Reuters reports that GM Board of Directors member Percy Barnevik resigned his position today “for personal reasons.” Barnevik is one of GM’s longest serving BOD members; he’s watched the epic erosion of shareholder value and the breathtaking destruction of the automaker’s assets, market share and credibility. And yet, on his way out the door, Barnevik gave GM CEO Rick Wagoner and his team an unqualified thumbs-up. “I remain a strong supporter of management and the Board of GM, and of the direction the company is taking.” This from the ex-ABB CEO who had to repay half of an undisclosed $78m (i.e. hidden) severance package, part of an enormous book cooking scandal (called “Europe’s Enron”). The same company (that Barnevik founded) which was deeply embroiled in a global bribery scandal, eventually paying out $16.4m to the Justice Department to settle their criminal investigation. With Board members with this kind of background, who needs enemies?

Another Arizona jurisdiction has joined Pinal County in refusing to accept photo radar ticketing. In December, Arrowhead Justice Court Judge John C. Keegan issued an order declaring the state’s freeway photo radar program unconstitutional. Since then, Judge Keegan has torn up at least 400 state-issued tickets, ruling them invalid for carrying penalties that differ from tickets issued by a “live” police officer.

Read More >

Bernie is the man behind a Ponzi scheme that suckered “investors” from around the world, from all walks of life, to the tune of $50b. As is the way of such things, the media seems fascinated by relatively minor details. The fact that Madoff now shelters in a New York City penthouse– before he’s sent to The Big House– is only important on a symbolic level. Even if the digs were worth $50m (hardly likely in today’s market), that would be point one percent of the amount Bernie bilked. Now walk it down to his cars– which are leased. The autoblogosphere’s gossip girls are all a twitter (in some cases literally) at Bernie’s whips. Even The New York Times. “The vehicles include a 2007 Land Rover Range Rover, a 2008 Cadillac DTS, a 2009 Mercedes S550 leased last October, a 2007 Mercedes S550, a 2008 Mercedes GL450 sport-utility vehicle and a 2006 Lexus, according to the court filing in Manhattan on Wednesday.” The guy cleaning-up Bernie’s mess has asked federal bankruptcy court to cancel the leases. Big friggin’ deal. bernie could have bought GM with his ill-gotten gains. Which would have served him right, as far as I’m concerned.

AZcentral.com reports that the Arizona House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has voted 5-2 to recommend approval of House Bill 2106, banning the use of speed cameras on state highways. (The bill does not preclude cameras from city streets.) “This was done in the name of revenue,” pronounced an indignant Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert. Meanwhile, Pinal County County Supervisors voted to end their dalliance with Redflex’s mobile speed cameras. This after their top cop, Sheriff Paul Babeu, declared “I’m against photo speed enforcement completely. Here in Pinal, it’s failed miserably.” Babeu told the panel that the two cameras were activated 11,416 times, from September 2007 through December 2008. The result: 7,290 citations. Of those, only 3,711 were paid. “Babeu said most of the total $134,199.43 in fines and fees from the paid citations covered administrative and operational costs, leaving the county with a net profit of $12,391.58 that Babeu dismissed as paltry. Moreover, Babeu said, total motor-vehicle accidents increased by 16 percent in the same time period, and fatal collisions in the Queen Creek area doubled from three to six.”

Indeed. Now that General Motors depends on Uncle Sam for its survival, why would the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) levy a fine against the ailing American automaker? Answer: it wouldn’t. Under the terms of the deal with GM [full press release after the jump], the SEC ends its investigation into the company’s bookkeeping without a GM admission of guilt or a cash fine. Oh, and GM pinky swear promises it won’t ever do it again. The settlement and dispensation adds to Rick Wagoner’s growing rep as the industry’s Teflon Don. Lest we forget, Wagoner was GM’s Chief Financial Officer from 1992 to 1998, before becoming Chief Operating Officer (2000) and then CEO (2203). His career at GM (the only career he’s ever had) began as an analyst in the treasurer’s office. If Wagoner didn’t know the books were cooked, why didn’t he? 

Read More >

Yesterday, we learned that court-appointed bailiffs are knocking on the doors of UK motorists who’ve failed to pay their fines, and driving them to the cashpoint machine. Now we read that Her Majesty’s government plans to seize and crush uninsured motorists’ vehicle, even if they’re parked. “The Driver Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) would work with insurance companies to identify uninsured cars [using mobile number plate recognition cameras], Reuters reports. “Letters will be sent to owners found without insurance, threatening them a 100 pound penalty notice, rising to as much as 1,000 pounds if they are taken to court. They would also face the seizure of their car, which would be sold, or destroyed if of low value. ‘These tough new measures will leave uninsured drivers with nowhere to hide,’ said Road Safety Minister Jim Fitzpatrick.” The Powers That Be justify the crackdown smackdown with sobering stats. “The government says uninsured and untraced drivers kill 160 people every year and injure 23,000 others. As well as the human cost, uninsured driving adds an extra 30 pounds a year to every motorist’s insurance, adding up to 400 million pounds of additional premiums.” So really, it’s all about saving lives and reducing the burden on innocent motorists. Who knew?

Redflex Traffic Systems and ChinaTel Group this week announced their hope of invading the potentially lucrative traffic surveillance market in the People’s Republic of China. Under a joint agreement, ChinaTel, a small provider of wireless broadband connectivity, would provide the communications infrastructure required for the red light camera and speed camera ticketing systems as well as provide local sales. “ChinaTel and Redflex’s mutually beneficial partnership will fully leverage their respective strengths on global operation and local distribution, creating synergy, extending their customer base, and expanding potential sales revenue,” the companies explained in a press release. “Both parties recognize the importance of the market opportunity for camera enforcement systems in China.”

Read More >

The [UK’s] Blackburn Citizen reports that Blackpool magistrates sent a bailiff to Andy Miller’s house to collect an overdue £60 speeding fine. Actually, £350, what with court costs and all. “Father-of-five Mr Miller was driven to Accrington town centre. The bailiff parked up and waited for Mr Miller, but he collapsed in Union Street before he reached a cashpoint.” The 78-year-old died of a heart attack. Although the coroner ruled out an inquest, Miller’s family feels the court contributed to his death. “His son Mick said he wanted answers from court bosses as their letter [to the court explaining why he hadn’t paid the fine] told them his father was suffering from memory loss and confusion. Mick, who lives in Lower Darwen, said: ‘Bailiffs should not be allowed to behave like this. Dad was put under incredible duress. I know how nervous he had been and what a strain this would have been on him.”

If we’re going to start looking at the discrepancy between what our politicians say and actually do, we could be here a while. Still, props to Autobloggreen (ABG) for pointing out that the diesel-powered Cadillac-shaped tank from which our lastest President will view the rabble is probably not California-compliant. In particular, particulates. “It’s been reported that the limo uses a 6.5L diesel V8 which got me thinking about whether it might be a Tier 2 Bin 5 compliant clean diesel. I contacted Cadillac spokesman David Caldwell who gave me the following response, “We’re just not permitted to discuss that at all — and in fact I don’t even know the engine aspects of the car. So it’s not the case that I’m just choosing not to tell you — I don’t know and would not be permitted to know.”  In fact, if they told him, they’d have to kill him. And if we told you, well, didn’t Robert Redford star in a movie about that? ABG has to go that one step further, pointing out that the limo probably runs on military-grade diesel. This from Mr. Ethanol. Who’d a thunk it?

“Like most people, we here at Toyota love good news.” And God knows there’s not a lot of that going around these days. Even for the royal we here at Toyota, where we’re used to making more profit per year than GM’s market capitalization. No really. “So the following piece of business from the Insurance Institute of Canada (IIoC) interests us a great deal.” Well, the intern in charge of finding non-controversial Toyota-oriented material for Open Road, anyway. “The thing that’s caught our attention is a list from IIoC that purports to detail the 10 vehicles that were the most frequently stolen in 2008, and also the 10 cars least frequently stolen.” Sorry about that “purports” thing. You try and post blogs every day with Legal breathing down your neck. “So the good news is that the IIoC listed no Toyota products on the most-stolen list. None. Zilch. Nada. There are lots of other brands represented there, some of them repeatedly. Some luxury brands, some aging economy brands. But not us.” I swear, if TTAC says one thing about how this proves that we’re somehow undesirable, they will not get one press car. Do they get press cars? Oh, OK. Never mind. [List of most and least stolen vehicles after the jump.]

Read More >

I love internal combustion. The sound of my Accord is Salieri to the Boxster’s Mozart, while the distinctive putt-putt of the VW [Real] Beetle is like some endearing melody from childhood, or maybe the rap version of Eensy Beensy Spider (yes, there is such a thing). The ICE is probably the most refined machine on the planet. In contrast, electric drive has all the elegance and soul of a washing machine. Nonetheless, I think global heating threatens civilization, and so I drive with guilt. In so far vain attempts to assuage that guilt, I skim anything dealing with capturing and sequestering carbon, in the so far vain hope that in this version of the Iliad, Achilles won’t die, and I’ve attended talks on the subject at places like MIT. I’ve even concocted wild schemes for personal absolution like cutting my trees and burying them in the peat under my backyard, and growing new trees. Nothing helps. And forget spewing particulates into the atmosphere, because even if that mitigated global heating without bringing on a new ice age–fat chance that we’d get it just right–it would do nothing about ocean acidification from CO2, something that will likely kill off most of our seafood. But now comes a little ray of hope from the 10 January issue of New Scientist.

Read More >

Questions are being raised about the reliability of speed cameras in extreme weather conditions as temperatures drop across the globe. Parts of Minnesota, for example, saw lows of -37 degrees Fahrenheit while residents of some areas in North Dakota and Maine braved -8 degree temperatures. A Dutch lawyer is now using a recent cold snap in Amsterdam as the basis for a legal challenge, arguing that any ticket issued outside of the certified temperature range is invalid. In exploring the issue, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf cited Dutch Meetinstituut (NMi) Senior Product Manager. David Stam explained that fixed speed cameras have sensors that turn off sensitive electronic components when temperatures become too hot or too cold. Stam’s contention is confirmed by a 2007 incident in Finnish Lapland where speed cameras were literally frozen in place, unable to issue citations, as temperatures reached -25 degrees Fahrenheit. Despite the frigid climate, officials had not installed heating units in the devices. Nevertheless, NMi, which relies on government contracts, quickly distanced itself from De Telegraaf’s account the next and said it tests equipment in all conditions.

Read More >