Editor’s Note: Legendary auto journalist and TTAC inspiration Jerry Flint died this week. Rather than write a sappy eulogy, we’ve decided to let Jerry speak for himself. What follows is a speech Flint gave to GM employees at Milford Proving Grounds in October 2000. It’s feisty, passionate and deeply insightful… the kind of speech that made Jerry famous, and paved the way for sites like TTAC. Moreover, it shows just how deep GM’s problems run, and serves as a timeless warning against the worst impulses of the business. Rest In Peace Jerry… we will always remember you at your best. [Courtesy: The Olds Zone Hat Tip: Ken Elias]

There was an auto executive, he was a very high ranking GM man.  You all know his name but I won’t mention it because it might embarrass him.  He’s not at General Motors anymore.

I once asked this man what he would do if he found himself the chief executive of General Motors.  He said, and I quote, “I would fire 1,000 executives.” End of quote.  I’m not sure whether it made any difference to him which 1,000 executives, if he had anyone in particular in mind, or any thousand would do.  I just tell you this to start things off.

Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to get bumpy.

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TTAC’s writers don’t always agree with each other, but we can’t help but rub off on each other a little bit. After all, as our Jack Baruth puts it, “great artists steal.” Lately we’ve been treated to a tour of Jack’s love-hate relationship with the Porsche brand in his take on Paul Niedermeyer’s “Deadly Sins” series. And if the latest news on Porsche’s product plans [via Auto Motor und Sport] are anything to go on, we can probably expect more Baruthian takedowns of Zuffenhausen’s flights of fancy going forward.

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Via Slashdot comes the latest word in your vehicle’s vulnerability to hackers: Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems. According to Goodgearguide.com, researchers from Rutgers and the University of South Carolina have found that wireless communications between tire-mounted sensors and and on-board computers can be intercepted by hackers, resulting in the ability to track your movements. According to researchers,

If the sensor IDs were captured at roadside tracking points and stored in databases, third parties could infer or prove that the driver has visited potentially sensitive locations such as medical clinics, political meetings, or nightclubs… Such messages could also be forged. An attacker could flood the control unit with low pressure readings that would repeatedly set off the warning light, causing the driver to lose confidence in the sensor readings, the researchers contend. An attacker could also send nonsensical messages to the control unit, confusing or possibly even breaking the unit.

Researchers note that such attacks would be expensive and complicated to pull off, but that even a simple encryption algorithm would shut this latest window of opportunity for hacker attacks. Says Wenyuan Xu of the University of South Carolina

If no one mentions [such flaws], then they won’t bother with security… The consumer may be willing to pay few dollars to make their autos secure

This isn’t so much a news item as a “Congress finally figured it out” item. A preliminary report by the National Research Council, recently revealed to congress, shows that of 58 Toyota “black box” event data recorders from crashes which occurred during the recall scandal

35 showed that at the moment of impact, the driver hadn’t depressed the brake pedal at all. Fourteen more showed partial braking, while nine showed the brake depressed at the “last second” before the crash.

There were a handful of other results where the brake was pressed early and let go, or in which both the gas and brake pedals were pressed at the same time. There also was one case of pedal entrapment by a floor mat.

In five cases, the electronic recording device failed to work.

The WSJ [sub] notes that the investigation is ongoing, and that no official conclusions have been drawn, but that the finding vindicates an earlier report for which the WSJ had taken mysterious flack. For a complete look at the NRC-NHTSA study, and why it is highly unlikely to ever find a “ghost in the machine” in Toyota’s electronic throttles, check out TTAC’s review of the pre-study NHTSA-NRC presentation.

What about battery production? It’s one of the most popular criticisms of the green halo surrounding battery-electric vehicles, and one that’s widely circulated in anti-EV circles. Battery production, it is argued, requires the mining, transportation and processing of minerals which puts EVs at an environmental disadvantage compared to ICE vehicles. Needless to say, quantifying the impacts of ICE and electric drivetrain production is extremely difficult, due to the complexity and global supply chains required to produce both (not to mention the inherent difficulty of quantifying environmental impacts). But a study by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology [via Green Car Congress] took on just that question, and indicates that

the impact of a Li-ion battery used in BEVs for transport service is relatively small. In contrast, it is the operation phase that remains the dominant contributor to the environmental burden caused by transport service as long as the electricity for the BEV is not produced by renewable hydropower.

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The Compact Crossover segment has changed a bit since last month, as the Honda CR-V enjoyed strong demand en route to over 20k monthly sales. Rogue had a strong month as well, but still ended up about 5k units shy of last month’s segment leader, the Ford Escape. Terrain seems to be going a bit weak compared to recent months, and even Equinox was down a bit from its July 2009 number. Sportage is way off ahead of its new model rollout, but once the 2011s come in, expect Kia cute ute to mix things up in the 7k-ish and above monthly volume range.

It’s difficult to compete globally when governments try to pick the winning technologies and the direction changes from administration to administration… the U.S. government is going a bit too far in trying to dictate the powertrain technologies of the future.

BorgWarner CEO Tim Manganello tells Green Car Advisor what he really thinks of the billions of government dollars that have gone into the electric car industry of late. And though the supplier boss clearly has a personal interest in non-EV efficiency solutions (namely dual-clutch transmissions which require some kind of combustion engine), he’s also got a point. Why is the government lavishing unproven (luxury) startups like Tesla and Fisker with hundreds of millions in federal largess, while doing next to nothing to increase the market penetration of proven technologies like clean diesel or natural gas?

The Honda Civic Type R has become the latest casualty of the new Euro V emissions standard, reports Autocar, and it will be discontinued for the European market at the end of this year. Weirdly though, production of the British-built Civic Type R will continue, and the two-liter “touring car with number plates” will be exported to the South African and Australian markets. To which we say, the Type R is a low-volume model anyway… why not send a few to the US? Sure, if you directly convert the UK price to dollars, a top-spec Mugen Type R costs a whisker under $40k… and we’d guess more Americans would spring for a Volt at that price. And yes, it would certainly suck some enthusiasm out of the all-important CR-Z launch. Still, Honda needs to stop making sense and do something that proves it hasn’t forgotten its roots in the US market. Sending a few hundred Type Rs to the US is worth a thought… or is the whole idea as silly as testing a Type R against an Audi R8?

At the end of the second quarter of this year, Ford’s overall automotive debt totaled $25.8 billion. Just three months before, its debt level was at $32.6 billion. The debt reduction is all part of CEO Alan Mulally’s plant to earn an investment-grade debt rating by the end of 2011, a move that will lower Ford’s cost of borrowing as well as lowering interest payments. And though Ford’s been making a healthy profit, America’s bailout-free automaker has had more than its fair share of government help to beat the debt. According to the WSJ [sub], Ford’s extensive collection of government loan guarantees has been key to its ability to pay down more expensive debt accumulated during Ford’s 2006 restructuring.

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There’s a constant temptation for commentators on the American auto industry to idealize labor relations outside of the reach of the United Auto Workers. But, as the JoongAn Daily reports, even resurgent automaking nations like Korea still face a number of challenges from unruly workers. Hyundai, Ssangyong and GM-Daewoo have already closed deals with their unions guaranteeing a strike-free 2010, but Kia is still locked in negotiations over

several issues, including wages and role of full-time union representatives. The management wants to enforce restrictions on the number and work practices on union representatives before discussing the wage issue. The union wants to negotiate the two issues at the same time.

If Kia reaches a deal with its union, it will make 2010 the first year in the last 24 without a strike by Korean autoworkers.

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Koua Fong Lee, who had spent over two years behind bars for his role in a collision that killed three people, was freed today when a judge vacated his sentence. The reason: ineffective legal counsel, and evidence that suggested Lee’s 1996 Toyota Camry could have been driving out of control. The Ramsey County (MN) prosecutor has decided against re-trying Lee, making him a free man. Meanwhile, the fact that 1996 Toyota Camrys have not been recalled for faulty brakes or throttle units leaves a huge question mark hanging over this case.
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This week’s “Haggler” column in the Sunday New York Times was ripped from the pages of TTAC’s beloved Piston Slap series, with a Wendy Marek writing in to complain that

In July 2008, I made a huge mistake: I bought a Ford Explorer. It was a 2006 model with 40,000 miles, and it cost $17,000. At first I thought I got a great deal, but after a few weeks of driving, the radiator started leaking. Then the replacement radiator started leaking. Then the radiator that replaced the replacement started leaking. To date, six new radiators have been installed in this vehicle. Six.

After some research, The Haggler found that both carcomplaints.com and Consumer Reports showed a record of radiator problems in 2006 Explorers. Furthermore, Ford issued a TSB on 2006 Explorer radiators in 2009, which the automaker insists covers its liability. Since the Explorer in question is a used car, Ms Marek’s only real recourse would have been to file a breach of warranty claim, but the statue of limitations had already run out. Since so few protections exist for used-car buyers, one has to assume that the moral of the story is that buying used Explorers is a risky business… but is that the truth? Or is the outgoing Explorer a good value that’s getting a bum rap?

Just last week the faithful gathered here at TTAC to debate the relevance of motorsport to the business of selling cars. But good Saint Chapman, it seems, had already noticed that Formula One cars rarely resemble anything available to the buying public. And lo, he instructed his one true church to sell a car that changes all that. Thus was born the Lotus T125, a 630 HP, 1,433-lb, F1-style trackday car complete with Cosworth V8, carbon fiber everything and sequential gearbox. And lo, the Ferrari 599xx felt a bit silly, and Chapman saw that it was good. Deliveries of the T125 will begin in April 2011, for a small offering of around one million American dollars. [Autocar]

The C-segment did not have a great July, especially compared to July 2009’s Cash-for-Clunker-inspired clamor for compact cars. The three exceptions were the Hyundai Elantra, Kia Forte and Mitsubishi Lancer, which all handily beat their July 2009 numbers. If you’re getting sick of the “Hyundai momentum” storyline, look elsewhere. On the other hand, with production of 2012s underway, the lame-duck Focus has settled into a 15k-month routine (actually averaging about 14,500 over the last 12 months), and Cobalt is falling away as Lordstown tools up for the Cruze. And with a new Elantra due by the end of this year, real competition in this segment is only just beginning.

Automotive News [sub] takes a stab at calculating the numbers that Detroit doesn’t want you to see. Best of all, AN says the numbers are based on “internal documents.” During this morning’s financial results conference call, Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne railed against AN’s “crusade,” implying that the industry paper of record is nursing a vendetta against Chrysler… which is usually a good sign that a media outlet is doing its job well. It’s also a sign that Marchionne knows his firm’s fleet dependence is a problem.

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