This guy is being called Britain’s drunkest driver, after Old Blighty’s ubiquitous security cameras caught him urinating on his own car before driving off.
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GM was supposed to have a restructuring plan for Opel in place by the end of December, but it’s looking like that deadline is DOA. In a blog post at GM Europe’s “Driving Conversations” blog, GME supremo Nick Reilly explains:
While it is indeed exciting to see that things are coming together, bear in mind this is going to be one of the largest, most complex industrial reorganisations in European manufacturing in years. It will affect thousands of people and their families; impact plants and other stakeholders.
We are determined to do this right. We must do this right. Although we had hoped to have the new business model finalised in December, it appears that more work needs to be done and further consultations will not be rushed.
I said earlier that we would have a plan in place by year-end. Now it looks like an announcement may slip into January. This is not a broken promise. It is a pledge to do something right.
The Scion xD is known in Europe as the “Urban Cruiser,” and with an AWD option it’s sold as a quasi-SUV. According to a Euro NCAP crash test of comact cars though, the Urban Cruiser offers a lot less safety than you might expect in an SUV. NCAP’s latest round of compact testing saw vehicles from the new Opel Astra and Chevy Cruze to the Peugeot 308 and Mazda3 recording perfect five-star scores, indicating just how safe compact cars have become. And even the video of the Urban Cruiser’s three-star performance lacks the drama of earlier compact crash tests: a failure of side airbags and a weak performance in the new side pole crash caused the poor score. Most embarrassing of all, the Chevrolet Spark (neé Daewoo Matiz Creative) came in second to last, scoring four stars to the Urban Cruiser’s three.
The blood is flowing like water at the RenCen, as brand-new Buick-GMC manager Michael Richards has left General Motors after nine days on the job. The Detroit News reports that Susan Docherty’s replacement left to “pursue other career opportunities.” Richards had been VP Sales and Marketing at Austin, Texas automotive firm Trilogy, and according to the DetN’s sources:
Trilogy made a strong counteroffer to keep Richards, and he was said to be considering that offer in light of Friday’s management shakeup engineered by Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre
So much for hiring outsiders.
Chevrolet brand manager Brent Dewar has become the latest victim of Ed Whitacre’s purge of GM’s management, reports Automotive News [sub]. Dewar will be replaced by James Campbell, who had been in charge of GM’s Fleet and Commercial Operations. According to a GM release:
Dewar has elected to retire effective April 1, 2010 to dedicate more time to his family and to pursue personal interests. Until then, Dewar will work closely with Campbell to ensure a smooth transition at Chevrolet and also will be on a special assignment supporting Mark Reuss, GM president North America, in his new role.
Chinese Gasgoo is quoting Sweden’s Dagens Industri (DI) as saying that Geely will sign a contract later this week for the intellectual property rights of Ford’s Volvo Cars. Let’s hope everybody has their translations right.
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Autoextremist Peter DeLorenzo is an interesting figure in the auto commentary landscape. Though TTAC has often taken the pioneering car blogger to task for inconsistencies (especially during bailout mania), it’s no surprise that DeLorenzo’s ability to see things as they are comes and goes. After all, the guy is the quintessential insider’s outsider: as a former marketing and ad man, the Autoextremist is always in the Detroit tent… the only question week-to-week is whether he’s going to be pissing out or pissing in. Well, this week the deluge is headed straight for the part of the tent occupied by GM’s new CEO Ed Whitacre and his activist board. And it smells of well-aged vintage Deathwatch.
But before I get into Whitacre’s executive moves, you’re probably gathering I’m not buying “Big Ed’s” act, and you’d be right. After doing some digging around Whitacre’s previous executive life at AT&T, it’s easy to come away with a highly unflattering portrayal of GM’s “interim” CEO. First of all, the “aw shucks I’m just a country boy who has a few good ideas” persona is total bullshit. In his previous executive life Whitacre was known as an arrogant know-it-all who was never wrong, never listened to reasoned advice and who brought absolutely nothing to the table of his own on a day-in, day-out basis. Shocking? Hardly. Anyone who thinks The Peter Principle isn’t alive and well in corporate America today is kidding themselves.
Here’s a shout-out to Dave Skinner, who recognized the Jeep’s under-seat gas tank. And to all of you seventeen loyal fans of CC Clue, have no fear; we will forge ahead. Well, we did stop giving hints a while back, and it probably won’t help a lot if I tell you that today’s mystery car is younger than the Jeep. Have fun.
Call it “a bid to retain green credentials”, call it “distractions to all the recalls,” Toyota are keen to let you know that they are targeting a 27% reduction in energy consumed per vehicle produced at their North American facilities. Environmentalleader.com reports that Toyota are using fiscal year 2002 as a baseline and Toyota hopes that by 2011, the goal of 27% will be achieved. The areas which Toyota are concentrating on are energy & climate change, recycling & reduced use of resources, substances of concern and air quality. Now here come the boring figures.
Check out Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne’s recent quote-tastic speech and Q&A session at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The speech is almost identical to the one he gave at the Five-Year Plan, but the Q&A session is full of fun insights, ranging from Sergio’s fear of a Chinese planet and Opel regrets to the reasons for pricing discrepancies between Europe and the US.
Rest assured, I have found a genuine 1966 Toro for an upcoming full CC. And I’ve seen a fairly rare ’77 XS with the wrap-around rear window in someone’s yard that I will hunt down. In the meantime, let’s content ourselves with this somewhat mundane ’85. Read More >
Picture above are the base-model prices for the cheapest sedan and hatchback variants of the new Ford Fiesta. As you can see, the cheapest Fiesta hatch is priced $1,800 more than the cheapest sedan. In part, that’s because Ford won’t offer an S trim Fiesta hatchback, but even in the best apples-to-apples comparison, the SE trim hatch costs $800 more than an SE sedan. Compare that to last month’s subcompact segment sales leader, the Nissan Versa. Like Ford, Nissan makes its lowest-cost models sedan-only; in fact you can’t buy a Versa hatch with the base 1.6-liter engine. By that measure, the $9,990 “base” 1.6 sedan is a whole lot cheaper than the lowest-cost Versa hatch, the $13,150 1.8 S. But compared apples-to-apples to a 1.8 S sedan, the cheapest Versa hatch carries a mere $50 premium over the sedan. As a hatchback lover, I want to damn Ford for not offering a hatchback Fiesta for less than $15k. On the other hand, with so few hatchback options on the market, I can understand why Ford would want to squeeze more cash out of weirdos like me who crave hatches possibly because nobody else does. But has Ford taken the hatchback premium too far?
Thought, you’d seen the last of Renault in North America? Well, think again and this time, they’re bringing their big guns! The Wall Street Journal [sub] reports that Gerard Detourbet, head of Renault’s entry level division is contemplating selling their low cost cars in South East Asia and North America. “We’re looking at Southeast Asia closely,” he said “We ended up not going there for a variety of reasons. But the idea is that we won’t remain absent from that territory.”
Who would have thought that they are moving that fast: VW will buy a 20 percent stake in Japan’s Suzuki for $2.5 billion. It’s announced and it is official, including a photo-op with a beaming Winterkorn next to a grinning Osamu Suzuki. Rumors of that, well, tie-up had been around for a while and had recently intensified, but the speed is nonetheless surprising. Except for those who know Piech. At the September IAA auto show, Piech had said that 12 brands are better than 10. Everybody who knew Piech knew that he was referring to MAN/Scania trucks on one end of the spectrum, and Suzuki small cars and even motor bikes at the other.
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