Autocar reports that Indian automaker Tata will spend part of its day launching their NSFA (Not Safe for America) Nano in Mumbai. In case you’d forgotten—what with all the delays—the Nano is slated to be the world’s cheapest car. “The tinny four-door will sell for 100,000 rupees or $1979 (£1366) when the company takes bookings next month.” Sorry, typo. “Tiny.” So, it’s not REALLY launching the car. And it’s only TAKING BOOKINGS next month. Autocar reveals that DELIVERY will start well after the factory’s built, which “should be up and running next year, despite delays caused by an industrial dispute, but may only have capacity to build 350,000 cars a year. Until then Tata is thought to only be able to provide 50,000 cars annually.” So less, later, maybe from Mumbai. So what’s up with that? “Despite facing huge demand for the Nano, experts estimate the car will not create enough revenue to refinance by June a $2 billion (£1.3 bn) bridging loan Tata used to buy Land Rover and Jaguar from Ford.” Spinning wheels. Got to go ’round.
I was going to email TTAC commentator kazoomaloo to tell him I’d deleted his TTAC flame (“Dude, this is a pretty lame story”) when I clicked on his web addy instead of his email. I stumbled upon his pitch for a Ford Fiesta, as part of FoMoCo’s early adopter contest. I thought it worth sharing here because A) I like it and B) I’m showing the red card (or is that green card) for his assertion that the Fiesta is American. Hecho en Mexico,amigo. Moving on—I mean forward [ED. Fordward?]—I mean ahead, it’s the best day ever for Ford. CBS News is blowing some serious smoke up America’s @$$ regarding Ford’s relative health. Today, Ford received top billing as part one of The Morning Show’s weeklong series, “Early Across America,” featuring stories of “hope and optimism amid all the economic gloom sweeping the nation.” You can’t buy publicity like this. Oh wait . . . Anyway, there’s more!
Automotive News [sub] provides “tantalizing hints” (source?) about which six vehicles “could be” built in Chrysler factories and sold in Chrysler dealerships under their Italian brand names. At the U.S. taxpayer’s expense. [NB: Count the above Panda Jeep twice for two different engine permutations (1.2 and 1.4-liter) in the new Chrysler tradition.]
• Fiat 500 minicar: Big hit, retro hatch, possible Mini [ED: MINI] fighter
• Alfa Romeo MiTo: Stylish 3-door hatchback
• Alfa Romeo Milano: Compact sedan, will replace current Alfa 147
• Alfa Romeo Giulia: Sleek mid-size sedan, will replace current Alfa Romeo 159
• Alfa Romeo compact SUV: Compact utility vehicle hinges on Alfa Romeo’s re-entry into U.S.
Many of our Best and Brightest have flagged the fact that cold weather may ding the Chevrolet’s gas/electric Hail Mary Volt’s performance. And now we have anecdotal, real world evidence for the challenge. Underneath an innocuous headline, “Fusion Hybrid Game-Changer for Ford,” a WardsAuto scribe gives us the 411 on the difference between the vehicle’s heavily advertised EPA number (38.5 mpg combined) and its cold weather efficiency. Byron Pope reveals, “The best we can squeeze out of the Fusion Hybrid is a combined 33 mpg (7.1 L/100 km). In all fairness, our seat time came in the midst of a brutal Michigan winter cold snap. Running the heater at nearly full blast most of the time siphons power from the battery causing the car to rely more often on its gasoline engine.” And that’s because using the heater changes the way the Fusion hybrid’s power-train works . . .
We’ve been hearing a lot recently about GM bondholders’ unwillingness to take the haircut offered by The General—a precondition for federal loans. Ha! Got you! It was supposed to be a precondition. Uncle Sam blew through the first deadline as if that check box didn’t even exist. As the The Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (PTFOA) prepares to dish-up a second helping from the bailout buffet, GM bondholders are tooling-up for next week’s PR war. The “unofficial committee’s” letter to the PTFOA [full text via Reuters] kicks off with the Cerberus defense: ” . . . many of these bonds are owned by average citizens, who purchased them to support their own retirement and college expenses and other critical needs.” As we said when Chrysler’s owners assumed this position, bullshit. As the letter acknowledges, 80 percent of this debt is held by institutions. Meanwhile . . .
OK, we’re ready to start implementing our plan B for TTAC’s survival. I’ll be touching base with our Best and Brightest in the next couple of days to discuss a meta plan to generate income—for the site AND its writers—without walling off content. Meanwhile, here’s our first bit of real (i.e., non-CAFE Press) swag: a framed GM certificate. At $149.99 ($25 kickback for us), it’s not cheap. But I want to position TTAC swag at the top end of the market: quality, price no object. Our agreement with the certificate provider includes one line of text at the bottom (“cut-out in bottom mat, size 3/4″ × 5″ to 7″ for lettering insert”). So what message should we include? We could go Latin: veritas vos liberabit (the truth will set you free), veritatem dies aperit (time discloses the truth), vincit omnia veritas (the truth conquers all). Or perhaps an appropriate quote: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it” (George Santayana); “History shows you don’t know what the future brings” (GM CEO Rick Wagoner); “Generally, cars were not built to sit on dealer lots. It encourages the wrong kind of behavior in the whole system” (also Wagoner). Ideas?
The Minnesota state trooper who rammed a slow-moving minivan on New Year’s Eve was given a slap on the wrist Wednesday. A written reprimand was placed in the personnel folder of Sergeant Carrie Rindal, mildly criticizing her for twice slamming her patrol car into the Toyota Sienna minivan belonging to Sam Salter, 40, who had been driving his two-, three- and six-year-old children home to Hudson, Wisconsin, just before midnight on Interstate 94 in St. Paul.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the concord between Italy’s Fiat and China’s Chery has fallen apart, a victim of the global auto industry meltdown. Chery spokesman Jin Yibo was not in a word-mincing mood. “The global situation is totally different from before. We have had to adjust our strategy accordingly . . . It definitely won’t happen this year.” Hey! Isn’t that the same Chery that had signed a highly-touted deal to produce a small car for Chrysler? (That was then going to be built by Nissan?) Yup. So, Chrysler can’t work with Chery to bring cars to the US. Fiat can’t work with Chery to build cars in China. But Chrysler can work with Fiat to build Fiats in the US. Makes sense. But then I’m pretending to be a Chrysler executive or a member of the Presidential Task Force on Autos (PTFOA). And while we’re on that subject, next week the PTFOA will begin floating trial balloons advertising the next seating at the multi-billion dollar bailout buffet. So a quick refresher on the bureaucrats that constitute the august body in whose hands Chrysler and GM’s fate rests. [NB: Steve Rattner joined Ron Bloom after the commission was formed.]
The sale of its automobiles on the prices of 2008 g., which will be prolonged from March 23 to April 30. Thus, [UAZ] attempts to get rid of the overstock of storages. The average sum of reduction is 25 thousand rubles. With its calculation the price on UAZ Of patriot with the gasoline engine in the assembly Of classic will be 440 thousand rubles, and ” [Patriot]” in the complete assembly with the Diesel engine Of iveco it will manage to buyer into 595 thousand rubles. The buyers of the automobile UAZ Of hunter with the gasoline engine can save 20 thousand rubles, and with the diesel – 24 thousand rubles. Let us recall, since February 16 plant works three days in the week, this graph will be preserved until August 1. If until this time situation with sales does not change to the best side, company will be is forced to begin the releases of personnel, since according to the Russian legislation the reduced operating mode can be introduced in enterprise maximum for six months. It previously communicated that in 2009. ” [UAZ]” it plans to let out 53 thousand [vsedorozhnikov], which to 26,7% is less than in the past year, when were assembled 72,3 thousand automobiles. P.S. [Interestno] will influence this the prices of Ukrainian dealers.
Today’s the day that the embargo on Camaro reviews ends. First, as a taxpayer, a big thank you to all the automotive publications and websites that abided by the terms of GM’s proscription. You’ve helped my corporate beneficiary concentrate its marketing firepower for maximum effect. Second, I want to re-iterate my suspicion—based on historical precedent—that all Camaros tested were “ringers” (specially built and prepared versions). And third, I’d like to point out that Detroit News carmudgeon Scott Burgess and I share something: we both hate people. OK, I hate the lies that people tell and Scott hates anyone who hates Detroit. I’ve said time and again that the number of people who actually care enough to hate Detroit is statistically irrelevant. But Scott’s world is constantly under imaginary assault from people who vilify the cars he loves. Which, needless to say, includes the new Camaro. Althoughly, strangely, Scott doesn’t bless with his 100 percent seal of approval. In fact, reading between the lines, the new Camaro’s not even a 90 percent car. First the ho-sannahs . . .
As today’s post on Barack Obama’s Model T vs. SUV comparison indicates, there’s a lot of auto-related misinformation swirling around the court of public opinion. Seeing as you are the autoblogosphere’s Best and Brightest, it’s time to bust some myths. (Or at least engage in some of the usual punch-ups.) What are the automotive myths that simply won’t die? Our Ronnie Schreiber correctly flagged ye olde 100 mpg carburetor, which pairs nicely with the “GM killed the electric car” conspiracy. On the other side of that equation, PCH101 routinely confronts the idea that Japan manipulated its currency to kick Motown’s ass. There’s also this idea out there, somewhere, that a Chinese automaker is just itching to invade the U.S. market and kick some D2.8/Toyondissan ass with ridiculously inexpensive products. My [least] favorite myth: GM is the blameless victim of a bad economy. What auto-related mishegos stick in your craw?
When France announced their bailout package to the car industry, it came with a covenant: keep jobs in France. This immediately raised the EU’s ire of the EU. Free trade commissar Neelie Kroes spat into the direction of Paris: “If the help comes with conditions, for instance to keep production in France, then these measures would be illegal and would not be approved by us.” After the whipping from mistress Kroes, the Sarkozy government France struck the clause from the bailout package—and then claimed a “moral obligation” for the French to stay in France. Brussels was displeased with the French moral imperative, especially when Renault is still 15.7 percent in government hands, considering that the government/industry relations in France can put a zaibatsu in Japan, or a company owned outright by the Chinese government, to shame. A wary eye was kept on France ever since. Yesterday, it turned into an angry stare.
President Obama recently received major car guy demerits when he proclaimed that America invented the automobile. Even if you give Obama a mulligan, someone on his staff should have fact-checked the jingoistic assertion—especially after President Kennedy told Germany he was a jelly donut (ein Berliner). But President Obama’s most recent gaffe reveals darker demagoguery, highlighting his Messianic mission to mold motorcars to his green dreams. The AP reports,
Obama, touring a California electric car plant on Thursday, said, ‘The 1908 Model T — think about this — the 1908 Model T earned better gas mileage than the typical SUV in 2008… Think about that: 100 years later, and we’re getting worse gas mileage, not better, on SUVs.’
There’s a lot of talk about Cerberus’ favorite automotive and sub-prime housing lender—sorry “bank” relocating to Charlotte, North Carolina, where CEO Al de Molina hangs his hat and, presumably, shelters a chunk of his $11.6M annual compensation. Hey, see it from Big Al’s perspective: Congress’ desire to kill the corporate jet market in the name of populism means GMAC’s main man can’t commute to Motown in a Gulfstream anymore. Or see it from Charlotte’s perspective: they’re happy to lure the $6 billion federal bailout queen with a $4.49M grant. WHAT? Not even a “loan”? Wow. Desperate times, eh? Anyway, Detroit’s loss could be your gain. Here’s how [via WCNC.com]:
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