DETROIT THREE DESPERATE; GIGANTIC FORD F-SERIES RECALL, CHRYSLER CUTS CALIFORNIA DESIGN STUDIO, BUT GM GIVES CEO WAGONER A BIG RAISE

Let's take a look at this weekend's news from the Detroit Three: First, 

Ford

is recalling about 100,000 2008 F-Series trucks because the front driver's seat does not conform with federal standards. What? On their bread-and-butter F-series truck, the #1-selling vehicle in America for the past fifty years, they didn't check the seat and its ancillary systems (shoulder harness, etc.) to make certain that the federal standards were met? Hard to believe ... Someone's head (or heads) should definitely be rolling out of Ford's Dearborn headquarters come Monday morning.

Now, second: Chrysler (now owned by the Wall Street private investment firm called Cerberus, and not stockholders worldwide) is going through an absolute hemorrhaging of whatever money in Highland Park they still have and whatever models are still in dealer's showrooms. Remember, Chrysler is now a private company and that means we the public hear only rumors or incomplete stories of what's really going on with the automaker. There's more than a few reasons to believe that Chrysler might be out of business a year or two from now.

The following is from a press release Chrysler released just today: "Increasingly, we are leveraging resources worldwide, forming new joint ventures and alliances and consolidating operations in order to better achieve global balance and manage fixed costs. As such, we are closing the Pacifica Advance Product Design Center, consolidating the Advance Design function in Auburn Hills. Advance Design remains an integral part of our future design efforts, led by Trevor Creed, Senior Vice President -- Design." Yes, there's a good idea. The company is bleeding red ink over everything it touches, so closing the one place in the corporation which might have been on the cutting-edge when it comes to design for future Chrysler vehicles seemed a grand idea ... to somebody. Someone mention "bean counters"?

Finally, General Motors. These words are from a GM press release posted Friday, March 7th: "General Motors announced today that it will be adding 900 new jobs to its factory in Brazil."

OK, great ... for Brazil. But given that news, and with some five (or more) GM plants in the USA closed-down due to a strike at one of the corporation's major suppliers, what motor journos used to call "Generous Motors" is giving CEO and President Rick Wagoner a raise ... That's right, a raise.

GM lost over $10 billion in 2005, and cut Wagoner's pay from $2.2 million to a measly $1.28 million. But apparently, GM's board of directors feel that GM has recovered so strongly (in Brazil, China and other far-flung locations) from their 2005 predicament that they are restoring Wagoner's take home pay to the $2.2 million he was making before 2005. Yep, things are tough all over.