Yesterday, we speculated whether or not Chrysler would hang fire on trimming union jobs dud models until after the United Auto Workers (UAW) convinced Ford members to work without job guarantees. Turns out Chrysler didn't even wait for the ink to dry on its union agreement before axing its first three losers. The Detroit News quotes "people close to Chrysler" and "people familiar with the situation" (that could be you!) saying that the PT Cruiser, Dodge Magnum and Chrysler Pacifica will get the chop. Oh, and maybe the Jeep Commander. And possibly the Dodge Dakota pickup. And the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger. Meanwhile, Chrysler hired former GE exec L. John Cataldo to assume a newly created position: vice president of business development and mergers and acquisitions. Cataldo is in charge of hooking-up with other automakers and selling the family silver. Speaking at the Magazine Publishers of America annual conference in Boca Raton, Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli reiterated Chrysler's 'focus on cash.' The company is moving to sell off $1b in "unneeded real estate and facilities." Not to go all TV Land on you, but I'm hearing "They call him stripper, flipper; faster than lightning."

Hot on the heels of its 2006 TTAC Ten Worst Autos award, and its position as a 2007 finalist for the same, comes news that the Subaru Tribeca has scooped another major nod: Best Resale Value in the crossover segment. A Subaru press release on PRNewswire announces the Tribeca's glorification by Automotive Lease Guide (ALG). ALG says their gong is "derived after careful study of segment competition, historical vehicle performance and industry trends." It shows that "compelling design, high quality manufacturing, disciplined pricing and volume programs" lead to high residual value. The fact that Tribecas coming off lease don't have to compete with a flood of fleet units being dumped into the used car market has a lot more to do with the high residuals than "compelling design" (unless they're talking about Tribeca observers' compulsion to avert their gaze). The press release concludes by listing other awards the Tribeca has received, such as high crash test ratings and some award for interior design. Their tally totally ignores the honor TTAC readers bestowed on Ye Olde "Flying V" last year. Go figure.

After Chrysler's executive [I have a] dream team addressed the issue of Canadian pricing in Sin City, they may soon wish that what they said in Vegas stayed in Vegas. Speaking to WardsAuto, Ex-Toyota Prez Jim Press said Chrysler had inflated their sticker prices north of the border to account for the historic 10 to 40 percent gap between the dollar and the loonie. And now that the currencies are at parity? “Currency is a long-term move," a pressed Press confessed. "It goes one place to another, and when cycles come up, you take (that) into account. What you have to do is price at where the market is, and that’s what we’ll continue to do.” As for Canadian customers who dare cross the border to buy a Chrysler product, the automaker admits it's trying to cut them off at the pass. Steve Landry, executive director-North American sales, told Wards that he's sent memos to U.S. dealers warning them against selling vehicles to Canada on the gray market  Needless to say, Landry claims it's for the customer's own good, considering Canadian auto regs. “It’s not just homologation of an odometer. You have to also change the daytime running lights, which is a pain… Our dealers are more into selling vehicles where they can take care of the entire lifecycle of that customer in that vehicle." Convinced?

Just-Auto [sub] reports Honda's catching flack over hiring practices at their new Greensburg, Indiana factory. No, it has nothing to do with unions or affirmative action; this time it's the state's legislators who are whining. Honda wants to only hire workers who live within a 20-county area (about a one-hour drive) around the new plant. Representatives whose constituents were excluded from applying don't like "granting state incentives to companies that selective exclude certain Hoosiers from even applying for employment." A representative from the governor's office stated that in exchange for the incentives, they only asked that Honda hire state residents. She added that the state had no plans "to prescribe hiring practices to private companies." Even with the geographic restrictions, over 30K people applied online for 2K jobs. The new Honda plant is set to open in early '08 to build 200K Civics per year.

There's something reassuring about talking to employees who work for a really large company. You can almost hear a well-stocked 401k plan in their voice. Now I'm not saying that Ford suffers from the kind of complacency that brought it to the brink in the first (second?) place. But it is certainly true that group think is the enemy of relative quality in all things. So I want to thank Ford for opening a dialogue with TTAC, which is, after all, a mighty hostile environment for an industry used to well-paid cheerleaders and toothless hacks. I invite Ford to continue on this openness arc and allow their employees to post on the Focus review and/or anything else that captures their attention. Of course, we're years away from that kind of non-spun honesty and PR-less transparency. But I'll say this: the first car company that fully embraces the internet in this way will have an enormous advantage over its competitors. And that's down to one simple reason: it will help them build better cars.

Even before I pronounced Ford’s “new” Focus a one-star car, FoMoCo PR had suggested a little tete-a-TTAC with one of their quality guys. Well fair enough. This website is always open to opposing or explanatory viewpoints– especially from the people who make the whips that fill our editorial crosshairs. And so it came to pass that Ford’s Manager of Global Quality Data Systems and I spent a little quality time talking about quality issues. As you might guess from his title, Mike Hardie is a combination data cruncher and messenger, rather than Ass Kicker General. But his dedication to his job is beyond reproach– even if some of the products under his purview aren’t. Part One below, with a special guest appearance by Anne Marie Gattari, Communications Manager for Manufacturing and quality.

Ah, the politics of American sugar. I once read that Caribbean cane growers protected their power by lobbying the English parliament to prevent America's colonists from achieving political representation. Nice. Flash forward two hundred fifty years or so and The New York Times reports that a "little-noticed provision in the new farm bill would oblige the Agriculture Department to buy surplus domestic sugar caused by the expected influx of Mexican sugar next year. Then the government would sell it, most likely at a steep discount, to ethanol producers to add to their fermentation tanks." Note the word "surplus." in other words, the feds would be legally obliged to buy U.S. sugar at a price determined by the U.S. sugar industry, to provide the somewhat-less-than impoverished, already heavily subsidized industry an "insurance policy" against the impact of cheap NAFTA-enabled imports. It gets worse. The ethanol industry doesn't event want the sugar; they'd have to invest in new machinery to use it. “In today’s grain-based biorefineries, the amount of sugar you could introduce into the process would be fairly small,” said Matt Hartwig, spokesman for the Renewable Fuels Association. Our tax money hard at work. 

It's about "lifting the dome" and letting people do their jobs. This insight into the Chrysler's freshly-minted Co-President's "take plenty of prisoners" management style arrives via The Detroit Free Press. The Freep joined a respect of journos at a Las Vegas round table to grill simmer Press on the changes needed to return Chrysler to profitability. They got bupkis. Nothing on the strike. Zilch on product executions. But they did get more of Press' party line: Chrysler makes cars with "visceral" appeal (I guess reliability and build quality are emotional issues) and Chrysler's employees are great people. "There's a real willingness to listen and do better," Press said. "The main thing I can do is get out of the way." Perhaps Cerberus should have paid Press to not work for them. 

The Detroit News' Daniel Howes reports that FoMoCo is following Chrysler's lead, hoping top Toyota talent can right their sinking ship. James D. Farley, group vice president of Toyota Motor Co.'s Lexus Division, is set to join The Blue Oval Boyz as their first head of global marketing and communications. Howes sings hosannas to Farley's new boss Alan Mulally, sees no downside to the deal and singularly fails to mention the astronomical pay packet involved. "That a rising Toyota star, the head of Lexus and a founder of its Scion youth brand would bolt the Japanese juggernaut for the struggling Blue Oval is a testament to Mulally's leadership, the strength of Ford's current lineup, the promise of its future products and the upside in it all." And once again we feel compelled to point out that Farley, like Chrysler's Jim Press, is the product of a consensus management system, rather than its originator. In other words, one wonders how he fares in the ass-kicking department. Watch this space, and all of Ford's advertising.

The Level Field Institute was established by "retirees and families of GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler [sic]; and the suppliers and dealers that support them." While they don't have a campus they do have a crusade: "promote U.S. jobs, R&D and infrastructure investment by offering clear comparisons of how various automakers contribute to the U.S. economy." In other words, lobby for The Big 2.8. True to their remit, they've created a handy-dandy campaign briefing kit for Democratic presidential hopefuls traveling to Michigan for today's not-so-big debate. The document may give savvy pols pause, as they contemplate Level Field's recommendations: "tackle health care" (nothing more specific is mooted but national health care is where they're at), "kick the tires on new trade agreements" (I think they mean kick the ass of our trading partners to open their markets to US goods) and "call upon our Asian trading partners to stop boosting their exports by manipulating their currencies" (kick 'em again for cheating). We'll be watching the Dems Detroit debate with baited breath. Or not. 

According to The Detroit News, Ford has the second highest research and development (R&D) budget of any company in the world. That's not the second highest in the auto industry. That's the second highest R&D budget of any company in all industries. Ford's $8b R&D budget is second only to Pfizer's, higher than Microsoft's or Johnson & Johnson's. The second place amongst automakers falls to Daimler (formerly DaimlerChrysler, née Daimler-Benz) with a $7.34b budget. The total places it as Europe's biggest spender– but only seventh overall. So let's see… what are we getting from Ford's massive investment in R&D? There's a "new" Taurus which is a Five Hundred with a blinged-out grille, a "new" Focus that's based on an eight-year-old platform, an entire brand that's nothing more than rebadged Fords, and a "luxury" car brand with a 10-year-old flagship model sitting on a 30-year old platform. Yep. Sounds like money well spent to me.

Looking back over last month's US sales stats (Frank Williams is readying his BTN analysis), it's easy to see that healthy sales of full-size pickup trucks have helped stave-off a radical downturn in The Big 2.8's fortunes. The Wall Street Journal reports the trend may be only a temporary reprieve from a generally declining automotive market, with a major reckoning dead ahead. Industry experts from within and without suggest that increased competition (i.e. an industry average of $4k in sales incentives per truck) has created an artificial and unsustainable market. "We're all watering down this truck market," Ford sales-analysis manager George Pipas told the Journal. "There's only so many buyers here, and we're not going to get more buyers from Mars." Pipas predicts a "rough fourth quarter" and says all the discounts, incentives and special financing lavished on pickups will end in tears. "Payback is inevitable." Given The Big 2.8's ongoing reliance on pickups for profits, Pipas might have also observed that payback is a bitch.

The trickle-down effect from auto makers cutting fleet sales is hitting rental car customers. With fewer cars available and prices going up, rental companies are keeping cars longer and adding fees to cut costs. The Wall Street Journal reports that some customers are starting to notice an increase in the mileage on the cars they rent with a corresponding decrease in their condition. Companies are also cutting back on the perks given regular customers and adding additional charges for services such as after-hours returns; some even dictate where you can refill the car before you return it. They justify their actions by pointing out their profit margin on a $50 rental is only about $5; they'll do what they can to keep from losing money. Thrifty renters wanting to Payless on the National scene need to take Advantage of deals and show some Enterprise by looking at their Budget and squeezing every Dollar till it Hertz.  

GM's recent layoffs at their Oshawa Ontario light truck production facility– the plant that builds the automaker's once-upon-a-time Silverado savior– will idle 1100 workers. While we're sure the Canadian Auto Workers union's most excellent contract will keep those paychecks coming for quite some time, you've got to feel for their future. Meanwhile, over at GM Planworks, the future's so bright they're wearing shades. And playing videogames. Crain's Detroit Business reports that the company that handles all of GM's $2.9b media spend piles up the perks. "Employees who reach 10 years of service can take a four-week sabbatical at half-pay. There are 20 paid holidays on the schedule, shorter Friday workdays in the summer and three- and four-day workweeks…. The company also has digital conference rooms with the newest technology, such as TiVo, DVRs, editing equipment and video game consoles." Howzzat? “Having the newest technology has always been a priority,” said Mary Carpenter, GM Planworks' president of strategy and operations. Hey, where's MY iPhone? 

The New York Times reports that Berlin, New Hampshire is recovering from its post-paper mill slump by building a federal prison and an A.T.V./motocross park. Good luck with the prison thing. Meanwhile, in five year's time, Berlin will accommodate Ozzie Osbourne's least favorite form of transportation with some 136 miles of trails and numerous campgrounds. "About 20 miles are open now on the 7,500-acre tract," The Times reports. "Most of which the state bought from a logging company for $2.1 million in 2005. The state has estimated the park will eventually generate $694k in annual revenue." The president of the New Hampshire ATV club says it could be more. "I'm constantly getting calls from southern New England from people looking for some place to go," Rick Lacourse reveals. "At the moment, you've got to go all the way up to Maine to find long trails. If Berlin connects the park with other local trails, you could have 300 miles or more. It'll be a major magnet for off-road enthusiasts."