken out against Toyota, including statements U.S. government officials have later been forced to retract… Toyota must put the safety of drivers first and foremost. However, they deserve a level and reasonable response from the federal government – one that is not tainted by the federal government’s financial interest in some of Toyota’s competitors

Strangely, the governors of Texas and West Virginia, where Toyotas are also assembled declined to sign onto the letter. Still, the attack isn’t being simply written off has home-state selfishness. One bellwether for the issue is the fact that the Detroit News looked past its own hometown interests and ran an editorial by the Cato Institute’s Daniel Ikensen, amplifying the governors’ critique. And sure enough, Obama decided to take the issue on head-on in an interview yesterday.
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Automotive News [sub] reports that Fiat/Chrysler will become the latest in a line of third-rate global automakers to form a joint venture with the Russian firm Sollers, with plans to produce half a million units of nine Fiat and Chrysler models at a new plant in Naberezhnye Chelny. Previously Sollers had formed joint ventures with such notable automakers as Ssangyong and Isuzu. Reuters reports that Russia’s state-owned banks will provide most of the venture’s $2.9b in start-up costs. But Fiat/Chrysler has a tough road ahead of it. An analyst for BrokerCreditService describes Sollers’ challenge thusly:

The main object of this plan is to take some, I think, little market share in Vladivostok and Primorsky Kray Russian region, because over 80 or 90% of cars in this region are used cars of Japanese production.

Chrysler has yet to prove that it can handle that kind of competition in the US market, and it will be interesting to see how new Chrysler models sell against the previous-generation Sebring/Stratus, which is produced in Russia as the GAZ Volga Siber.