ON THE TABLE

Tuesday, December 11, 2012 at 06:25PM
Editor

December 19, 2012

 

 GM. General Motors is handing the advertising for the Chevy Silverado to Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett, according to Ad Age. The work was previously handled by Commonwealth, the Detroit-based entity that Omnicom and Interpublic created for GM last spring under then-CMO Joel Ewanick. This is the first major move by interim-CMO Alan Batey - and this is a good idea, why, exactly? According to GM Director-Product and Brand Communications Pat Morrissey, "We believe having Leo Burnett work on both Silverado and (GMC) Sierra will provide great synergies and result in creative campaigns that clearly differentiate the brands and engage truck customers." Right. This is the company that has struggled mightily with brand differentiation in the past - and now all of a sudden they are going to achieve 'synergies' and 'differentiate the brands' at the same time? It's okay to consider different ad agencies, but here's an idea - Texas is GM's biggest pickup market and the biggest market for pickups in the world for that matter - why not find an agency in the heart of pickup country and go from there? As for the choice of Leo Burnett to handle Silverado, when was the last time you saw a memorable ad (or noticed any ad, for that matter) for the GMC Sierra? Anyone? Bueller? And one more thing - whatever happened to accounts going into review? Is this the new way, just to hand major business to a new agency without a review? But when it comes right down to it, we know exactly what this is all about. This is GM marketing trying to cut costs in order to show Captain Queeg that they're doing their part. And it also means that GM marketing has now officially entered a black hole of knee-jerk, non-sensical decision making. Not Good doesn't even begin to cover it.

GM. The company announced on Wednesday morning (12/19) that it will purchase 200 million shares of GM stock held by the U.S. Treasury for $5.5 billion. That's $2.00 above the stock's closing price on Tuesday afternoon, or $27.50 per share. The U.S. Treasury will sell the remaining 300 million shares it holds in small batch sales over the next fifteen months, to reduce the impact on the share price. GM shares - of course - trended up on the news.

 Toyota. The Japanese auto giant has been ordered to pay a record fine of $17.35 million - the maximum amount the department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration can assess - for failing to report a safety defect to the U.S. government in a timely manner, the U.S. Department of Transportation said. The problem? The accelerator pedal getting tangled up in the driver's side floor mat in the 2010 Lexus RX 350 and RX 450h crossovers, according to Toyota. The automaker never admitted to any violation of its obligations under the U.S. Safety Act. We wonder if it was still cheaper to pay the fine to alleviate some of the inevitable drawn-out hand-wringing, and total costs?

 Infiniti. Trying to reduce the confusion of its melange of model designations, Infiniti is renaming all of its vehicles with the letter "Q" beginning next spring. Sedans, coupes and convertibles will start with the letter Q, and crossovers and SUVs will begin with the letters QX. The first of the newly-badged infiniti models will be the Q50 sport sedan to be unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show. It is simpler, but are consumers going to care?

(GM)
The all-new 2014 Cadillac ELR extended-range electric luxury coupe will make its world debut January 15 at the Detroit Auto Show. Based on the Converj concept (and using updated technology from GM's Chevrolet Volt), the ELR "combines dramatic design with industry-leading extended range electric vehicle technology in a unique luxury coupe," according to Cadillac. The ELR will be built at the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant.

(BMW)
BMW has freshened its Z4 Roadster for the 2014 model year. BMW is touting eleven new paint finishes - a sure sign the model has reached the end of the road - including something called the Hyper Orange Design package. Yikes. A newly-optional M Sport package includes Adaptive M suspension, 18-inch M light-alloy wheels and an M aerodynamics package with large air intakes in the front wing, a rear bumper inlay painted Anthracite metallic and a bunch of other M-themed stuff. The Z4 sDrive28i has a TwinPower Turbo 2.0-liter four cylinder engine, which produces 240 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque. The BMW Z4 sDrive35i features BMW’s N54 TwinPower Turbo 3.0-liter inline-6, producing 300 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque. And the Z4 sDrive35is features a higher-output version of BMW’s N54 producing 335 hp and 332 lb-ft of torque. Coupled with the 7-speed DCT, the top model goes from 0 - 60 mph in 4.8 seconds. The market launch of the new BMW Z4 is scheduled for spring 2013.

(McLaren Automotive)
McLaren Automotive has designed and developed a range of products inspired by and focused on the passion of driving and the 12C super car. The products are available from the recently launched McLaren eStore – www.mclarenstore.com – and the range includes a variety of accessories, clothing and luggage, based around the designs evident throughout McLaren and its high-performance sports cars.

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Watch our tour of GM Design on "Autoline After Hours" here. - PMD

BEST OF "ON THE TABLE" 2012


How long before you get a Smart car thrown in for free when you lease a new E Class? Mercedes-Benz instituted a $99/month lease for its Smart brand. The Oblivion Express has just left the station, folks. Smart will go belly-up in this market within eighteen months if not sooner.  (January 18, 2012)

Memo to Porsche: Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Matthias Müller, Porsche's CEO, told WirtschaftsWoche, a German publication, that the company would put plans for a small mid-engine sports car entry that would come to market below the Boxster on hold. “Possibly we need to wait until the next generation of customers before the idea of a small roadster will work for Porsche,” he told the magazine. The entry level Porsche would have been jointly developed with Audi and Volkswagen. Good move. We get Porsche's more models = more money formula, but it's nice to see a modicum of restraint being displayed for a change. Besides, we view the words "jointly developed with Audi and Volkswagen" as being potentially ominous.  (1/18/12)

Not Good doesn't even begin to cover it. In Mark Rechtin's excellent piece in Automotive News, along with taking us on a path of discovery of what Fisker the company is and where it's at in terms of actual viability, he delves deep into the Henrik Fisker mindset, resulting in this gem from Fisker: "Building a few thousand Karmas in Finland is one thing, but manufacturing in Delaware at 80,000 to 100,000 units a year is mass manufacturing." That was not only our AE Duh of the Week, it says more about Fisker's maniacal ego and delusional thinking than anything we could have ever come up with on our own. After absconding with a $529 million Department of Energy loan, which was basically gifted under false pretenses so that Fisker could resurrect a shuttered ex-GM plant in Wilmington, Delaware (hey, isn't that Joe Biden country?) so he could then indulge his John DeLorean fantasies to his heart's content - which means building a luxury car for the discerning few, or at least the few who are hell-bent on making the hippest-of-the-moment green statement they can possibly muster, anyway - while promising a "mass produced" vehicle to come, Fisker is basically dead in the water. Read Rechtin's story carefully and you see a man in full, or rather so full himself that he can't possibly be thinking clearly. He has a seamless response and explanation to every question posed to him by Rechtin, but the underlying missing link in all of it is the fact that no one is actually going to buy anything he makes at any sort of a volume level to justify the investment in the whole damn enterprise whatsoever. Not even close in fact. It's just notgonnahappen. I don't care who he hires, either (this week it was ex-GM and Chrysler manufacturing specialist Tom LaSorda and veteran Jaguar sales honcho Richard Beattie) because the fundamental conceit that Fisker is operating under is that people "out there" actually see the world as he does, which has always been the fatal flaw of every single person who has attempted to launch a car company throughout history. The ones who have succeeded have always brought more to the table than that. And what does Henrik Fisker bring exactly? 1. An out-of-control designer ego that has been assuaged and massaged at every turn and 2. A firm belief that his design vision must be indulged because it's so damn good that if "the people" just saw it and understood it he would be the King of the World and an Official Legend of the Car Business. I'm sorry, but this whole Fisker think stinks to high heaven. All of this, and let me be crystal clear here, all of this is because Fisker wants to play in his own sandbox and build the kinds of cool cars (at least in his estimation) that he deems appropriate for public consumption. And he wants everyone else - including the U.S. government and the U.S. taxpayer - to pay for it while he's at it. My bullshit detector pegged itself long ago with this Fisker thing, and I just wish more people would open their eyes and see exactly what this guy is up to.  (1/25/12)

Maybe it's just a most egregious case of Surprise Interruptus. The car companies couldn't seem to help themselves with regard to keeping a lid on their respective commercials before the Super Bowl. Chalk it up to insecurity because deep down they know that they're likely going to get lost in the ad shuffle, but the fact remains that most of the car commercials on the Super Bowl had already been revealed the week before. If these companies were really insecure about the impact of their spots on the game then it's understandable that they might want to get it over with. But if they're going to reveal their spots through multiple media platforms (social and otherwise) and they're going to talk about it incessantly to the press, then why should anyone bother paying attention when they actually run on the broadcast?  (2/1/12)

It was everything an automotive spot on the Super Bowl shouldn't be and a monumental waste of money. Other than that, it was dynamite. One spot that appeared before the Super Bowl was Hyundai's "All For One" spot, which featured a hapless worker bee inside Hyundai muttering to himself that "this is impossible, it's never going to work," when he's immediately set upon by his boss who starts bum-bum-bum-bah-ing the theme to "Rocky," which is then picked up by the rest of the people in the office, on the factory floor, etc., etc. The spot finished with the guy saying that he'll give it another try. It was so lame and so relentlessly bad that it never should have seen the light of day. Ever.  (2/1/12)

As King of the Carpetbagging Interlopers you don't get to say "we" with regard to this town no matter how delusional and self-important you are. Sergio Marchionne told local radio station WJR (according to David Shephardson from The Detroit News - I wouldn't listen to the show's incredibly obnoxious blowhard host Paul W. Smith if my life depended on it) that the "Halftime in America" spot "brought a huge amount of pride back from Detroiters" and that "we probably deserve it… after all the stuff that we've gone through." Really, Sergio? After all the stuff we've gone through? You mean they've gone through, right, Sergio? Because no matter how you slice it, you're certainly not one of us by any stretch of the imagination. Not even close in fact.  (2/8/12)

Trust us, this is going nowhere good. Jianghuai Automobile Co. the Shanghai-based rip-off enterprise masquerading as a car company came up with something called the JAC 4R3 pickup truck, which was to be displayed at the 2012 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in April. The problem was that it was a dead-nuts copy of the Ford F-150, right down to the big honking blue oval on the grille (minus the Ford script on it). Ford was justifiably pissed-off, while the Chinese government turned its usual blind eye to the controversy, which is consistent with their arrogant view of the world and what they consider to be their place in it, and it promises to be one big fat mess. The largest country in the world is sanctioning a policy of orchestrated trade infringement and ignoring copyright laws and doing so whenever the hell they want to do it.  (2/15/12)

(Audi)

Car enthusiasts got to see some of Audi's most historic vehicles at more than 25 events throughout Europe during the year. The high point? Legendary driver Jacky Ickx was at the controls of a Auto Union Type D Silver Arrow dating from 1938 through the streets of Monaco during the F1 weekend. Audi also had a presence at the Mille Miglia. And this year’s Audi Tradition display at the “Techno Classica” in Essen, the world’s largest historic car show, was twice the size of last year’s: valuable vehicles from the company’s history were seen on more than 700 square meters of floor space.

(Nigel Kinrade, Autostock, 2012) 

In a completely unexpected development, Roger Penske switched his allegiance to Ford in NASCAR beginning with the 2013 season. Thought to be unimpressed with the level of commitment he was seeing from the Italian owned Chrysler and its Dodge brand and questioning their future interest and involvement, Penske found a new partner in Ford Racing and the Ford Motor Company. This is expected to be a tremendous deal for both parties. Ford gets serious, top caliber help to go up against the GM-Hendrick-RCR/Stewart-Haas juggernaut and the JGR-led Toyota boys, and Penske Racing gets focused attention from Ford Racing, known as the most committed band of enthusiasts participating in NASCAR. (2/29/12)

 

Run for the frickin' hills, everybody. GM took a seven percent stake in PSA Peugeot Citroen but did it address the massive overcapacity issues in Europe? No. And then Sergio "Mr. Global Vision for the Future of the Auto Industry" Marchionne got interested in PSA Peugeot Citroen too. Oh joy. As a trusted colleague said, "It is staggeringly stupid. GM doesn't need more scale. And I can't see German unions blithely watching plants close so French workers can make some of Opel's cars and politically neither government will stand for it. And how much executive time will be wasted trying to marry up product plans? And what kind of car could have been made with that $1 billion? And so frickin' on..."  (2/29/12)

After all, what else would they do with their spare time? We're never interested in the slightest in Consumer Reports opinion about anything to do with cars, but we're glad the drones in the media continue to dutifully tout their reports.  (2/29/12)

We could go on, but why bother? Why do we get the distinct feeling that GM's OnStar business unit is going nowhere? Linda Marshall, the latest president of OnStar, left the division after one year, so that's one reason. The fact that no one really cares about it is another.  (2/29/12)

From the "Electric Kool-Aid" File came word that ex-Chrysler honcho Tom LaSorda was now well and fully engulfed in the Fisker universe. Mark Rechtin reported in Automotive News that LaSorda was insisting that Fisker will be profitable in 2013 from sales of the Karma extended-range hybrid alone. Huh? We get LaSorda was trying to get investors excited so that they will dump more cash into Henrik's vanity project, but, really?  (3/7/12)

"What people who say that they want to 'Crack the California Code' don't get is that they'd better narrow their focus, big time. Which California do you want to play to?  Conservative Orange County? Farming in Fresno? Tahoe? Sacramento? San Francisco (who will give you a collective pitying look for trying)? Heck, Los Angeles alone is comprised of so many different areas with different facets it might as well be a continent. You might as well attempt to say you're going to narrowly focus on selling to carbon-based life forms." - Tom Pease in his "Letter from L.A." (3/7/12)

We get that too. Reuters reported that Audi was in talks to acquire Italian motorcycle maker Ducati. The report said that Audi wanted Ducati "for its lightweight engine know-how, its racetrack pedigree and the distinctive sound and styling of its motorcycles." Yeah, whatever. The real reason? Somebody at Audi thinks it would be cool to own Ducati. And we totally get that. And if it just so happens Audi could tweak BMW's motorcycle arm in the market and on the race track too, even better.  (3/14/12)

"Over the road and overall the Verano is poised beyond its station, and after a while you gradually come to respect the fact that this machine will alter your expectations of what a compact automobile is capable of, it's that good. GM's product development team is to be commended, because the Verano is indeed an impressive piece of work." - PMD (From our "Quick Take" of the 2012 Buick Verano) (3/14/12)

Too bad they can't take the hint on Smart. Mercedes-Benz finally stopped building the R-class wagon for this market (it still sells the wagon in other markets) at the end of 2012, a full two years after its "sell by" date.  (3/21/12)

Come to think of it, we were better off with Datsun in this market too. Nissan planned on bringing back the Datsun brand name for use in emerging markets. Datsun: We Are Driven was one of the most memorable automotive ad themes of all time. (3/21/12)

He's the G.O.A.T, just ask him the right question and he'll tell you. Did I expect anything less than a puff piece from "60 Minutes" on Sergio Marchionne? No. To begin with, reporter Steve Kroft, whose father apparently worked at Chrysler back in the day and who has fond memories of that time, was never going to paint Sergio with anything but the broadest, most gushingly positive brush. And of course Marchionne's statement that no other CEO would have touched the assignment "with a 10-foot pole" was classic Sergio hubris. Classic in that what he really meant to say by implication was that he was the only CEO brilliant enough to do it. As in "I am the Greatest auto executive Of All Time. Please. - PMD (3/28/12)

"How would I rate the three best driving Audi machines currently? 1. The Audi R8 V8 6-speed. (What, no gonzo V10? No. As great as the V10 R8 is I'd take the V8 6-speed all day long. It sounds better and is lighter on its feet. And if any of you out there ever wondered about what a mid-engined Corvette might feel and sound like, the R8 V8 would be damn close, with a German accent, of course.) 2. The Audi S5 Coupe 6-speed. Yes, I rate it higher than the wildly impressive S4. Why? Mainly because of its beautiful V8 and the seamless way the rest of the car works with that stellar engine. And 3., the S4. I thought that the S4 with the double-clutch automatic was damn-near perfect, until I drove one with a 6-speed. Then I loved that configuration better. The S4 is still a great all-around car, but the Audi S5 V8 with 6-speed gearbox is just too damn irresistible to ignore. Needless to say, Audi has it goin' on. And if your automotive jones veers toward V8s and 6-speeds, you owe it to yourself to give the S5 a close hard look." - PMD (From our "Quick Take" of the 2012 Audi S5)  (3/28/12)

We'll see how good it is when it's unveiled. I was chatting with GM Design's Ed Welburn at the New York Auto Show about the biz when the conversation inevitably turned to the next-generation Corvette. Ed said, "It's the first time in history that the director of GM Design and the Chief Engineer of the Corvette have not clashed over a new Corvette." That was not only our AE Quote of the Week, I it was historically significant. GM's design directors and Corvette chief engineers have battled for decades, the most famous clash being the one between Bill Mitchell, who insisted on the split window backlight on the '63 Sting Ray coupe, and Zora Arkus-Duntov who vehemently despised it. Mitchell won that battle, then Zora won the next year, when it was removed from the coupe in '64. The fact that GM design and Corvette engineering are in agreement on the C7 is a big deal. - PMD  (4/4/12)

And here we thought we'd seen it all. Bob Lutz did fifty push-ups on the Colbert Report.  (4/11/12)

We'd like to know how many of those people bought a car with rear-wheel drive and a V8 after doing their green penance. From the "We Couldn't Care Less" File came word that most hybrid vehicle buyers don't buy another one, according to a Polk study. As a matter of fact, only 35 percent of them do. Pull the Prius out of the equation and that number drops to 22 percent. It seems that hybrids do attract new buyers to a brand, but after that they wander off somewhere else when the initial green aura washes off.  (4/11/12)

Our Favorite Quote From The Onion in 2012:

Nation's Poor Bastards Never Even Saw It Coming

NEW YORK - According to a report published Tuesday by the Center for the Study of Goddamn Fucking Shames, 96 percent of the nation's sorry sons of bitches never even saw it coming. The study found that two-thirds of those surveyed didn't stand a chance, 21 percent never would've thought for a second, and 2 percent were just sitting there minding their own business when all of a sudden, whack, right in the back of the head. "Poor bastards," head researcher David Childress said. The report also showed that the remaining 4 percent did manage to see it coming, but before they had a chance to do a damn thing about it, it was too late. (4/11/12)


"I get that the Audi TT RS is simply sublime for hard-core Audi aficionados without the wherewithal to buy an R8, because to them it's the Little Beast That Could and no discouraging word will dissuade them from thinking they have the shit. But if you step away from the car for a moment and look at it in terms of What Else Is Out There, it's merely interesting and noteworthy, and not overwhelmingly desirable." - PMD (From our "Quick Take" of the new 2012 Audi TT RS) (4/25/12)

Or maybe their bullshit detectors just need to be charged up. The incessant blowing by the local media of Sergio Marchionne and Quicken Loans Inc. Chairman Dan Gilbert reached gargantuan proportions, this time over the fact that Marchionne was going to place 70 Fiat-Chrysler employees in a building Gilbert owns downtown (The Dime Building, which will be renamed "Chrysler House" - ugh). Marchionne is allegedly going to have an office there, which he will be in, oh, maybe a couple of hours a month - if that - but oh my, you would have thought that these two grandstanding media whores were single-handedly lifting Detroit up by the lapels in one fell swoop. The fact that the local media has been swept up in the hype is embarrassing and utterly despicable, especially considering these journalists who should know better are blatantly succumbing to the "charms" of a pair of master manipulators who have made their bones by selling air. Memo to the ink-stained wretches (or is it the computer-pallor minions?): The argument that the recovery of Detroit will be led by actions like these is laughable. A few ad agencies stocked with out-of-towner/interlopers in it for the money combined with yet another PR stunt engineered by a couple of traveling salesman does not a recovery make. Especially in a city where, according to Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts, only 1.2 percent of DPS graduates are college or career ready. Detroit's recovery will come from the bottom up, not the top down. It's too bad no one has a lick of sense or the ability to understand that concept. - PMD  (5/2/12)

"Gladly, nothing has changed since the last time we had a chance to wheel this car for a week because the S4 remains a superb all-around car for the enthusiast driver, one that can trundle about in mindless suburban crawl mode, yet when the opportunity presents itself it transforms into an urgent rocket with a decidedly (and welcomed) low profile, especially given the fact that the presence of Radar Revenuers has grown exponentially around these parts. If you want to know why Audi has been on an upward trajectory of late you only need to look as far as the S4. It's an eminently satisfying - and fun - machine in every respect." - PMD (From our "Quick Take" of the 2012 Audi S4) (5/2/12)

This just in: The need for corporations to be on Facebook isn't all that encompassing or compelling. The fallout from the Facebook-GM confrontation continued. GM marketing guru Joel Ewanick wanted more out of Facebook, including page takeovers, and Facebook instead gave him a lecture on what Facebook is and what Facebook will or will not do. Without commenting on the GM situation directly, Facebook's VP-Global Marketing Solutions Carolyn Everson told AdAge that she doesn't see anything like a traditional home-page takeover in Facebook's future. Facebook believes, according to AdAge, that its value as a marketing platform is in social ads, where brands get their fans to spread the word among friends and brands pay to extend the reach of those endorsements. "Marketers that don't quite get that those are the two fundamental pillars that make us different often will refer back to the formats that they've been used to over the last couple decades," she said. Hmm, there was that Facebook arrogance creep rearing its ugly head again. Corporate America is just too dumb to understand when it comes right down to it, because Facebook is brilliant and different, and their 900+ million users deserve different and better too. Except that now that it's a publicly traded company, the Facebook executive brain trust is going to find out that their touchy-feely view of how special they think they are isn't going to cut it for long.  "We have 900+ million people on the platform and our job is to make the advertising on the platform as good and as compelling as content from [users'] parents or their friends or their boyfriends or girlfriends," Everson continued. "So when a marketer asks for something like that, that's just not what works on Facebook, so we would say no." But beyond the group hugs, Facebook doesn't really do all that much. I've said it before and I'll say it again, corporate advertisers - especially the domestic car companies, which are perennially labeled as being tragically un-hip - flock to Facebook because they're afraid of not being there, not because it gives them all that much else. I don't think Joel Ewanick was trying to turn over the anthill with his directive to pull out of Facebook's sponsored ad content, but he certainly triggered an intense discussion. And that discussion centers around this fundamental question: what exactly are corporate advertisers getting for being on Facebook? That question wasn't asked before, it was just about being on Facebook because, wow, it is so special and of-the-moment. Except that when corporate America steps back and thinks about it (thanks to Mr. Ewanick), Facebook isn't all that. - PMD  (5/30/12)

We're still here. On June 1, 1999, in a land of rote journalism and predictable go-along-to-get-along auto industry coverage, this website made its debut. And ever since the impact and influence of AE have spread far and wide. As I wrote in The United States of Toyota, "Born out of a defiance and frustration with the status quo that I believed was stifling creativity and squeezing the very life out of the automobile business - particularly as practiced here in the Motor City - and then fueled by my passion and vision for how great the business could become again and what was necessary in order for it to get there, Autoextremist.com was not only a labor of love for me personally - it became an influential force to be reckoned with in this industry with an impact far beyond my most vivid imagination." WordGirl and I will continue to bring you "The Bare-Knuckled, Unvarnished, High-Octane Truth" as long as the passion and the fire burn bright. Thank you to all of our readers old and new for coming along for the ride. - PMD (5/30/12)

A dark day for Audi. It was completely unexpected when Audi's Johan de Nysschen submitted his resignation, and it was even more stunning when it was announced that he would be taking over the Infiniti brand and moving to Hong Kong to the brand's new headquarters there. Make no mistake, this was a serious blow to Audi. No one breathed all things Audi more than de Nysschen, and much of of the brand's success in the U.S. was due to the unwavering commitment and focus Johan brought to bear every day on behalf of the German luxury brand. He will be sorely missed. Infiniti, on the other hand, pulled off a coup by getting one of the best minds in the business when it comes to orchestrating a luxury automotive brand and lead it into the future.  (6/6/12)

Come to think of it, Nissan is a contemporary version of what Pontiac could have and should have been in the U.S. if it hadn't been euthanized. Nissan tweaked its "Innovation for All" theme line with the launch of the new Altima here in the U.S. to sync its messaging globally. The new theme line? "Innovation that Excites." It's somewhat better but it's still cumbersome and awkward. Remember "We Build Excitement" for Pontiac in the 80s? That was better.  (6/20/12)

Editor-in-Chief's Note: GM Design celebrated its 85th year in June, with 1,900 men and women in GM’s 10 global design centers focused on the future of transportation. “Our global team is united around its passion for designing vehicles that make an emotional connection with customers,” said Ed Welburn, GM vice president, Global Design. “What was true 85 years ago is still true today: A designer’s role is to create a beautifully executed exterior with great proportions to draw you in, and an interior environment that invites you into a relationship that develops and grows.”

GM was the first automobile manufacturer to single out automotive design as an essential discipline of the car business. On June 23, 1927, the Executive Committee of General Motors approved the creation of a new department "to study the question of art and color combinations in General Motors products" and hired Harley Earl, a custom coach builder from Hollywood and the creator of the 1927 LaSalle, as its leader.

Earl’s entry into the auto industry doomed rival Henry Ford’s “the customer can have it any color he wants as long as it is black” motto. Among Earl’s numerous accomplishments are the development of concept cars, the yearly model changeover, the vehicle tail fins of the 1950s, the traveling Motorama auto shows and the development of the iconic Corvette. Earl also is credited with hiring the industry’s first female automotive designers. Earl also was responsible for identifying architect Eero Saarinen to design the GM Technical Center campus, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and recognized around the world for its mid-century architecture.

Earl was succeeded by the talented Bill Mitchell in 1958 and Mitchell reigned over GM "Styling" until his retirement in 1977. To this day the Earl-Mitchell combination is still the greatest 1-2 designer combination in automotive history. Earl blazed trails and set the tone for the significance and impact of design within GM - and the industry - and Mitchell was a master at developing flamboyant, visionary design concepts and then translating them for use in GM's mainstream product lineup. It was no coincidence that Earl and Mitchell's brilliance mirrored GM's heyday as the dominant automobile company in the market.

Ed Welburn is the sixth design chief in GM’s 104-year history and the first to have global vehicle design leadership responsibilities. Welburn's biggest strategic challenge is to make sure that each of GM's eight global passenger car brands is distinctive in form and vocabulary from one another as well as from other brands in the marketplace. Cadillac and Buick have each undergone a design renaissance, and Chevrolet has become a global brand with a globally recognized design language. Production vehicle introductions that have helped shaped GM Design's resurgence under Welburn include the Chevrolet Camaro, Malibu and Cruze; the Cadillac CTS Coupe, GMC Terrain, and the Buick Enclave and LaCrosse.

Welburn and his global design team say their best work lies ahead. Tomorrow’s classic cars, he said, are on the sketchpads and computers of today’s designers. “Our global structure allows us to design more new vehicles and to dedicate more people using the latest technology and tools to bring them to market,” said Welburn. “The diversity of thought, experience, culture and perspective we foster here is unrivaled, and it fuels our creative process. Though we have multiple design centers, our mission is clear: Every new product we develop has to be a home run; each one has to be a great vehicle." - PMD (Thanks to GM for some of the historical facts and comments provided.)

(Photos Courtesy of GM and GM Design)
Famed GM designer Harley Earl, the "Godfather" of automotive design, was also responsible for hiring architect Eero Saarinen to design the GM Technical Center campus, which is on the National Register of Historic Places and recognized around the world for its mid-century architecture. While other corporations have moved operations out of mid-century Modernist buildings or renovated them beyond recognition, GM and GM Design have balanced functionality and design aesthetics, adapting to modern technologies and needs while maintaining and preserving an architectural masterpiece. The iconic Design Dome (above), adjacent studios and administration building’s long life are a testament to architect Saarinen’s innovative and flexible plan.

Harley Earl with (L to R) 1954 Firebird 1, 1956 Firebird 2 and 1958 Firebird 3 - sensational, visionary concepts that mirrored America's fascination with the jet age.

The fabulous 1951 Buick LeSabre Show Car, which Harley Earl often used as his daily driver. The GM Design offices are in the background.

The flamboyant Bill Mitchell with the equally flamboyant - and stunning - 1959 Corvette Stingray and 1961 Corvette Mako Shark. Mitchell would have four or five of his concept cars dropped off at his house on Fridays in the summer so he could enjoy them over the weekend. It was a common sight in Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, to see Mitchell roaring around town in some of his prized concept cars like the original Stingray and the Mako Shark.

The contemporary Cadillac Ciel Concept, which was introduced at Pebble Beach last summer, embodies the visionary spirit of Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell while projecting Cadillac into the future. A stunning car in person, it is also more than a hint of the look and feel of an "ultimate" Cadillac sedan that is coming to market in 2015 as a 2016 model. It's also confirmation that GM Design's ongoing philosophy of creating "art that moves you" is very much alive and well.  (6/20/12)

"I'll keep this brief. Think 0 to 60 in 4.4 seconds brief. The 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG High-Performance Coupe. A luscious, liquid, chocolate brown color called Cuprite. Gigantic red AMG brake calipers. Dual twin chrome tailpipes. Handbuilt 5.5 liter AMG 32-valve bi-turbo V8. And just in case 518hp and 516 lb-ft of torque is not enough, there's always the AMG Performance Package, which boosts those numbers to 550 and 590 (yes, please). I'm not going to go on and on about how well executed it is (at just under $113k it should be damn-near flawless), because frankly, I was too busy driving to do much else. Didn't fuss with the AMG 14-way power adjustable front sport seats (including 4-way lumbar, of course!). Didn't listen to the 14-speaker harmon/kardon sound system. Didn't adjust the cabin temps. Fire up that AMG motor and this car just begs to be driven - just begs, I tell you. And so that's what I did. The CLS63 is an intoxicating blend of supreme elegance and visceral thrill. It's everything a Mercedes-Benz should be, with a really naughty, nasty thing under the hood. It's a throaty, growly, snarly monster. And I love it." -WG (From our "Quick Take" of the 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG High-Performance Coupe) (6/20/12)

"Bottom line: I had a ball with this car. I was thrilled to be using no gas, smugly looking at Prius drivers and thinking 'Piker.' It's not the most tossable of rides, but we Americans routinely buy cars that have wild performance that we will never use. We buy sports cars that will do 150 when testing that would land you in the pokey. We buy SUVs that could tow a small country because we feel like it and nobody blinks an eye. So why not spend a little extra to have the ability to avoid the pump as much as possible? I would consider finding out how much it would cost to put a 110 outlet in my garage space since the meters are on the other side of the wall before I'd lease an M3. (I know, cheap and smug, how does he stay single?)" - Tom Pease on driving the Chevrolet Volt.  (7/11/12)

What's next, the MINI "Mook" edition? There are smart brand extensions and mindless model proliferation, and it's often a fine line between the two. It looks like BMW is about to find out where that line gets crossed apparently, as the company has announced that the MINI lineup will expand to as many as ten models in the coming years including a wagon, yet another coupe and even a van.  (7/18/12)

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Cameron Crowe's list of "10 Records That Affected or Changed Your Life in Some Way" is a good read and it will conjure up your own list as well. I agree with some of his selections and of course I have a few of my own but that's the fun of it. - PMD  (7/25/12) 

Ouch, baby. The Michigan State Police fleet of motorcycles just got upgraded, according to the Detroit Free Press. For the first time in its history, the State Police switched loyalties in April, purchasing nine German-made BMW R1200s. Why? According to State Police testing the BMW was faster, handled dramatically better, had more advanced safety features, and even cost $500 less. No surprise to serious bike enthusiasts and other police agencies who use them, but how much faster, exactly? The BMW went from 0-100 m.p.h. in less than 11 seconds, while the Harley achieved the same speed in a lethargic 31 seconds. Top speed of the BMW? 131 mph. The Harley? 104 mph. The biggest cut of all? A State Police analysis labeled the Harley as a "capable vehicle for parade and ceremonial use."  (7/25/12)

Notbyanystretchoftheimagination.com. A Mike Jackson, a former VP of marketing at GM who left under a cloud of mediocrity - to put it mildly - had the temerity to show up in AdAge with a guest editorial advising GM CEO Dan Akerson what to do next now that Joel Ewanick had exited the company. Mike Jackson lending marketing advice to GM was laughable, pathetic and a complete joke. There's never been anything "there" with Jackson and he was clearly trolling for work down at the RenCen for his diminutive ad agency, which has recently relocated back here after a stint in Las Vegas. Memo to Dan and the rest down at GM: There are talented resources out there who could actually offer some reasoned counsel, but Jackson certainly isn't one of them. - PMD  (8/1/12)

The sweater wearin', espresso swillin', chain smokin' auto industry guru with a Jesus complex will walk on water if you just let him show you. Sergio Marchionne was at it again when he tried to get the European automobile market to do his bidding. Sergio was pissed because Fiat - which is completely on the ropes and totally beholden to Chrysler's resurgent fortunes - was about to go down and he wanted VW to stop its aggressive pricing policies because, according to The Almighty Sergio, the plummeting European market was already tough enough without VW roiling the waters. Marchionne was quoted in the International Herald Tribune as saying that the European auto market “is a bloodbath of pricing and it’s a bloodbath on margins.” Outraged that his "golden touch" reputation might be sullied by the complete implosion of Fiat under his watch, Sergio then called for the European Commission to help the industry confront overcapacity. “What they should do is coordinate a rationalization of the industry across the producing companies,” he said. “The ones that really have not acted on this are the French and the Germans, who have not taken out any capacity at all.” VW's juicy response? The German automaker demanded that Marchionne step down as chairman of European auto trade group ACEA. “Marchionne is unbearable as president of ACEA,” VW spokesman Stephan Gruehsem said. “In our view, his comments are unqualified yet again. We’re therefore calling on him to step down." Marchionne was basically asking for sanctioned collusion in the European market to keep his balls out of the tightening vice created by the stumbling, bumbling car company called Fiat, which has been, except for Ferrari, a monumental embarrassment for going on decades. The Detroit News labeled Sergio a hero for his suggestion - big surprise - but the reality is that Sergio wants it both ways when it suits his self-interests, which has been his M.O. throughout his career. The Bottom Line? VW has every right to get aggressive in the European market if that's what they want to do. (Believe me, if the situation were reversed, Sergio would come up with some horseshit explanation justifying his aggressive pricing policies, I have no doubt whatsoever.) It might backfire on VW big-time, but in the meantime Marchionne needs to do something that is completely anathema to him: Sit down and shut up. - PMD  (8/1/12)

Oh, by the way, we're starting a new website: StupidShitCEOsSay.com. GM PR could have and should have insisted that the company be forthright about the departure of Joel Ewanick, instead of letting rumors about the departure of GM's marketing chief reverberate around the town and this business for weeks. Their solution?  Release an email statement that said that Ewanick failed to "meet the company's expectations of an employee." Huh? This was followed by CEO Dan Akerson telling industry analysts last week that, "I know a lot of the public views this as a personality-driven industry," he said. "It's a team effort and what you saw manifest in the marketplace was a thought-out strategy that was agreed upon as a team." That's flat-out unmitigated bullshit. When you have a position that directs one of the largest media budgets globally, and you're dealing with the marketing and advertising media, you bet your ass it's a personality-driven industry. (8/8/12)

The AE Quote of the Week, II. Kevin Kennedy, the longtime industry pro who handles PR for Ford Racing wasn't afraid to straighten Ralph Gilles out after he whined publicly about Ford signing Roger Penske to join its NASCAR campaign. "That was an aggressive decision on Ford's behalf..." Gilles said, who was clearly miffed. Kevin Kennedy told The Detroit News, "We didn't hide the fact that we were looking for a second championship-capable team. We're in NASCAR to win and then to market that success. He calls it 'aggressive,' I call it good business. We're just trying to be as successful as we can. Our job is to have a winning program." Amen to that, Kevin.  (8/8/12)

"Bad-ass isn't an accurate descriptor, because that will have to be reserved for the ZL1 Camaro that just arrived this week. But with its shimmering 'Black Diamond Tricoat' paint and its black alloy wheels, our CTS-V Coupe had a sinister, purposeful elegance about it that I found to be tremendously appealing. Add in its supercharged, 556HP V8 with its mountain moving 551 Lb-ft of torque running through a six-speed manual gearbox, and the CTS-V Coupe is one of the most satisfying all-around performance-luxury cars I have ever experienced. Quick? Oh hell yes, but it's a controlled fury that remains at your beck and call, which is, after all, as it should be. And when you're ready to exploit the potential of this beast, it explodes in a cacophony of glorious, guttural V8 noise that is simply so intoxicating that you can't help but dip your right foot into it just because you can. Big brakes, nicely weighted steering and a suitably taut suspension make this package all the better. Are there flaws? Probably, but they're so insignificant at this point that it's not even worth mentioning. From just admiring its looks in the parking lot to driving it like it was meant to be driven, we loved the CTS-V Coupe on every level imaginable." - PMD (From our "Quick Take" of the 2012 Cadillac CTS-V Coupe) (8/15/12)     

"After re-adjusting my eyeballs that had been lodged somewhere in the back of my head, I gripped the wheel and that stumpy shifter, and I put my boot hard down on the throttle. The beast reared up as if to say, 'C'mon man, is that all you got?' and launched us down the road like there was a six-pack of RPGs strapped to our tail. And the sound. I loathe the use of 'OMG' in this day and age, but O-M-G the thing sounded like it just pulled out of Junior Johnson's garage with a tank full of nitromethane and a couple of drums of White Lightning on board. Bad-Ass, as Peter would say, only begins to cover it." - Dr. Bud E. Bryan on driving the 2012 ZL1 Camaro (8/15/12)

"Echoing Bud, the ZL1 Camaro is an emphatic, unapologetic rebuttal to those who want to eradicate the automobile as the distinctive part of the American culture that it is. This is The Shit, folks. If you love big powerful machines and love to drive - and you have a place to exploit the performance potential of this machine - then if I were you I'd give serious consideration to the baddest-ass production Camaro ever built." - PMD (From our "Quick Take" of the 2012 Camaro ZL1 Coupe) (8/22/12) 
 
Sergio gets one right. Sergio Marchionne blasted the U.S. electric vehicle mandates while speaking to members of the North American Car of The Year jury here in Detroit. “I’m guaranteed to lose money on every-zero emission vehicle,” Marchionne said. And while referring to the electric version of the Fiat 500 that Fiat-Chrysler is going to come out with, Marchionne added, “I’ll be the proud owner of an economic lemon.”  (8/29/12)

(Ford)
Ford tweaked its new 1.0-liter three-cylinder EcoBoost engine, which normally produces 100-125 PS (in European production trim), to 205 PS and then placed it in a "road legal" version of a Formula Ford. The result? A lap of 7 minutes 22 seconds at the Nürburgring’s famed Nordschleife circuit, the 11th fastest lap ever recorded at the daunting race track. That's higher on the list than many supercars such as the 700HP Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, the 660HP Ferrari Enzo and the 602HP Pagani Zonda. The 1.0-litre EcoBoost-powered Formula Ford turned in a unofficial top speed of 255.5 km/h (158.8 mph) and a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) time of less than four seconds, according to Ford. Fuel economy is equally impressive: unofficially 2.4 l/100 km (118 mpg) at 56 km/h (35 mph), and 5 l/100 km (57 mpg) at 120 km/h (75 mph). The project modified the racer so it would be fully street legal for on-road use by fitting it with wheel covers, front and rear lights and indicators, aerodynamically designed wing mirrors and a horn. The car is fitted with a 6-speed manual gearbox and was driven on road-legal tyres. The vehicle completed the 20.832 km (12.94 mile) Nordschleife circuit at an average speed of 169 km/h (105 mph). No other three- or even four-cylinder car has posted a faster time at the legendary circuit.  (9/5/12)
 
WTF? Fisker, the floundering car company, embarrassed itself yet again when it declared that it "set a world record for Highest Number of Single-Brand Electric Vehicles to be Charged Simultaneously, with 45 owners of its Karma Electric Vehicle with extended range (EVer™) having their cars charged at the same time." (9/12/12)

How it's Done. Howard Cooper, the 82-year-old Michigan automobile dealer generously awarded his employees with $1,000 for each year of service upon his retirement from the business.  (9/12/12)

We'd say that was three years too late and about $2 billion short, but who's counting? The U.S. Government decided that now would be the best time to protest China's subsidies on auto parts and automobiles to the World Trade Organization, estimated to be at least $1 billion.  (9/19/12)

Excuse me, but I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. Alan Mulally dampened speculation about his departure from Ford with a very pointed, "Not So Fast My Friend" type of response to the media while on his Fusion launch tour.  (9/19/12)

True. Sticking to his guns about his dislike of pattern bargaining with labor unions, Sergio Marchionne remained adamant in his disdain for the CAW's bargaining tactics, telling the Toronto Globe and Mail in September: "Nobody in their right mind would continue to create an unlevel playing field in its own organization. It's impossible. We have other plants, other options."  (9/19/12)

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Every once in a while a piece of advertising comes along that makes you sit up and take notice. And no, I'm not talking about Eminem, or Clint. I'm talking about an auto manufacturer with the vision to do something completely unexpected and frankly, damn near genius. The folks at VW decided we all needed a break from the endless barrage of political advertising we're being subjected to for the next seven weeks. And boy are they right. So they've come up, or I should say their advertising agency - Deutsch, Los Angeles - has come up with a wonderful 30-second TV commercial that doesn't show one car. Not one. Instead it shows a variety of real people across all age groups smiling and laughing, closing with a tag line that says simply, "It's not the miles, it's how you live them. That's the power of German engineering." Sound corny? You have to see it for yourself. It's far from that. It's probably the most compelling piece of advertising - auto or otherwise - to come along in ages. Kudos to VW and its advertising agency for having the guts to do something completely different. It's simply wonderful. Watch it here. - PMD  (9/19/12)

"As I said, if you got one in basic black with the classic chrome hubcaps you'd be at least attempting to make a design statement. But when it's all zooted-out in boy racer mode it falls flat. I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone would take this car over a VW GTI. Unless you just gotta have the new Beetle shape, get the GTI. It's one of the best all-around, real world performance machines for the money you can buy. The Beetle? It's nice, but beyond that, I just don't care." - PMD (From our "Quick Take" of the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle Turbo) (9/19/12) 

Or is it because you actually believe people give a shit about what you think? Dan Gilbert, the now officially obnoxious Quicken Loans entrepreneur - whose smarm quotient seems to go up exponentially by the day - weighed-in on Sergio Marchionne's increasingly shaky stance in Italy by telling Bloomberg News: "Sometimes to get the medicine in the patient, you have to do so at the end of a needle. He's putting the needle in and they don't like it." Really? And what makes you the least bit qualified to comment about the manufacturing-political crisis in Italy? What, because you're leasing office space to Chrysler in a building you own in the city? Truly pathetic.  (9/26/12)

Editor-in-Chief's Note: A film about wingsuit flying? Check it out here. - PMD  (9/26/12)

Ouch, Baby, Part II. Jonathan Browning, the Volkswagen of America CEO, told the Brookings Institute that the VW Group built a new plant for Audi in Mexico because the U.S. was losing its luster as a place for foreign investors to do business. And that until this country's political and financial situation improves, VW will be hiring more Mexicans than Americans.  (10/3/12)

Do ya think? David Shepardson, reporting for The Detroit News, quoted Andy Palmer, Nissan's executive vice president of product planning, as saying that the Japanese automaker is disappointed in the sales of its all-electric Leaf, but that they were not giving up on its plan to double electric vehicle sales, even though sales are not meeting expectations. "We're a little disappointed," Palmer told reporters in a roundtable discussion Tuesday. "The uptake isn't as strong as we first hoped."  (10/3/12)

 

(Photos Courtesy of Goodguys Rod & Custom Association)
Tom Gloy's Brizio Street Rods-built ‘32 Ford roadster has won the Goodguys 2012 Tank’s Hot Rod of the Year award at the Goodguys 2^nd WIX Filters Speedway Nationals. Gloy’s low flying roadster was born during a conversation with Roy Brizio a few years back as the two drove to the Bonneville Salt Flats. Gloy wanted a channeled ’32 Ford roadster but Brizio cautioned that “Channeled ’32 Fords aren’t very comfortable and when channeled they can look too wide.” He also told Gloy how the driver often “sat up too high” in the channeled cars he’d seen over the years. So that was the challenge – to build a channeled, traditionally styled roadster in which Tom could sit low and drive fast.

To redesign the car’s front end, Brizio and his build team narrowed the cowl, grill and windshield. They also sectioned the radiator shell 3 ½”. To get Tom down low in the seat, the floorboards were radically lowered, more so than any other hot rod to roll out of Brizio’s South San Francisco stable.

Out back, the rear quarters were filled and smoothed and the rear wheels tucked tightly against the channeled body. The custom Brizio chassis features torsion bar suspension from Moal Coachbuilders and a classic hot rod rake courtesy of the chromed Magnum 5-inch dropped axle. Custom made 18" and 16" ET knockoff wheels are enhanced with custom machined caliper brackets designed to fill the backside of the wheels (inspired by Bonneville style Moon discs).

 

The roadster has a 302-inch, Hilborn EFI Ford crate motor and Tremec 5-speed gearbox. Brakes are courtesy of Wilwood brakes.

Bay area body & paint specialist Darryl Hollenbeck of Vintage Color Studio spent many hours perfecting the car’s classic finish – a stunning mid-50’s Porsche blue which perfectly contrasts the red leather interior stitched by Sid Chavers.

Gloy's racing career spanned more than 25 years, winning a Trans Am Championship as well as a Formula Atlantic title. He drove in six IndyCar races including a start in the 1984 Indy 500 where he finished 14th. Last weekend, Gloy, who lives in Lake Tahoe, drove the car over 2,000 miles from his home in Nevada to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to collect his award.  (10/10/12)

"But once acclimated, the Evoque was certainly pleasant enough. And the more time I spent in it the more reasonable it became, its compact size proving to be one of its biggest strengths. I think the Evoque is a scintillating contemporary design statement and I applaud Range Rover for having the cojones to stick to its guns and bring it to market as is. But $58,745 for a 3-door hatchback with ground clearance and a design point of view? You really have to want it bad." - PMD (From our "Quick Take" of the 2012 Range Rover Evoque Coupe) (9/19/12) 

"And I can tell you with complete certainty that I would never order the Driver Assistance package. It's annoyingly obtrusive, irritating and did I say annoying? The 'Active Lane Keeping Assist' in particular made me want to pull over to the side of the road, pull out a 44 magnum and put the thing out of its misery. I realize the German auto engineer mindset is obsessed with telling us what to do and how to do it via a gamut of driver aids, but unless you are a card-carrying member of the Rolling Unconscious, save yourself the money, because the option well and truly blows. Other than that, I liked the E550 4MATIC just fine." - PMD (From our "Quick Take" of the 2013 Mercedes-Benz E550 4MATIC Sedan) (10/10/12) 

These telecom carpetbaggers will run GM right into the ground if left unfettered. In Ed Whitacre's new memoir, "American Turnaround: Reinventing AT&T and GM and the Way We Do Business in the USA," he reveals why Dan Akerson shouldn't have even been let near GM. He also perfectly encapsulates the unbridled arrogance of these AT&T operatives who are now laying waste to GM and who think they're the smartest boys in the room, with everyone else being idiots. As if we needed more evidence of that. Reviewing Whitacre's upcoming memoir, David Shepardson of The Detroit News discloses that Akerson was not a fan of GM when he joined the board in 2009. Whitacre recalls, "Dan was pretty vocal during the executive session. Said he thought GM was one of the worst companies he'd come across in his entire life. And he was not a fan of GM cars — he made that crystal clear." Whitacre goes on to describe his meeting with the board after he had decided to resign. "Does anyone want the job?" He said there was silence. "Akerson, one of GM's most consistent critics throughout this entire period, sat silent. So did every other director." Akerson "basically volunteered to do the job," Whitacre writes, and no candidates were interviewed by the board. Hmm, let's see, Akerson had nothing but contempt for GM and its cars going in, so is it any wonder that he treats the True Believers in Design, Product Development and Engineering with nothing but contempt now, even though they're the ones keeping GM in the game? No. And the smug arrogance proffered by Whitacre? From frickin' AT&T? He's holding up that bastion of smoke and mirrors that treated consumers like dogs for years as "The Way We Do Business in the USA" - ? What hubris and what unmitigated bullshit. And guess what? There's no one there to stop them (see below). - PMD  (10/17/12)

Absolutely unconscionable, flat-out indefensible and an utter disgrace. Other than that, we're good. If Whitacre's book proves anything it's that the GM Board of Directors is the most incompetent body of its kind in corporate America. I knew that Akerson was awarded the position of CEO after "volunteering," but this is ridiculous. It lends even more credence to everything I've said about Akerson, especially the "Accidental Tourist of a CEO" moniker that fits him to a "T." And the feeble selection "process" the GM Board employed to pick a CEO? That was the sum total of their due diligence? - PMD  (10/17/12)

But if you want to convince yourself that your people skills will win the day, try telling that to the Cadillac dealers who aren't interested one lick in your people skills, but who are interested in whether you have a frickin' clue. Or not. Bristling that anyone would have the temerity to think that he's not qualified to become the global marketing head of Cadillac, Robert Ferguson told Automotive News that, "Anyone who sees this as GM bringing their political guy over to run Cadillac would not be very conversant on my background. My career has prepared me well for this opportunity." Memo to Ferguson (who insists he has the necessary regulatory and people skills to run Cadillac, thanks to his days as GM's chief lobbyist): There is absolutely nothing in your background that would qualify you as having the credentials to run Cadillac. Let me repeat: N-O-T-H-I-N-G. - PMD  (10/17/12)

Really? There's a shocker. Fisker announced that its mid-size Atlantic hybrid sedan will be delayed at least two years due to financial issues.  (10/17/12)

(BMW)
The BMW Welt “ensemble” – formed by the BMW Welt, the BMW Museum and the BMW Plant – has quickly become one of Bavaria’s top attractions. BMW says, "This is where the past, present and future of the world’s most successful premium automobile manufacturer come together to create a comprehensive brand experience. Together, the BMW Plant, the BMW Museum and the BMW Welt form a whole: the complete BMW Welt experience." BMW wants you to come to Munich and experience it. "The proximity of this unique building with its futuristic architecture to all major areas of the BMW Group’s Munich location, combined with the opportunity of visiting the Museum and taking a guided tour of the Plant on the same day, makes this a unique three-pronged brand experience."  (10/17/12)

(Chevrolet)
When the all-new 2014 Chevrolet Corvette makes its showroom debut a little over a year from now, it will be powered by a technologically advanced, racing-developed, 6.2L Direct Injection V-8 delivering an estimated 450 horsepower and helping produce 0-60 times in less than four seconds. The new Corvette LT1 engine, the first of the Gen 5 family of Small Block engines, combines several advanced technologies, including direct injection, Active Fuel Management and continuously variable valve timing to support an advanced combustion system.  (10/24/12)

"Many readers have commented on the 'Apple' model for marketing, and I wonder how far that analogy applies to the automotive industry. If we were to take Apple's example all the way, we would not have independent car dealers at all. They'd just be tightly controlled property of the manufacturers themselves. Apple store? Meet 'GM store'! As it is today, car dealers are legacy of byzantine regulations rooted in a parochial 19th century world. But state and county lines are as quaint as area codes in an internet age of greater mobility and commerce. I'm having a hard time justifying their existence. As a consumer, I've had bad experiences with dealers. As a taxpayer, I'm concerned when GM says one of its fundamental, fiscal problems is the intransigent dealers who hide behind archaic contracts. If there is a case to be made for the existing dealer system I'd like to hear it. If there are reforms that can be implemented, I'd like to hear that, too. Otherwise, I just might want to know when I can expect to buy my next car on Amazon. I've already got free shipping." - Dave Guyette, AE's northwest correspondent.  (10/24/12)

Kinda pathetic, Sergio. Even for you. His Highness actually proposed a combo of PSA Peugeot Citroen and GM (Opel) in order to surpass VW as the region's largest automaker, according to a Bloomberg report. Really? Memo to Sergio: 1. You better get over your fixation of getting back at VW or you will lose - Fiat, your precious Alfa Romeo dreams, everything. 2. Fiat, PSA Puegeot Citroen and Opel? Really? What will the venture be called? Third Tier Motors? And will your tagline be "We're incompetent but big?" - PMD (10/31/12)

Nicely Done. GM donated 50 Chevy Silverado full-size pickups and Express cargo vans to the American Red Cross to help its recovery efforts in the wake of Superstorm Sandy.  (10/31/12)

AE Quote of the Week, IV. Greg Martin, the GM PR man came out swinging against a new Romney campaign ad that implies that General Motors used the aid from the Obama administration to hire more workers in China than the U.S. “We’ve clearly entered some parallel universe during these last few days,” Martin said. “No amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country.”  (10/31/12)

Fading To Oblivion, Line 2. The UAW put all of their might behind a ballot proposal that would have made collective bargaining part of the State of Michigan's constitution, thus dooming the state to be mired in the stone age for the foreseeable future. If there were any doubts left about the fact that the UAW's influence in this state and this country is in decline and the union is fading into oblivion, they're gone now.  (11/7/12)

What they didn't say is that they half-assed their way through this market for years, and they pretty much got what they deserved. American Suzuki is quitting selling cars in the U.S. after nearly 30 years in this market and has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company said in a statement that it will maintain its motorcycle and marine engine business units and will continue to honor auto customers' warranties. In its filing, American Suzuki said it "has exhausted all available means to reduce the cost of operating the Automotive Division for it to operate profitably."  (11/7/12)

"They did a great job on the SLK55 AMG and it purges lingering mental cobwebs every time you hammer it, but as a package it's limiting, what with having to find a place for its retractable roof and the resulting umbrella-sized trunk (okay it's bigger than that but come on, really?). When it comes right down to it I loved having the SLK55 AMG around and I loved exploring its performance envelope. But if I'm going to spend almost $90 grand for a high-performance toy, I'd have to pass on this one."  - PMD (From our "Quick Take" of the 2013 Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG Roadster)  (11/7/12) 

A new low. The opening sentence from Bryce G. Hoffman's story in The Detroit News about Sergio Marchionne and his - shall we say - now tenuous plans to purchase the rest of Chrysler: "Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has conceded that he no longer has enough money to buy the rest of Chrysler Group LLC — but he may still have ways of coming up with it, including taking luxury carmaker Ferrari public." Well, well, well, Sergio. This sounds like another missive from "The Best Laid Plans" File. Except now you're going to drag Ferrari into this financial mess? As it is, Ferrari is teetering on the edge of becoming a caricature of itself, the Bernie Ecclestone of the high-performance luxury car market, chasing every last dollar from every new market, integrity be damned. If it wasn't for the F1 team, Ferrari would be in serious trouble. But taking Ferrari public - reducing it once and for all to commodity status - to fuel your personal ambitions of global domination of the car biz?  - PMD  (11/14/12)

"It is what it is. It goes. It stops. It runs. Two more things. Shifting its 5-speed manual is like stirring pudding with a hockey stick, and the power door locks are comical (imagine the sound of five shot glasses being slammed down on a bar at the same time and you'd be close). But hey, for $15,795 plus tax, the Little Green Guy had its charms." - PMD  (From our "Quick Take" of the 2013 Chevrolet Spark) (11/7/12) 

"This is an important car for Cadillac, but it may even be more important for the True Believers at GM. The Cadillac ATS states emphatically that they not only know how to play the game, they're going to carve out a playbook of their own. If you're an enthusiast, you owe it to yourself to take a proper test drive in the ATS, it's that good. And, I eagerly await a drive in the highest performance turbocharged 4-cylinder version, because it's supposed to be even better." - PMD 
(From our "Quick Take" of the 2013 Cadillac ATS) (11/7/12) 

Too bad. I'm just getting warmed up. In naming the Chrysler Group the AdAge Marketer of the Year, the ad rag attributes Fiat-Chrysler's 37% increase in sales to Olivier "I'm a genius just ask me" Francois's advertising brilliance, conveniently ignoring the overall increase in the market and the fact that the True Believers in Auburn Hills who actually design, engineer and build the stuff that define Fiat-Chrysler's product renaissance are the ones truly responsible. But hey, they cover advertising and they're in New York, so what do they know about the car business, right? They are attracted to bright shiny things and that's about as far as it gets. The one nugget from the article worth noting is that "criticism is a sensitive issue for Mr. Francois," according to AdAge. "My objective is not to be judged by some angry journalists but to deliver sales," he said. Wow. I don't know what is more surprising about Francois's comment, that he is stunned that there are rational people (aka "angry journalists") out there who don't buy his act? Or the fact that it sounds like he actually believes he's singularly responsible - along with The Great Sergio, of course - for Fiat-Chrysler's existence? For the record, I'm not "angry" in the least, Francois, in case you're wondering. I'm just able to calmly see through the egomaniacal, self-promoting, sanctimonious bullshit expertly proffered by you and Marchionne, and I call you on it. And it pisses both of you off.  - PMD  (11/28/12)

Editor's Note: A Mr. Sam Hemingway, from Bainbridge Island, Washington, took umbrage with Peter's perspectives on Sergio Marchionne and Fiat-Chrysler calling it "problematic" and a "vendetta." Peter's response is below. - WG

Editor-in-Chief's Note: First of all, the notion that I have a vendetta against anyone at Chrysler is so off the mark it qualifies as unmitigated bullshit. The conspiracy theory is that I worked for Chrysler back during the Daimler ownership era and they fired me. Not true. I did have a one-year consulting contract, I fulfilled that contract, and then I left. Were they already going down at that point? Yes. The planets were aligned for the Germans to screw it up royally. But it mattered little to me and still doesn't, there was no lingering animosity whatsoever on my part. End of story.

The facts - which everyone wants to conveniently forget about when it comes to Sergio Marchionne and his crew - are the following...

1. The U.S. government flat-out "gifted" Chrysler to Marchionne. Heading a fading, family-owned car company that languished in perpetual cardiac arrest because of its intransigent unions and piss-poor products - except for Ferrari, of course - Marchionne saw an opportunity to grab a North American manufacturing base and potential profit center for Fiat for a song. And that's exactly what he did. Far from genius material, this only qualifies him as being the Opportunist of the Century, as Washington had zero options. At the end of the first year of ownership Fiat had to come up with something like $4.5 billion. Total. That's a gift, folks.

2. Every single product that has propelled Chrysler's so-called "turnaround" was in place before Marchionne ever set foot in Auburn Hills. Every single one. The only vehicle that wasn't was the Dart, but believe me, that's not where the profits are coming from or will come from anytime soon. The people responsible for the uptick in the company's fortunes are the True Believers in Design, Engineering and Product Development at Chrysler who were toiling away long before the Italians arrived. I have always distinguished between the True Believers in Auburn Hills who did - and do - the heavy lifting and actual work from the carpetbagging opportunists from Italy. And I will continue to do so.

3. Back to the "genius" of Marchionne. He has based his whole idea for global domination of the car biz on the relaunch of the Alfa Romeo brand here and around the world. I think that's flat-out ludicrous and I'm not the only one in this industry who thinks so, either. And guess what? Now that the European auto market is in near collapse Marchionne's grand scam, I mean scheme, is coming apart at the seams. He just announced that Fiat doesn't have the money to pay for the rest of Chrysler. Read that again and if it doesn't sink in you shouldn't be reading AE to begin with. That means that Marchionne's grand plan for a new product lineup based on Alfa Romeos is now completely up in the air. Remember, folks, he has promised for years something along the lines of as many as six new Alfa-based products in-market here by 2014. That ain't happenin' as they say here in Dee-troit. To make matters worse, the situation in Europe for Fiat is so bleak that five months ago Marchionne went so far as to suggest that the manufacturers get together and agree on profit margins, so that they all could survive. VW laughed. Because that's who Marchionne was targeting with his plea. VW's "scorched earth" policy in the European market rankled Marchionne to no end. They despise each other because of it, and as best as I can tell, for good reason, but I side with VW on this. Marchionne was so far out of line, it was embarrassing. The rest of the industry just winced. In case you're wondering, Marchionne will stop at nothing to save his ass. His ego won't allow anything or anyone to get in the way of his carefully crafted image as industry seer and savior. Even collusion. Oh, some of you out there don't think his image is "crafted" - ? Please.

4. Fiat-Chrysler is now totally dependent on the True Believers in Auburn Hills for its survival, and that's no surprise in the least. Fiat, as it has been for oh, 40 years or so, is a pretend car company with one family jewel. The "family" will buy Marchionne's vision for just so long but even the Italians back in the home country are growing tired of his act, so it's going to get interesting in a hurry, especially if Fiat ceases to function in Italy, which believe me is not beyond the realm of possibility.

5. Marchionne's manic management style, which has him having something like 30+ direct reports, is a recipe for future disaster. Marchionne has set up Fiat-Chrysler to run with only one guy - Marchionne - at the helm, and when he bolts the company will once again be in disarray. Don't think there's any chance of that happening ever again? Please. There is no Fiat-Chrysler management structure after Marchionne leaves, and believe me that's exactly the way he wants it to be. That's so he can sit back and say, "See, it was only my brilliance that powered the company. Without me, I knew the whole thing would come to a halt," thus fulfilling the only scenario that his considerable ego would allow.

6. Back to that carefully-crafted image. Marchionne's "act" in this town is so transparently disingenuous I find it to be disgusting. Many of the AE readers don't live around here and aren't exposed to the constant bleating of Fiat-Chrysler's PR handlers - led by one Gualberto Raineri (who, as I've stated previously, is a graduate of "Unctuous Prick University") - who portray Marchionne as a "man of the people" and one who deeply cares about the city. I'm not buying it. And for those who do you're just naive about the ways of media manipulation as practiced by Marchionne and his handlers. These guys have this town rolling out the red carpet for Marchionne on a daily basis, and the slavish media in this town and who cover this industry at large should be ashamed of themselves for not seeing through the Fog of Bullshit laid down by these espresso-fueled opportunists.

7. As for Olivier Francois, he's a mildly talented self-promoting fop perfectly suited for Marchionne's ego, and I absolutely refuse to give him a free pass, unlike the rest of the media world. As an ex-advertising guy I can smell Francois's act from a mile away because I've seen a hundred of his ilk come and go in this business, so I find the constant canonization of him to be laughable and embarrassing. Do you want me to play ad critic? Okay, the first Eminem Super Bowl spot was well done and well-executed, but in typical fashion Francois's marketers then beat it to death and reduced its impact with every subsequent iteration. The second Super Bowl spot with Clint Eastwood was a flat-out disaster and painfully embarrassing, especially given the fact that these arrogant carpetbaggers had the temerity to tell us what it's like to be Americans living in America. Absolute dreck, on every level. The only spot that has emerged under Francois's reign that I would qualify as "brilliant" was the launch spot for the Dart that covered the development of the car. It was outstanding. But I don't call him Olivier "I'm a genius, just ask me" Francois for nothing. He is in sync with his boss, a self-promoting master who has snowed almost everybody - almost - in to thinking that these guys are akin to the Second Coming in this industry, the smartest guys in the room on so many levels that we're fortunate just to be able to bask in their brilliance.

Well I say bullshit to all of that.

I will continue to call Marchionne and his band of carpetbaggers out for their blatant manipulations every step of the way. And I will continue to differentiate the True Believers out in Auburn Hills - the ones who actually are powering Fiat-Chrysler - from the smarmy Italians whose only purpose in life is to suck the profits from this company on their way out the door. Because I've never wavered since Day One of this publication from talking about things that the rest of the media hordes will only talk about in "deep background" or in some "off the record" conversations in a bar. And if some of you out there don't like it, too frickin' bad.

The High-Octane Truth ain't for the faint of heart. And if you think you know this business from afar or have gleaned its nuances in a fifteen-minute Google deep dive, think again. As most people in this business know, it's the stuff I don't write about that I'm privy to know that would really rock the industry to its core. - PMD  (11/28/12)

"Overall, I liked the S7 - a lot. But then again, what's not to like, except for the price? I realize the S7 slots neatly under the A8, but still, $94,000? Yes, I could easily do without the 'Innovation package' which, as in other cars, I find to be relentlessly annoying, so I would save myself $5600 right there. To me these electronic packages represent a conscious effort by car companies to recognize that drivers these days have limited capabilities, so they're forced to engineer some lowest common denominator gadgets into cars for the drivers out there who are too busy to give a shit about the actual act of driving. A sad commentary indeed. But then again, I know there are people out there who just have to have every gadget known to man, so I'm sure they'll check that box with glee. Which also gleefully jacks up Audi - and the VW Group's - profitability even more. C'est la vie. The S7 is a stunning car, as close as one can get to the very essence of the contemporary art of making great automobiles." - PMD  (From our "Quick Take" of the 2013 Audi S7) (11/7/12) 

Oh and by the way, super model Kate Upton will appear in the commercial (along with Usher), just in case no one notices the car. AdAge reported that Mercedes-Benz will introduce its new CLA coupe on the Super Bowl XLVII broadcast. In an interview with Steve Cannon, CEO of Mercedes-Benz USA, Cannon said, "We have something big to say and we think this is a great vehicle to reach out to that mass affluent audience," he said. "We hope to use the Super Bowl to kind of open up the Mercedes-Benz brand to a wider audience. There are a lot of people out there who just automatically put Mercedes-Benz in an out-of-reach category." Mercedes-Benz is also the presenting sponsor of the Louisiana Superdome, now known as the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.  (12/5/12)

And that's not good enough. That statement by Steve Cannon (above) is a bit frightening. "... There are a lot of people out there who just automatically put Mercedes-Benz in an out-of-reach category." Mercedes executives have said the exact same thing over the years. It's that whole "we have to make the brand more approachable" argument and it has led Mercedes down the wrong path in this market before. Every single time in fact. Whenever I hear this from Mercedes executives it's a sure sign that they're embracing the dreaded "V" word, as in volume, to appease the German overlords back at headquarters. It's that same attitude that has propelled Mercedes into a sales war with BMW in this market, with both automakers acting like Cadillac and Lincoln in the 80s. And it's that same attitude that has led Mercedes into playing in segments it doesn't belong in. Remember the C-Class Kompressor Coupe from the early 2000s? Yes, of course the impact of CLA will be different, right? Right. Things seem to go in cycles with Mercedes. They go down this road for a while until they wake up and suddenly realize that, "Wait a minute! We've deleted the specialness from the brand!" And then they go off - panicked - in the other direction, desperately trying to fix the Mercedes brand reputation overnight. Will they ever learn? Not any time soon I'm afraid. Because this is about image wrangling at the highest level, and Mercedes has demonstrated time and again that they only intermittently get it. - PMD (12/5/12)

Sure, makes sense. Remember those Chrysler Jefferson North Assembly-plant workers who were fired after a local Detroit TV station took video of them drinking alcohol and smoking pot during their breaks in 2010? The UAW filed grievances on behalf of the fired workers and a third-party arbitrator has just reinstated them, agreeing with the union that Chrysler had improperly terminated the employees. (12/12/12)

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Check out Tom Walsh's column in the Detroit Free Press on the State of Michigan's new "right-to-work" laws here. He gets at the real problem with this: "In today's world of unprecedented mobility and instant communication, investment and jobs go to places with the top talent, the best educated and most skilled workers. What is Michigan doing to move the needle on the talent and education levels of our residents?" - PMD  (12/12/12)

Sure, makes sense, II. As if. Continuing his feud with anything to do with VW, Sergio Marchionne has Fiat-Chrysler offering $1,000 in conquest cash to any VW owner buying a Fiat-Chrysler product (excluding the Viper and a couple of others). (12/12/12)

From the "Jackass" File. According to reports, Sean Penn, the actor-activist, who founded a relief organization in response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and still spends about half his time there, compares life in the country's capital city - Port-au-Prince - to Detroit, saying, "It's not more dangerous, it's not less dangerous." Like you would know about Detroit? (12/12/12)

(GM)
GM unveiled the new Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra 1500 pickups today (12/13) in Pontiac, Michigan. GM says the trucks are, "designed to be the most refined, best engineered full-size pickups in the market." Among the many updates for 2014 are fresh new exterior designs inside and out for each brand; a trio of fuel-efficient EcoTec3 engines featuring direct injection and cylinder deactivation to improve efficiency; and quieter, more comfortable, more functional cabs. The interiors are particularly impressive.  (12/12/12)

(Photo by Mike Maez, Images copyright and courtesy of Gooding & Company)
This extraordinary 1958 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider will be presented at Gooding & Company's 2013 Scottsdale Auctions on January 18 and 19. The auction house, purveyor of some of the world’s most significant and valuable collector cars, is also offering a highly-original 1959 Porsche RSK, a one-off 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Coupe Speciale by Pinin Farina, and Edsel Ford’s personal 1930 Ford Model A Sport Phaeton. The preview and auctions will be held at Scottsdale Fashion Square, in Scottsdale, Arizona.  (12/12/12)

(GM)
The all-new 2014 GMC Sierra fullsize pickup is the latest in a bloodline that stretches back over a century. The first truck to wear a GMC badge debuted in 1912, while a predecessor from the Max Grabowsky’s Rapid Motor Vehicle Co. was the first commercial truck operated in the City of Detroit 10 years earlier. In the '50s cars again influenced truck design, resulting in more safety, comfort and performance. The highlights of the '55 model were the hooded headlights and panoramic glass (above). They looked better back then, didn't they?  (12/12/12)

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Our friend Casey Shain (http://artandcolourcars.blogspot.com/) has sent along another sample of his fabulous chopped cars (with his commentary), and we're thrilled to share them with our AE readers. This feature has proven to be very popular with the design community as well. Thanks again to Casey for his visionary work. - PMD 

Lincoln MkGT 2-seat sports car. V12 EcoBoost Hybrid. Big Bang at the Top!

Cadillac Seville notch-back sedan. A RWD sedan a rung above the XTS. Retros the original Seville's severe notch-back.

Buick Regal Century coupe. An updated AWD platform with the wheelbase extended in the front for ride and handling a la Audi.

Lincoln Continental flagship sedan. A V12 limited production sedan for the ultra luxury halo market.

Fiat 750 sport coupe. The 500's longer 2-seat sport coupe cousin. Think original 70s Honda Prelude for size and market.

Bentley GT 2-seater. A halo super coupe for two to traverse the grand routes of Europe at maximum speed and comfort.

Cadillac ATS coupe. Only a matter of time, I know it!

Since coupes have four doors these days I'm lobbying for a return to two-doors-only coupes such as this 2014 Cadillac Three-window Business Coupe... Beautifully finished interior, rear compartment fitted luggage, power folding bulkhead and massive trunk with a form of TwinHatch that can be either a trunk lid or hatch... and it's a plug-in eCar for the green traveling salesmen with short routes, lol. Onward & upward to 2013! - Casey

 

 

Article originally appeared on Autoextremist.com ~ the bare-knuckled, unvarnished, high-electron truth... (http://www.autoextremist.com/).