Subject: “PLEASE CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS IN WASHINGTON ASAP”

Delphi has been a part of the successful effort by auto suppliers in the U.S. to assure they are eligible for some of the $25 billion in direct, low interest federal loans to be used by the auto industry to accelerate development of advanced technology vehicles in the U.S.  Auto companies and suppliers are now applying for these funds, which won’t be available anytime soon.

But with the U.S. auto industry hit at every level by the global financial crisis, Delphi’s Detroit-based customers are now asking the federal government for further help that can be made available immediately, help that is critical to the industry’s survival.  Chrysler, Ford and General Motors are reaching out to their suppliers and other stakeholders for additional help, asking that Delphi and others contact Members of Congress.

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“Be it a famous Hollywood actor or pop star: anyone who is in the spotlight has to keep an eye on their fitness. Eibach have sent the latest VI version of the 26-time ‘millionaire’ VW Golf – one of the best selling cars of all times – to the gym: here, if desired, the Pro-Kit Performance Springs or the slightly ‘shorter’ Sportline Sport Springs can lower the centre of gravity of the car.”

One point on which the mainstream motor press has always agreed with TTAC is skepticism towards Cerberus’ claim that it doesn’t intend on “stripping and flipping” Chrysler. It’s been conventional wisdom since the Cerberus purchase was announced, and it makes perfect sense. They got ChryCo for a song, so why not break it up and sell? It’s what private equity does, and like a new Sebring, Chrysler is definitely not worth more than the sum of its parts. Well, we were wrong. Maybe. Bloomberg reports today that Cerberus has agreed to give up any profit on a future sale of Chrysler LLC should the company receive federal financial aid. Of course, this is classic bailout fodder, the proverbial spoonful of sugar to make the federal equity position go down smoothly with taxpayers. Chrysler is at a huge disadvantage in bailout wranglings, thanks to its ownership by a secretive private equity fund, and several pro-bailout commentators have already suggested throwing Chrysler to the wolves. Want some hard-hitting analysis on this revelation? “This is a sign they need the money and are willing to do anything to get it,” says Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Ya think? Cerberus forswearing profit on a future sale is a metaphor-defying repudiation of everything everyone has assumed about the New Chrysler project. It can only mean that Cerberus would lose even more money breaking Chrysler up and selling its parts than by limping along on a ‘bring and a prayer. Oh yeah, and a federal equity position.

While managers and union leaders of Opel and GM-Europe had a crisis summit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her ministers at the Kanzleramt,  the drumbeat of “disentanglement” of Opel from GM picked up a steady rhythm. On Saturday, it was just whispers being picked up by TTAC from German contacts. On Sunday, it was press reports that openly discussed to jettison the Opel lifeboat from the sinking mothership. Today, everybody says it was their idea. Even Opel managers, who were just privately grumbling before, are outing themselves: “Managers at Opel would ideally like to see the unit spun-off from GM, a move which would decisively disentangle the company from the financial and political dramas unfolding in Detroit,” writes Germany’s news magazine Der Spiegel. “German politicians and union leaders like Armin Schild also support the idea. Schild declared on Monday that GM must “let Opel go free.” Free, but where, and how?

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If you’re planning on buying a Ford this week, you might want to hold off a bit. Reuters reports that Ford will introduce Employee Pricing and cash incentives next week in an effort to turn around flagging sales. The incentive program will be available on most 2008 and 2009 Ford vehicles, with the notable exception of the all-new F150. But Ford isn’t the only struggling automaker trying to boost year-end sales and clear inventories through profit-munching incentives. GM’s “Year End Red Tag Sale” is also trying to squeeze sales from the dried-up American market, although added sales do little to prevent either automakers’ arterial spray of red ink. Toyota and Mazda are both trying aggressively drive sales as well, offering zero-percent financing on many models at a time when a lack of auto financing is dragging sales downwards. Ford’s offer will begin next Wednesday and will run through January 5, according to Reuters’ unnamed sources. If sales stay down, it won’t be a very merry Christmas at all this year.

The Associated Press is reporting that General Motors now plans to sell back its 3.02 percent in Suzuki for $230m. Buckingham Research Group’s Joseph C Amaturo gets credit for pointing out that “while the sale is indicative of GM’s near-term liquidity challenges, the proceeds are not very meaningful.” In other words, it takes a lot of $230 millions to fill a $5b hole. “GM is expected to burn $4 billion to $5 billion in (the fourth-quarter) or roughly $1.5 billion per month. Hence, the cash proceeds from the sale of its equity stake will not even cover one week of expected cash burn,” Amaturo said. Not that it’s bothering Suzuki. “We fully understand the necessity for GM to raise cash,” Suzuki chairman and chief executive Osamu Suzuki noted dryly, adding that GM and Suzuki would continue to pursue a business partnership. Joint development of hybrid vehicles and a joint venture building sports utility vehicles in Canada are said to be on the collaboration agenda. The two automakers are also joint stakeholders in GM’s currently-stalled South Korean operations, GM-DAT. GM has owned portions of Suzuki since 1981, only selling off 17 percent in 2006. The saddest part of this story? It decreases the likelihood that GM will help bring Suzuki’s current (well-received) Swift to the states. Not that they needed a competitive small car or anything.

Ouch, that hurts, or “tong, tong!” as they say in China. “China’s largest automaker, SAIC Motor Corp, is poised to surpass the combined market value of General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co.” Bloomberg followed the market capitalization of the three automakers as far back as the year 2000. Then, Ford and GM were worth $100b, about 50 times the value of SAIC. At the end of last week, the difference shrunk to a mere $570m. As the stock of both GM and Ford are twirling further down the toilet, the Shanghai auto maker will soon be bigger than both former Detroit giants together. Says Bloomberg: “GM most recently traded at $3.01 per share in New York Stock Exchange composite trading and Ford was at $1.80, for a combined market value of $6.14 billion. SAIC shares ended the week at 5.8 yuan (85 cents), for a value of $5.57 billion.”  Want some background?

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You’d be hard pressed to find a justification for The Big 2.8 bailout that The Detroit News doesn’t like. But even the hometown paper’s cheerleaders are having a tough time swallowing claims that America’s national security would be jeopardized if GM, Ford and Chrysler aren’t kept afloat. Reporter Gordon Trowbridge provides generous airtime to the Lexington Institute’s Loren Thompson and his unfettered support for the automakers rescue plan. However, Trowbridge seems resigned to allowing a bit of journalistic objectivity to creep in, conceding that “the Big Three do relatively little business with the Pentagon,” adding that “the serious hardware — fighter planes, armored vehicles, ships and missiles — is made by companies with few, if any, direct links to the auto industry.” Furthermore, some of the minor linkage that does exist comes courtesy of Michigan senator Carl Levin, who has exaggerated crafted the Pentagon-Detroit relationship as a mechanism to subsidize The Big 2.8’s civilian alternative fuels programs, such as the fuel cell version of the not-ready-for-combat Chevrolet Equinox sport utility vehicle.  As chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Levin spearheaded the diversion of more than over $40 million of the federal budget to Detroit’s alt-fuel projects, experience that makes the good senator eminently qualified to ask for more. A lot more.

Even as Opel looks set to leave GM’s cratering corporate mothership, the German division has scooped top honors in the European Car of the Year (ECOTY, although UK buff book EVO also claims that acronym). Oops! Did I say Opel? I mean Vauxhall. The British brand under which GM products are sold in the UK. Other than Chevrolet and Cadillac, which are also sold throughout Europe, although, in the UK, not so much that you’d require more than your two hands to count them. Anyway, the methodology used to bang the gong (and get it on) is beyond question. ECOTY is judged by a panel of 59 swag-scarfing, press car luxuriating journos members, representing 23 European countries. The Motor Authority reports that “National representation on the panel is related to the size of the country’s car market and its importance in car manufacturing, with France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain topping the list with six members each… Of the total 59 judges, 20 gave the Insignia top points, while 19 put the Fiesta in first place.” And Sweden showed it no love at all. See the votes by judge here.

BMW’s re-launch of the MINI brand stateside was a marketing meisterstück. From focused billboards to user-friendly showrooms to a “cheeky” website– MINI never put a foot wrong. Their timing was impeccable, launching the anti-SUV just as SUVs became showroom anti-matter. Needless to say, the brand is now showing signs of losing the plot. A MINI Clubfoot? What’s that all about? A MINI SUV? Just as SUVs get stuck in the tarpit of a market meltdown? Now you might think that a EV MINI couldn’t miss. Well, it missed the gas price bubble. And it also missed the lesson of GM’s EV1– a product killed by a lack of range, a lack of interior space and long recharge times. On MINIspace, MINI’s mini MINI site, MINI’s Head of Project i (why not iMINI instead of the awkward MINI-E?) spills the beans. Ulrich Kranz reveals the hard facts about the 500 EV mules for which bleeding edge environmentalists will surrender their left testicle. “[Drivers will achieve] 240 kilometres if you drive at a moderate pace or 200 kilometres using the motor’s full output.” All this in a small car– without rear seats. (those belong to the li-on batteries). That’s 0 for 2. Recharge time? “The fastest way of charging the battery fully is using a wallbox supplied to all 500 MINI E drivers. The wallbox is installed in the driver’s garage and enables a higher amperage, which ensures extremely short charging times. Indeed, the wallbox takes no more than two and a half hours to charge up the battery.” So how long without the “did the lights just go dim again?” box? Crickets chirping. EV fans may line-up around the block, but I reckon they’ll eventually form a circle.

Gooooooooooooooood morning, America! While America Slept (WAS) is a daily TTAC round-up of the news that happened in other continents and time-zones (such as California.) With a network of correspondents around the globe, TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or that has its wheels coming off. Welcome to the morning zoo.

Lemon-Aid: Several people at Daimler’s Quality Assurance department in Sindelfingen are being investigated by Stuttgart’s public prosecutor, writes the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.  The allegation: They intentionally made cars with flaws. The fixing of which was outsourced. The companies that did the fixing fixed up the QA guys with expensive gifts and luxury trips. Damage: “In the high million Euros.” They might be doing time for that.

Porsche agrees with Obama: Porsche wants change. At the Volkswagen Supervisory Board Meeting this week, Porsche Chief “Wendy” Wiedeking will request that VW keeps the Golf VI (that’s Roman numeral 6) longer than until 2011 (as planned.) Should save some R&D money right here and now. Also to be changed: A “Committee for Special Business Relations.” That committee prevented know-how transfer from Audi to Porsche. Porsche thinks, the committee is superfluous. Also reported in the Sueddeutsche.

POTUS is a Renegade: Speaking of Obama, the London Times reports that the “The United States Secret Service revealed its not-so-secret code-name for president-elect Barack Obama last week: Renegade. If it sounds like the make of a car, that’s because it is. The Renegade is a concept car being developed by Chrysler, an open-topped jeep powered by electricity and diesel. Should the car ever make it into production then, like its namesake president-to-be, it, too, promises change – this time at 110 miles per gallon.” Gotta love them Brit sentences. Wait, there’s more!

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From the “with friends like these” department… The Detroit News reports that Michigan Senator Carl Levin met the press and announced his willingness to sacrifice GM CEO Rick Wagoner to get The General the bailout billions it needs thanks to Red Ink Rick’s myopia, intransigence and incompetence. “I’d be happy to tell (GM CEO) Rick Wagoner that he ought to consider resigning if that is the difference between getting this kind of support and not,” Levin said. So far, so good. And then… “The Detroit Democrat said the government ‘should have more than a say’ in management through an oversight board that would oversee the $25 billion in loans…” That’s just what GM needs to be more competitive: an oversight board beholden to politicians. Imagine what Toyota could do with one of those! Meanwhile, GM spokesman Greg Martin “declined to comment directly” on Levin’s remarks. “The global economic crisis that has put this industry in its current precarious position far exceeds any one individual.” Uh. Greg, you missed a few words there. Anyone care to help him out?