The Battle Creek Enquirer (where’s my cereal toy?) reports that The Lincoln Motor Car Foundation will be building a Lincoln-centric museum on the campus of the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan. Naturally, Ford Motor Company will be kicking-in some dough for the project. With Lincoln all but dismantled at this point, a museum dedicated to such a storied marque makes a truckload of sense. Sort of like a pre-historic fly caught in amber, only nicer. And you can extract the design DNA without unleashing rampaging dinsoraurs. This new museum should provide car fans a terrific opportunity to check out some classic American Lincolns from the days when the only thing the brand worried about was Cadillac and the occasional Imperial. [Note to RF’s former press car provider John Lawlor: time to donate LBJ’s limo. Summer’s fine and the tax credit’s are easy.]

Although Ford only makes about $100 from each Focus it currently sells, The Blue Oval Boyz plan to bank big bucks from small cars. At a dinner with journalists last night [Ed: our invitation must have gotten lost in the mail], Ford Americas President Mark Fields said the small car segment is at "critical mass" and that Ford's "eager to tap it." The Detroit News reports that the formerly mulleted Mulally minion stated "we'll see a bigger smaller car segment," and wistfully added FoMoCo wants to start charging premium prices for small cars. And how will they accomplish this goal? With "exciting designs, best-in-class fuel-economy, excellent craftsmanship and innovative new infotainment technologies." And even though the Fiesta will be hecho en Mexico, the Mother of All Union Payoffs (a.k.a. the health care VEBA deal) will save Ford enough money that they can finally build small cars at a profit. Of course, the first thing they have to do is convince the average American small car buyer that a Ford small car is worth the same money as a comparable model from Honda or Toyota. [Ken Elias' Ford Death Watch later today.]

GM's press release begins with a rhetorical question: "What would happen if you turned more than 20 undercover film and surveillance professionals loose to show the potential drawbacks of buying a used vehicle that is not manufacturer certified?" And then, without a trace of irony, "the results were not at all surprising." The General dispatched actors posing as car buyers– complete with hidden cameras and release forms– to "ambush" [their words] and embarrass [ours] private sellers with "questions that private party used-vehicle sellers often don't want to hear." During one close encounter of the heinous kind, the actor asks an unsuspecting seller if he can install a phone in the seller's home so he can call for roadside assistance any time, day or night. Other private sellers were harassed about "things like financing and courtesy transportation." "We even bought one of the cars and then tried to return it a few days later with a three-day, 150-mile guarantee," bragged copywriter Jim Hagar. 

[Click here to go to GM's usedcarambush.com] 

You want to talk about high gas prices? Hertz used to charge its customes $7.99 a gallon to refuel a car. In an interview with The New York Times, the rental car company's chairman and chief executive says Hertz has modified the charge to stop gouging their customers [paraphrasing]. "We are now reducing that to the pump price, which is $4 or so, plus a one-time fee of $6.99," Mark P. Frissora reveals. "We also have a fuel-purchase option. In the past, if you elected to buy the tank of gas in advance, we charged a 10- to 20-cent premium on that tank. But now we give a 15-cent discount to whatever the price is at the pump." Hertz is hoping new customers will cover the lost revenues. But what about the old biz, the vacationeers facing pump shock? "In general, gas prices going up is not a positive thing. However, it is not nearly as negative as you might imagine in rental car land. Typically, the rental car itself and gas are no more than 10 percent of the overall cost of a vacation. We are finding that people aren’t cutting vacations right now. You would think that with gas prices being high, there would be a deterioration, but we haven’t seen that." Yet. In other news, Hertz has just 3k Priora in its Green Fleet; Toyota's hyrbid's residuals are safe. For now. 

The Washington Post's Annys Shin [via The News Tribune] wins the prize for the best parsing of the initials SUV: Simply Unwanted Vehicles. True dat. Full-sized SUV prices have dropped 24 percent since last year; used Chevy Suburbans have devalued as much as $8k in the past six months. With that in mind, SmartMoney has five ways to help panic-stricken owners unload their automotive albatross. First, "be your own salesperson." Since dealerships don't want SUVs and can't sell what they have, seems sensible enough. Next, "price it right." Just make sure you use chalk or pencil; values are still dropping like a stone thrown in a deep dark well. Then "advertise online." Don't worry about the fact that AutoTrader.com's SUV ads have jumped 18 percent. You should also "provide plenty of details." If you're selling something no one wants, drowning them in minutiae just might work. Finally, "build credibility" with prospective buyers by providing maintenance records (provided you had the foresight to keep them) and a Carfax report (provided you aren't selling a rebuilt wreck). Whatever you do, maintain a positive attitude. Make the [theoretical] buyer believe he really wants to assume your liability– in the same way a cheerleader tries to get the crowd on their feet when their team is down by 45 points in the fourth quarter. Hence the picture. 

Before you start wondering about the color of the sky in CNBC's Phil LeBeau's private little world, the writer understands "that for many people (soccer moms, the guy putzing around the suburbs, etc) driving a gas guzzling SUV makes no sense." Whew! Phil's talking to those motorists who need an SUV's cargo, passenger or towing capacity; or off-road capability, due to job or locale. While TTAC Best and Brightest prepare to discuss the Marxist implications of needs vs. want, one thing's for sure: it's an SUV buyer's market out there. Kelly Blue Book prices for used SUVs are down more than $2.5k. Even so, you might want to hold off; they're expected to go lower as leases from 2005 vehicles start expiring and pump-shocked SUV refugees trade their behemoths for economy cars (no really). In an online poll, CNBC asks readers if they'd buy an SUV now. Almost half (49 percent) said "no." Of the remaining 51 percent, 13 percent said they'd "think about it," while 39 percent stated yes, they would buy one now. I guess there are still either a lot of "contractors, people in specialty trades, those who live in rural areas where the roads can get dicey at times" or gas prices aren't high enough to prise the keys from SUV fans' cold, dead fingers.

Who woulda thunk it? Due to their high gas mileage, old Geo Metros are sought-after cars. Laugh if you want, but "Marci Solomon is hoping she'll be the one laughing- all the way to the bank -when her Geo Metro saves her from skyrocketing gas prices," according to CNN. Solomon has a 100-mile commute to work and her Honda Element was getting 28MPG, causing her to fill up twice a week at a cost of almost $100. So she began searching for an alternative and initially "toyed with the idea of purchasing a Prius," until she "rediscovered" old Geo Metros for sale on eBay. She focused on a 1996 two-door, three-cylinder, which opened with a $200 bid, and eventually "won it" with her winning bid of $7,300! Her ‘96 Metro's "average of 40 miles per gallon approaches that of a new Toyota Prius," and "bests most current cars by a long shot." Solomon says "I used to be a car snob, and I used to be too vain to drive anything that doesn't shine; but now it's about, ‘do I want to eat, or do I want to make it to work?' I want to do both." Even though she paid "more than five times the Blue Book value of the car," Solomon figures it's "an investment in the future." "It was all about saving money," she says. Indeed: Solomon has acquired another Metro, is "considering flipping [it] on eBay for profit," and "has her eye on a third at a local car lot." You go girl!

I've always liked Lamborghinis better than Ferraris. I have no rational basis for feeling this way. Oddly enough, that makes me the perfect Lambo client; except for the "I have no money" part. But let's say you have a bit of extra cash/credit/cocaine lying around the McMansion, but you're still a couple of tens of thousands of dead presidents short of the $201k needed to purchase the (now) entry level Gallardo LP560-4. You could by a Porsche. But that's a bit like spicing-up your mac & cheese with a can of tuna. Fear not! Lamborghini has a solution for you: a certified pre-owned (CPO) purchase program! Imagine, all the joy inherent to a dealership experience plus the calming charms of buying a used Italian supercar. How could you lose? After all, Ferrari and Maserati have had similar programs in place for years. Of course, paying a monthly nut for a used bull will still cost an arm and a leg and a lucky lotto ticket. How much? If you have to ask, you have to ask. Only we can't tell you and neither can Lamborghini. But when they can, we will. Any guesses?

General Motors has stopped production of the lion's share of their 2008 truck line-up. Automotive News [AN, sub] reports that GM's told its dealers that "the allocation volume for the Dealer Order Submission Process cycles beginning May 8, 2008, and May 15, 2008, have been canceled." Translation: the American automaker will no longer fill orders for the vehicles listed above. The General blames the shutdown on the ongoing United Auto Workers (UAW) strike at American Axle, which has caused a paucity of parts. The situation could be worse for GM, but it's hard to see how. Even thought the strike and resulting shutdown provide a convenient excuse for GM to cut production on an entire genre of vehicles– vehicles that can't be sold at a profit, or, indeed, sold– GM's cash burn demands some kind of cash flow. From one perspective, there is no end in sight to General Motors' North American profit drought. "If the [American Axle] strike continues, there might be additional production cuts," GM spokeswoman Susan Garontakos admitted to AN. From another perspective…

For every cloud there's a silver lining, or so goes the expression. Well, we learned earlier that GM managed to lose itself $3.25 billion in the first three months of the year. Oops. One upside: they're used to it. The other: the born-again Chevrolet Malibu seems to be doing what no domestic sedan has been able to do since Robocop's Taurus. Yes, the new 'Bu's pilfer sales from the Japanese marques. J.D. Power reports [via the lads at Motor Authority] that (nearly) 20 percent of the cars traded-in for new Malibus are foreign nameplates. That's up from 12.5 percent. And the Bu buyers weren't just trading in their Kias and Hyundais, either. Toyondissans accounted for 9.7 percent of the cars used as partial down payments for the Americanized Opel. [NB: What they didn't say is that almost 60 percent of the trades were GM products.] End of the beginning? Beginning of the end? Regardless, more like the Malibu seems to be the only path worth taking.

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CTV.ca  reports that John Baird, Canada's firebrand Minister of the Environment, has green-lighted a $90 million vehicle scrappage program. In essence, the objective of the program is to encourage Canadians to trade in their high-emission beaters in favor of credits on a new car. CTV notes that "[t]hese older vehicles make up just a fraction of the estimated 18 million vehicles in Canada, but they account for up to two-thirds of the pollution that causes smog." There is a current mish-mash of recycling programs in Canada, but the new legislation aims at creating a national, uniform program for beaters nationwide. Though one can't argue with the aesthetic merits of getting some of the ancient, rusted-out Pontiac Parisiennes off Canadian roads, one has to wonder about how enticing any recycling credits would really be. All of those clunkers, being fully depreciated and cheap to insure, have  very low cost of ownership, which usually (and easily) offsets any extra fuel costs. Unfortunately, specifics of the plan have not been announced by the Federal government, which makes any assessment of its effectiveness difficult, at best.