You know how the endless parade of talking heads constantly bemoans the “freezing up” of global credit markets? They’re full of it. Credit markets are just fine. Just as long as you happen to be one of the world’s most profitable automakers. According to Bloomberg, Porsche Holdings has secured a €10B (with options to expand to €12B) refinance of a credit facility from a consortium of 15 banks including Barclays, Deutsche Bank, UBS and Credit Suisse. The refinancing was for cash borrowed by Porsche to buy its majority position in Volkswagen. Porsche is seeking another €2.5B in order to up its VW stake to the 75 percent level it needs to bring VW cashflow onto its books. And though lending to Europe’s largest automaker seems like a relatively safe investment for panicky banks, Porsche has been living by the sword from a financial standpoint. “The renewal of the credit line is a relief for short- term funding concerns,” says one Credit Suisse analyst who recommends that Porsche merely maintain its current investment in VW.

VW is killing the Rabbit, reports C&D. Well, the name anyway. And not a moment too soon. Sure, there’s some history there: the Rabbit was one of the first foreign cars to be mass produced in the US, helping kick off one of the most significant trends in US automotive history. But the Rabbit name also embodies so many of the compromises that have become stock-in-trade for North America-only models. Ugly, “Americanized” interiors and shoddy quality (not to mention the square headlights) marred early US production of VW’s rodent Golf-alike. When the name was revived in 2006 in a blaze of nostalgia marketing, it was saddled with a thirsty, primitive 2.5-liter engine while Euro-spec Golfs boasted a wide range of more advanced, efficient engines. Ultimately, the Rabbit name has come to signify unnecessary compromise and VW’s arrogance towards an American market it sees (and helps define) as crude and unsophisticated. With the Polo headed stateside and the Golf name returning, VW is not only re-rationalizing its nomenclature (games!), it’s taking a chance that America is ready for smaller, lighter, more “European” products. Well, sort of.

Daimler has announced that it will raise $2.67 billion to fund future operations, reports Automotive News [sub]. But since we know that the BMW share swap has been nixed by the Quandts, how is Daimler coming up with the cash? By snaffling Opel’s cash from the German government? Or perhaps by jumping on the DC bailout express? No, Daimler followed the real money back to the Persian Gulf. Abu Dhabi’s Aabar Investments (owned by the state-run International Petroleum Investment Company) will buy a 9.1 percent stake in the German firm. After all, when you’ve repeatedly been fined for violating CAFE standards, you go to the oil wells, not the halls of government for your cash injection. The Emirate of Kuwait had already owned a 7.6 percent stake in Daimler, an investment that has been diluted to 6.9 percent by Aabar’s investment. But according to the analysts, Daimler had little choice but to take Aabar’s cash.

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BMW is not doing so well lately. I know; it’s tough all over. But there’s tough and then there’s a 90 percent profit plunge (to €330M). Aside from disappearing revenue, BMW shares something else with America’s domestic manufacturers: denial. Just-auto [sub] reports that Bimmer’s CEO reckons the sun will come out tomorrow. Well, the end of this year, anyway. And then everything will be alright, exactly as planned, ja?

BMW is sticking to the long-term targets set out in its so-called Number One strategy despite the current challenging economic times, the automaker said as it announced a fall in 2008’s net profit of almost 90% on Wednesday.

“2009 will be a transitional year for which we cannot yet make any reliable forecasts. Nevertheless, our long-term profitability targets for 2012 remain intact. We want to preserve the independence of the BMW group,” chairman Norbert Reithofer told the annual accounts press conference in Munich.

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In its perpetual quest to expand into new profitable fields that have little to do with its core business, Daimler is now running a used-car dealership. No, they wouldn’t call it that; it’s the “Mercedes Young Classics Store.” (Sorry, at the moment this news item only applies to European markets). The concept is interesting. Mercedes thinks its products have such a great heritage and are engineered so well that they’re both practical daily drivers and desirable collectables. The not-quite vintage (i.e., birthdate 1970-1990) vehicles can not only be purchased, but also rented via a website that demonstrates what happens when you apply German principles of over-engineering to HTML design. Although the supply yet is quite small, there are some pearls to be found (if you can actually find the “gallery” button which allows you to see the cars on sale).

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The $13K-$15K American compact market is going to get another player, as Automotive News [sub] reports that VW’s Polo is coming stateside. But VW won’t be selling the traditional Yaris-fighting small hatch version of the Polo here, says VOA CEO Stefan Jacoby. Instead VW is easing into the segment Toyota-style, offering an Echo-echoing four-door sedan version of the Polo alongside a “Polo Plus” mini MPV. “It’s more like a cross between a compact minivan and a hatchback. In other words, it’s more like the Honda Fit,” says Jacoby of the “American fatty” version of the Polo. Expect the Polo to be built in Mexico in hopes of keeping the cost down, a consideration that takes on more importance thanks to VW’s decision to focus on the sedan/MPV approach. “We have to come in at the sweet spot of this market or else it makes no sense—and we come too close to the Jetta,” says Jacoby. So why sell a sedan at all? More importantly, why go with the cheap Hecho-En-Mexico approach when it prevents the US Polos from offering the real jewels of VW’s small-car portfolio: high-tech engines like its direct-injection, turbo- and super-charged 1.4 TFSI.

DW reports that German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is in the US talking about how best to disentangle/jettison the Opel brand from its “struggling parent company.”

One of the main issues Guttenberg will address is the ownership of patents and other intellectual property Opel requires to continue producing cars. He will also explore GM and the US government’s willingness to let go of Opel.

Chancellor Angela Merkel told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that Guttenberg needed to “clarify how General Motors would be able to back away in order to give Opel more room to move.”

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The Right Honorary Lord Mandelson, her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, is preparing to give £2K (€2160) to UK citizens who scrap their old car and buy a new one, London’s Times reports.

“Under the proposed stimulus package, drivers would be able to turn in their car, which must be at least nine years old, and get a £2,000 discount on the purchase of any new or one-year-old car bought at a dealership in Britain. The motorists would have to deliver their old vehicles to one of a number of car recycling plants and receive a confirmation certificate. They would present this to a car dealer and get the government-funded £2,000 discount. Motorists would be able to purchase any brand of car.”

The British “scrappage scheme” sounds very much like the German Abwrackprämie, except that it pays a few hundred Euro less, and also has a little less red tape attached to it. The two could be twins . . .

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Friday the 13^th was a bad day for GM Europe, and by extension Opel, Vauxhall, and Saab. Ministers of eleven European countries where GM has a presence met in Brussels to decide what to do about the ailing American automaker’s foreign empire. First, they listened to reports by Frederick “Fritz” Henderson, COO of GM, and Carl-Peter Forster, CEO of GM Europe. Then, they decided to do nothing. Even more disconcerting for GM, the ministers decided that no country should do anything to bailout GM unilaterally. “There will be no rescue measures on a national level without prior European coordination,” reports Automobilwoche [sub]. And as if this wasn’t bad enough . . .
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Folks, TTAC has serious competition. GM just issued a press statement, headlined “GM and Opel Launch Website to Support Fact-Based Discussion.” (As opposed to what? Faith-based?) The lead-in of the statement isn’t really conducive to getting to the main part, but in the interest of fact-based reporting, here it is: “The current need for bridge-financing for GM’s European operations is rooted in a catastrophic economic crisis, the worst of its kind in more than 70 years. Given the significance of the situation politically and for society, it’s only natural that rumor, speculation and urban myths should begin to circulate at this time. In addition to informed reporting based on fact there is also misinformation and repetition of statements that are clearly not based on fact.” Still with us?
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Yesterday, we mentioned that GM Europe Chief, Carl-Peter Forster, must have missed his daily dose of Prozac. He had sounded a bit depressed when he said that there were “interested parties but no formal talks” in regards to a partial sale of Opel. Today it turns out that this was the understatement of the week. Opel is the wallflower of the industry. One by one, those alleged “interested parties” hold their nose and say a muffled “no thanks.”  The German Autohaus chronicles the list of rebuffs:

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The German government doesn’t seem to be in an awful hurry to bail out Opel. First, Berlin bitched about the quality of GM Europe’s rescue plan which was submitted last month. According to that plan, the German unit, along with its UK-based Vauxhall unit, would be partly spun off. Along with that, state aid to the tune of €3.3B ($4.2B) was requested. Berlin said the plan was interesting but mostly fluff. They demanded another one; it hasn’t arrived. No plan, no money.

And just in case a better plan would be forthcoming, Chancellor Angela Merkel set the bar a bit higher. “Before we decide (on aid), we must know important decisions in the United States; for example, how things proceed with Opel’s parent company General Motors, what independence General Motors can give Opel, what happens with Opel patents,” Merkel said, according to Reuters. That’s a whole bunch of important decisions to be taken before any money is being given.
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Ford gets props from anti-bailout folks for being the only Detroit automaker to not seek TARP bailout loans. But as several stories today indicate, Detroit’s putative last man standing is still seeking government sugar, if only in less direct ways than its hapless competitors. Automotive News [sub] reports that Ford is requesting the German government to extend its cash-for-clunker rebate, threatening temporary plant shutdowns if the handout sunsets at the pre-arranged 600K unit mark. “The bonus is smart, simple, and it works,” says Ford sales poobah Ingvar Sviggum. “Here is my appeal to the German government: The bonus is good for the auto industry, the country and for the consumer. So please stay with it. If the scrapping premium is not extended, there will be a dramatic decline in demand in the second half of the year as a result.” Just over 200K of the rebates have been claimed, leaving about 400K still to be claimed in the measure’s original run. But, y’ know, extend it anyway. Or else.

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Germany’s Lidl chain of low-cost grocery stores has begun selling Opel Corsas and VW Polo Crosses online, reports The Age. In partnership with German distributor ATG-Automobile, Lidl is selling the subcompact commuters at about 25 percent below the suggested retail price (11K euros for the Corsa, 14K euros for the VW), offering Germans a new, low-cost way to cash in on Germany’s clunker-culling measure. Some argue that the online sales approach has been tried without success, as Germans prefer to do business with a dealership. “I think it will be very difficult for Lidl,” says Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer of Gelsenkirchen’s Center for Automotive Research. “People don’t want to buy high-value products from a discount grocery store.” Noting that Quelle, a German online marketplace, tried to sell cars online about five years ago, Dudenhoeffer says “it didn’t work, even though their site was visited fairly heavily.” As the automotive industry reinvents itself, however, OEMs will look to every possible sales outlet, transforming the dealer-only approach that has defined the business for years. Whether this approach pays off remains to be seen.

Susanne Klatten, Germany’s wealthiest woman, and a member of the Quandt family—the leading shareholders in carmaker BMW—bid good-bye to a former lover. Helg Sgarbi was jailed for six years on Monday for trying to blackmail (with secret video of their lovemaking) the heiress to the BMW car empire, Reuters reports.

Helg Sgarbi admitted that he had seduced heiress Susanne Klatten and three other wealthy women, persuading them to pay him almost 10 million euros ($12.64 million). Klatten went public last year with the story of how her lover secretly shot intimate footage and later demanded tens of million of euros not to reveal it. Sgarbi’s admission spared Klatten, who is rarely seen in public, a court appearance.
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