Are there any winners of carmageddon? You bet there are: The Germans. They were sheltered from the American meltdown by virtue of a minuscule market share. At home in Europe, they were saved in 2009 by European cash for clunkers largesse. Following that, they could not make enough cars to power the insatiable export machine.

Development pretty much came to a halt in the U.S. and Japan in 2009. It yet has to reach full revs. Flush with cash, German manufacturers never had to stop the development of new cars. Due to the long development cycles, we just begin to see the beginnings of this effect. Read More >

A North Carolina lawmaker on Thursday introduced legislation that would make it a crime to operate a red light camera or speed camera. State Senator Don East (R-Pilot Mountain), a twenty-year veteran of the Winston Salem police force, believes that it is not enough to pass a law that merely outlaws photo enforcement.

“It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a traffic control photographic system in this state,” Senate Bill 187 states. “A violation of this section is a Class 1 misdemeanor and shall result in the forfeiture of any photographic system used for traffic control.”

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WIZARD… NEEDS… FOOD! Okay, only some of you are the right age to remember where that phrase originated, but if you are, just imagine that same voice saying, SOUTH… CAROLINA… NEEDS… CASH! There’s an $800 million hole in the state budget. If I ran the state, I’d slap a $400 tariff on every smartphone from China that crosses the border and get David Boies to argue that the interstate commerce clause shouldn’t be any part of “the living Constitution”. That’s my awesome idea and I’m excited about it.

Since most of you live in the so-called “real world”, however, you’ve no doubt realized from whence some of this missing money is going to be extorted: the hapless, helpless American motorist.

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In a press conference in the late Chinese afternoon, China’s CAAM announced its official February sales numbers. The Middle Kingdom kept face and avoided a loss. Read More >

Today, Akio Toyoda presented Toyota’s „Global Vision“ to the press in Tokyo. Sure, there are the usual affirmations to “continue to furnish world-class safety,” and to “continue to contribute to environmental quality and to human happiness.” But what are they really up to? Read More >

According to Steve Rattner, Chrysler was such a sick puppy in the immediate pre-bailout period that it would have only generated about $1b had it been liquidated in bankruptcy. Thanks to around $14b in government assistance, however, Chrysler is now worth a whopping $4.8b according to a Reuters analysis of its filings. But wait, you say, how does Chrysler have a valuation if it hasn’t yet launched an IPO?

Chrysler arrived at the valuation to set pay for its top executives, including Marchionne. Senior executives are paid partly through so-called deferred phantom shares, which will convert to shares in the company at a later date.

In June 2009, each share was worth $1.66, according to the filing. By the end of 2010, the value of each share was $7.95.

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Back in 2001 VW was the comeback kid . Sales had grown over seven-fold in only eight years from less than 50k in 1993 to over 350k and change. It seemed like the company was offering everything an aspiring Yuppie wanted to buy. At least here in the States. Cute Jettas and Beetles for the successful young female (and a few males). Turbochargers, stickshifts, and GTI’s for those who coveted a sport model. Diesels for the frugal and the long-term owner. Even wagons and convertibles for those who were flipping between becoming a ‘family man’ or a mid-life crisis. VW was hip and profitable… but then the market woke up.

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Another day, another way to die in a car… and this time, the IIHS blames weak safety standards for semi-truck underride guards for this mangled Malibu [report PDF here]. The IIHS argues that

Under current certification standards, the trailer, underride guard, bolts, and welding don’t have to be tested as a whole system. That’s a big part of the problem. Some manufacturers do test guards on the trailer. We think all guards should be evaluated this way. At the least, all rear guards should be as strong as the best one we tested

But the best underride system they tested (a Wabash) still would have likely decapitated the Malibu driver in a 30% offset hit at 35 MPH. So even if government enact the stricter standards endorsed by the IIHS, you’ll still have to hit the rear of a semi truck fairly square-on in order to reap the benefits. But of the 2,200+ passenger car occupants who died in crashes with large trucks in 2009, we have no idea how many were square-on rear crashes like the one tested. And until the IIHS gets the government to regulate bumpers height, crash test-derived standards will always be less effective when they leave the lab and get into the messy real world of the American road.

When Chrysler Group first announced that it would be spinning off its Ram truck brand in order to allow the Dodge brand to “come out of the shadow of the trucks,” there was at least some logic to be found in the decision. After all, there used to be more to Dodge than truck-inspired styling and marketing, and concentrating “Ram-ness” into the trucks made a certain amount of sense. But then, Chrysler Group announced that Ram would be moving into the commercial vehicle business with a pair of European-style deliver vans, raising the question of how these distinctly un-Ram-like vans would fit in with the brand’s bro-magnon image. But now the Ram brand has a new problem: before it even challenges its fans with front-drive Euro-vans, it’s dropping a windowless Ram Cargo Van based on the Dodge Caravan. Because what separates a spun-off brand from its previous brand like shared product? Whatever Kool Aid they’re drinking over at the Ram Brand, my tank is just about full of it.

My memories of ‘charity cars’ are not fond ones. Back in the late 1990’s the dirtiest public auction in metro-Atlanta would line up about 50 of these vehicles for the beginning of their sale. The acrid smell of blown head gaskets and leaking oils of every type would soon emanate the auction as most of these vehicles were pushed past the block. Back then you could buy a non-running car for about $20, and a running one for no more than $250. The high bidders were usually dealers, who would then bring back the same vehicles the following week and try to sell them for huge markup’s.
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Tesla has made much of the fact that its next model, the Model S sports sedan, will be half the price of its $110k Roadster and be built in far greater volume… but it turns out that both of these goals are going to take just a little bit longer than Tesla thought. Though the Model S will be offered at a base price of $57,400 with a 160 mile range, that version won’t be built until after the firm produces its first 1,000 units. Those first thousand models of the 5,000 unit 2012 production run will be loaded “Signature Series” models that will cost at least $77,400 (the base price for all Model S versions with 300 miles of range). According to Tesla, versions with a 230 mile range will start at around $67,400.

And with 20k units of production planned for 2013, Tesla had better not run into any delays as it won’t build its firs “production intent” (known internally as “Beta”) models until late this year. That gives the firm only about 6 months to validate the production-intent version, tool up and build the thing for its mid-2012 launch. And with a first run of expensive, loaded models planned, customers will definitely expect the kinks to have been worked out. This is going to be interesting…

How did we miss Colin Bird’s Cars.com post about Buick outselling Lexus for the second month in a row? I suspect it’s because we aren’t on the GM-blogger approved-stories distribution list. Typically, writing a GM puff-piece after going on the free parrot-the-party-line trip means you’re then rewarded with a sweet whip to roll around and impress your friends. The only way your humble author is getting a Buick this week is by renting one. As Peter Green once said, oh well.

Back to the topic at hand. Buick outsold Lexus in February. Does it matter?

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China’s FAW-Volkswagen joint venture is celebrating twenty years and two million units of the Volkswagen Jetta III, with a “2 million” special edition featuring “special paint and a more luxurious interior” according to thetycho.com. But will the Two Million Edition swath the aged Jetta with even more luxury than the Jetta Millionaire Edition?And when, if ever, will they stop making the old MkIII Jetta? Actually, considering that base versions of the brand new Jetta feature drum brakes, torsion bar rear suspension and ancient, underpowered engines, FAW-VW might just keep the original cranking out for a good while longer.

Two more California communities are questioning the wisdom of photo enforcement. As of today, red light cameras are no longer operational in Rocklin after the city council decided not to renew the contract with Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia. The council in Victorville felt the same way but found it much more difficult to pull the plug on automated ticketing machines.

Rocklin began using cameras at two intersections in 2006, but the program failed to generate the significant amount of revenue promised. The expiration of the five-year contract allowed the city to end the project painlessly, avoiding a number of upcoming legal and policy perils.

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With a little more than a million cars sold in 2010, Audi booked a record profit of $3.65 billion. That’s $3,348 per car. Now you know why they are so expensive. GM made $4.7 billion last year on 8,389,769 cars. That’s $560 per car. Now you know why they are so cheap.  You think that’s an unfair comparison? Not so: Audi’s secret to success is the same as GM’s: China. Read More >