Last June, China’s overall vehicle sales had soared 36.5 percent from a year earlier to 1.14m units. The “passenger vehicle” segment rose 48.4 percent in June from a year earlier to a record 872,900 units. In July, these numbers will most likely be surpassed. While the rest of the world is in tears, China is on a tear. The indicator: GM.
You may recall that GM’s Marketing Maven spent forty-minutes or so “crapping” on GM’s current ads before jetting off to Montserrat. After sipping a Piña Colada and walking in the rain, Lutz returned to assure GM’s nervous ad agencies that the status remains quo. (Quel surprise!) Automotive News [sub] reports that the former Car Czar “has no immediate plans to review or fire the automaker’s advertising agencies even though he publicly criticized a recent Buick ad campaign.” Apparently, Maximum Bob declined to specify a deadline for the mad men to get their shit together. But he “acknowledged GM needs to move fast — within the next three to six months — to improve the public’s perception after it spent 39 days in federal bankruptcy protection.” Now why they’d have to go and mention that? Jeez. Anyway, three to six months is a pretty big window from which Leo Burnett and friends will not get defenestrated. And boy, do we have some primo Lutzisms after the jump.
[Hat Tip: Jalopnik]
Our good friends at The Department of Transportation report the latest C.A.R.S. (Cars Allowance Rebate System) or Cash-for-Clunkers clunker stats as of right . . . now.
Total Vehicles Sold: 16,351
Funded to Date: $68,923,000
Passenger Cars Due for Euthanization: 10,114
Trucks Headed for the Crusher: 6237
Meanwhile, we intercepted this communication from a dealer: “I wish you would let us opt out of the cash for clunkers deal. Three dealers on the conference call stated that they were not fucking with this bullshit. You wouldn’t believe the bullshit involved in this. I don’t see this costing us any significant sales. We will waste more time fucking with this than it will ever be worth. The rebates are in place to subsidize the deal. Collecting our money will be a full time job.”
Reader chris (who apparently missed Farago’s declaration of the end of wagons in today’s podcast) writes:
Hi, I’m looking to purchase a used wagon for under $25K. It should have good reliability/quality, be full size, meaning good back seat room. I don’t like SUVs for their poor handling ang gas consumption. I’ve looked at volvo V70 (back seat too tight), Saab 9-5 (reliability is questionable on pre 2006 models, the later models are a bit more money). I’ve looked at the VW Passat, couldn’t stand the around town throttle control/drive-ability. The 2005 or so MBs E320 have issues with relieability and goofy electronic brakes that are defect prone after a few years. The Suburu Outback is too small in the rear seat, (and gutless). The Audi A6, is too exensive and reliablity is again questionable prior to 2006 models. VW Jetta, too small. What else is there??
As General Motors prepares to ignore its own history, it also appears that the company is set on repeating it. Two decades ago, the star-crossed Fiero finally found redemption in the form of the 1988 GT V6, only to be canceled immediately after that revised car received positive reviews from consumers and the press. Yesterday, a halt was called to production of the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky, just as the introduction of the GXP Coupe offered a glimmer of the decent sports car the Skystice could eventually have become. Like the man said, it’s deja vu all over again.
Unlike the Subaru Outback, which doesn’t do anything for Legacy wagon fans, today’s TTAC podcast really does have something for everyone. And coincidentally, the ability to be all things to all people also happens to be the major challenge for mass market brands. Which is why Messrs. Farago and Niedermeyer agree that Ford should embrace its “built Ford tough” tagline, and use it to build the Ford brand across every segment. The line is well-established, it is associated with one of Ford’s most successful products, and, most importantly, it conveys a powerful but versatile brand image. In the past, we’ve wondered aloud about what exactly a Ford is supposed to be. Built Ford Tough could apply to a cheap Fiesta as much as it could to an upmarket Taurus. It’s an all-encompassing value that anyone, if not everyone, can relate to.
TTAC commentator Kixstart writes:
Once again, GM has dodged the question on the Volt’s ultimate flat-can fuel economy. From their FastLane Blog, a CoverItLive session with Bob Boniface, I read the following exchange:
[Comment From David]
Hi Bob, Can you give us an approximate number of how many mpg the volt will achieve after the battery runs out?2:04 Bob Boniface: When battery is depleted you should expect several hundred more miles running on engine generator.
I imagine several people immediately pounded away on their keyboards with “How big is the gas tank?” But that question was never selected and the answer never offered.
The Wall Street Journal reports that GM will go back to its leasing habit in August, after nearly a year of cold turkey. According to the WSJ‘s anonymous sources, GM “is looking at various models across its four-brand lineup as candidates for leasing. Those include the Cadillac CTS, which competes in a luxury market that is heavily dependent on the availability of lease deals.” CTS sales which had hovered around the 5k units/month level since the last redesign are now fighting to hold on to 3k units/month. And that’s the latest, hottest Caddy out there. GM and GMAC probably see no alternative to burning even more bailout cash trying to move the CTS oversupply. But the source of the burnt cash is the only thing that has changed since they walked away from leasing. The WSJ notes that the “firming up of resale values” is contributing to GM’s decision to go back to leasing. Maybe they can’t smell the desperation. If you want a whiff of why this is a bad idea, check out eBay’s recently completed CTS auctions, where 2006 and 2007 CTS 3.6 models are consistently failing to attract $15K bids.
The higher they fly, the deeper they drown: Last year, Porsche did the impossible and reported a gain on €8.5 billion before taxes on sales of €7.4 billion. The impossible was performed with derivatives. Now, those derivatives bite Porsche in the you-know-where: The Porsche Holding expects a loss of up to €5 billion before taxes for the 2008/2009 fiscal, which ends on July 31, Automobilwoche [sub] reports. This loss is “due to the planned sale of options on VW stock” (to the Sheik of Qatar). “Other losses are the result of the consolidation” of the Porsche books with Volkswagen. Says Porsche in a statement. Don’t worry, they’ll survive. Read More >
Think your clunker gets 18 mpg combined? Plan on cashing in on the CARS clunker rebate program? You might want to double check those EPA numbers over at fueleconomy.gov. As part of the buildup to the Cash For Clunker program, the EPA undertook “quality assurance and quality control effort regarding fuel economy calculations on more than 30,000 vehicle model types spanning the past 25 years.” But according to CNN Money, this pre-stimulus housecleaning turned up bad data for about 100 vehicles and ended up changing their clunker rebate eligibility. Although “roughly” the same number of cars became newly eligible as became newly ineligible, this news came as a nasty surprise to owners of the 1993 Camry V6 wagon, 1995 Saab 900S, 1988 Toyota 4Runner and the 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis. And since the EPA’s statistical quality control didn’t take place until the official launch of the program, some shoppers had their deals planned out before realizing that their trade-ins were too efficient to qualify. Meanwhile, dealers have their own complaints about the program.
One anonymous dealer writes:
I wish you would let us opt out of the cash for clunkers deal. Three dealers on the conference call stated that they were not fucking with this bullshit. You wouldn’t believe the bullshit involved in this. I don’t see this costing us any significant sales. We will waste more time fucking with this than it will ever be worth. The rebates are in place to subsidize the deal. Collecting our money will be a full time job.
Heath, Ohio, was so anxious to start collecting on its new speed camera program that it issued $26,500 worth of tickets before the program was officially supposed to begin. The city’s mayor, Richard J. Waugh, issued a statement Monday confirming that refunds would be automatic for each of the 265 vehicle owners mailed a ticket for alleged violations that took place on June 30. Redflex Traffic Systems, the Australian company that actually runs the program, was not supposed to have begun issuing tickets until July 1.
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