From the Orlando Sentinel, [via TTAC commentator asickmf]:

A Sanford homicide suspect was arrested around midnight on Saturday when he ran a red light in Orlando.

Sanford police had been searching for Sergio Henderson after Robert J. Johnson, 37, was found dead near West 10th Street and Olive Avenue on Monday. Police believe there was a fight outside when the shooting occurred.

Henderson, 22, had just been released from prison on June 3. Since May of 2006 he had been serving time on offenses including battery on a law enforcement officer, burglary and vehicle theft.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the new federal “pay czar” Kenneth Feinberg is about to cap the execs working for GM, GMAC, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial. Well, restructure or “renegotiate” their salaries, bonuses and benefits. As Dan Rather might say, what’s the frequency, Kenneth? Less obliquely, the four auto industry recipients, all of whom owe their existence to billion dollar blessings from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), must send Ken new exec pay, perks and bennies guidelines by August 13. At which time the man originally tipped to be President Obama’s Car Czar (mooted by a 25-member task force) will decide whether or not he likes their proposals. If he doesn’t . . .

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Fullerton, California believes its right to due process was deprived during a red light camera trial last year, and now the city is spending thousands in an attempt to overturn the judge’s ruling. On Thursday, the Orange County Superior Court’s Appellate Division is scheduled to hear a motion that would, in effect, put a motorist who walked away with a court dismissal nine months ago back on trial for the exact same offense. Fullerton’s complaint is that Presiding Judge Robert J. Moss decided the case in November without input from the city attorney. “The appellate proceedings were thus a sham and not representative of justice or a proper adversarial search for truth and the rule of law, as to the issues purportedly decided on appeal,” the city’s brief, addressed to Judge Moss, stated. “The city of Fullerton respectfully moves this court to immediately… order that the superior court rescind its order dismissing the citation and dismissing the guilty count in this matter.”

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Motorlegends.com‘s motor legend David Holzman forwards an e-mail:

My six year old 2003 Mazda Protoge5 is rusting out pretty bad [see: attached]. I had the left rear panel repaired two years ago (I didn’t realize then that the body was still under warranty). But the panel has continued to rust, to the point where the bracket that holds the bumper failed. From my online research, rust seems to be a problem with some vehicles of this model. I have seen some on the road with similar rust and others with none at all. I called the dealer and they told me to go away. Mazda has washed their hands of this problem and left those of us unfortunate enough to have bought the vehicle from this particular batch up the creek. We obviously can’t sell the car for anything near what others are selling for and I doubt it can be on the road for more than couple years before the rust renders it useless. Do we have any recourse?

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The longer the decision over the fate of Opel drags on, the messier it gets. Last week, three parties handed in their bids: Magna, RHJ, BAIC. Later in the week, BAIC was kicked out of the race. Remaining: RHJ, darling of GM, and Magna, darling of everybody else. Then, more facts surfaced. They didn’t endear the bidders to the decision-makers. Not at all.

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From Will GM’s Story Have a Hero? by our friends at the New York Times:

When asked at an early meeting to discuss G.M.’s culture, he gave what some members of the task force described as a long, meandering answer, concluding: “I’ve been here 25 years. This is the only culture I know.” However, Mr. Henderson quickly added that he was determined to change it.

Earlier today, I spoke with Jim Dollinger (a.k.a. Buickman). The TTAC commentator was deeply rattled. Jimbo reported that GM had put the squeeze on the dealer for which he sells. “They’re clever,” he said. “But they made it clear to the dealer that their franchise was in danger if I didn’t shut down GeneralWatch.com.” I told Dollinger to let it go. In fact, I called him back and recommended that he let GM go. Give up his quixotic quest to save GM and find some more lucrative, less splenetic line of work, or at least another carmaker to represent. Nope. Ten minutes ago, I received one of his e-mail alerts. “Today General Motors threatened my dealer. Now I have to decide between keeping my job and running GeneralWatch.com.” I e-mailed him back, “Are you sure you want to go public with this?” Suffice it to say, Dollinger’s terse reply signified his assent. So there you have it: same old GM. In other words, knowing both Buickman and GM, I believe him. Your tax money hard at work.

No big deal. Just $650m net income over the last three months. That’s almost double what analysts expected, and comes despite an 11 percent drop in global sales (not including affiliates). Hyundai’s worldwide market share hit five percent for the first time though, with US share up over 1 percent in the last year. 56 percent sales growth in China didn’t hurt either. Forget the Genesis, Hyundai’s financial news is going to be what stirs up the competitors’ boardrooms.

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As promised in today’s podcast, here’s a teaser image of the forthcoming Audi A8 (courtesy of Top Gear‘s blog).

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Three days before launch, the Department of Transportation has finally released the rules [PDF] for car dealers participating in the federal Cash for Clunkers program. Dealers must disable the trade-in’s engine [official powerplant-killing technique after the jump] and then send the clunker to an approved salvage auction or an authorized disposal company, which will kill, crush and destroy (not to mention recycle) the remaining bits. The doc also contains a word to the wise: “The CARS Act specifies that while many parts of the trade-in vehicle are permitted to be removed and sold, in the end the residual vehicle, including the engine block, must be crushed or shredded. Therefore, the trade-in value of the vehicle is not likely to exceed its scrap value. Purchasers should not expect to receive the same trade-in value as they might if the vehicle were to remain on the road.” I wonder how many consumers will make that calculation, or how many dealers will help them in that regard.

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Fifty billion dollars. That’s how much money the United States taxpayer has plowed into General Motors. Back when this terrifying teat-sucking started, Michigan Representative Debbie Stabenow told the country that the bridge loans (as they were called at the time) were about “jobs, jobs, jobs.” To say the rhetoric justifying/sustaining GM’s giga-suckle has shifted would be like saying Pontiac’s prospects have dimmed. Now it’s all about “returning the taxpayer’s investment.” If that means withdrawing a contract from Stillwater Mining (a Montana outfit that provides New GM with platinum and palladium for catalytic converters) and endangering 1300 American jobs, to paraphrase the GM spokesman on this NPR report, tough shit. Nice thought, but does GM risk a serious consumer/taxpayer backlash as the federally-supported automaker turns its back on the US economy? Apparently not. (Witness the lack of interest in our story about federal stimulus money going to Mexican car factories.) Not yet, anyway. Meanwhile, what’s your take? Does America’s nationalized automaker have any obligation to support US jobs?

[Thanks to PeteMoran for the heads-up.]

One of the enduring lessons of the car game is that good vehicles don’t always sell well. As a car writer who took on news analysis before ever getting manufacturer-sponsored time behind the wheel, this lesson can’t help but tinge my impressions of a road test. So when my first weeklong tester arrived in the form of a Q7 TDI, I felt no desire to justify Audi’s decision to bring the thing to market. After all, by any reasonable analysis, the brand built by Quattro wagons should have been the primary beneficiary of America’s SUV craze. Or, at least its worst enemy. Instead the Q7 showed up for the party fashionably dressed but fashionably late. And very few wanted to buy it. With the high price of luxo ute party fuel already killing the festive vibes, is switching to a new drink enough to make Audi’s SUV sales party like its 1999?

[Thanks to starlightmica for the link]

I drove an Overfinch Range Rover once. Scared the NSFW out of me. I also shot skeet with a Holland & Holland Royal Over-and-Under. Now that was easy. From the press release:

Based on either the 5.0 litre 503 bhp Supercharged or TDV8 versions of the new 2010 MY car, the Holland & Holland Overfinch features a raft of enhancements that make it unmistakably something very special.

Daryl Greatrex, Managing Director of Holland & Holland, said, “Holland & Holland is globally synonymous with both luxury and supreme functionality. To look at, to handle and shoot with a Holland & Holland is to appreciate 174 years of using the best craftsmanship and technology to make things work supremely well and look even better. It’s ten years since we had a Holland & Holland Range Rover and we decided that working with Overfinch was the only way to do it this time.”