GM’s New CEO Ed Whitacre made his first appearance at the Fastlane blog in a webchat that represented the first access GM has given reporters to Whitacre. Needless to say, journalists do not like sharing their access with the general public, and they let GM know. Thedetroitbureau’s Paul Eisenstein asked “like many of my colleagues, I wonder when you will address us in the media directly, even if by telephone conference. To be honest, a webchat is quite a bit different and doesn’t carry the veracity of seeing or at least hearing you directly.” To which Whitacre responded:
Dear Paul,
I’ve been on the job for four days. I’ll do it as soon as I feel comfortable and have enough clear air and time. I promise we’ll talk soon.
No worries though. Whitacre didn’t actually say anything newsworthy.
Are you surprised that the Versa is the segment leader? It does offer a roomy versatile package for the buck. And it reflects the reality of 2009: maximum utility for minimum price. The Fit’s a bit pricey, and is coming off a stellar 2008. The Accent and Rio’s sales combined would make the true subcompact leader, not surprisingly. Their success can be seen in the Yaris’ less-than stellar numbers. Aveo is a perpetual laggard. Mini got hit hard recently, but not as bad as Smart, which is really smarting. Chart follows: Read More >
From here on out, GM’s success in the US market comes down to two people: Susan Docherty and Mark Reuss. The two fielded their first joint sales conference call last week, and it was clear that they were still settling into their roles. Listen to the whole hour of awkwardness here, or, for a quick summary check out the final questions of the session (from the WSJ’s John Stoll), and the prickly, defensive answers from Docherty and Reuss. When Stoll asks how Reuss and Docherty expect to change a culture when they’re a product of that culture, the tension is palpable. Then, when Stoll accuses Docherty’s sales organization of buying market share with incentives, the pair’s non-answer is “I guess that’s what you feel.” Meanwhile, Edmunds reports that GM has by far the highest incentives of any automaker, with a True Cost of Incentives of $4,270, over a thousand dollars more than number two Chrysler. Good thing we’re tackling those problems head-on then.
The following is a piece called “What We Wear” by Alex Law, reprinted from the Automobile Journalist Association of Canada’s November 27 “Mini Newsletter.” Read More >
As soon as GM and Chrysler agreed to review their dealer cull decisions, the culled dealers in question began complaining that the review would not improve their situations. According to the aggrieved dealers, the new review would be based on the same allegedly flawed data as the initial cull, meaning nothing would be changed. By GM’s own admission, only 39-51 of the over 1,000 dealers cut would even stand a chance at reinstatement. Now, Automotive News [sub] reports that a new measure has passed the House of Representatives which would allow dealers to “present any kind of relevant information during the arbitration.” The measure comes in the form of an amendment to the House Financial Services bill, which is headed to a conference committee in which House and Senate leaders must arrive at a compromise in order to send the bill to President Obama.
In keeping with our Jeep theme today, let’s take a look at how its off-road capable descendants are doing. There are a couple of qualifications here. I included the Dodge Nitro because I forgot to include it in the CUV snapshot. Or where does that belong? And I don’t have the premium European brands SUVs here. Would anyone take one off-road? But then the same applies to a few of the ones here too. Analysis and chart follows: Read More >
Rumors of a VW-Suzuki tie-up were first floated on these pages by Bertel Schmitt, who reported that VW might be after a ten percent stake in the Japanese firm last summer. And with news last week that GM was buying out Suzuki’s stake in CAMI, the momentum seemed to be building. Well, Reuters reports that Volkswagen could announce that it’s taking a 20 percent stake in Suzuki, a deal valued at $2.8b, as soon as this week. Another source tells Reuters that the VW stake could become a 33 percent plus controlling interest in the future. Read More >
Beginning around 4am Friday morning, about 250 speed cameras throughout The Netherlands were gift-wrapped in festive boxes that prevented the devices from issuing automated tickets. The cameras were thus decorated as part of a publicity stunt for the “Go Fast” energy drink with the help of about seventy company employees. Many of those involved dressed either as Saint Nicholas or Zwarte Piet as they went about their work, costumes appropriate for the eve of the feast of St. Nicholas. In a previous stunt, several speed cameras had “Go Fast” advertising stickers placed on them — most of which are still in place. This time, however, police were quickly dispatched to remove the cardboard gift boxes so that ticketing could resume.
In England, vigilantes on Tuesday used a gasoline-soaked tire to burn a speed camera in Leigh at around 11pm. The automated ticketing machine was located on London Road near the Elms pub, The Echo reported. Police have no suspects.
As posted earlier, the American based Crown Consortium finally made an offer, said to be on par with Geely’s, perhaps calculating that Ford will prefer an American buyer to the Chinese. According to Swedish business site di.se Roger Holtback of Crown confirmed to tt.se [sub] that the Crown Consortium has made an offer on Volvo. Geely still has the edge, though: according to Ford Spokesman John Gardiner to Wall Street Journal, Geely is still the “preferred bidder.” But that doesn’t mean it’s exclusive.
“A Flush GM to Lavish Cash On New Vehicles,” goes the NY Times headline, forshadowing the kind of profligacy that only happens when you have $42.6 billion of taxpayer money burning a hole in the corporate pockets. From the next generation of truck and SUV platforms to the Cadillac Alpha (known in-house as “BMW Fighter”), that money is going towards products…. at least it is when it’s not going to faltering overseas operations. And in most cases that’s a good thing. For example, Mark Reuss explains “ with the BMW fighter, the steering in that vehicle is going to be absolutely critical. In the past we would have gone to the lowest cost source, but not anymore.” Well, good on ya, mate. When it comes to the Volt though, the money doesn’t seem like it’s being quite as well spent.
Forget about the children starving down in China. Chinese are hungry for cars. And they are being fed.
Reports cited by China Daily and Gasgoo indicate a record November for China’s car sales, as predicted by TTAC.
Sales of passenger vehicles, including cars, multi-purpose vehicles (MPVs), sports-utility vehicles (SUVs) and minivans, more than doubled to 1.01 million last month, surging 103.7 percent year-on-year, and increased 9.5 percent from October, Rao Da, secretary-general of China Passenger Car Association, said according to Xinhua. Total vehicle sales in November 2009 reached more than 1.35 million units. Read More >
It’s pretty much as clear as it can possibly be that China’s BAIC will cart off the used tooling of the 9-5 and 9-3 models, and possibly others to Beijing, and then that’s the end of Trollhättan and Saab, Reuters reports.
Other assets of the brand, including its headquarters will be liquidated, more than 3,000 Saab jobs in Sweden will go bye-bye. The Saab car brand will be retired. Read More >
We thought we’d seen the last of the unintended acceleration crazes come and go for good nearly two decades ago. We were wrong. Somehow, like Camaros, Chrysler bailouts and Whitney Houston, the phenomenon has clawed its way back into the American consciousness this year. Consumer Reports even devotes an entire study to the number of unintended acceleration complaints lodged against the 2008 model-year with the NHTSA. Unsurprisingly, the big winner was Toyota, with 41 percent of the complaints, Ford came in second with 28 percent while Chrysler had nine percent. But wait, how many cases were there in total? Only 166? So, of the 2.2m vehicles Toyota sold in 2008, a total of 52 complaints were lodged about a phenomenon with no good mechanical explanation… and Consumer Reports wants us to believe that this is statistically significant?
After jpcavanaugh nailed the T-Bird on the first guess, I got a little discouraged and skipped a clue for the Mustang. I figured it would be hard to find a part on that car that everyone wouldn’t instantly recognize. But I will keep trying. And probably the first guesser tonight will know exactly what this is. Oh well. Shall we keep the clues coming though?
This may seem a little weird but its not common, On Oct.27 2009 i started having labor pains, Here in Hawaii everything is so close but it was about 8:00 am and traffic here is horrible. My husband and i left to the hospital expecting a normal delivery and no problems, well like i said traffic is horrible here what would of been 30 mins to the hospital ended up as an hour drive with my husband driving down the side lanes and finally calling for a police escort, the whole time this was going on i went into labor while sitting in the front seat and holding onto the anything in the car. I gave birth to our daughter 10 mins away from the hospital in the front seat of our fusion!! With all the crazy driving screaming and yelling we got there safe with our new little girl and no damages to the car inside and out!.I’ve got to say thank you Ford for making a spacious Safe car that got us safely to the hospital…
Ford Fusion: now with placenta-repelling leather seats. Seriously, does this even qualify as a testimonial?
GM’s New CEO Ed Whitacre made his first appearance at the Fastlane blog in a webchat that represented the first access GM has given reporters to Whitacre. Needless to say, journalists do not like sharing their access with the general public, and they let GM know. Thedetroitbureau’s Paul Eisenstein asked “like many of my colleagues, I wonder when you will address us in the media directly, even if by telephone conference. To be honest, a webchat is quite a bit different and doesn’t carry the veracity of seeing or at least hearing you directly.” To which Whitacre responded:
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