In T. Boone Pickens’ latest TV campaign, the aspiring compressed natural gas kingpin patriotic oil addiction interventionist points out that most Iranian autos run on CNG. According to T., that’s because they save the oil for export to saps like us. It is a shameless, outrageous manipulation of the facts. The former Texas oilman forgets to mention that Iran imports some 40 percent of its gasoline– which still isn’t enough to satisfy demand. The Iranian government has rationed gas since last year, with predictable consequences. The New York Times reported on the result back in June of ’07: “Unrest spread in Tehran on Thursday, the second day of gasoline rationing in oil-rich Iran, with drivers lining up for miles, gas stations being set on fire and state-run banks and business centers coming under attack.” In fact, according to Iranian analyst Saeed Leylaz, “We are importing gasoline from 16 different countries. The country would be on the verge of collapse if they suddenly decide not to sell us gasoline. The government has to find a way to lower the consumption.” Which leads us to the aforementioned CNG and dual-fuel vehicles. Green Car Congress confirms the country’s switch to natural gas, reporting a sales jump from 20k to 429k CNG-powered cars per year. Even if you trust those numbers (courtesy Iranian Minister of Industries and Mines Ali-Akbar), do we really want to imitate a state-controlled automobile industry? And by you I don’t mean Detroit or T. Boone Pickens, obviously.

Wall Street Journal scribe John. D Stoll gets it right: if HUMMER can’t make it in Las Vegas, it can’t make it anywhere. The fact that a Vegas-based HUMMER dealer is now as dead as a dodo indicates that the entire brand faces the same non-future. “This closing is notable because of where it is taking place and who is pulling the plug. It is, after all, one thing for enviro-friendly people in San Francisco–another city that recently lost a key Hummer dealership–to shun the brand. It is entirely different when Sin City decides the vehicles are too excessive. [Dealer owner Dan] Towbin said Las Vegas is a custom fit for Hummer. ‘It’s all about bling and it’s in the desert.'” It’s also about price (high), demand (low), resale (horrendous) and incentives (Olympian). In fact, how’s this for a parenthetical aside? “(Towbin says he was offering $6,000 in incentives, not including GM’s employee-pricing discount, hurting profit margins.)” Followed by “Hummer discounts represent 22.6% of the price of the vehicle–the highest in the industry, Edmunds.com says. And still Hummer sales are down 47% this year, the largest decline of any brand, according to Autodata Corp.” So, will anyone take this three-ton turkey off of GM’s hands? How’s that old joke go? For a nickel I will.

Last Thuesday, Automotive News [AN, sub] was busy towing [sic] the GM party line, suggesting that the U.S. new car market had reached its nadir (not Nader) in August. TTAC immediately called bullshit. And now AN is doing the same, to themselves, backpedalling so furiously they just might achieve reverse traction. “Has the mix been fixed?” Amy Wilson (and pals) asks, redundantly. “Are the truck behemoths really back? And has the slim-profit small-car craze peaked? Bean counters, beware. It ain’t over till it’s over. Small-car sales were constrained last month by low inventory levels, and don’t forget that gasoline — while cheaper than it was — still costs more than $3.50 a gallon. And although full-sized pickups posted their highest sales and industry share month of the year in August, manufacturers had to shell out. The average full-sized pickup incentive was $5,723 per vehicle last month, Edmunds.com reported. That’s the highest monthly pickup incentive since Edmunds began tracking the data in January 2002.” And then it’s back to the same old spinmongery, from Ford and, of course, GM’s Marketing Maven. “At some point, gang, the market bottoms,” said Mark LaNeve. “Nobody knows when the hell it is — me especially. I’d like to think it was June and July, and we’re starting to crawl our way out of this thing.” I’m sure he’d like to think that. The question is, is it the truth? Hopefully, this article marks AN’s resumed pursuit of same.

Why the Hell would it? The U.S. “housing crisis” is far from over, money’s too tight to mention, getting credit’s a bitch and the consumer shift to more fuel efficient vehicles has left millions of SUV owners backwards/underwater on their loans. Amongst other things. Anyway, the idea that U.S. new vehicles sales have “bottomed-out” is a combination of wishful thinking and boilerplate bullshit, largely perpetuated by the weasel-word factory known as General Motors’ PR. (Show me ONE MONTH of sales gains and THEN we’ll talk.) As I wrote in my latest General Motors Death Watch, Automotive News [AN, sub] fell for– indeed perpetuated– this spinmeistery hook, line and sinker. In an attempt to atone for their shameless capitulation to Mark LaNeve’s mob, AN has followed-up with a micro-story on Toyota’s take on the American car market’s doldrums [via Reuters]. And here it is: “Despite signs of steadier U.S. auto sales in August, it remains uncertain whether industrywide sales in the largest vehicle market have hit bottom, Toyota Motor Corp. Vice Chairman Kazuo Okamoto said today. ‘It’s hard to say whether the U.S. market has hit bottom,’ Okamoto told reporters. Okamoto, speaking through a translator, also said that despite the recent decline in oil prices, Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, was still assuming oil prices would be higher over the long term as the basis for its product planning.”

Honda’s deputy chief operating officer for Japanese sales operations reckons his employer will hit its Japanese domestic market (JDM) sales forecast of 640k cars (down from previous estimates of 800k and 700k). “A lot depends on market conditions,” Hiroshi Kobayashi prevaricates. “But we should be able to easily reach that target at the current pace.” Kobayashi said that the figures could have been higher– if there were more Fits and Freed compact minivans on the ground. Unfortunately, Issac Newton was right. For every action there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Increases in Honda’s smaller car sales have led to a decrease in more profitable higher end cars such as the Step Wgn and Elysion minivans. No wonder, then, that plans to launch the Acura “near luxury” marque in Japan are cooling. Honda’s still pushing their hybrids and plan more fuel efficient models. But they’d better work on their profit margins, as they’ll be selling a lot more of their smaller cars in years to come.

Chrysler LLC’s first month without car leasing went just fine, thank you.  Okay, maybe not.  The beleaguered automaker’s sales are down 34% last month and 24% for the year, with the second number going down 1 percent in each of the past 3 months. There were few bright spots, the biggest being the Town & Country minivan, up 15%  and Charger up 3% (*cough* fleets).  The Dodge Journey continues to sell well at 4,587 CUV’s sold this month, and everything else was petrified from too much time on the lots.  The smaller Jeep Patriot was down 21%, which wasn’t as bad as its hideous fraternal twins, the Compass (down 56%) and Dodge Caliber (down 57%). Most other vehicles are again in negative double digit territory.  Dodge Durango didn’t do quite as badly this month, up to 1,430 from 384 in July.  The Durango Hybrid (DuH) hasn’t gone on sale yet, so we’ll wait for the numbers to bump next month.  Or not.

When a big storm comes, even the best-prepared boats get knocked around. But while the Big 2.8 take on water like a sieve, Toyota has managed to gain market share by simply avoiding double-digit losses. Unsurprisingly ToMoCo’s trucks are doing worst, dropping 17.6 percent but improving over July’s dismal performance. On the car front, the Yaris is booming with 20 percent higher sales than last August, and Camry is up 3.3 percent. But sagging Corolla sales drag Toyota’s overall car sales down 3.4 percent from a year ago. Scion’s skid has leveled off, recording almost exactly as many sales as in July. Lexus follows the ToMoCo trend of hybrids up, everything else down, with a 9.8 percent decrease in cars and a 7.8 decrease in trucks sold in August. Between its brands, Toyota now sells nearly twice as many hybrids as it does Scions, with 19,529 sold in August and 185,051 sold on the year to date. The only way to boost sales there is to increase production. Again. Still.

Honda, the poster child for “Why Can’t Motown be More Like a Transplant?” was not immune from the U.S. auto industry’s August doldrums. While sales of the new Pilot rose 18.6 percent (11,276 units), and sales of the miserly Civic increased by 5.3 percent (30,052) units, Honda’s Fit ran out of puff. August sales sank 25.1 percent. Year-to-date, Fit sales are up 54.9 percent– indicating the run-out of the old model/anticipation for the new one. Meanwhile, the plentiful, new(ish) Accord is also struggling, down 7.9 percent, ceding the top sales spot to Camry by 991 cars. Needless to say (these days), light truck sales dragged Honda’s numbers down. CR-V sales dropped by 14.3 percent, the Odyssey took a 19.6 percent dive and the Ridgeline (the what?) was 14.4 percent off its previous pace. Even with the Pilot’s ascent, Honda’s truck sales were down a combined 10.6 percent. That’s not bad, you know, considering.

Nissan’s two divisions did well in August 2008, thanks to a heavy dose of incentives. Nissan division sales were up 14.2 percent over last year, but car sales flat at plus 0.6 percent. The Altima is outselling all other Nissan cars combined (25,298 units), down just 0.5 percent for the month, up 9.2 percent year-to-date (YTD). Versa sales took a breather for the first time in months at 8,015 units, down 5.2 percent for the month (up 15.7 percent for the year). Suprisingly, Nissan’s trucks/CUVs did well, up 22.7 percent. Dealers pushed another 6637 Rogue CUVs out the door, and racked-up double-digit percentage sales increases for the Frontier (55.5 percent), Xterra (76.9 percent), and Quest (64.4 percent). The gains are a complete U-turn from whopping drops just two months ago. The Rogue jump certainly makes sense, cannibalizing the Murano and probably getting some mileage out of its relatively high MPG ratings (for the segment, at least). The larger new Murano CUV continues to sell off the pace, down 22.9 percent , and Titan down 15.9 percent. On the luxury side, Infiniti sales rose 8.0 percent over last year. A 7.7 percent drop in G35 sedan sales were offset by a 27.3 percent rise in FX CUV sales. But that’s just 300 vehicles either way. If anyone’s counting, Godzilla GT-R sales are 484, and 631 in 2008. And guess what? No factory incentives involved.

Ford’s August sales numbers are in. Following the now-familiar pattern, Ford’s put a brave face on what can only be described as the tragedy part of that weird ass dual mask drama companies use on their programs. “FORD FOCUS, ESCAPE REMAIN STANDOUTS IN A CHALLENGING MARKET,” FoMoCo’s press release proclaims. Gas misers must truly in vogue, as non-class-leader Ford Focus sales rose 23 percent. Escape sales also escaped the August drought, ascending by 17 percent.  OK, now the bad news… All three Blue Oval Brands took in on the chin, year-to-date-wise: Ford (-14.7 percent), Lincoln (-18.8 percent) and Mercury (-23.6 percent). While the general car scene wasn’t all that rosy (-5.1 percent), but the SUV picture was a desert (trucks down 20.1 percent).

[Click here for Ford’s August sales stats]

Volkswagen released its August sales numbers today, and somehow they are miraculously not down. They’re up 2.9 percent. In this automotive market, that’s like finding a trillion dollar bill in your pocket. On the debit side, Rabbit sales were off 35.9 percent. The Passat sedan just missed out on the biggest loser crown, down 35.5 percent. The introduction of the Tiguan and the Jetta have saved Vee Dub’s bacon. For the past 15 years, the Jetta has been Volkswagen’s single most important product (perhaps when the New Beetle debuted, it stole the limelight for a year or so). The model accounts for roughly 50 percent of Volkswagen’s US sales. This time ’round, VW increased Jetta sales by 1600 sedans and 867 wagons sold (not available last year). While VW was able to move 1031 examples of their Golf-based cute ute, the Tiguan’s triumph is troubling in two ways. First, that’s almost exactly the number of sales that fell down the Rabbit hole [here be cannibals]. Secondly, 1000 Tiguans a month puts the model in niche territory. (Hell,  Saturn shifts 8000 Vues per month.) Still, Volkswagen seems to be able to keep themselves consistent, even if their sales are a fraction of a big player’s… and their US/Canadian product lineup is like Europe’s dumber, less attractive brother.

GM Inside News reports that The General has spiked the successor to the Kappa-platform cars: Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky, Opel GT and Daewoo G2X. GM's financial perils are well known, and the market demand for impractical rear wheel-drive roadsters in the current economic climate is not so hot (as in ice cold). A dedicated Kappa factory (without flex assembly), the lack of the Kappa platform's adaptability, the current cars' cost (labor-intensive production, and expensive hydroformed frame rails and major body parts) all contributed to last week's decision to let the cars die on the vine. And why not? GMI reports a $10k loss on each vehicle built, which puts the real cost of a Kappa between $30 – $40k. By coincidence, that's the same price range of yet another car Bob Lutz is championing. Hopefully GM's learned a lesson about low-volume production here: it's best to build on a shared platform on a shared assembly line. You know; in case that whole Li-ion battery pack thing doesn't pan out.

Despite the economic downturn in North America, the future looks bright in BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China). So bright, in fact, that there's been an almighty shift. According to Reuters, Toyota has upped global sales stats by 2.2 percent. The increase further cements their number one slot worldwide. That's because GM's global sales have contracted by three percent, trailing Toyota by 278k units. [Note: GM "gooses" its figures by including minority-held joint ventures.] Volkswagen has grown by an astonishing 5.8 percent. As Ford's sales have shrunk by six percent, they've surrendered third largest automaker props to VeeDub. Further commendation goes to Hyundai for increasing sales worldwide by a whopping 10.8 percent, scooping fifth place in the global ranking.

Get this. Under GM's Employee Pricing for Everyone sale, a buyer can cash-in any GM Card towards a new purchase/lease. That is, unless you're are a GM employee/retiree. No really; they're excluded from the program. In fact, if GM discovers any such transaction later, the dealer is faces a "chargeback" for the card dollars and all other applicable incentives. An MI dealer tells us that "even if you deliver the car without a code and just use GMS pricing that anyone gets, you lose." Meanwhile, The Detroit News reports that GM is going after employees who transferred their employee discounts to non-employees. Before the Employee Pricing for Everyone sale, of course. "The automaker… simultaneously filed three lawsuits alleging fraud as the company cracks down on employees, retirees and widows giving discounts to nonrelatives, according to court documents. Along with other recent lawsuits, the automaker is suing for more than $450,000 plus costs and attorney fees." Or more. "It was unclear Friday how many cases have been filed nationwide and a GM spokesman did not know how often the automaker files such cases. GM's lawyer, Michael Clawson, could not be reached… The timing of the lawsuits, three of which were filed on or after Aug. 20, the day GM extended the employee discount to everyone, is coincidental, company spokesman Tom Wilkinson said." And really lousy, I might add. 

The Detroit Free Press reports that early August sales estimates show a 14.4 percent drop in new metal moved. But don't turn off your pacemaker yet; the biggest shocker is that Detroit is bearing the overwhelming brunt of the downturn. Estimates from Edmunds show that Chrysler sales dropped 34 percent, GM slid by 27.5 percent and Ford endured a 16.3 percent drop compared to August a year ago. Toyota continues to shed sales but grow market share, slipping by half the industry average at 7.2 percent. The winners in August were Honda, which posted a 0.9 percent increase, and Nissan which defied the market to bump sales by 2.3 percent. On the whole, the market appears to be picking up slightly, with a 13.1m seasonally adjusted annual sales rate (SAAR) up from 12.6m in July. With consumer confidence rising in August, the overall economy appears to be taking its Prozac, but don't expect an auto sales turnaround this year. GM's sharp losses show that even with once-popular "employee pricing" incentives, consumer demand for cars isn't what it once was.