On Monday, U.S. manufacturers will announce – as much as they hate it – last month’s sales. It is expected that sales have dropped in December by “48 percent from a year earlier at Chrysler, 41 percent at GM and 33 percent at Ford,” based on the average estimates of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The oracles expect a likewise bloodbath amongst the Nipponese: “Toyota Motor Corp. may report a 40 percent slide and Honda Motor Co. may say its total was down 36 percent,” said Brian Johnson, a Barclays Capital analyst in New York.
The actual numbers reported by the manufacturers will provide fodder for the dreaded SAAR, which will also be announced for December. No, it’s not a disease that will wipe out China, although it might cause similar symptoms. It’s the Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate for the month. It’s a statistician’s shorthand for “how many cars would we sell for the next year if people’s buying habits stay exactly like the last month?” For all we know now, the December rate will probably be the worst in insert-the-appropriate-timescale-here.
Believe it or not, we’ve already had this debate. In December 2007, we hashed it out and decided on “Priora.” But a TTAC reader wishes to reopen that can of worms (castigat ridendo mores). So here goes… “I had Latin in high school, so when I saw TTAC having the plural of Prius as Priora, my pedantry went on instant alert. While I admit, a priora, that it sounds good, it isn’t right. Actually prius is an adverb, so it can’t have a plural. But the related noun form is prior, prioris, 3rd declension. According to my Bennett’s New Latin Grammar (CR:1956), the plural of liquid stem (ending in -l or -r) 3rd declension nouns is -es (that’s a long e, with a bar over it). So it should be Priores.” Personally, go sum rex Romanus et supra grammaticam. Your thoughts?
Back when I worked for CNN, I went to some damn auto show or another. I was trying to interview a gentleman about his cherry ’34 Chevy when something roughly approximating depth charges went off. I turned around to see Paul Revere and the Raiders performing. Well, Paul anyway. And a bunch of middle aged men dressed like, what? Minute Men? Pirates? Thanks to acoustics that would make the inside of Quaker oatmeal box sound like the studio at the top of Bose Mountain, I couldn’t hear a word they were singing, which was OK. No one was paying attention anyway. And both of those who were knew all the words. Now I don’t expect the Jonas Brothers to be afforded the same indifference when they do their thing at this year’s North American International Auto Show. And who knows? Maybe the Doobie Brothers will convince a new generation that Jesus is just alright. Oh yeah. But I was thinking, who would be the perfect artist to perform at this year’s auto show? The obvious answer is Maureen McGovern from the original Poseidon Adventure, singing There’s Got to Be a Morning After (pass the Alka Seltzer will ya?). But you guys didn’t get to be the B&B by going for the easy laughs. So put it out there. Who should take center stage at NAIAS?
A few months ago, I asked TTAC’s Best and Brightest if I should drive my Mustang in the snow. After very little soul-searching, and very much viewing of Mustangs, Supras, Bimmers and Porsches doing snow donuts on YouTube, the decision practically made itself. So, I had the car anti-rusted and bought a set of Kingstar W411 winters (made by Hankook) on black wheels and off I went, with no extra junk in the trunk (hey – it might ruin the steering). I’ve driven it almost daily; it’s faced Montreal’s harsh winter with gusto. Even during the heaviest storm of the year to date, I had no problem getting around. Obviously, I’m delicate on the throttle and I pay attention to the brakes, lest I lock up the wheels and transform my little pony into a giant, lead sled. One caveat though – freezing rain. One day where we received all manner of precipitation (rain, then freezing rain, then snow) the car got stuck in a parking space in a street the city of Montreal had characteristically forgotten to clear. A little back-and-forth pushin’ and rockin’ while a good samaritan floored the gas and she was soon free, but I almost missed a dinner date. Lesson learned for next time: Bring a shovel and carry traction-aids.
Thanks to stringent libel laws and gag orders, they used to do this crap all the time in the UK: run a media story about another media story without telling you what was in the original media story. In this case, it’s an pro-Detroit, anti-Toyota viral email that’s grabbed the attention of The Detroit Free Press‘ numero uno propagandist, Mark Phelan. The columnist is incensed– incensed I tell you– that someone is making the right case for Motown’s teat suckle using spin and, gasp, twisting facts. And just in case this amateur apologist needs some helpful hints, Phelan’s lede takes a shot at a certain southern senator. “With friends like these, who needs Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby? Shelby, of course, became the public face of contempt for Detroit’s automakers with his staunch opposition to congressional aid. Some of the Detroit Three’s would-be supporters may now inadvertently further damage the industry’s cause. There’s a slick viral ad making rounds by e-mail that attempts to defend Detroit’s automakers by showing that foreign brands aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Riddled with distortions and lies, it could do more harm than good.” So spill sister! Some quotes please. Only one, but it’s a doozy.
Automobile.blog.com offers its readers some car-related trivia for the holidays. There’s some pretty good stuff: “The Monumental Axis in Brazil is the world’s widest road and can accommodate 160 cars side-by-side at a given time.” But the list lacks what the National Enquirer’s editors call a “Hey Martha!” And any pistonhead who doesn’t know that “The Dodge Neon is sold in Europe under the brand name Chrysler Neon” is forgiven for not knowing OR caring. So I’m tasking TTAC’s Best and Brightest to offer more challenging, obscure and entertaining automotive factoids. I’ll start with an easy one (at least for the car historians amongst us): In 1951, a new car was launched whose maker claimed it was so frugal that “every third mile was free.” Hint: it had a supersonic engine. Hint two: new pic.
Welcome! I don’t know how you managed to separate yourself from the merry makers in your midst, but we aim to provide you with a little late December diversion. Today’s car-related entertainment comes to you via Google Earth and a TTAC commentator, who suggested we have a gander at the abandoned airfield at Downsview Park, Ontario. Sure enough, there’s a line of new but definitely uinsold cars parked in rows on the runway, ready for… winter. We’ve been saying for some time that new cars are stacking-up like cordwood. So, where’s Waldo? Please add new manufacturer car lot locations below.
Fifty-two miles per gallon is, it has to be said, a lot of miles per gallon. And who better to say it than Pulitzer Prize-winning caramudgeon and Top Gear USA bullet dodger Dan Neil? In a column founded upon the old English expression “I can’t win from losing,” Neil lauds FoMoCo’s gas – electric fusion Fusion. “Wait, so, has somebody invented the car of the future and didn’t tell us? It’s a worthy question. The scolding undercurrent of recent congressional hearings on the auto-industry bailout was the notion that Detroit had failed to invest in next-generation technology that could help wean us off foreign oil. Not so. What they did fail to do was sufficiently commercialize this technology so that it was ready and waiting at dealerships when people got stampeded this year by spiraling gas prices. Had Ford made a few hundred thousand of these cars available in June — along with the financing to sell them — we’d be erecting 50-foot equestrian statues of William Clay Ford and Alan Mulally in city squares, and the streets of Dearborn, Mich., would be repaved with diamond cobblestones.” As if. “The price of gas has dropped by two-thirds in six months, thereby de-motivating buyers who might have been willing to bear the incremental cost of a hybrid. What we really need is an increased federal gas tax, but the chances of that getting passed in Congress are comparable to my chances of being named Miss Universe.” To quote another English aphorism, Dan, you gotta be in it to win it.
In today’s TTAC contest, we were looking for the best bumper sticker slogan for the bailout-begging CEO. And man were there some good ones. We had several Jet-Gate references, from My other car is a Gulfstream/Learjet/LS430/Golden Parachute to I’d rather be flying. A few were based in visual gags, such as The Darwin fish eating Chrysler and A graphic of the Democratic congressional leadership: Don’t Laugh. They’re Paid For. Still others riffed on some of the classic standbys of the bumper sticker universe. Ass, Grass or Duracells- No One Rides For Free would be great on a Volt, as would My Child is Honor Student at Detroit Elementary School, and he could have have run this company way freakin better than I did. Finally, a few popular bumper stickers would have made great additions right out of the box, specifically Baby On Board and What, Me Worry? And we loved the idea of slapping a certain infamous quote by a certain Maximum auto executive on Wagoner’s DC-bound Volt mule. But only one quote could win…
Sometimes a car is just a car: a large assemblage of metal, glass and plastic designed to provide mobility. But as the recent bailout hearings proved conclusively, sometimes a car can be so much more. A car can be a symbol of hope. A sign of change. Or a red herring. When GM CEO Rick Wagoner rolled up on the Capitol in his Cruze-bodied Volt mule, he expected it to erase the negativity that was spawned by Jet-gate only a few weeks earlier. And yet, somehow the symbolic power of the Volt arrival failed to inspire enough faith in GM’s future to secure a quick $34b. Perhaps Wagoner should have done more to amplify the message that a wholly unrecognizeable car (to congress and most Americans) was supposed to send. May we suggest that silver bullet of automotive communication, the bumper sticker? After all, nothing highlights the relationship between a one’s deeply-held values and their car’s brand image like a well placed bumper sticker. And so the question comes to you, oh Best and Brightest, if Wagoner could have slapped a single bumper sticker on his beltway beggarmobile, what should it have been? Answers can be existing bumper stickers or unique creations of your own twisted imagination. The winner will get $100 worth of Car Tattoos (your design or theirs) from Cartatts.com.
“Robert, I am not sure if this appeals to your audience but we have quite an interesting feature on Lotus Cars just published. It is the first time anyone has been allowed to film the Hethel circuit where all Lotus chassis are developed. Gavan Kershaw who is their senior chassis engineer talks readers around a full lap of the circuit and shares some of his insights into what makes a ‘perfect lap’ in the new Lotus 2-Eleven GT4. We also review the Lotus 2-Eleven GT4 in full detail.”
Between the release of its congressional bailout term paper and November sales results, it’s been a big news day for Ford. And the hits keep happening. Automotive News [sub] reports that Ford will cut its 2009 Q1 production by 37.9 percent to 430k units, No surprise there; FoMoCo’s monthly sales are sitting at under 125k– and dropping. Dow Jones (via CNN Money) says that Ford’s 2009 Q1 production plan consists of 305k pickup trucks and 125k cars, compared to this quarter’s 255k pickups and 175k cars. A quick look at Ford’s November sales shows that cars are down 31.5 percent while total truck sales are down 29 percent. So what’s the deal? Is Ford signaling to congress that it plans on asking for $13b ($5b more than they asked for on 11/18) only to turn around and ramp-up truck production? Or is there some play here that I’m missing? I can’t make sense of it, so I’m asking: what’s the deal?
According to Bloomberg, who has it from people supposedly familiar with the matter, GM “is studying whether to shed its Saturn, Saab and Pontiac brands in addition to Hummer.”
So assuming that they do: Will they just dump the brands? As in throw them away? Or will they sell them? If the latter, who do you think will be the successful bidder?
If FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally is disembarking The Blue Oval corporate jet and entering a Lexus, that’s one Big Ass story. It’s summer in the video (and our hearts), and the graphic says 2008. That’s long enough for Big Al to have ditched his Lexus and hooked-up with something domestic. Lincoln MKZHRG? Volvo S80? [While TTAC has long argued that Motown execs should drive their competitors’ products, Big Al ain’t driving here. And if it is a Lexus sedan, methinks Mr. M knew the transplant brand well enough by then.] Eddy and I aren’t sure. The headlight shape doesn’t look Ford like, but the wheels don’t look Lexian. Ed’s thinking maybe it’s a Cadillac DTS. I’m calling ABC News to try and get the video sans graphic. Meanwhile, help!
On Monday, U.S. manufacturers will announce – as much as they hate it – last month’s sales. It is expected that sales have dropped in December by “48 percent from a year earlier at Chrysler, 41 percent at GM and 33 percent at Ford,” based on the average estimates of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The oracles expect a likewise bloodbath amongst the Nipponese: “Toyota Motor Corp. may report a 40 percent slide and Honda Motor Co. may say its total was down 36 percent,” said Brian Johnson, a Barclays Capital analyst in New York.
In today’s 
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