ON THE TABLE
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 08:19AM September 16, 2009
Sergio Marchionne. The Fiat-Chrysler boss tells reporters at the Frankfurt Motor Show that the unified company will sell between 5.5 - 6 million vehicles. (Last year Fiat sold 2.4 and Chrysler sold 2 million vehicles.) In what decade are we talkin', Sergio?
Stefan Jacoby. Our perennial candidate for "Most Delusional Car Executive" - Stefan Jacoby, CEO of Volkswagen Group of America - was at it again at the Frankfurt show, as Dave Guilford of Automotive News reports. Jacoby insists that the Phaeton shouldn't have been yanked from the U.S. market after all. “I have to admit that it was a mistake to take this car out of the market,” Jacoby said in a media briefing. Really, Stefan? By what measure? Was it the fact that no one was really clamoring for a $70,000 sedan with a VW badge on it? Or was it the fact that your U.S. dealers weren't equipped to sell it? Or was it the fact that it was the wrong car, at the wrong time, from the wrong car company? “We think that the Volkswagen brand is a good place for this. We are looking at various alternatives for the relaunch of Phaeton.” His big idea? Relaunch the Phaeton in the U.S. market with a diesel powertrain. Not. So. Much.
BMW. The company is bringing back four-cylinder engines to the U.S. market by 2012. The twin-turbo engines will first appear in the 3 series, but we hope they do a proper 1 series that harkens back to the 2002. It's long overdue.
Buick. Bob Lutz ditches Buick's dreadful - and thankfully short-lived - tagline, "Take a look at me now" in favor of "The new class of world class" according to Automotive News. Not great, but better at least.
Jeff Zwart, Porsche. Publisher's Note: Jeff Zwart, an old friend and a terrific filmmaker - and longtime director of all of Porsche's TV commercials - is at it again with his work for the launch of the Porsche Panamera. Check out the teaser film for it here to see a fantastic collection of some of the most famous Porsche sports and racing cars ever assembled. Trivia: By happenstance I ended up awarding Jeff his first TV commercial assignment back in my ad days (already one of the top automotive print photographers in the world at the time, I kept bugging him to pick up a motion camera) when Jeff's originally scheduled first gig was postponed. The rest, as they say, is history. - PMD
(Photos courtesy of Ford)
Ford introduced the all-new compact 7-seat Grand C-MAX at the Frankfurt Motor Show this week. The first of a new generation of Ford global C-cars scheduled for introduction during the next several years, the lineup also will include the next-generation Ford Focus, which will be unveiled in Detroit in January. The important new C-car architecture will underpin more than two million vehicles per year worldwide for Ford. The new C-MAX signals the future of people movers in the U.S. in terms of overall packaging and fuel-efficiency. The C-MAX will arrive in the U.S. market at the end of 2011 as a 2012 model.
Publisher's Note: For more good stuff on the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show - including some wild French designs and a brand-new Bugatti hyper-sedan, click here to see "Autoline Daily" from September 15th and go back to Autoline Detroit for more updates throughout the week. - PMD
(Photos courtesy of BMW)
The MINI Roadster Concept shown in Frankfurt previews an additional model coming to the MINI line-up in less than two years. The stubby design of the two-seater is polarizing, to say the least. You either like it, or maybe not.
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See another live episode of "Autoline After Hours" hosted by Autoline Detroit's John McElroy, with Peter De Lorenzo and friends this Thursday evening, September 17, at 7:00PM EDT at www.autolinedetroit.tv. By the way, if you'd like to subscribe to the Autoline After Hours podcasts, click on the following links: Subscribe via iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=311421319 http://www.autolinedetroit.tv/podcasts/feeds/afterhours-audio.xml
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