Rumors of a sub-Boxster Porsche roadster appear to be off again. “Another model line is not something we are concentrating on at the moment . . . my gut feeling is that we do not need one,” Porsche S&M boss Klaus Berning tells the Telegraph (via MotorAuthority). Rumors had centered around VW’s Bluesport roadster concept, which is likely to go into production as both VW and Audi-branded sports cars. That could have spelled a brutal brand dilution for Porsche, but independent development isn’t exactly a great option either, considering Porsche’s tenuous financial status. Weirdly, Berning does admit that it “could be possible to have a four-cylinder again in a 911 but it would be a Porsche four-cylinder. The 911 is the core of the brand and it follows different rules to the rest of the brand models.”

Do we really want to have this debate again? You know, the one where Detroit’s defenders claim that federal “loans” are loans not bailout bucks? I guess so. After all, the MSM has been all about Ford being the only domestic not to receive a federal bailout. And now we hear that The Blue Oval Boys have landed a $5.9 billion dollar retooling loan from the Department of Energy. As expected. “Our business plan assumed about the amount we got,” FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally told Reuters. “It’s very consistent with our plan.” Automotive News [sub] reports that Ford. Wants. More.

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Manny Lopez has a cow about Tesla’s $465 million Department of Energy loan over at the Detroit News, concluding that tax dollars shouldn’t “be spent, propping up millionaires and billionaires, who, unlike their Detroit CEO brethren, fly in private planes when they’re not toying around town in their electric cars.” And why is it that Detroit’s CEOs don’t fly on corporate jets? Oh, right. Sweet Pete DeLorenzo lays into Tesla as well, saying it got the loans “so that it can become a real car company instead of a boondoggle that makes outrageously overpriced battery-eating kit cars.” MLive‘s Rick Haglund even figures Elon Musk’s divorce-by-blog reflects an unseriousness that makes his firm undeserving of taxpayer support.

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[mail to:catherine.m.karol@gm.com]
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 7:04 PM
To: Koles, Kathryn
Subject:

Kathryn –

I got your voicemail indicating that you had finished your reviewed of the issue ad that we discussed briefly earlier today.  As I mentioned earlier, the ad has already run at least one time on MSBC on Friday, June 19 at 11:49am EDT.

GM’s concern with ad that can be found at www.protestgm-chrysler.com is that it inaccurately suggests that GM and Chrysler have taken identical positions with regard to product defect and porduct liability issues.  Of greatest concern to us is the insinuation that “defects would no longer be reported let alone fixed”  by GM.  This is certainly not the case for GM, as is noted elsewhere in several other places on the website.   A letter from theSenate Commerce Committee to Fritz Henderson that is described on the website can be viewed in the link below — it acknowledges that GM has already agreed to assume those responsibilities in the new company.

We may have further issues to discuss regarding this ad. but I thought it might be useful to get that one if frontof your prior to our further conversation.  Thanks again for the opportunity to weigh in.

Regards-

Kate
313.667.6186 (o)
313.378.6535 (c)
__________________

Here’s a link to the letter to from the Senate Commerce Committee.

http://commerce.senate.gov/public/_files/FINALLettertoHendersonandGM.pdf

I had to travel 1000 miles to buy my first car. At the time Toyota dealers in the Southeast didn’t have Camrys with optional ABS (1994). Why? Supposedly you didn’t need it. Unless you bought the top of the line model, which cost an extra $3000. Thanks to this pearl of wisdom from Toyota’s Southeast distributorship, I went to New Jersey where my brother and I bought respective Camrys. Should I have bothered? I’ll put it this way. Back in the Clinton era this regional cabal offered a really nice Scotchguard protection deal that had the word ‘Toyo’ in it along with windows etched with your VIN and about $7 worth of hocus pocus that no one really cared to have. The surcharge? $699. They all did it. After my third or fourth visit to the local new car rodeo, I said “screw ’em” and headed to [New] Jersey.

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One wonders how many entries the Renewable Fuels Association received for their “online ethanol contest” designed to “get a new generation of Americans, mainly college students, engaged in the promotion and support of ethanol.” Domesticfuel.com claims that this video was chosen by “thousands of people across the country.” Oh, wait! “From there, a panel of judges selected the final winner, based on creativity, quality and relevance. McAfee won a Macbook Air computer for his winning entry.” Anyway, it looks like we’re a bit late to this “story.” Never mind. “The Fuel-Flex Challenge was sponsored by the Kansas Corn Commission, the Kentucky Corn Growers Association, the United Sorghum Checkoff Program and the Renewable Fuels Association. The fun will continue this summer with the launch of a new photo contest. Stay tuned for more details.” We will!

I’m busy chasing the story about Comcast’s decision to pull the ad from the Ad Hoc Committee of Consumer Victims of GM and Chrysler re: the automakers’ attempts to walk away from safety-related claims against their “old” incarnations. I’ve got calls into the left coast lawyers who have first-hand knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the self-imposed censorship. Meanwhile, Sean Kane, the president of advocacy group Safety Research and Strategies (SRS), says the ad was pulled after a call from GM’s lawyers to Comcast. He also shared this pdf: Public Safety at Risk. “If GM is allowed to assign liability for its pre-New GM vehicles to old GM, it will remove the incentive for claimants to file,” Kane contends. “It would remove an important surveillance device for the NHTSA.”

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Update: According to the speaker of the influential CDU Economics Council, there will be no decision about the future of Opel before the 27 September national elections. “Nothing will be decided before the elections, because nobody in the government wants to lose face because of this,” a council member said to Automobilwoche [sub]. The Opel Trustee figures that the latest date for a final, signed contract is mid September. If nothing is signed by then, the government money has run out and Opel is bankrupt.

The GM/Opel/Magna/Sberbank/GAZ group grope is in trouble. The writings are on all walls.

Opel is hemorrhaging more than €5 million per day, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine has learned. Opel spokesfolk said, it’s “only” €2.8 million. By mid September, the €1.5 billion bridge loan, underwritten by the German government, will be used up. There won’t be more money—that has been made as clear as can be. Time and money are running out. Why is Opel burning so much cash despite brisk sales? The Opel Tech Center has 7000 highly paid engineers. They work(ed) for all of GM. Bankrupt GM stopped all payments.

In the meantime, talks between GM and Magna hit one snag after another.
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If the tea leaves of Edmunds, J.D. Power, CSM Worldwide and Deutsche Bank are correctly aligned, June SAAR (a.k.a. “seasonally adjusted annualized sales rate”) could be slightly above 10 million, Bloomberg reports. Based on a nearly completed month, J.D. Power estimates the June SAAR at 10.1 million. Deutsche Bank sees the June SAAR rise to 10.2 mil, and thinks the second half of the year will average 11 mil units. CSM reckons June will come in at 10.3 million SAAR.

A lot has been written about GM’s dysfunctional corporate culture, much of it here. Thanks to the mean meme, GM CEO Fritz Henderson has been forced to add a bizarre explanation of how a consummate GM insider can reform the sclerotic bureaucracy that vomited him forth. Up? Anyway, Fritz has been hard at it, deigning to dignify ex-Car Czar Bob Lutz’ in-house media mouthpiece (FastLane) with his presence. Yes, well, bully for him. But you have to wonder about the CEO’s promise to create a laser-like focus on New GM’s 34 (count ’em 34) nameplates when the company is creating and abandoning websites like a phishing scheme. Anyone remember GMNext?

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Thaddeus writes:

I’m looking to build more in depth automotive knowledge, and I think that (re) building a motor in my Manhattan apartment is a great first step. (Wife be damned.) With the hot summer coming around, and no vacation days left, this would also be a great summer hobby to keep me inside and cool.

I’m currently thinking about finding an old Ford flathead, as know how, and books on these is readily available–do you have a better suggestion? I’m looking for a block that’s well documented, has parts, or spares to be had, and won’t require a CompSci degree to fix or tune . . .

The end state of this project is to put it into some sort of hotrod, but that’s another question–for when I have a bigger apartment.

PS: Sub question…should I even attempt to fire this thing up inside if I get it built?

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Here’s the full text of the speech given by Akio Toyoda, the new president of Toyota Motor Corporation.

Thank you very much for coming today.

I was appointed president of Toyota Motor Corporation at the board of directors meeting held on June 23, following the Ordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting on the same day. In addition to my comments here today, our executive vice presidents will provide remarks on their areas of business.

The global automobile industry has been facing extreme hardships since the latter half of last year. As for Toyota, we ended the last fiscal year with an operating loss of 461 billion yen. We expect our losses to deepen this fiscal year, and so all of us in the new management team at Toyota feel like we are setting sail during a storm.

Since the birth of Toyota, the company’s philosophy has always been to “contribute to society.” The first article of the Toyoda Precepts, our original statement of purpose as a company in 1935, states that we must contribute to the development and welfare of each country we operate in by working together – regardless of individual position – in faithfully fulfilling our duties. In other words, we must manufacture high-quality vehicles for the benefit of society.

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I started TTAC’s General Motors Death Watch in the summer of ’05, after the automaker pulled tens of millions of dollars in advertising from the LA Times. GM was pissed at a Dan Neil Pontiac review that called for an executive cull. While I’d been predicting bankruptcy for The General long before that point, the automaker’s bully-boy tactics against this country’s finest carmudgeon was the final straw. GM was free to pull its ads. And I was free to start the Death Watch. The rest, as they say, is history. Only maybe not so fast.

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This interview raises some important questions. Is it me or does Alex Taylor sound like Sgt. Friday? What editor thought he could get away with using B-roll of a union worker with a sign referring to a “Golden Shower?” What kind of company has a CEO who can go his entire life without anyone daring to correct his pronunciation of “hubris?” Why would the CEO of GM point out out that “every one” of the company’s surviving 34 nameplates has to be a winner? I mean, what are the odds? And what’s with this: “We’ve lost a part of the population but [sotto voce] it’s not that large.” No complacency here. No, sir.