When GM’s head of North American operations, Mark Reuss, was giving The Detroit Bureau some choice quotes about GM’s newfound commitment to excellence, it may not have occurred to him that Mercedes had recently laid claim to the very cliche-laden territory he found himself on. To wit:

Reuss insists the new GM philosophy is to “be the best, or we’re not going to do it,”

Yes, Daimler may have to answer to some higher power for the insipid video above, but at least its lack of imagination has pedigree: the line “The Best Or Nothing” killed for Gottlieb Daimler back in the “good old days” of the early 20th Century. Reuss’s lyrical inspiration, on the other hand, is a corporate process. To be fair, the “knothole” as it is known, is a Lutzian legend of a mythical corporate process, aimed at

The perpetuation of excellence and the destruction of mediocrity.

Which sound like mighty fine goals for our fine public investment. So let’s give Reuss a pass for stomping into Mercedes’ marketing-cliche territory, and ask: what is this amazing “knothole” and why doesn’t every automaker have one?
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Wherever you fall in America’s cultural geography, you have to cop to one cold, hard truth: trucks sell. In fact, in a market experiencing such odd automotive sales phenomena as no Honda Accord in the top ten, Altima taking second in the D-Segment and a Compact CUV in the top six, it almost seems like the only sure thing anymore is the F-Series and Silverado selling at or above 30k units per month. Whether you find that fact comforting or troubling, you’ll be sure to want to know the truck’s secret to success… which you’ll find just below the fold (along with a more extensive best-sellers chart).

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Like any other diverse, multiethnic state, the US of A doesn’t so much have a distinct national culture as a no-holds-barred cultural cagematch of competing values, lifestyles, and perspectives. We call it “pluralism,” although more politically-minded commentators might call it “the war for America’s soul.” Anyway, with America’s cultural divide still creating yawning chasms between the experiences of citizens in “red” states and “blue” states, it’s not enough to simply look at sales statistics for the whole country. No, to truly understand the different cultures forming America’s automotive melting pot, we must look at car sales region-by-region in hopes of identifying the constituent parts of our larger car culture. And that’s exactly what TrueCar has done, breaking out both sales and discounts for the top-performing vehicles in one West coast state (California), one East coast state (New York), one Midwestern state (Illinois), and one Southwestern state (Texas). The result: a snapshot of our diverse market for cars, and a peek at our conflicting car cultures. [Data after the jump]

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Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation, one of the biggest auto retail chains in the country, argues [via Bloomberg] that lower inventories and more-efficient offerings have prepared the US auto industry for higher gas prices. As a result

Consumers are signaling it will take higher gasoline prices than the worst of 2008 to curb new- vehicle sales… The “freak-out number” at the gas pump is likely about $4.50 a gallon for unleaded regular

“A dramatic spike is not good for economy and not good for our industry, but we’re better prepared for it than we were in summer 2008,” said Jackson, 61. “Even though we’ve moved 40 to 60 cents higher at the pump in the past three months, we haven’t seen any change in consumer behavior.”

Interesting theory… but does it hold up for you? What are your “freak-out numbers,” and what will you do when gas prices hit them?

The DetNews points us to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report [full document in PDF format here] that reveals

Approximately $33 million in credits for plug-in electric and alternative-fueled vehicles credits were erroneously claimed by at least 12,920 taxpayers through July 24, 2010, according to a report publicly released today by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA).

That means about 20 percent of the $163.9 million in credits claimed by taxpayers from January 1, 2010 to July 24, 2010 for plug-in electric and alternative motor vehicle credits were claimed in error.

The erroneous claims TIGTA identified resulted from inadequate IRS processes to ensure information reported by individuals claiming the credits met qualifying requirements for vehicle year, placed in-service date, and make and model. TIGTA’s review of electronically filed tax returns identified individuals who erroneously claimed the same vehicle for multiple plug-in electric and alternative motor vehicle credits or claimed an excessive number of vehicles for personal use credits.

Zoinks!
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As TTAC has argued before, electric cars are great… as long as you don’t have to own one. Now, even the automakers are starting to wonder if they should even bother selling the things. BMW, which has already experienced issues with consumer EV letdown, is already starting to back away from the idea of selling (rather than, say, leasing) its much-anticipated Megacity electric city car. Sales Boss Ian Robertson tells Automotive News Europe [sub]

We’re looking for an alternative to traditional purchase or leasing of a vehicle. We don’t want to sell the car, but rather the use of the car. The ‘Car to Go’ concept “is an interesting approach. More and more people in large cities are looking for an alternative to the ownership of a vehicle

Or, more accurately, BMW is looking for an alternative to trying to sell an extremely high-cost, premium EV with killer depreciation. Either way, it seems that OEMs and consumers are starting to meet in the middle on this whole EV thing…

Here comes the Opel Allegra, the forthcoming European market city car, and (CARB willing) maybe even Buick’s next CAFE-buster. A Buick on a shortened Opel Corsa platform is madness, you say? Let’s see your old Roadmaster get 35.5 MPG combined…

Surprised? Don’t be. President Obama’s goal of getting a million EVs on the road by 2015 is headed nowhere without some serious changes, as the OEM EVs are stuck with high prices in the short term and capacity ramp-ups in the middle term. Making progress on either the price point or the production numbers (both of which are necessary to punch EVs into the mainstream) isn’t going to happen unless gas prices skyrocket or, as Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn puts it, government “jump starts” the market. Now, Automotive News [sub] reports that an Indiana University study argues that Obama’s million-EV goal might not be accomplished by 202 without further government assistance. On the other hand,

With increased government intervention and perhaps a global surge in oil prices, electric vehicles could capture as much as 15 percent of the U.S. market by 2025-30

By which point, the CAFE standard could well be 62 MPG combined (unadjusted)… making the argument for EVs even tougher. But now we’re getting ahead of ourselves…
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Yeah, yeah, we know… wood and beige leather are out, edgy and blacked-out are in. But did anyone expect that these hot, youthful trends would give rise to a murdered-out factory special Cadillac CTS-V Coupe? Now, more than ever, this thing is “Darth Vader meets Don Draper.”

Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles (FCVs) are enjoying something of a comeback lately, as everyone from Hyundai and Honda to GM and Daimler are talking about forthcoming production versions of test-fleet FCVs. And with EVs poised to both dominate the short-term green-car game and inevitably disappoint consumers, it’s no surprise that the perennial “fuel of the future” is enjoying a fresh look from automakers. But if high cost and range anxiety are the flies in the EV ointment, the FCV-boosters are finding their hydrogen cars tend to suffer from the same problems. Daimler says

By 2015, we think a fuel cell car will not cost more than a four-cylinder diesel hybrid that meets the Euro 6 emissions standard.

but that by no means guarantees its Mercedes FCV will be truly “affordable” by any reasonable standard, as diesel-electrics are considered one of the most expensive applications of internal combustion power. And then there’s the whole range issue. Yes, FCVs refuel faster than EVs, but even the most ambitious of Hydrogen-boosters, Daimler, are only pushing vehicles with a 250-mile range. Which is why we puzzled a bit over The Globe And Mail‘s assesment that

Three Mercedes-Benz B-Class F-CELL models will make [a 125-day] global trek, which will seek to highlight the real-world benefits of fuel cells versus EVs – mainly their much further range

Flipping over to AutoMotorundSport, we find that the irony which completely escaped the G&M is threatening to overwhelm Daimler’s entire demonstration. And, as is only natural when things like this occur, there’s a bizarre TTAC connection…

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Former GM CEO Fritz Henderson may well have been a convenient punching boy in the aftermath of the Obama Administration’s firing of his predecessor, but at least the guy had a sense of obligation. Henderson was a consummate GM insider, but unlike Rick Wagoner, he realized that this status was as much a liability as an asset in the politically-fraught aftermath of the bailout. Nowhere is this more clear than in Fritz’s major contribution to GM’s public relations: in hopes of proving GM’s appreciation of its extraordinary rescue, Henderson committed GM to “open communication” and “transparency,” telling the US Senatewith the very first words of his testimony that

It’s our obligation to be open and transparent in all we do to reinvent GM, particularly with the American taxpayer as our largest investor.

Of course, The General didn’t always make good on that pledge, but at least Fritz made the effort to say he cared. Now, GM is taking the opposite approach, threatening to liberate the benighted public from the burden of its transparency. After all, the US taxpayer is no longer the majority shareholder in GM… even if, at 33%, we are still GM’s single-largest “investor.”

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Worried that Chrysler has lost touch with young buyers? Worry no more! Chrysler’s Tim Kunisis tells Automotive News [sub]

There are two paths: the traditional Chrysler path and the S path. There’s a huge customer base for chrome and wood. There are also people who want something a little edgy.

As a result, Chrysler is introducing its “S” line, a trim level that stands for Style rather than Sport, which will encourage these edgy Chrysler customers to tart up their Mopar metal with non-traditional accessories. Nor is “S” a top-level trim designation, but will be available on the standard 300, the 300 Limited and the 300C. And though Chrysler is showing an “S” version of its outgoing 2010 300, the first new “S”-branded vehicle will be the 200, which should look something like the Moparized 200 shown at the Detroit Auto Show. And if the whole “what’s in-what’s out” question is giving you some trouble, AN [sub] provides the hand guide below.

As any sales-watcher knows, volume isn’t everything. Fleet-retail mixes, incentive spending and transaction prices are all important considerations for putting volume numbers into context. As usual, we’ve assembled Edmunds’ True Cost Of Incentives index as well as TrueCar’s Transaction Pricing and Incentive Spending forecasts, for a complete picture of these important metrics… and after the jump, we’ve added a few notes on the discrepancies between the two firms’ numbers.

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With a new entry-level Maserati prancing about, presumably based on the Dodge Challenger’s shortened version of the LX platform, news of a new Alfa-Romeo sports coupe initially had us thinking that we were about to see more fruits of the Fiat-Chrysler Alliance. But not so, as Automotive News [sub] reports that the forthcoming 4C GTA will be a lightweight sports coupe developed on a platform from a little closer to Turin. Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM provides the basis for the 4C GTA in the form of its X-Bow trackday special, which was designed by Italy’s Dallara racing team, the firm that is also developing the 4C for Alfa. AN [sub] reports

Dallara developed a carbon fiber cockpit for the 4C GTA, which features front and rear aluminum sub-frames to house the engine, as well as carry the pushrod suspensions and to absorb deformation in crash tests….

Thanks to an innovative construction method, which combines carbon fiber and aluminum, the 4C GTA will be very lightweight. Alfa is targeting an 850kg (1,784 lbs) curb weight for the car.

The 4C GTA would have an impressive power-to-weight ratio below 3.5kg/hp despite being powered by the 1.8-liter, four-cylinder gasoline direct-injection engine offered in the Giulietta with the horsepower boosted to more than 250 hp from 235 hp.

That would give the €40k 4C GTA, due out in late 2012, a power-to-weight ratio greater than the Porsche Cayman S. Alfa envisions 20k-25k units of production for the in-house-styled 4C GTA, but for now

A Fiat spokesman confirmed that Alfa is working on a concept car, but said its unveiling at the Geneva show is still uncertain because of “delays in the concept model construction.”

Needless to say, this is exactly the kind of car that would have us abandon our concerns and welcome Alfa to the US with open arms. We will be watching this car closely.

Throughout the month, TTAC tries to go back to recent sales numbers in hopes of providing greater context for the industry’s day-to-day decisions. On the first of each month, however, we get so overwhelmed with volume numbers, we thought we’d take this opportunity to explore the price-volume frontier. Inspired by recent rumors of a 120k unit production goal for the $41k Volt and the ensuing discussion of the BMW 3 Series’ unique position on the price-volume frontier, we thought we’d feel around the data for this mythical plateau. Sadly our unsophisticated graphing software (and overworked editor) didn’t allow for a more full exploration of high-priced vehicles reaching near-mass-market volumes, so we put together a “basket” of higher-priced, strong-selling models. And though we obviously cherry-picked a little, we did use four manufacturers to indicate an approximate “delta” between price (base MSRP) and volume (2010 numbers). Are there outliers to our “price-volume frontier”? Possibly. Did we leave out the most interesting area of the graph (the mass-market vehicles) Definitely. But in the process we have hopefully proved that selling over 100k units of a vehicle costing $40k or more is not a goal to be taken lightly.