Revving your engine will soon be a crime punishable by a fine of up to $500 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mayor Martin Chavez (D) proposed adding a blip of the throttle to the city ordinance listing “nuisances” that the city uses as a justification to seize automobiles. The city council is expected to vote on the idea next month. “It shall be unlawful for any person to engage in exhibition driving in the Downtown Quiet Zone by operating a vehicle in a manner that willfully creates excessive engine noise because of revving the engine to magnify the engine noise,” the proposed ordinance states.
“This weekend we’ll be choosing which Chrysler [factory] we’ll be using to produce the Fiat 500 aimed at the US market” said the CEO of Fiat Group, Sergio Marchionne. “We shall probably produce the full Alfa Romeo range. The reason why we’ve slowed on the brand’s development was to follow the US situation. Now that we’ve clarified the Chrysler dossier, we know what to do in order to link up to their distribution network and we can actually offer the full range of products. The new 147 will be coming out next year and will go into production in Cassino this year, so we’ll be seeing it at the Geneva Show in 2010. A whole series of vehicle developments will follow on from this. We shall probably also be making the so-called crossover, the new 69, when the Alfa flagship comes out, but on a platform shared with Chrysler. The whole range will be re-designed.”
For those who would make the unwise decision to roll the old car’s debt into the new car, yet another reason not to. Policy wonks may recall how during the Bush administration the banking industry got its fondest (pre-bailout) wishes granted. The bankruptcy rules were re-written to make it substantially more difficult for a normal person to discharge debt. (Interestingly, mansion owners in Texas and Florida somehow survived unscathed while the vast majority of bankrupts are still done in by medical bills.) The upshot is that fewer qualify for a full Chapter 7 discharge and more must file a Chapter 13 repayment plan. Here’s what that means for the “typical” car buyer.
We were given the heads-up on the cashforclunkersheadquarters.com website by the Department of Transportation (DOT). The DOT was not well pleased with the site’s assumption of governmental authority re: Uncle Sam’s Cash for Clunkers or CARS program (as we reported). This email arrived just arrived from Mrs. Name Redacted, reprinted here without editing. I’ve emailed Mrs. NR to request the suggested interview.
GM is walking away from its Saturn Vue and Pontiac Torrent Theta-based CUVs, bringing its Thetan, uh, Theta CUV levels to just the Equinox and the SRX. And the just released GMC Terrain. And the forthcoming Saab 9-4X. And now a clay model of a Buick Theta CUV has surfaced on CBS’s Early Show, along with rumors of a 2012 launch (and dual-mode hybrid version). Assuming the Saturn Vue is sold for a few more years by the Penske boyz, and the Suzuki XL7 soldiers on a bit longer, we’re looking at the prospect of seven versions of the same platform in one market. Re:invention or déjà vu?
And I’m inclined to agree. Hyundai had some of the best sales numbers of 2008, and they rolled out some killer products like the Genesis and Kia Soul. Too bad Forbes based their whole article off of the JD Power Initial Quality Survey.
The truth is, as I’ve said all along, I have no ambition to run an auto company. I’m not the salesman-in-chief. And GM will rise or fall on the quality of its products — like the taut, athletic design of the new Buick Enclave. Its French-seamed leather and warm wood tones make the Enclave more than transportation. It’s a modern driver’s retreat.
—President Barack Obama at the Television and Radio Correspondents Dinner shortly after unveiling his Oprah-inspired “car company giveaway.”
Political interference in New GM? As Mass. Rep. Barney Frank’s Norton constituents will tell you, it’s not who you know—no, wait, it is. The Ad Hoc Committee of Consumer Victims of GM and Chrysler—the consortium of lawyers trying to make New GM liable for Old GM’s vehicles—must not know any pols senior enough to bend GM to their will. Oh wait! They do! Indiana Representative Andre Carson, who’s just introduced an as-yet-unnumbered bill to do what GM’s suits and a federal bankruptcy judge won’t. It’s not unnamed though: “The Jeremy Warriner Consumer Protection Act of 2009.” Warriner is an Indiana resident who lost both legs in an accident in his Jeep; his product liability lawsuit fell afoul of Chrysler’s “transformation” in bankruptcy. The odds of the bill’s passage may not be high, but its existence proves that the fate of Government Motors lies in the hands of elected officials, rather than the US consumer. As if you didn’t know.
Jaguar lost Tata $463 million during its first ten months as part of the Indian firm, reports Automotive News [sub]. That loss stings twice as bad considering it makes up the bulk of Tata Motors’ $520 million consolidated loss in the fiscal year ending March 31. “There has already been 2,000 job losses. We may be looking at more job losses, more plant shutdowns,” says Tata VP Ravi Khant. Will that kill the crazy Extended-Range EV plans for the forthcoming XE? Tata recently refinanced $3 billion in debt, according to AN, but with a hybrid LRX reportedly approved as well, Tata’s staring at some hefty development costs. Best of luck to ’em.
Despite the backbiting and overextension engendered by round one of the Department of Energy’s retooling loans, another $25 billion could be headed down the pipe. Automotive News [sub] reports that a second dose of retooling loans (the first having launched our Bailout Watch series) is headed towards a vote this weekend. The DOE’s loan budget would be doubled under the current climate change bill sponsored by Reps Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed Markey (D-MA). But before Ford starts counting its (non-bailout) chickens, remember this: “no comparable bill has been introduced in the Senate, and similar legislation was shot down in the Senate last year.” And with luxury firms (Tesla), foreign transplants (Nissan) and the proudly bailout-free (Ford) topping the list of tranche un, don’t expect a groundswell of support for tranche deux.
I don’t mind tripping the light fantastic with PR people. No journalist should expect to get the straight dope or the inside line from a person paid to protect his employer from the slightest ding to their rep. It’s the dark side. Deal. And here’s the deal with this story, wherein an ad hoc committee of lawyers created an ad taking New Chrysler and Old Soon-to-be-New GM to task for trying to walk away from post-C11 product liability.
The August issue of Consumer Reports has started to arrive in subscribers’ mailboxes and features a review of the 2010 Honda Insight Hybrid. Guess what. They concurred with Michael Karesh and panned it, citing the lack of oomph, room, and refinement. CR didn’t like the original 2-seat Insight, either, citing the lack of oomph, room, and refinement, but at least it got 65+ mpg.
Ford has been benefiting heavily from “good kid syndrome” lately. You know how it goes, as long as your behavior is marginally better than your sibling’s, you’re the good kid. Just ask the self-styled Autoextremist.
I believe that Ford will emerge as the largest and most profitable U.S. automaker and stay that way for the foreseeable future. They have the strongest management team (led by ex-Boeing executive Alan Mulally who is simply one of the best who has ever worked in this business), they have sensational products here and on the way (their new product cadence is extremely impressive and rivals that of any automaker in the business), and they are demonstrating signs of real momentum in an absolutely dreadful market. I expect Ford to be a global force to be reckoned with in this business for years to come.
Mr. Delorenzo isn’t wrong, per se. Ford’s management and products look downright promising . . . compared to the other Detroit firms. Which is like saying you’ve got the nicest Camaro in the trailer park. Meanwhile, far from the oracles of product cadence and “real momentum,” people are looking at Ford’s numbers, and the words “global force to be reckoned with” aren’t flowing off any of their keyboards.
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