“I feel like the tailgunner on the Enola Gay,” was the reaction of one Robert Farago to GM’s just-released September sales data. Mr Farago’s quip does perfect justice to the breathtaking horror of GM’s 45 percent decline from last September, itself a dramatically weak sales month. Any remaining hope for GM’s market share clearly died with Cash For Clunkers, as no segment or brand was left untouched by the carnage. And what did a certain Mark LaNeve have to say about the flesh-melting awfulness on the ground in the RenCen? “September was a tough transitional month for the industry, and a difficult year-over-year comparison for GM. Fortunately, the fourth quarter looks brighter and our year-over-year comparisons should look more favorable.” Clearly LaNeve has confused a mushroom cloud for the light at the end of a long, long tunnel.
An Ohio city is so desperate to prevent voters from having a say on the future of speed cameras that it filed a motion Monday asking the state supreme court to strip the public of its right to vote on the issue. In April, residents submitted more than double the number of signatures required to place a photo enforcement referendum on the November ballot (view initiative text). The move so infuriated Mayor Joseph Sulzer that he challenged the ballot with the Ross County Board of Elections earlier this month. Sulzer insists the board had no right to reject this challenge. “Chillicothe seeks a writ of prohibition to prevent the board [of elections] from placing the proposed municipal initiative petition on the November 3, 2009 general election ballot,” the city’s petition states.
We thought the Lexus HS250h would be a cynical rebadge of the Prius with a little more power. We were wrong. The HS was marginally unique enough, but then ToMoCo went and cynically reabdged it as a Toyota and called it the Sai. Sigh. It hasn’t been confirmed for the US yet, but if it is, there’s not much breathing room between the $22k Prius and the $26k Camry Hybrid. Nor would there be much reason left to buy an HS.
Chrysler, the U.S.-funded, Italian-run, formerly bankrupt American automaker is leaking its product plans, ahead of their official unveiling in November. Automotive News [sub] confirms that Sergio Marchionne’s minions have decided to spin off Ram trucks into a separate brand, removing the company’s most profitable product from underneath the Dodge umbrella. For once, AN (or at least its mysterious person of interest) understands the full implications. “The separation of the Ram truck brand will allow Fiat to make Dodge more of a performance car brand, the person said. But the move could also make it easier for Chrysler to spin off its truck business down the road if a continuing slump forced Fiat or U.S. officials to consider such a step.” Did you see that? “U.S. officials.” Pay some attention to the Presidential Task Force behind that curtain! In any case, Chrysler and GM are heading into a perfect storm: continued market share erosion, new product constipation and chaos and, sopra tutti, cash burn.
Most folks believe that hybrids are frugal. If only it were so. Hybrids carry a price premium worth their weight in cadmium. Despite over a million sold, it’s damn hard to find a good deal on one. In five years of searching I’ve only found three solitary steals. Conventional gassers though can be as cheap to buy as a wore out mop. Name your brand (within reason). Name your size. If you’re patient enough, you can almost name your price. Gas beaters are truly cheap to buy. But to own . . .
Official fuel economy testing for all vehicles is conducted on chassis dynamometers, which are basically treadmills for cars and trucks. One subtlety of chassis dynamometer testing is that vehicle fuel economy measurements using decades-old standard speed profiles may be overly optimistic compared to today’s average on-road fuel use. Official methods exist to adjust the test cycle fuel economy of conventional vehicles to better estimate expected real-world fuel use, but a similar adjustment method has yet to be finalized for PHEVs.
From a National Renewable Energy Lab paper on plug-in hybrid efficiency testing [via Green Car Congress].
The Wall Street Journal reports that Roger Penske has pulled out of a deal with GM that would have kept the Saturn brand in business. Per the WSJ report:
The deal called for Penske to initially acquire vehicles from GM but eventually branch out to sell products from Renault SA (RNO.FR) and its Samsung Motors unit, which is based in South Korea. Penske Auto said Wednesday that it negotiated a supply agreement with “another manufacturer,” but that company’s board rejected the deal.
“Without that agreement, the company has determined that the risks and uncertainties related to the availability of future products prohibit the company from moving forward with this transaction,” said Penske Auto.
Reuters confirms the story, adding “GM said in a separate statement it would wind down the Saturn brand and its dealership network.”
Shame on CarMax. While I trust these guys enough to buy an SUV from them, I’m not so happy about their decision to play the estrogen card for PR points. “Buying a car is a hassle for women, according to a recent poll conducted for CarMax, Inc. (NYSE: KMX), the nation’s largest retailer of used cars. When asked about their last car buying experience, a fourth of the women who responded felt a quick and effortless transaction was most missing, according to a new [online] survey of more than 500 women. Fair, low pricing and having a trustworthy salesperson were also cited as the other top factors missing when buying a vehicle.” And this is different for men, how? Rather than concentrating on what unites us, CarMax is focusing on an invidious distinction, pandering for PC brownie points. Check this: the survey asks “Thinking about the last time that you bought a car, which of the following was most missing?” (Most missing?) Only two percent said “Respect” and 13 percent said they’d never bought a car. What does that tell you?
According to a post by Diarmuid O’Connell, Tesla’s Vice President of Business Development,
The Model S platform will also be used for derivatives including a minivan, cross-over utility vehicle and a utility van for fleets and other industrial or civic uses
The Model S sedan already claims seating for seven, with a third row of jump seats under its rear hatch. But hey, why not build other models on the same platform? Nobody shopping a Tesla is going to care about overlap, price premiums or branding issues. The EV business model is still squarely in the “set a price and hope there are enough early adapters out there” era, and more models will help differentiate Tesla from competitors like Fisker. Besides, Tesla has made it clear that they don’t want to be a luxury car maker forever. Elon Musk sees high-end products like the Roadster and Model S Sedan as cocoon from which Tesla will emerge as a fully-formed, mainstream EV manufacturer. And if you’re going to worry about the Silicon Kids on the basis of this one blog post, it should be because of the following syntactically-challenged sentence:
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood kicked off the DoT’s first-ever “Distracted Driving Summit” in Washington today with a speech calling texting while driving a “menace to society.” LaHood cited just-released NHTSA data (PDF) showing that 6,000 road deaths, or about 15 percent of the 2008 total, were caused by distracted drivers as evidence of what he termed a “deadly epidemic.” According to the Detroit News, LaHood singled out drivers under the age of 20 as the worst offenders and called for “a combination of strong laws, tough enforcement and ongoing public education.” And though there seems to be little outcry over the singling out of young whippersnappers, the cell phone industry wants to make sure its products don’t become the scapegoat for LaHood’s ominous metaphors. Makeup, GPS systems, food and other distractions are being discussed as potential targets for action. The summit’s media facts page even points out that “distraction from cell phone use while driving (hand held or hands free) delays a driver’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.” Sorry Ford! A Maine law banning all forms of driver distraction is being looked at as an example, but even LaHood concedes that “We cannot rely on legal action alone, because in reality, you can’t legislative behavior. There aren’t enough police on patrol to catch everyone who’s breaking the law.” Which is a fantastic point, but one that’s apparently not stopping LaHood from considering invasive enforcement techniques.
Make no mistake: GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy horrendously over-dealered. GM was carrying more than twice Toyota’s 1500 dealers (with a lot less than twice the market share). The automakers’ needed to cut their franchise network down to size for reasons elucidated here on numerous occasions. The fact that the culled dealers are dogging the federally-subsidized carmakers for cash—well, you, really—is neither here nor there. It’s on YouTube! In their own words . . .
As the Brits say, it never rains; it only pours. The New York Times reports that pickup truck sales are falling into the same bottomless pit that swallowed-up full-size SUVs. Apparently, “the precipitous decline in pickup sales has been greater than many auto executives had expected.” Sure, ’cause the domestic automakers’ suits are so good at forecasting sales, or preparing for their forecasts to be wrong, or reacting when their forecasts turn out seriously awry. I’m not so sure the decline contains as much precipitation [sic] as the Old Gray Lady suggests. “When pickup sales were at their peak in 2004, the segment accounted for nearly 15 percent of all new vehicles sold. This year, pickup sales represent about 10 percent of the overall market.” And remember: even with enough cash on the hood to test their suspensions, pickups are still Motown’s number one money maker. How scary is that, Mr. GM owner? Anyway, it’s the cultural change that intrigues . . .
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