ON THE TABLE

July 15, 2009

GM's Ad Agency Roster. Better start practicing your "duck-and-cover" drills, boys and girls, there's a new sheriff in town. And his two favorite words right now are "drastic changes."

The G8 Lives. Yes, we still lament the fact that Pontiac was put on the shelf - and probably always will - but at least Bob Lutz had the good sense to know that the G8 was just too damn good of a car to let fall by the wayside. Even some of the lesser-equipped GM minions get that. With Pontiac gone, the reports that the G8 might return as a new Chevrolet Caprice are heartwarming. There are plenty of people who are going to want a big, comfortable and quick V-8-powered RWD sedan for many years to come. But that won't seal the deal for this to happen. No, the real reason it will happen is that GM wants back in the RWD sedan police-pursuit market - the one that they walked away from - and that's why you'll see a new Chevrolet Caprice in the late summer/early fall of 2010. (Editor's Note 7/17 - Lutz has decided not to do the G8 as a Caprice, according to a report in AutoWeek - WG)

Honda. The company will bring out the CR-Z hybrid sports car next February in Japan, which means we'll probably see it in about a year. Here's hoping it looks very much like the Concept they unveiled at the NAIAS.

Steven Rattner. We all know the real reason he's leaving his post as unannounced Auto Czar is not that his work here with the Auto Task Force is finished, it's because he's under scrutiny from the New York attorney general who's probing Rattner's connection to how Quadrangle - the private equity fund that he co-founded - won business from New York's public pension fund. Could be nothing, but then again it could be a giant bowl of Not Good, depending on how it all shakes out.

(Audi)
Audi's giant new "Mega Class" line to make its debut. Not content on capturing the leadership in the luxury-performance category - which Audi is well on its way to doing - Audi announced a new "Mega Class" of vehicles today, which will redefine luxury as we know it. "We love big and complicated around here in Ingolstadt and well, we just thought this was the natural progression for Audi on its way to becoming the most desirable vehicles in the world," an Audi spokesperson said. Uh, not really. No, this 10-ton sculpture of an Audi TT has arrived in the city of Ingolstadt just in time for Audi’s 100th anniversary. The giant Audi TT was presented Monday morning in the grassy area within the Audi roundabout by Dr. Werner Widuckel, Member of the Board of Management for Human Resources at AUDI AG (right), and Mayor of Ingolstadt Dr. Alfred Lehmann. Built with glass-fiber laminate and Neopar foam over a steel-frame construction - with 150 square meters of painted surface - the giant Audi TT, which has already been shown in Berlin, Beijing, Hong Kong and Munich, is 10.2 meters long, 4.5 meters wide, 3.25 meters high, and weighs about 10 tons.

See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" hosted by Autoline Detroit's John McElroy, with Peter De Lorenzo and friends this Thursday evening, July 16, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv.

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