Autoblog—nope. Can’t do it. Not allowed. TTAC’s Best and Brightest have forbidden me from flaming AOL’s . . . uh . . . website. So I’ll just point out that the off-camera comments are largely supportive and wonder why AB’s crack team weren’t allowed behind the wheel of GM’s Hail Mary plug-in hybrid. I mean, there are plenty of prototypes plying the highway (at something less than 230 mpg, presumably). Oh, and as our ever-vigilant former Managing Editor Justin Berkowitz points out, who knew the Volt was not a quint-essential conveyance? [NB: Sarcasm Alert] Less prosaically, “That’s going to piss people off.”
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TTAC recently published a Wild Ass Rumor about Buick LaCrosse wiring problems. Jim Federico breached the GM – TTAC wall to quash the suggestion that production vehicles suffered from electrical gremlins. “I can confirm there is NO truth to this RUMOR,” the LaCrosse Vehicle Line Executive/Chief Engineer wrote. So I called the man responsible for “any car on the GM Global Mid-Size platform until I retire or get fired, whatever comes first.” [Note: GM no longer uses Greek names for its platforms. Literally. Federico flat-out refused to identify the Buick’s platform as an “Epsilon.”] Federico told me GM has delivered roughly a thousand LaCrosse to dealers; only one has been marked return to sender. “It was a car with a burned-out starter,” he revealed. “We identified the problem as a defective component and contacted the supplier to rectify the situation.” Now, as for that wiring rumor . . .
At the risk of some unseemly self-congratulation, this is why you didn’t catch the hot Cayman Shooting Brake rumor here at TTAC: it’s a fake. The New York Times reveals that the hoax was perpetrated by a Top Gear USA summer intern using 3-D graphics software and a lot of spare time. And the job was well enough done to make a number of well-known car blogs look a bit foolish. Enthusiasts are such suckers!
Let’s not kid ourselves, the cash is the important part. And though the CARS legislation requires the DOT to refund dealers for their clunker deals within ten days, Automotive News [sub] reports that it just ain’t happening. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last week that the bugs had been worked out of the CARS computer system, and the National Auto Dealers Association concurred. “There are kinks still left in the system, but they, too, are being worked out,” NADA spokesfolk said at the time. Turns out they spoke too soon.
[thanks to Robstar for the link]
Swedish supercar builders Koenigsegg wants to “liberate” Saab from GM. To that end, Mr. Koenigsegg and his partner Bård Eker assembled a group of investors to back their play. Publicly, only one other name was attached to the Koenigsegg Group (KG) proposal: Mark Bishop. Bishop is an unlikely auto magnate; a publicity shy California wheeler-dealer with a dubious past in the sub-prime mortgage CDO re-bundling business. Bishop reportedly held a 22 percent stake in KG. No more. As TTAC predicted, the Swedes have shown Bishop the lucka.
GM China’s sales are on a tear because of small mini buses made by SAIC-GM-Wuling. The venture, in which GM owns 34 percent, sold 87,925 of the small, rugged utes in July alone, up 90.7 percent from a year earlier. They are mostly being snapped up by farmers, helped by Beijing’s stimulus initiatives. Now, GM injects additional steroids: Exports of the Made in China vehicles.
Read More >
GM’s SEC Filing, Form 8-K, August 7, 2009 is 3100 pages long. Full marks, then, to someone at Autocar [UK] for reading the document and winkling-out this bit about the Volt’s viability (there’s that word again). Props, also, to our Justin Berkowitz for finding the unidentified source of Autocar’s report and doing same. It should be noted that SEC filings, like all corporate disclaimers, are obliged to moot the gloomiest possible scenario (i.e., CYA). Even so, this is pretty sobering stuff, considering it was released four days before the 230 mpg hoopla.
We intend to invest significant capital resources to support our products and to develop new technology. In addition, we are committed to invest heavily in alternative fuel and advanced propulsion technologies between 2009 and 2012, largely to support our planned expansion of hybrid and electric vehicles, consistent with our announced objective of being recognized as the industry leader in fuel efficiency. Moreover, if our future operations do not provide us with the liquidity we anticipate, we may be forced to reduce, delay or cancel our planned investments in new technology.
Police in Frankston, Australia used automobile seizure laws this weekend to impound a toy motorcycle belonging to a little girl. While under her father’s supervision, Laney Frankland, 5, had been riding in circles around a reserve near the end of a neighborhood cul-de-sac on a 49cc motorbike. Police arrived on the scene late in the afternoon to tell the little girl that she was not supposed to be riding in that location. The officers then summoned a tow truck to take away her bike. The girl ran to her mother. “I thought she had hurt herself,” Tracey Frankland explained in an interview with 3AW Radio. “She came back and she was hysterical. Her face was bright red and tears were pouring down her face. Now she thinks the police are bad.”
John writes:
I own an E92 M3 and it’s my huckleberry, except for one thing—with a gas tank capacity of about 16 gallons, road range is a measly 300 miles between fills. And when I drive, I want to drive.
Every other car I have owned has been able to do 400 miles on a single tank in highway driving with the exception of my STi, which only did 330 before rapid maneuvers caused temporary starvation.
So my question is this: is it possible to fit a larger gas tank to my car—say one of about 20 gallons or so? If so, what are the positives and negatives of this, and where would I get one?
Magna and their Russian buddies Sberbank have a deal with GM: The Austro/Canadian/Russian combine will buy a 55 percent stake in Opel. That according to Magna Co-Chief Executive Siegfried Wolf who just told it to Reuters.
Not so fast, says Der Spiegel. A contract with RHJ is also ready to be signed.
Then, GM will ask the German government how much they would be willing to supply in tax payer’s money for each suitor. (The chances stand at €4b for Magna, €0 for RHJ.) Then, a recommendation will be made to the GM BOD.
Then, the matter needs to be approved by various governments. Don’t kiss the bride yet.
Volkswagen and Porsche muzzled their alpha males, and the bean counters hammered out a deal. According to Reuters, “Volkswagen and Porsche have broadly agreed on details for a deal to combine two of Europe’s most storied automakers.” Reuters has it from two VW supervisory board members, so this should be pretty close to what will go down: Read More >
Hyundai has announced that its Equus luxury flagship is headed stateside in “late 2010.” The New York Times seems to believe that the Equus “is not likely to be called the Equus,” when it arrives. Google the name without “Hyundai” to find out why. So does the rush to market mean Hyundai has abandoned plans for a Genesis-based brand spin-off adventure? Let’s hope so. This is no stretched Azera (it’s a stretched Genesis), but it’s said to be priced starting “under $60K.” Which means Cadillac’s 2012 XTS “flagship” won’t even be a “Hyundai fighter.” How the world changes.
Nothing like a well-run long-distance fuel economy comparison to cut through the hype and exaggerations. Edmunds took the 2010 Prius, 2010 Insight, 2009 Jetta TDI, 2010 Fusion Hybrid, and a 2009 Mini Cooper on a carefully-controlled outing from L.A. to Las Vegas and back, including back roads with steep grades through Death Valley one way; 200 miles of tedious city driving in Sin City; and I-15 back to L.A. The results shouldn’t be very controversial, since they’re reasonably close to EPA numbers. But TDI fanatics swear the EPA tests undercount diesels. Not according to this test. Here’s the skinny:
Holy shit, another GM website? I swear I’ve lost track of GM’s online PR blitz—and I do this for a living. Let’s see . . . GM, GMfactsandfiction, GMeuropefactsandfiction, The Lab, GMreinvention, GM-volt, tellfritz, Fastlane, GMblogs (both YouTube and Twitter), four new eBay California partner sites, and I’m sure there’s more. Well, there’s at least one more: Chevroletvoltage.com. And on this august (August?) website, GM Marketing Maven Maximum Bob Lutz is busy defending GM’s decision to announce that the Volt will get 230 mpg in city driving—deploying his usual combination of condescension, cheerleading, willful ignorance and prevarication.
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