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.