TTAC recently published a Wild Ass Rumor about Buick LaCrosse wiring problems. Jim Federico breached the GM – TTAC wall to quash the suggestion that production vehicles suffered from electrical gremlins. “I can confirm there is NO truth to this RUMOR,” the LaCrosse Vehicle Line Executive/Chief Engineer wrote. So I called the man responsible for “any car on the GM Global Mid-Size platform until I retire or get fired, whatever comes first.” [Note: GM no longer uses Greek names for its platforms. Literally. Federico flat-out refused to identify the Buick’s platform as an “Epsilon.”] Federico told me GM has delivered roughly a thousand LaCrosse to dealers; only one has been marked return to sender. “It was a car with a burned-out starter,” he revealed. “We identified the problem as a defective component and contacted the supplier to rectify the situation.” Now, as for that wiring rumor . . .
Wall Street Journal had a little post-BOD meeting chinwag with New GM’s federally-appointed Chairman of the Board. Clearly, Edward E. Whitacre Jr.’s busy not kicking ass and not taking names. Whitacre told the WSJ that “GM’s business plan needs to be ‘tweaked.’ Among areas he cited as needing rapid improvement are advertising, revenue and net income.” Do you have any idea how hard it was not to substitute the word “nipples” for “business plan”? Anyway, “Gaining market share is ‘right there at the top’ of his agenda for Chief Executive Frederick ‘Fritz’ Henderson, Mr. Whitacre said. ‘You clearly don’t want to be in a position of losing market share.'” Thanks for the [unintentional] hat tip to the U.S. taxpayer, but didn’t Eddy get the memo about GM bankrupting itself in the single-minded pursuit of market share? No, he didn’t. Make the jump for the most worrying corporate jingoism since, well, all the other GM BS.
A little insight into Rattner’s past, his high stakes poker with Chrysler’s bondholders and his fall from grace (a fixer too far). New York magazine presents at least one interesting factoid. Apparently, the Presidential Task Force on Automobiles (PTFOA) was deadlocked at “4-4 on the issue” of whether or not they should save Chrysler (page five). Huh? I was under the impression it was a twenty-five member mob. So assuming the Quadrangle guy was part of a quorum, it was Steve “Chooch” Rattner, Ron Bloom (now head of the PTFOA) and who else?
Regular readers know that TTAC leans a little towards the “Inside Baseball” side of the auto industry. In this case, if we leaned any further, we’d fall down. But hey, many of us have come a long way together, shaking our heads in wonder as The General’s aide de camps stayed-up all night listening to Mohammed’s radio. Or something like that. Anyway, here’s a GM-related picture from Clubsnap.com’s Singapore snappers, taken during last year’s BBK International Motor Show. Make the jump for your New GM New Scorecard.
It’s all change at New GM—in the sense that the same old management is shuffling the same old players to re-consolidate their power within the post-Chapter-11 automaker’s moribund corporate culture. To wit: Automotive News [AN, sub] reports that New GM’s old North American Design Chief, Bryan Nesbitt, has been named New GM’s chief of Cadillac. “Chief.” I like that! As AN points out, Nesbitt penned the PT Cruiser for Chrysler—before jumping ship from one bankruptcy-bound American automaker for another. Again, Nesbitt is now, effectively, Cadillac’s brand manager; replacing “interim” Cadillac general managers Steve Hill and Steve Shannon, who will be rebadged and reassigned.
Old GM’s marketing maven is New GM Sales and Service Supremo. Of course, Mark LaNeve held those latter two responsibilities before GM nosedived into bankruptcy. In fact, you could say that LaNeve’s administration of the sales and service elements of his tripartite position helped push GM’s corporate yoke into its maximum forward position. (I couldn’t possibly comment.) LaNeve should take some comfort in the fact that A) he still has a job, despite CEO Fritz Henderson’s dark hints about a sudden shiv in the shower; B) LaNeve still has a high paying job; C) his marketing remit has been filled by Bob Lutz, the only man on planet earth capable of making GM’s taxpayer-fronting taskmasters wish they’d stuck with LaNeve; and D) LaNeve gets a new business card! Automotive News [AN, sub]: “A GM spokesman said an official title remains to be created.” Suggestion box below. Meanwhile . . .
TTAC’s Lutzies are safe. When Bob Lutz announced his retirement from GM at the end of this year, automotive journalists openly wept at the prospect of losing an never-ending supply of quotes and sound bites. But now we can rejoice. He’s back. Automotive News reports that Maximum Bob has decided to “extend his career as vice chairman in charge of all ‘creative elements of products and customer relationships.’” What that means isn’t exactly clear but he’s supposed to work with design chief Ed Welburn “to guide all creative aspects of design.” The chiefs of all of GM’s brands, plus all corporate mouthpieces will report to Lutz, who in turn will report directly to CEO-for-now Fritz Henderson.
Here’s the full text of the speech given by Akio Toyoda, the new president of Toyota Motor Corporation.
Thank you very much for coming today.
I was appointed president of Toyota Motor Corporation at the board of directors meeting held on June 23, following the Ordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting on the same day. In addition to my comments here today, our executive vice presidents will provide remarks on their areas of business.
The global automobile industry has been facing extreme hardships since the latter half of last year. As for Toyota, we ended the last fiscal year with an operating loss of 461 billion yen. We expect our losses to deepen this fiscal year, and so all of us in the new management team at Toyota feel like we are setting sail during a storm.
Since the birth of Toyota, the company’s philosophy has always been to “contribute to society.” The first article of the Toyoda Precepts, our original statement of purpose as a company in 1935, states that we must contribute to the development and welfare of each country we operate in by working together – regardless of individual position – in faithfully fulfilling our duties. In other words, we must manufacture high-quality vehicles for the benefit of society.
In yesterday’s NYT Magazine [sub] (theme: Infrastructure: it’s more exciting than you think), Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood talks bridges, behavior and Buick Regals in a short interview entitled “The Road Warrior.” And at the risk of reigniting an overly-political discussion, the man’s opinions are indicative of where public policy is headed (regardless of where the debate here at TTAC ends up). It’s easy to take LaHood’s talk of “livable communities,” and praise for light rail and one-car families as proof that he (per George Will’s judgment) is the “secretary of behavior modification.” But it’s important to remember a few key points . . .
Automotive News [sub] is reporting that former chairman and CEO of AT&T, Edward Whitacre Jr., has been selected as the chairman of the “New GM.” Whitacre is an industrial engineer by training and previously served on the boards of ExxonMobil and Burlington Northern Santa Fe. Whitacre and interim chairman Kent Kresa will serve on GM’s board along with current members Philip Laskawy, Kathryn Marinello, Errol Davis Jr., E. Neville Isdell and CEO Fritz Henderson. Six other current GM board members will retire by the time GM’s asset sale is approved, four of whom will be replaced by a selection process now underway. Two more directors will be selected by the Canadian government and the UAW VEBA trust. The reconstituted GM board will seat 13 directors.
What do you get for leaving Toyota and kneeling to Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli? How does a townhouse in NYC at 178 East 64th Street sound to you? The New York Observer (“Nothing Sacred But The Truth”) reports that Jim Press decided to splurge on a $13.5 million four bedroom house in the Big Apple during his first month with the little C. The fringe benefit came complete with, “a grand marble foyer, an oak-floored living room with an antique wood-burning French fireplace, a full-floor master bedroom suite, a den with a wet bar and humidor, plus a finished basement with a gym and a 1,000-bottle, temperature-controlled wine cellar.” However now with the bankruptcy in full swing, Jimmy wants to unload his load. To the tune of $15.7 million. Oh wait! it’s NO LONGER FOR SALE. Sold! At 14,995,000! If only Press could have helped Chrysler make that kind of money.
Apparently no good deed goes unpunished in Auburn Hills, as Reuters reports that Lee Iacocca will lose his retirement benefits under Chrysler’s bankruptcy reorganization. The man credited with saving Chrysler from bankruptcy in 1979 will lose all of his supplemental executive retirement plan (SERP) benefits and his lifetime use of a company car, according to CEO Bob Nardelli’s testimony before Chrysler’s bankruptcy court. Although Chrysler’s employee FAQ states that “SERP contributions are placed in a trust fund and are not subject to creditors in the event of bankruptcy,” it seems that applies only to tax-qualified contributions. “We are required by law to stop the payments of non-tax qualified SERP benefits,” the FAQ reveals. Clearly Iacocca’s benefits fall into this category. Time to make another ad with Snoop Dogg?
Automotive News [sub] reports that former Borden Chemical Inc and Duracell International Inc Chairman C. Robert Kidder (interactive relationship map available at Muckety.com) will replace Robert Nardelli as Chrysler’s chairman.
In an article about US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s inability to tie his own shoes, the Washington Post leads with the heretofore disclosed fact that Wagoner’s looking forward to a $20 million payday. While the Post paints Geithner as an incompetent manager, that’s a no-win proposition no matter how you look at it. Stiff Rick and the guy’s bound to reveal the finer points of Uncle Sam’s takeover of a [former] blue chip company, including the deal they promised Wagoner to get him to jump. Pay him off and the howls of indignation will rile the nation, pissing off potential GM customers, further sinking “good” GM’s ability to sell someone a car.
There’s a clever headline in there somewhere. Meanwhile, Automotive News [sub] reports that the Obama administration has abandoned plans to nominate the CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to head the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration (NHTSA). Although neither the White House nor Charles Hurley’s MADD men (and women) are saying Jack about the decision, it appears Hurley ran afoul of . . . environmentalists. “His potential nomination had been criticized by environmentalists such as Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign. Becker cited Hurley’s work at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the 1990s, when he said Hurley backed car companies that were fighting attempts to reduce vehicle size to improve fuel economy.” I guess they forget that TTAC took Hurley to task for his support of reintroducing the double-nickel speed limit, his close ties to the red light camera industry and his insistence that piloting a vehicle with a .04 BAC constitutes drunk driving. Still, the end result is what counts. Oh, and I nominate Bill Broadhead for the job.
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