Not to be alarmist (much), but TTAC has been saying for some time that the collapse of Detroit's domestic supply chain could force one or more of the automakers into bankruptcy. On Friday, Chrysler canceled its contract with Plastech Engineered Products (PEP) of Auburn Hills, MI. Plastech immediately filed for bankruptcy and stopped shipping parts to Chrysler. USA Today reports that a lack of plastic parts has forced the American automaker to suspend operations at four U.S. assembly plants: Sterling Heights, Mich. (Sebring and Avenger); Newark, Del. (Durango and Aspen); Toledo, Ohio (Nitro and Liberty); and Belvidere, Ill. (Caliber, Compass, Patriot). While Chrysler should be able to reestablish parts production (e.g. engine covers, grill panels, moldings, metal stampings, door panels, floor consoles), we hear that Chrysler's been slow paying all its suppliers. If suppliers see this move as a sign of things to come, they might reach the point where they demand cash up front– tipping Chrysler into bankruptcy. Watch this space. 

Experts predict pump prices will spike by as much as 50 cents a gallon later this year, as refiners and gas stations switch from winter- to summer-blended fuels. Speaking to AP [via the Pittsburg Post Gazette], analysts blame an alkylate shortage. This little-known and expensive gasoline additive replaced MTBE two years ago, when regulators found the potentially cancer-causing additive seeping into ground water. The oil companies deny they’re limiting production of alkylate. Valero Energy GM John Pickering says their Paulsboro refinery in New Jersey makes enough alkylate to meet its needs, but concedes that there is a national shortage of the additive in the spring and summer. Other refiners say they’re reluctant “for competitive reasons” to reveal how they blend gasoline, or whether they face alkylate shortages. Little wonder Hawaii passed a law (yet to be enforced) requiring local oil refineries to reveal their pricing practices.

Thompson Financial News (via) Forbes reports that Ford wants to make a clean break with its Jaguar and Land Rover brands. When Tata Motors takes control of the "crown jewels" in Ford's never-mighty Premier Automotive Group, Alan Mulally's minions don't want to retain a minority stake in either firm. While Autoblog is busy worrying "if Tata has the infrastructure to supply Jag and L.R. with the necessary components, from drivetrains to switch knobs," the real story is that Ford's U.K. trade unions are balking at the prospect. They're [justifiably] afraid that Tata will shutter both brand's UK ops post-purchase, threatening 16,500 union jobs. To soothe the savage beast, Tata is launching a charm offensive; they're flying union reps to India to enjoy high class call girls in luxury hotels (a.k.a. "the VW plan"). Just kidding. "Ford officials and trade union members are expected to visit Tata Motors' plant at Pune in the western Indian state of Maharashtra in a fortnight to gather first hand knowledge of Tata Motors' expertise." Yeah, that ought to calm them down.

When Toyota got slammed by Consumer Reports (and others) for declining product quality– the brand's raison d'etre– ToMoCo CEO Katsuaki Watanabe practically committed seppuku on the spot. Of course, he didn't; Watanabe said his company would do whatever was necessary to ensure that Toyota raised the bar for its product quality worldwide. Despite Toyota's southern plants, the man wasn't just whistling Dixie. Canada's Globe and Mail reports that the automaker has put the brakes on a new assembly plant in Woodstock, Ontario to ensure product quality. “We're very optimistic that we're going to have a good ramp up but I'm going to go slow,” admitted Ray Tanguay, president of Toyota of Canada. “Quality first before anything.” Either the Mail forgot to ask– or Toyota refused to reveal– the precise reason for the holdup. Perhaps, as the Mail hints, it's got more to do with the slowdown in the North American market. Or not. In which case, point taken.

I'm sure plenty of auto bloggers and erstwhile reporters will hail GM's decision to form a new engineering group to "focus on hybrid vehicles, extended-range electric vehicles and battery technology." It's easy enough to see the development (reported by CNNMoney) as proof that GM has, finally, put its chips on the alternative propulsion (alt prop) table. But I'd like to raise the red flag here. GM already has a 500-member team working on the electric – gas hybrid Chevrolet Volt. GM already has another team working on the plug-in Saturn Vue. GM already has vehicle development teams for all its eight U.S. brands, spanning some 49 models. GM already has boffins in Germany working on their products. GM already has a hybrid development team in China. In theory, consolidating all these efforts under one Alt Prop Czar–  Robert Kruse, executive director of vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries– makes sense. But the fact that GM says it will be "based" in North America, Europe and Asia tells me that this new GM fiefdom will struggle within The General's Byzantine bureaucracy and competition fiefdoms, floundering within a culture known for product paralysis and financial profligacy. Just sayin'…

Late last year, The New York Times hired long-time Detroit News cheerleader Bill Vlasic. Fans of the man will be glad to learn that the auto scribe has stayed true to his roots. Writing for The Old Gray lady, Vlasic pens a paean to Ford CEO Alan Mulally's global integration plans; an essay that finds the silver lining in Ford's arterial spray of red ink. "Much of his focus since joining Ford 16 months ago has been on cutting costs and jobs. And more buyouts were announced on Thursday, when the company reported that it had narrowed its overall losses in 2007 to $2.7 billion, a major improvement after its wrenching $12.6 billion loss in 2006. But with the shrinking of Ford’s core United States business nearly done, Mr. Mulally is eager to get its global operations hitting on all cylinders." Sounds great! So, tell us about Big Al's Boeing-like plan to consolidate Ford's platforms. How many do they have, how many do they want, and how are they going to build compelling local products on a world platform? "Mr. Mulally declined to specify how many platforms Ford had now or discuss its goal for consolidation. But he gushed at the savings the company could realize by spreading its costs over more international models. 'Seventy percent of our total volume will be on eight platforms by 2012,' he said. 'You can only imagine what a tremendous improvement that will be.'" Looks like Mulally found the right guy for that job.

On one hand, Polk Automotive's 2007 Loyalty Awards are "based on actual consumer transactions, with over 6 million household records per year being analyzed to determine the winners." On the other hand, I never trust a list of award winners that doesn't provide the full results, including the losers. So, GM wins the manufacturer loyalty category, with a staggering 62.89 percent customer retention rate. Take THAT Toyota! Uh, hang-on. ToMoCo wins the "make" loyalty category, with 56.69 percent customer retention. What's the diff? (We'll phone Polk later.) GM scoops six segment titles: Small Car (Saturn Ion, 23.5 percent), Large Car (Chevrolet Impala, 33.89 percent), Sports Car (Pontiac Solstice, 19.08 percent), Full-Size Pickup Truck (Chevrolet Silverado, 36.64 percent), Full-Size SUV (Chevrolet Suburban, 23.21 percent), and Prestige SUV (Cadillac Escalade, 33.61 percent). Toyota takes five segment titles: Mid-size Car (Toyota Prius, 33.34 percent), Luxury Car (Lexus ES, 32.8 percent), Prestige Luxury Car (Lexus LS, 44.41 percent), Compact Pickup Truck (Toyota Tacoma, 17.73 percent), and Midsize SUV (Lexus RX, 29.04 percent). There's something strange about all this. Did I mention that we're phoning Polk? 

We passed on yesterday's story in Automotive News [AN, sub] on the new Corvette ZR1's carbon fiber bits (roof, hood, front splitter, front fenders, side skirts and spoiler) 'cause we had bigger fish to fry. (Even though you've got to wonder about GM's decision to use customers' top 'o the line Corvettes to, as Autoblog put it, "monitor the degradation of C.F. parts over time.") But as TTAC awaits the return of Jonny Lieberman to the editorial fold, we received a press release touting the joys of Loverman's pet peeve : faux fiber. Thanks to a German company named Foliatec (Fool Ya Tech?), Corvette owners suffering from carbon fiber envy can use plastic sheeting to get their freak on. Degradation? What degradation? "Regardless of whether it is on the bonnet or the roof the film is extremely robust, just like the dark high-tech fibre it is named after. It can brave polar colds of up to minus 40 degrees as well as oven temperatures of 120 degree and maintains – with its full adhesive power – its shape at all times. This is also important if it is fitted in the interior of a car, as there are high temperatures in this area in the summer." While Jonny rolls his eyes, a Question of the Day: what part will YOU be carbon fibering?

By the end of next month, GM will have offered 48k workers a buyout package. How many United Auto Workers' (UAW) members will take the offer is yet to be seen, but the Lansing State Journal thinks it may not be enough. Most workers willing to be coerced bribed enticed to take such a deal did so last year, when 34k union employees left the company. The remaining (and somewhat younger) workers realize they'll have to work somewhere; if they give up their $28/hr jobs they won't be able to find anything close to it in their area. However, unless GM can rid itself of the higher-paid workers and replace them with "noncore" workers willing to accept $14/hr, their nebulous turnaround plan might not work according to [undisclosed] plan. Union officials would only say they were waiting for more details of the buyout before commenting on their evaporating membership's options.

The Lansing State Journal reveals the reason Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Malibu sales are stuck in second gear: parts. According to Gary Cowger, GM's group vice president of global manufacturing and labor, "a lack of components" underpins this December's decision to shut down a third shift at Lansing Delta Township factory. "Even if that had kept running, we still wouldn't have been able to make more Enclaves." What's more… "As you know, we put that third shift on for a while to try to ramp up. But at the tooling rates of the supplier base, you'd have to buy another set of vendor tools (to make more parts) and that takes time. We're maxed out from a tooling standpoint." Cowger also implied that the Chevrolet Malibu drought is down to the same parts problem. "What we're doing right now with the Enclave and CTS and (Chevrolet) Malibu is doing a very detailed analysis of the bottlenecks in the supplier community so you can invest in the right tool sets out there and increase the capacity of that product at the plant." Cowger admits GM underestimated demand for all three cars, but said it's "a good thing." Try telling that to the 1000 GM workers who got laid off, or the GM dealers desperate for product to sell. Oh and don't think we've forgotten that back in October, when GM announced they were shutting down the third shift, they told the LSJ they "eliminated the third shift to keep from overproducing the crossover vehicles made there." I wonder why they didn't bring up the parts issue then? [thanks to Sparky for the tip]

If you write for WardsAuto, you know the vast majority of the people reading your bon mots are car dealers. So you can't come out and say "you greedy bunch of bastards are responsible for getting people into cars they can't afford, which is about to turn around and bite you in the ass big time." On the other hand, you can't come out and say "consumers are stupid morons who deserve what they get when they get in over their heads on a new car and can't get the Hell out." Consumers are customers, after all. For an example of how to play it straight down the middle, alienating both camps, I recommend you click on Steve Finaly's latest editorial "The Dealer Made Me Do It," riffing on the LA Times article “New Cars That Are Fully Loaded – With Debt” (blogged on TTAC here). "First off, I’m not excusing auto dealers. Or lenders. They have a moral and business responsibility to try to stop their customers from doing something stupid, such as buying a vehicle with a sticker price that will stick them with an oppressive debt… But so many consumers today buy too much vehicle. Then, when the financial squeeze becomes eye-popping, they look for someone to blame. The dealership and lender make nice targets. Seldom do the debt-ridden blame themselves." Well, why would they? 

Boston.com gives us a quick look at Mitt Romney's address to the Detroit Economic Club: "I will roll up my sleeves, and I will personally bring together industry, labor, congressional and state leaders to develop a plan to rebuild America's automotive leadership." This I got to see. Or not. Mitt also called for "flexibility" on fuel standards (hint, hint) and an increase in federal auto-related R&D from today's $4b to tomorrow's $20b. Those crazy Reagan republicans! Then, on Face the Nation, Mitt told Bob that "We need stop throwing anvils around the neck of the domestic auto manufacturers. This idea, for instance, of saying we're going to have unilateral caps and trades on greenhouse gases that are not participated by other nations, that would only hurt Detroit. It would only hurt American manufacturers. We've got to stop thinking about being popular around the world and doing what's right for America." Nice thought, but those anvils have "$100 barrel oil" and "Prius" inscribed on them. [thanks to starlightmica for the links]

Is Ford selling Mazda to GM? Although there's absolutely no indication it would ever happen, the United Press International seems to know something the rest of us don't. Their headline about the NAIAS Car/Truck of the Year Award proudly proclaims "GM wins car and truck prizes." Since we know the Mazda CX-9 won the truck award, it only stands that UPI has some insider information that the rest of us don't. Either that, or they need to hire some real automotive writers and quit letting their business writers write about things about which they have no clue. Just sayin'…

While we await various concept and slatedforproductionmobiles at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, Toyota has taken another giant leap away from "now you see it, now do you recognize it?" auto show hype. Ahead of tomorrow's official debut of the new Venza crossover, Kentucky's Herald-Leader reports that workers at ToMoCo's Georgetown factory have amassed experience screwing the beastie together. In fact, the Camry factory's been involved in the machine's genesis right from the git-go. "Since April 2006, two dozen workers at Toyota's sprawling Georgetown manufacturing plant have spent their days walled off from their colleagues. In key-carded rooms, they ran computer simulations, phoned Toyota's top designers and coordinated a project that will soon touch thousands of their brethren. They have built the Venza." This kind of pre-prod prep is nothing new. But the paper describes the computer-assisted anal retentive lengths (ew) to which ToMoCo will go to get a vehicle right before it hits the streets. "Haddix and his team members used computer software to track how each of the more than 2,000 parts would be shaped and installed. When the group simulated installation of a part under the hood, they found that the tool couldn't quite fit and struck the vehicle. The hood angle had to be raised. Another part's installation would have scratched the instrument panel." Who ARE these guys?  

The Chrysler brand is going global, but not the way you'd think. While GM and Ford ramp-up operations under their corporate names around the world, Chrysler is pimping itself out. Dodge is already building trucks for Mitsubishi. Chrysler has a deal for Chery to provide a small car to Dodge in Mexico; they're also developing a small car with Chery for North America. Volkswagen's Canadian Chrysler-built minivan starts production later this year. Nissan wants Chrysler to build large trucks for them for the U.S. And now Reuters reports Nissan will make Versas to be sold as Chryslers in South America in 2009. Confused yet? Trust me– it's going to get worse (better?) as Cerberus does whatever it takes to keep Chrysler's head above water long enough to get what they can when they finally get down to the strip and flip part of the program.