Last week, I pointed out that there are a lot of brand new trucks sitting on U.S. dealer's lots gathering dust. I illustrated the fact with an ad from a Dodge dealer selling Ram Quad Cabs for 50 percent off manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP). As bad off as Dodge is with their 160-day supply of Dodge Ram full-size pickup trucks, they didn't hold a candle to Nissan's 489-day supply of Titans. An email from Cleek tells us that a Nissan dealer in Rock Hills, SC took matters into his own hands this past weekend. He's advertised 45 percent off MSRP sale of pickups, vans and SUVs.  It looks like massively discounted truck clearance sales may be the wave of the immediate future. So far, the biggest discount we've see is 50 percent. How low do you think they'll have to go to clear inventory as the model year winds down and inventory piles up? How long before we see brand new pickups for under $10k? (God help light truck residuals.) Have you seen any dealers in your area offering huge discounts like these on trucks, vans and/or SUVs?

Just kidding. Toyota wouldn't say that, what with Motown's implosion about to force the transplants to paint themselves as nativists. But even if they aren't saying it, they're doing it. The Nikkan Kogyo [via Automotive News, sub] reports that the Japanese automaker is shifting non-Prius production out of its Tsutsumi plant to build as many gas – electric vehicles as they can (presumably without working their employees to death). No question: ToMoCo's going Hell for leather. Last year, they sold 281,300 Priora. With these changes, they'll be cranking-out at least 480k units. By the time a single example of GM's Hail Mary-shaped plug-in electric – gas hybrid hits the streets, Toyota will be building their fuel-sipper stateside. ToMoCo will have amped-up (so to speak) worldwide Priora production to 1m unit p.a. Whilst shunning the grammatical consensus on Prius pluratization established by TTAC's Best and Brightest, AN reports that Toyota built "320 Priuses in China last year." What's that all about? 

There's been much ado about GM's quiet launch of the 36mpg iteration of the Chevy Cobalt, both in the autoblogosphere and in promotional, warm-n-fuzzy TV spots (much like the  made-of-unobtanioum Chevy Volt). But the XFE isn't listed on the  "Shopping Tools" portion of the Cobalt microsite, nor on gm.com's "Find A Vehicle [any vehicle]" page. So I rang-up a friendly Chevy dealer who was embarrassed by his XFE-gnorance. Once he appreciated the model's existence, he said he didn't have any, there were none in Houston, and there was zero product information. "That must be a 2009 model," he countered. When I mentioned the XFE's web page on the 2008 Chevy website (sans XFE photos, BTW), there was a brief  pause. "They don't give us information as quickly you can get it." Well that sucks.

Our contacts at Ford tell us there's big trouble brewing for The Blue Oval Boys. Two independent sources report that FoMoCo is ceasing production of the fresh-out-of-the-box Flex in their Oakville, Ontario plant. Apparently, the factory has built some 13k xB-shaped CUVs since production began on June 3– and sold [a lot] less than a thousand. Our correspondent tells us "the 500 additional employees that they were hiring for a third shift have been canceled… The CAW [Canadian Autoworkers Union] is not too pleased." If true, Ford's beancounters will share their dismay; the automaker spent over $1b converting Oakville to, wait for it, flexible manufacturing. While we seek further confirmation, a TTAC tipster working at a supplier for the Ford Edge (also made in Oakville) says dropping sales are leading to a severe cutback. "Our schedulers are trying to get some hard numbers so they can work out our shifts." You want hard numbers? Although Edge sales are up 16.8 percent year-to-date, they fell off a cliff in June, down 19.9 percent. The same fate befell the Lincoln MKX (the Edge's twin under the skin), up 4.2 percent year-to-date, down a whopping 34 percent in June. We will keep you up-to-date with new info as we receive it. One thing is for sure: when Ford reports its financials on Thursday, there will be Hell to pay. [thanks to our sources]

It sucks to be a Chrysler brand franchisee right now. Trucks and SUVs are piling up on lots as dealers try to come up with ways to clear the inventory before the '09 models start rolling in. They have their work cut out for them. At the start of July, Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealers had a 160-day supply of Rams gathering dust. If that weren't bad enough, the stores have enough Nitros to last 143 days and enough Aspens to last a lifetime. I mean, 218 days. The Jeep Wranglers they couldn't keep on the lot just a year ago are now piled up 129 days deep. With an average of only 16 truck sales per Dodge franchise, 10 per Jeep franchise and four per Chrysler franchise in June, it may take them a while to dig their way out. But, as they say, misery loves company. Honda dealers are sitting on a 160-day supply of Ridgelines and Mitsubishi dealers are dealing with a 222-day supply of Endeavors. Nissan blows them all out of the water, though. If a 215-day supply of Xterras, a 229-day supply of Armadas and a 247-day supply of Pathfinders aren't enough, the "Lot Queen" crown goes to Titan: there's a four hundred eighty-nine (yes, 489) day supply of the Mississippi-made haulers sitting around. Blow-out clearance sales can't be far behind. 

Nestled in a New York Times article about Ford's fight for survival– switching production to small cars, building world cars, reporting epic losses on Thursday, yada, yada, yada– comes news that FoMoCo is NOT killing their Mercury brand. The Gray Lady's head automotive cheerleader cites "people, who spoke on the condition that they not be quoted by name because of the timing of the official announcement on Thursday" as saying The Blue Oval Boys will make the brand "an integral part of its new small-car strategy." Well, my mind is boggling. But not Bill Vlasic's, a reporter who feels compelled to not add a damn thing to that revelation, other than "the company will keep the Mercury brand and use it as another distribution channel for small cars." Which is the same thing, only later. The rest of the article is padded with a potted history of FoMoCo's "troubles," with the usual Vlasic Motown-thrown bone. John Wolkonowicz, an auto industry analyst with the forecasting firm Global Insight, tells Bill "“It’s hard to blame Ford for building vehicles that consumers wanted to buy." 

As TTAC's Best and Brightest know, Smart's proud parents, the German geniuses who adopted, abused and then disowned Chrysler, long resisted the calls to bring the Smart stateside. And then, eventually, did. In the first six months, 11,400 Smart fortwo have found new closets homes. If you're an aspiring American smarty pants, you'll have to wait a year; some 30k prospective buyers are holding their [70] horses. And while used full-sized SUVs are worth less than a plate of cocoa and lefse, you can sell your Smart fortwo with a nice profit. Elizabeth Szewczyk tells the Washington Post she gave up her Jeep Wrangler for a Smart car and never (couldn't?) look back. Szewczky (pronounced “Schwwwing”) remembers “watching the fuel gauge drop as she drove down the highway and realizing it was time to trade in her childhood dream." [ED: Safe driving or what?] And anyway the Smart gets her a lot more attention than the Wrangler did. Is that point? We report, you deride.

CNBC reports that Toyota is revising its sales estimates for 2008. ToMoCo had projected sales of 9.85m units worldwide. They've dropped expectations by 300k, setting a new goal of 9.5m units. Though sales are down in Europe and Japan, Toyota is blaming the stagnant American market for the expected decrease. Having already announced production cuts at three US plants, this could be bad news for Toyota's bid to become the global volume sales leader– were it not for the fact that its competitor for the title is General Motors. While Toyota is still likely to outstrip GM despite the sales goal cutback, it's unlikely to meet GM's single-year sales record of 9.55m set back in 1978. ToMoCo shares are currently underperforming even the weak Japanese transport equipment subindex, thanks to sell-offs in anticipation of slowing demand. But, Naoki Fujiwara, fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management, reckons that Toyota's high dividend and long-term positioning make it a good buy. Roger that.

Auto Motor und Sport has some stunning news out of Europe, where the Chevrolet brand is *gasp* kicking ass. That's right folks, GM has sold 318k fewer vehicles on the year in America, but in Europe the General's sales are actually up by 375k units on the year. And no, those numbers are not coming from the newly "upmarket" Opel (-1.7 percent), or established SAAB (-13 percent) brands either. Rebadged Daewoos sold as Chevrolets are what's been (sort of) saving GM's bacon on the continent that invented the car, up a staggering 23.7 percent on the year. Most of those sales come from Eastern Europe and Russia, where people realize that the American brand's connotations of obesity, pollution and warmongering were properly earned in the Cold War. And speaking of brand connotations, Chevrolet isn't even the fastest-growing GM brand in Europe. Sales of the real "America's Brand" HUMMER are up a staggering 29 percent on the year so far. Of course, that's a not-so staggering total of 1,325 HUMMERs sold. But still, who'd have thunk it? In summary, the former Evil Empire is crazy for Chevrolets, Europe still loves it some HUMMER and we're tracking a cold front moving through Hell this weekend. Details at Eleven.

With The Land of The Free deep in auto-market hell, our cheese-eating  surrender-monkey pals look set to follow suit. PSA (Peugeot-Citroen) has enjoyed relatively brisk metal moving thus far this year. But the automaker expects sales in its Euro-market bastion to start dropping through the rest of the year. Sales in Western Europe (where PSA gets its fattest profits) are down two percent year-to-date, and headed south– despite French-market tax incentives (where 22 percent of PSA sales originate). The Wall Street Journal reports that price increases set to go into effect this summer may help PSA's bottom line, but only at the expense of sales. At Renault, CEO Carlos Ghosn's ambitious ten percent sales growth target has been halved. "Realistically we are dealing in an environment which is very uncertain and we have to be very transparent in the fact that it can get better or worse," says Ghosn. Analysts say profitability goals are also likely to be abandoned. C'est la vie.

With mature markets under-performing spectacularly, Toyota continues to invest in supplying China's endless thirst for cars. Shanghai Daily reports that ToMoCo is about to drop some $529m on increased production capacity in the Middle Kingdom. With volume leaders GM and VW in its sights, Toyota hopes to snag ten percent market share (1m vehicles). Sales are already headed for 700k this year. Toyota is scrambling to meet demand with a production capacity of only 640k units annually. And so its joint-venture plants are getting more money for more cars; Guangzhou Auto Group will double production to 400k units, while Sichuan FAW Toyota will hit 30k and Changchun FAW Toyota will build up to 10k Priora and Land Cruisers. Of course tooling-up takes time; ToMoCo won't be finished until 2010. By which time steel and fuel prices may have taken some of the zest from the Chinese market. Still, in its pursuit/maintenance of world domination, Toyota can't afford not to build more cars in China. 

OK, Sharon we'll bite. What's the deal with the Ford Escape Hybrid? Is it true that The Blue Oval Boyz purposely restrict supply because they lose money on every one they sell? And the answer is… "There are regional spots of very high demand," FoMoCo spinmeister Alan Hall told The Detroit News. "We are building to our production plans of 24,000 units per year (of Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrids) combined." Sigh. So, surely that's it, yes? I mean we can't very well talk about a shortage of GM's hybrid SUVs, as customers for the two-mode gas – electric behemoths are lined-up none deep. Or can we? "GM's other hybrid trucks, the full-size Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon, are hard to find, in part because about half of the automakers' dealers opted not to sell them. Also, GM has produced the vehicles in limited numbers." Aw c'mon Sharon, the reason GM dealers don't have hybrid SUVs on their lots is that nobody wants them. By your own count, GM sold less than 1500 hybrid SUVs so far this year. Suggesting that GM dealers won't stock them because they don't want to "go through special training" is more than disingenuous. It's lying.

Since its introduction in 2005, the Bugatti Veyron hasn't made a dime for corporate parent Volkswagen. The original development costs were so high that even with a million dollar price tag, the Veyron sales weren't enough to put the project into the black. According to an interview with Bugatti CEO Dr. Franz-Josef Paefgen in the Netherlands' AutoTelegraaf, Bug will turn a profit in those most magical of years, 2010. That's when they'll finally sell enough of the quad-turbo meisterwerk to pay for the program. As for another model, who needs another model? But seriously, a replacement for the Veyron will supposedly arrive in 2011 or 2012– soon enough that collectors may take the claim seriously, but far enough away that VW can change their plans completely if needs be. But since Bugatti can only sell so many Veyrons, and there are only so many Fifth Avenue designers to stamp their logo on a "version" of the car, it seems reasonable that they'd have to do something else. But what? A targa– sorry, removable panel roof? A four-door sedan? A 2000 horsepower coupe? When your modus operandi is "ridiculous," it's hard to follow that up as being "even more ridiculous." And don't forget, Volkswagen also has Bentley and Lamborghini in the wheelhouse. Decisions, decisions. I know! What about killing the brand?

I'm shopping for a car for Mrs. Berkowitz (my mother; my wife, Scarlett Johansson-Berkowitz drives my GTI). I dared to "request a quote" on manufacturers' websites from specific dealers. I was fully expecting them to, as you might say in French, "give me a f'ing quote." To that end, in the online form, I listed the precise cars from their inventory that I wanted, plus the lease terms. Alas, this kind of optimism will get me nothing but an inbox full of nonsense. The approach they take, of course, is to give as little information as possible and tell me to come to the dealership. Regarding a Cadillac CTS: "This vehicle can be leased from $349.00 to $700.00 approximately; depending on packaging and structure of lease. Purchase prices range roughly from $33,330 to $50,000." Uh yeah, I know that, in part because I requested lease estimates for specific cars (which I identified with VIN numbers). Another dealership suggested "We ask that you visit our showroom where you always receive the "BEST PRICE." I encourage you to call me directly so I can set up an appointment with one of our Sales Managers." Your sales managers don't shower and give me the creeps; that's why I'm requesting a quote online. We talk about how product drives the automotive sales industry, and to a large extent it does. But so does the ability to purchase that product. If I was a dealer and someone wanted to buy a car via telegraph, I'd be brushing up on my Morse code.  

I'm beginning to lose track of manufacturers' excuses for slumping car sales: Japanese currency manipulation, the "perception gap," diminished fleet sales, poor housing market, the credit crisis, gas prices, etc. Here's the latest, courtesy of USA Today. "June sales were constrained because few automakers had enough cars that shoppers really want: well-appointed but with gas-sipping engines. 'I'm sure we're missing some business because we don't have exactly the configuration the consumer is looking for and adequate stock to satisfy' the demand, says Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales." While the explanation makes some sense for ToMoCo, who couldn't build the Prius fast enough for demand, are we seriously meant to believe that Ford would have sold lots more Fusions if the base model had more features? Yup. "'A lot of it had to do with price points,' says Eric Peterson, communications manager for Ford Motor's crossovers. Buyers who spent more wanted more power. 'Now, there's more of a shift in consumer mind-set that we're reacting to… Consumers are saying, 'I want fuel efficiency, and I want all these options as well.'" So where's the statistical evidence for this theory? You know; some data showing that highly-optioned four-cylinder models are gaining popularity? *crickets chirping* Facts. Who needs 'em?