Toyota’s third-generation Prius hybrid launches in Japan on Monday, with a European rollout scheduled for July, and already they firm has amassed 75k pre-orders worldwide. Of course, Toyota won’t confirm the number, which originated in a Nikkei report printed in Automotive News [sub]. Honda’s Insight has already become Japan’s top-selling car, the first hybrid to hold such a title. And all this despite oil and gas prices that are significantly weaker than a year ago. But, as GM is currently proving, pre-orders can sometimes be more trouble than they’re worth.

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If you’ve been following my travails on a new car, you already know that GM won’t extend my lease or sell me my Saab anywhere near a realistic market price. That ticked me off. So I was forced to seek out a new car. Looked at the BMW 328i Coupe and the Infiniti G37. Neither car was making my day. There are very few Bimmers with manuals (unless I wanted a stripped black sedan—price leaders for the dealers) and the Infiniti simply lacks soul.

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Ford is basking in its “last man standing” status this week as it holds its annual shareholder meeting. Automotive News [sub] reports that Ford expects to break even or turn a profit by 2011 without the help of government bridge loans. So confident are stockholders in the success of Ford’s current strategy that they have voted down reforms that would wrest voting control from Ford family preferred stockholders for the fifth time in as many years. This despite a $14.7 billion loss last year, and a $1.43 billion loss in Q1 of 2009. The good news? Ford has restructured its debt, reached a deal with the UAW’s VEBA fund, raised $1.6 billion in its recent stock offering, and its retail market share has “stabilized.” But there’s still plenty of work to be done.

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Bloomberg reports that General Motors marketing maven Mark LaNeve is set to announce that the bankruptcy-bound automaker will drop the axe on 1100 US dealers at noon EDT (16:00 UTC). The move is designed to reduce GM’s dealer count from 6200 to 3200. Don’t tell the MSM, but the news is nowhere as dramatic as it seems. First, the cull won’t—in fact, can’t—take place until after The General files for Chapter 11, where bankruptcy law trumps franchise law. As Bloomberg’s insider says, “GM is hoping for an orderly wind-down of the affected dealers over the next year or so.” In that sense, the pre-C11 dealercide decision is just for show.

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I’ve taken a lot of heat hereabouts for being so negative about, well, everything. And how dare I diss Ford? They’re the “good guys”: the only domestic automaker (out of three) that didn’t belly-up to the federal bailout buffet (if only because doing so would mean various Fords would have to surrender control of the family firm to, gasp!, outsiders). Well, sorry, folks, but here’s a prime example of why the Blue Oval Boyz are just as loco en la cabeza as the branding brains at Chrysler and GM. Feast your eyes on the Lincoln MKT, the blinged-up version of the Ford Flex. That’s the three-row, six-passenger vehicle that racked up all of 3,190 sales last month, barely cresting 10,000 since the beginning of the year. OK, so other than the luxury Flex’s cetaceous snout . . . am I the only one who can’t see beyond the utter hideousness of that “split wing grille”? Deep breath. Details after the jump.

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I love the way the Volkswagen CC looks. It’s a perfectly proportioned pastiche of everything I admire about BMW, Mercedes and Audi design. The CC is as handsome as the priced-to-fail Phaeton, only more so. Inside, the seats alone are worth the price of admission: firm yet endlessly supportive. The CC’s toy count is high, the price affordable. And, yet, something’s missing. Other than reliability. It’s that vital mojo that makes the Jaguar XF such a joy to behold, and the Mercedes-Benz CLS the ultimate boulevardier. Let’s call it . . . an automatic gearbox.

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The fat lady of ACEA (European Auto Manufacturers Association) has sung her aria of April auto acquisitions. If you just want the skinny (as opposed to the fat): sales in all of Europe are down 12.3 percent compared to April 2008. Four months into 2009, the market decrease amounts to 15.9 percent. Compared to the carmageddon elsewhere, this ain’t so bad. A closer look reveals a mixed bag of surprising champs and walking dead.

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You may recall that General Motors recently circulated a document amongst their paymasters on Capitol Hill “revealing” that they planned to import 17,335 Chinese-made cars by 2011. At the time, we speculated that the leaked “bailout bucks for Chinese trucks” memo was nothing more than a negotiating gambit by GM, designed to bring the United Auto Workers to heel. Play ball and we build here. After all, what else does GM have to offer, other than threats to up stakes and leave? That said, floating a GM in China trial balloon makes the company no friends, uh, anywhere. Especially with their most important stakeholders: customers. Anyway, Bloomberg indicates that the cudgel may have done it duty. GM CEO Fritz Henderson told them (yesterday) that “using U.S. production instead of imports would pivot on whether the UAW can build the vehicles at a cost GM can afford . . . This is a discussion we’re having with the UAW.” And so, today’s Wall Street Journal tells us that “GM Nears Crucial Deal With UAW.” Which could all fall apart.

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According to ABC News, on the same day that Chrysler filed documents with federal bankruptcy judge Arthur Gonzalez to terminate 789 dealers, the bankrupt automaker is scheming to reclassify its top suits as Fiat employees. The change would allow the execs to avoid the bailout-related federal salary limit. “In documents filed in bankruptcy court, the company said senior Chrysler ‘officers’—the company’s top executives—can be considered Fiat employees ‘seconded’ to Chrysler, and therefore be paid by Fiat beyond the $500,000 cap set by the government.” The smoking gun: “Any such seconded officer may receive supplemental employment compensation from Fiat . . . notwithstanding any ‘cap’ on compensation payable to such officer . . . under any Law, rule or policy applicable to the Company.” The MSM is bound to take this story and run with it. Which isn’t going to help ChryCo on the forecourt or in court after dealers file the inevitable class action suit against, uh, someone.

Well, duh. I mean, there could always be a planet killing meteor strike or something. But I wouldn’t count on it. Anyway, GM CEO Fritz Henderson left little doubt that May 31 is all she wrote in terms of GM’s ability to forestall the end of its glide-path into bankruptcy. “It is probable,” Fritz told Bloomberg. “Any trip through bankruptcy court must be fast, Henderson said today. It’s also important for GM to be able to make speedier decisions,” he said. What IS IT with this guy and speedy decisions? More haste, less speed, Mr. Henderson. Alternatively and inevitably, step aside and let the Big Boys git ‘er done. Meanwhile, how long before GM is de-listed from the stock exchange?

Jim from Regina, Saskatchewan, asks:

Automatic transmissions obviously require some upkeep to keep them in good condition. What about manual transmissions? What sort of maintenance needs to be performed on them, if any, to maximize their life? Is the reliability of them higher enough that more drivers should be considering them? I’ve owned five cars with manual transmissions (transaxles really), and only one of them ever gave me trouble. It was a 1990 Hyundai Excel (I can see the readers’ eyes rolling already). With almost 190,000 km on the clock, it became impossible to downshift into second without double clutching. I have learned enough about manual trannies since then to think that it was probably a failed synchro, and my mechanic’s advice at the time (“Live with it.”) was probably good, considering the likely cost of correcting it and the value of the car.

I drive manuals because I like the control, and the lower purchase cost is a bonus, but I imagine in my head that I’m going to get a longer service life, too. I wonder how accurate my assessment is.

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Don’t look at me. I already gave at the office. Gentlemen, I refer you to the $5 billion already allocated to prop up automotive suppliers attached to domestic car makers with an umbilical chord made of piano wire. OK, that particular area of the bailout buffet table is shrouded in red tape at the moment. But do the suppliers seriously expect Uncle Sam to stump-up some $8.3 billion per year for the next four years to help them keep the lights on? That’s how much cash they’ll need, according to a new study by A.T. Kearney. And Kearney’s boys reckon they’ll get it. “A disorderly wind-down of key suppliers could also potentially shut other OEMs,” A.T. Kearney partner, Dan Cheng, said in the PR release accompanying the tome. And he expects the government will do “everything it can” to help the industry. Ready for the kicker?

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Chrysler has come within 11 dealers of confirming media reports that it would terminate 800 US dealers (dowload pdf list of 789 terminated ChyrCo dealers here). This as the bankrupt automaker steps-up its efforts to satisfy its federal overlords and prepare for Fiat’s command and control. Oh, and emerge from C11 as a viable automaker. Automotive News [AN, sub] has intercepted a memo from the corporate mothership highlighting the company’s care and concern towards the dead stores not selling. “Dealers are learning of their fate via UPS letters to be delivered this morning, the memo says. Dealers will get 23 business days for a ‘court review’ of their cases, according to the memo, from a sales manager to district dealers. ”All of this information is subject to change,” the memo says. Music to the dealers’ lawyers’ ears, presumably. Meanwhile, NADA . . .

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