Questioning the wisdom of photo enforcement can be fatal to the career of a top law enforcement official. Former Texas police Chief Michael Clancey found this out the hard way when he dared to suggest that the College Station City Council should not use red light cameras as a budgetary tool. Clancey filed a lawsuit in federal court last month demanding punitive damages and back wages from the city which, he claimed, violated his First Amendment rights.
In a previous Piston Slap, David Holzman and I discussed:
DH: Are old car reviews doomed to vastly underrate the cars relative to how they drove when new—unless they’ve recently been overhauled?
SM: Yes. I talked to the owner of the 1996 Explorer I reviewed, mentioning the correlation between a terrible ride and 13-year-old shocks. He’s less than thrilled with the idea, even though he hates the ride. So who in their right mind proactively replaces shocks on an old car?
And now, an update:
This Explorer got an upgrade from original Motorcraft shocks to a set of five (yes, five) new dampers from Bilstein. So what changed since the original review?
In my many years as a ghostwriter for a leading exec of Volkswagen, there was one joke that was always shot down. Early VW navigation systems gave you the voice prompt “die Route wird berechnet.” Which translates to “the route is being calculated.” It could also be understood as “I’ll charge you for the whip.” My one-liner that a new VW comes with a factory-standard dominatrix was always suppressed. I wonder why.
I was reminded of my dark past when I opened Automobilwoche [sub] today, only to read that BMW intends to turn their Minis into a gabfest on wheels. Carrying the moniker “mission control,” electronics will listen to the traffic on the car’s CAN bus, and then the gizmo will drown you with clever remarks.
A cash-for-clunker bill, “stripped down” to $1 billion, has passed the Senate. Automotive News [sub] reports that the new bill will go into effect one month after it is signed by the president and will offer $3,500-$4,500 rebates only through November. The spending cap had been set previously at $4 billion. Sen. Judd Gregg [R-NH] led an attempt to strip the provision from an Iraq funding bill that was voted down along party lines. Meanwhile, the AP bemoans the “flagging clout” of the auto industry. And Autocar points out that total European car sales across all brands were down 4.9 percent compared to May 2008. Yes, the much-vaunted European scrappage schemes helped . . . Hyundai (+25.1 percent), Suzuki (+3 percent), VW (+3 percent) and Fiat (+2 percent). Everyone else . . . not so much.
One-time Car Czar candidate Steve Girsky has been elected to GM’s board as the sole representative of the UAW’s VEBA trust fund, reports Automotive News [sub]. Girsky had previously worked on the spin-off of Saturn, which was eventually purchased by Roger Penske. He has also worked at Morgan Stanley, and advised the UAW during the ill-fated GM-Chrysler merger talks. Too bad the Harvard B-School boy didn’t end up at Ford; back in the day, Girsky loved him some Blue Oval . . .
Earlier today, we reported that Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning was mounting a legal challenge to GM’s dealer cull via anti-trust regulations. I pointed out that Bruning’s zeal probably had a little something to do with GM and ChryCo car dealers in his patch. A bit of Googling adds the words “and how” to that supposition. Campaignmoney.com lists contributions to the “Friends of Jon Bruning” Political Action Committee. It has to be said: Jon’s not lacking for friends in the car biz. Number two on the list: Craig “Ugliest Web Site in History” Cox of Cox Chevrolet. Baxter Chrysler Jeep Dodge clocks-in at number six. A diligent member of our B&B points out that many of the “homemakers” on the list are attributed to “Anderson.” Talton “Tal” Anderson and his family own a slew of dealerships in NE and western IA, and AZ (and maybe elsewhere). Over on opensecrets.org, we learn that Jon Bruning is number 11 on the list of top recipients of car dealer contributions. Hey! Hillary’s number one! And there’s Joe Biden! Say it ain’t so, Joe! Anyway, nothing illegal here. But it helps to have a scorecard to know why the playa is playin’.
In addition to offering hybrid options across its lineup, Mercedes-Benz will mount a three-cylinder engine in certain vehicles by 2012, reports Motor Authority. Mercedes R&D Boss Thomas Weber does mention that there’s a slight hitch to the plans, namely that “Mercedes is currently looking for a partner to help develop the new three-cylinder engine.” In what appears to be a case of car-before-horse(power), Weber confirms that this undeveloped engine will appear in future iterations of the C-Class, B-Class, A-Class and Smart ForTwo. The American market is not expected to receive three-banger benzes, although a 1.4-liter Kompressor engine is being considered for the C-Class.
The GM/Toyota partnership known as NUMMI builds but one vehicle for GM: the Pontiac Vibe. And it will continue to do so. Until the end of August, that is. GM’s announced that’s when they’ll cease production of the Toyota Matrix’ platform mate at the California plant. The press release states “While no replacement for Vibe production has been determined, GM and Toyota remain in active discussions regarding potential future production at NUMMI.” What’s next for NUMMI?
Cleveland Business News reports that ChryCo will cancel its contract with Cummins for diesel engines slated to power its Ram 1500 line of pickup trucks. This news comes as OEMs are abandoning diesel trucks in droves. Ford and GM have recently backed away from diesel light-duty trucks, while Toyota and Nissan have canceled heavy-duty diesel truck plans. “From a business case, I don’t think anyone can make one right now,” says IHS Global Insight’s Paul Lacy. “We are still negotiating with the new Chrysler group,” retorts Cummins spokesman Mark Land optimistically. “I don’t think they’re forever gone. I don’t think they’ll just throw all of this investment money away.” Right.
Taking a page from Detroit’s auto plant parking lots, BMW has been putting notices on employee vehicles built by competing firms, reports Bloomberg. “What’s wrong here? You like working with us. You appreciate your job and income. But you drive a vehicle from a competitor,” read the notices signed by Ian Robertson, the company’s sales chief; Harald Krueger, BMW’s head of personnel, and Manfred Schoch, its top union representative. Some 7,000 German employees of BMW received the friendly reminders. “We wanted to raise awareness that our employees are part of the product and could actually drive BMW,” said Bilgeri. “It’s a totally normal marketing program.” Except that this is the first time BMW has ever targeted employee owners of competing brands in twenty years of marketing to its employees. BMW employees need not worry that their choice of cars will leave them out of a job, clarifies Hans Haumer, head of BMW’s Munich worker’s council. This is more of a guilt trip.
This is a fun one. The UAW has made no-strike guarantees to Chrysler and GM as part of their restructuring deals. This makes a certain amount of sense, considering that the UAW’s VEBA trust holds significant portions of GM and Chrysler’s new equity. After all, it’s hard to both represent labor and look after your equity position at the same time. Ford, however, has not been generous enough to let the UAW have a chunk of its stock, and yet it feels as though it might be fair if the UAW were to make similar no-strike guarantees.
GM’s dealer cull is taking flak from its flanks, as Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning has launched a lawsuit to stay the bankrupt automaker’s quivering, zombie hand [download press release here]. In his letter to other state AGs asking for their support, Bruning is not happy with GM’s request that its dealers waive their rights under state law. Specifically, the bit that says “No law of any state or other jurisdiction [go Puerto Rico!], including any bulk sales law or similar law, shall apply in any way to the transactions contemplated by the 363 Transaction, the MPA, the Motion, or this Order.”
HR 2743 IH
Mr. MAFFEI (for himself, Mr. KRATOVIL, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. HOYER, Mr. MCMAHON, Ms. SUTTON, Mr. BARTLETT, Mr. HALL of New York, Mr. POSEY, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. PAULSEN, Ms. SHEA-PORTER, Mr. MANZULLO, Mr. DEFAZIO, and Mr. DAVIS of Alabama) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
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