Here’s the (warning) 87-page ruling that allows “Old GM” to sell its best assets to “New GM.” The bottom line: Judge Robert E. Gerber of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York brushed aside objections by dissident bondholders and product-liability claimants. Judge Gerber accepted the government/bankrupt automaker’s argument that there was no alternative to the Old-to-New-GM asset sale save liquidation, which would be “a disastrous result for GM’s creditors, its employees, the suppliers who depend on GM for their own existence, and the communities in which GM operates.” What’s more (or less), “In the event of a liquidation, creditors now trying to increase their incremental recoveries would get nothing.”

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It is now. The June U.S. new car sales stats are in and we can see some definite general trends. Newsbusters.org busts some chops for us Inside Baseball auto folk. Chrysler is the biggest loser, shedding five almost six percent market share in the last two years. It would look a LOT more if this chart was chronicling retail sales; some ChryCo models are so fleet it Hertz. As ToMoCo’s also holding the line on incentives, and doesn’t want to look like the bad guy during Motown’s meltdown, they’re probably OK (ish) with a steady 25 percent. Ford gets a big ass bump and surprise! GM is doing better than it was two years ago. (So much for ex-CEO Wagoner’s “bankruptcy will kill us” meme.) Still, one wonders who’s going to get the goodies as Chrysler continues to tank, and GM follows suit.

Photo courtesy David Holzman

From the High Plains Journal:

Nationally, gas prices have risen nearly every day for the past 42 days. Some analysts expect that a return to $100 oil–and $4 gas–isn’t far behind. But Nebraska drivers are already saving money by filling up with E10.

“Nebraska drivers have already saved over $4.5 million in 2009 by buying E10,” said Todd Sneller, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board. “If all the fuel sold in Nebraska in the past five years was E85, Nebraskans would have saved $2.6 billion.”

Or not.

Commentator dinu01 sent us some Canadian sales data (data day at TTAC) courtesy TheStar.com. “Booming Hyundai Auto Canada, which bucked the market trend this year, broke into the top five for the first time in June as sales surged 25.5 per cent to 10,104. Its sales have shot up 21.4 per cent to 52,454 in the first six months despite the industry’s sharp downturn.” The Korean automaker’s fortunes have soared even as GM and Chrysler Canadian sales have tanked. Hmmm. I wonder what that’s all about . . .

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Sean Kane of safetyresearch.net gave us the heads-up on a move to put warning labels on products manufactured by pre-C-11 Chrysler.

WARNING! This vehicle was produced prior to the date when the Chrysler bankruptcy was approved. If you buy this vehicle and are injured or killed, even if your injuries were caused by the manufacturer, you or your survivors will not be able to recover your losses by taking action against the manufacturer. If your passengers are injured or killed, even if their injuries were caused by the manufacturer, they and their survivors will not be able to recover their losses by taking action against the manufacturer.

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Hey. RF here. How’s it going? I’ll tell you how it’s going: it’s going well. Piston Slap has been an entertaining and informative addition to the TTAC cannon [sic]. Sajeev has proven himself a diligent and insightful advisor to the mechanically challenged amongst us. I fully expect The Divine Mr. M to syndicate Piston Slap nationwide, pouring tens of dollars into TTAC’s coffers, wetting our corporate beak. OK, so, now, the guy needs questions. Grist for his mill. Please take five minutes out of your busy day to pepper Mr. Mehta on the mysteries of mechanical malfeasance. Send your queries to mehta@ttac.com. Remember: they don’t have to be real questions. In the spirit of this website’s name, you can ask him something about which you already know the answer—just to show him up in the comments section. Anyway, Sajeev wishes his fellow Americans a happy Fourth of July weekend, and in no way hopes that you’ll have car trouble requiring his sage advice.

Although there’s nothing routine about him, John Wolfe is a stand up guy. A regular here at TTAC. A shining example of our Best and Brightest. While I’m trying to keep the word “fire” as far away from this sentence as possible, I think we can all admit that even the most insightful commentator hereabouts occasionally draws a blank. So it’s no surprise that this appeal to his fellow carmudgeons across the e-transom, of which I share with you.

My radio show is fixing to morph into a three-hour Saturday morning program on CBS radio in Dallas. We’re still keeping the small town affiliate network, but big D is the obvious focal point considering the entire listenership population of my current 6 affiliates totals 10% of the population of the new affiliate. I have the concept down pat in my mind, but I need a name. Something punchy, cocky, demands attention. Currently there are two Saturday morning talkers in the DFW market “Wheels with Ed Wallace” and “The Car Guy” (Jerry Reynolds auto advise show). [Being a modest, low-key kinda guy] I really like the name “King of Cars.” However, that idea came from a popular show on A&E TV [about a scumbag four-square wielding Chrysler dealer]. Any ideas?

Just a quick reminder that TTAC is on Twitter. I’ve neglected the service for a while, but not anymore. I’m tweeting every new post with a blast of prose poetry and a shortened url, so you can wonder WTF I’m on about and click through. Of course, we’re still available as an RSS feed. Our iTunes feed is back; but you’ll have to subscribe again to get automatic updates. (Apple Music Store > search “truth about cars” > subscribe ) Meanwhile, Ye Olde New Content Notification Alerts—the steam-driven heads-up email system for new reviews and rants—is dead. When our main man Marshall tried to resurrect the plug-in, it unplugged the entire site. The good news: VerticalScope has scheduled TTAC for a site redesign in the dog days of August. Like any good carmaker, we’ll make sure the new site offers The Best and Brightest more and better features without overcomplicating basic functionality. Until then, as always, thanks for putting food on our table.

Sent to us by ivyinvestor:

My wife and I currently have a 2006 Acura TSX, auto. We need another car, but our budget is $5000, tops, as we don’t want a payment. We’ve never considered a used car for any purchase, and although I know the various means we could use to go about checking it out, I develop neverending lists of queries about every aspect of the car in question to the point that some sellers stop answering. After all, the depreciation’s been factored in, but what about maintenance, treatment, and care? I know not all the questions can be answered, but we still want something bred from reliable, if not “amazing to drive”, roots. In the Boston area, it seems our best options are 1998-2002 Civics, maybe some older Accords, and a few Mazdas, all with 125,000+ miles. Does this appear to be in the right ballpark? Reliability is important, as is fun, though we realize the latter might need to be sacrificed in this price range. (Recent example: 2000 Civic EX coupe, standard, 155k miles, timing belt at 100k, brakes at 130k, probably needs rear tires, original clutch: $3800, local.)

Derm 81 sent us this report:

I took this shot from the GM Tech Center the other day. I couldn’t get more than one photo because the engineer got pissed that I was snapping pictures. It is a Cadillac with right hand steering. What was odd was that it had several “ports” which looked like extra gas tank openings, which were in the same location as the plug/outlet on the the Volt. You can see the reflection of my goofy-assed PT on the Caddy.You cant see it in the picture BUT there was this huge “unit” or black box on the back seat. Didn’t look as if there even was a rear seat bench. Battery pack? Standard testing device?

For more pics of the new 2011 BMW 5-Series caught in the desert, jump on over to automotivetraveler.com.

“Retail improvements reflect increasing consumer confidence in GM’s long-term viability: Compared with May, 20 percent jump in cars, 13 percent boost in crossover deliveries.” Sure. I believe that. Consumers bought GM products because they thought, yup, New GM is here to stay! You know . . . when it gets here. Meanwhile, what the hell. We’ll buy a car from Old GM. Comparing June sales to May sales is, at best, disingenuous. (So much for Fritz’ Henderson transparency pledge to the Senate.) Last month was crap, this month is crap, but this month’s retail sales are less crap than last month’s. Anyway, the bottom line is still the bottom line: GM’s sales sunk 33.6 percent in June compared to last June, which, as I pointed out, was a horrible month in an of itself. Make way for the taxpayer-funded spin meisters!

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