A cash-for-clunker bill, “stripped down” to $1 billion, has passed the Senate. Automotive News [sub] reports that the new bill will go into effect one month after it is signed by the president and will offer $3,500-$4,500 rebates only through November. The spending cap had been set previously at $4 billion. Sen. Judd Gregg [R-NH] led an attempt to strip the provision from an Iraq funding bill that was voted down along party lines. Meanwhile, the AP bemoans the “flagging clout” of the auto industry. And Autocar points out that total European car sales across all brands were down 4.9 percent compared to May 2008. Yes, the much-vaunted European scrappage schemes helped . . . Hyundai (+25.1 percent), Suzuki (+3 percent), VW (+3 percent) and Fiat (+2 percent). Everyone else . . . not so much.

One-time Car Czar candidate Steve Girsky has been elected to GM’s board as the sole representative of the UAW’s VEBA trust fund, reports Automotive News [sub]. Girsky had previously worked on the spin-off of Saturn, which was eventually purchased by Roger Penske. He has also worked at Morgan Stanley, and advised the UAW during the ill-fated GM-Chrysler merger talks. Too bad the Harvard B-School boy didn’t end up at Ford; back in the day, Girsky loved him some Blue Oval . . .

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In addition to offering hybrid options across its lineup, Mercedes-Benz will mount a three-cylinder engine in certain vehicles by 2012, reports Motor Authority. Mercedes R&D Boss Thomas Weber does mention that there’s a slight hitch to the plans, namely that “Mercedes is currently looking for a partner to help develop the new three-cylinder engine.” In what appears to be a case of car-before-horse(power), Weber confirms that this undeveloped engine will appear in future iterations of the C-Class, B-Class, A-Class and Smart ForTwo. The American market is not expected to receive three-banger benzes, although a 1.4-liter Kompressor engine is being considered for the C-Class.

Cleveland Business News reports that ChryCo will cancel its contract with Cummins for diesel engines slated to power its Ram 1500 line of pickup trucks. This news comes as OEMs are abandoning diesel trucks in droves. Ford and GM have recently backed away from diesel light-duty trucks, while Toyota and Nissan have canceled heavy-duty diesel truck plans. “From a business case, I don’t think anyone can make one right now,” says IHS Global Insight’s Paul Lacy. “We are still negotiating with the new Chrysler group,” retorts Cummins spokesman Mark Land optimistically. “I don’t think they’re forever gone. I don’t think they’ll just throw all of this investment money away.” Right.

Taking a page from Detroit’s auto plant parking lots, BMW has been putting notices on employee vehicles built by competing firms, reports Bloomberg. “What’s wrong here? You like working with us. You appreciate your job and income. But you drive a vehicle from a competitor,” read the notices signed by Ian Robertson, the company’s sales chief; Harald Krueger, BMW’s head of personnel, and Manfred Schoch, its top union representative. Some 7,000 German employees of BMW received the friendly reminders. “We wanted to raise awareness that our employees are part of the product and could actually drive BMW,” said Bilgeri. “It’s a totally normal marketing program.” Except that this is the first time BMW has ever targeted employee owners of competing brands in twenty years of marketing to its employees. BMW employees need not worry that their choice of cars will leave them out of a job, clarifies Hans Haumer, head of BMW’s Munich worker’s council. This is more of a guilt trip.

Source document available here.

This is a fun one. The UAW has made no-strike guarantees to Chrysler and GM as part of their restructuring deals. This makes a certain amount of sense, considering that the UAW’s VEBA trust holds significant portions of GM and Chrysler’s new equity. After all, it’s hard to both represent labor and look after your equity position at the same time. Ford, however, has not been generous enough to let the UAW have a chunk of its stock, and yet it feels as though it might be fair if the UAW were to make similar no-strike guarantees.

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Earlier this afternoon, I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with Uncle Sam re: the Stimulus Package spending on 27,205 Chrysler, Ford and GM vehicles. What we want to know: the models purchased. Why we want to know it: is Uncle Sam spending U.S. bailout bucks to purchase vehicles made outside of the United States? And how fuel efficient are these vehicles? As saving jobs and the environment were the two rationales behind the authorization, we feel the government should reveal this information. So far the GSA, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Jack Reed (one of RF’s RI homies) have either ignored or flat out denied our request. So I’ve filed the FOIA request using my own name/address as follows:

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The PT Cruiser tooling in Toluca, Mexico couldn’t be pawned off to an unsuspecting Chinese firm, so they’ll just keep selling the things to unsuspecting Americans (or die trying), reports Inside Line. Originally set to be axed or updated in 2004, the PT Cruiser (hated by many, loved by at least one) will live on until the summer of 2011 when production at Toluca will switch to the Fiat 500 and a Fiat Panda-based Jeep product. That means the PT will have been produced for 11 years by the time it finally, mercifully dies.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally, speaking at the Detroit Economic Club’s National Summit, expressed his concerns about the health of the auto industry’s supplier base. “The most important thing that we do now is help them consolidate because we have this overcapacity,” Mulally is quoted as saying in Automotive News [sub]. “Everybody is going to be really careful that we do that and that we don’t topple the supply base.” Too bad the White House doesn’t agree, and suppliers have been screwed over since the bailouts began. Mulally also admitted that US automakers have a long way to go in convincing Americans of the value of their businesses. “Some things have happened, disappointed a lot of people, but we’ve got to really polish the value of what business brings to mankind,” he said. “We’re fighting for the soul of design and manufacturing in the United States.”

That’s the early word on V-Vehicle Company, which will occupy the former Guide Corp. plant in Monroe, LA. In addition to Silicon Valley VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Automotive News [sub] reports that Texas natural gas baron T. Boone Pickens is also providing financial backing to the new company which “will produce a high-quality, environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient car for the U.S. market,” according to a statement. “The goal of the company is to provide the American buyer greater product value and a superior automotive experience.”

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Automotive News [sub] reports that a 1,400 employee auto assembly operation is moving into the former Guide Corp. plant in Monroe, LA. No word on the identity of the new tenant. Until tomorrow, anyway. So how’s about a little game of “tomorrow’s headlines today?” Here’s some grist for the mill. Financing for the deal comes courtesy of Silicon Valley venture capitalists Ray Lane and John Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. According to thedeal.com, Kleiner Perkins has over $65 million invested in Fisker. Too bad, then, that Fisker has a contract with Finnland’s Valmet. KPC&B has also invested in Th!nk—leading Autoblog‘s Sam Abuelsamid to the conclusion that the Louisiana plant will build Norwegian city EVs. Want a real dark horse? How about the mythical $35 million bid for Chrysler’s Viper business in which investors were reportedly meeting with Louisiana officials? We shall see . . . .

Why did 44 percent of “nearly 1,700” CarGurus respondents prefer Pontiac to other leading discontinued GM brands? Beats me. Save Hummer and merge it with Chrysler’s “Peapod Mobility,” say I. Call it a monument to the industry. It’s the only way things could become any more, well, weird. The results of the survey were published on Ad Age yesterday. And then today, while Fritz Henderson was performing his weekly new-media ablutions, he had to go and crush the dreams of (nearly) 7480 people. Ad Age’s Jean Halliday asked, “Why can’t Pontiac be sold? Why are you just eliminating it?” and Henderson replied, “we have had success in discussions with buyers re hummer, saab and saturn, but in the end we did not see the same potential to be honest for pontiac.” Ouch. To compound the weirdness, Henderson dismissed the notion that Pontiac’s G8 would be moved to another brand by saying, “I am not a fan of rebadging.” Unless it’s called “interbuildability.” Which would have, could have allowed the G8 to be a real American muscle car (no offense to the Aussies).

Motor Trend has “learned” that a version of the oft–rumored Jag “XE” roadster might have more than just a supercharger whine. They say the 2011 (likely XF-based) “new age E-Type” (lots of luck) will include an extended-range electric version. But don’t worry heritage fans . . . there will still be a proper engine. With three cylinders. Motor Trend kids you not. At least until they mention that “whether the extended-range XE will make it beyond the concept stage is uncertain.” But only after hinting that the forthcoming XJ is also due for the EREV treatment, circa “late” 2011. Time, tide and CAFE standards wait for no automaker? MT figures an EREV Jag will compete with the Tesla Roadster. Which, considering the differences between the XF and the Elise as starting points, probably only means the EREV Jag soft-top will cost around $100K. Perhaps sir would rather look at a V8 model?