ON THE TABLE #470

November 5, 2008

Detroit - UAW. Pundits are weighing-in that the Obama win means good things for the Detroit 3 and the UAW. Maybe, but maybe not too. Will there be money forthcoming? Yes. Will it automatically mean good times again for Detroit and the UAW? No. We're talking about survival here, not good times.

The Car Biz. From the "Just Shoot Me" File comes word that car sales fell off a cliff in October. GM down 45 percent. Chrysler down 34 percent. Nissan and Hyundai down at least 33 percent. Ford down 32 percent. Daimler and Honda down 24 percent. Even Toyota was down 23 percent. And guess what? November could be even worse.

The Detroit 3. As if the above news wasn't bad enough, Ford and GM are expected to reveal dismal third quarter results on Friday. The privately-held Chrysler LLC won't report, but it won't matter, because their results will suck too. Big Time.

Ford. They keep pestering Ford CEO Alan Mulally about whether or not Ford is going to stick with its plans to transform its mainstream product lineup with fuel-efficient cars from Europe, despite the cheaper gas prices. And thankfully, he keeps saying "yes."

Infiniti. The "Timing is Everything" Award goes to Nissan's Infiniti division, which will offer a special Premier Edition of its upcoming G convertible in the new Bloomingdale's holiday catalog tomorrow. The price? $60,000. Good luck with that.

Susanne Klatten. From the "You Just Can't Make This Shit Up" File comes word that Susanne Klatten, a 46-year-old married mother-of-three and Germany's wealthiest woman - and allegedly one of its most discreet - has gone public with an account of how a lover filmed their hotel trysts and demanded millions of euros not to reveal them. This from the German mass circulation daily Bild as relayed by Automotive News. Munich state prosecutors confirmed yesterday that they were pursuing a case against a man accused of blackmail by Klatten, a member of the secretive Quandt family, the leading shareholders in car-maker BMW. Klatten met the 43-year-old Swiss at a hotel bar. In her account, he had described himself as a multilingual special envoy for war zones, although in reality he sold chicken at a fast-food stand. The hotel encounters were later secretly filmed by an accomplice and used in an attempt to extort 40 million euros ($51 million) from Klatten, Bild said. Ouch, Baby.