As Germany tumbles, so does the rest of Europe (insert your own World War II or Euro currency joke here). As France, Italy and Spain withdrew their “bangers for cash” boondoggles, so did the public’s interest in new cars. The Wall Street Journal reports that in France new car sales dropped 9.8 percent compared to last year. However, according to the French car manufacturers’ association, if you factor out the extra working day in August, sales dropped by 14 percent. (Read More…)
How would you like to see your writing published at TTAC? Over the years we’ve always taken contributions from new writers, indeed many of TTAC’s current staffers (Editor-in-Chief included) started out here by pitching a story to our editors email. In hopes of highlighting new talent, giving our commentators a new stage, and generally providing a little more variety around here, we’ve decided to feature a piece by a TTAC reader or commenter every Saturday. We’re calling it Ur-Turn and the rules are very simple: When the spirit moves you to write something insightful, passionate or entertaining about cars, car ownership, the car industry, car sales, buying cars, or any other topic that you might about read on TTAC, send it to editors [at] ttac [dot] com. We will select the choicest pieces as they come in, provide the lightest of edits, and let you know which Saturday your piece will run. Keep in mind that because we cannot guarantee that your piece will run on a given week, time-sensitive pieces might not be the best idea. Contributions should be at least 600 words, but no more than 1500 words… although we’re willing to make exceptions for the right piece.
TTAC’s greatest strength has always been its dedicated, well-informed and tough-minded commentariat. This is your opportunity to share that story that was too long for a comments section, or start the debate that we’ve never gotten around to. And if you appreciate the kind of high-quality writing that TTAC provides, this is your chance to give back. After all, we ask for so very little…
Editor’s note: GM CEO Dan Akerson sent the following email to GM’s employees, his first such communication as GM’s CEO, in recognition of Labor Day Weekend Eve.
GM Employees,
As Labor Day approaches in the U.S. and Canada, I would like to wish everyone at General Motors a safe, happy holiday weekend. I also ask that we pause for moment to reflect on what this day means as we celebrate labor’s many contributions here and around the world.
Of course, labor’s role in building up this nation and others is well recognized and rightly so. And, coming from a union family, I know on a very personal level the good things that unions can do.
Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off–then, I account it high time to get to a Porsche Club meeting and annoy perfectly decent upper-middle-class people.
One of my favorite shticks is to sit there at the wine-tasting/slow-food dinner/whatever and say, “I love my Boxster, but I love the Cayman so much more.” Knowing nods from around the table. “It’s just that I like the convertible too.” More knowing nods. “What I really wish Porsche would do…”
Pause.
“…is make a Cayman convertible..”
Dead silence.
After driving the Chevrolet Camaro SS for a couple of days, and enjoying the experience much less than I expected to, I began to question my expectations. Perhaps having the Lexus IS-F for a week had unfairly put the Chevrolet in a bad light? After all, the IS-F was twice the price and a Lexus, […]
We can’t pretend to be overly enamored with former “car czar” Steve Rattner, who oversaw the auto bailout before being disgraced for his role in a New York pension fund pay-for-play scandal. Still, the guy was in the thick of things during last year’s negotiations over Detroit’s rescue, so he knows where the bodies are buried. And in his new book, Overhaul, which has been released to select outlets ahead of its October 14 publication, he tells a whole lot of stories about the months of bailout proceedings that led to the rescue of GM and Chrysler. Of course, Rattner has an agenda in all this, namely proving that
so he’s not necessarily an unbiased source. But with grains of salt at the ready, let’s dive into his spilled guts and see if what secrets lie beneath.
Ford was ordered by a Mississippi jury to pay $131m to the family of a New York Mets prospect who died in a rollover crash in 2001. The ruling came despite Ford’s insistence that Brian Cole had been driving at 80 MPH and was not wearing a seatbelt when his Explorer went off the road. Ford maintains that the judge in the case barred key evidence that would have absolved it of responsibility, and a spokesperson tells Reuters that
This was a tragic accident and our sympathy goes out to the Cole family for their loss, but it was unfair of them to blame Ford
Ford settled with Cole’s family immediately following the $131m award, and the family’s lawyer explained that the damages in this case were higher than other rollover cases because Cole was a professional baseball player.
Another day, another story detailing the political nightmare that is the GM IPO. The WSJ [sub] reports that
The U.S. Treasury is concerned about how many overseas investors it should allow to buy big stakes in General Motors Co. through the car maker’s initial public offering this fall, according to people familiar with the matter.
The caution—aimed at minimizing any political fallout from the massive stock sale—could involve limiting or being selective about which non-U.S. investors such as sovereign-wealth funds would be invited to be “cornerstone” investors in the IPO
Expect Treasury to publicize any limitations on foreign investment in GM’s IPO sometime “within the next couple of weeks.” And no matter how the bureaucrats rule, it won’t be great for taxholders. After all, foreign investors (particularly in China) have the motivation and means to invest heavily in GM, which would help boost the IPO price. The downside, of course, is that the taxpayers’ $50b investment wouldn’t have kept the company American-owned. If keeping ownership in the US is the priority, it’s fair to expect a considerably lower IPO valuation. Heads they win, tails we lose. Ain’t the intersection of politics and business grand?
When Ford sold Aston Martin to Prodrive, Ford retained a small stake in Aston Martin. But that isn’t the only venture in which Ford and Prodrive work together. Ford Performance Vehicles (FPV) is a joint venture between Ford and Prodrive based in Melbourne Australia. And they’ve just announced a range of supercharged V8 engines. Ford? Prodrive? Australia, home of hoon-mobiles? You have our interest… (Read More…)
Yes, it’s real. And no, it’s not an Impreza. But it will help Chevy continue its campaign of cannibalism against Opel, as GM’s presser notes that
Hatchbacks play a critical role in many markets. The total compact segment in Europe represents around 4.8 million units which is over a quarter of the total market, with hatchbacks representing around 65% of that volume. We therefore expect to see increased business in a number of regions, while sending out a signal that Chevrolet is now a serious mainstream player in Europe.
Look for the production model to debut at the forthcoming Paris Auto Show… meanwhile, my first-ever beef with the Cruze (that it seemed styled to be a sedan-only model) has basically been settled. For the Europeans, anyway.
While red light camera firms are facing significant legal peril as vehicle owners in California and Florida are fighting citations in court through class action lawsuits, the stakes are even higher when the companies themselves battle one another in the courtroom. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is now reviewing a number of issues brought in the suit filed by American Traffic Solutions (ATS) against its Australian rival, Redflex Traffic Systems.
GM, Toyota, and Ford reported subdued August sales numbers for China today. This rains on the parade of the China Automotive Technology and Research Center. It said yesterday that August sales in China rose 55.7 percent. Did we say “don’t take it as gospel?” (Read More…)
Days after Vladimir Putin, well, encouraged foreign carmakers to come to Russia, open car factories and better bring the latest technology, or else, Martin Winterkorn announced that Volkswagen is planning a new assembly line at Russia’s GAZ and that they will expand their factory in the Kaluga region in the future. Winterkorn said that after meeting Putin himself and most likely after having received a similar speech as what was previously broadcasted. (Read More…)
Seasonally, August is never a great sales month in Germany. People don’t buy cars in August. They drive cars. They are out of the country and on vacation. This August was an exceptionally crummy one in Deutschland. Only new 200,885 passenger vehicles (or Personenkraftwagen as they call them over there) were registered in August. That is 27 percent below the Abwrackprämien-addled August of 2009. But that’s only part of the story. (Read More…)
Your faithful editor just dodged a bullet. And no, not from our owners, who might have wondered why I just took off for the better part of a weekday. Truth is, for the past several hours I’ve been trying to buy a car I don’t particularly need… but now it seems that circumstances have forced me to postpone my rash decision. At least until Saturday. And though it’s always best to consider big purchases thoroughly before pulling the trigger, this car has simply been lodged itself in my brain, screaming at me to buy it for the last several days. I like to think of myself as a fairly reasonable person, but I find myself stripped of objectivity, common sense and practicality, all of which have been replaced by slobbering, single-minded lust. In fact, I’m so unreasonably set on this acquisition that I’m not going to even say what kind of car it is, for fear of jinxing the deal (feel free to guess though… unless you’re one of the two people who actually know).
Now that you’ve had a taste of the madness that’s afflicted your loyal devotee automotive truth, I invite you to crack open a judgment-impairing beverage and let me know what car you might buy in the throes of automotive insanity. Keep in mind that this is not a lottery fantasy question… you should be able to acquire this car in real life (you just might not want to tell your spouse, children, or financial planner until it’s too late and madness has become reality). Alternatively, tell us about the impulse buy that taught you to overcome the insanity of blind automotive lust.
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