What's up with Sharon Terlep? This time out, the non-scourge of Detroit tackles the question rattling around her hometown: why is the United Auto Workers (UAW) striking GM, of all people? Terlep sees a devious disconnect, as outlined by the article's subhead: "Union pushing GM for rich Axle deal, some say; leaders cite other issues." Translation: the UAW is lying to its GM members (Heaven forfend!) to get them to carry out a disguised (i.e. illegal) sympathy strike for their brother and sisters over at American Axle. For this theory, Terleps cites "several sources familiar with negotiations." Evidence: when the Malibu factory didn't run out of axles, the UAW threatened a walkout over… something else. "The union's top leaders at the national level have been mum on the issue of local strikes. But local leaders, those in charge of carrying out a strike order and managing day-to-day life on the factory floors, have outlined issues they say are behind the local disputes. Word is coming though one-on-one chats at local union halls, in online newsletters and through interviews with the media." And none of them are saying it's a camouflaged sympathy strike. Perhaps a little more investigation (and a lot less speculation) would sort this out. Just sayin'…  

VOLKSWAGEN LAUNCHES MULTI-PLATFORM POLLING INITIATIVE TO FIND OUT “WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT." We could start with upper and lower case typography, proceed to cheap, reliable transportation, detour to a dealership that isn't a stealership and call it good. Of course, VW's not really asking for your (or anyone else's) opinion. At best, they're looking to confirm their expensive research data. But the real point of this campaign, like the Chrysler Listens marketing mishegas: pretend to be web 2.0 to spread your pre-established marketing message. But don't make my word for it. "Utilizing media, technology and user-generated content like never before, the campaign allows consumers to engage in live online and mobile polling. A real-time mouthpiece of the people’s collective voice, user-generated live polling begins at the hub site, vw.com/whatthepeoplewant, and then spreads across the web and in-market. The initiative is part of Volkswagen’s new global brand platform, Das Auto, and underscores its fundamental message of It’s what the people want." Their emphasis– which sounds a bit, uh, forceful. Oh, and VW claims that it already "knows" that "65% of the people want boxers not briefs." Yeah, that info will help re-build your brand…

Even The Detroit News had a hard time spinning GM CEO Rick Wagoner's gi-normous pay rise as anything other than a travesty. But you gotta give home town scribe Sharon Terlep credit for trying. (Or not.) Her report on Red Ink Rick's $14.4m 2007 compensation waits until all of paragraph four before defending the man whose administration of the American automaker hasn't seen a profit since 2004. Terlep turns to Wall Street analyst John Casesa to do the deed. "There's a broad recognition that you've got to pay someone a lot of money to do this job," Casesa prevaricates. And then the quote above. Ah, so Rick's bottom line performance has been hamstrung by uncontrollable factors… Terlep underlines the point. "Broad economic forces, from soaring oil process to the collapsing U.S. housing market, have slammed GM and the domestic auto industry as the companies work to execute sweeping restructuring plans." So GM's $38.7b loss during the time of Wagoner's $14.4m pay package isnt' really Rick's fault, is it? In fact, he's something of a bargain! "Apart from the labor deal, Wagoner has overseen structural cost cuts that amount to $9 billion a year in savings." So that's alright then. 

TTAC slots all its blog posts into categories. I sometimes have trouble figuring-out which box to tick. If I'm stumped, I can create a new category. But then I have to wonder how many posts will fit the new attribution, and the wisdom of creating a drop-down menu that's longer than an E85 producer's list of tax deductions. And then there's the name of the category. For example, this post could go into "We Can't Make This Shit Up," "and "Who Believes This Shit?" Or both. I mean, c'mon. If you wanted to eavesdrop on Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking– as Wendy's in full takeover mode looking to kick some major status quo ass– why would you use a baby monitor for the job? But it's true. Or not. Spiegel [via Automotive News, sub] reports that "a security firm found a switched-on babyphone behind a sofa in the room where Wendelin Wiedeking was going to stay for a supervisory board meeting of Volkswagen." In this brave new world of electronic eavesdropping, where experts can listen to conversation by pointing a laser at a window in the room, where a "bug" can be smaller than the chances of Jalopnik/Autoblog not carrying this story, why would a VW spy use a babyphone (a.k.a. baby monitor or kiddiespy)? If they did, what does that tell you about the automaker's mastery of technology. If they didn't, what does that tell you about Porsche's disinformation efforts? Crime and punishment? High Finance? Sure.

I know we've already reported GM CEO Rick Wagoner and his cronies' '07 pay hikes, cynically released on a Friday to avoid full media scrutiny. But I thought it was worth repeating to place this compensation in perspective. To wit: Standard & Poor's is signaling [via Forbes] that the credit rating service "may as yet downgrade General Motors Corp. (GM), after the agency downgraded GM's 49 percent-owned units GMAC LLC and Residential Capital LLC. The downgrades were triggered by the resignation of the only independent directors at Residential Capital, and the union strikes at American Axle, which have shuttered 30 GM factories. Although we expect these labor issues to be resolved, the timing, and therefore the full extent, of their effect on GM's liquidity is unknown. We expect the American Axle strike to contribute to a very large use of cash in GM's first-quarter 2008 results, which GM will announce in the next few weeks, and the effect will be magnified by the timing of GM's payables and  receivables." If S&P downgrades GM, the extra cost of borrowing will add tens of millions to GM's cash burn. So those execs salaries are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to measuring their true cost to shareholders, employees, suppliers, dealers and customers.

E85 is, indisputably, a less efficient energy source than normal gas. (In other words, you get less miles per tank with E85 than non-E85 fuel.) According to a study based on EPA data by the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics at Ohio State University, the "E85 penalty" varies according to vehicles and vehicle types, and city or highway driving. "The mean fuel economy of E85 in city driving is 73.42% that of gasoline, with a range of 66.89% to 81.33%. In highway driving, the mean fuel economy is 73.4% that of gasoline, with a range of 67.61% to 81.53%." OK, so the American Automobile Association tracks fuel prices for both blends. "Over the course of time that AAA has been tracking adjusted E85 prices, they’ve never fallen below the daily price of regular gasoline," The Wall Street Journal reports. "Since early October, adjusted E85’s price spread over regular gasoline has varied widely, between 4% and 12%, suggesting there’s at least some potential for improvement. However, Trilby Lundberg, publisher of the Lundberg Survey newsletter… says it’s 'extremely unlikely' that the adjusted E85 price can ever fully close the gap with retail gasoline." I dunno. E85 is already heavily subsidized from the field to the pump; what's the bet that [more of] your tax dollars "help" close that gap?

TTAC is a content machine. Our [barely paid] team of writers is as prolific as it is talented. Our [unpaid] commentators are the autoblogosphere's Best and Brightest, and they're not shy about coming forward. And whatever you think about my literary skills, my OCD makes me one keyboard tapping fool. Of one thing I am especially proud: although TTAC was late to the blogging game and don't have a tenth of the resources of the big sites, we kick ass. We blog the big ones, and blog them according to our branding remit. It occasionally annoys me that my competition doesn't. Just the other day, Justin took a shot at Autoblog for being a "press release funnel." I thought it was a bit OTT. And then I read AB's blog about Subaru's new ad campaign, which (not-so-coincidentally) we covered here. AB republished the entire Subaru press release. No biggie, I thought. Fills the space. And then I rethinked. Why would AB hand deliver its audience to Subaru like that, without any filtration? Its antithetical to my idea of what blogging is all about: added perspective. Exercising editorial judgment. Less poetically, or perhaps more, it's about NOT kissing ass. I remain committed to this vision. So, how are we doing?

After reading Samir Syed’s Guide to the RESCAP/GMAC Crisis, TTAC's Deep Throat emailed to fit a missing piece of the puzzle. "The fear of a Rescap bankruptcy– or additional capital injections from GMAC– is weakenening GMAC’s own balance sheet and thus making it more difficult/expensive for its own financing. This in turn hurts GM’s dealers' ability to access GMAC for retail customers at competitive rates without massive rate subvention by GM… The cost of dealer wholesale financing is going through the roof. But it’s already happening, as smart lenders are poaching GM dealers for the better credit customers… and trying to win floor plan business (a huge uphill struggle as something like 80 percent or more of GM dealers use GMAC for wholesale. The bottom line: Moody’s is calling the future correctly with its downgrade."

Awesome. No really. I'm in awe. At the very moment GM NA's cash flow has gone bye-bye (thanks to union strikes at American Axle and GM factories), just days before the automaker gives the world the gory details of its American cash conflagration, the General reveals that it's bumped-up– sorry, "restored" its top suit's salary. CEO Rick Wagoner's paycheck returns to its 2003 – 2006 levels, from the "reduced" $1.65m back to $2.2m. But don't get to feeling what the Hell, it's only a $570k jump, and it WAS his old salary. Automotive News reports that Rick's TOTAL compensation for '07 was $14.4m, or $39,452.05 per day (including weekends). Meanwhile, Car Czar "Maximum" Bob Lutz gets a nice little "thank you" for winning TTAC's Bob Lutz Award: a base salary "boost" from $1.3m p.a. to $1.75m (so much for "I gave at the office"). MB's total compensation for '07: $6.9m. Newly promoted GM COO (from CFO) Fritz Henderson gets $1.8m; total pay package $7.6m. Friends of GM are free to defend this pay-out (supply – demand), but I find the fact that these guys are raking in MORE money as 32 GM factories are off-line, as GM struggles for its survival, appalling. But you knew that…

Commentator menno posted this on the Oil Headed for $225 A Barrel? thread. It's a Hell of a good question, so I ripped it and started this discussion… "By the way, what’s the general consensus of our little group of avid TTACers, as to when the tipping point for the average Joe and Jane driver of America will be, causing them to say ENOUGH! and give up their [full size] SUV’s to go buy something a little more sensible?

$4 a gallon?

$5 a gallon?

$6 a gallon?

$7 a gallon?

or $8 a gallon?"

I'm paraphrasing, of course, but it's hard to believe that anyone believes that the United Auto Workers (UAW) is on the cusp of organizing Toyota's Lexington, Kentucky factory. Least of all UAW boss Big Ron Gettelfinger. Or The Detroit Free Press. And yet the paper reports Gettelfinger's comments without any hint that the man is full of you-know-what. "'We don't have the people to cover all the calls we get,' Gettelfinger said of activity among UAW organizers based here [Lexington, KY]." Nah, C'mon. Really? "'It is amazing the number of workers who want to join the union,' he said in an interview… 'They may be having activity you don't know about.'" And… they may not. In fact, the only credible– the only interesting part of this story are the comments underneath. "All a worker at the Toyota plants would have to look at is how 'successful' the UAW represented plants are," opines commentator gonefromthemess. "They are already making similar wages and benefits, they build a much more reliable product and they are poised to become the largest selling auto company. And besides, who in those plants wants to pay extortion money to UAW "reps" to get them what they already have? Good luck Get. It ain't happening." Thank Al Gore DARPA God for the Internet.

Regular readers will know of the kerfuffle following our decision to call-out the pudenda-nosed Subaru B9 Tribeca's front end for having a "flying vagina" design. In fact, we'd like to take credit for the Tribeca's redesign, which traded a passion for private parts for a Pacifica pastiche. But we in no way accept responsibility for Subaru's new ad campaign, which focuses on owners' big love for the brand. "Subaru owners are 'experience seekers' — they want to live bigger, more engaged lives," reveals John Colasanti, CEO of Subie's ad agency. "They choose Subaru as a conscious alternative to the mainstream. [ED: Is that a nod to the brand's lesbian following?] To them, the car is the enabler of that bigger life. [ED: Is that another nod to size queens? Does this have something to do with the naming of the Outback?] By focusing on the love they have for their car, Subaru is challenging non-owners: do you love your car?" Yes! Yes! YES! I'll have whatever she's having. To be fair (WTH, it's Friday), the new Subie ads are split into three tiers: The Heart, The Brain, and The Wallet. So this smutty stuff is all in my head. So to speak.

Autoweek's (AW) Special Earth Day Double Issue starts with an opt-out– "'Environmentally friendly' means different thing to different people"– and goes downhill from there. Surprisingly, AW didn't hype GM's next Next Big Thing: the Earth-friendly (providing you overlook the CO2 emissions at the power plants) plug-in Chevy Volt. OK, obviously, they did lavish ink on GM's gas – electric hybrid. Only it was a relatively small article called, get this, "Charged Up." Scribe Greg Migliore held GM's feet to the fire re: the Volt's 2010 deadline. Just kidding. AW hands its main advertiser a "get out of PR jail free" card in the last line. "As Roland Matthe, E-Flex engineering group manager put it, 'It's not a done deal. This project is not normal in regard to risk in the automotive industry.'" So much craven journalism, so little time. Where was I? Roger Hart's "Resurrecting the dinosaurs" road-tripping with the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid to GM ethanol acquisition Coskata? No. "Another Kind of Town" road-tripping the GMC Hybrid to NYC? Nope. Right! "The Believer," a profile of Larry Burns, GM's Veep of R&D. We learn "I personally brought four hybrid proposals before the board in the 1999-2002 period, and all were rejected. It was because of the business case. We just didn't get the courage to lose money on Gen 1." So now you know. 

I know what you're thinking: he grabbed the New York Times' columnist's most ridiculous assertion and repeated it out of context. If so, you need to read "Bring on the Right Biofuels," 'cause this Roger Cohen guy is the MR. Context Manipulation. After listing the charges against bio-fuels, Cohen says "hogwash and bilge"– and then admits he was somewhat wrong about ethanol's critics being somewhat wrong. "I’ll grant that the fashion for bio-fuels led to excess, and that some farm-to-fuel-plant conversion, particularly in subsidized U.S. and European markets, makes no economic or environmental sense. But bio-fuels remain very much part of the solution. It just depends which bio-fuels." So, on to [theoretical] production of ethanol from switchgrass, wood chips and garbage, right? Wrong. Cohen is too busy pinning the blame for rising food prices on oil prices and rising standards of living in third world developing nations. "They’re eating twice a day, instead of once, and propelling rapid urbanization. Their demand for food staples and once unthinkable luxuries like meat is pushing up prices." Perhaps. Anyway, what's to be done about ethanol? Remove the tariff against Brazilian ethanol! And? And that's it.

First, we're talking Chrysler Financial Canada. Second, the story in The Windsor Star omits a crucial piece of data (ironically enough): how many Chrysler customers were affected by the missing tape containing customer names, addresses and social insurance numbers. We know there's one, for sure, and he's more than a bit miffed at the delay between the Chrysler's data loss and the heads-up. "Chris Jovanovic, who leases a car from Chrysler, said the company was notified by United Parcel Service about the lost tape on Mar. 12 but a letter from Chrysler Financial dated Mar. 27 didn't arrive in his mailbox until Monday." Said letter assured Jovanovic "The data tape cannot be easily accessed and requires specialized software and equipment to read." So that's alright then. Not according to Jovanovich. "Someone who knows what they're doing could probably access the information. Nothing's that secure these days and it annoys me to think that if the tape never shows up, will we be looking over our shoulders for years waiting for the information to be used." While Jovanovich is seeing red (and a lawyer), Chrysler's no longer using brown. A spokeswoman said "after the tape went missing, internal processes were changed and the information is now sent by secure electronic transmissions. UPS is no longer used." So, bad publicity all 'round, eh?