As I’ve been saying since 1846, the Ford “brand” is so amorphous that it wears a set of air quotes. In other words, Ford doesn’t stand for much of anything. It stands for everything (another way of saying nothing): innovation, excitement, great value and family product [sic]. And those are just the four selling points FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally mentions in the Taurus YouTube video before the editor cuts him off. These days, brand-wise, Ford’s greatest selling point (singular) is that it isn’t GM or Chrysler. Compelling as that may be, it’s not all that compelling. And so The Detroit Free Press reports that Ford is building on its non-GMness by launching a 24-week ad campaign featuring “actual [as opposed to?] Ford customers talking about the features of the Ford vehicles that they like.” Yes, well, does anyone really buy a Ford over a Toyondaissan based on “surprise and delight” features like a capless fuel filler or a built-in refrigerator, neither of which is unique to Ford? I still think The Glass House Gang would be better advised to re-build their brand on the “Built Ford Tough” meme. You?
Category: News Blog
What kind of Lexus is this, and why is my neck hair standing to attention?
AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson has issues with the industry practice of maintaining 50 to 60 days worth of supply of new vehicles. In today’s Automotive News [sub], Jackson advocates for a 30-day benchmark, blasting the manufacturers for their complacency.
What other business accepts the same benchmark for 50, 60 years and says, ‘That’s fine”? As soon as you put the parts together in a vehicle, nobody cares if it sits there for 90 days. And how you can get those ideas together in the same head is beyond me
Disagree? Take a look at the latest Automotive News [sub] inventory report before you weigh in. One example: as of September 1, Buick had a 25-day supply of LaCrosse and a 130-day supply of Lucerne. Cadillac and Lincoln also had no models with fewer than 72 days of supply. It seems this Jackson character is on to something…
Brand Mid-size Full-size
Toyota Camry:25,745 Avalon:1,939
Nissan Altima:12,149 Maxima:5,901
Hyundai Sonata:7,898 Azera:339
Ford Fusion:10,834 Taurus:5,077
Chevrolet Malibu:10,479 Impala:13,047
Chrysler Sebring:1,451 300:3,411
I saw the strangest thing yesterday. Driving down a country highway there appeared to be a tattered old Toyota pickup and a 1990’s Chrysler LHS spread amongst five foot tall weeds. Further peering in resulted in an Escort Wagon, 3 Oldsmobile Cutlass Convertibles and 2 Sebrings. I wondered… had Monsanto finally invented some special car seed to plague the Americas? Not yet. Thankfully. Instead it was a dealer friend who was literally hiding his compulsions amongst the kudzu. His case may be extreme since he apparently has nearly 30 vehicles strewn throughout his prairie land. But he’s not alone.
Insiders are bankrolling the lone group that supports red light cameras in College Station, Texas. Last month, the Keep College Station Safe Political Action Committee (PAC) formed “to give a voice to local residents who support the significant safety benefits of the city’s red-light camera program.” Financial disclosure reports filed on Monday show that no College Station resident has actually supported the effort. The PAC reported collecting $19,000 in political donations, of which $10,000 was provided by ATS. Another $6,500 was provided as an in-kind donation from Questmark Information Management Inc, a company that holds a contract for printing toll road statements and tickets for Harris County. ATS happens to run the cameras that generate the citations for Harris County toll roads. The only other contribution listed was a $2500 contribution from a Houston firm, REM Services, Inc.
The last time we checked-in with jameslist.com, they were pimping a no-miles-to-speak-of XJ220 that was up for auction. I didn’t play coy on the subject; I slated the XJ220 as a slap-in-the-face of Jag’s history, and one of the most difficult and dangerous automobiles to drive on a public road. Period. Several of our Best and Brightest leaped (leaped I tell you) to the big cat’s defense. It’s as sexy as Kate Beckinsale writhing on a kitchen counter-top in front of aluminum pots of steaming water (as if). And Jeremy Clarkson says the XJ’s faster than a Pagani Zonda (in a straight line)! So, from that “debate” to this: the BMW 5-Series GT. If you ask me—and I’m fully aware you haven’t—james has grown a set of stones. While BMW doesn’t play at the top tier, their boutique brand Rolls Royce sure does. And the company has a nasty history of vindictiveness against truth-telling journos. So well done that man, ’cause the GT is fugly. AND the rear seats don’t fold flat. Take it away James. Please.
Now that former Susan Docherty has been elevated to the nationalized automaker’s top marketing slot, the ever-churlish independent press (guilty as charged) has focused on the fact that the former Buick-Pontiac-GMC marketing chief is a GM lifer—in a company with a sworn dedication to change its cancerous culture. Only hours after hinting that he’d consider a non-GM exec for marketing jefe, fellow GM lifer and current CEO Fritz Henderson gave Docherty the nod and said this about that: “Whoever replaced LaNeve needed to come from inside GM because the dealership network and sales role is complicated and would be difficult for an outsider to learn.” Hubris meets the Peter Principle on the taxpayer’s dime. Nice. So . . . what’s this, then, from the GM press release announcing Docherty’s ascension? “GM will look outside to fill the Buick-GMC general manager position. ‘This will infuse new ideas and an outside perspective into our marketing efforts,’ Henderson said.” So what’s good enough for Buick-GMC isn’t good enough for the corporate mothership? Never mind singing from the same page; GM’s management is so out of tune it makes caterwauling cats seem like the The Philippine Madrigal Singers, only nowhere near as exotic.
Did you think that finally sacking Mark LaNeve might have been another step in the direction towards the “culture change” promised land? Time for some new meds. And while we usually have to sit on our sour-puss predictions for a few days before being proven right, GM decided to back us up early this time. Automotive News [sub] reports that none other than Buick-GMC boss Susan Docherty will be replacing LaNeve at the pinnacle of the GM sales operation. “She brings a fresh perspective to the job and she has an extraordinarily high level of energy,” says Fritz Henderson. By which he means she’s a lifer, and owes her career to the timid, inept culture Henderson is simultaneously a product of and ostensibly bent on breaking.
GM’s PR efforts have a kind of spastic, bipolar quality to them. Months of near-silence are punctuated by spasms of oversharing and an avalanche of hype, none of which typically addresses the underlying concerns which prompted the orchestrated campaign. Bouncing off of today’s 90-day report card today, Chevrolet’s Brent Dewar hosted a Fastlane livechat in which we were given yet another chance to learn more than we ever wanted about the people running Chevrolet. And next to nothing about the future of the bowtie brand.
True story: New Chrysler’s Italian boss has promised America’s taxpayer/owners that the former bankrupt will release its “five-year plan” on November fourth. Setting aside the laughable idea that Chrysler has enough money to survive ’til 2011 (never mind 2014), one wonders whether the CEO of a multi-billion dollar automotive conglomerate could be that ignorant of history, or that good at post-modern irony. Lest we (or he) forget, the Soviet Union’s Gosudarstvennyi Komitet po Planirovaniyu (GOSPLAN) pretty much coined the phrase “five-year plan” when they tried to force the state-controlled Russian economy to do . . . whatever they told it to do. And how did that turn out? “Altogether, there were 13 five-year plans,” the Wikipedia hive mind reports. “The first one was accepted in 1928, for the five year period from 1929 to 1933, and completed one year early. The last, thirteenth Five-Year Plan was for the period from 1991 to 1995 and was not completed, as the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991.” Not to put too fine a point on it, the USSR’s five-year plans were a monumental failure; an effort at social control that resulted in misery (e.g. starvation, forced migrations) for millions of people. Marchionne’s use of the term is about as bad as it gets without evoking Godwin’s Law. Still, can’t wait!
It’s a sad day for the dealer body. I felt GM had its best chance with him. He was a great leader and inspirational. Hopefully the rest of management will stay intact.
A Buick dealer gives the only known positive post-mortem for the latest victim of GM’s cultural revolution [via Automotive News [sub]]. A more fitting eulogy might be found here.
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