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ISUZU QUITS US MARKET; LEAVES LEGACY OF GREAT TV SPOTS, WINNER OF WAR WITH CONSUMER REPORTS

They built the first truck which Honda ever sold in the US, but in spite of being part of automotive trivia, Isuzu has made it official: After 27 years in the world's most important automotive marketplace, Isuzu is leaving the light-vehicle market in the United States, but keeping their medium-duty truck business. The character of the lying, scheming car salesman "Joe Isuzu", portrayed in Isuzu TV ads by actor David Leisure, will be remembered long after any Isuzu vehicle. Now the company is closing-up shop in the US, one of that rare and small group of "Asian car-maker failures" which includes Japan's Daihatsu and South Korea's Daewoo. (Photo - 1991 Isuzu Trooper photographed in its natural habitat).

If any Isuzu vehicles sold in the US are thought of at all in 50 years, it will probably be the Isuzu Trooper, possibly in a "case study" for an advertising agency or a college-level marketing class. In 1996, Consumers Union (CU), which publishes Consumer Reports (CR) magazine, said the 1995 and 1996 Isuzu Trooper SUV had demonstrated a "tendency to roll over in certain situations" in its tests, and that CR had determined that this was "not acceptable". The magazine and Consumers Union issued warnings, advising the public not to buy the vehicle, and suggesting that federal officials should launch an investigation into possible (but unnamed) product defects. Isuzu filed a lawsuit against CU; the court ruled that Consumer Reports had made "numerous false statements" and had put the Trooper SUV through tests that competitors were not subjected to. Though eight of ten jurors wanted to assign punitive damages, they did not find enough evidence of malicious intent and did not assign Isuzu cash damages. (Photo - Isuzu Ascender; rebadged GMC Envoy).

As Audi found after a devastating, and proven false in court, report on the CBS "60 MINUTES" news show on an "unintended acceleration" problem with their vehicles, and as Suzuki found after another CU hit job on their Samurai small SUV, once the "cat it out of the bag" it's very difficult and amazingly expensive to recover from such an attack. In July 2004, Suzuki's case against CR and CU was settled and dismissed, with no money changing hands. But the vehicle was cleared of all of CR's negative claims. There are many cases of CR and CU making claims against products, claims which have been proven false. Some feel that because there is no advertising in CR, its parent, CU, along with the magazine, occasionally and purposely make some outrageous safety claim about a vehicle, only to create interest in the magazine and their organization. Settlements reached in or out of court can not make-up for the damage to these, and other, companies caused by CU and CR. Meanwhile, CR and CU walk away after giving an apology and changing their rating for the vehicle in question. It's cost them little and their profile with the public is certainly much higher after they make one of these claims than before.

"Joe Isuzu" made his first appearance in 1985, and though the campaign cost American Isuzu a paltry (for the car business) $7 million, the campaign, created by Della Femina, Travisano and Partners, became an instant hit. Della Femina understood that Americans were so used to hearing stilted claims not only from corporations, but also from their government, that "Joe Isuzu" presenting himself as a lying car salesman, and proud of it, was a stroke of genius and created an atmosphere in which Isuzu flourished. Joe Isuzu lasted but a few years, until 1990, but it succeeded in making the unusual and somewhat difficult to pronounce word 'Isuzu' a household name throughout America. (Photo - Joe Isuzu).

Even the actor portraying Joe Isuzu seemed to be playing his own little inside joke; his last name, Leisure, was also the name of a particular style of clothing of that era, the much-derided, and with good reason, leisure suit. These suits were made from so many different man-made fibers and available in every ridiculous shade a colorist could come up with, that they actually "hurt" to wear, according to some who had donned these suits and headed for their favorite local disco.

The character had a huge impact on American culture of the time. President Ronald Reagan once compared Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega to "that fellow from Isuzu," and Chrysler's Lee Iacocca proclaimed in his own company's advertising, "If Chrysler isn't the performance company, then I'm Joe Isuzu." The Jerry Della Femina-headed ad agency created one of the best advertising campaigns not just in the history of the car business --- But in business, period. His smarmy, cynical, underhanded method was that special kind of sarcasm which hits the target; it was not only a "home run" for Isuzu, a company which unfortunately had more than its share of bad publicity, it was the proverbial "grand slam".

Joe Isuzu confirmed what many, if not most Americans felt about car salespeople ... That they would do and/or say absolutely anything to make a sale. For a vehicle-maker to not only appear to agree with what Americans thought, but to substantiate that in their advertising, was a courageous move which changed advertising forever. And it got the results which usually follow an "authentic" ad campaign --- Sales boomed. In 2001, Joe was returned, by popular demand, but this time as a "regular" corporate spokesman, instead of the lying salesman, for Isuzu's then-new Axiom SUV. Of course, with Leisure's character now "more normal," the results were nowhere near what the "liar campaign" did for Isuzu.(Photo - Isuzu i-350 Crew Cab).

Isuzu had the right ideas about SUVs for the U.S. market at the right time. In 1992 and 1993, the mid-size Rodeo was the top-selling import brand SUV nameplate with sales of 45,257 units. In 1993, it sold 48,903 units. The brand's sales pace continued for much of the 1990s, but slowed dramatically after 2000 as more competition emerged in the segment. Isuzu sales have slid from 103,937 in 1999 to 7,098 in 2007. (Photo - Actor David Leisure portrayed Joe Isuzu).

Isuzu also built a version of its top-selling Rodeo midsize SUV for Honda. That vehicle, the Honda   Passport, was available from 1994-2002. It was Honda's first-ever truck entry in the United States. From 1996-1999, Isuzu also built for Honda a luxury SUV called the Acura SLX. It was based on the Isuzu Trooper.

According to industry publication Automotive News, the company's shut-down was announced during a conference call with American Isuzu execs and their dealers. One dealer with three Isuzu showrooms said the company was being very generous in their buy-out plans with dealers. Dealers will receive $1,000 per new car they sold on average for the past four years, they can remain Isuzu service dealers and the company plans to spiff up incentives to help dealers clear out their inventory (which means more cash from a sale will remain with the dealer ... and the salesperson ... than in the past; it also means that this is a great time to go Isuzu-shopping because salespeople are being "encouraged" to close sales, no matter what they need to do to accomplish that).

In a press release, Isuzu Motors America said it is leaving the market because General Motors may discontinue the Ascender SUV and its small-pickup platform. Isuzu has 201 dealers and sells only two models -- the five-seat Ascender, based on the Chevrolet TrailBlazer; and the i-series pickup, derived from GM's small-pickup platform. (Photo - Isuzu medium-duty conventional cab diesel truck with a flatbed trailer).

The company says they were unable to secure any commercially viable replacements for those GM vehicles, which means the company would have no new products to sell. Isuzu took great pains this week to point out that Isuzu will continue to stand behind its customers and dealers here for years to come; current owners can be fairly certain their vehicles will not become "orphans", with no factory support for parts and/or service. To that end, the company says they will continue to honor all product warranties and roadside-assistance programs and will maintain its owner relations call center.

In addition, all current US dealers can continue as service dealerships for Isuzu, and the company will sign new contracts with dealers who want to stay. Current vehicle owners should check with their Isuzu dealer to see what they plan on doing; stay with the company or, if not, owners should find another dealer as nearby as possible to do warranty work and be a source for parts and repair as their vehicle ages. We'd expect resale value of all Isuzu vehicles to suffer, though, whether an owner sells to a private party or plans to use their Isuzu as a trade-in with a dealer. Although owners will probably not even notice the change, outside of possibly having to find another dealer to do warranty and repair work and be a parts source, the company closing-out operations in the US creates a poor image for them, true or not. (Photo - Isuzu city bus).

Isuzu will instead focus on its diesel-powered commercial trucks, a much larger business in the U.S. and abroad. In the fiscal year that ended last March, Isuzu earned $910 million on $14.2 billion in worldwide sales. The company said that quitting the U.S. passenger vehicle market would cost about $37 million over two years, including fees to franchised dealers.

The company also has a very successful marine diesel engine business, with no fewer than eight different engines, ranging in cylinders from three to six, listed on various marine equipment websites, with horsepower ratings from 26 to 260. This business will also continue uninterrupted worldwide and in the US. (Photo - Isuzu VehiCross).

A Japanese failure in the United States is a rare occurrence. The last Japanese automaker to pull out of the United States was Daihatsu, which offered the Rocky small SUV and Charade subcompact in the United States from 1988 to 1992. But the company never sold more than 17,000 units a year and was forced out of the United States because of voluntary export quotas in effect at the time.

Our feeling, having spent a lot of time with Daihatsu executives and seeing all their facilities in the US and in Osaka, Japan, was that in addition to the export quotas, Daihatsu's price point was much higher than their competition in the US for vehicles which had a perceived value of lower than was reflected on their price sticker. Both the Charade ("Our president is a big Audrey Hepburn," I was told when asking why they named a car with a word which can be perceived as being "fake" or "phony") and the Rocky (for which Daihatsu had to pay the copyright owner of the film named "Rocky" a fee for every one sold) were high-quality vehicles, perhaps too high quality for the price market in which they were playing. (Photo - Off-road race-ready Isuzu Amigo).

Daewoo, a Korean automaker, quit the US in 2002. GM now owns a majority of Daewoo and is importing one of their cars from South Korea, marketed here in the US as the Aveo.

Triumph 2008 Sprint ST --- Updated Tourer With "Superb Handling, Powerful Engine and Unrivalled (sic) Reliability"

One of the great names in motorcycling, Triumph, might have occasionally gone out of production,  and its factory was shut down completely in 1983, until resurrected by construction magnate John Bloor (he bought the name and whatever else was left for $100,000), but Triumph never went out of style. For the past several years they've even begun to flourish, with the company paying attention to trends worldwide and, much like Harley-Davidson, realizing, understanding and capitalizing on and exploiting the value of nostalgia, building machines which in appearance and even sound hearken back to an earlier time, to 1959 perhaps, which was the best year in history of British motorcycling, but with modern mechanicals and electronics which makes bikes like Triumph dependable, along with already being good-looking, in that retro sense, and, of course, fun to ride. (Logo above - Triumph's current logo, beginning in 2005; Photo below - 2008 Triumph Sprint ST).

Many of us of a certain age, who grew up in a time when the machines from a particular Asian nation were just getting started with very serious sales in the US, which continue to this day, had our very first rides on a bike with either an American or British pedigree. These were, for the most part, and looking back with our perfect 20/20 hindsight, truly horrendous machines to use to learn how to ride a motorcycle. Heavy, unreliable and with poor handling, Harley-Davidson and Triumph, BSA and Norton bikes allowed the student to perfect a riding technique which out of necessity included the "best way to pick up a bike once it had been dropped while waiting at a traffic light", as well as the proper way to, using foot pressure, get one of the two pistons into its TDC (top dead center) position, the better to make the beast start using the kick start method. They machines were almost always twins (with the occasional single-cylinder thrown in for good measure and even more torture for the rider).

When kick-starting a bike, the rider is trying to start the "flame propagation" procedure in just one cylinder, no matter how many cylinders total. So, with a 500cc machine, for example, in a twin configuration, the rider was kicking 250cc's at a time; when Japan's four-bangers came out, they were easier to kick-start, as the rider was kicking only 125cc's worth of the engine. Triumph's unique use of three cylinders (Triples, they were called, and demons they were and still are continues to this day. Japan's Kawasaki brought out their own triples in the mid to late '70s, and they were some of the meanest, nastiest bikes ever built. So ill-handling were they that Kawasaki eventually put steering dampers on them). (Logo - Triumph's 100 year anniversary logo, 1902 to 2002).

Also, there was generally no other way to start the bike; no electric start as a regular feature. Those that did come with this wonderful new technology, which had been in-use on cars and trucks for, oh, at the time, only 65 years or so (electrical engineer Charles F. "Boss" Kettering developed an electrical self-starter first used on the 1912 Model 30 Cadillac) often had the feature incorporated into their name (1977's T140ES Bonneville Electro Triumph motorcycle). Some of these machines had large displacements, which meant kicking-starting them and having your foot slip off the kick pedal could result in a truly interesting "rebound" or "kickback" strong enough to either break the rider's right leg and/or ankle and/or throw the rider off the bike, sailing some 20 feet into the air, with the motorcycle left in a heap. Messy affair, that.

With all that said, who can resist the allure of a new Triumph? This from the same UK industry which produced rotary-engined motorcycles for both the police and general public, just to keep things "interesting" on the Motorways (Norton), and the 1981 Triumph T140LE Royal Wedding Bonneville in honor of Prince Charles and Diana. Someday I'll post my road test of the Suzuki RE5 rotary, the single scariest machine to ever hold a human passenger. But that nostalgic feeling definitely exists, especially among those of us who learned to ride on a Triumph Tiger Trail (750cc, pre-electric start). We'll let the folks from Triumph tell their own story of their machine, because frankly, how could we write anything better than a PR release which includes the words "keen" and "sublime" in the same sentence, and "delighted" in the opening paragraph? (Logo - Our favorite, Triumph's logo from 1932 to 1933, it reads, "All over the world").

Without further ado, the 2008 Sprint ST, which is for sale only in the UK, in their own words:

"TRIUMPH LAUNCHES 2008 SPRINT ST

Triumph
Hinckley, Leicestershire, United Kingdom

For 2008 Triumph Motorcycles is delighted to announce the release of an updated version of its acclaimed touring champion, the Sprint ST. The bike, which was originally launched in 1999 and last updated in 2005, has been a consistently popular member of Triumph’s UK line-up.

A direct response to customer feedback, the changes for 2008 are subtle but serve to enhance the outstanding performance of this superbly versatile motorcycle. The new model features a steel fuel tank, enabling the use of a magnetic tank bag, whilst the footrests have been modified and now employ a more durable rubber for prolonged wear. The headlight performance has also been markedly improved.

Renowned for its superb handling, powerful engine and unrivalled reliability, the Sprint ST has won a host of accolades since its launch and has come to represent the very pinnacle of sports touring refinement. Just last year, it beat off competition from 12 other bikes to win German motorcycle publication, Motorrad’s, 50,000km endurance test.

Available from January, the 2008 Triumph Sprint ST costs £7,999 (USD$15,897) otr. An ABS version is also available at £8,599 (USD$17,089) otr. Colour options are Pacific Blue, Graphite and Tornado Red.

For those keen to experience this sublime machine for themselves, a free test ride awaits at most Triumph dealers." (end of release) (Logo - What may be Triumph's first logo, 1902 to 1906).

Now, didn't we tell you? Would Harley ever use the phrase "whilst the footrests"? Though (probably) not intentionally so, the phrase "The headlight performance has also been markedly improved" brings back memories of the dreaded UK electrics firm, Lucas, whose nickname for ages has been "Prince of Darkness". There are the great Lucas jokes, such as "Lucas headlamps have three positions; dim, flicker and off" and "Smoke coming from a Lucas-equipped machine is nothing to worry about; it is merely a leak", and many more. It's said that sarcasm needs a bit of truth in order for the joke to be understood; in Lucas' case, and speaking as the ex-owner of a Triumph Spitfire sports coupe, the truth in Lucas "irony" jokes is more than just a "bit".

What is also special about this release is that in the US, one of the strictest rules of PR is that one should "never repeat the allegation", because that only reminds people of the original charge. The classic example of this rule is Richard Nixon's declaration of, "I am not a crook". That sound/picture bite will live on in infamy. Anyone who sees it, even centuries into the future, will assume Nixon was a crook (and they'd be right). Likewise, Triumph is reminding everyone in this release that, apparently, the older version of this bike had a poor headlight, and the bike's footrests wore out quickly and were poorly placed. But when all is said and done, there's a lot to be said for corporate honesty (something Richard Nixon would not have understood).

The British motorcycle industry will always be remembered and appreciated for one particular thing, and this is a positive, a good way to end this story: The penchant for coming up with some of the best names for their companies and the individual models made by those companies. (Logos courtesy www.sorenwinslow.com).

LUTZ GIVETH WITH ONE HAND, AND WITH THE OTHER, HE TAKETH AWAY ... THE HUMMER H3T

Oh, that Bob Lutz ... He's just one tough to figure good ol' boy, ain't he? He's jus' gonna be the death of us, don'cha think? Here he was in Los Angeles, seems like just a few weeks ago, and he's there goin' on and on about all sorts of "green" things and one of them trucks he makes is getting 15 miles per gallon or some silly thing and he gets an A-WARD for doin' that! Hell, my lawn tractor and snowblower both do better than that! And he's jawin' away 'bout that new VOLT car that Chevrolet is gonna make ... Then no sooner does he get back to his prime-rib-and-Rob-Roy-with-a-sidecar lunches at the Rattlesnake then sure enough, they ain't makin' that there VOLT thing ... Then they are again! Well, forget 'bout all that green stuff, because looks like GM finally got what we ol' boys and gals really want ... A HUMMER PICKUP! Man, oh man! OOOHWEEE! Y'all just gotta get one of these here trucks ... Hey! Mebbe GM will start running these here H3Ts in that NASCAR truck racin' deal! (Photo above - Bob Lutz captured in his most-favored habitat).

  Yep, it's true: In the spirit of helping the planet, General Motors is not only continuing to make the  Hummer brand, they're expanding it! Hummer is entering the midsize pickup market with the H3T pickup, which General Motors will intro next week at the perpetually-frozen Chicago Auto Show.
   Some years ago, I was a "celebrity", albeit a fairly small one, hired by GM to man their exhibit for way-too-many-hours each day of the Chicago Auto Show, which is actually the most-attended auto show in the US, larger than Detroit's, New York City's and even the annual exhibition in America's car-central, Los Angeles. Why? Because people in Illinois and about eight other surrounding states have absolutely nothing better to do between September and May than drive to Chicago, weather permitting, of course, and take-in the car show. At that show, where I was wined-and-dined in true GM fashion every night (which is first class; this was back when GM had lots of discretionary money) and put up at The Drake Hotel, one of the city's oldest and always one of its best, I learned what real "cold" was; I was raised in NYC and on Long Island, and had walked to school in -9, so figured I knew from cold  ... I was wrong. Walking up Michigan Avenue, towards the lake and the hotel, at 10 or 11pm in the first week of February, now that was cold.
   I actually feared parts of my face would freeze and simply fall off. Going to the car show when day-after-day promised nothing but more dehumanizing, demoralizing cold, would definitely seem like a good idea if I lived in the area.
   This is what those brave Chicago show-goers will see when the H3T debuts in their fair city:
   Based on the architecture of the Hummer H3 (though I wouldn't use the term, "architecture", it might embarrass architects), the smaller of Hummer's two SUVs, H3T is bigger than a midsize pickup, like the Toyota Tacoma, but smaller than a full-size pickup like the Ford F-150 (or Chevy Silverado or GMC Sierra, for that matter).
    H3T has a five-passenger crew cab and a five-foot-long bed. Hummer also makes a larger truck, the H2 SUT, with a six-foot bed. Still, getting that proverbial and used-to-be-standard 5' x 8" sheet of plywood into the H3T's bed is an impossibility; you know this before even trying to do so. Now that people who do not buy pickups for work have ruined the pickup market for those that do, pickups are just now actually beginning to revert to their original purposes: Work trucks for people who actually use them in their work.
   All that softness and friendliness and comfort and fold-down stuff for transporting the soccer team in the bed and overall usefulness --- not for real work, but for the family --- which has been designed-into these trucks are not going to be needed much longer; fuel prices and shortages of same will eventually guarantee that.
    But did that stop GM from trying to milk one more penny from buyers so dazed, confused and bewildered by marketing that they actually still think that any Hummer model is useful and makes sense? No. In fact, it probably encouraged GM more than anything else. If members of the public are scared that the Hummer brand might go away, well, they might even be more likely to buy one right now, to make a true "impulse buy", as if the H3T was a candy bar or tabloid rag in the check-out aisle.
   Hummer says the H3T retains the brand's "signature design and off-road capabilities", with standard four wheel drive, 32-inch tires and optional 33-inch tires and front and rear wheel-locking differentials for increased traction. Just the stuff for the neighborhood carpool.
   There is a standard 3.7-liter, five-cylinder engine with 242 horsepower and an optional 5.7-liter V-8  with 300 horsepower that can tow up to 5,900 pounds. Hmmm ... How many people who buy Hummers actually tow horse trailers?
   The H3T is scheduled to arrive in dealerships in fall, 2008. GM said production will begin in the third quarter at the company's Shreveport, La., assembly plant. No price was given, but the 2008 H3 starts at $30,595.
   GM is fervently hoping that the new pickup helps revive Hummer sales, which sank 22 percent last year as consumers perhaps finally realized how bamboozled they'd been by not only GM, but Ford and Dodge and now even Nissan and Toyota (both of whom, by the way, are having huge sales problems with their made-in America, V8-equipped full-size trucks).

TOYOTA #1 IN SALES, NET WORTH, REVENUE, PROFIT --- GM LED FOR 77 YEARS

Sales numbers and titles are taken very, very seriously in the auto industry. More seriously even than magazine awards, JD Power titles or auto show prizes. And it looks like General Motors had the early lead in the industry's annual sales competition, but Toyota eked out the win, becoming the world's best-selling car-making company. And to their shame, GM claimed the victory only after counting the production of vehicles at a plant in China where GM was not the majority owner --- And that's not allowed. Did GM cheat? Well, as they say in NASCAR, "If you're not cheatin', you're not racin'".

The numbers are confusing because there's a big difference between "sales" and "production", and production of vehicles made in plants where less than 50% of the operation is controlled by another, outside firm. In fact, some car-makers have been known to add extra shifts in manufacturing plants right before the New Year's break, when most car companies shut down for a week or more, in order to "win" the production derby. Another outright sneaky tactic, in the past years when the "#1 sales" title was invariably one of the Big Three, one company making a sudden, massive and surprising sale of fleet, lease or daily rental vehicles could garner the prize. For instance, Ford controls Hertz, and it could have been arranged for Hertz to place an order for 15,000 Taurus sedans on November 31 or even later; we're not saying Ford ever actually did that, but if they did, it wouldn't be a surprise.

But today, with all business international, the only numbers which really matter are the ones which bring money into the company (and its home country), and for 2007, the title goes to Toyota, a company which started selling vehicles in the US in 1957. GM owned the title for 77 years; now it's time for others to take the baton and run ... and the winners are going to be running in a westerly direction, towards Korea, China, India and all of Indo-China and Toastmaster Asia, not east across the Pacific, at least not anymore, for some time to come. (Photo - The Toyota Camry, best-selling car in the USA, led the way for Toyota to grab the world sales title for the first time in 2007).

Industry weekly Automotive News reported that General Motors did have a solid 2007, with global sales  up 1.9 percent from 2006. But it is now the world's second-largest automaker. GM slipped well behind Toyota in global sales. GM sold 8,885,599 vehicles in 2007, while Toyota says it sold an estimated 9,370,000. Toyota will issue an official total in about a month.

It was widely reported in the final week of 2007 that the two automakers finished in a dead heat for the No. 1 spot. Here's why: In its total, GM includes 516,435 vehicles of the Wuling brand in China.

For the year 2007, Toyota sold a minimum of (their estimate, but trusted enough by Automotive News enough to use) 9.37 million cars and light trucks, a 6% raise from their 2006 total. GM sold 8.89 million vehicles in 2007, a rise of 1.9% from their 2006 numbers.

But GM owns only 34 percent of the Chinese company that produces Wuling vehicles, SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., a major automaker in China, owns 50.1 percent.

Industry weekly Automotive News follows the industry practice by including sales of only majority-owned subsidiaries in an automaker's global total. For instance, sales of Mazdas are not included in Ford Motor's total because Ford owns just 33.4 percent of Mazda. (Photo - Chevrolet's 2009 Camaro convertible concept has reawakened the "dream car" gene in many Americans; when it debuts next year, how many will be sold remains to be seen, but GM, Ford and Chrysler have all successfully used the "retro craze" to their advantage in the past decade).

General Motors  was founded by William C. Durant on September 16^th, 1908, as a Delaware corporation, with its headquarters in Detroit, MI. Prior to the formation of GM, Durant had bought out Buick Motor Company in 1904 and four years later attempted to merge it with Ford Motor Company, and a few others, which have long since faded into the pages of history before the formation of GM.

Durant formed GM to create one large corporation that could cover the car market from top to bottom; as many of us whose family's bought GM products throughout the 1950s, '60s and into the 1980s, a family would start-out buying a Chevrolet, then move into a Pontiac, then an Oldsmobile or a Buick, depending how "sporting" your mom or dad might have been, and then, finally, into a Cadillac. There was no place in the GM "buying system" for an individual, nor in the corporation; the corporation had traditionally been led by white men, generally Catholics, and an unmarried man or a man who headed a family with no children was, at best, a questionable man, and he would never advance in the GM hierarchy. This all remains true, to a lesser degree then in the '80s and past years, but still true enough, to this day.

These are the car companies bought-out by Durant, and important GM stakes purchased much later in Japan-based companies and others (ie, Saab of Sweden), all of it starting with Durant's purchase of the Buick Motor Company in 1904, and most-recently, controlling interests in South Korea's Dewie, now known as GM DAT, General Motors Daewoo Auto & Technology; GMDAT gives GM automotive and light truck manufacturing and assembly facilities in China, Thailand, India, Colombia, South Korea and Vietnam. India's Tata, which only recently brought out the $2,500 (wholesale) Nano small sedan, bought Daewoo's truck division. Other early and more-recent GM purchases:

• Oldsmobile Motor Company (1908, though the REO, Ransom Eli Olds, company remained independent and came to be known as White Truck Company and REO Trucks; yes, the "REO Speedwagon" was a real truck, not just a Canadian rock group's name)
• Oakland Motor Company (1909, which became Pontiac)
• Cadillac Automobile Company (1909)
• Rapid Motor Vehicle Company/GMC (1909)
• Chevrolet (1915)
• Saturn (1989; Created by GM)
• Saab ('Svenska Aeroplan Aktie Bolag' or Swedish Airplane Corporation; GM bought 50% in 1990, and the rest of the company from Trollhattan, Sweden in 2000)
• Isuzu (GM bought 49% of the company in 1971; that stake was reduced to 12% in 2002)
• Subaru (GM bought a 20% stake in Subaru's parent, Fuji Heavy Industries, in 1999; since then, GM has been selling-off their share, mostly to Toyota, and has stated its intention to fully divest their stake in the company)    (Photo - A 1958 Toyopet Crown, similar to first Toyotas sold in the US by "North Hollywood Toyota", the nation's first Toyota dealer; we imagine the family which owns that dealership is doing pretty well these days ... And deservedly so).

Toyota is now not only the largest car-maker in terms of sales, but also ranks first in net worth, revenue and profit. It is also the only car-maker found on something called 'BrandZ', which, beginning in 1998, has collected data annually from consumers, with hundreds of people interviewed asked to evaluate brands, in a competitive context, from a category they shop in. In that respect, and to those many interviewees, when shopping for a car, Toyota is the world's #1 car-maker.

And no matter how many plants Toyota, and all the other "captive imports", build in other countries, and no matter how many people they employ in those countries, and no matter how many vehicles they sell in other countries, all the profit that company clears from all those nations goes right back, in Toyota's case, to Japan ... and not even Tokyo; no, Toyota is actually based in a place called (of all things) Toyota City, which is outside Nagoya, about 300-or-so miles south of Tokyo. One of of its big subsidiaries, Daihatsu (which is Toyota's small car expert; they make the "kei cars", those with engines under 650cc, which qualify for big tax breaks in Japan), is located in Osaka, much closer to Nagoya than it is to Tokyo. (Photo - 1967 Toyota 2000GT, about 400 were built by Yamaha for racing homologation purposes, it was campaigned unsuccessfully in Japan and the US, but co-starred in the James Bond film, "You Only Live Twice" --- Those of you movie buffs who remember the "headquarters building" of the "Osato Chemical Company" should know that the facade used in the film was actually the front of the Tokyo Hilton International; I stayed there in 1979 on my first trip to Japan ... The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles has a 2000GT in their collection).

The company was founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda as a spinoff from his father (Sakichi Toyoda)'s company, Toyota Industries, to create automobiles. Toyoda was, at first, a maker of looms and sewing machines and all sorts of sophisticated automatic mechanical equipment basic to what we call the "shmata" business; literally, the "rags", or clothing business. When Toyoda first came to the US (and Kiichiro visited the US, enjoying tours, especially, of Ford's huge Rouge Factory, the only plant in the world at the time with raw materials coming in one end and completed cars driving out the other), it was hoped that the American public and western journalists would pronounce the family and company name as it was pronounced in Japan, with the emphasis on the last syllable, ie, "Toy-yo-da'", but all things being equal, creating the name "Toyota" was just the first smart move of many the Japanese company would make here in the US. (Photo - Chevrolet's Volt at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show; GM says that Chevrolet is their "green" division and Volt its first product, maybe available in 2010, maybe not, but GM says it'll be able to reach 600 miles on 12 gallons of gasoline which feed a small engine which charges and then recharges batteries as needed to make electricity which drive the motors inside each wheel and thus move the car ... It all sounds a little Rube Goldberg-ish, no? But in theory, it should work well, and if they bring it out, we'd buy one!).

Toyota also owns and operates Lexus and Scion, has a majority shareholding in Daihatsu Motors, and has minority shareholdings in Fuji Heavy Industries, Isuzu Motors, and the engine, motorcycle and marine craft manufacturer, Yamaha Motors. In fact, one of the most popular and legendary cars ever made by Toyota, their  2000GT sports car, driven by no less than Sean Connery/James Bond in 1967's "You Only Live Twice", and raced in the US by no less than Dan Gurney, but to little success, was built entirely by Yamaha. Toyota now includes 522 subsidiaries, which is why it is still known and respected (and even feared) as the biggest of the Japanese "keiretsus", or conglomerates, some of which might well be considered monopolies in the US; before WWII, these conglomerates were called "zaibatsus".

TESLA NOW SAYS PRODUCTION STARTS MARCH 26th --- MANY QUESTIONS STILL HANGING OVER ROADSTER MODEL AND "WHITE STAR" FOUR-DOOR SEDAN

As Mark Twain once penned, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," and maybe that's what's happening with EV company Tesla Motors of San Carlos, CA. Just a few weeks ago, as noted on this website, Tesla was firing people left and right, including one of the two co-founders of the company and rumored to be closing offices, and that problems with developing a suitable transmission for the car had not been overcome. We also reported on the company's close, longtime ties to the Bush Administration, including big time Republicans Arnold Schwarzenegger and Condoleeza Rice being given rides in the car, with pitches about the roadster given them by the company's top officers. Tesla's sad exhibit at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show, which was part of another company's display, led many to believe that the end might not be too far off for the company.

Now, like a bolt out of the blue, Tesla says they will be starting production of the two-seat EV on March 17th, very slow production at first, then ramping-up to their planned-for full production mode. The company also says that beginning in fall, 2009, they will start annual production, at a plant in Albuquerque, New Mexico, of 10,000 all-electric, five-passenger, four-door all-electric sedans called White Star. Wait a second ... Not one Tesla roadster has been produced for sale as of this date, and now they're announcing plans to being producing 10,000 sedans annually ... ? It's a bit hard to believe, but the company has received a waiver from the feds excusing them, for three years, from the federal advanced airbag standards. Things seem to be happening very fast with this small car-maker ... (Photo above - Tesla undergoes rear crash-testing).

(From various sources) Tesla Motors has received a waiver from the government on a federal air bag standard, bringing it, the company says, a step closer toward the production of its all-electric Roadster later this year.
   Tesla says they have pre-sold all of its 2008 Tesla Roadsters, a fully electric sports car that sells for $98,000. As noted elsewhere on this website, customers ordering the roadsters were required to "put down" a 100% deposit on the car; therefore, these initial buyers have already paid for their cars in full. The company says they now expect to begin deliveries in the first quarter of this year, but needed the waiver to be able to sell in the United States.
   Based on information provided by Tesla, NHTSA estimates the waiver will cover 3,825 Roadsters, including 625 vehicles this year and 1,600 in each of the following two years.
   Tesla says that NHTSA called the Roadster "one of the most advanced full electric vehicles available" and said the "public interest is served by encouraging the development of fuel-efficient and alternative-fueled vehicles." High praise, indeed. But keep in mind Tesla's close ties to the current administration in DC.
   The federal agency said Tesla posted operating losses of $43 million from 2003-2006 and that without the waiver, Tesla would "have to cancel its pending development of an electric-powered sedan, and would ultimately have to terminate its operations."
   Tesla said in a statement last week that it had received all regulatory approvals to import the first production Roadster for sale in the United States and production would begin March 17th.
   We say "import" the cars, because Tesla has based its Roadster on the two-seat Lotus Elise sports car, built in the UK, and Lotus itself also could not comply with the advanced air bag rule and received an exemption from NHTSA in August 2006. Tesla roadsters will be manufactured at a Lotus factory in Hethel, England, under Tesla's supervision. The White Star sedan is planned to be a more proprietary design, not based on a Lotus car.
   Another major problem standing in the way of Tesla roadster production has been the development  of  a transmission which would suit the all-electric vehicle. Previously, Tesla said that early production units will be equipped with an "interim transmission" that meets durability requirements but limits acceleration to 5.7 seconds from 0 to 60 mph. Tesla engineers do say that they have designed a permanent solution for mass production that supports the original specification of 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds. "Designed" is a long way, though, from "prototyping" and even farther from "production".
    The planned solution, Tesla has said, "reduces program risk, provides better efficiency, lower weight, equal or better range, better thermal performance and quicker quarter mile acceleration due to the elimination of the need to shift gears."
     Tesla also says that early production will proceed at a limited rate and then ramp up to full production when the permanent powertrain solution is production-ready later this year.
     The upgrade from the interim solution to the higher-power, permanent solution will be provided to customers free of charge when available later this year, according to Tesla. Translated into normal English, this means, apparently, that customers driving at least the first year roadsters will be limited on how fast they can drive the car, and then, if and when a better tranny is developed, the car will need to be returned to Tesla's shop for retro-fitting. Lovely, huh?
     We wish Tesla all the best, though there are still many questions which stand between what Tesla says they'd like to do and what they are apparently capable of doing; such as, delivering one completed, operable EV roadster to one paying customer. We are happy though, with the announced March 26th start-of-production date. It could have been April 1st.

2008 HONDA CIVIC MUGEN TYPE RR MAKES 260-HP AT "TOKYO AUTO SALON"

The "Tokyo Auto Salon" is not a place where people can get a drive-in hairdo, but, held annually, is sort of Japan's version of the SEMA Show, held each November in Las Vegas, albeit about 10%, if even that, of SEMA's size. It focuses on the automotive aftermarket in Japan and elsewhere, and has become a pretty reliable predictor of what might be shown, in some small part, at the next SEMA Show, or pop-up in enthusiast magazines worldwide. This "Civic Mugen Type RR", made by Mugen, a Japan-based high-performance and appearance specialist, is fairly typical of Mugen's work, if any car which looks and goes like this one can be called "typical". Tuners worldwide look to both the Tokyo Auto Salon and Mugen for what "the next big thing" in tuner cars just might be.

This Type RR from Mugen  features carbon fibre replacement pieces on many of the body panels, if not all of them (specific information on this car, especially in English, was very sketchy, even on the Web) and 260 horsepower and 173 lb.-ft. of torque. Getting all that out of a 2.0 liter Inline-4 is no easy trick.

"Mugen" is one of those words that, if you're speaking with someone about cars and use it in a sentence, and they recognize the name, then both people know that the other  might really know what they're talking about. The Japanese word "mugen" translates into English as "without limit" or "unlimited power", so it's appropriate that what started out in 1973 as a Honda "tuning" shop, founded by Hirotoshi Honda, son of Honda founder Soichiro Honda, should now be known worldwide, in many different forms of racing.

Many people assume that Mugen is owned wholly or in part by "dad's company", but it has always been a company totally separate from Honda Motor Corporation, but naturally has very close ties with Honda. Since his father's death in 1991, Hirotoshi Honda has been the major shareholder in Honda Motors, adding to the confusion about "Who owns Mugen?"; Honda generally disdains taking on partners of any kind, so Mugen remains independent of the car- and engine-making business.

Now, if someone says "Mugen", you won't say "Gesundheit!" to them, because now, you're "in the know".

Quick story about Soichiro Honda: When he came to the US to see the then-new and still palatial American Honda headquarters campus in Torrance, CA, when Mr. Honda walked into the lobby for the first time, he went to the reception desk and asked the woman working there for a visitor's pass. A bunch of American Honda execs tried to steer him away as he was filling out the company's Visitor's Log and getting his pass and asked him why he was doing that. "This is American Honda," he said, "and here, I am a visitor". Talk about humility!

Mugen also tunes and races Honda vehicles in the Super GT championship, and sells aftermarket parts to  we "amateur enthusiasts" around the world, by catalog and of course through the Web. Mugen parts can also be found at some auto parts stores in the US which specialize in the small, quick "tuner cars" which come from the US, Asia and Europe. There are many online discussion groups dedicated to Mugen parts and their care and feeding ... and price. Mugen was also a part of partnerships that won the Formula 3000 championship in 1990 and 1991, and that led to Mugen's involvement in F1 from 1992 to 1999, and up to 2005 Mugen the exclusive engine supplier to Formula Nippon, a Japan-based "spec" road racing series.

AUDI'S WILD V12 TDI CONCEPT R8 SUPERCOUPE --- A DIESEL?!?!

At the Detroit Auto Show, Audi pulled out  all the stops ... well, some of them, at least. The company's R8 coupe, which had its US introduction at the November, 2006 Los Angeles Auto Show, is an over-$100,000 hardtop which pushes Audi into supercar territory.

The "plain vanilla" and naturally-aspirated gasoline-powered with Audi's quattro system of all-wheel drive R8 comes outfitted with a 4.2 liter aluminum-block V8 making 420 horsepower and 317 pound feet of torque (torque is the "oomph" you feel when you step on the go pedal). All that's enough to push the 3,450-pound car from 0 to 62 miles per hour (100km/h) in just 4.6 seconds; Corvette's most-recent 3,132-pound Z06, 318 pounds less than the concept Audi V12 TDI, with a massive 7.0 liter V8, moves from 0 to 60 in (97 km/h) in 3.7 seconds. (Photo above -- Audi's R8 at the November, 2006 Los Angeles Auto Show and it was an instant hit, photo by Steve Parker; Below --- Audi's TDI concept).

But apparently that wasn't "good enough" for the engineers from Ingolstadt ... So, in their on- going effort to make Americans think "nice" about diesel engines, because a glut of them are about to land on the USA's soil from Europe and Japan, Audi has shoe-horned a twin-turbo, twin-intercooler 6.0 liter version of their 5.5 liter, 650+ horsepower V12 TDI turbodiesel racing engine in an R8; that's the same basic engine which for the past two years won the "24 Hours of LeMans", the world's most-important endurance race. As used in the R8, the V12 turbodiesel makes 500 horsepower and 737 foot pounds of torque.

"TDI" is the name Audi (and Volkswagen) give to their "clean diesel" technology engines (Mercedes is using "Bluetec"; all these engines use technology developed in tandem by those three companies), which will enter the USA later this year with a 3.0 liter TDI V6 available in Audi's Q7, what we think is the best-looking SUV on the road, anywhere. Audi also makes a V8 4.2 liter TDI powerplant, and both are sold in Europe in several Audi models. (Photo -- Audi's "LeMans" concept at the 2003 Tokyo Motor Show, basis for the R8, photo by Steve Parker).

The concept R8 V12 TDI is a great way to educate Americans about the power, longevity and performance potential of today's modern diesel engines. With over 60% of all vehicles, cars and trucks, sold in Europe equipped with diesel engines, and with Europe Euro 6 emissions standards, expected to go into effect in 2014, diesels are a world away from what most Americans remember from the clanky Mercedes-Benz diesels of years past.

Leave it to General Motors to have left a bad odor and taste for all things diesel into Americans' minds.  From 1978 through 1985, GM put poorly-built diesel engines into some Oldsmobile (and you know what happened to them!)  and Cadillac models. In fact, The Cadillac diesel V8 was America 's first production passenger-car diesel engine, and was an option on every 1979 Cadillac. GM took a huge bet and, rather than build new diesel engines from the ground up, the company decided to use engine blocks made for gasoline engines, and essentially create a new top-end for these powerplants, but leave the bottom-end alone. Oldsmobile offered three different diesels, two V8s and a V6, while Cadillac used only the largest of those two V8 engines.

Some of you can guess what happened. The explosions which occur at the top end of every engine, gas or diesel, are nonetheless much more powerful in diesels. The combination of diesel top-end and gasoline bottom-end forced pistons, rods and scores of other parts from these diesel engine's cylinders right through the bottom end of the engines, taking along pieces of crankshafts just for good measure.

GM wound up having to replace every one of those diesel engines; the replacement was a GM gasoline engine. That attempt by GM to make car engines which could produce better mileage than their gasoline cousins was a complete failure, and something many Americans, and definitely every Car Nut, remembers to this day. "Diesel" became a dirty word in America.

But European manufacturers continued with their decades-long process of constantly refining the diesel engine, to the point now where the clean, modern, powerful and quiet diesel engines from that part of the world will be on-sale in America from Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and Audi and probably several others within the next five years.

Domestic car- and truck-makers already have their own diesels, which they use in some of their full-size pickup and SUV models. Many of them use outside vendors for making their diesels, including International Truck and Engine and Navistar. Saturn is due for a diesel perhaps later this year, and all other GM divisions are talking about and planning diesels for several of their models. (Photo --- Audi R10 endurance racer; V12 turbodiesel makes 650+ horsepower).

A type of modern powerplant which lends itself well to an updating with the tried-and-true diesel engine is a hybrid system; in this case combining electric batteries used to power a vehicle's wheels and all other ancillary systems on and in the car or truck, combined with a small diesel engine used to recharge the batteries and keep them at a constant state of being ready-to-use. The "dual mode hybrid transmission" developed by GM, BMW and Daimler, adds power from electric motors to the transmission itself, adding power when needed. While gasoline engines are found in the Chevy and GMC trucks equipped with these dual mode trannies now, GM says it will not be difficult to substitute a diesel engine for the gasoline one, and those trucks will come online soon. (Photo --- Cut-away of the Audi twin-turbo 5.5 liter 650+ horsepower racing engine which has won LeMans twice ... so far).

Many people don't realize that submarines (the non-nuclear types) and huge locomotives as well as some engines on huge ocean-going ships all utilize diesel/electric hybrids of some type, and have done so, quite successfully, too, for almost 100 years.

Audi plans to have newly-developed diesels in many of their vehicles on-sale in the US within the next few years. Under the hood of Audi's amazingly uninteresting concept car called "Cross Cabriolet" at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show was a Volkswagen-built 3.0 liter TDI diesel V6 producing 236 horsepower and 369 foot pounds of torque. That engine will be available beginning sometime late in 2008 in the US in Audi's Q7 SUV; the new Audi A4 will follow with the same powerplant sometime in the year after the Q7 SUV diesel is on-sale.

The R8 concept really has too many outstanding features on it, from a magnetic ride control system to  ceramic brakes to a superfast six speed transmission paddle shift system to really do it justice. Will Audi's R8 ever come from the factory with a diesel engine? We wouldn't bet on it, but the thought of a strong, dependable, quiet, longlived and clean diesel in their Q7 SUV ... Now that's something we could definitely get behind!

TESLA SACKINGS A "BLOODBATH" : COMPANY'S CO-FOUNDER, MANY MORE GONE

Say what you will about Carroll Shelby (and we've said plenty of uncomplimentary things along with the good; there are at least two sides to every story), but something he told me a long time ago holds true today, even more than it did 50 years ago. "Steve," he said, while we were sitting in some hotel suite in some city, "It's just as tough and expensive to make one car as it is to make a million." His point is an old story: The costs of R&D, manufacturing, tooling, marketing, advertising and emissions testing and crash-testing are enormous, and not anywhere near the total of what real car-making costs. And only people who know what they are doing should get involved in such an undertaking. And an "undertaking" it has, quite unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, turned-out to be for California start-up EV venture Tesla Motors. (Photo - A Tesla "roadster" on LA's streets).

When we saw the sad, sorry "exhibit" which featured Tesla at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show, it was obvious that either the company was "in-between" PR and marketing people, or, worse (and true, as we found) the company itself was going through some terrible divisions. (Photo - Tesla's LA Auto Show exhibit was part of the Yokohama Tire display in the LA Convention Center lobby; how far --- and how quickly --- the mighty had fallen).

And we've seen some shlocky "car companies" come and go; we know plenty of "car-builders" who somehow bolt-together one version of the earth-shaking "car" they're trying to raise money for, and they re-paint it every few weeks so it appears that he or she has more than one car already built.

Talked-up to the world's media by no less an odd couple of American politics than Condoleeza Rice and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tesla, heavy on cash and brainpower but low on car-industry experience (like, none at all) seems now on the verge of shutting down ... but maybe reappearing, we'd hope, as a company which might actually be able to deliver on its promises.

Elsewhere on this blog, we've detailed the close connections between Tesla, the Bush Administration and Republican heavyweights. Is it possible that, as many say General Motors did with their "EV1", Tesla was organized in order to "prove" once more that a true battery-powered electric vehicle is untenable given today's technology? That oil-fueled internal combustion engines still make the most sense? (Photo - Martin Eberhard, a co-founder of Tesla, was fired by the company).

We're all entitled to an opinion (last time I checked ... the Supreme Court hasn't changed that yet, have they?), but the co-founder of Tesla, Bernhard Eberhard, and other "Tesla Founders", have a thing or two to say about Tesla on their blog. Even though going to that blog today has this message from Eberhard about some specific entries of his: "This blog entry has been taken down at the strong request of Tesla’s management. By taking it down, I am in no way admitting that anything I wrote was in violation of any agreement I signed with Tesla Motors, and I stand behind the truth of what I wrote. But it was explained to me that Tesla and its financial backer(s) can spend far more than I can on a lawsuit… Most of the comments on this blog entry have also be taken down; sorry for the inconvenience", we at SteveParker.com have found the original postings by Eberhard and others (Tesla can't fire us); the numbers of those fired by Tesla are between 26 and 40, depending on the source, and offices in Detroit and possibly Washington, DC, have been shuttered. With all that, here's what at least some of the "Tesla Founders" have to say:

“As you may have heard, the ax has been steadily chopping away at Tesla. I don’t pretend to understand the choices being made and honestly wouldn’t even be surprised to learn if I was next on the list. At this point, I’m not even sure if that would necessarily be a bad thing.”

“The company has changed so tremendously since I started. It’s very secretive and cold now. It’s like they’re trying to root out and destroy any of its heart that might still be beating.”

“I came to Tesla with a great deal of optimism to work for a company with a noble purpose that had a real chance to make a difference in the world. That sense of mission and hope generated incredible energy and determination to overcome the many challenges of producing a great EV. This energy has been drained by the cold, irrational bloodletting that has been going on there. Everyone understands necessary, rational cost management actions in startups, but this was neither necessary nor rational. No thought has been given to the immediate and long term impact on the future of Tesla. Entire departments are stumbling around stunned, bleeding, and headless.” (Photo - California Arnold Schwarzenegger and Tesla's Martin Eberhard give Tesla the "walkaround" treatment at a Santa Monica, CA, media event in 2006).

“It is a damn shame about Tesla. I once again spent the day dreading the words, ‘Did you hear?’ Today I heard that both Wally Rippel and [REDACTED1] are now gone. I just don’t know what they’re thinking. [REDACTED2] referred to it as a ‘stealth bloodbath.’ It’s next to impossible to concentrate and actually get anything done. And the real insult in my mind is that they have the nerve to host the holiday party this Saturday. It’s going to be more like a wake(!)”

“The atmosphere at Tesla Motors has been suffering for the last couple of months as the new management have slowly squeezed the life out of engineering. The way in which the layoff/reduction-in-force/firings have been handled is one almighty cluster cabbage. In a stroke of pure genius, the two HR folks were the first to go, leaving nobody to turn out the lights. Only after they left the building did they realize that now there was nobody to write the termination letters. Like I said, pure undiluted genius.”

“Sadly - and I do mean this - I am not sorry to leave. The culture that Martin and Marc created is gone. The car is nice, but every day in the office was like a visit to the dentist, not knowing what was going to happen next. Enough. I have moved on.”

“Unfortunately, the company that I used to love has changed drastically. If I were to pin point a critical turning point, it would be the day when you were pushed aside. Until then, it was not so obvious how Tesla Motors was really Martin Eberhard’s company. After you were gone, I think the spirit and the character of the company went with you. It was surprising how quickly it happened. Yes, there were technical and operations delays for sure, but these could have been better managed and, to a certain extent, anticipated since what you have started was a major paradigm shift in the industry. It was well understood that a revolutionary movement always comes with major challenges and costs. What Tesla has now become is a mere profit-loss centric company—and with a poor chance of making even that—unless someone absorbs it for its remaining core value that you have left behind. Tesla lost its true evangelist and the leader..”  (end of blog quotes)

So, what do you think happened at and/or to Tesla Motors? One thing we can probably rule out, and that's the forming of Tesla to rip-off people's money. Even though the company demanded (and got) 100% down-payments of $100,000, or more, from each potential buyer just to get on a list of those wanting a car, the founders of Tesla already had tens and maybe hundreds of millions of their own dollars; many of them came to Tesla after retiring at young ages from their various Silicon Valley success stories.

That's where the mystery deepens, the part of the story when people shake their heads and force themselves to wonder: Was Tesla simply the modern iteration of what used to be called "planned obsolescence"? Were the Tesla EVs always destined for the dump, their real purpose to "prove" to the world that even the money and minds of Silicon Valley are unable to build and market an EV?

These and other questions will probably never be satisfactorily answered. For our money, we bet Tesla will not be an exhibitor at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show.

HARLEY TO SPONSOR "ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP"

Harley-Davidson has enjoyed amazing success by appealing to two very different segments of society in the USA; the first group we'll call the "hardliners", those people who may have spent time on the fringes of society and are truly "rebels", people who didn't belong to "motorcycle groups", they belonged to "clubs" with names like "Hessians" and "Hell's Angels". These are the hardcore Harley owners, and the company was brilliant in co-opting that lifestyle as their own. The second group of Harley owners are newer, wealthier, younger and more likely to add sound-baffling to their bikes because the noise bothers their wives. These people are generally known as "Rubbies", the shortened version of a derisive term, "rich, urban bikers". There is another, third important group of Harley buyers, those riders in other countries who feel that Harley is the epitome of the "American lifestyle". There are many Harley clubs in Japan, for instance, which may have hundreds of members, and they all might be over 65 years old; not too bad in a country where the average new Harley costs $30,000 and above. And the Harley exhibit is always one of the best-attended (and among the largest) at the Tokyo Motor Show. A visit to the Harley website offers visitors a choice of some 25 different countries from which to get sales information. Click on this line to visit "Harley World" in Japan. Worldwide, their "Harley Owners' Groups" (HOGs), have been a tremendous success in organizing Harley owners and bringing new buyers "into the fold". Harley has just made another tremendous business decision in deciding to become the first major international product sponsor for the "Ultimate Fighting Championship".

  According to the Associated Press story: On its way to becoming a mainstream sport, Ultimate Fighting Championship, just the latest in guilt-free homo-erotic entertainment for American males, has long courted a sponsor that could bolster its image. (Photo  --- Harley's good-looking and successful V-Rod was designed with help from Porsche).
   The fast-growing UFC is finally getting one. The Las Vegas-based company that specializes in mixed martial arts is teaming up with Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson Motor Co.
   UFC President Dana White, whose comp any surpassed more than $200 million in customer retail revenue for the second year in row, said it was the first time UFC had landed a major sponsor in a long-term deal.
  The deal calls for Harley-Davidson to place its famous logo in the center of UFC's well-known Octagon, where the fighters duke it out in usually explosive and sometimes bloody fashion, and at weigh-in backdrops and news conferences.    The sponsorship also includes World Extreme Cagefighting, which
Zuffa LLC, UFC's parent's company, bought in Oct. 2006.
   UFC held 11 pay-per-view events in 2007, one more than the previous year.
   Harley-Davidson, known for its sleek designs and powerful engines, is the leading motorcycle maker,  with about half the market. The UFC pairing gives the company a chance to reach younger riders.
   Mirroring an industry trend, Harley-Davidson has seen its average buyer's age creep up in the past few decades, with the average rider in 2002 just under 45 years old. In 2006, the average buyer was in his late 40s.
   Harley owners are nothing if not loyal. According to the company, nearly half of its sales in 2006 were to previous owners.
   Harley-Davidson's profit and sales have been slipping as U.S. consumers become more cautious about their spending. Mirroring the overall U.S. motorcycle market, Harley-Davidson's domestic sales were down 2.5 percent in the most recent quarter, while they were up 8.8 percent overseas.
   The company is due to announce its fourth quarter results next Friday. Analysts are expecting another weak quarter.

MOTORCYCLE BUILDER "JESSE JAMES" IS NOW AN ENVIRONMENTALIST ... RIGHT

Just because he regularly and proudly co-opts Nazi insignia for his own corporate logos, stands accused of stealing a union's logo for his own (anti-employee, anti-union) purposes, was fined $275,000 by the California Air Resources Board for selling motorcycles with engines not approved by the state and has to go 2,000 miles from his home in So Cal to find a group which might listen to him, all that doesn't make motorcycle customizer "Jesse James" a bad person. No, because now he's an environmentalist, too.

Speaking (or whatever it is he does) to a so-called "design forum" sponsored by Autoweek magazine in Detroit, James said, according to news accounts, "Ten years ago, I didn't care about the environment, now I'm wondering, am I turning soft or is it real?"

Whether James was speaking about the environment or some aspect of his personal life "turning soft", we don't know, but someone should tell James that most of the people in the world who know about these things say that yes, "it", meaning global warming due to greenhouse gas emissions, among other problems, is indeed very real. We'd recommend that the next time James and his wife are at a show business awards event of some kind, he might want to ask some of the many celebrities pulling-up in alternative-fueled or alternative-engined vehicles just why they are doing so. Most of them can afford any vehicle they'd want. Bike-riding, car-loving celebs like George Clooney and Jay Leno might be able to clue him in on what's going on outside that hamburger stand he owns in Long Beach, CA.

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