Now that Steve Rattner has surrendered his position as head of The Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (to attend to a federal bribery investigation into his old crew), Ron Bloom is the man running two of America’s three domestic carmakers. I’m sorry? Did I say “running?” I mean to say, “passively protecting.” ‘Cause Ron says his twenty-four member mob—responsible for guarding taxpayers’ $50 billion “investment” in Chrysler and GM—is backing off from hands-on management (e.g., capping GM CEO Rick Wagoner’s ass). They’re only going to step in on “core governance issues” and “major corporate events or transactions.” Did all those quote marks tip you off? It’s true: this makes no sense at all. Didn’t when the checks were cut. Still doesn’t. Anyway, the Detroit Newsreveals that Big Ron II’s continuing to stretch the bounds of linguistics and credulity to the event horizon. Yesterday, Bloom told the congressional panel in charge of overseeing the overseers that “the best way to get out as quickly as possible is not to commit to a defined schedule.”
As well it might, given that the German automakers are about to game the Environmental Protection Agency’s new “greenhouse gas” emissions standards. The Wall Street Journal reports that “Under a provision of a plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the Obama administration has proposed to set less stringent standards for car makers that sell fewer than 400,000 vehicles a year in the US. That target defines the major German brands as well as a few smaller Asian manufacturers such as Suzuki Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.” This has not pleased the America-first crowd or the friends of the earth . . .
My mother has a 2001 Oldsmobile Aurora 4.0 with 60,000 miles. There have been four or five problems with it since new, but it hasn’t been as disastrously unreliable as I feared a $40,000 knock-off Caddy would be, especially given the “reliability” of the other K and G-Body sedans.
The problem: about two weeks ago, she attempted to roll the passenger side front window down and noticed that it wouldn’t budge. I thought it might loosen up with repeated closing of the door, but that didn’t work. The window lock button is not engaged, and the window refuses to work for the master (driver side) switch or the switch mounted on its own door.
An independent statistics watchdog agency that reports directly to the UK parliament issued a report yesterday criticizing a key element of the government’s road casualty figures. The UK Statistics Authority praised the general credibility of numbers generated by the Department for Transport (DfT), but the agency threatened to withhold the designation of “national statistics” from DfT reports if the department failed by November to reform the system of serious injury data collection known as STATS19. “The major unmet user need is for statistical information about road casualties that reflect the well-documented fact that the STATS19 system under-records the numbers of those injured in road accidents and the severity of injuries,” the Statistics Authority report explained.
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It’s (still) 1971. Disney World just opened. Nixon pledges to end US involvement in Vietnam. Daniel Ellsberg reveals the “Pentagon Papers.” The Doors release “LA Woman.” The Bee Gees inflict “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart.” Charles Manson is sentenced to death. “All in the Family” starts. The Stones are on top with “Brown Sugar.” The voting age is lowered to 18. Intel invents the 4004 Processor. Peugeot builds a 404 Wagon that ends up as the Niedermeyer family truckster. Janis belts out “Me and Bobby McGee.” China is seated at the UN. Nixon imposes a 10% surcharge on imported cars.
The Swedes are sinking fast. Swedish Wire reports that Ford’s Volvo brand continues to be the elephant fart in the room, sucking wind to the tune of $231 million for the second financial quarter. “The decline primarily reflected lower volumes, partly offset by continued progress on cost reductions and favorable exchange,” the American carmaker pronounced. You mean it could have been worse? Meanwhile, SAAB,’s guzzling a gas tanker’s worth of not good. The former GM division, now owned by Old GM (which is like having an arsonist for a security guard), “made an operation loss last year of 4,148 million kronor ([€]377 million, $553 million). That is an increase of 90 percent from a loss of 2.194 million kronor a year ago . . . . During 2008 the company sold 93,220 cars, according to the TT news wire. That’s 25 percent fewer than 2007 when the company sold 125,085 cars.” And even then Saab didn’t make a profit. Despite deals to off-load the Swedish automakers on suspecting “investors,” their days of mass market sales are färdig. Unlike GM, they probably know it.
The Congressional Oversight Panel, tasked with monitoring TARP expenditures, is holding hearings on the auto bailout. Even as you read, Wayne State University is home to serious CYA action. In the blue corner: the post-Rattner head of the twenty-four (now) member Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (PTFOA) Ron Bloom. Big Ron II is expected to hew even more closely to its previous proclivity for a passive/aggressive approach to GM’s non-management management. “Given the emergence of the new GM and the new Chrysler, the involvement of the Auto Task Force with the companies will now change,” Bloom told the panel [via Market Watch]. Once again, Ron proclaims that only “core governance issues including the selection of a company’s board of directors and major corporate events or transactions” will be subject to PTFOA meddling going forward. (After all, they’ve got Advertising Czar Bob Lutz to handle the little things like “crapping on advertising.”) But even though the White House is on hand to show how easy putting your best platitude forward can be, the UAW won’t be joining the testimonial fun.
Good morning, Chairwoman Warren and distinguished members of the Oversight Panel.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify about how GM is reinventing our company and how a new GM will repay our nation’s investment.
Emerging from bankruptcy, we are a new company with less debt, a stronger balance sheet, with the right-sized manufacturing, product and dealer network to match today’s market realities. GM can now direct its full energy and resources to where it should be: on customers, cars and a culture to succeed.
We are grateful for our nation’s support. Without it, we would not have this second chance. Equally important, are the many who have been called to sacrifice in order to create a new GM.
I can’t say that I’ve seen everything. But sometimes I feel as if I have. For example, the morning after we publish Bob Elton’s piece on Chrysler’s wanton destruction of its historical archives, the Detroit Free Pressruns a piece on the future—or lack thereof—for feral cats hanging out on the grounds of Chrysler’s Sterling Heights factory. As a former English resident alien, I know what’s it’s like to live in a country where animal welfare gets more play than the challenges faced by humans. Still, this is one for the record books: “‘We try to help them out a little,’ said Claudia Valentine, 55, a veteran skilled trades worker on the night shift at the plant. She said workers feed the cats nightly and do such things as setting insulated crates outside in winter. But the cats have multiplied and are causing safety problems, a few being run over by workers or caught in the conveyor system.” We also learn, “Feral females spend most of their lives pregnant or nursing. In seven years, one female cat and her offspring can yield 420,000 cats.” In the same sense, I suppose, that Chrysler can become profitable. Just sayin’.
Regular readers know that TTAC leans a little towards the “Inside Baseball” side of the auto industry. In this case, if we leaned any further, we’d fall down. But hey, many of us have come a long way together, shaking our heads in wonder as The General’s aide de camps stayed-up all night listening to Mohammed’s radio. Or something like that. Anyway, here’s a GM-related picture from Clubsnap.com’s Singapore snappers, taken during last year’s BBK International Motor Show. Make the jump for your New GM New Scorecard.
Remember the “legendary” story about a freshly-minted GM Car Czar peeking under a tarp (the non-financial sort) and saying, “This isn’t the new Corvette!” The Kool-Aid drinkers were awestruck; Bob Lutz was serving notice that GM design wasn’t good enough! In fact, as we pointed out, it wasn’t the new Corvette; Maximum Bob was simply showing his colleagues that he knew the difference between a Corvette and a non-Corvette. Well, here we go again, only this time MB is GM’s Marketing Czar and it’s a reviled Buick ad. Set-up: MB in the FastLane: “That Buick commercial tested very well, which is not the same as saying that it’s an effective ad. I think you will very quickly see a drastic change in the tone and content of our advertising. And if you don’t, it will mean that i have failed.” AdAge: “GM’s new marketing top gun, Bob Lutz, met with the automaker’s brand teams on July 14, spent 10 to 20 minutes critiquing the work for each brand and, in the words of someone in the know, ‘crapped all over the advertising.’ Then he jetted off to the Caribbean island of Montserrat on holiday, leaving some scared individuals in his wake.” Taxpayers/shareholders included.
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