Reuters reports that Republican presidential candidate John McCain is taking a cautious tack on a Michigan economist’s suggestion that Detroit should get an additional $15b in government support. “Let’s get the $25 billion to them to start with and see how that goes,” McCain told NBC’s Meet The Press. McCain had initially opposed that bailout before bowing to political pressure and blessing the deal. Top McCain economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin echoed the Senator from Arizona’s position on CBS’s Face The Nation, saying “The top priority should be get (the $25b) out quickly, not take 18 months, which seems to be the current plan.” The Department of Energy is currently writing regulations governing the disbursment of that money, a process expected to take longer than GM and Chrysler can probably stay in business. Meanwhile, Barack Obama’s advisors refuse to rule out further auto industry suport. “The auto industry clearly is extremely important to the economy and now has enormous difficulties,” Obama advisor and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said on Face the Nation. “We do need to face those difficulties and see if there are ways that public policy can be helpful that make sense … without having a whole raft of unintended consequences.”

GM’s overseas operations have long been touted as the only part of the General that is worth actual money. But might it make sense for GM to sell of profitable foreign operations? Though it’s doubtful that GM would ever voluntarily spin off, say, Buick and sell it to a Chinese firm, Charles Child has a column in Automotive News [sub] suggesting lawmakers should consider making such an asset sale a condition to further bailout cash. Child suggests that a sale of Buick to Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) makes lots of sense, cutting the number of US brands, and putting cash in the General’s pocket. How much? Based on Jag/Land Rover’s recent price tag of $2.3b, Child guesses Buick could be worth a billion to SAIC. Sure, The JagRover sale happened before credit markets took a dirt nap, but hell, GM could even use thre-quarters of that much cash right now. Plus the US market needs the Buick brand like it needs another run on the banks. Child’s analysis is thorough and compelling, and his thesis is well summarized in the final two sentences of his piece.”In today’s crisis, creative solutions are imperative. Nowadays, nothing is sacred in Detroit.” Truer words were never spoken.

We need not review the litany of bad news to remind you the Motown’s money’s too tight to mention. But amidst all of the plant closings, layoffs and rumors of bankruptcy, one song remains the same: management perks. The Detroit News reports that even as executives descend on DC begging for bailout billions, Ford, GM and Chrysler refuse to eliminate programs which subsidize car leases for management, often with insurance, maintenance and gasoline included. And this isn’t going over well with workers. “We’re taking concessions,” says UAW worker Jim Willington of Ford’s Woodhaven Stamping Plant. “They should level the playing field. They ought to be willing to buy the products. They can afford it.” A little perspective after the jump..

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The GM-Chrysler bailout article in today’s New York Times (written by Edmund Andrews and our friend Bill Vlasic) just recaps yesterday’s bailout news. But it raises an interesting point. The argument thus far has been that auto manufacturers (namely Chrysler and GM) would be entitled to the Treasury Department’s bad loan buy ups (TARP) because they have large credit arms. Except for one glitch: General Motors only owns 49% of GMAC (the NY Times article oddly reports the reverse “General Motors … spun off 49 percent of its financing unit, the General Motors Acceptance Corporation.”) As a result, even if GMAC qualifies as a financial institution, General Motors would not. This isn’t the same as Ford, which wholly owns Ford Credit. Fortunately for GM, as Vlasic notes, the government will find a way, one way or the other, to put cash in GM’s coffers. Until GM blows through that, too.

Reuters is reporting that Avis is getting hit by the slowing economy. Perhaps even more than retailers, vacation-related businesses really take a beating when the economy gets rough, and just like hotels are getting slammed, so too are car rental companies. They say that the “workforce reductions” should save $50 million/year. Against a $1 billion loss, that sounds like a worthwhile way to ruin 700 lives. (Avis CEO Ronald Nelson only made $2.15 million last year before taxes). So much for trying harder.

Warning: Video contains profanity

We’ve counted ourselves among the many who laughed bitterly when Volkswagen first announced that it was campaigning to overtake Toyota as the top volume automaker in the world. Well, Automobilwoche Editor Guido Reinking has penned a column for Automotive News [sub] arguing that VW’s Mission: Improbable might just stand a chance. Surprisingly, the column is not a paean to German sachlichkeit in the nationalistic mold of most mainstream German auto journalism. Instead, Reinking makes a bold claim: Toyota, long the 800 pound gorilla of global automakers, may be losing its aura of invulnerability. First he points unconvincingly to Toyota’s 32 percent drop in US sales for the month of September, “worse even than the fall taken by sickly General Motors.” Sure Guido, but keep in mind that those are previous-year percentages, not apples-to-apples…
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With a new VW plant under construction, Chattanooga’s local media is hunting down every last detail available on the new D-class, America-only model to be built there in 2011. WRCB TV even sent a reporter to a recent VW presentation in Berlin, at which a few more facts were released about the closely-guarded NMS (New Midsize Sedan) project. Those of us who consider VW’s current American-market engines a slap in the face (and I’m with you there, JB) will be happy to hear that the “NMS” will come with Fuel-Stratified Injection (FSI) gas and diesel options, mated to a dual-clutch transmission. Size, legroom, trunk volume and the number of cupholders are planned specifically for the US market, so expect proportions to be more Passat than Jetta. Oh, and it will have something called “dynamic powertrain acceleration” too. Whatever that is.

My, how things change. Just two short months ago, Automotive News [sub] publisher and editorial director Keith Crain was asking us to redefine our very notion of what an automaker is in order to justify Chrysler’s continued existence. “Who knows?” mused Crain. “Before too long, Chrysler might just do some engineering and perhaps a bit of design and let someone else build its vehicles. Chrysler would become a marketer rather than a manufacturer, sort of like Home Depot.” Fast forward through two months of bad news, and suddenly Crain has realized that just maybe it’s more likely that Chrysler will die rather than challenge paradigms. And though his latest missive “Just Put Up A ‘For Sale’ Sign” is doom-and-gloomy enough to get him membership in our rapidly-growing Cassandra club, he makes sure blame goes where it belongs: the fools who were dumb enough to buy the mess the last time it was for sale.

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I’ll bet most folks are happy about their $2.99 gas. They might even like it enough that they forget that back in 2000 it was only $1.00 a gallon. Despite my continuing belief that the price of a gallon of regular in the U.S. is going to shake out between $5 and $10 in the next five years, the world of analysts and short-term economists seem to be of the mindset that lower fuel prices are at least semi-permanent. And that makes OPEC very nervous. Lower demand makes lower prices, that makes lower profits, and the result of that is fewer shiny exotic cars. The New York Times reports today that OPEC is working on strategies to put their monopolistic cartel to work for the good of the world their profits. While they would like to cut production levels, the problem (and this is always the problem with cartels) is the risk of cheating. If everyone else cuts production and prices go up, an individual member has an incentive to produce and sell more. Considering that many of the OPEC member states (and oil producing non-member states like Russia) depend on oil to balance their budgets, it’s hammer time for oil countries. Or, as the terrorist nation Iran’s oil minister said, “The era of cheap oil is finished.”

The imploding global auto market continues to, uh, implode. The Wall Street Journal reports that Nissan is scaling back worldwide production. Nissan Japan pulled 65k vehicles from its November through March schedule, and sliced 780 “temporary workers” from the payroll. (Little known fact: Japanese companies practice “full employment” by routinely classifying a large percentage of the workforce as temps.) Nissan’s September sales were downaround the globe, off 37 percent in North America, 27 percent in the UK, 23 percent in Spain and 5.5 perfcent in greater Europe. Nissan announced a two-week shutdown of its English Patient, er factory, and lopped 1,680 jobs off its workforce for Barcelona. Not a speck of good news anywhere. Ouch.

Thanks to the global economy’s stomach-churning loop-the-loop, demand– and prices– for auto-related commodities like steel and oil are dropping. For the moment anyway. Automotive News [sub] reports that the downturn in commodity prices couldn’t come at a better time for profits-challenged automakers, who will finalize supplier contracts this December. By locking in a lower price now, automakers will put the onus on suppliers to renegotiate if commodity prices go back up over the next year. Hear that? It’s GM VP for purchasing and supply chain Bo Andersson rubbing his hands and cackling maniacally. Andersson plans “a different mix of contracts with steel makers in a bid to get lower prices for 2009,” despite supplier concerns that the cost of raw materials such as coke and iron ore have not fallen as rapidly as the price of finished steel. Bottom line?

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From the moment it announced it gray-matter-celebrating name, it was pretty obvious that Toyota was developing its iQ city with one eye fixed firmly on the Smart playbook. So it comes as no surprise to hear that ToMoCo will leverage its “small-but-premium” city car platform with a small roadster version, set to debut at the next Tokyo auto show. Auto Motor und Sport hired veteran Swiss illustrator Mark Stehrenberger to speculate on the iQ Spider’s styling, coming up with a design they say follows in the footsteps of the Suzuki Cappucino and Daihatsu {Cuore} Copen. With only 1.0 and 1.3 liter gas and diesel engines on offer, don’t expect the iQ Spider to offer much more performance than the Smart Roadster or the previously-mentioned Kei-class ragtops. The standard iQ’s generous safety equipment should be found in the Spider as well, which will boast ESP, ABS and more airbags than a Senate quorum. There’s no saying when the Spider should arrive on the market (likely sold as a Scion), but it will be interesting to see if this fares better than the ill-fated Smart Roadster.

The Detroit News reports that Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) has stated that he believes the federal government should play shadchan for an ailing Chrysler.”If they need support to make some kind of merger between Chrysler and another auto company, we need to do that,” said Levin at a Detroit Economic Club debate. Levin is “heavily favored to win his sixth term over Hoogendyk, who has little money and low name recognition,” pundificates the DetNews. So was Senator Levin aware that the Chrysler-GM merger would likely mean the end of some 40k American jobs? According to The DetN reporter, “Levin said afterward that he worried that a potential merger could result in job losses, but said it would be preferable to seeing one of the Big 3 domestic automakers going out of business.” Meanwhile Levin’s “staunch conservative” opponent state Rep. Jack Hoogendyk has the temerity to suggest that “What government has done to the auto industry in this state is broken both legs and perhaps one of its arms and now that they’re lying in a ditch, offered them a glass of water.” His prescription? “Government should cut their corporate taxes — which do not apply to money-losing companies such as the domestic carmakers — and set “right-to-work” laws that would weaken unions.” In all likelyhood neither these measures nor Senator Levin’s production of The Bachelor: Detroit will save the 40k jobs that appear threatened by Chrysler’s dire straights. But if Levin gets his way, the Sultans of Sebring are going to need (and get) plenty of time in makeup before Chrysler’s ready for the proverbial hottub. Guess who gets that bill?

Fresh off his recent membership in TTAC’s Cassandra club, Daniel Howes of the Detroit News has gone back to spinning bad news into industry gameplans. His latest column extolls the virtues of a GM-Chrysler merger, while admitting that such a move would be disasterous for everyone except GM and Chrysler. “Seen from the viewpoint of blue-collar labor, white-collar employees, local governments, dealers, the state of Michigan and the industrial Midwest, just about anyone whose livelihood depends on the dubious survival of Chrysler would pay a dear price,” writes Howes of a possible GM absorption of Chrysler. But, from the narrow perspective of an industry suit, these myriad viewpoints are just so much firewood to be burnt at the altar of survival. And Howes is conveniently on hand to stack it up and pass the matches.

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