Dagens Industrihas published a letter from Saab’s union bosses which accuses GM of playing silly buggers with the brand’s accounts. As Saabs United says, “The report tends to support the idea that GM are handy at shuffling results around to suit their reporting needs.” [Thanks for the TTAC translation to commentator Naser Rouholamin]
Recently, the future of SAAB has been the subject of many allegations and much debate. Specifically we are thinking about such claims as “using tax money for playing monopoly”, or “SAAB has always made a loss, hence there is no point in saving it now”.
In order to rebuke the latter claim one must realise that not even GM would have kept Saab afloat the last 20 years from pure goodwill.
According to the About page at PostCardFilms.com, Mariessa Jonasz “can be seen in the television show “I Didn’t know I Was Pregnant,” which aired on Discovery Health.” Folks, we’re talking about women who didn’t know they were pregnant until they gave birth. How creepy is that? Not quite as unsettling as the news that Mariessa is married to this PR film’s narrator, Jedrzej Jonasz. Mr. Jonasz’ credits include a Canadian TV documentary called “Why is it sexy?” The mind boggles. And the question remains: how did this entirely unlikely pair blag their way into a brand new BMW (even for a few days) and (presumably) flights, hotel, meals, museum tickets, gas expenses and (for all we know) a per Diem budget?
Our regular CS FirstBoston mole has sent us an update on their analysis of the U.S. new car market. Bottom line: it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets even worserer. So, he asked rhetorically, is this a good time for the taxpayer to “loan” money to Chrysler and GM? Only if you define “good” as “worst possible.” Sorry, was I talking about ROI? My bad. In terms of bailing out automakers without a hope in hell of turning a profit for years to come, these are the good old days.
• We are slashing our forecast for 2009 light vehicle sales to 10.4 million units, down from 12.0 million units previously. Details of the changes in the factors that plug into our demand model and account for the revision are as follows:
Many a member of TTAC’s Best and Brightest have publicly pined for the day when they can order their new car over the internet, bypassing those son of a bitch bastard dealers [not paraphrasing]. Our contacts within the Chrysler Listens consumer advocate board report that the three-headed marketing mavens are sounding out the possibility of losing all those pesky middle men and women eating into their [theoretical] profit. Not one, not two, but three polls sound out the possibility of online ordering or, to use their phrase, “reservation.”
File this one under, hey, how did we miss that? Time reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ruled that cars belch CO2 and CO2 causes global warming and global warming will kill us all later soon. In other words, “On March 20, the EPA sent what is called an “endangerment finding” to the White House, a proposal that means the agency found that there is a scientific case that man-made global warming poses a threat to human welfare.” A threat to welfare! How can government exist without welfare? Anyway . . . “By concluding that greenhouse gases pose a threat to human welfare, the EPA’s finding could lay the groundwork for nationwide regulation of CO2 emissions — just as the EPA is require to regulate pollutants like smog-causing sulfur dioxide.” So, cars?
Truth About Cars, The arrival of Spring means three things: Cars come out of the garages they’ve been hibernating in all winter, new cruising music arrives and women can finally start to show off a little skin again! To celebrate, Zinio has put together a sale that every man should take advantage of: For a limited time, during their ‘Motors, Music and Models’ sale, anyone who picks up a subscription to Maxim or Blender will also receive a free subscription to one of sixteen different automotive magazines, including Car and Driver, Hot Rod, Import Tuner and Lowrider. In addition, subscriptions to Maxim and Blender are lower than they’ve ever been before, so it’s a great time to pick up two magazines for less than the price of one. We’re only publicizing this offer through blogs and other social sites, and if you’d like to let your readers know about this special offer, I’d be happy to set you up with a few subscriptions of your own. Just point your readers to http://maxim.ziniooffers.com/special/ and send over a list of the magazines you’d like to receive and I’ll take care of the rest. I look forward to hearing from you, so please don’t hesitate to send over any questions that you might have. Thanks! – XXXXX
I know, right? I mean, both the Dodge Caliber AND the Jeep Patriot (snap!) made TTAC’s Ten Worst® (just kidding about the ®). A stripper Caliber would be unimaginably dire. And yet there it is: a poll question for the Chrysler Listens customer advisory board (death CAB for cutie). “How interested would you be in purchasing an ultra-base version® [just kidding again] of the Dodge Caliber (estimated MSRP $16,495) or the Jeep(R) [that actually is there] Patriot (suggested MSRP $17,495) if either were offered later this year?” Oh, and don’t forget “Jeep is a registered trademark of Chrysler LLC.” The odd thing is that someone—anyone—responded in the affirmative. What does that tell you?
More than a few members of TTAC’s Best and Brightest have joined the Chrysler Listens customer advisory board. We’re starting to get some of these comms back, and they’re about as revealing as you’d imagine®. Only more so.
This message is a follow-up to our chat with Steven Landry, EVP of North American Sales, Marketing, and Mopar® Parts and Service at Chrysler:
This is a follow-up to the e-mails we sent last week regarding the Fiat® alliance. At Chrysler, we are working tirelessly with the assistance of the U.S. auto task force to continue our progress in meeting the requirements set for us by the government. At this historic time, we need every one of our Customer Advisory Board members who support our ongoing efforts to get the word out to all our local, state and federal representatives that Chrysler is a viable business on a stand-alone basis.
Ahead of the March 31 bailout buffet deadline, GM’s North American Vice President of Vehicle Sales, Service and Marketing is finally taking action to quell queasiness about GM’s “restructuring.” A GM insider sent us this message from GM’s marketing maven, who sent it to GM dealers, to send it to their customers. Shall we file this under “methinks they doth protest too much”? Anyway, bottom line (as well as the top): GM’s warranty is “safe and sound.” That’s because GM dealers remain open for sales and service. And when the dealer aren’t open, as GM pares dealers and GMAC pulls the financing the stores need to survive? Moving on . . .
GM would like its millions of current and future customers to know one thing: GM’s warranty coverage is absolutely safe and sound, now and well into the future, no matter what the GM make or model.
I said, moving on . . .
We always taken care of our customers [sometimes in that mafiosi sort of way] and stood behind our products ‐‐ and we will continue to do so.
Right up until and through Chapter 11. How . . . reassuring.
In their quest to position the German automotive brand as, uh, something, Audi has decided to “invest” in the New York Yankees. Audi’s decision to back the Yanks may miff supporters of the 29 other Major League Baseball teams. But hey, those that own Audis could get a shot at seeing their team play the pin-striped perennial pennant winners in the newly re-christened Audi Yankees Club, a “premium entitlement area” perched high atop The House that Ruth Built. I thought it was baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet. Tempus fugit.
I thought that “hand built cars are better” thing disappeared on March 5, 1908. That’s when Cadillac won the Dewar Trophy, awarded by the Britain’s Royal Automobile Club for progress in automobile engineering and racing. Cadillac scrambled parts from three cars (720 × 3), reassembled them and drove the vehicles straight into the history books. (Who knew you could park a car in a book?) But the idea of hand-crafted supremacy survives—thrives even—at the top of the market. Rolls Royce, Maybach and Aston Martin all play heavily on the fact that the vehicles are hand-crafted. I know there’s no way to mass produce parts for a car that’s made in Fabergé egg quantities. I’ve seen (and commissioned) the world’s best automotive artisans. But there’s something ridiculously antiquated about celebrating price-no-object one-off-mobiles. Surely modern mass production is the greater, unsung triumph, where hundreds of thousands of people work together to create a vehicle that’s safe, somewhat stylish, reliable, comfortable and, above all, affordable. Should it ever come to fruition, the Tata Nano will bring bring prosperity to millions of Indians. The Nano will be a greater accomplishment than this fantastic work of art. Just sayin’.
Here’s un peu de inside dope from France’s L’Automobile mag. Bottom line: the on-again off-again on-again off-again Toyota – Subaru rear wheel-drive car is . . . on again. And it’ll be called a Celica. Or not.
Chez Toyota, les bons et loyaux services ne sont pas toujours récompensés : après sept générations et six titres de champion du monde des rallyes, le coupé Celica a été remercié, en 2006, faute de ventes suffisantes (ci-contre, la septième et dernière génération). Mais le géant japonais s’apprête à lui donner une seconde chance. En 2010, Toyota lancera à nouveau un coupé sportif abordable, étudié par Subaru. Une information confirmée par Thierry Dombreval, vice-président des ventes et du marketing de Toyota France, dans le numéro 755 de L’Automobile Magazine.
Loads of flames this weekend. The police stop video had members of the Best and Brightest morphing into the Mean and Nastiest. Please remember that TTAC’s posting policy is clear: no flaming the website, its authors or fellow commenters. Feel free to rip apart an opinion, but do not diss the site, the scribes or the folks. We also don’t allow meta-discussions about our editorial stance or style underneath an unrelated post. For example, I exorcised this broadside from thoots’ comment re: my Toyota Venza review:
As some have said, this is no ‘review,’ this is an ‘editorial.’ And it’s the kind of thing that makes me go elsewhere, rather than *cough* actually consider paying for somebody’s personal diatribe against car-like crossover styling or whatever it is that he or she happens to hate. Geez, just say that you prefer school-bus-style visibility, and get on with your life, could you? Crimony.
After a few emails with thoots—the proper place for site criticism—I’ve agreed to open the subject up for debate and turn off the anti-flaming directive. So, what’s wrong with TTAC’s reviews? What should we do to improve them?
Autocar reports that Indian automaker Tata will spend part of its day launching their NSFA (Not Safe for America) Nano in Mumbai. In case you’d forgotten—what with all the delays—the Nano is slated to be the world’s cheapest car. “The tinny four-door will sell for 100,000 rupees or $1979 (£1366) when the company takes bookings next month.” Sorry, typo. “Tiny.” So, it’s not REALLY launching the car. And it’s only TAKING BOOKINGS next month. Autocar reveals that DELIVERY will start well after the factory’s built, which “should be up and running next year, despite delays caused by an industrial dispute, but may only have capacity to build 350,000 cars a year. Until then Tata is thought to only be able to provide 50,000 cars annually.” So less, later, maybe from Mumbai. So what’s up with that? “Despite facing huge demand for the Nano, experts estimate the car will not create enough revenue to refinance by June a $2 billion (£1.3 bn) bridging loan Tata used to buy Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford.” Spinning wheels. Got to go ’round.
I was going to email TTAC commentator kazoomaloo to tell him I’d deleted his TTAC flame (“Dude, this is a pretty lame story”) when I clicked on his web addy instead of his email. I stumbled upon his pitch for a Ford Fiesta, as part of FoMoCo’s early adopter contest. I thought it worth sharing here because A) I like it and B) I’m showing the red card (or is that green card) for his assertion that the Fiesta is American. Hecho en Mexico,amigo. Moving on—I mean forward [ED. Fordward?]—I mean ahead, it’s the best day ever for Ford. CBS News is blowing some serious smoke up America’s @$$ regarding Ford’s relative health. Today, Ford received top billing as part one of The Morning Show’s weeklong series, “Early Across America,” featuring stories of “hope and optimism amid all the economic gloom sweeping the nation.” You can’t buy publicity like this. Oh wait . . . Anyway, there’s more!
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