Car and Driver scoops the inside poop on the latest über-Golf headed to The Land of the Free. According the Csere-free buff book, the Golf R will offer the GTI’s four cylinder engine tuned to “an impressive” 270 hp with all wheel-drive to tame all those ponies. The R’s lighter, cheaper 2.0-liter turbo four may help the new top spec Golf sell more prolifically than the last top shelf Golf, which featured a heavier and more expensive 3.2-liter six, clocking in at $32,990 (msrp). Well, it couldn’t do any worse; you can still buy new ’07s. Car and Driver reckons VW will call the new car an R20 Turbo. As always, we reckon it all comes down to price/performance. The GTI is a stunner. The R20T would have to offer significantly better thrust and handling for a reasonable premium to make it. What are the odds? Meanwhile, if you haven’t driven the original R32, you should. Oh, yes.
Think about it. That’s AFTER the U.S. Treasury Department “invested” $6b of your hard-earned tax dollars into the failing auto and mortgage finance company. “Auto sales are in freefall,” Fifth Third Asset’s Mirko Mikelic told Bloomberg. The Michigan money manager (whose company holds a big chunk of GMAC debt) says the bailout “may keep them around at least until they need to restructure.” Confused. May . . . at least . . . until? Bottom line: GMAC’s Q4 new vehicle financing fell from last year’s $13.4b to ’08’s $2.7b. Despite Uncle Sam’s cash infusion and fire sale pricing and lowered FICO score loan eligibility, what’s the bet that the needle doesn’t budge on that number? Meanwhile, Rescap, GMAC’s mortgage unit, famous for its easy credit home loans, is also dying a death. On this subject, Mr. Mikelic leaves the sugar coating on the shelf. “Their mortgage business is basically closed.” With house sales going nowhere slowly, GMAC has a new strategy, related to their free pass bank status.
When it comes time to chart designer Chris Bangles contribution to the BMW brand’s aesthetic, few pundits will praise his pulchritudinous perversion of pistonhead passion, or thank him for the aesthetic affectations for which BMW is now known. In other words, the “Bangle Butt” will be Chris’ lasting legacy. Of course, this is also the man who removed the words “flame surfacing” from art school and placed them on the tip of his detractors’ tongues. That and Axis of White Power. (Oh! How we laughed!) Equally improbably, the Buckeye State native helped the expression “Dame Edna glasses” cross into automotive lexicography. Yup. It’s been a wild ride. Literally.
Announcing the single greatest transfer of wealth in the world in the last six hours. Well, GM and Chrysler would like their United Auto Workers (UAW) employees to take your tax money and quit. That way the ailing American automakers can replace the highly-paid union workers with lower paid union workers (that would still pay the same union dues, ‘natch). And, thus, prove to someone on Capitol Hill that they’re satisfying the provision of their $17.4b “bridge” loans. To that end, GM’s offering its high wage union workers a $20k “bonus” and a $25k car voucher to piss off. Chrysler’s offering $50k and a $25k voucher. But there are all kinds of problems with this plan.
Following the Scottsdale auction season, dealers at the top end of the collector car market breathed a collective sigh of relief. As the the New York Times headline put it, the auction action proved that prices “Soften but Don’t Crash.” Maybe so, but there’s a hidden dynamic involved. “People tend to forget that the auction houses work just as hard at reducing the sellers’ price as they do on getting the buyers to pay it,” says Mike Nicholl, proprietor of Las Vegas’ Classic and Collectible Cars. In other words, the results simply reaffirm that car sellers’ willingness to take a hit currently matches buyers’ bargain-hunting budgets. The General Manager of Lamborghini Bergen County (NJ) agrees. He says pre-owned inventory levels are up, but the deals are still going down. “More people are hurting, looking to get out of their cars,” Alan Greenfield says. “But the lower prices are attracting new buyers.” Despite the market’s recent diet of anti-gravity pills, or at least away from the people dispensing same, there are signs that the high end market is headed for collapse.
Holy lack of internal controls Batman! Automotive News [sub] reports the “now it can be told” story behind the story of a Minnesota mega-dealer’s collapse. Chrysler pulled the plug on Denny Hecker last fall, forcing Hecker to close six of his 16 dealerships and sell three others. Turns out Chrysler Financial lent the “flamboyant 56-year-old entrepreneur” $550 million. And get this: $50m of that went to Hecker personally. The information surfaced after Hecker sued Chrysler Financial for canceling his dealerships’ credit lines “without warning.” Chrysler countersued, revealing that it loved them some Hecker. Post-Cerberus, ChryCo threw money at—I mean, “invested”—in Hecker’s dealerships, a rental car agency (since bankrupt), real estate and “investment firms.” Ford was behind the curve on this one; they’ve sued Hecker for a relatively paltry $3.1m for missing vehicle and parts payments. As the Detroit-shaped crater grows larger, look for more “revelations” from American automakers’ go-go past. Others may have done the same thing, but they won’t be facing the same volume or genre of music if/when their dealers end up in bankruptcy court. Meanwhile, Denny better hope his tagline doesn’t apply to his forthcoming court battles: “Nobody walks!”
Well good for them! Hat’s off to Audi’s marketing mavens for realizing that the people who can afford a V10 R8 are exactly the type of people who wouldn’t buy one cause the engines are known for sounding like shit. I mean, even a pistonhead could mistake the BMW M5’s V10 for a diesel at idle or a F1 car at full chat (which may or may not be a good thing). Personally, I’ve never met a V10 that sounded any other way. Not to overuse the scatological metaphor, but as the Brits would say, the engine config falls between two stools. Not as drop dead sexy as a V8 or as suave as a V12. This V10 sounds OK, although I’m a little suspicious of the mix. To these Peter Frampton assaulted ears (Do you hear like I do? I SAID…), the Audi’s audio sounds highly processed. Also, we’re not privy to the powerplant’s sonic signature from inside the cabin—a particularly important aural perspective given that the engine pretty much rests on your shoulders. Again, the first step towards fixing a problem is admitting you have it. Sounds like Audi’s on Step 3. At least.
Once upon a time, I commissioned Guy Broad Jaguar to build an XK120 from the chassis up. From the breakaway steering column to the oversized (though Jag-sourced) six, it was my idea of what an XK should be. She was built with as many upgraded repro parts as possible, by non-union labor. Before I could fettle the machine for something akin to drivability, I spun her on black ice and took out a small English village. (Come back Colleen, all is forgiven.) By the time the car was re-re-built, divorce had claimed my most beautiful asset. But I’ll never forget the consternation the car caused amongst the cognoscenti.
On March 31, President Obama will contemplate GM’s viability report and decide whether the ailing American automaker is, as it contends, “viable.” If so, more bailout bucks. If not, more bailout bucks, in the form of debtor-in-possession financing to the bankrupt behemoth. Either way… In the run-up to CEO Rick Wagoner’s ritual disembowelment for failing to get his company’s shit together, the press is sensing the fact that Wagoner doesn’t have this shit together. This morning, Automotive News [AN, sub] reports on GM’s continued cluelessness on the “pssst. want to buy a dead brand” front. “Just a couple of weeks before General Motors has to submit a detailed plan proving viability, GM executives have no idea what to do with their losing brands.” Yes, AN has found its inner TTAC, affirming my suspicion that the MSM is gradually turning against Detroit’s mindless mega-suckle.
Three-hundred dollars Canadian is not a lot of money for a car that functions. But it buys you—well, the Canadian government—a lot of greenwashing. OK, some. “Retire Your Ride” pays the three bills for any currently registered Canadian car produced before 1996, “the year the government introduced more stringent emissions standards.” Canadian Driver dutifully reports, “These pre-1996 models produce about 19 times more air pollutants than newer cars and trucks.” Wow! Nineteen times! The Clean Air Foundation is in charge of sending any one of five million-ish eligible cars to the crusher, in exchange for CA$300 or discounts on public transit passes, bicycles or memberships in car sharing companies. As my father said to me on many memorable (if imminently lamentable) occasions, “How much is this boondoggle going to cost me?” This one, me, nothing. Canadian taxpayers, CA$92m. Canadian Driver saves the withering analysis for the end of their article, but it’s worth the wait…
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