You think only in America will someone be crazy enough to pour coffee in her crotch and then sue McDonalds for selling hot coffee? Come to China for some real crazy. Chinese businessman Yuan Jiguang bought himself a Cadillac. If that wasn’t crazy enough, Mr. Yuang drove his Caddy into a truck. The airbags didn’t deem the collision severe enough to deserve deployment. Yuan Jiguang banged his nose on the windshield and ended up with a doctor’s bill of 989.89 yuan ($144.80). China’s doctors are cheap. Then Yuan Jiguang went to the local court in Jiangxi province. And whom did he sue?
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As the Japanese fiscal year draws to a close on March 31, The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) is already looking forward. And there’s a decline ahead. JAMA expects domestic sales of automobiles, including minivehicles, to slide 8 percent from the (not yet announced) level in the current fiscal year to a 32-year low of around 4.29 million units in fiscal 2009, the Nikkei [sub] writes.

If their projection is accurate, domestic auto sales will be just about half of their former 7.8 million glory reached in fiscal 1990. It was downhill from there.

Japan is expected to close out the current fiscal year with al 12 percent minus. 4.66 million units are expected to be sold, a level not seen in 28 years.

The Chinese government wanted to create demand for an extra million vehicles per year with their “cars to the countryside” program. It goes like this: farmers who replace their three-wheeled vehicles for light commercial vehicles receive a maximum subsidy of 5,000 yuan ($731).  Not enough to spur consumption? “For cost-sensitive farmers, a 10-percent subsidy is enough and would be effective to boost demand,” said Tan Jijia, an auto analyst at Pacific Securities Co. He was wrong. There is another problem . . .

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When France announced their bailout package to the car industry, it came with a covenant: keep jobs in France. This immediately raised the EU’s ire of the EU. Free trade commissar Neelie Kroes spat into the direction of Paris: “If the help comes with conditions, for instance to keep production in France, then these measures would be illegal and would not be approved by us.” After the whipping from mistress Kroes, the Sarkozy government France struck the clause from the bailout package—and then claimed a “moral obligation” for the French to stay in France. Brussels was displeased with the French moral imperative, especially when Renault is still 15.7 percent in government hands, considering that the government/industry relations in France can put a zaibatsu in Japan, or a company owned outright by the Chinese government, to shame. A wary eye was kept on France ever since. Yesterday, it turned into an angry stare.

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More and more suppliers of the collapsing auto industry are at the brink of collapse.

Visteon Corp. said on Monday it expects its auditors to question its ability to continue as a going concern due to the US auto industry downturn and the auto parts maker’s cash position, Reuters reports. The parts maker said that this warning could trigger a default under Visteon’s principal US senior secured credit facilities.

Visteon, spun off by Ford Motor Co in 2000, warned in February that it was uncertain of staying in compliance with its debt covenants. The auto parts maker still relies on Ford for one-third of its annual revenue.
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Chrysler has a non-binding deal with Italian automaker Fiat, which has agreed to take a 35 percent stake in Chrysler in exchange for access to technology and overseas markets, and not a single dime.

But wait! It’s a miracle! Just as Jesus Christ turned water into wine, Bob Nardelli turned the no-cash-at-all deal into a bonanza.

The deal with Fiat is worth up to $10B for Chrysler and could preserve 5,000 North American manufacturing jobs, Chief Executive Bob Nardelli said on Monday in a missive to his minions.

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After overtaking the United States in January car sales for the first time, China extended its lead as the world’s largest auto market in the second straight month, Gasgoo reports.

In February, China sold a total of 827,600 vehicles, up 24.72 percent year on year according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM.)

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We shouldn’t read too much into meetings such as those of the G20. Even G8 confabs usually produce nothing other than nice announcements. Finance ministers of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the U.S., the U.K. and the European Union met this weekend in Horsham, England.

According to Bloomberg, the meeting produced the not too unexpected pledges of a sustained effort to end the global recession. The U.S. called for more spending. The Europeans called for restraint. The usual solution was a joint decision to monitor further developments closely. But there were undertones that could signal the end of wholesale bailouts.

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The Right Honorary Lord Mandelson, her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, is preparing to give £2K (€2160) to UK citizens who scrap their old car and buy a new one, London’s Times reports.

“Under the proposed stimulus package, drivers would be able to turn in their car, which must be at least nine years old, and get a £2,000 discount on the purchase of any new or one-year-old car bought at a dealership in Britain. The motorists would have to deliver their old vehicles to one of a number of car recycling plants and receive a confirmation certificate. They would present this to a car dealer and get the government-funded £2,000 discount. Motorists would be able to purchase any brand of car.”

The British “scrappage scheme” sounds very much like the German Abwrackprämie, except that it pays a few hundred Euro less, and also has a little less red tape attached to it. The two could be twins . . .

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Friday the 13^th was a bad day for GM Europe, and by extension Opel, Vauxhall, and Saab. Ministers of eleven European countries where GM has a presence met in Brussels to decide what to do about the ailing American automaker’s foreign empire. First, they listened to reports by Frederick “Fritz” Henderson, COO of GM, and Carl-Peter Forster, CEO of GM Europe. Then, they decided to do nothing. Even more disconcerting for GM, the ministers decided that no country should do anything to bailout GM unilaterally. “There will be no rescue measures on a national level without prior European coordination,” reports Automobilwoche [sub]. And as if this wasn’t bad enough . . .
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Up to now, Chinese companies taking over Western brands was a Beijing opera of well-placed rumors, followed by ambiguous statements or outright denials. The Chinese government did their part in the play encouraging their automakers to acquire foreign assets, then warning them that it might not be a good idea, and then saying that they would back them if they do. Welcome to China. Now, for the first time, a Chinese company went on record that they are willing to make international acquisitions. They’ve even said why.
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Mitsubishi will reorganize and scale down its research and development subsidiaries in the U.S. and Europe

Never a dull moment with Opel. At least their PR machine is working. As for their brains… Anyway, yesterday, we mentioned that GM Europe Chief, Carl-Peter Forster, had sounded a bit depressed when he said there were “interested parties but no formal talks” in regards to a partial sale of Opel. Today, we mentioned that Opel is getting rebuffs by the number, get losts by the score. Now, as Friday the thirteenth has ended, GM acts like nothing ever happened. Im Gegenteil! The party is just beginning! Are you, or have you ever been an interested investor? Does GM have a deal for you!

To a perplexed public, General Motors announced today that it is– again– planning to seek third-party investors for Opel/Vauxhall, the Financial Times reports. For that surprising purpose, GM is preparing a sales prospectus, and plans to approach “possible interested parties” in buying Opel/Vauxhall. Excuse me?
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Folks, TTAC has serious competition. GM just issued a press statement, headlined “GM and Opel Launch Website to Support Fact-Based Discussion.” (As opposed to what? Faith-based?) The lead-in of the statement isn’t really conducive to getting to the main part, but in the interest of fact-based reporting, here it is: “The current need for bridge-financing for GM’s European operations is rooted in a catastrophic economic crisis, the worst of its kind in more than 70 years. Given the significance of the situation politically and for society, it’s only natural that rumor, speculation and urban myths should begin to circulate at this time. In addition to informed reporting based on fact there is also misinformation and repetition of statements that are clearly not based on fact.” Still with us?
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The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) has released their February numbers, Reuters reports. European new car registrations fell 18.3 percent in February, says the ACEA. That’s much better than the 41.3 percent decline the USA suffered in the same month. But it could have been worse had it not been for Germany. Here, registrations soared 21.5 percent in February. The only other market in Western Europe to show growth was tiny Luxembourg—up a tiny 0.3 percent

The German market boosted Western Europe’s tally, with “strong demand in certain market segments following the recent motor vehicle tax reform and scrapping bonus introduced by the German government.” France, which also gives cash for clunkers, but only €1K (as opposed to €2.5K in Deutschland) saw a rather benign drop of 13 percent.
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