We expect to be in profit in the market by 2013… I’m sure those statements were based on some sound analysis.

Volkswagen’s new US boss Jonathan Browning gives his company’s forecast of its future performance (which previously elicited TTAC’s coveted “flying pigs illustration award”)… before totally blowing his credibility by admitting he knows nothing about the matter [via MSNBC]. In front of the National Press Club, no less. Then, for good measure, the former GM and Ford man added

Not many people of my generation don’t have fond memories of the VW Beetle and the VW Microbus.

Which is not unlike saying that not many Americans don’t fail to remember whether Volkswagen has produced cars that may or may not have come up short of not failing in the marketplace. The irony of all this: English is Browning’s first language. The big lesson: German execs are far more endearing when they come across as out-of-touch and incomprehensible.

Several weeks back, Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann was hinting to Forbes that weight loss would be crucial to the Lambo future (he also revealed that the brand’s best-selling colors “are white, black and the grey tones”). As the hype builds towards the release of the new Murcielago-replacing Jota, Winkelmann has released a “manifesto” that he says will guide Lamborghini into a sustainable future.

Alternatively, it could also be seen as an after-the-fact justification for Lamborghini’s decision to ditch the V12. After all, the Jota teaser image released with the Winkelmann-ifesto hints very strongly at a ten-cylinder drivetrain… which means the era of V12-powered Lamborghini flagships is probably about to end. Can one little manifesto really explain that kind of brand-defying break with tradition? Hit the jump to judge for yourself. Read More >

In the second bit of bad news for Toyota to break today, Corporate Counsel reports that former Toyota lawyer Dimitrios Biller has been cleared by an arbitrator to present evidence that Toyota claimed was protected by attorney-client privilege. That evidence reportedly proves that Toyota concealed safety information, although its value has been hotly debated. The evidence will be presented in Biller’s civil RICO suit against Toyota now that the arbitrator in that case has ruled that hey are not protected by attorney-client privilege. Biller tells CC

Attorney-client privileged information almost never gets to the finder of fact to determine the merits of the case. I am halfway there. The burden is now on Toyota to prove me wrong

But for full context, a retired federal judge clarifies that

The Arbitrator does not rule that a crime or a fraud has taken place. The ruling is simply that a prima facia showing has been made, so otherwise-privileged materials may be used in discovery and arbitration.

Read More >

The first rule of blog relations: don’t let the blogs know that you have a blog relations program. The second rule of blog relations: bloggers are children. Use reverse psychology. BMW did… and look, it just worked! Anyway, if meta-irony isn’t your thing, feel free to to never mind the bollocks and simply speculate about this forthcoming BMW concept. Giant wheels, a tiny exhaust… what could those wacky Bavarians be up to?

Editor’s note: GM CEO Dan Akerson sent the following email to GM’s employees, his first such communication as GM’s CEO, in recognition of Labor Day Weekend Eve.

GM Employees,

As Labor Day approaches in the U.S. and Canada, I would like to wish everyone at General Motors a safe, happy holiday weekend. I also ask that we pause for moment to reflect on what this day means as we celebrate labor’s many contributions here and around the world.

Of course, labor’s role in building up this nation and others is well recognized and rightly so. And, coming from a union family, I know on a very personal level the good things that unions can do.

Read More >

YNN reports that the Rochester, NY airport was closed for 50 minutes yesterday, when a hydrogen refueling station run by GM supplier Praxair was rocked by two giant explosions. Details of the explosion are still extremely sketchy, with YNN explaining only that

Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks said it occurred during a tank exchange operation. Brooks said a driver from Praxair was doing the exchange when it appears that some type of arch occurred.

It’s not yet clear if GM’s Sequel hydrogen test fleet had been using the fueling station, but this is the most recent occurrence of the kind of disaster that has helped prevent the development of a large-scale hydrogen infrastructure. Two people were reportedly injured in the blast, but one can only imagine the result of such an explosion in a more urban environment, or in close proximity to a gasoline pumping station. The long awaited hydrogen future may have just slipped a little further out of reach…

For the last two years, more Americans have seen the auto industry in a negative light than positive, as layoffs, bankruptcies, bailouts and energy price volatility have piled on the bad news. Now, according to the latest Gallup polling, those perceptions are starting to swing back around. The industry once again scores more favorable impressions than negative, although its 39 percent favorable is only as good as its 2006 level. Meanwhile, negative impressions are up four points from ’06, at 36 percent, and the industry is perceived less positively than industries like “Sports,” Publishing and Accounting . This indicates that, although the worst PR of the bailout-era is behind the industry, it’s still battling a long-term erosion in favorable impressions, as well as significantly higher unfavorable ratings. The momentum may have turned, but automakers still aren’t winning the PR war.

Think GM has a tough sell for its coming IPO? Chinese battery/automaker BYD is preparing its own $420m stock offering, likely to be floated on the Shenzhen A-Shares exchange, in the midst of a Chinese-market downturn, and an ongoing lawsuit with electronics manufacturing giant Foxconn. And all this comes after a long run of good news for the Hong Kong-listed BYD, which had been running strong on optimism generated by Warren Buffet’s major investment in the firm nearly two years ago. So, is BYD in real trouble of having its overvalued stock burst, or is the company strong enough to weather the storm that’s swirling around it?
Read More >

The core hypocrisy of the UAW is that it claims to work on behalf of workers everywhere, while actually serving only the interests of its most senior members. And the cognitive dissonance produced by this grotesque contradiction can lead to some interesting challenges in the day-to-day life of the union, particularly in the design of parking lot signs designed to keep the competition out. The sign shown above and the sign shown in the post preceding this one show the UAW at its most honest: if it’s built by one of the Detroit Three, it’s OK. If it’s got a “foreign nameplate” it’s not. But this honesty also betrays the fact that the UAW simply wants everyone to support it’s employers, rather than lead a nationalistic or class-based crusade.

At most locals the signs are more simple and ideal-oriented, but they’re also completely misleading. For example, a Japanese-built Camry or Korean-built Elantra should be OK in a lot with a “Union Made Vehicle Parking Only” sign, and an American-built Camry or Sonata should be fine in a lot with a “No Foreign Cars Allowed” sign… but of course, neither scenario would be tolerated. While you’re pondering the deeply cynical self-delusion at play here, enjoy this hastily-assembled gallery of union parking lot signs.

Update: Picture 417 has been removed at the request of the photographer. The original photo can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mlavander/4034221120/#/

We are sorry you were inconvenienced and had to worry about where your car was parked while you covered the signing. The UAW member you encountered in the UAW Local 249 parking lot meant no personal disrespect to you. Accomodating [sic] vehicles not made by UAW brothers and sisters is a passionate subject for our members.

He and UAW members across the country know that foreign automakers that allow workers to freely join unions in their home countries while denying that same right to U.S. workers are denying the First Amendment right of American workers to freely organize. Yet foreign automakers accept U.S. taxpayers’ dollars in incentives to build assembly plants, jeopardizing the future of middle-class workers in the domestic auto industry.

UAW Boss Bob King half-apologizes to Kansas City Business Journal reporter James Dornbrook, who was forced to remove his American-built Toyota Camry from the parking lot of UAW Local 249 in Kansas City while reporting a story there. The DetNews notes that King’s predecessor Ron Gettelfinger had loosened the UAW’s long-standing ban on non-UAW-made cars in its parking lots five years ago, when he allowed Marine Corps reservists who report to a nearby office park at UAW headquarters. But King is on a mission to reconnect the UAW with its old-time religion, and his letter proceeds to lecture Dornbrook on the standard talking points concerning the anti-middle-class evils of non-union transplant factories, and the general sanctity of all things UAW-approved.

King’s letter is a tedious read, but it’s proof that self-righteousness trumps self-preservation at the UAW, even when it comes to something as (relatively) easy to control as press relations. Reporters may not be quite as popular as Marines, but they have immense influence over public perception of the UAW (which, incidentally, is not in great shape just now). Kicking one off UAW property because he drives a non-union, American-built car and then lecturing him with UAW dogma is just plain stupid.

We are not even considering abandoning our campaign. Like every guarantee offer, ours also has conditions and these conditions are presented very clearly.

Opel’s sales and marketing boss Alain Visser fires back at Germany’s Wettbewerbszentrale (competition authority), which recently accused Opel of misleading consumers with its newly-launched “Lifetime Guaranty.” The Wettbewerbzentrale had argued that Opel’s warranty was “a lie” because, despite having no time limit, it only applies for the first 160,000 kilometers… which by definition is less than a car’s lifetime, right? According to Opel’s Visser [via Automotive News [sub]], that might not be the case.

Read More >

Editor’s Note: With GM’s S-1 IPO filing hitting the web today, every IPO and auto industry analyst is weighing in on the offering, and the state of GM. Here’s a collection of some of today’s more notable comments.

It looks to me that GM should be worth no more than Ford. If that’s the case, then the taxpayers will lose about 50% on their investment.

Francis Gaskins, president of IPOdesktop.com, commenting in the WSJ [sub] on GM’s IPO. More analyst commentary on GM’s just-released S-1 filing after the jump.

Read More >

I am looking under every rock and asking the question: Is there anything wrong or unusual about our pedals? We are continuing to look to see if there is something that we could do differently.

Toyota’s Steve St. Angelo tells the WSJ [sub] that Toyota is reviewing its pedal designs in search of a cause for its recent Unintended Acceleration scandal. Thus far, Toyota’s UA issues have been traced only to sticky pedals and floormat interference. Attempts to trace UA to malfunctioning throttle units have thus far been abortive, with a government research panel finding that brake misapplication occurred in many of the Toyota UA incidents.

Read More >

You may have caught a version of this ad on television not long ago, in which an actual monkey fires a confetti cannon. Notice that the monkey doesn’t show up in this version? That’s no coincidence. The Dodge brand, which has previously baffled audiences with such retrograde nonsense as calling the Charger R/T “Man’s Last Stand,” has backed down from using a monkey in its advertising after being criticized by PETA. So much for that thin veneer of über-macho, anti-PC gloss. Hit the jump for Dodge’s petulant response to allegations of animal cruelty.
Read More >