Archive | May, 2009

Fiat and Magna Must Submit Full Plans for Opel to Germany by May 20

By on May 15, 2009 in News

By Brendan Moore

05.15.2009

opel-logoGerman Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has stated that there are two contenders for a partnership with Opel and those two candidates, Magna International and Fiat, have been asked to submit their detailed plans for Opel in five days.

Guttenberg told reporters, “We are dealing with two potential investors at the moment, with Fiat and Magna. By May 20, the two investors want to present their proposals. We are hoping for a more sustainable concept than has been presented to us so far,” he said, referring to both companies’ previous plan outlines.

He also noted that the German government was working on a bridge financing deal for Opel in the event that GM files bankruptcy before a partner can be found for Opel.

Fiat wants Opel in order to complete the desired Fiat-Chrylser-Opel triumvirate it so badly wants, and Magna (and some unnamed Russian investors) wants Opel so it can be a full-fledged automaker, and, protect a huge part of their supplier business.

Apparently there was a third potential investor, private equity firm Ripplewood’s European division. But RHJ, Ripplewoods’s European arm, developed a bad case of self-doubt along the way, and decided they just were not going to be taken seriously, next to the two automotive giants. So they exited early.

May 20 is not very far away, so the German government will declare the winner of a piece of Opel next week, and at least one part of the puzzle will be sorted out. As to whether or not GM will declare bankruptcy before then, its anyone’s guess, although the smart money is on GM declaring bankruptcy sometime next week.

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Two Days Left to Vote NOW for Autosavant Dream Garage Contest

By on May 14, 2009 in Features

By Chris Haak

05.14.2009

The entries are in for Autosavant’s first ever Dream Garage contest, and the Autosavant staff gathered over the weekend around our virtual water cooler and agreed upon our four favorite dream garages as submitted by readers.  As a reminder, voting works like this:

  • Vote for ONE contestant’s list in the comments of this post (you can just put the letter, or you can explain the rationale behind your vote
  • ONE vote per person.  If we see suspicious voting patterns, we reserve the right to disqualify any votes that are suspicious in nature.
  • Voting ends this Friday, May 15, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. EST

Congratulations to our finalists, and good luck!  Our contestants are gunning for a prize of the three-disc set of the Top Gear Season 10 DVD.

The contenders are, in no particular order, and in the contestants’ own words: Continue Reading →

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2009 Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid 4×4 Review

By on May 14, 2009 in Reviews

By Roger Boylan

05.14.2009

hpim3197Once you brush aside the cultural prejudices and filter out the various strains of urban snobbery, the main rap against full-size pickup trucks, apart from their ungainly size, has always been their Falstaffian guzzling of fuel. Well, that era might be coming to a close: Enter the Chevy Silverado/GMC Sierra Hybrids. Unlike previous GM “hybrid” trucks, which used a simple mechanism to deactivate the engine at rest but had scant effect on highway consumption, these beasts are true Prius-style hybrids, running on a 332-hp 6.0-liter V-8 (with cylinder deactivation and variable cam timing for greater frugality), making 367 lb.-ft. of torque, and a 300-volt electrical system that marries the gas setup with two electric motors powered by a huge battery sealed in a box under the back seat (and warrantied for 8 years or 100,000 miles). GM’s mileage claims are 20 mpg in town and 20-22 mpg on the highway, up to 40% better (they claim) than the regular Silverado/Sierra.

After my week at the wheel of a Silverado Hybrid Crew Cab 4X4 I can pretty much endorse those claims. In-town mileage has improved over the standard truck by an order of magnitude, thanks in large part to the Auto Stop feature, which shuts off the gasoline engine when the truck slows down to speeds below 30 mph but keeps the AC, radio, etc., running on the electrical power system, result: Utter silence from under the hood and no gas consumption at all at red lights and in bumper-to-bumper traffic, where so much dino juice is usually squandered. Magic! As for the highway mileage, of course, the Priuses and Insights will still rack up the brownie points there, but even at an average cruising speed of 70 my Silverado managed a very decent average of 19 mpg overall. The bottom line is I didn’t need a refill, even after five round-trip 70-mile door-to-door commutes and sundry side trips. There wasn’t much left at the end, but with a fuel-tank capacity of 26 gallons, that works out at a range of about 480 miles after every fill-up. Not at all bad. (And we’re talking regular.) Continue Reading →

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2009 Targa Trophy Begs the Question, What is an Automotive Lifestyle Event?

By on May 14, 2009 in Editorials

By Kevin Miller

05.14.2009

intern

We have not been able to confirm if this was the sender of the press release.

Here at Autosavant, scores of forgettable press releases pour into collective inboxes each day. Some of those press releases, however, stand out in one way or another, and simply demand to be turned into an actual article. Today’s press release of honor touts the upcoming Targa Trophy, a trio of events taking place in Southern California being billed as “North America’s premier automotive lifestyle road rally event.” Needing to know more about what an automotive lifestyle road rally event was, I read past the first paragraph.

The Targa Trophy is said to cater to “exotic and sports car enthusiasts”, giving owners a “unique and thrilling way to showcase their vehicles, experience breathtaking views and attend A-list parties.” OK, I’m starting to get the picture. But didn’t most of these expensive-cars-and-A-List-party type of events go away because of the economy?

Evidently not. This year the Targa Trophy is a “triple crown event”, meaning that there are three opportunities for the rich and not-so-famous to flaunt their expensive cars among vapid socialites.  The first event is this month, commencing at Orange County’s “renowned shopping destination, South Coast Plaza.” Drivers will race off to the Imago Gallery in Palms Springs and make their way back to an awaiting crowd at South Coast Plaza. You read that right- they’re racing from an Orange County boutique collection to a gallery in Palm Springs. I’m not making this up. Continue Reading →

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GM Plans US Sales of Chinese-Built Cars

By on May 13, 2009 in Editorials

By Brendan Moore

05.13.2009

gm-logo-small1In a surprise move, GM is planning to import Chinese-made cars, beginning in 2011, according to Automotive News, an auto industry trade publication. The plan calls for 17,335 imports in 2011, jumping all the way up to 51,546 imports in 2014.

Apparently one of the documents meant for the federal government’s auto task force was leaked on Tuesday, and today the AP news service repeated assertions made in an article in The Shanghai Securities News that GM is planning to build cars in China like the Chevrolet Spark and then import those cars into the US as part of their plan to reduce manufacturing costs. GM currently manufactures cars in China, but all of that production has gone to Chinese customers in the past.

Let’s start with the obvious.

The UAW is going to work up quite a head of steam over this. They will point out the GM has over $15 billion dollars (USD) of taxpayer money and therefore shouldn’t be eliminating jobs in the United States. GM is also planning to import more vehicles from Korea and increase the volume of the ones coming from Mexico, in addition to the planned imports from China. These places are all outside the US (and also have lower labor costs than the US) and the UAW is going to be really unhappy if GM imports cars from any of these countries, much less all three.

Continue Reading →

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Future Unclear for GM’s Inconvenient Vauxhall Unit

By on May 13, 2009 in Features

By Andy Bannister

05.13.2009

vauxhall-logoWith potential buyers including Fiat, GAZ and Magna-Steyr vying to seize control of GM’s European Opel operations, the intriguing possibility is being raised that such a deal could exclude GM’s British arm, Vauxhall Motors.

Vauxhall and Opel started out as completely separate manufacturing companies in Britain and Germany respectively, both of which ended up as rivals in the General Motors empire. Today Vauxhall is little more than another name for Opel UK, but Britain is commercially very important as it generates the most individual GM sales in any European Union country.

When the disposal of Opel was mooted, most commentators automatically assumed that Vauxhall would be part of the package, but since then speculation has been growing that with those big sales in mind, Vauxhall and Opel could be separated. According to this theory, Vauxhall’s future would lie in co-operation with GM’s Korean unit and with Holden in Australia.

Holden currently provides Vauxhall with its only product not shared with Opel, the VXR8 sedan (a version of which is also the Pontiac G8). Opel doesn’t seem to require its own version of the VXR8, and with the demise of Pontiac, Holden’s export programme has been thrown into some disarray. Continue Reading →

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Chrysler Dealers Form Group, Hire Attorneys

By on May 12, 2009 in Editorials, News

By Brendan Moore

05.12.2009

chrysler-logo-smallChrysler dealers who believe that they may be on the bubble in terms of Chrysler’s plan to reduce their dealership count have formed a group named the Committee of Affected Dealers and hired Squire, Sanders & Porter, a Cincinnati, Ohio law firm. The firm will represent the dealer group in the U.S bankruptcy court in New York State.

A spokesman for the legal firm stated that they have requested a face-to-face meeting with President Obama, but have not yet had a response from the White House.

The Committee of Affected Dealers intends to do everything they can to convince either Chrysler or the federal bankruptcy court in New York to not eliminate their dealerships. The view point of the Committee of Affected Dealers, state dealer organizations and the NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) is that no dealerships should close and that Chrysler is making a mistake if they think closing dealerships will make their manufacturing business more profitable.

Chrysler, under pressure to announce the list of dealers that they intend to eliminate, refuses to comment except to say that, at this time, there is still no list of dealers that they intend to keep. However, Chrysler has already stated publicly that will release a preliminary list of dealers they intend to keep on Thursday, which is 48 hours from now. So, unless you believe that Chrysler is going to knock out that list in the next two days, it is readily apparent that there is a list, and Chrysler is just playing it close to the vest in the run-up to Thursday.

The Committee of Affected Dealers and their legal representation are asking each dealer to put up $4000 USD to finance the fight against Chrysler. Sentiment among the dealers regarding their chances of prevailing against Chrysler and/or the bankruptcy seems to be mostly positive at this point, but it is difficult to say just what the dealers are thinking at this early juncture.

The dealers who believe they will be on Chrysler’s list to stick around are not saying publicly what everyone knows; that is, that they stand to benefit considerably when the Chrysler dealer population is reduced. Once they know their position is safe, the surviving dealers cannot help but privately pull for Chrysler’s dealer consolidation plan.

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GM Says They Would Sell Solstice/Sky Factory

By on May 11, 2009 in Editorials

By Brendan Moore

05.11.2009

gm-logo-smallAccording to an article in Automotive News, Fritz Henderson, the current CEO of General Motors, stated that GM would be open to offers for the Wilmington, Delaware plant that makes the Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky. The plant also produces a very small amount of Opel GT roadsters built on the same Kappa rear-wheel-drive small-car platform.

If the Solstice Coupe had not had its young life cut short, it would also have been manufactured at the same plant on a continuous basis. Current plans call for only 1000 Solstice Coupes to be produced before all of Pontiac shuts down for good. It is assumed that a new owner would get the production capacity of all the models built from the Kappa platform.

Chrysler has also put a factory up for sale; the stand-alone Dodge Viper plant. Chrysler has not announced any buyer for the Viper production facility at this point.

The Solstice/Sky twins have been the segment leader every year since the platform debut in 2007, outselling the Mazda MX-5 (Miata).

Henderson was quoted as telling reporters, “If someone were to approach us with a proposal that made good sense for our people, we would be open. We are not out actively trying to market a plant, per se. But if a party were interested, we’d be very open to this and would encourage it. We haven’t had any inbounds on the subject at this point.”

2009-pontiac-solstice-coupe-rear

Hmm, a small RWD platform built to performance parameters – that’s interesting. I had a Pontiac engineer tell me when the Solstice debuted that the Kappa platform could easily accommodate both a V6 and a small-block V8, in addition to its production-model four-cylinder.

If only there were a buyer, perhaps the high end of the performance limits of the Kappa platform could be explored.

If only I had some extra billions of dollars, eh? You figure 10, 20 million bucks for the plant, and the rest left over for styling, marketing, development and testing, etc. over the next decade.

Hey, maybe I could get the next owners of Saturn to retail my new sports cars.

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PSA Peugeot-Citroen Says, “Not Afraid of a Fiat-Opel Merger”

By on May 11, 2009 in News

By Brendan Moore

05.11.2009

peugeot-logoPeugeot board director Jean-Philippe Collin was quoted this morning in La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper, as stating that the French automaker PSA Peugeot-Citroen (Peugeot) was not afraid of a Fiat-Opel merger.

“We do not fear a possible alliance between Fiat and Opel. The car world is certainly not in its first phase of consolidation, we have always been working in a competitive scenario,” Collin stated.

“In periods like this, of scarce liquidity, the best thing is to concentrate resources on few and selected activities: renewing products, strengthening the network and satisfying clients,” he commented to the reporter.

Collin also mentioned that Peugeot would have electric urban cars in production by 2010.

There have been rumours that Peugeot might be pushed into an alliance with Renault, its arch-rival in France, with the French government itself acting as the marriage broker.

Peugeot sells approximately 3 million units per year and industry analysts have stated that the company may need to merge with someone else in order to compete effectively in the future.

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Dealers Plan to Test Strength of Franchise Laws

By on May 8, 2009 in Editorials

Legal action is already planned against Chrysler and GM dealer reductions

By Brendan Moore

05.08.2009

Chrysler dealers are unhappy about Chrysler’s plan to eliminate dealers while in bankruptcy and are banding together to fight the closures. State dealer organizations and the NADA (National Automobile Dealers Association) have kicked off a strong PR and lobbying campaign to fight the closures.

Right behind the Chrysler dealers are the GM dealers who are nervous about GM’s announcement that the company has a goal of reducing dealer count at GM from 6,246 dealers to 3,605 dealers by 2010.

The NADA launched ads in select publications two days ago that stated, among other things, that, “Cutting dealers at this time would do absolutely nothing to make either GM or Chrysler more viable. So why is your automotive task force demanding drastic cuts in the number of dealers?”

According to NADA figures, the GM and Chrysler plans mean the elimination of more than 3,000 Chrysler and General Motors dealerships employing at least 150,000 people.

The NADA has also asked all their dealer members to lobby their elected officials against the dealership closings.

I will tell you right up front that I am an interested party as to how this all gets resolved. I am interested because I want changes in the dealer franchise laws and I am interested because I want to see how the federal bankruptcy court Chrysler is in at this moment treats the state dealer franchise laws. My guess is that it will void Chrysler’s dealer agreements, and hold the company harmless against dealer suits brought under state law, but that is conjecture on my part.

Dealers, probably in class-action suits, will try to have state laws enforced against Chrysler, a defendant that is in federal bankruptcy court.

Scott Silverman, one of the attorneys at McCarter & English, a legal firm that specializes in dealer contract law, stated, “This is going to be the biggest week in the history of the U.S. auto industry as far as dealers are concerned”, in an article in the The Los Angeles Times earlier this week.

Continue Reading →

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