April 22, 2009
VW. As Automotive News reported this week, the VW Routan isn't selling. The VW-ized version of the Chrysler minivan is so stalled in the market that only 5,582 have been sold. The problem is that 22,037 have been built, which is why a whole raft of new "Come on down!" incentives are being thrown at the vehicle to get people to even look at it. Stefan Jacoby, the CEO of Volkswagen Group of America was quoted by AN as saying, "We launched Routan at the worst moment." He was talking about last fall when the economic bubble blew. No, Stefan, we happen to think you're one of the most consistently delusional auto executives on the planet, but hey, in a sea of stumblebums, who's counting? VW shot themselves in the head on this whole van thing for two reasons: 1. They picked a dumb-ass name for a vehicle in the U.S. market yet again. When is this going to stop? When you go completely belly up over here? 2. And by far the most egregious error on VW's part was the fact that they didn't have the balls to build the fabulous Microbus concept that they showed at the NAIAS years ago. It would have been the only distinctive vehicle of its kind in the market and would have allowed VW to create its own niche, but instead they waved their bent wand over a Chrysler and remarkably enough got exactly what they bargained for, a warmed-over Chrysler minivan. You guys are good.
NBC Today Show. The fact that this network gave shameless self-promoter/huckster/con man Peter Arnell three minutes on this morning's show so he could talk about "his" electric car was pathetic. But when you start tallying up the slide in taste and quality that this show has undertaken in the last few months maybe it's not so surprising. The show has just become flat-out embarrassing. The only good thing is that since everything Arnell touches of late seems to turn to shit, we can only hope that attaching his name to this Chrysler project will be the kiss of death for it.
Evi Butz Gurney. Publisher's Note: Check out Evi's outstanding piece about Huschke von Hanstein and the early days of Porsche here. It's a fascinating insider's glimpse of a different time and a different era - and a different Porsche - captured exceptionally well by Evi, who is a talented and gifted writer and who was right in the thick of the early glory days at Porsche. Well worth your time. And a special thank-you to long time reader Doug Milliken for passing it along. - PMD
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. Also worth the read this week is Jenkins' column, "GM is Becoming a Royal Debacle" in today's Wall Street Journal. Calling President Obama "King Barack the Mild" he writes: "They've (GM's creditors) already seen that the rights and privileges of shareholders are not worth diddly when the king is throwing his prerogatives around. He dispensed with the services of GM chief Rick Wagoner, though the king owned not a single share of GM stock at the time. His minions communicated the king's pleasure that GM consider discontinuing its GMC brand, maker of pickups and SUVs that offendeth the royal eye - though these vehicles earn GM's fattest profit margins...No wonder the king's mediation of 40 years of stalemated labor and business issues in the auto sector isn't going so well."
AE Quote of the Week. Publisher's Note: This comes from an anonymous GM insider, part of The Departed leaving the company this week: "Nevertheless, my gut feeling is that the company is as on the edge as it's ever been. And not the financial brink, but on the brink of forgetting what it is - the people forgetting who they are and why they do what they do - and losing its soul. And while I think the company has lost its soul before, I also think momentum carried it along long enough for the True Believers to turn the tide and push a recovery. Losing soul and momentum at the same time - and in these perilous waters - is nothing short of a recipe for disaster." Truer words were never spoken. - PMD
Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Governor of California spoke at the SAE convention on Monday in Detroit and back-pedaled a bit and even appeared to soften his stance on the domestic automakers, while complimenting them on how they were embracing green technologies. He even offered to do a commercial for free to help the Detroit automakers promote their green market entries in the future. He then turned around and appeared on CNBC and proceeded to regurgitate all of the hoary Detroit=Bad, Everyone Else=Good rhetoric that has become a staple of California state politics for years. Well, which is it, Governor? Because it's hard for the industry to attach much credibility to what you have to say when you speak out of both sides of your mouth.
The Onion. From the "Laughter is the Best Medicine" File, go here.
See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" hosted by Autoline Detroit's John McElroy, with Peter De Lorenzo and auto industry PR veteran Jason Vines this Thursday evening, April 30, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv.
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