ON THE TABLE #458

August 13, 2008

GM. The company announced today that it will invest $445 million to build a diesel engine plant in Thailand with the capability of producing more than 100,000 engines for small pickup trucks by 2010. If things keep going the way they are for GM - as in the perennial issue of not being able to make money in North America - it will end up producing Cadillacs, pickup trucks, Corvettes and a few mainstream Chevys for the U.S. market - and that's about it.

Nissan, et al. Chrysler is going to invest $1.8 billion in an expansion of its Jefferson North (Detroit) Assembly Plant. Good news for all of the companies planning on using Chrysler's facilities once they take over.

GM, Chevrolet. From the "Ghost Marketing" File. GM marketing has pulled out all the stops on its Olympics advertising, with new environmentally-flavored spots for Chevrolet, and a dazzling new corporate spot that touts GM's new Mr. Green Jeans persona (which is executed superbly, by the way). We have a couple of problems, however. 1. The use of the phrase "one day" as a catchall statement - that what GM is working on will make an impact on our lives one day - is tedious and ineffective. And 2. The disclaimer for the new Chevy Volt - "targeted 2010" is particularly annoying. This country is about to be Volt-ed to death by a car that doesn't even exist, has not demonstrated its feasibility and viability as of yet, and will be priced as a luxury car when it hits the market one day. Not Good.

Lyle Dennis. From The "Delusions Be Us" File comes word that Lyle Dennis, a New York neurologist who fancies himself as the unofficial head of "Volt Nation" (Volt-erz are the new Trekkies, you didn't get the memo?), insists that he has over 33,000 hand raiser-consumers who are interested in "buying" the new Chevy Volt, according to Automotive News. That GM has indulged this guy is noteworthy, only because it exposes what great lengths - and the level of desperation - they will go to convince the American public that the Volt has it goin' on, even though only a handful will be available by the winter of 2010-11. And as industry people know, hand raisers and legitimate follow through buyers are two completely different things, but why get bogged down in details at this point? Lyle and his minions are happy, so that counts for something, right? Right.

Mahindra & Mahindra. Watch for one of India's biggest conglomerates to emerge as the leading candidate to make a deal for Hummer. There might be hope for the brand and its U.S. dealers yet, as Hummer enjoys a tremendous reputation around the world - devoid of the shrill anti-Hummer histrionics in this country - which Mahindra & Mahindra could mine for potentially serious profits.

Shelby American Auto Club. The long-time Shelby enthusiast club and Carroll Shelby have worked out all of their legal differences, apparently, and the SAAC will continue to operate as they have for 33 years. Here's the official statement from the SAAC headlined "It's Over": "The Shelby American Automobile Club has reached an agreement with Carroll Shelby and his companies to end the legal battles and return to the normal life of having fun and enjoying the people and the cars of our hobby. Today, August 8, 2008, an agreement was signed, putting behind us the turmoil and uncertainty that accompanied this legal conflict. We are now and forever the Shelby American Automobile Club. This is the result of some very hard work by people from both organizations. Rick (Kopec) and Ken (Eber), as well as efforts by Dave Mathews, Ron Richards and Dave Winkler at SAAC... and Amy Boylan and Carroll Shelby at CSL and Shelby Autos. ... all worked through the negotiations that settled any and all disagreements and put us all on the same page...where we can all get back to enjoying the cars and the history of Shelby American." The SAAC is holding their annual convention, "SAAC-33," at the brand-new Thunderbolt Raceway in Millville, New Jersey, this weekend (August 15-17).

Honda. Stung by the attention that Toyota has received for its Prius - while believing that it is the greenest, most technologically savvy car company in the world - Honda will launch a five-door, hybrid-only Prius-fighter in North America next April. Honda will build around 200,000 of the new hybrids in Japan, with 100,000 of them slated for import into North America. The new Honda hybrid will be smaller and lighter than the current Civic and priced below the Prius.

The 2010 Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon makes its debut today (Friday, August 15) at Pebble Beach. It rides on the same 113.4-inch wheelbase as the CTS sport sedan and is 0.3-inch shorter, although it offers a generous cargo area of 25 cubic feet behind the rear seats. The CTS Sport Wagon will be part of the worldwide auto show circuit this fall and arrive in Cadillac dealerships in spring 2009. (Photos courtesy of GM)

George Fisher. Publisher's Note: Last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that George Fisher, the most vocal of the GM board members, reinforced his support of CEO Rick Wagoner and defended the board's actions in a phone interview with the media saying the board is "informed and very involved" in the auto maker's efforts to stem losses and turn around its North American operations. This after the company's staggering $15.5 billion second-quarter loss. Fisher offered up this gem as reported by the WSJ: "This is not just a passive board sitting by. It is a very experienced group of people who have run or been involved in complex organizations." Mr. Fisher, you have got to be kidding me. You have the unmitigated gall to sit there and defend yourself and the board - after you collectively sat on your asses and watched GM's downward spiral accelerate over the last eight years - and insist that you're not passive? Pathetic is the only word that comes to mind. The GM board of directors is the most embarrassing, do-nothing group of corporate has-beens ever assembled. They have repeatedly and consistently shirked their responsibility over the years while sitting around cheerily back-slapping and glad-handing each other chanting "it won't be long now" waiting for yet another turnaround to take hold as one of the iconic corporations in American history crumbled around them. Any other company in any other industry would have found a way to broom these stumblebums for gross negligence and dereliction of duty long ago. And the fact that this guy feels it's his duty to actually defend their inactions and inadequacies at this juncture is flat-out insulting and borderline incomprehensible. Well, Mr. Fisher, you might have gotten a free pass in the old-school media days, but let this be a warning to you: Autoextremist.com will make sure the world knows how utterly incompetent and ridiculous you and your cronies on the GM board truly are. It's the least we can do as you and your "experienced" fellow board members continue to ride a once-shining beacon of American enterprise right into the ground. - PMD

Editor's Note: Now that we are officially in the Dog Days of Summer – with car shows and car memories running on overdrive (the supreme example of this being this Saturday’s Woodward Dream Cruise) – we thought we’d re-run an excerpt from one of our favorite pieces of automotive prose, which poet, critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, James Agee wrote for the September 1934 issue of Fortune. - Wordgirl

The characters in our story are five: this American continent; this American people; the automobile; the Great American Road, and the Great American Roadside. As an American, of course, you know these characters. This continent, an open palm spread frank before the sky against the bulk of the world. This curious people. The automobile you know as well as you know the slouch of the accustomed body at the wheel and the small stench of gas and hot metal. You know the sweat and the steady throes of the motor and the copious and thoughtless silence and the almost lack of hunger and the spreaded swell and swim of the hard highway toward and beneath and behind and gone and the parted roadside swarming past. This great road, too; you know that well. How it is scraggled and twisted along the coast of Maine, high-crowned and weak-shouldered in honor of long winter, how like a blacksnake in the sun it takes the ridges, the green and dim ravines which are the Cumberlands, and lolls loose into the hot Alabama valleys . . . Oh yes, you know this road….All such things you know….God and the conjunction of confused bloods, history and the bullying of this tough continent to heel, did something to the American people -- worked up in their blood a species of restiveness unlike any that any race before has known. Whatever we may think, we move for no better reason than for the plain unvarnished hell of it. And there is no better reason. So God made the American restive. The American in turn and in due time got into the automobile and found it good. The automobile became a hypnosis, the opium of the American people...

“Whatever we may think, we move for no better reason than for the plain unvarnished hell of it. And there is no better reason.” Amen.