In order to build the Chevrolet Sonic subcompact in America, the UAW agreed to a deal in which Tier One workers earning $28/hr could be forced to take a 50% paycut to keep the Sonic profitable for GM. Because the union membership never voted on the deal and can not strike against it, the agreement has rubbed salt in the wounds opened by the two-tier wage system. Some 40 percent of Tier One workers at the Orion Township plant where the Sonic will be built were supposed to be bumped to Tier Two, but thanks to strong truck sales, the Freep reports that all of the workers facing a cramdown have been able to transfer out of Orion and keep their Tier One status.

nearly 470 of Orion’s 1,100 first-tier workers have accepted GM’s offer to transfer to Flint, which is adding a third shift by the third quarter to help build heavy-duty pickups, the person familiar with the planning said. Another 71 have elected to stay at other factories where they’ve worked while Orion was idled to retool.

That means the rest of the first-tier workers at Orion will be able to return to the factory at their original pay.

And the good news keeps on coming: the NLRB appears to have rejected the complaints filed against the UAW by its members, and GM’s profit-sharing bonuses are said to be the biggest in the company’s history. In a few months, the UAW appears to have beaten back one of its biggest challenges since the bailout. Of course, if HD Pickup demand declines, the workers who transferred to Flint will be looking for work again, and they may be forced to accept wage cuts to go back to Orion. Meanwhile, the two-tier system will likely continue to create tensions on shop floors around the country. For now though, it seems the crisis has passed… just in time for a new negotiating session.

Between Nissan’s Esflow concept and this BMW Vision ConnectedDrive concept, it’s becoming pretty clear that “clean fun” is the theme of the forthcoming Geneva Auto Show. But BMW isn’t just signaling the production look of its EfficientDynamics sportscar… the Vision ConnectedDrive also demonstrates BMW’s dedication to managing the coming information overload created by ever more technologically-dependent automobiles. Autocar reports:

BMW knows that the day is rapidly approaching when on-board sensors will deliver so much data to the driver that innovative ways are needed to present the information so it can be absorbed and acted upon quickly.

Intended to replace the conventional instrument cluster, the next-gen HUD will display info like road speed and sat-nav directions in three-dimensions.

This tech allows different information layers to be superimposed on top of one another, in turn allowing the driver to display the required data in the foreground, while ghosting less significant info into the background.

By providing this ‘optical depth of field’, BMW reckons it can provide the driver with multiple additional information sources without having to redesign a car’s fascia to take an additional display screen.

Just another step towards the day when Graphical User Interfaces become as important to cars as styling and performance.

[UPDATE: Welcome Instapundit readers!]

The Eleventh Circuit US Court of Appeals on Tuesday saw no problem with jailing a man for eight hours after he blew .03 on a breathalyzer — far below the legal limit. Santa Rosa County, Florida sheriff’s deputies had arrested Roger A. Festa on the charge of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) on April 9, 2005. Since he had been entirely sober, Festa sued Deputy Adam Teichner and Deputy Douglas Burgett for unlawful arrest.

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Forget the plural of Prius… what do you call a Prius that’s this confused? A transvestvolt? Or, as the Michigan plates indicate, is this more of a case of automotive Stockholm Syndrome? Or, perhaps we’re looking at Batesian mimicry at work?  Either way, this is a new one… [courtesy: evchels.wordpress.com]

A proper coffee-table car book ought to be heavy on the grainy action photos, light on the words, and include photographs of Škoda 1101 Sports and Renault 4CVs at Le Mans. Sports Car Racing In Camera, 1950-59 qualifies for inclusion in even the most crowded coffee-table real estate. (Read More…)

The Truth About Cars is excited to announce that in our relentless drive towards globalization, TTAC has now added a Polish edition. (Read More…)

You think only China has a total disregard for intellectual property? Ford filed a trademark infringement suit on Wednesday against a foreign carmaker. The only thing this carmaker has in common with China is their love for the red color. Ford sued Ferrari for blatantly stealing the name of the world’s best selling vehicle, the F-150. (Read More…)

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano today took the unusual step of publicly voicing the Japanese government’s satisfaction with the U.S. government’s findings that Toyota’s electronic throttle control system is free of glitches, ghosts and malfunctions. It was a not so subtle reminder that politics weighed heavily in Toyota’s SUA scandal. (Read More…)

While Mazda is still talking with Russian politicos about producing cars in Siberia, Toyota is doing it.  Toyota “is moving into the Russian Far East ahead of other Japanese automakers as part of a high-priority effort to tap emerging markets,” at least as far as  The Nikkei [sub] is concerned. (Read More…)

This ad, for the Chevy Camaro, was the most-watched spot during the Super Bowl, pulling in 119,628,000 sets of eyeballs according to the ratings agency Nielsen. A Chevy Cruze ad took second place in the “most-watched” category, and Chrysler’s much-chattered-about 200 spot tied for fourth (with 5 other spots, including one for Bridgestone Tires), with 17.565m viewers. In short, cars and car-related products not only accounted for many of the ads, they managed to snag the time slots where the fewest people were taking bathroom breaks or grabbing more bacon-wrapped buffalo wings. But remember, there’s more to effective advertising than merely drawing eyeballs…
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Maybe it was my lukewarm review. Or maybe it was because Suzuki’s most ardent attempt to date to appeal to Americans connected with only 6,138 of them last year. Despite the unintended acceleration media circus, Toyota sold more Camrys in the average week. Whatever the reason, Suzuki revised the Kizashi after just one model year, […]

Let’s get something perfectly clear: if you’re spending good money to bring back a legendary Italian sports car brand like DeTomaso without aiming to capture the essence of the photograph above, you’re doing it wrong. Period. If, on the other hand, you’re bringing back the DeTomaso name in order to sell

a premium large crossover, dubbed SLC (sport luxury car) that would be a rival to cars such as the BMW 5-series GT and Lexus RX-450h,

you need to go rethink your entire perspective on life. Or at least find a new business. Tragically, this is exactly what former Fiat marketing executive Gian Mario Rossignolo is doing. DeTomaso. Crossover. DeTomaso. RX450h. DeTomaso. Luxury CUV. Haven’t lost your mind yet? Hit the jump for more claw-your-eyes-out details.

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What do Dodge and Hyundai have in common, besides a Mexican Accent? They’ve both just unveiled large, V8-powered, rear-drive sedans at the Chicago Auto Show. I realize the whole “who would have thought Hyundai would be here by now” storyline may be getting a bit played out by now, but seriously, who imagined that Hyundai would be slinging a 429 HP rear-driver boasting a V8 with specific output  of 85.8 HP/liter? Not this blogger. Of course, because the 2012 Dodge Charger SRT8 offers an extra 1.4 liters of displacement more than Hyundai’s new “Tau” 5.0, it makes a hefty 465 HP and 465 lb-ft of torque to the Hyundai’s 429 HP and 376 lb-ft… but then the big Hyundai beats even the 370 HP Charger R/T on fuel economy, getting 17/26 MPG. Oh, and the two cars couldn’t look more different either. The question: which will America prefer?

Back in October, a firm called DBM Energy announced that an Audi A2 fitted with one of its “alpha-polymer” (lithium-metal-polymer) batteries would drive 600km without stopping to recharge or swap batteries, a claim that caused TTAC’s Martin Schwoerer (and others) to sit up and take notice. Schowerer noted

There is nothing new under the sun. You can expect battery capacity-per-weight-unit to expand by around 10% per decade, by incremental improvement. Maybe more. Don’t put your money or stake your rep on anything supposedly revolutionary. There is no way a small four-seater electric can do 600 KM non-stop with one set of batteries (with a $500k fuel cell system: yes, but that’s something else).

Then, days later, the trip was made, and DBM’s battery was hailed as having powered the “Miracle of Berlin.” Of course, Schwoerer pointed out that there were a number of unresolved issues with the stunt, including

DBM Energy GmbH is a mailbox company.

DBM’s website states as contact a non-registered entity named DBM Headquarters, which is located in a smallish office building. In that office building, there are several small-sounding firms such as a long-term storage company, a fire-extinguisher company, and a “battery-service” company.

When companies with no reputation defy the expectations of everyone in the EV business, skepticism is going to take hold. Especially when the car in question burns to a crisp shortly after its record breaking trip.

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