“Built on a platform with a wheelbase of 100.4in, an overall length of 161.6in, an overall width of 70.3in and overall height of 63.4in, the Soul offers enough space for five adults with some space left for storage. The car rides on a fully independent front and twist-beam rear suspension system, with front MacPherson struts and coil springs. In the rear, the Soul suspension is sub-frame-mounted with a transverse torsion beam axle with trailing arms. To maximize space, the rear anti-roll stabilizer bar is mounted inside the torsion beam. The engine lineup will consist of a 120hp 1.6L unit and a 140hp 2.0L option. Fuel economy for both engines is estimated at 30mpg.”

GM has become the first Detroit firm to acknowledge the toxic fallout from what’s fast becoming known as Corporate Jet-Gate. Reuters (via Yahoo News) reports that GM will send back two of its leased corporate jets, after attracting widespread criticism for jetting to DC with begging bowls in hand. Actually, according to GM spokesfolks, GM decided to return the aircraft because of a “really aggressive cutback in travel.” Seriously? “There is a perception issue,” says GM’s Tom Wilkinson of CEO Rick Wagoner’s travel to Washington on a private jet. “We need to be very sensitive to that going forward.” What’s next? Alan Mulally’s Lexus?

We’ve been harping on the UAW for not making concessions either at this week’s congressional testimony or subsequent press conferences. After all, how is congress supposed to take your endorsement of a $25b bailout seriously when you are part of the problem and yet refuse to give up a single iota? Well, by passing the buck (for now), Congress has apparently convinced Detroit that it has to offer something, and the union boys are starting to understand that they have to be part of the solution. At least for PR purposes. The UAW’s controversial job bank program has been widely floated as a possible concession, and apparently Gettelfinger wants folks to know that GM isn’t paying his union brothers $77/hr to do nothing. “It’s not gone yet but it’s almost gone,” Gettelfinger tells the Detroit News. “We’re on the verge of eliminating that provision.” So, why does the DetN lede their story with “reports that the United Auto Workers union is in talks to dismantle the controversial jobs bank program are premature, according to people familiar with the situation”? Read More >

CNN Money Editor-at-Large Paul R Monica reckons GM is so Dow, I mean down, on its luck that it should be delisted from the Dow Jones Industrial Average. By Monica’s math, GM has a market cap of less than $2 billion, and its stock price has been treading water near $3. “Normally, when a blue-chip company sinks to such depths of despair,” writes Monica, “it gets tossed from the S&P 500. But not only is GM still a member of that index, it remains a component of the granddaddy of market barometers: the venerable Dow Jones Industrial average.” He reveals that Dow executive director John Prestbo is keeping a close eye on the General and any sign of a bankruptcy in the offing. “A company operating under bankruptcy protection is not on a level playing field,” says Prestbo. “What we try to do is make sure every company in the Dow is operating under the same kind of marketplace.”

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Arizona’s ambitious statewide speed camera program faces increasing resistance both from the public and from state and local officials. At least half a dozen speed cameras have been temporarily taken out of service by ordinary citizens using nothing more Post-It Notes and silly string. A video released yesterday documented a speed camera having its lens covered with silly string. Vigilantes then labeled with signs variously reading, “scamera,” “scamera: ka-ching!” and scamera: smile.” Over the past month other cameras have had their lenses covered with multiple yellow notes with the phrase “honest mistake” written on them. This is a subtle dig at camera operator Redflex which had argued that the importation, marketing and use of certain radar equipment in violation of federal law was an honest oversight. The Post-It Notes refer to a July incident where Redflex angered the office of Secretary of State Jan Brewer (R) which had been investigating a citizen’s complaint against the company. According to Brewer’s office, a Redflex employee “wrote a short response to the complaint on a post it note,” making light of an official inquiry into the company’s falsification of legal documents.

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“It’s gone,” said (an anonymous “high ranking Nissan executive”) when asked if launch control would return in 2010. “We just don’t want to deal with the warranty nightmare anymore. It’ll make the 2009 GT-R really special. It’ll be the only R35 with launch control.”

This week’s round of congressional testimony has forced our elected officials take sides on the auto industry, a topic that typically doesn’t often factor too heavily into national level grandstanding politicking. Detroit News Scribe Bryce G. Hoffman figures that the divisive issue of aid to automakers is creating a house divided… along the old Mason-Dixon line. The split is based on another legislative battle that hasn’t visited the corridors of power as often in recent years: anti-union “at will” employment laws. These laws are popular in many southern states which have used the lack of labor organization to attract transplant auto factories which have bring hundreds of jobs– and an ambivalence to Detroit’s self-made hell– to their sunny shores. And like much of Detroit’s newspapers’ coverage, Hoffman is taking his lead from UAW boss Ron Gettelfinger who blasted Alabama’s congressional delegation at a recent press conference. “Alabama paid $175,000 per employee to create those jobs there,” he said. “It just seems odd to us that we can help the financial institutions in this country — that we can offer incentives to our competitors to come here and compete against us — but at the same time we’re willing to walk away from an industry that is the backbone of our economy.” Read More >

When I’m not busy boning-up on Mustangology on Autoblog (c’mon guys it’s been TWO DAYS!) I sometimes trace-back links to TTAC material. Today’s forensic surfing uncovered this little gem on MarketWatch. It’s a financial results press release from a company called CableOrganizer.com, claiming that they made “$21.2 billion more in profit than General Motors Corporation (GM) for the nine months ending September 30, 2008.” Yup, it’s a joke. “‘We are very pleased about our 2008 profitability and are obviously honored to have beaten GM by such a wide margin,’ said Paul Holstein, senior vice president of CableOrganizer.com, Inc. ‘Obviously we couldn’t match their revenue, but we were able to beat them handily on costs and expenses,’ notes Holstein. ‘For example, we put off buying a fleet of Gulfstream G5 private jets. That, right there, saved us millions of dollars.’ I called the company’s Marketing Coordinator, Juan Ribero. He was kind enough to send me the original press release, before MarketWatch’s editors toned it down.

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Bloomberg reports that Obama’s transition team is exploring the possibility of prepackaged bankruptcies as a solution to the dire situation the Detroit Three find themselves in. According to an anonymous source, Obama’s team has already contacted at least one bankruptcy- law firm to say that Daniel Tarullo, a professor at Georgetown University’s law school who heads Obama’s economic policy working group, would call to discuss the workings of a so-called prepack. And as the worm turns on the idea of a bridge loan, a prepackaged bankruptcy seems to be about where the middle ground shakes out to. So is Obama leading to the middle? Not openly, at least not yet. “That’s not true,” a spokesman for Obama’s transition team tells Automotive News [sub] of the Bloomberg report. So then is the story that Obama’s not exploring all the options? Or he is, but doesn’t want it publicized? From the sound of things at recent congressional beggary testimony, none of the D3 are willing to consider the possibility of bankruptcy of any kind. But if the their turnaround plans, due to Congress by December 2, aren’t convincing enough there will be bankruptcies. And not neat, pretty prepacks. Time to face the strange?

If FoMoCo CEO Alan Mulally is disembarking The Blue Oval corporate jet and entering a Lexus, that’s one Big Ass story. It’s summer in the video (and our hearts), and the graphic says 2008. That’s long enough for Big Al to have ditched his Lexus and hooked-up with something domestic. Lincoln MKZHRG? Volvo S80? [While TTAC has long argued that Motown execs should drive their competitors’ products, Big Al ain’t driving here. And if it is a Lexus sedan, methinks Mr. M knew the transplant brand well enough by then.] Eddy and I aren’t sure. The headlight shape doesn’t look Ford like, but the wheels don’t look Lexian. Ed’s thinking maybe it’s a Cadillac DTS. I’m calling ABC News to try and get the video sans graphic. Meanwhile, help!

I waited until now to repost this ABC report on “Jet-gate” because I wanted to put this story into some sort of context. While members of TTAC’s Best and Brightest have defended the CEO’s travel arrangements as either a drop in the bucket or CEO SOP, that’s not the kind of context I’m talking about. I mean the wider issue of the mainstream media’s (MSM) treatment of the auto industry. The change in tenor is palpable. Before the Congressional hearings, the MSM treated the automakers with kid gloves. And no wonder. Back in the day (less than six months ago), GM pumped over $2b into advertising. Add in the budgets for Chrysler and Ford and you can see how that whole hand, feed, bite prevention thing works. Now that The Big 2.8 have been unveiled as mortally wounded, the gloves are off. For some. Is it any coincidence that the jet chasing reporter hails from ABC, not CBS? I don’t think so. Where was Rush and Sean when this story was aborning? Driving promo cars from “our friends at GM” and slipping mentions into their rants. So be it. These days, the MSM “gets it”– if only because they can afford to do so. More importantly, there’s the internet. Not only can you read the real deal here on TTAC, but there’s now a worldwide webwise conspiracy of souls digging, prodding and rooting for the truth. We live in terrible, wonderful times.

Channel stuffing means forcing dealers to take more cars than they can sell, or making the vehicles and parking them somewhere or other. It’s an art that was perfected by DaimlerChrysler just prior to the automaker’s assumption by Cerberus Capital (a company more than a little familiar with the dark arts of dark arts.) The upside: the company books a vehicle as “sold” once it does an Elvis (i.e. leaves the building). The downside: there’s always a reckoning. One of our spies tells us that GM can’t cut production fast enough; new units are beginning to pile up here, there and everywhere. (Confirmation to robert.farago@thetruthaboutcars.com.) Meanwhile, one of our friendly GM store owners tells us that The General’s about to launch a new dealer incentive program. The new deal will encourage dealers to, as he puts it, “order unneeded and unwanted inventory.” “We’re talking about two to three thousand dollars in extra stackable rebates,” the mole reveals. “Depending on how much gas [new units] you take.” This does not please our guy on the front lines a bit. No sir. “It’s just great,” he kvetched with a dollop of sarcasm. “Unfair and unequal pricing to force franchisees into paying dangerously high floorplans.” Translation? “If you manage your units in a reasonable and sensible way, you are unable to compete on price.” Just another indication that this ain’t no party. [thanks to you know who you are X3]

Re “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” (Op-Ed, Nov. 19):

I noticed the Boston dateline on Mitt Romney’s article advocating bankruptcy for Detroit’s auto industry. From his New England home, Mr. Romney may not realize how much the industry has changed since 1969, when his father, George W. Romney, left Michigan to become housing and urban development secretary.

Nearly every recommendation Mitt Romney makes for United States automakers has already been undertaken by current management in Detroit. Automakers have been investing in the future on the order of $12 billion a year in research and development — second only to the semiconductor industry.

In addition, General Motors has cut $9 billion in structural costs since 2005 and last year reached a landmark agreement to transfer the delivery of health care to the United Auto Workers union.

Finally, it is inappropriate of Mr. Romney to invoke Walter Reuther’s name while advocating using bankruptcy to break union contracts. That reference may be overlooked in Boston but surely not in Detroit.

Steve Harris
Vice President
Global Communications
General Motors
Detroit, Nov. 20, 2008