Steve Parker Motoring / The Car Nut

SALES SHOCKER: GM DROPS 45%, INDUSTRY DOWN 32% OVERALL

(Above, at last year's SEMA Show, Volvo displayed a hot rod version of the first Volvo, to the right in the photo. If Ford, Volvo and every other car-maker did things this original - and the concepts made it into production and offered great fuel mileage - you couldn't keep the buyers away from showrooms! But very few car companies have the necessary guts).

October's new car and truck sales numbers are in, and they're worse than anyone expected - at least publicly. Sales at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler plunged in October, their weakest performance in a quarter century.

GM plummeted 45.1% from a year earlier. Ford sold 132,248 cars and trucks, down 32%. Toyota outsold Ford on its way to their own 23% drop. Mercedes and Honda were down more than 24%, while Nissan, Hyundai and Chrysler were all down at least 31%.

Ford's US brands -- Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury -- fell 29.2%. Volvo plunged 52.1%.

Of the four biggest automakers in the United States, only two have reported monthly sales increases this year: Toyota in April and GM in January.

For the second time in just two months, industry sales fell below 1 million. It was the US market's 12th-straight monthly decline and the second straight of more than 25%.

US auto sales have averaged 16.8 million this decade through 2007. This year 12 million might be a realistic goal. It's like 25% of car and truck sales have just disappeared.

Americans should know that only Barack Obama has offered to meet with the heads of the Detroit Three and the UAW immediately after his election, and that he still remains in favor of the original $50 billion bailout which Detroit's car-makers have asked for, not the $25 billion which the Bush White House (and, not surprisingly, John McCain) has said should be "enough."

(Ford's European Focus SST is exactly the kind of car the company should be selling in the US, and they should revive their SVT division to develop SVT or SST versions of the Focus, Fusion, and even the Taurus and the Lincoln MKS).

Click below to read more about the bad sales numbers for the US car market and the need for Barack Obama to lead the country - and the Detroit Three - into the 21st century - Whether they like it or not!

EURO UPDATE - CHRYSLER DEALERS ANGRY, VW BUYING-OUT SMALL DEALERS, DEATH OF A NEO-FASCIST

Chrysler's CEO, Robert Nardelli, who has been running the company for just 14 months, fears the collapse of an "extremely fragile" auto industry amid the credit crisis and Wall Street meltdown. Nardelli said federal officials, preoccupied with trying to unfreeze credit, don't appreciate the importance of the auto industry. (Above, Neo-fascist Joerg Haider of Austria was alone when his car went off the road, killing him in the wreck; Below, "Smilin' Bob" Nardelli, CEO of Chrysler, thinks there might be some problems in the auto industry).

Nardelli is nothing if not a "master of the obvious." His statements show why appointing someone with no relevant experience to the highest position of an American industrial giant was a huge mistake. Chrysler owner Cerberus (at least they still owned it as of midnight Monday, Pacific Coast time) now wants "out" of the car business as soon as a buyer or merger partner can be found (or coerced).

One group Nardelli will be hearing a lot from is a new organization representing Chrysler's 700 European dealers. Since the Daimler-Chrysler merger was ended when Cerberus bought Chrysler from Daimler, the company's Euro dealers feel they lost any juice they had with Chrysler executives in the US (Highland Park, MI, to be specific).

European sales of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep models fell by 11.7 percent to 70,407 units in the first eight months of 2008; the company's minivans and larger Jeep models, like Commander and Grand Cherokee, are surprisingly popular in Europe.

Volkswagen, meanwhile, has a 1,200-strong franchised dealer network in Germany, and is offering smaller dealers cash to close their doors. According to industry journal Automotive News, VW only wants large dealers  selling 1,000 to 1,200 new cars a year. Currently, average annual sales for a VW dealer is between 300 and 400.

Click below to find out more about what's happening "over there" ... and the latest on the death of yet another Hitler-lover ...

GM, OnStar --- PUSHING OUR PRIVACY ENVELOPE?

General Motors' OnStar service could mean car thieves are in for a big surprise. But first, the company's OnStar subscribers will need to ask themselves if they really want such a potentially intrusive system in their cars and trucks.

"Sure they will ... Why not?" is a tough argument to beat when a feature like this is made possible by technology. But where do we draw the line? When is enough technology ... just that - enough? Okay, so you decide. If you have a GM car or truck, it's a decision you'll eventually have to make in the real world, anyway.

Starting with about 20 models for 2009, OnStar will be able to slow a car that is reported stolen,  and the radio may even speak up and tell the thief to pull over because police are watching. If police spot the crook in your car, they can send a signal which would halt the vehicle altogether, and let the police do their thing. (Above, Pontiac's 2009 Solstice hardtop concept from the NY Auto Show; Center, GM CEO Rick Wagoner, l, greets CES CEO Gary Shapiro at CES 2008 in Las Vegas, annually the tech world's biggest new product showcase, and they share the stage with the Chevrolet/GM Volt).

Many in the auto industry have considered the possibility of OnStar being able to provide this kind of a service, and there are stories of GM and police agencies having tested and developed the system until now, when The General feels they can provide this service safely to all involved – and charge for it, too. Finally, they've gone public with one of the best-known secrets in the car world.

OnStar already finds 700 to 800 cars per month using its GPS, or global positioning system. Most of those requests are from people who simply forgot where they parked. But the odd stolen vehicle case has made OnStar into a hero on occasion.

Here’s how GM says it would work:

Car owners must first report the theft to police and then contact OnStar to request tracking. If the owner has not previously opted out of the service, OnStar will then report the location of the vehicle to police.

Now, can’t you already imagine the conversations with the poor schnooks who didn’t check the right box when they were sold the OnStar service, or was “opted out” mistakenly? “Hey, okay, I’ll pay whatever it is! Put it on my credit card! GM already has that! Just do it --- and NOW! Please … Geez, there they go … with my brand-new ‘Slade … Man, my wife is gonna kill me”.

Click below for more on how GM says the OnStar system can almost literally drive crooks to their local police station ...

DODGERS WIN, OJ LOSES - A PERFECT WORLD, OR WHAT?

When it rains, it pours!

Over the course of less than 48 hours, two Los Angeles legends, OJ Simpson and the Dodgers, both found themselves getting what they deserve. For we Angelenos, it’s almost an abundance - nay, an embarrassment - of riches!

For the Dodgers, it was their first time since 1988 ... and for OJ ... Justice came 13 years to the day since the jury had mistakenly acquited The Juice, then secretly met again, and they were appropriately apologetic. The public understood that, what with all of them having moved to Las Vegas over the past 13 years, there could be room for some confusion. All is now forgiven, jurors. Click and read: OJ JURY DELIBERATES 13 YEARS.

It’d been 20 years since the Dodgers had won a post-season series, much less a single game. The last time they’d swept a post-season series was in … 1963, when Sandy Koufax was still pitching for them. Lest we forget, though and after all, that these were still the Cubs ... Chicago's Cubs ... Now having gone 101 years without a World Series win. And with Chicago slumlord and Tribune Corporation owner Sam Zell obviously well more than halfway to his destruction of the Los Angeles Times, all of Los Angeles deserved to beat the pants off something, anything, from Chi-Town. But we also have plenty of compassion for the job Zell is also doing on his baseball team, the Cubs, his stadium, Wrigley Field (both for sale) and one of his other newspapers, the Chicago Tribune.

As much as I hate to say it, Dodgers’ Manager Tommy Lasorda took them to their two most-recent World Series title victories, in 1981 and 1988. I’m not much of a Lasorda fan, which puts me among a small group of Los Angeles baseball fans. If you think John McCain is the “mythical maverick” (and I agree), then Lasorda is the best example on earth of being “a legend in his own mind.” But enough griping … Let’s get on with it!

In 1981, they went all the way to win the World Series, their first time since 1965. A long time coming for those “Brooklyn Bums.” And in 1981 they were playing my all-time faves, the Yankees! Amazingly, we got tickets for the game that very same day, buying them in the late afternoon off someone who worked with my wife at the County Hospital, where she was a Nurse Practitioner. Extra benefit: The hospital was close to the stadium, just a few minutes by car. (Above, the Dodgers' Russell Martin hits his three-run double in the second inning at Chavez Ravine, on their way to a dominating, almost embarrassing, three-game series sweep of the Cubs; Below, manager Joe Torre hugs relief closer Jonathan Broxton).

That game 3 at Chavez Ravine (Dodgers Stadium) was when rookie Mexican pitcher Fernando Valenzuela threw a complete and winning game against the NY Yankees. Yes, pitchers used to be expected to go the whole nine innings. My one-and-only World Series in-person game, and it’s lasted me this long, at least so far. Valenzuela remains the only pitcher to win Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award the same year.

The Dodgers’ pitching coaches went to the mound more than once as Valenzuela looked to be losing it, but Lasorda ultimately left the kid in the game, and he established himself as a hero, which he remains to this day in LA, Mexico and anywhere else he travels, and rightfully so.

OK, so I wasn’t at the 1988 World Series’ first game (Dodgers v. Athletics) when Dodger Kirk Gibson hit his instant-classic “Best of Reel” two-run home run, a pinch-hit, walk-on affair which dramatically won the game for LA. But I remember where I was …

Grabbing a late-night rare roast beef sandwich (and really, is there any other kind?) at the Stage Deli in the Century City (Los Angeles, for the rest of you) Shopping Plaza. My incumbent wife at the time was no baseball fan, but like everyone in LA, baseball fan or not, the Dodgers always counted for something special. And it tasted great! The sandwich, that is.

The whole restaurant went into hysterics (they had the game on all the TVs in the mammoth place) as Gibson hit and followed-through with what was obviously a home run from the second he placed bat to ball (Dennis Eckersley was pitching, and supposedly closing, for Oakland). (Photo above, All Cubs fielder Jim Edmonds can do is stare bleacher-wards as Russell Martin's ground rule double is lost in the ivy ... which is not a bad name for yet another movie about the Cubs, this one probably better as a made-for-TV event).

They - the Dodgers - are on their way!

NASCAR SERIES TITLE SPONSOR MAY BE SOLD; GM CUTTING WAY BACK IN NASCAR

Like the rest of us, NASCAR has been having all kinds of financial problems. Some large organizations, including well-known huge businesses and some which are not companies but rather are connected to the Pentagon, are leaving their multi-million dollars sponsorships of teams, races and racers as soon as the current deals run out. (Dale Earnhardt, Jr., in his National Guard-sponsored Chevy leads the Toyota of ex-open wheel star AJ Allmendinger in a Sprint Cup event).

Now we come to find out that NASCAR's most important sponsor, the title sponsor of the entire series, Sprint Nextel, is apparently not only open to acquiring some partners by selling parts of itself, but might even allow Sprint Nextel to be taken over by a South Korean company. More on that a bit later, but first some background:

Just last week, the US Navy announced they are dropping their multi-million sponsorship of the #88 Chevrolet in the Nationwide Series, driven by Brad Keselowski, after the contract runs out at the end of this season. JR Motorsports is a first-year team in the series, owned by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Both Earnhardt and Keselowski have worked hard for their Navy money, the military service going so far as to create a "Dale Jr. Division" an 88-person boot camp division at Recruit Training Command.

General Motors announced cutbacks this morning amounting to more than $10 billion, and no motorsport will be immune from cutbacks. GM has already notified two racetracks that run NASCAR events that their current contracts will not be renewed as part of an overall $10 billion cost-cutting program. And no one likes to cut racing from their budget because ... apart from the potential marketing and promotional boosts, it's so much fun! The execs are not sitting in some Detroit office when they're at the track. (Dale Jr., and his mother, Brenda, after one of Junior's wins).

"Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday" was for decades the non-stop mantra of car-makers and their hotshot marketing departments. But the facts are that motor racing, especially in the US, doesn't have that kind of direct influence on the public anymore.

GM's cuts are just the first in what could be a huge drop in support by GM, Ford and Chrysler for tracks and teams in NASCAR, the NHRA and more in the face of the weakest US auto sales in a decade. Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns eight tracks that hold NASCAR events, already has been told GM will not renew contracts at two tracks — New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Bristol Motor Speedway. Bruton Smith is CEO of Speedway Motorsports, and, like International Speedway Corporation, which was created by the France family, both are public corporations and answer to stockholders above all else. (With tobacco thankfully gone from almost all motorsport sponsorship and advertising in the US and worldwide, NASCAR decided to accept advertising from hard liquor distillers and distributors; a family sport?).

GM has contracts with 12 of the 22 tracks where NASCAR's top Sprint Cup series races and is the title sponsor for the fall race at Richmond International Raceway. GM and the other American car companies will to continue purchasing hospitality, suites and track displays, although perhaps not at the same level. Which probably means more potato chips and pretzels and fewer shrimp cocktails in the hospitality suites of NASCAR (GM prides themselves on always having the largest shrimp at their numerous cocktail receptions). All of the Detroit Three and other companies paying the way for racing in NASCAR and other American series will be forced to make cuts before long if the economic downturn continues. The way things are going with the economy and the value of the dollar versus the Euro, it might be cheaper for Formula One to run their entire series in the US for the foreseeable future.

The Navy says about the newly-formed division: “Everything JR Motorsports does is centered around excellence, teamwork and professional development, and that squarely places them in that number one seat – and that’s where the Navy sits in the defense of our nation." They also have a cool website with a talking Dale Jr., kind of like one of those audio-animatronic characters at Disneyland, and you can visit by clicking anywhere on this line ... And oh, when you visit there, remember: no flash photography, please. At least that's what they always say at Disneyland, just before "Mr. Lincoln" gets up from his chair and speaks ... (Brad Keselowski is driving his Nationwide Series Chevrolet, with big-time US Navy sponsorship, to a possible series title; they're dropping the sponsorship at the end of this season. The Army, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and US Border Patrol have all been major sponsors in NASCAR over the years. If the US public knew how much the Pentagon and Homeland Security were spending on NASCAR alone, do you think they'd be surprised, or shocked or want to see more of it in the sport?).

A couple of ironies here: Keselowski is a good bet to win the Nationwide Series this year, meaning that Navy is losing a pretty good chance of next season sponsoring the series champion. Also, while JR is losing the Navy, team owner Earnhardt, Jr., driver of the #88 Chevy in Sprint Cup, appears safe for next season with the National Guard ... yes, the National Guard ... as his primary sponsor. These are not coincidences, these are ironies. You should know the difference, especially at your age ... (And yes, that is a Dale Jr., Barbie).

Click below to find out more about NASCAR's financial problems and the possible impending sale of the Sprint Cup series title sponsor to a South Korean company.

SIRIUS/ XM MERGER NEAR; MONOPOLIES ARE GOOD, RIGHT? WELL, MAYBE FOR THE PHONE COMPANY ...

In a somewhat surprising and sudden occurrence, the acquisition of satellite radio's XM by rival Sirius appears much closer to being a sure thing. Senators, members of congress and consumer advocates have, for the most part, been against the merger, saying it would create a monopoly of just one single satellite radio service, and of course they are right; the government slated room in radio frequencies for Sirius and XM and no more. But the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, a Republican political appointee of George W. Bush, Kevin Martin, said in a statement released this past weekend that "I am recommending that with the voluntary commitments they've offered, on balance, this transaction (XM and Sirius merger) would be in the public interest". (Photo, above and below - Corvette and Corvette Z06 come from its Bowling Green, KY factory with XM satellite radio).

Politicos making pronouncements on weekends normally do so because TV, radio, print and Web news-gatherers are usually "off," and their words will receive less attention than if they held a weekday press conference.

Those "voluntary commitments," which apparently the companies could not be held liable for if they did not occur after the merger, include a pledge to make 24 radio channels available for noncommercial and minority programming,  and the companies would agree to cap prices, provide interoperable radios (can pick up both sat radio "products") and offer programming on an "a la carte" basis (which, we guarantee, will only make buying, activating and using the systems more confusing ... and generate even more desperate e-mails asking us for help; after someone spends $42,000 on a pick up, for instance, they don't want to be jerked-around for another few hundred bucks they have to pay for a radio system they might not even understand).

Martin's decision could, though, remove the last regulatory hurdle in a lengthy and heavily criticized move to combine the companies. Antitrust authorities at the U.S. Department of Justice approved the merger in March after concluding it would not harm consumers, and you know how much the Bush Justice Department has been concerned with making certain there be no "harm to consumers".

We remember throughout most of 2007, after announcing the wished-for merger of the two sat radio   services, Sirius honcho Mel Karmazin made the rounds of all the talk shows, major, middling and minor. He talked-up the merger, but it seemed every time he (very) publicly promoted the idea, opposition to the proposal seemed stronger and more vocal from political types. So they came up with a better, more insidious plan: Lobbyists!

Interest in traditional commercial and public radio has cooled in the few months since the sat radio merger deal was publicly broached in February of 2007. Both XM and Sirius eventually muted their public marketing push while lobbying regulators, instead, who can approve the deal; which makes sense in the traditional, DC-style of "marketing" ... Paying big-time lobbying firms to "get to" the people who really matter, and that's certainly not we, the people. But as the number of cars with built-in satellite radio has increased (almost all GM cars and trucks come with it, as they use their OnStar service to also receive XM), both services are still adding subscribers, who pay about $13 a month for more than 100 channels of music, news and talk programming. XM ended the first quarter with about 9.3 million subscribers, vs. 8.6 million for Sirius.

And of that total, about half of them, it sometimes seems, have written to this website asking for help in buying satellite radio, activating satellite radio they've already purchased, wondering if their new car or truck is pre-wired for sat radio and whether they can receive XM on their Sirius radio, and vice versa.

Click below for more on satellite radio, the proposed merger between XM and Sirius and another new radio technology, free and already available, something called HD Radio.

EARTH DAY! PRESIDENT BUSH LOOKS "GREEN AND MEAN" BEFORE HE'S ESCORTED OUT OF TOWN

US President George W. Bush is eager to appear busy as he marks time until the next president is sworn-in this coming January (and it can't come soon enough, for me or our nation). He has recently included meeting the Pope, appearing on NBC-TV's "DEAL OR NO DEAL" and planning the coming US attack on Iran into his "busy work". On a day when the Democratic candidates fought the latest round of their true Heavyweight Championship, John McCain defended NAFTA to a town-hall-style meeting at Youngstown (Ohio) State University full of union workers that, "Last time I checked, NAFTA was a five-letter word, not four," and was ridiculed by the crowd for doing so, the White House decided to roll-out new Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards (those much talked-about CAFE standards) while, basically, no one was listening. But these new numbers, while tougher than the Detroit Three would like them to be, nevertheless were a little bit stronger than some expected. But, hey! It's Earth Day! (Photo Above --- Well, just write your own caption!)

As reported by McPaper (aka USA TODAY), cars and light trucks would have to be 25% more fuel efficient by 2015 under a proposed rule announced April 22nd, by the Transportation Department. Under the proposal, automakers would have to speed up the timetable for achieving an average fuel-efficiency standard of 35 miles per gallon by 2020. Today's car and truck fleets average about 25 mpg.

The proposal would require each automaker's car fleet to achieve an average of 35.7 mpg by the  2015 model year. Light trucks, which include pickups, SUVs and minivans, would have to meet a 28.6 mpg average by 2015. (Photo Below --- Wonder what the MPG is of the all-new Popemobile? This snazzy new model, with Benedict XVI on his glass-enclosed throne, uh, seat, appears to be built on a Mercedes-Benz M-type or G-type chassis.)

The federal proposal is tougher than the fuel-economy requirements passed by Congress last year, which called for a 3.3% annual increase in gas mileage. The federal plan calls for a 4.5% annual increase from 2011 to 2015. If those increases are achieved, Transportation Department officials said automakers would need to increase fuel economy by only about 2.1% a year from 2016 to 2020.

The CEO of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the lobbying arm of the auto industry, said, "Automakers are prepared to meet that challenge."

In the interest of full disclosure, and your own edification, Alliance members include: BMW Group, Chrysler, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, USA, Mitsubishi Motors, Porsche, Toyota, and Volkswagen of America, Inc.

To us, the Alliance's positive comment about the proposed new standards is a major red light. Whenever the lobbying arm of this nation's auto industry (including Germany's Porsche) agrees so fully and so publicly with any government standards ... fuel types, safety, emissions, mpg, whatever ... Then those standards deserve a long, hard look by all sides involved. Our 35+ years of experience covering the auto industry tells us that only when all sides involved are upset with new or proposed standards that they might possibly be good for everyone involved ... including this country and all its citizens. Right now, with the White House trying to look "tough on the car-makers," it only looks laughable. These proposed standards are still nowhere near where they should be, not even what the car-makers could achieve practically tomorrow with just a few simple re-settings of the CPUs in every car and truck built after 1974 (a lot of vehicles could get these updates by a quick trip to their local factory service center, putting the vehicle online with the factory computers, and having the engines re-set for better mileage and even cleaner emissions in a few micro-seconds).

(Photo Below --- Fuel conservation made history this past week. Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an open-wheel Indycar race, her victory coming April 20th, 2008, in the "Honda 300" at the Twin Ring Motegi race track in Japan. Patrick's win came about through her judicious use of fuel conservation "tricks", including one as simple as slowing her racing speed while her competitors all needed to make a pit stop with only about 10 laps to go to fill their need for fuel; Patrick and her pit crew stayed in-communication via two-way radio all through the race, and her crew chief outsmarted all the competition when it came to being forced to make fuel stops during the race.)

Click below to read more about these new "proposed" White House goals for improving your vehicle's "miles per gallon" and how they might affect us all.

JAGUAR, LAND ROVER SAY "TA-TA" TO THE UK; NOW MERE "JEWELS IN THE CROWN"

After several months negotiations, the US' Ford Motor Company and Tata, a gigantic Indian car- and truck-maker, also the world's fifth-largest steel producer, jointly announced today, March 26th, that two prestigious Ford luxury automotive brands, Land Rover and Jaguar, have been purchased from Ford by Tata for $2.3 billion. Ford is expected to net somewhere around $1.3 billion. Ford purchased Jaguar in 1989 for $2.5 billion and they purchased Land Rover in 2000 for $2.85 billion. A $1.3 billion expected net on products which Ford bought for nearly $5 billion ... pretty rotten rate of return, don't you think? (Photos - Above, Important logos of record; Jaguar XKR; Below, late-model Rover at auto show).

Incidentally, Tata also gets the rights to some other well-known Brit-type names, including Rover  (by itself), Daimler (not the Teutonic one, the UK variety) and Lanchester, which I thought was a British WWII-era bomber, or an old-school Brit actress, first name Elsa. Turns out the name Lancaster is correct for both the bomber and Elsa. Lanchester-the-Brit-car produced its first model in 1895 and hasn't been heard from, new model-wise, since 1956; the name was owned by Jag, most-recently. Rover, the singular version, has had a round-about life since BMW bought the Rover group some 15 years ago, and then it came to be owned by Shanghai, China's SAIC car-making firm. Just to be safe, Ford bought back the rights to the Rover name to 'nip in the bud' any possible confusion over future models. (Photo - 1921 Lanchester 40-horsepower saloon, or 'sedan' to we Yanks; 1970 Daimler built for the Queen Mother; 2008 Land Rover).

Daimler, of the UK since 1896, and pronounced 'Dame'-ler', as opposed to Germany's 'Dime'ler', makes what looks to most of we Americans as the really big, really ugly and nearly all-glass versions of Rolls-Royces in which the "Royal Family" rides ... Well, they're not Rollers, they are Daimlers. Jaguar in the UK also used the Daimler name for their even more up-scale sedan versions known in the US as "Vanden Plas" or "Super 8" editions. The name does go back to some still-confusing business dealings between Gottlieb Daimler, who patented the first car in 1889, and Emil Jellinek, Daimler's most successful dealer (and whose daughter, "Mercedes," has gone onto great renown). OK, got all that? So Tata got five for the price of two. And remember --- We Americans are "citizens," while all Brits are mere "subjects."

The purchase should be complete by the end of 2008's second quarter. Tata said they foresee very few, if any, changes to the two companies in terms of the number of employees and the location of production, at least in the near-future. Tata recently came-on the world scene with their introduction, at the recent Delhi Auto Show, of a five-passenger, four-door car called Nano, set to sell for near $3,000 (dealer price in India: $2,500).

Jaguar, founded in 1922 as the Swallow Sidecar Company (hence the "SS" designation on some models throughout the years; though after WWII, with a large part of the German military also identified by the initials "SS," that part of the company's nomenclature was dropped for many years). The company's product was, as stated, motorcycle sidecars.

Two motorcycle enthusiasts, William Lyons and William Walmsley, created Swallow Sidecar, and the "SS Jaguar" name first appeared on a 2.5 litre sedan in 1935. The Jaguar name was given to the entire company in 1945. The "SS" confusion was similar to a problem the UK had with dogs called for many years "German Shepherds". The problems with the name were obvious; but from reading this post, you now know that the dog brand, uh, we mean breed, "Alsatian," was created as a replacement breed name for the "German" dogs.

Jaguar merged with the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and that holding company was eventually known  as British Motor Holdings (BMH) in 1966. After merging with Leyland, which had already taken over Rover,  all of that became British Leyland Motor Corporation (BLMC) in 1968. In 1975, under what amounted to a forced nationalization of the company under Prime Minister Mrs. Thatcher, it became British Leyland Ltd (later simply BL plc). In 1989, Ford bought Jaguar for $2.5 billion. Jaguar has never turned a profit for Ford. Jaguar Cars also holds "Royal Warrants" from both Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles. (Photos --- Range Rover, inside and out, the high-end of the Land Rover brand).

Originally, the term "Land Rover" referred to one specific vehicle, a pioneering civilian all-terrain utility  vehicle launched on April 30, 1948, at the Amsterdam Motor Show. "Land Rover" was later used as a brand-name for several distinct models, all four-wheel drive, and all heavily dependent on the use of alu-min-ium, as our Brit cousins say. Why the "industry-first" heavy use of aluminum? Because there were hundreds of wrecked carcasses of airplanes throughout the UK; the planes were British, American and German, and most all of them were made mostly of aluminum. Call it smart minds thinking alike, call it early recycling, but it resulted in the manufacture of these mostly-aluminum Land Rovers, something which happens to this day, though the aluminum comes from other sources, but it remains a vehicle feature which contributes to its high price.

Starting out as part of The Rover Car Company, Land Rovers were designed and manufactured as a range of four-wheel drive vehicles under a succession of owners, much like Jaguar was, including British Leyland, British Aerospace and BMW. In 2000, the marque was sold by BMW to Ford, and both Jaguar and Land Rover became part of Ford's Premier Automotive Group (PAG). (Photo - Jaguar "Super 8" rear interior).

PAG, headquartered in a "made-to-order" five-story office building designed and owned by Ford in Irvine, California, about 50 miles south of Los Angeles, has been gutted, personnel-wise,inside and out. Any Ford employees, blue- and white-collar, have been either let go from the company, been bought-out by the company, or, if they are lucky enough, were able to keep their jobs, but were severely punished, having to move back to one of the coldest environments in the USA, lovely, downtown Dearborn, Michigan.

BUSH ORDERED TO FORCE THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY TO DO ITS JOB

Recently, it's been said that the "hot" cars and trucks of tomorrow will be those which feature the latest hardware gadgets and software updates to make driving safer, more enjoyable and go much farther on a gallon of gas (or use no gasoline at all). Experts and analysts in the industry (including this one) think the "musclecars" of tomorrow may still offer horsepower, but their real "beauty" will be reflected in the vehicle's design and styling, inside and out, and online capabilities, as much as in the size of its engine.

We thought you would be interested in reading the following Sunday, February, 17, 2008 NEW YORK TIMES editorial about the Bush Administration, which has been ordered by both the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court, no wild-eyed radical bunch, to force the Environmental Protection Agency to obey the law and take action to control mercury emanating from industrial smokestacks and to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. (Photo - The Environmental Protection Agency's headquarters building is in Washington, DC's "Federal Triangle" area, which is just off what's sometimes called "the nation's front yard", the National Mall).

Car Nuts want to know, and indeed need to know, that the government, and especially the EPA (whose creation was by Richard Nixon, of all people, working together with the US Congress), has, by law, specific obligations which it needs to uphold. This editorial from the NEW YORK TIMES defines just some of the problems facing industry, specifically the auto industry.

February 18, 2008

Editorial

Judicial Rebukes on Clean Air

The federal courts have been a bulwark against the Bush administration’s relentless efforts to weaken 40 years’ worth of environmental law, including statutes protecting the nation’s forests, wetlands and endangered species. The courts have been especially important in resisting the administration’s assault on the 1970 Clean Air Act, which began with Vice President Dick Cheney’s 2001 energy report and continues to this day. (Photo - A gold 1964 Pontiac GTO; GTO was, and still is, touted as the "first musclecar" and perhaps doomed due in an oil-less future).

In 2006 and 2007, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to follow the law and require utilities to install pollution controls when upgrading power plants. Another Supreme Court decision last year held that the Clean Air Act required the E.P.A. to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles, an obligation the agency continues to duck.

This month, the D.C. Circuit ruled that the E.P.A. had once again ignored the law by failing to require deep and timely reductions in mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants. Like most clean air cases, this one was mind-numbingly complex. The gist of it was that the E.P.A. — seeking as usual to please industry — had approved a weak set of regulations that would let many plants off the hook for emissions reductions that would be required under any honest reading of the law. (Photo - "Tri-Power" was stock in 1964 GTOs; it was a 389cid V8 with three carburetors, hence the Tri-Power sobriquet).

The D.C. Circuit, by no means a radical group of judges, has become so exasperated that it has taken to quoting Lewis Carroll. In 2006, in a reference to “Through the Looking Glass,” the court said that the E.P.A.’s reading of the law would make sense “only in a Humpty Dumpty world.” This month, invoking “Alice in Wonderland,” the court said the agency’s reasoning recalled “the logic of the Queen of Hearts, substituting the E.P.A.’s desires for the plain text” of the law.

Desire still burns bright at the E.P.A., which reportedly intends to make one last-ditch effort to weaken the rules requiring new pollution controls on upgraded plants. Our advice to the agency would be to take a dispassionate look at its losing streak in the federal courts and, for once, leave the law alone. (end of editorial)

ILLEGAL STREET RACE KILLS 8 IN MARYLAND

The scourge of illegal street racing, which this website has been attacking since its inception, and which we've been very vocally against for decades (and which has not always been welcomed among certain people in the auto industry), has resulted in an "accident" so terrible, so horrifying and wasteful that we're simply going to reprint the entire NEW YORK TIMES story about the incident and let it stand as is (photos are from the NY TIMES, KTLA/TV5 Los Angeles and the LOS ANGELES TIMES).

We'll just repeat what we've been saying for many, many years: Unless and until local civic, religious and community leaders, businesses and governments make available safe, sane and well-managed sites where 1/8-mile and/or 1/4-mile straight-line, classic head-to-head drag racing can be held on a regular basis, these stories will be repeated, again and again and again ... These sites must also be used for proper "driver instruction", which has fallen by the wayside in our nation's high schools as budget cutbacks have done away with other popular programs, such as sports and music instruction.

Every other industrialized nation promotes driver training; in those countries, driving is considered a privilege, definitely not a right, and people are proud of their driving skills. In many European and Asian nations, a single incident of driving while impaired in any way can result in that person's driving privilege taken away ... for life. In America, attorneys specializing in DUI cases advertise freely, turning impaired driving into a "sport" which is won or lost in a court room, no matter what may have happened on the highway.

EXXON/MOBIL POSTS BIGGEST ANNUAL PROFIT BY A US COMPANY --- EVER

Well, now here's a big surprise: Associated Press reports that: Exxon Mobil has posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company — $40.6 billion — as the world's biggest publicly traded oil company benefited from historic crude prices at the end of 2007. And, Exxon also set a U.S. record for the biggest quarterly profit, posting net income of $11.7 billion for the final three months of 2007, beating its own mark of $10.71 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005. The previous record for annual profit was $39.5 billion, which Exxon Mobil had in 2006. (Photo - "Now, hold your breath and bend over").

These figures, and those posted by some of the world's other, smaller, not-as-successful oil companies, should serve to the public as a resounding crescendo to the Bush administration's last year in office --- along with this news, the nation is on the verge of recession, or may already be in one, unemployment is at its highest rate in years, the value of the dollar has collapsed around the world, China and other countries are propping-up the dollar by buying into our Treasury, Toyota has surpassed General Motors as the world's biggest car-maker and car-seller; a record GM held for 77 years and will probably not regain soon, if ever, bankruptcies and home foreclosures are at record highs and probably will go higher this year, the nation's homebuilding, real estate and mortgage industries have essentially collapsed, we're in a possibly illegal war on the other side of the world, a war we got into based on lies from the President, and the respected Boston Globe newspaper reports on the same day these oil profits are announced, "A new congressional analysis shows the Iraq war is now costing taxpayers almost $2 billion a week -- nearly twice as much as in the first year of the conflict three years ago and 20 percent more than last year", and almost 4,000 American troops have died so far in Iraq alone.

So we think that every American needs to look at history, and the fact that in the past century, it took a Democratic president to fix the problems left by almost every Republican administration (check "Great Depression, 1929"). Also, we all need to know these figures and then ask ourselves, "If the nation's economy is in such terrible shape, and we know it is, then why are the oil companies reaping such huge, almost unconscionable profits, while other American companies and whole industries are failing and/or leaving the country for China, India and other points way west? Could it have anything to do with the fact that America's current President and Vice-President have both served as top oil company executives? And why are gasoline prices allowed to go so high?" Repeat all the above three times every morning and take two aspirin, and then read the rest of this news, as reported by the AP (and keep a bucket nearby in case you feel the need):

Seems these oil companies are competing only with themselves --- But there are other oil companies doing their best to screw the publi...uh, trying their best to make us all proud of the world's free and open marketplace. Crude prices reached an all-time trading high of $100.09 on Jan. 3 but have fallen about 10 percent since then. But, the US is nothing if not dependable. Our young men and women are being sent to serve as mercenaries for the world's nations which don't have the gumption to send their own --- And most are not doing anything to develop new energy technologies, guaranteeing that our troops will be necessary in Iraq, and elsewhere in that area, for some time to come (possibly for "100 years or more", according to John McCain).

Also extraordinary was Exxon Mobil's revenue, which rose 30 percent in the fourth quarter to $116.6 billion from $90 billion a year ago. For the year, sales rose to $404.5 billion — the most ever for the Irving, Texas-based company — from $377.64 billion in 2006.

Want to feel a bit more ill? Then read this: Exxon Mobil produces about 3 percent of the world's oil. That's all it takes to make these kind of obscene profits.

Refining and marketing, or downstream, earnings were $2.3 billion, up from nearly 2 billion in the year-ago quarter, as improved refining operations offset lower U.S. refining margins. Keep in mind, though, that an oil refinery facility has not been built in the US in over 30 years, and low refining capacity is often cited as one of the main reasons behind rising gasoline and heating oil prices.

Now, let's hear from some of the other oil companies ...

ConocoPhillips has said record oil prices at the end of 2007 helped it post a 37 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit, even as it produced less crude and natural gas than a year earlier. Its quarterly net income rose to $4.37 billion versus $3.2 billion a year earlier. ConocoPhillips is the nation's third-largest integrated oil company behind Exxon Mobil and Chevron Corp.

Chevron reported this week that its profit rose 29 percent in the fourth quarter, as surging prices for crude   oil offset weak results from its refining business. It earned $4.88 billion, or $2.32 per share, from $3.77 billion, or $1.74 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 29 percent to $61.41 billion from $47.75 billion.

And, last but not least, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Europe's largest oil company, posted a 60 percent gain in fourth-quarter profit  to $8.47 billion on asset sales and higher oil prices. Shell said full-year net profit was a company record $31.3 billion, up 23 percent from the prior year.

And we mere mortals stupidly wonder who is buying all the Rolls-Royces, 7-series BMWs, Bentleys, S-class Mercedes, Lamborghini Murcielagos, Ferrari Enzos, A8 Audis and that ultimate expression of too much money, no taste and definitely not enough brains, the Maybach. Any Maybach.

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.

MEXICAN TRUCKS HAVE FREE ACCESS TO ALL OF THE USA --- STARTING NOW! SEE IMPORTANT UPDATES HERE

BUSH ADMINISTRATION OPENS
ALL AMERICAN ROADS TO
MEXICAN TRUCKS

Until September 6, 2007, the law said that Mexican-owned trucks entering the US were required to unload their wares at US CUSTOMS PORT OF ENTRY warehouses within 20 miles of the US/Mexico border. That was as far as the Clinton Administration would allow the Mexican trucks to come into the US, even after the signing of NAFTA. Then after inspection and US CUSTOMS approval, US-owned trucks picked-up the inspected goods and delivered them to their US destinations.  (Photo --- Mexican trucks enter the US at Mexico/US border crossing).

Starting today, that’s over ... Officially. The Bush Administration, utilizing the North American Free Trade Agreement, now allow Mexican trucks to cross the US/Mexico border (any of the crossings along the border, from small towns with little in the way of inspectors, to larger cities) and have complete, unfettered access to US highways and cities. No more restrictions of any kind. The Bush Administration interpreting this part of NAFTA in this way is wildly out of line with common sense, national security, and all manner of potential safety and public health problems.

Michael Chertoff, incumbent Secretary of Homeland Security, was in front of a Congressional Committee today, speaking against these changes in the trucking laws. (Photo --- Truck undergoing inspection at a Mexico checkpoint).

According to REUTERS: "The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco  late on Friday (9/6/07) denied an emergency petition sought by the Teamsters union, the Sierra Club and consumer group Public Citizen to halt the start of a one-year pilot program that was approved by Congress after years of legal and political wrangling.The Transportation Department welcomed the decision and said in a statement that allowing more direct shipments from Mexico will benefit U.S. consumers.

The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement approved broader access for ground shipments from both countries but the Clinton administration never complied with the trucking provision. A special tribunal ordered the Bush administration to do so in 2001.

"This is the wrong decision for working men and women," Jim Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, said in a statement after the court ruling. "We believe this program clearly breaks the law." The Teamsters represents truckers that would be affected by the change.

The emergency stay was sought on grounds the administration's pilot program had not satisfied the U.S. Congress' requirements on safety and other issues. But the appeals court ruled otherwise." (end of Reuters story quote)

Now, the "test period" which starts today runs for just one year and the Feds are calling it  a “trial” time. But you know how the government is … The first Federal Income Tax was supposed to be “temporary”, too, to be in effect just until after World War I was paid for … Once these things get started, they are near-impossible to stop.

US Congressman Peter DeFazio of Oregon (Democrat), said at a news conference today in washington, DC: "The powers behind this bill won't be satisfied until every truck driver in America is a non-American, working for less than the American minimum wage".

I had our local State Senator, John Benoit, on my radio show as a guest just a few months ago. Before his election, he ran the California Highway Patrol in this area, and he stated flatly that there is no way the trucks coming from Mexico could possibly be inspected unless they were literally falling apart at some checkpoint or border control point.

He has interesting insight into all the potential problems with these rules changes because both California State Highway 86 and Interstate 10, which Benoit oversaw in his CHP position, are major thoroughfares which bring goods from Mexico and Central and South America into the USA.Benoit told us that the only Mexican trucks which will stand any chance at all of actually  being inspected (or of having their loads inspected) are those which are clearly and obviously "falling apart". If their re-capped tires are coming unglued, if their brakes are falling off in chunks from the wheels, if the lights are not working or any other number of safety and quality problems we probably can't even imagine, then, maybe, the truck will be ordered to the side of the road and inspected at some length. But clearly, the CHP is already overtaxed when it comes to all the duties they are supposed to perform in this part of the nation (Southeast California) and adding the inspection of untold numbers of Mexican-owned trucks might precipitate some sort of disaster.

And often, those goods range from cocaine to marijuana to methamphetamine. Recently, a car from Mexico stopped on Highway 86 by law enforcement was found to have six pounds of Fentanyl, a powerful pain-killer used mostly in surgeries and given to cancer patients suffering unrelenting pain from that disease. (Photo --- Man in favor of new NAFTA rules drives truck in Texas --- And where is his seat belt?).

In the meantime, we can only imagine how ‘safe’ all these trucks are as far as  their road-going abilities … that famous world-class Mexican quality, second only to (maybe) China … and their operators’ driving skills … and the solid financial strength of their insurance companies … etc.

Update 9-7-07 -- US trucks receive reciprocal rights to Mexican roadways in this deal. CNN reported today that, daily, 2,000 Mexican trucks cross into the US at the San Diego/Otay Mesa border, and 3,000 more cross into the US at the Laredo, TX US/Mexico border, for a total of 5,000 Mexican trucks entering the US every day.

Update -9-12-07 -- Congress on Tuesday moved to block the Bush administration from allowing Mexican trucks to travel throughout the United States, setting up a collision with the White House and possibly straining relations with Mexico. Senators from both parties, citing safety concerns, attached a measure to a transportation spending bill to block funding for the cross-border trucking program. The House earlier this year approved a similar measure, virtually ensuring it will be in the final bill. Bush has threatened to veto the bill over its price tag, and the White House issued a statement Tuesday saying it "strongly opposes" any effort to delay the program.

The action comes just days after U.S. transportation officials gave a green light to the first of as many as 100 Mexican trucking companies that would be allowed to operate throughout the United States in a one-year demonstration period. Until now, Mexican trucks have been restricted to a narrow zone north of the U.S.-Mexico border where they transfer their cargo to American big rigs.

On Monday, the first Mexican truck delivered a load of steel to North Carolina.

The action came despite Bush administration assurances that Mexican trucks and their drivers would undergo rigorous safety checks, including a "39-point, front-to-back inspection" of trucks and drug testing for drivers.

The Mexican government has allowed the first of as many as 100 U.S. trucking companies to operate south of the border. The measure drew the support of an unusual coalition, pitting some Republicans against their usual business allies, underscoring the intensity of the opposition.

After NAFTA's approval, the Clinton administration refused to let Mexican freight-haulers operate throughout the United States, citing safety and environmental concerns. A NAFTA arbitration panel ruled in 2001 that the United States was violating the agreement.

In 2004, the Supreme Court set aside a lower court ruling that had required U.S. officials to study the environmental impact before allowing older Mexican trucks into the country, ruling that the president had the power to enforce NAFTA.

Opponents highlighted a fiery collision that occurred Sunday in Mexico between two trucks, one of which carried several tons of highly combustible chemicals, that killed more than two dozen people. But supporters noted that Mexican trucks are prohibited from transporting hazardous materials in the United States.

   Six explosions believed to be the result of sabotage ripped apart natural gas pipelines for Mexico's state oil monopoly early Monday, the company said. There were no reported injuries. Mexican state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, issued a statement saying it believed the explosions, which forced the evacuation of 12,000 people, were deliberate.
   It said the six blasts at about 2 a.m. (3 a.m. EDT, 0700 GMT)
caused four fires. At least five pipelines were affected.  A small, left-wing guerrilla group claimed to have attacked a major Pemex gas pipeline in July, forcing at least a dozen major companies, including Honda Motor Co., Kellogg Co. and The Hershey Co., to suspend or scale back operations.
   The July explosions affected sections of a major pipeline extending from central Mexico City to Guadalajara in western Mexico.

"NEW", PRIVATIZED CHRYSLER APPOINTS A TOP EXEC --- A PUBLIC CORPORATION LOSER CEO RUN OUT OF HOME DEPOT EARLIER THIS YEAR

Ah, yes, let the fun (and the firings and sell-offs) begin! Chrysler's new owner, Cerberus, wasted no time in hiring a chief for the newly-private automaker. Robert Nardelli was named Chrysler's president and chairman, while long- time Chrysler chieftain Tom LaSorda (not the Dodgers baseball team ex-manager), a popular executive who many thought deserved the top title, will be president and vice-chairman. At least as long as he remains at the company.

And, according to the LOS ANGELES TIMES, Nardelli's pay package will be completely performance-based, to the point that he will receive compensation only if and when Chrysler returns to profitability.

Cerberus recently paid $7.4 billion for Chrysler; In May, 1998, Daimler paid $46 billion for Chrysler, in an attempt to merge the two companies' perceived strengths in larger and luxury cars (Daimler Benz) and fuel-efficient smaller cars (Chrysler); both companies were and are still strong in truck production.

Also, a merger of the companies' dealerships world-wide was seen as a possibility. Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep suddenly had access to the many Mercedes car and truck stores throughout the world; Daimler could sell new, smaller cars, developed with Chrysler's design and production help, through their huge world network and at the many Chrysler dealers in the US and Canada. The Mercedes-Swatch developed Smart car (photo below) might have been a good experiment for owner Daimler to sell at Dodge stores, for instance, but now they will be sold exclusively at dealerships owned by Roger Penske's "Penske Automotive Group", the second-largest auto dealer chain in the US.

After the merger, execs from both Daimler and Chrysler said that Mercedes parts would never be used on Chrysler products, and vice-versa; that pledge was broken almost immediately (Chrysler's Crossfire, for instance, is a thinly-veiled version of a small Mercedes convertible, and the Chrysler version comes with a manual convertible top, not the neat-o automatic one on the Benz).

What was the outcome of Daimler's purchase? Many key Chrysler executives, especially in manufacturing, quit the new company, and the combined market value of the two companies took only nine years to drop 50%, or $45 billion. The two might have done better had they simply shut their doors for those years and re-opened as the "new and improved Daimler-Chrysler!"

Nardelli is perhaps best-known to the general public for his being the chief exec at Home Depot, where his enormous pay package, including $210 million in a severance package when the Board of Directors essentially fired him, and his attempt to thwart union members, Home Depot stock shareholders and even his own top execs from speaking at the company's annual meeting, gave him a reputation near on a par with other recently-disgraced corporate executives.

Just yesterday (August 4th) it became official --- Chrysler Corporation once again became an American-owned company (as far as we know) and, perhaps more importantly to hundreds of thousands of Chrysler Corporation employees and retirees, and the families they support, it also moved off the world's stock exchanges into private ownership, where answers from management are legally few and far between. (Logo above -- That of Cerberus, whose name comes from ancient Greek, that of the four-headed dog which is said to guard the gates of hell. Sounds like a fun place to work, huh? Bet their holiday parties are a blast! Below, new Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli, smiling, which he does often. Three guesses why ...)

And at Cerberus/Chrysler, Nardelli will not have to deal with those nasty little "shareholder meetings" and other things which, let's face it, only get in the way of "big boys" like Nardelli from making the real money; that is, firing employees, cutting back retirement and health care packages (even those already agreed upon by the company) and, ultimately, selling-off chunks of the company, getting rid of dealers who have been with the company for generations and focusing on increasing production and sales in India, China, Asia, Africa, eastern Europe and South America, until that flowing red ink starts to turn black ... if that ever happens.

We say "as far as we know" when referring to Chrysler's new American ownership, which is going to be heavily hyped in their advertising, because when all is said and done, we don't really know who owns Cerberus. The company can claim all their investors stepped off the Mayflower, but, legally, there is little which the company needs to make public. And least of all, they don't need to make Nardelli's pay package public (nor that of any other Cerberus/Chrysler exec) because it is now a privately-held outfit.

Nardelli becomes the second CEO of a Detroit Big Three operation to come from outside the industry.  Ford hired a top executive from Boeing to run their North American operations, Alan Mulally. Ford indeed showed an unexpected profit in the last quarter, and big kudos to them. However, the announcement of the "recall which just won't end," that of various FoMoCo cars and trucks having cruise control systems which can catch fire, might take up all of that profit and a lot more. they "mutually agreed" to the resignation, which took effect Tuesday. Under the terms of a separation agreement negotiated when he joined the company in 2000, Nardelli, 58, is to receive about $210 million in cash and stock options, including a $20 million severance payment and retirement benefits of $32 million." (end of Washington Post quote)

Here's how THE WASHINGTON POST covered the story of Nardelli's resignation from Home Depot in January, 2007:

"Robert L. Nardelli has abruptly resigned as chairman and chief executive of Home Depot, pocketing a lavish severance package and leaving shareholders with a stock that has languished even as sales have nearly doubled during his six-year tenure.

In a statement released yesterday (January 3, 2007), Home Depot's board of directors and Nardelli said

Sounds like just the kind of guy America's auto industry needs, huh? At the very least, he is not the kind of chief executive which unions, workers, retirees and even the white collar execs he may be firing by the (Dodge?) truckloads need in these times.

THEY ALWAYS CRASH AND BURN! DR. LAURA'S SON IN POSSIBLE BIG TROUBLE

First off, this has nothing to do with cars. But it's heart-warming, in a perverted kind of "Memorial Day Weekend" kind of way, and I thought we should share it with everyone. We all get some sort of satisfaction out of seeing the self-righteous among us crash and burn. The list of those who have preached to others and then fell into their own garbage is too long for even this BLOG. And they almost always do fail --- These folks are usually "strict with everyone but themselves", as a good friend of mine once put it. Dr. Laura Schlessinger (photo, being strict at the lectern and the right hand of god), the infamous (and, many think, obnoxious) "I am my kid's mom!" radio host who spends her days taking calls from bored housewives who can't decide whether to go to the bathroom or not without getting Dr. Laura's opinion on the situation, has had her share of troubles through the years. She got her first radio job after calling into a radio host who had one of the first "lifestyle" shows on-the-air, a man named Bill Ballance (Google it ... it's fun!). Ballance liked her calls and invited her to the radio studio. They slept together the first night they met (Ballance was married at the time) and thus was a radio career launched. When Dr. Laura, years later, wrote books, made speeches and gave newspaper and magazine interviews, she would sometimes mention her personal "thanks" to those who helped her create a career which supposedly nets her over $15 million annually. But she never thanked Ballance. Laura must have forgotten that Ballance had taken nude photos of her and he posted them on the Internet. So much for "Go out and do the right thing!", huh? Anyway, the good doc now goes on and on about her son, Deryk, who is in the Army serving in Afghanistan, which we think is all well and good. But apparently Deryk was out of the room the day his mommy was teaching values ... Because ... Well, read this (full story at: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-drlaura25may25,0,2920422.story?track=mostviewed-storylevel):

Radio talk-show host Laura Schlessinger is appealing to news media outlets to respect her son's privacy   amid an Army investigation into whether he is behind a lurid personal Web page that featured cartoon depictions of rape, murder, torture and child molestation.

The posting on MySpace.com drew the Army's attention after the Salt Lake City Tribune reported this month that the Web page was credited to and included photos of Deryk, the 21-year-old son of the outspoken radio personality known to millions as "Dr. Laura." She can be heard locally (in southern California) on KFI-AM (640). (Photo - Perhaps son Deryk has a collection of the nude photos of his mother, like this one, which were splashed all over the 'Net by a friend who got her started in radio --- And whom she dumped and never publicly thanked).

According to the Tribune, the Web page, which has since been taken down, included a photograph of a bound and blindfolded detainee, accounts of illicit drug use and a blog entry headlined by a series of obscenities and racial epithets.

Laura Schlessinger's publicist issued a statement Thursday stating that the Army "is investigating who is the actual author of the MySpace website." Army spokesmen in Afghanistan, where Deryk reportedly is stationed, could not immediately be reached for comment.

CHRYSLER: LET'S START THE BIDDING!

Well, it's official: DaimlerChrysler chieftain Dieter Zetsche (photo), has  announced that the company had talked to potential buyers of its U.S. division. And this is one auction which you won't see being held in some circus tent (and ever think about how appropriate those tents are?) on SPEED with a bunch of sleaze-oid Hawaiian-shirted mid-life crisis idiots and their fat wives in the steaming, drunken audience holding up those 'buy' paddles to stave off the "not tonight" they're going to get later that evening in the hotel room ... No, this auction is (so far) between a 90-year old megalomaniac (who has many reasons to have a huge ego, so don't hold that against him), who has bought and sold MGM films (not the films ... the entire company) three times and made a huge profit each go-round, Canada's Magna Corporation and some things called The Blackstone Group and Cerberus, two of those mysterious "Wall Street Investment Firms" which keep their operations as secret as "The Man From U.N.C.L.E" used to do on '60s TV. Finally, as of today, Magna, a gigantic Canada-based parts supplier (which also manufactures entire cars and trucks under contract to OEMs) has also popped-in with their stated intention to own Chrysler. Perhaps the only positive thing to come so far in this auction for what was once one of the world's single greatest engineering companies is that it's now clear to everyone that Daimler's so-called "merger" with Chrysler in 1998 was, in reality, nothing short of a complete take-over, as critics (and Chrysler shareholders, with lawsuits against Daimler yet to be resolved) have charged. Right now, Kirk Kerkorian, through his Tracinda Corporation, is the man of the hour. His offer seems low, but at least someone has the cojones to get the ball rolling, so to speak.

The LOS ANGELES TIMES covered the DaimlerChrysler story in their April 6 editions. Interestingly, the newspaper itself and its parent company, Tribune Corporation, is also a public company in the process of being sold  to either a Chicago-based self-described "grave dancer" named Sam Zell (photo), known to the business world as a "real estate entrepreneur" or a "slum lord", depending on the source, or perhaps to one of several Los Angeles-based billionaires, including Eli Broad (real estate), Ronald Burkle (supermarkets) and David Geffen (show biz). It appears Zell has the upper hand and he might get away with buying Tribune, which owns several money-making newspapers, 26 TV stations (some in the same cities as their newspapers) and the Chicago Cubs, for a personal investment of only $350 million. His trick? Use the money from Tribune's employee retirement fund to finance the sale and take the company private. Then he can do as he will with it, which is what many people are afraid will happen to Chrysler if it too goes private. Whoever is the boss man can sell-off money-losing parts of the companies (in Chrysler's case, perhaps the Dodge or Jeep divisions, in Tribune's, maybe some of the smaller papers and TV outlets). So Tribune and all their employees certainly have their own problems, in some ways quite similar to those facing DaimlerChrysler and its far-flung employees.

The Detroit News reports that Kirk Kerkorian was born in 1917 in Fresno, Calif., to Armenian immigrants. He dropped out of school in eighth grade and became a skilled amateur boxer, fighting under the name of "Rifle Right Kerkorian." During World War II, he piloted de Havilland Mossquito airplanes over the north Atlantic as part of the Royal Air Force.

In 1947, in his first "big" deal, he paid $60,000 for TransInternational Airlines, a small air-charter service  mostly used by gamblers who flew from Los Angeles to Las Vega. He operated the airline until 1968 when he sold it for $104 million to Trans-American Corp.

According to the LA Times, the first time Kerkorian (photo) got involved in the auto business, he was a Los Angeles teenager. He bought old cars, refurbished them and resold them for a $10 or $15 profit.

Seventy-five years later, only the scale of Kerkorian's operation has changed.

The investor unveiled a $4.5-billion all-cash bid Thursday to buy Chrysler Group, the faltering No. 3 U.S.-based automaker, from its German parent, DaimlerChrysler. It was the latest effort by the billionaire to buy a stake in America's once-high-flying automotive industry.

How far has Chrysler Group fallen? Kerkorian's bid to take the company private was seen as credible by some on Wall Street, even though the offer is one-eighth of the $36 billion the then-Daimler-Benz paid for the American automaker in 1998.  Kerkorian's offer contains potential stumbling blocks such as a condition that Chrysler reach a "satisfactory" conclusion to what could be rocky contract talks with the United Auto Workers this fall.

Kerkorian has a good track record of seeing such possibilities when others do not. He made a $22.8-billion offer for Chrysler in the mid-1990s, teaming with former company Chairman Lee Iacocca. Kerkorian, who held a sizable stake in Chrysler, was rebuffed but eventually made $2.7 billion on his investment after the deal with Daimler-Benz.

In 2005 he began accumulating shares in a foundering General Motors Corp. Although stymied in his attempt to revamp the company, he still made some pocket change off the venture: about $100 million.

Kerkorian, who runs his empire out of nondescript, unmarked offices in Beverly Hills, has no interest in cars as such. To get around town, he chooses such middle-of-the-road vehicles as a Pontiac Firebird, a Jeep Grand Cherokee and a Ford Taurus. His visits to Detroit are exceedingly rare.

He bought and sold Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. three times, making a profit each time. Kerkorian first visited Las Vegas during World War II, shortly before mobster Bugsy Siegel opened the Flamingo Hotel and essentially made the town a tourist destination. Kerkorian later bought the Flamingo and many other hotels and casinos.

MGM Grand, a public company of which Kerkorian owns 62%, is now the biggest single player in Vegas, with properties such as the Mirage, Bellagio and Mandalay Bay. Forbes magazine recently estimated his net worth at $15 billion. He's loyal, too; He ordered a fleet of stretched K-car limousines for MGM's Las Vegas high-roller's use when his friend Iacocca was running Chrysler for $1 a year and the K-car was the only "new" thing the company had to promote.

Analysts saw potential problems in two conditions Tracinda placed on its offer: a satisfactory new contract with the UAW and an agreement with DaimlerChrysler to share the unfunded pension and health care liabilities for Chrysler retirees, which have been estimated as approaching $20 billion. The offer letter didn't say what would constitute an acceptable labor contract or how the liabilities might be divided. (Photo - Chrysler 300 stretched limo with gull wing doors, similar to what Kerkorian had in his MGM Grand Hotel high-roller's fleet over 20 years ago when his friend Lee Iacocca supplied him with a fleet of stretched K-cars made to "be seen around town" being used by MGM Grand's special guests).

The offer is meaningless until those issues are resolved, said David Healy, an analyst at Burnham Securities Inc.

At least three groups have reportedly expressed interest in Chrysler, including Canadian auto parts supplier Magna International Inc., which has reportedly submitted a bid to buy the business for as much as $4.7 billion.

Cerberus Capital Management and a consortium of investors led by Blackstone Group each have reviewed Chrysler's finances and are expected to make bids. Spokesmen for the two firms declined to comment.

Estimates of Chrysler Group's value have ranged from zero, because of its liabilities, to $13.7 billion.

Even if it stalls, Kerkorian's bid — in particular, an offer to post a $100-million deposit in exchange for an exclusive 60-day negotiating period — may help the Chrysler sale process get going, one analyst said.

MUSTANG SALES DROPPING LIKE A ROCK --- HOW LONG CAN "ICON" CARS KEEP SAVING THE DOMESTICS, ESPECIALLY IN LOTS OF 1,000?

Mustang is in trouble. Sales dropping by nearly 20% since the start of the year does not bode well for FoMoCo (which earlier this week sold-off their Aston Martin division --- Amid questions of why they ever bought it in the first place), nor for all the remaining US-made domestics. Mustang remains the American car which went from 0 to 100,000 sales faster than any other, and still holds that record. Introduced at the 1964 New York World's Fair's Ford Pavilion (I know --- I was there), Mustang has remained true to its four-seat, two-door original since that time. Always good for 40,000-or-so sales a year, when Ford announced a plan to kill-off this original pony car a few years ago, consumer reaction was swift and brutal towards the offices at "One American Road" (Ford's HQ in Dearborn, MI) --- 'Lose the Mustang', they said, 'and lose us as Ford buyers --- forever'. Now there's talk of the Mustang platform being used as the underpinning for a station wagon and a four-door sedan (neither of which would be named Mustang), and that may be the only way to justify continued manufacture of the sporty coupe --- by using the platform for other models.

The new Mustang, which made its debut in the fall of 2004, has been a bright spot for Ford at a time when bright spots have been few. So when Mustang sales dropped by 19% in January and February compared with the same months in 2006, executives became concerned.

After all, this is the company which was late-to-market with their all-new Edge model (photo), touted as the  company's crossover-style "savior", and which has had to re-name the also all-new (and boring) 500 as "Taurus" to try and save that effort. The "new" Taurus may share some underpinnings with the Volvo S80, but come on --- No matter how many Volvos they may show at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, where speed and excitement is the entry price, Volvo still virtually screams "Don't notice me!". The Taurus-500 manages to achieve that target magnificently. If Ford ever needed another high-performance "SHO" Taurus, this is it, folks! Are you listening, Dearborn?

Another marketing problem Ford has currently in the US is that they were selling a very nice crossover (built-off the Taurus-500) SUV called "Freestyle" which matched-up closely in many ways to their Edge. But Ford has stopped making Freestyle, concentrating all their efforts on Edge manufacture and sales. Freestyle owners --- You may have a classic in your driveway there!

Competition for the Mustang is only going to get worse when Dodge resurrects the Challenger muscle car in 2008 and Chevrolet comes out with the new Camaro early in 2009 (See photos below; Challenger is orange, Camaro is silver). An all-new Mustang is due 2010, a year after the new Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger launch.

Which raises perhaps the ultimate question when it comes to these "retro-retreads": How long can the US domestics keep drawing on their past to try and pad their future bottom lines? With gas prices this week over $3 a gallon nationwide, how many people are going to buy a high-performance V8? Plenty, you say. Well, be sensible --- if plenty is less than 40,000 or so annually, that simply will not be enough to satisfy Ford, GM and DCX (or whatever Chrysler is called next week).

Selling these kind of specialty cars 1,000 at a time? Fuggedaboutit. The Fromer Big Three manufacturers simply can not afford to do it.

How many vehicles equate to "40,000"? That's about the entire production for Porsche (cars, not trucks) in a year, worldwide.

The platforms for these "retro-retreads" are going to have to be used in several other vehicles at minimum to justify these "special retro editions" making any sense at all financially for the Former Big Three. If people don't mind driving an all-new rip-roaring Challenger when the station wagon version pulls up next to them at the stoplight, then some of these cars might be winners.

Remember, GM, Ford and DCX simply do not have the "fun money" to bring out fun/toy vehicles like the Toyota FJ Cruiser or no less than two versions of the Nissan Sentra SE-R models, cars and trucks which might be considered collectible or at least "interesting" to future buyers.

A drop in Mustang sales should be a worry for Ford. Overall U.S. sales slipped 8% last year. The  company sold 160,975 Mustangs in 2005 and 166,530 in 2006, big numbers in the mid-size sports coupe market, a segment considered to be a niche.

Still, Ford is working desperately to keep the Mustang fresh with new variations to try and keep the car exciting, as well as gearing up new promotions heading into the spring and summer, traditionally the Mustang's best sales months. The company just began shipping new versions of a Shelby GT Mustang, and sometime next year, it plans a dark-green "Bullitt" version reminiscent of the 1968 Fastback Mustang GT that Steve McQueen drove in the classic movie.

Insiders who've seen styling mockups report the 2007 Bullitt (photo) features a plain grille without galloping pony badge or spotlights and a black-painted panel between the taillights, just like McQueen's '68. Naturally, the car will be available in Highland Green.

More significant, though, might be the new Boss, which will introduce Ford's all-new 5.0-liter Hurricane V-8. Due late in the year, the limited-edition Boss will get a tuned 425- to 435-horsepower version of the Hurricane, a stripped-down interior (though air-conditioning will be available), and less sound deadening. The idea is to replicate the original Boss Mustang's race-special feel. Only 1000 cars will be built.

Slightly detuned from Boss spec, the Hurricane will become the regular GT's engine in 2008, when the Mustang will get a major face-lift. Insiders report every exterior panel is to be changed and updated, with the base cars getting a more aggressive look similar to that of the current Shelby GT500. The GT500, meantime, will become even more extreme looking.

Ford's other remaining icon, the F-series pickup truck, also has seen its sales drop and is facing heavy competition from General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp.

MEXICAN TRUCKS GAIN UNFETTERED ACCESS TO ALL HIGHWAYS IN THE USA --- CONCERNED? WE ARE!

It was announced today by officials of both nations, February 24th, at the world's busiest border crossing, between Tijuana, Mexico and San Ysidro, California, that as soon as April of this year a one-year test will begin allowing Mexican trucks and their drivers virtually unfettered access to all roads in the USA. This creates numerous problems, especially for southern California.

Here's how a San Diego newspaper covered it: "After more than a decade of fierce opposition, U.S. and Mexican officials came to the Otay Mesa border crossing yesterday (just south of San Diego) to announce a pilot program that will open highways on both sides of the border to truckers from either country. U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said the yearlong pilot program, which could start as early as April, will initially enroll 100 Mexican and 100 U.S. long-haul freight companies. She gave further details of plans first disclosed Thursday."

OK, this is what I see: The potential problems are all quite obvious. First, safety: Americans really have no idea of the safety and testing standards for these drivers and their trucks. However, anyone who has ever been in Mexico can say honestly that the average big-rig truck on that nation's highways generally seem older, more beat-up, more polluting and on average more unsafe than their American counterparts. And the 'smog' problem is not at all subjective; the Mexican trucks use a much dirtier form of diesel in their trucks then is now allowed to be sold in the USA. The smog/pollution problem is completely objective and on TV news tonight from Los Angeles, an official with the South Coast Air Management District, which monitors and regulates the air quality in the LA, San Diego and Orange County areas, flatly stated that there will definitely be increased cancer deaths in southern California and perhaps the rest of the nation, even from this one year test, which could go into effect in 40 days.

As for safety; as stated, anyone who has driven in Mexico, especially at night, knows that there seem to be no actual 'rules of the road'; the whole system is made-up of what anyone can "get away with", because the police which do patrol the main highways are interested in pulling over (and extorting) vehicles with US license plates --- In cities and towns, the extortion problem is even worse, as citizens from other nations (known by ther license plates or if they are driving a rental car) are regularly pulled over for no reason at all and forced to "pay the fine" or go to jail ... It's that simple. By the way, the operativer term is "mordida", literally, "the bite" ... That's what the bribes are called by everyone. Don't be shy ... Offer to pay it, and fast, and get your butt (and your friends and/or family) out of there! (Photo - San Ysidro border crossing, world's busiest).

It's much more of a wide-open, free-for-all catch-as-catch-can system in Mexico, with big-rig trucks running at high speeds with blown-out headlamps, no taillights, and trucks which appear to be running in extremely overweight condition. Another thing to expect when driving in Mexico is for the pavement to simply end, and you find yourself suddenly, abrubtly, driving on packed dirt. It's ok (and even maybe fun) if you're in a 4x4 of some kind, but generally is more of a potentially dangerous shock than anything else.

As for brakes and other safety systems --- One California Highway Patrol officer was quoted several months ago, when this 'test' was first proposed, that, "We can barely take care of the trucks on the US side of the border. The only Mexican trucks we'll have the manpower to inspect are those which are either already in an accident, already broken down on the side of the road, or so obviously unsafe that an officer has no choice but to pull them over".

The border crossing at San Ysidro, CA/Tijuana, Mexico, is already the busiest cross-nation border in  the entire world. On a typical day, there are waits of over three hours for the average vehicle. It's faster to walk across or take a taxi or the light rail you can pick up in San Diego, but truckers can't do that. They are bringing themselves and their 80 tons or so of 'whatever' with them.

Add several thousand more big-rig trucks to that mix and there is a health and safety disaster in the making. The Mexican trucks, of course, will be able to use other border crossings in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, but like any other vehicle running on a deadline, they will be crossing at the border nearest to their destination, which, much of the time will probably be in southern California.

How about Mexico's driver testing procedures? Clearly, the rules and the testing in the USA is nowhere strict enough for big-rig drivers as it is, but it gets the job done and most civilian drivers can have a reasonable sense of safety when driving near a big-rig. All that is gone, however, with allowing these Mexican trucks and their drivers on thousands of miles of American roadways.

As one who personally is for an open-border system worldwide (trust, but verify, too), the addition of these thousands of big-rigs and their drivers with out USA-level safety, training and inspections makes me shudder in my driving shoes.

California's Highway 86, which runs from the Coachella Valley (where we live) south along the Salton Sea to the international border crossing at Mexicali/Calexico, is already well-known to police across the nation as possibly the single busiest smuggling route for humans, heroin, methamphetamine (both in and out of Mexico from where it's processed and made in the Palm Springs area) and all other kinds of contraband, now adds to the traffic on that route with thousands and thousands of big-rigs. Apart from the all-too-common deadly accidents on this route, usually involving either big-rigs and/or huge vacation motorhomes, the addition of these new, untested trucks and drivers is a frightening proposition.

This "experiment" may go on for only a year, but the Federal income tax was supposed to last for "only a year" as well, and somehow became permanent. This is an issue well worth your time and energy in calling and contacting all your state and federal representatives, at every level of government, because while we in southern California have suffered for decades with these vehicles and their drivers, this is now a USA-wide problem.

Either the drivers and their trucks get tested and certified at the same levels which are demanded in the USA, or they simply should not be allowed on our roadways. And the same goes for Canadian trucks and their drivers, too. (Photo - 2005 photo of San Ysidro border crossing).

M. WALTRIP TAKES ONE FOR THE TEAM ... AND THE SPORT

It was bad enough that Michael Waltrip was caught putting something akin to rocket fuel in his Toyota's gas tank and even worse ... got caught doing it ... and while not thrown out of the Daytona 500, because his sponsors told NASCAR they wanted their boy on the track (and in front of the TV cameras), finished in 30th position, two laps down. This week, Waltrip suddenly finds his Camry not catching enough speed at California Speedway and then 'graciously encouraging and allowing' his team mate, Dale Jarrett, to take the "champion's provisional", a typically-Byzantine NASCAR rule which allows former series champs to start a race even if they don't qualify by speed. But what is really going on, and how far will the "anti-Mikey" forces get in their efforts to remove M. Waltrip from the sport altogether?

Last week at Daytona, Michael Waltrip and his NAPA/Toyota team were caught, judged and executed by NASCAR --- Caught putting something in the fuel system (and it was not nitrous oxide, as some have opined), judged by whatever goes on in the "NASCAR trailer" and then executed --- Thrown out of the race. But Mikey's sponsors begged NASCAR to let him at least start the race ... NAPA, Toyota and all the others have spent too many millions to see their $$$ go down the drain. And one thing Mikey has with NASCAR is 'juice' ... and maybe that's what he had in his car, too!

But NASCAR still wanted to punish Mikey, and deservedly so. Our guess? Mikey got "the call", the infamous phone call from "someone" in NASCAR, but this time it was backward. Normally, "the call" tells a team that the inspectors might not be looking very closely at your car at the end of qualifying, end of the race, etc. (Photo - Dale Jarrett).

Like what happened at the Busch race in Mexico City a couple of years ago when an unheard-of Mexican driver, whose bio was not even on the NASCAR website, won the pole, thereby drawing many more thousands of fans to the track for the actual race and giving a tremendous (if false) story about this driver for Mexico's media to eat up. At the race, as we predicted, this guy's engine hand-grenaded after a hundred miles or less. Seems the engine block couldn't take the 700 or so horsepower that it was making ... But for qualifying, it was perfect!

So Mikey gets "the call" which tells him, essentially, to not qualify. Now Waltrip and his driver, Dale Jarrett, couldn't have orchestrated this part of it, but when they found themselves "on the bubble" for qualifying for the last spot on the starting grid for the "Auto Club 500", Jarrett took his "winner's provisional" without a second thought, we'd guess. (Photo - Older shot of DW and his car and l'il ol' fishin' boat, both emblazoned with sponsor decals and paint).

Everyone wins. Waltrip and his sponsors get probably more media notice then they would have otherwise, if Mikey had one of his typical rear-field starts and mid-field finishes (if he even did that well, with a race car which has not run one lap in competition so far this year outside of qualifying), the fans win because Mikey is right up in everyone's face, Toyota and NAPA win because Mikey gets plenty of PR and media attention, but come race time, he's gone, and NASCAR wins because everything has the appearance of a rule book which apparently works against cheaters.

Finally, no one is more of a sponsor whore than Mikey Waltrip --- Except his brother Darrell. A lot of  people are frankly sick of their constant shilling, which makes them both look and sound like the hired hands they are. Someone should tell them that the trick to proper product promotion is to appear as if you are not doing it in the first place. (Photo - Toyota Camry NASCAR race car).

Case in point: During the truck race on Friday night at The Cal, Mikey was in the SPEED booth (and how they can consistently use Mikey as a supposedly credible announcer, albeit a color commentator, when he's in the middle of one of the biggest cheating scandals to ever hit the sport ...) and one of the other guys reads a 'card' during a lull in the race for one of SPEED's popular shows, "Pinks". At its end, Waltrip commits a cardinal sin of broadcasting --- He continues to promote the "Pinks" show, although the other guy's read is over. Not only that, the only reason he used such poor judgment is because NAPA, one of his team's main sponsors, is also a "Pink's" sponsor, and he says so ... on-the-air, in the middle of the race, because, well, he figures he can! No one in the booth says anything contradictory, but everyone announcing suddenly got very quiet, and the next thing that happens is they break from the race for a commercial.

Mikey, we thought we knew ye --- But you and your brother are turning out to be two big pains in the butt!

FOMOCO'S PROBLEMS SEEM DEEPER THAN FIRST REALIZED

Ford has resurrected the names Taurus and Sable for their (formerly named) 500 and Montego cars. And the company has announced, just weeks after its (late) arrival, rebates on the all-new EDGE, supposed savior of the company. Anyone who thinks Ford has even THOUGHT about their cars in the past ten years is going to be disappointed to find out that for the past thirty years or so, apart from Mustang sales to teenagers and Baby Boomers, and Crown Victoria sales to police, Ford has been a TRUCK company. A big truck company, but a truck company nonetheless ...

Just what IS going there at Dearborn, at FoMoCo's iconic headquarters building located at "One The American Road"?

With some new execs at the top (Alan Mulally from Boeing and Mark Fields, Ford's man-in-Japan who saved Mazda, now serving as second banana), Ford had better be in a hurry to design and sell some cars which Americans want to buy! PRODUCT IS KING! (Photo - Ford Edge).

Take a look at Ford's car product in the USA --- While the new Mondeo and the Ka in Europe are setting some sales records and are exciting, fun cars to look at and drive, Ford brings back a dead name from the fleet, leasing and rental industry (Taurus) and shoves it on a bigger, more expensive car than the Taurus was ever intended to be.

That's why they called the new car the 500 in the first place! To separate it in the consumer's mind from the moribund Taurus!

We wrote about this months ago --- That FoMoCo was going to have huge problems placing both the 500 and Fusion in the proper perspective in potential buyer's minds, even if they did put the name into the NASCAR shuffle a year before the car was available to the public. (Photo - Ford 500 ... uh, Taurus! Yeah, that's the ticket! Taurus!).

Now Ford is running TV and print ads detailing how "readers from Car & Driver" (or was it "Road &  Track"?) were "invited" to a magazine-sponsored event where (after eating a free lunch and getting some gifts) they then drove ALL-WHEEL DRIVE Fusions against the FRONT-WHEEL DRIVE competition. And guess what? The drivers thought the Fusion handled BETTER! Geez, what a shocker, huh? Seriously, how this spot ever got past the Federal Trade Commission is beyond me ... It's only a matter of time until one of the competitor companies complains to the FTC and this spot gets pulled, as it should be. (Photo - Ford Mondeo).

500, Fusion, Taurus ... And who the hell even KNOWS what a "Mercury" is these days! Ford is right at the point where they can make great, determined changes for the future, or let the company deteriorate completely in this country into a truck-maker. And you know what? They may be happy to do just that, and use the European, Asian (and China and Australia) markets to sell their cars. (Photo - Ford Ka).

WORLD'S DUMBEST CAR-RELATED PROMOTION

Perhaps dumber even than hard liquor companies sponsoring race   cars in NASCAR and elsewhere, the following promotion by Grey Goose Vodka, which somehow convinced Rolls-Royce (which is still supposed to have some class, even if they are owned by BMW) to participate in what has to be the "Stupidest Promotion of the Year (so far)" in the car business. We really can't say anymore about this quite unbelievable marketing move, an affront to anyone who likes Rolls-Royce cars, except to run the PR release from Grey Goose exactly as it has appeared in AutoSpectator.com. Well, here goes:

GREY GOOSE(R) "The World's Best Tasting Vodka," has teamed up with Rolls-Royce, the undisputed leader in the ultra-luxury sedan segment, to create two customized limited-edition Rolls-Royce Extended Wheelbase Phantoms to serve as a platform to promote their social responsibility message of enjoying a safe night on the town, while delivering a luxury experience that cannot be replicated. The public should look for the 2007 GREY GOOSE Rolls-Royce Extended Wheelbase Phantom at high-profile events and around the town, where trained chauffeurs will educate passengers on GREY GOOSE and the importance to "Sip Responsibly." Additionally, vehicles will be utilized to raise money for local and national charity partners and ultimately auctioned off at the end of the program for charity.

Embodying the best in luxury and exclusivity, the 2007 GREY GOOSE Rolls-Royce Extended Wheelbase Phantoms creates an environment representative of the GREY GOOSE brand. Passengers will be encapsulated within the GREY GOOSE experience through special features including custom blended GREY GOOSE signature blue exterior paint and plush upholstery, GREY GOOSE logo embroidered onto headrests and integrated into the trim of the car, grey chrome door tread plates, GREY GOOSE etched mirrors and sterling silver GREY GOOSE onlay on each of the mahogany-veneered door cappings. The new longer wheelbase Rolls-Royce Phantom is entirely hand-crafted in-house -- designed, engineered and hand-built by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars at Goodwood, England.

OK, Steve back here --- Now, as the release says, be sure to look for those two special Rollers at "high profile events" (God, this just gets worse as it goes on, doesn't it? Can't you just see Paris Hilton getting involved with this sleazy deal?).

RON FINEMAN DIES, LOS ANGELES MEDIA CRITIC WAS 54

Ron Fineman, whose website "ronfineman.com" was a must-read for everyone involved with TV and radio news in Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest media market, died after a long battle with colon cancer on Saturday, 12-30-06, at age 54. Where the words "battle" or "fight" are sometimes used incorrectly in relation to patients with chronic, finally deadly, illnesses, Fineman did indeed fight, battle and scratch every step of the way to get as much life, and as much out of life, as he possibly could, even taking a bride and enjoying a lifetime-dream honeymoon in Italy just a few months ago.

Here's the obituary from the LOS ANGELES TIMES, which for once did a pretty good job of reportage. We can all only hope our local paper does as well by us when our times come:

By Scott Martelle
Times Staff Writer

December 31, 2006

Ron Fineman, a longtime California broadcast journalist and author of the Los Angeles television-insider "On the Record" website, died Saturday at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Santa Clarita after a lengthy battle with colon cancer. He was 54.

Fineman, who grew up in Los Angeles, chronicled the progress of the disease on his website — ronfineman.com — along with regular updates on local television news, seasoned with unforgiving assessments of what he considered to be less-than- professional performances. The website's tone made it a controversial thorn to L.A. television personalities, but Fineman's semiweekly updates were must-reads for those in the broadcasting business.

"As far as I'm concerned, I'm leaving this world having contributed something important, and I hope people remember me for that," Fineman said in a telephone interview Dec. 21, shortly after he was removed from a respirator at the hospital. "Some people were angry with what I wrote; some people took it in stride, and professionally. The real pros looked at the content of what I wrote and realized there was merit to what I was saying."

Fineman said he was most satisfied when he was able to expose hypocrisy or conflicts of interest among journalists.

"He was like the conscience of television news reporting," said Don Barrett, a friend who runs the website LARadio.com. "If he felt something wasn't exactly the way it should be — pronunciations, approaches, leaving parts of the stories in or out that didn't belong — he would point that out."

The focus on hard news over fluff that infused Fineman's website reflected his own journalism career, which included a stint managing a news division at a Bakersfield television station and freelance work for KNX-AM (1070) radio in Los Angeles — a five-year gig he lost in 2002, he said, after a posting on his website upset managers.

"He never backed down from a fight," said Diane Thompson, a longtime friend and former colleague at KNX. "He was very tenacious, especially when he thought a TV station had really taken a downturn and gone the tabloid route."

Fineman was particularly harsh over conflicts of interest, but he also teed off on marketing ploys, such as trotting out female on-air newscasters in revealing clothing.

"He had a kind of high standard for what television news should be," said Kevin Roderick, whose website laobserved.com fills a similar watchdog role for local print media. "He was kind of old-fashioned in his tastes. He didn't like 'happy talk,' a lot of banter between the anchors. He definitely did not appreciate women who dressed in anything other than very professional on stage."

Rosalie Fox, an Associated Press radio reporter who worked with Fineman in the early 1980s in Bakersfield, saw him as a blend of news reporter and commentator. He won three Golden Mike awards for commentary, most recently in 2001 for work at KPCC-FM (89.3) in Pasadena.

"Ron always wanted to do more than report," Fox said. "He compared and critiqued coverage, forcing readers to step back from their stories and think. He let no one slide."

She described Fineman as a virtual mentor on ethics.

"I find when I read" Fineman's postings, she said, "I'm inspired to do a better job. I hope the site remains up forever."

Fineman was born in Los Angeles and attended Fairfax High School and West L.A. College before earning a history degree from UCLA in 1974.

After several years as a disc jockey in Lompoc and Arroyo Grande, he joined KNTB-AM, then a Bakersfield talk radio station, in 1981, and later moved to KERN-AM in Bakersfield and KQXR-FM. He returned to the Los Angeles area briefly, then moved into television at KERO-TV in Bakersfield, where he remained until the mid-1990s before again moving back to Los Angeles.

Fineman began working part-time for KNX in 1997, and also did occasional commentaries for KPCC.

He is survived by his wife, Christy Knorr, a news producer at KCAL-TV Channel 9; a son, James Fineman of Bakersfield; and a brother, Ken Fineman of Santa Ana.

WHY 'AUTO AWARDS' ARE AN UNNECESSARY JOKE --- 2007 JEEP WRANGLER UNLIMITED 'FORGOTTEN', NOW A REVOTE IS NECESSARY

It used to be easy. Whichever car company promised to purchase  the most advertising space in the coming year and promote the upcoming 'award' on their division's TV and radio spots, billboards and wherever else possible, would be named 'Car of the Year'. And just about EVERY publication (and now, almost every TV and radio show and website and BLOG sniffing around Detroit's, Tokyo's and Germany's respective butts for ad dollars) takes part in this annual farce. You've already seen for yourselves how many "opinionated" BLOGS and websites have become much more "enthusiastic" and "manufacturer friendly" since adding advertising from the auto-makers. All those advertiser-bought-and-paid-for sites, shows and magazines ain't called "enthusiast" for nuthin'! Advertising itself is not inherently "evil" --- But I've worked at enough print and electronic media outlets where it was "understood" that, for the most part, the staff "Never met a car they didn't like --- Especially if that car's manufacturer advertised with us!" The "wall" between editorial and advertising which exists at most top-notch daily newspapers simply does not exist at automotive mags, websites, BLOGS and all the rest.

And now the "North American Car and Truck of the Year" awards have got a little problem --- seems someone forgot to include the 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited in the balloting. And the awards have already been announced (at least to insiders) and now there needs to be, ala Florida-style, a revote by the judges. More on that in a bit, from the Detroit News. This is somewhat good for the awards because it is probably the most press mention they've ever received. It is bad because it shows, once and for all, what an unnecessary and cash-seeking folly all these awards are ... and how they mean virtually nothing to the buying public.

In fact, the only auto award which the average consumer might know of (apart from Motor Trend) are 'awards' given by J.D. Power and Associates. And probably less than 1% of the buying public knows that Power does nothing but tally results from polls of car-buyers --- The company does absolutely no 'vehicle testing' of any kind itself.

The only automotive awards which ever meant anything to public, and the only ones which continue to mean anything to the buying public, are the MOTOR TREND CAR OF THE YEAR AWARDS. However, now that MT has divided their awards into so many categories that no sane person can keep them all straight, even those vaunted prizes have lost a great deal of their cache'. But Robert E. Petersen (and his Detroit sales genius, Bob Brown) put together such great advertising packages for the purported 'winners' that Detroit simply couldn't resist (and also to this day, Detroit can't stop resenting Mr. Petersen for taking so many hundreds of millions of dollars out of Detroit while keeping his corporate offices in Los Angeles. Which is why the Petersen Automotive Museum is in LA and not Detroit). But that's a whole other story ...

When David E. Davis finally brought things 'back to earth' with his Automobile Magazine Awards" --- Chosen because he liked the cars and trucks, and for no other reason --- It sent shockwaves through the industry. You mean awards would now be handed-out simply on the basis of someone who knows his cars and trucks choosing winners simply because he likes them for their fun, appearance, performance and value quotients? Amazing! Shocking! And to this day, David E. is still the only one doing this. However, Davis, who has spent his professional lifetime bouncing between advertising agencies working for the car companies and magazines promoting the car companies knows quite well which side his croissant is buttered, so Davis' 'awards' might be more subtle and wise-ass, but it's a gimmick all the same.

Now here's the latest on the ill-fated 'NATOTY" from the DETROIT NEWS:

"The 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited never had a chance to become the North American Truck of the Year. Not one automotive journalist voted for the new four-door Wrangler. They couldn't because it was mistakenly left off the ballot.

So for the first time ever, the jurors are being asked to vote a second time to determine the North American Truck of the Year. Organizers issued a new ballot to voters this week.

"We just missed it," said John McElroy of Blue Sky Productions and TV host to "Autoline Detroit" and "American Driver." "We're really kicking ourselves here, but we made a mistake and now we're going to fix it."

On Wednesday, the day after announcing the redesigned Chevrolet Silverado pickup and the Ford Edge and Mazda CX7 crossovers were finalists for the North American Truck of the Year, organizers realized the ballots sent to journalists omitted the first-ever four-door Wrangler built in Toledo.

McElroy, one of the seven journalists on the award's steering committee, said it won't be difficult to correct the mistake.

Jurors have been asked to revote for all truck candidates by Tuesday. If the Wrangler Unlimited cracks the top three, it will be added as a finalist without bumping any other finalist. The Silverado, Edge and CX7 are guaranteed to be finalists.

Chrysler applauded the committee's decision to send out a new ballot.

"Hats off to them," said Jason Vines, Chrysler Group's vice president of communications. "They saw they made a mistake and they're doing the right thing by asking for another vote. (The Wrangler Unlimited) deserves a spot on the ballot."

The award is not sponsored by the North American International Auto Show, but it's presented Jan. 7 during the Detroit show. Winners routinely use the award as a marketing tool."

The real stories here have got to be A) How the Jeep was left out in the first place, and, B) How none of these fabulous hand-picked "journalists" noticed the mistake!

A KIA IN A 'PROTECTIVE INTELLIGENCE' MOTORCADE? WELL, WE NOW KNOW IT WASN'T BULLETPROOF

There was another horrible assassination of a government Cabinet minister in Lebanon today, another tragedy for that beleaguered nation, which continues to allow itself to be run as a puppet by their apparent masters in Syria. However, after viewing the  photos of the remnants of the attack, analysts worldwide will be asking themselves: What was this 30-year old government official, son of a former Lebanese President, Pierre Gemayel, doing in a KIA? Was it a set-up? Where was Gemayel's armored car?

Gemayel's grandfather and namesake was a pharmacist who became very powerful in Lebanese politics. His son Bashir, then president-elect, was killed by assassins. His other son, Amin, was then elected president.

With the assassination of Lebanon's Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, in February, 2005, and the killers using a vehicle packed with enough explosives to not only destroy Hariri's motorcade armored cars and whole buildings around the entire big-city intersection where the attack took place, and leaving a crater which led authorities to believe the explosion was equal to that of a 500-pound bomb, one must wonder how serious the Lebanese are about protecting their leaders after a quick look at photos from the scene of today's murder.

Pierre Gemayel was riding in a KIA.

KIA's are not available with 'upgraded protection' from the factory, as are some BMWs and certain Mercedes-Benz models. Companies such as Hess O'Hara & Eisenhardt (see story below in this BLOG) have mini-factories worldwide where varying levels of 'occupant protection', including items from bullet-proof tires to bullet-deflecting windows (glass and plastic layers up to 1" thick) to tear gas and oil slick dispensers, door handles which provide potential intruders with a large electric shock and even hidden loudspeakers which emit sounds painful and destructive to the human ear can all be added to vehicles.

And there are parts of these vehicles (the bigger the better; Jeep Cherokees and Commanders are  among the favorites worldwide, as are Cadillacs and Lincoln Town Cars) which can be upgraded to be 'blast proof', including the undercarriage and the vehicle's sheetmetal. Fire extinguisher systems, like those used in race cars, are also popular add-ons. Some of these protective 'tricks' can only be installed on vehicles ordered by governments for VCIPs and heads-of-state.

Many so-called 'secure vehicles' also carry transmitters in them to electronically "white out" an area of up to 1/4 mile around the car, making it difficult or not impossible for people within that electronic 'security bubble' to use cell phones or other electronic transmitting apparatus --- This to attempt to defeat the use of remote-controlled bombs along the motorcade route. This 'bubble', being transmitted from the vehicle itself, travels with the car and provides added protection.

The main point is: What was this anti-Syrian Lebanese cabinet minister, an obvious target for attack, doing in a $20,000 KIA ... And where was his 'chase' vehicle, usually filled to the brim with security agents and weapons? Was there even a 'lead' vehicle or 'rabbit' ahead of Gemayel's car, used to clear the path of the motorcade ... Was there a helicopter flying over the motorcade (standard procedure in this country for national -level VIPs) to give observers a wide picture of the ground, also to enable them to spot and perhaps follow the assassins after the struck?

Looks like this might have been a set-up ... And it all comes down to the cars.

GM SCREWS ITS BEST CUSTOMERS; OnStar TO DIE ON MANY PRE-2004 VEHICLES; GM CAN MAKE MINIMUM $1.2 BILLION DUE TO "FORGETFULNESS"

As if things aren't going badly enough for the domestic Big 2 1/2, here's yet another example of Detroit treating its customers like dirt, or at least taking them for granted. This goes right up there with FoMoCo's quiet announcement last week that the EDGE and MKX, already being called the 'saviors' of the company, are going to be a minimum of one month late to dealerships. The NY TIMES had this story; you won't see it on any 'enthusiast' blogs or websites --- Because it has a lot to do with how Detroit REALLY operates too many times --- And that's STUPIDLY and ARROGANTLY. Take a look and tell us what YOU think:

FOR the last decade, OnStar has promoted itself as a paragon of convenience and peace of mind for car owners. Best known for its ability to bail out customers in a jam — and even make an automatic call for help when an air bag has been deployed in an accident — the service has about four million subscribers.

OnStar makes its pitch in a series of alarming radio advertisements that use recordings of actual emergency calls to demonstrate how operators in an OnStar call center are standing by to summon an ambulance, open a car with a child locked inside or track a vehicle that has been stolen. At the push of a button, the operators are available to give directions or to act as concierges, pointing subscribers to the closest gas station or Chinese restaurant.

But the operators will soon be signing off for some of OnStar’s longstanding customers. The dropped connection is a result a little-known decision by the Federal Communications Commission in 2002 that allows cellphone companies to shut down their analog networks beginning in February 2008.

The decision will affect not only mobile phone users in rural America and other places where digital networks have yet to be built, but also hundreds of thousands of subscribers with older cars whose OnStar systems rely on those analog networks. Some subscribers with 2002 model year or newer cars can have their cars converted to digital equipment, or their cars may already be equipped with the needed hardware.

OnStar, which was a $199 option when they bought their vehicles, will become largely obsolete in 15 months in some 2002-4 models, as well as all models before 2002, because the OnStar electronics cannot be upgraded. Some Acura, Audi, Subaru and Volkswagen owners will also be affected.

Verizon Wireless, the network of choice for OnStar, has not said how or when it will dismantle its analog network, though it has not ruled out shutting off the service all at once. More likely, industry analysts say, the networks will be turned off in stages.

That’s cold comfort for Michael Farris. His wife, Vickie, drives a 2002 GMC Yukon and uses OnStar for routing help in unfamiliar areas and to talk hands-free with her cellphone using OnStar’s connection to the truck’s audio system.

The truck has about 40,000 miles on it and runs well, so Mr. Farris wants to keep it beyond 2008. He must now consider whether to sell it, find one of the few aftermarket alternatives, or go without.

“This thing we paid for is going to turn into a pumpkin,” Mr. Farris, chancellor of Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va., said. OnStar’s decision to use analog-only technology “was like putting an eight-track tape player into a new vehicle.”

OnStar’s decision to use analog networks made sense a decade ago when the service was started because they were the most pervasive and reliable. Even as digital networks expanded in recent years — their greater call capacities for a given amount of wireless bandwidth made them attractive to phone companies — analog networks were often the only ones working in rural areas.

Analog’s broader coverage was also a good reason for home security companies like ADT to use the  networks, and now they are grappling with the ruling as well. They, like OnStar, tried unsuccessfully to persuade the F.C.C. not to sunset the analog network, the industry term for the phaseout.

OnStar created a Web site to alert customers to the coming changes. But for drivers with older cars, there is little more the company can do.

Critics, Mr. Farris included, say OnStar was negligent in continuing to install analog-only equipment before and after 2002 when it was clear that the phaseout of their supporting networks might be coming.

OnStar declined to make an executive available for this article, but in a statement said, “We at OnStar sincerely regret that we will not be able to provide OnStar service to vehicles with analog-only hardware after Dec. 31, 2007.” When asked why it continued to install equipment that could not be upgraded even after the F.C.C. ruling, the company said that “each vehicle has its own development and manufacturing schedule, not all vehicles will receive the same OnStar equipment at the same time.”

Dealers will upgrade some 2002-4 vehicles to work on digital networks if customers buy a three-year subscription to the Safe and Sound package at $199 a year.

The company would not say how many of its subscribers have analog-only or upgradeable equipment. But as many as half of OnStar’s customers, or two million subscribers, now drive cars that cannot be upgraded, according to Frank Viquez, an industry analyst at ABI Research.

Two-thirds of those cars will be sold or traded by their original purchasers by early 2008, leaving 500,000 to 700,000 OnStar buyers out of luck, Mr. Viquez said. G.M. plans to make OnStar standard in all its cars by the end of 2007. That will be too late for Mr. Farris, though, who feels OnStar and G.M. should have done more, switching to upgradeable technology far sooner.

“Those were $5 business decisions that are going to come back and haunt them,” he said. “It’s going to disillusion a bunch of G.M.’s best customers.” -30-

WOW! So not only did GM know that their OnStar/cellular carrier would be going all-digital at a specific time, essentially killing OnStar in perhaps millions of GM and other vehicles --- But GM says they will 'upgrade' your service to digital ... But ONLY for a three-year $600 commitment from the vehicle's owner!

As we are forced to say all too often (or some combination of the following): What were they thinking? Don't they ever learn? Don't the executives in Detroit, Dearborn and Highland Park ever wonder WHY their market shares are plummeting faster than North Korea's GNP?

And did anyone say: Lawsuit? We can hear it now: "Yes, your honor, I was in my Cadillac, for which I paid $62,000 only three years ago, and when I hit that little girl on the bicycle I immediately pushed the OnStar emergency button in my car and then exited the car to help the little girl. People in the neighborhood said they would call 911 for me, but I told them not to bother ... I had already done so by using OnStar. Or at least I thought I had".

And how much $$$ does The General stand to make for their little indiscretion? Well, if only 2 million of the vehicle owners affected when their OnStar suddenly and without any warning whatsoever STOPS working ... If only 2 million of them pay the $600 "upgrade fee" ... GM can pocket $1,200,000,000! Yep, ONE BILLION TWO-HUNDRED MILLION for GM staying mum about a defect which they clearly knew about and decided to not do anything about ... This is the REAL world of Detroit, folks ...

FOMOCO'S EDGE AND MKX TO BE LATE --- BAD MOVE FOR FORD!

The car which has been dubbed by some Ford officials the "savior"  of their company has had its delivery delayed for several weeks. Both the Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX will not be in dealers showrooms or available for customers for weeks after the dates the company initially said the cars would get into consumer's hands (and driveways and garages). This is terrible news for Ford. The only thing worse than a new car coming out with problems is a new car delayed because the car-maker says the vehicle still needs some 'tweaking'. This is the 21st century, Ford ... Grow up! These days, there is no acceptable excuse for the delay of an important new domestic vehicle. Here's how the AP is reporting this bad news tonight:

   Ford Motor Co. will delay delivery of its new Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX crossover vehicles as it irons out problems at its Oakville, Ontario, manufacturing complex, company officials said Wednesday.
   The company initially said it would deliver the car-based crossover vehicles to dealerships in November, but that now has been delayed until an unspecified date in December.
   Several thousand of the vehicles have been built and all meet Ford's quality standards, but Ford wants to make sure all of its manufacturing processes are working correctly before delivering the
vehicles, Joseph R. Hinrichs, vice president of North American manufacturing, said in an interview with The Associated Press.
   "The product's ready. We want to make sure that our process is equally ready to deliver, on a consistent basis, the quality and the timeliness of the deliveries that our dealers and our customers
expect," Hinrichs said.
   Ford has critical check points to watch hundreds of assembly line work stations and wants to make sure quality is consistent with all the stations before rolling out the vehicle, he said.
   "We're not yet to the level where the consistency is where we want it to be to launch the vehicles," he said.
   Ford also has experienced inventory shortages from some companies supplying parts to the plant, Hinrichs said.
  The Edge and MKX are important vehicles to the struggling Ford's turnaround plan, with the company hoping to capture people seeking a more fuel-efficient alternative to truck-based sport utility vehicles. (Photo - Lincoln MKX media introduction).
     Ford clearly has a quality problem at the plant, said Catherine Madden, an auto industry analyst at the consulting company Global Insight Inc. But she said fixing it has to be balanced against getting the product to dealers when every sales day counts.
   "I think it is prudent to meet those quality standards. Ford is under such a microscope now," she said.
   Ford got a boost recently when Consumer Reports magazine gave its new Fusion midsize sedan high marks for reliability, showing the company is again building quality vehicles.

THREE GREAT THINGS HAPPENED THIS WEEK IN THE US AUTO INDUSTRY!

Bill Ford steps down. GM increases powertrain warranties. DCX drops Dr. Z in favor of 0% financing. It's been a good week so far for the US auto industry, with all the major players (though DCX is hardly an American company, but we like to sort-of think so) making positive moves which show the confidence some of the top execs still have in their companies.

First, Bill Ford gives up the CEO job at his own company in favor of a guy who has sold airplanes for the past 17 years against just ONE competitor (AirBus). Bill Ford knew that no one could fire him. So he gave it up all on his own. VERY BRAVE, VERY COMMENDABLE. Knowing when to "get out" is something most high-power people have no idea how to do properly. Ford shows that while he may have the big ego which comes with big money, he's also smart and isn't living for titles and pensions. He wants to help save his company, though he's been stopped at almost every turn. His initial promises to make FoMoCo the "greenest" of all the car companies has fallen through to the point where most people don't even remember him saying it ... Now he admits that while he's been doing THREE jobs for the past several years, at least two of them could be given to someone who might know a bit about process, manufacturing and sales. Not an easy person to find. They've settled on Boeing's Allen Mulally. Mulally takes the CEO and "President" positions; Ford remains Chairman. (Photos: Above, Bill Ford, below, Alan Mulally).

THIS JUST IN: AT LEAST $10 MILLION FOR MULALLY! Detroit News reports: New Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally will make sat least $10 million  in compensation. The high sticker comes as no surprise given the fact that Bill Ford has had such a hard time finding somebody to take over his job, including the likes of Carlos Ghosn and Dieter Zetsche. It also comes as no surprise since Mulally was Boeing's second-highest paid executive at a mere $9.9 million compensation package in 2005, and Ford had no choice but to offer him a better deal. Among his Boeing perks was a 104-percent pay increase for 2005 over 2004, $83,000 in personal use of the company jet, company cars and club memberships for business purposes. His base pay in 2005 was $825,000. THE COMPANY JET!??! Yep, we bet! Probably one of those Boeing "Executive Jets", re-done 767s...Wow, again!

Then, DaimlerChrysler (DCX) finally drops those horrible "Dr. Z" TV and print spots and goes back to the basics: 0% financing for 72 months (!), but only for buyers with pretty  perfect credit. Some analysts think DCX has not gone far enough, automatically keeping a lot of people who might want to buy DCX products from actually doing so. But wait a second: Since when were car and truck contracts 72 MONTHS LONG?!?! Didn't SIX YEAR payment books used to go only to motorhome buyers? In any event, the "Dr. Z" spots presented mixed messages (German-American high-quality with cheap prices?) and DCX salespeople will be happy to see people coming into the showroom excited about saving some money, without worrying about some guy with a German accent who seemingly scared children and was only missing a monocle and a leather raincoat to complete the picture. (Photo: Left, DCX's own Dr. Dieter Zetsche).

And, finally, The General rocks our world with extended powertrain warranties! That shows confidence! Remember when Hyundai was such a joke that the only models seen on the street were either wrecked or abandoned? What did Hyundai do? They came out with a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty and the company was, literally, saved from destruction in the USA. GM is hoping for just a little of the same thing. General Motors is increasing the powertrain warranty on all its 2007 model vehicles sold in the United States and Canada to 5 years or 100,000 miles, the automaker said today. The powertrain warranty is transferable and has no deductible, GM said. But, we say: WOW!, anyway. (Photo: right, GM's Rick Wagoner).

With VP Dick Cheney slated to speak to the National Automobile Dealers Association's annual legislative conference in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 19, and "W" his-own-self scheduled to meet with the heads of the US car companies soon after that, it appears all three domestic makers are making much-needed positive and very public moves.

Let's just hope (and pray) that they are all not too late. (Photos: You know who).

SAVE GAS HERE! WELCOME KFYI/PHOENIX/CRUMMEY LISTENERS!

CAR NUT STEVE PARKER saw a large display ad recently in the LOS ANGELES TIMES for a company inviting "potential distributors" to come to a hotel ballroom meeting ("Free!") to find out how to become "distributors" for the "NEW, SECRET GAS PILL" which would "INSTANTLY SAVE 25% OF THE GAS IN YOUR TANK!" And he got mad. So he wrote the following (after he sold the idea to THE DESERT SUN newspaper's Business Editor Dennis Britten) for THE DESERT SUN, the Gannett newspaper which covers the Coachella Valley in southern California, one of the fastest-growing areas in the nation. It's by-far the most-read newspaper in the area. Home to Palm Springs, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Indio, Coachella and more cities and towns, some famous, others not so, the area is said to be second-only to Las Vegas in growth numbers and percentages. STEVE PARKER has been a columnist for THE DESERT SUN since moving to the desert area from Marina del Rey in Los Angeles in 2000. Oh, attorneys general in several states have filed charges against the "magic pill" people --- And say they made some $25 MILLION in just a few weeks! Now, here's HOW TO REALLY SAVE GAS AND MONEY:

They’re baa-a-ck!

The creepy, sleazy characters who sell “secret” devices, pills, fluids, mechanical contraptions and other things “Detroit doesn’t wan you to know about!”, all to supposedly help you save gas and money. Since prices skyrocketed, even a man who “runs his cars on tap water” has been profiled on CNN. With prices up and probably not coming down, these folks are more numerous (and perhaps enticing) than ever.

For the average driver, cars and trucks come from the factories tuned for the best possible mileage. Laws of physics, not magic, determine how much fuel it takes to power an engine to produce the “horsepower” to move a vehicle a certain distance.

And gasoline remains the single most efficient fuel for the internal combustion engine.

There are, though, many reliable and proven ways you can save fuel and funds, whether you’re driving the latest hotshot from Europe or Asia or a classic

Detroit

chariot. And we’ll tell you their prices, too (not including installation).

The first and easiest thing to remember is: Stay away from the mid- and high-grade fuels. Most vehicles less than 20 years old will run fine on the least expensive 87 octane gasoline. Try a tank full of low-grade, and if you notice no difference in your vehicle’s performance (like engine knocking, pinging or hesitation, stalling or bucking), keep using it! If these symptoms do appear, use a tank full of the expensive stuff, then go back to the cheap gas until the problem arises again. This alone can save as much as $0.75 cents a gallon.

An annual change of spark plugs (or more often, depending on their condition, which your technician should check) and a check of all belts and hoses is important.

Spark plugs cost from $2 to $15 apiece, and in this case, pricier may be better.

Loose belts, especially with today’s one-belt “serpentine” systems, can hurt fuel mileage. Replacements run from $25 to $50.

Ignition wires often are overlooked. They wear out slowly, cooking in the heat of the engine bay and the desert summer. Silicon-covered replacements (as much as $75) can increase mileage and give a noticeable performance boost.

Check, clean and replace (when necessary) all air, oil and gasoline filters. Replacing them all with original equipment costs less than $100. A washable, “high-performance” air filter can improve mileage and emissions (about $60).

The oil filter should be replaced every time you change the oil, every 3,000 to 5,000 miles. Use a pre-mixed blend of conventional and synthetic oils; there’s a number of them on the market and they all meet the same American Petroleum Institute (API) standards. Prices are usually under $10 per quart.

Aftermarket exhaust systems and bolt-on turbocharger and supercharger systems cost a lot but can generously increase mileage and improve performance and emissions. Serious drivers might also want to investigate aftermarket performance “chips” for their engine’s computer.

A simple and free check of tire pressure is mandatory every two or three weeks. Many new cars and trucks have dashboard monitors reporting tire air pressure (systems will be mandatory starting in 2009). Proper air pressure means better mileage, safer driving and longer tire life.

Many of these items have to be checked and inspected more often here than in coastal areas due to local heat, sand, dust and wind. All of these attack every rubber and plastic part on a car, including tires and even in the engine bay and under the vehicle.

Those looking for the “quick fix” with “magic potions” are falling victim to their own greed. One company which recently advertised in major national newspapers has been indicted by several states’ attorneys general. One report says this outfit made $25,000,000 from eager investors who wanted to distribute the company’s “magic gas tank pill” fuel-saver in the last year.

Improving fuel mileage is not difficult. It takes common sense, a few dollars, and most important, a lighter throttle foot. Slow down! Also, in stick-shift cars, be like fuel-saving race car drivers and “short shift”; that is, shift into the higher gear at lower-then-usual engine rpm’s.

Yes, even race car drivers need to save gas sometimes!

(Steve Parker has been reporting on the auto industry for 35 years. The two-time TV Emmy Award winner is heard Sunday from 8-10am on NewsTalk 920 KPSI radio and seen on CAR NUT TV on TIME-WARNER Channel 10. Visit his blog and email him at www.SteveParker.com)

-30-

CAR NUT'S MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND RACE ANALYSIS

If you live in the civilized world, you could not miss watching at least SOME auto racing on television during Memorial Day weekend. The following is adapted from Steve Parker's "Motorsports Update" (sorry for the "all caps"; it was originally a script!) which is a 2-minute segment that runs on "CAR NUT TV", seen on Coachella Valley and San Diego County Time-Warner cable systems. Read on, and let us know YOUR opinions on the current state of worldwide open- and closed-wheel racing!

IF YOU’RE A RACING FAN, MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND HAD SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE!

IN EUROPE, THE FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF MONACO BRINGS THE WORLD’S BEST AND OLDEST EXISTING TEMPORARY STREET CIRCUIT TO FANS AROUND THE WORLD. DID YOU KNOW THE CBS ANNOUNCERS WERE NOT AT THE RACE, BUT IN A STUDIO IN NEW YORK?

AND REMEMBER WHEN ABC-TV WOULD SHOW THE RACE AT LEAST A MONTH AFTERWARDS, WITH THE ‘WEE SCOTT’ JACKIE STEWART AS ONE OF THE ANNOUNCERS? AND OF COURSE THE RACE WAS ON FILM, NOT VIDEOTAPE. HECK, THESE DAYS, THE BEST WE GET FROM CBS IN THE BOOTH IS FORMER CART RACER DANNY SULLIVAN, BUT WE DO SEE THE QUALIFYING SESSIONS ’LIVE’.

THE FINAL MONACO F1 QUALIFYING SESSION ON SPEED CHANNEL WAS THE MOST INTERESTING AND ACTUALLY HISTORY-MAKING. SIX-TIME WORLD CHAMPION, FERRARI’S MICHAEL SCHUMACHER, FAKED A CRASH, BLOCKING THE TRACK, SO CURRENT WORLD CHAMP, RENAULT’S FERNANDO ALONZO, COULD NOT BEST SCHUMACHER, WHO HAD THE PROVISIONAL POLE, FOR THAT #1 POSITION. ALONZO STARTED ON THE POLE AND WON THE RACE. SCHUMACHER STARTED LAST BECAUSE OF HIS CHEATING, YET STILL MANAGED FIFTH, AN AMAZING FEAT IN ITSELF. AND MONACO LOOKED GREAT!

IN MANSFIELD, OHIO, CERTAINLY NOT MONACO, RON HORNADAY JUNIOR, A GREAT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RACER, WHOSE BROTHER IS AN LA COUNTY DEPUTY SHERIFF, WON HIS FIRST SEARS CRAFTSMAN TRUCK RACE IN MORE THAN A YEAR IN A CHEVY TRUCK WITH NO CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP. THE TRUCK SERIES CONTINUES TO PRODUCE SOME OF THE BEST RACING IN THE USA . AND GOOD FOR RON!

ALSO, GOOD FOR CARL EDWARDS IN THE BUSCH RACE AT CHARLOTTE’S LOWE’S MOTOR SPEEDWAY, WHO WON HIS FIRST RACE THIS YEAR WHEN BAKERSFIELD’S CASEY MEARS, WHO LED MOST OF THE RACE, RAN LOW ON GAS WITH ONLY FIVE LAPS TO GO. WHY DO THE ALLOW ONLY ONE FUEL PICK-UP IN THE NASCAR FUEL CELLS? MY TEAM WOULD PUT ONE IN THE CENTER AND AT EACH OF THE FOUR CORNERS, ASSURING THE FUEL GETS PUMPED TO THE ENGINE NO MATTER HOW BADLY IT MIGHT BE SLOSHING AROUND IN A NEAR-EMPTY TANK. MUST BE A NASCAR RULE.

IN NASCAR’S LONGEST AND TOUGHEST OVAL RACE OF THE YEAR, THE COCA-COLA 600, 26 YEAR OLD KASEY KAHNE, FROM WASHINGTON STATE, DOMINATED AND WON THE EVENT IN HIS RAY EVERNHAM DODGE. EVERNHAM REMAINS THE TOP MAN FOR ALL THE DODGE TEAMS. HE SIGNED THE ORIGINAL CONTRACTS AND DEALS TO BRING DODGE BACK INTO NEXTEL CUP (DODGE HAD ALREADY BEEN ACTIVE IN THE CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES); THOSE DEALS INCLUDED PUTTING BILL ELLIOTT, PERPETUALLY THE FAN’S FAVORITE DRIVER (THE ‘MOST POPULAR DRIVER’ AWARD IS NOW NAMED FOR ELLIOTT!), INTO THE FIRST NEW DODGE ON THE TRACK.

HERE’S A NASCAR STORY FROM THE COCA-COLA 600:

MICHAEL WALTRIP COULDN’T QUALIFY FAST ENOUGH TO MAKE THE FIELD, SO HE BOUGHT A CAR WHICH HAD! DERRIKE COPE, WHO WON THE DAYTONA 500 A LONG TIME AGO ( TWO WINS IN OVER 400 STARTS), HAD QUALIFIED HIS DODGE FOR THE 600. IN NASCAR, THE CAR QUALIFIES, NOT THE DRIVER. SO WALTRIP GAVE COPE ENOUGH MONEY TO ALLOW HIM TO RACE IN AT LEAST THE NEXT TWO NEXTEL CUP EVENTS (ACCORDING TO MIKEY), AND MOVED HIS #55 CAR NUMBER, ALL THE DECALS AND THE BIG ‘NAPA AUTO PARTS’ SPONSORSHIP TO COPE’S CAR FOR THE DAY. WALTRIP DID IT TO KEEP HIS STREAK OF SOME 270 STARTS INTACT. HE DID ACHIEVE THAT, BUT FINISHED 41ST AFTER STARTING 43^RD, DROPPING OUT EARLY DUE TO BRAKE PROBLEMS. WALTRIP DID POCKET $81,605, MADE A LOT OF NEWS FOR HIS SPONSORS (THOSE WALTRIP BOYS ARE CANNY!) AND MAYBE MADE ENOUGH TO PAY FOR THE COPE CAR HE PURCHASED. BUYING THAT CAR WAS PROBABLY THE LAST THING MIKEY WAS PLANNING ON DOING AT THE COCA-COLA 600. IN ANY EVENT, MIKEY WILL DRIVING A TOYOTA CAMRY FOR BILL DAVIS RACING NEXT YEAR. KASEY “THE KID” KAHNE WON IN POWERFUL FASHION.

FINALLY, THE INDY 500. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 10 YEARS, THE RACE HAD SOME REAL EXCITEMENT (UP FRONT) AS THE POLE WINNER, PENSKE’S SAM HORNISH JUNIOR, IN HIS DALLARA HONDA, TOOK THE WIN IN THE FINAL 100 YARDS OF THE LAST LAP, PASSING 19 YEAR OLD MARCO ANDRETTI FOR HIS FIRST INDY WIN, IN THE SECOND CLOSEST INDY FINISH EVER. MARCOS’ DAD, MICHAEL, STILL HASN’T WON AT INDY, BUT FINISHED THIRD. BOTH FATHER AND SON ARE ON THE ANDRETTI GREEN TEAM. WHAT A PODIUM PHOTO FOR THAT FAMILY!

DID MICHAEL LET HIS SON PASS HIM WITH A FEW LAPS TO GO? DEFINITELY NOT. MICHAEL’S CAR HAD BEEN MID-PACK AT BEST MOST OF THE DAY, AND MARCO HAD BEEN IN THE FRONT DICING WITH THE LEAGUE’S BEST DRIVERS. ALSO, MICHAEL AND MARCO BOTH KNEW THAT MARCO HAS A LOT MORE INDY 500’S IN HIM, WHERE THAT MIGHT NOT BE THE CASE FOR MIKE.

BOTH AL UNSER, JR., AND AJ FOYT HAVE PROVEN THEY ARE NOW OFFICIALLY ON THE “I HELPED MAKE TONY GEORGE WHAT HE IS AND NOW HE OWES ME ENTRY INTO THE INDY 500 WHEN I DEMAND IT” CLUB. NEITHER UNSER, JR., OR FOYT’S ENTRY DID ANYTHING IMPORTANT THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE 500 MILES.

KUDOS TO PJ JONES, SON OF PARNELLI JONES. IN 1963, PARNELLI, “A TOUGH KID FROM A TOUGH PART OF A TOUGH TOWN” (TORRANCE, CA), WON THE INDY 500 IN A RACE CAR OWNED BY THE FAMED SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA RACING PROMOTER JC AGAJANIAN, CAR #98. AT THIS YEAR’S INDY 500, HIS SON DIDN’T WIN, BUT HAD THE SAME-NUMBERED CAR AND SPONSORSHIP FROM THE AGAJANIAN FAMILY AND MIKE CURB, FORMER LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA , RECORD LABEL OWNER AND ERTSWHILE RACE CAR DRIVER. PJ JONES FINISHED 19TH.

BUT YET AGAIN, AT LEAST 20 OF THE 33 DRIVERS IN THE RACE DIDN’T BELONG THERE IF DRIVING SKILL WERE ANY MEASURE, AND THE RACE THIS YEAR MADE THE BEST CASE YET FOR A REUNIFICATION, AND SOON, OF THE IRL AND CHAMP CAR.

ATTRITION SHOULD NOT BE THE #1 REASON DRIVERS GAIN POSITION IN THE INDY 500. THERE WAS ESSENTIALLY NO RACING GOING ON UNTIL THE FINAL 20 OR SO LAPS. NOT A REASON TO COMMIT ONE’S SELF TO SOME FOUR HOURS OF ROUNDY-ROUND WITH A LOT OF DRIVERS NO ONE EVER HEARD OF BEFORE.

DANICA PATRICK REMAINS AN UNPROVEN QUANTITY. IT APPEARS AT THIS POINT THAT THE  ONLY REASON FOR THE RAHAL-LETTERMAN TEAM TO KEEP HER ON-BOARD IS FOR THE PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MARKETING VALUE SHE BRINGS WITH HER. BUT THAT ‘SPECIAL TREATMENT’ IS EVENTUALLY GOING TO RUB OFF, AND WHEN THAT TIME COMES, THE TEAM WILL DROP HER LIKE A LEAD WEIGHT. ALSO, MORE WOMEN WILL ENTER THE SPORT, AND KATHERINE LEGGE IN ATLANTIC/CHAMP CAR SEEMS TO HAVE ‘THE RIGHT STUFF’. SHE WON A MAJOR SECOND-TIER RACE AT THE LONG BEACH GRAND PRIX IN THE ATLANTIC SERIES (SOMETHING PATRICK HAS NOT DONE), CHAMP CAR’S SO-CALLED ‘FEEDER SERIES’.

IF THE INDY 500 MIXES BOTH SERIES NEXT YEAR, WE MIGHT SEE AN INTERESTING CONTEST BETWEEN PATRICK AND LEGGE. IF DANICA IS BRINGING MONEY TO RAHAL-LETTERMAN, THAT MIGHT SECURE HER FUTURE SOMEWHAT, BUT SHE HAS YET TO WIN AN INDY RACING LEAGUE EVENT. SHE HAS SOME GREAT DRIVING SKILLS, BUT AT THIS INDY 500, EITHER HER CAR WAS SIMPLY NOT FAST ENOUGH (WHICH HAD BEEN THE CASE ALL MONTH, IF THE TEAM WAS NOT SAND-BAGGING) OR SHE DOESN’T HAVE THAT ‘KILLER INSTINCT’ NECESSARY TO WIN RACES AND BECOME A TRUE CHAMPION. ALSO, SHE BLAMED HER PROBLEMS AT INDY ON HER CAR (WHICH MEANS SHE’S BLAMING HER TEAM) AND THE ACTIONS OF OTHER DRIVERS. THAT KIND OF TALK GETS OLD, FAST. AND DANICA NEEDS TO FIGURE THAT OUT, AND, MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE --- WIN A DAMN RACE!

BEVERLY HILLS: SHOPPING, MOVIE STARS, RADAR TICKETS!

Beverly Hills, CA is considering the use of photo radar, a system which times cars and trucks, then takes a photo of the car, front and rear, in an attempt to capture the vehicle's license plate. A ticket is then sent to the vehicle owner (and it is not sent by certified mail, so how do they prove it ever got to the owner?) and if it is not paid, the cost of that ticket goes WAAAY up and the owner will find the amount on his or her VEHICLE REGISTRATION when it next comes due. In fact, these tickets can go to a "warrant" status if unpaid in some cities, and a vehicle owner might find him or her self under arrest late some night...for something they might not have done!

The world-famous City of Beverly Hills wants to launch a pilot program using photo radar to nab speeders, according to the LOS ANGELES TIMES. Mayor Steve Webb said the city must do something novel to curb drivers who diverge from the city's increasingly congested main thoroughfares, such as Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards, onto tree-lined side streets as they make their way to jobs, schools and shopping. But Beverly Hills' plan has come under attack in Sacramento and elsewhere, with opponents contending that placing cameras on side streets amounts to an invasion of privacy.

The ongoing tearing-up of the Fourth Amendment notwithstanding, cities in California which have toyed with photoradar has usually given it up within a few months or a couple of years of testing. Some of the same problems cities have had with "red light photos" have arisen with photo radar, though some of the red light photo systems have been in place for quite some time. These problems include the system manufacturer paying bribes or promising kickbacks to city officials for allowing their systems to be installed in a given city, and the fact that many of these red light and photo radar system are easily knocked out of alignment and need constant upkeep and maintenance if the cities are trying to be honest in their mailing-out of tickets.

For literally decades, residents of Beverly Hills have fought hard to destroy several programs which would have helped the admittedly bad traffic problems in their city, and so far, they have won.

One idea was for a light rail system running along existing tracks on Santa Monica Boulevard, a system which could have easily reached from downtown Los Angeles, all the way west to the Santa Monica Pier, bisecting Beverly Hills in the process. Status? Dead.

Another proposal called for a tunnel to be built under Santa Monica Boulevard, allowing drivers not needing to stop in Beverly Hills to continue through the city. Residents and business vehemently opposed the tunnel concept and eventually killed it. There were complaints about the construction costs, hassle and time involved, and businesses wanted no car or truck to pass through their fine burg without being able to stop on Wilshire Boulevard or Rodeo Drive and drop some large $$$. Status? Dead.

In fact, for the past several years, there has been a huge street-widening project going on right on the western border of the Cities of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, which would have been the perfect place for one end of the tunnel. But that project is just about finished, and no tunnel has been spotted as yet.

So the fine citizens of Beverly Hills, some of them also US citizens, figure: If we're going to have the traffic (and they MUST want it, given their history of not allowing improvement projects), we might as well make a few bucks off the occasional speeder taking short-cuts through our many scenic canyon roads.

HUMMER H1 SOLD 374 MODELS IN 2005; GM MERCIFULLY TAKES THE TRUCK OUT OF ITS MISERY

GENERAL MOTORS OWNS THE 'HUMMER' NAMEPLATE; NOW THE BIG 'H1 ALPHA'  HAS BEEN OFFICIALLY PUT OUT TO PASTURE. SOME 12,000 H1 MODELS HAD BEEN SOLD SINCE 1992; SALES HAVE DROPPED TO ONLY SEVERAL HUNDRED A YEAR; EXPECT THE LARGE H2 TO BITE THE DUST NEXT SEASON.

General Motors has announced the demise of perhaps the silliest vehicle ever sold the public (except for maybe the Pontiac Aztec). The elegantly useless, unparkable, threatening, intimidating, unable-to-stay-in-its-own-lane and environmentally-challenged HUMMER H1, the BIG one, which now sells for above $120,000, has officially been 'discontinued' by GM.

Production of the H2 and H3 will continue. The H2 will probably be discontinued next year as gas prices continue to rise and sales fall.

Why did GM (or any company) ever even consider selling such a gigantic truck to the general public? Well, sit back and read about a diner party I attended in '91 or '92...when the head of AMGENERAL, maker of the H1 (and the last vestige of the old American Motors) told me how Arnold Schwarzenegger made a personal pitch to him -- and the rest really is history!

A few years ago I went to a "media event" at a fancy restaurant in the hills above Malibu, CA, in Topanga Canyon, to be more exact, a place where famous for its serving of just about any wild game food you can name. The "event" was the local press introduction of the HUMMER H1, and at the diner I sat next to the then-President of AM General, a guy named Jim Armour (PERFECT name, right?), and he told me (at length over some good wine) the story of how none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger was personally responsible for the HUMMER H1 being sold the the public.

Before the dinner, an off-road course of sorts had been created behind and around the restaurant. Rod Hall, one of the great off-road drivers of all time (and incidentally Rod and his son campaign Hummers of all sorts and types in races ranging from the Baja 1000 to the Dakar Rally), was there to help us auto journos brush-up on our off-road driving skills.

Well, the H1 maneuvered up and over boulders which you could not do on foot with ropes and pulleys, and generally acquitted itself in fine fettle through the gulleys and streams and over the rocks and through the deep dirt and sand which the 'track' through at us. With Rod Hall sitting in passenger seat and yelling at you to "Stand on it!" and that big ol' diesel barely revving 600rpm, well, you should sort of had to believe this thing would get the job done. And it did!

So, as they say in NASCAR, here's the deal...Seems Schwarzenegger was up in Seattle or Portland or some such dreary place when he was making KINDERGARTEN COP (one of his best movies, yah, for sure...). Anyway, on the way to or from work one day, Arnold sees a NATIONAL GUARD caravan of vehicles going the other way on the highway. Well, the legend now has it, Arnold got so excited by the trucks that he turned his car around and caught up to them on their next rest stop.

"What are those? Where can I buy one!?!? They have BALLS!!!", were all some of the things Arnold was yelling at anyone who would listen.

Told they were HumVees and made for the military only, Arnold made sure to find out WHICH company made these behemoths and how to get in contact with them.

Later, a year or so, at the ARNOLD CLASSIC,a huge international bodybuilding tournament held every year in Ohio, Arnold took his private plane to visit a place called AMGENERAL, where the HumVees were made. He met with the company's executives and toured the assembly lines, thrilling the workers and praising them on building such "Ballsy vehicles!" (this comes into the story later).

Anyway, it was these actions (and many, many more) which eventually convinced the company to make the vehicles available to the general public, certainly the first time a military-spec vehicle was sold to the average man or woman. While the Hummers (the new, civilian name) caught on fast, propelled into the American psyche by the first Gulf War and Arnold's non-stop pimping for them, it also became apparent that a lot of the buyers and drivers were in, literally, WAY over their heads as far as knowing how to drive or control (or even get in and out of) what was really a truck cut-down to near-human size. And when gas prices started to rise, the name HUMMER took on an entirely new meaning.

Many fire agencies, police departments and municipalities of all sorts around the country, though, were able to buy the HUMMER for their own professional use in fire-fighting and life-saving, and that was a good use of these heretofore army-only trucks.

GM bought the HUMMER name and started paying AMGENERAL to produce the H1 and H2 trucks which were being sold at GM dealerships willing to pony-up some extra cash to get one of the suddenly-valuable HUMMER stores. Dealers were supposed to build all-new facilities to sell the HUMMER, including a stand-alone Quonset-hut appearing building, and even a test-track on the dealer's lot or somewhere nearby, but GM was happy simply to have a popular vehicle, even if all the PR was not good, and GM eventually overlooked many of their requirements for the HUMMER dealers.

With the H2 probably leaving production in another year, GM is having good luck with the more- reasonable (yet still grossly overweight and offering only lousy mileage) H3. At least it has a regular pickup truck as its basis, not a vehicle meant to serve as a rocket launcher, ambulance, troop carrier, and available in some 40 more configurations for the military from AMGENERAL.

So that's the deal on the HUMMER H1...and I was there to hear it from the man who signed the contract with Arnold and GM...

And by the way...about all that "ballsy" talk: Whenever Ahnold (at least pre-Guv) loaned one of his HUMMER H1 trucks to a local California car show to help raise monies for charities, as he did quite often, those looking under the rear of the vehicle would see a sack hanging from the rear center differential -- Yep, REAL BULL BALLS! Ballsy vehicles, indeed Governor!

Arnold owns a few H1's, and they are all (as far as I know, from the guy who maintained them for the Governator for many years) gasoline-powered with big block V8 engines. No weany girly-man diesel for our Ahnold, no way! No mealey-mouthed high-mileage conversions to set an example for the public, oh no!

Nope...Our Guv Ahnold thinks, like too many Americans, that if he have to pay an extra $2,000 to $3,000 or so for a dual-fuel or hybrid gas-electric vehicle which saves gas and lowers emissions, why should he do that when he can spend $5000 or more for a V8 Hemi!?!? Now THAT'S common sense, Ahnold style!

FORD PRODUCING 'REALITY' SHOW? WHAT ABOUT MAKING CARS PEOPLE WANT TO BUY...

There's been a lot of talk recently about FoMoCo possibly producing their own "reality" TV show centered on a competition among designers. The idea is that after several weeks of designs being approved or rejected by an "expert" panel (and wouldn't all the judges need to be Ford people?), the winning design would be made into a real-world-size concept car. And there's more...

Corporate sponsorships of reality shows are nothing new — Ford has been a prominent sponsor of "American Idol" — the company is looking to produce the show itself in the hope of reconnecting with younger consumers who have drifted away to other brands like Honda and Toyota.

The show is still in the early phase of development, and Ford has not yet begun seeking out any contestants, producers or a television network to broadcast it.

The show is part of a larger marketing campaign know as "Bold Moves" that Ford started nationally on May 3. Other ideas said to be part of the new campaign are a documentary-style Internet program starring Mark Fields, who leads the company's North and South American operations, and a new series of national television commercials for Ford vehicles featuring a previously unreleased Kelly Clarkson song.

The initial campaign is expected to have a price tag in the tens of millions of dollars. But the cost will probably grow to more than $100 million.

Our thoughts:

This is NUTS! No more or less. How about designing, making and selling cars and trucks which people actually want to BUY!?!? A competition which winds up producing a one-off vehicle which NO ONE will be able to buy is CRAZY! What a waste of time, money and talent! American car companies have in the past invested money in non-automotive businesses and almost each one has proven a financial disaster and resulted in reams of negative PR for the company involved.

Ford: Stick to what you do best and what Mr. Ford wanted his company to do --- That is, create, make and sell the cars and trucks which people the world over will want to buy!

ANTI-HYBRID PROPAGANDA BLARES; DON'T BELIEVE IT!

Don't fall for the bunk being spewed by either the car-makers who do not yet build gas/electric hybrids and don't want to spend the $$$ to do so, and/or, the publications, supported in great part by those car-makers, that "the hybrid is dead".

They've been making this noise since hybrids first hit American streets (ignoring the fact they went on-sale in Japan a year or so before being available in the US and sales started hot and have remained so).

Since the vehicles first appeared on American buyers' radar, columns and blogs have railed against these machines with 'experts' offering all sorts of Pythagorean 'proofs' that the cars are not worth the extra amount. Well, the fact is, the hybrid versions of any car are not that much more than the traditional engine set-up, and with gas now at $3 nationwide and not coming back down anytime soon, their value is better than ever for any buyer.

The truths about hybrids are this, and they have not changed: Hybrid buyers want some percentage of their purchase to, 1) Make a statement, and, 2) Offer great fuel mileage and lower emissions, even if the mpg numbers are never as good as the EPA and manufacturer says on the Monroney sticker.

Hybrid vehicles have moved into the toughest, wildest, dirt-slinging-est part of the marketplace: The mid-size family sedan priced between $20,000 and a bit over $30,000. Best-selling vehicles in that class have been, for the better part of the decade, either the Toyota Camry or the Honda Accord.

The buyers in this class, where car sales total more than 1 million of the total 16-million car and light truck marketplace, are a different breed from those who buy the smaller hybrids (Civic, Prius) and the bigger ones either for-sale now or coming to the market soon (Lexus RX400h, Accord and Camry hybrids, Nissan Maxima and Altima, and the autobahn-sturmer Lexus LS 600hL intro'd at the NY Auto Show days ago).

Buyers in the mid-size class look at price first, then dependability, reliability and reputation, standard equipment and available options, mileage, safety and horsepower and, finally, overall value for the dollar.

These buyers are the bulls-eye of the marketplace, the REAL heartbeat of the auto industry. Many of them are (and people west of the Mississippi may have trouble believing this) domestic owners and may be considering their first imports (or not). Chevrolet's Malibu, Impala and Monte Carlo are some of the best-sellers in the mid-size category right behind the imports (though Toyota aiming at 500,000 Camry units total in 2006 is quite an amazing prediction; they're taking over the Subaru-Isuzu plant in Lafayette, Indiana to reach that total).

With the huge and generally more conservative audience now offered hybrids, sales will naturally be slow at first. Ask Toyota and Honda if buyers in this category like change of any sort. They'll tell you unequivocally that these buyers don't like change of any kind.

Carlos Ghosn, "savior" of Nissan and the man who runs both Nissan and Renault from Paris, France (as opposed to Paris, TX), and the man who is moving Nissan's USA corporate HQ from southern California to --- Nashville, TN, has being saying for over a year now that hybrids have a very limited, if any, future. Of course he's managed to garner even more headlines than usual with such unusual "tough talk" about a highly-touted new technology. Yet Nissan will introduce hybrid versions of both their Altima and Maxima models within the next year. Ghosn says the company will make them for sale "only in California", to meet that state's emissions requirements. We shall see.

Meanwhile, Bill Ford, the 42-year old chief of Ford Motor Company, has not made much good on his promise to make Ford the "greenest" car company of them all. Ford's hybrid-powered Escape SUV has sold in such short numbers that dealers are offering 0% financing and other money deals to get people into the trucks. Why? We say for the same reason hybrid sales appear to have allowed in the mid-size car category; mid-size SUVs are a huge marketplace, and a new technology takes longer to gain acceptance.

Accord hybrid sales will pick up as the mass of "Honda-only" buyers (and if you don't believe that segment exists, look at the people who bought that poor excuse for a pickup, the Ridgeline). These folks will buy anything with a Honda label slapped on it (remember the Isuzu SUVs Honda buyers bought in drives just because they were sold at Honda stores)?

Toyota buyers may not be as wildly loyal as those who line up at Honda dealers, but as Camry's hybrid finds its way into more driveways and garages, the word will go forth from those first buyers, those "early adapters", on whether the car is a winner or not. If it does get the nod from your neighbors who already own one or two Toyotas, then Camry hybrid sales will kick into a higher gear.

Prius and Civic hybrid sales are still strong; buyers still sign a waiting list when they want to buy one of these impressive little technological masterpieces (we have had our Prius for 4 years and over 30,000 miles --- Not ONE THING on the car has broken. NOT ONE THING. That is simply amazing, considering the amount of technology in the car. Can you say the same thing about your car or truck, no matter what you paid for it?).

The youth, the retired and the student and green types who could easily afford the Prius and Civic have made their statements; the giant hybrid SUVs and sedans coming to market will sell easily; There are plenty of "greens" in the marketplace to buy these vehicles at any price and satisfy their buyers' egos in a new way.

So what's YOUR take? The auto industry executives of all stripes who read these pages would like to read and respond to YOUR comments...so go ahead and post some!

GM'S WAGONER, LUTZ IMPLODE ON CBS' "60 MINUTES"

GENERAL MOTORS IMPLODES ON “60 MINUTES”

WHAT HAVE RICK WAGONER AND BOB LUTZ DONE FOR ANYONE LATELY? NOTHING.

Anyone who thought there was a chance of General Motors succeeding while keeping things “business as usual” only had to watch the April 2, 2006 edition of “60 MINUTES” on CBS-TV to understand the two main reasons we are seeing the destruction of what was once the world’s greatest and most profitable manufacturing corporation: Rick Wagoner and Bob Lutz.

Wagoner evidently thinks there is only thing wrong with GM: Unions.

Rick Wagoner was born in Wilmington, Delaware (legal home to many of America's biggest corporations) and grew up in Richmond, VA. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from Duke in 1975 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1977. No word from Wikipedia on whether he ever owned a car in his youth.

After Harvard, he joined GM as an analyst in the treasurer's office. In 1981 he became treasurer of GM do Brazil, and later served as managing director. In 1992 he was named GM's chief financial officer, in 1994 he became executive vice president and/or president of North American Operations, and in 1998 he was named president and chief operating officer. He became president and chief executive officer in June 2000 and was elected chairman on May 1, 2003.

In April 2005 Wagoner took back personal control of GM's North American car division in light of its poor performance.

Asked by “60 MINUTES” reporter Steve Kroft, “How did GM get into this position?” of near-bankruptcy, Wagoner didn’t skip a beat as he talked about the “long, almost 100-year history” of GM, and the many costs for worker’s health care and retiree’s benefits built into the cost of every GM car and truck, estimated to be almost $2,000 per vehicle.

Wagoner believes the only thing GM has done wrong in the past 30 years was to sign union agreements which, he told “60 MINUTES”, seemed “cheap at the time”, but which in the long run turned out to be another story.

Bob Lutz was born in Switzerland and started with GM in Europe in 1963. He went onto serve with Ford, BMW and then Chrysler, where along with Bob Eaton, he green-lighted hit vehicles like the Viper, PT Cruiser and Prowler. After  Chrysler, Lutz ran Exide Battery, where he still holds an executive position, perhaps as a back-up to whatever may happen at GM. Wagoner hired Lutz in 2001, to much fanfare within the automotive community. Wall Street liked the hire --- a bean counter with aspirations to product designer who already had some 'hits' under his belt.

What has Lutz accomplished at GM? Well, not much so far. And this year, 2006, is when the industry expected to see the  fruits of Lutz’ hire.

For the “60 MINUTES” interview, Lutz escorted reporter Kroft into a section of the Cadillac design studios in GM’s Warren,  MI, Holy of Holies. Acting as if he were trying to impress a bunch of high school journalism students, Lutz walked Kroft into a large room with a number of (apparently) cars and trucks all covered by blue tarps. Lutz would lift only the front cover of one tarp, where viewers saw what may have been a future production car (with a Caddy badge on its overwrought grille) or a bit of concept work being developed by one or more designers.

Wagoner walked Kroft through the Detroit Auto Show’s gigantic GM exhibit (they did the interview during press days, so the exhibits were sorely empty of spectators) and showed-off the concept Camaro, which Wagoner would not commit to producing when asked by Kroft, and the Saturn SKY, which had Kroft declaring, “Well, it’s not dowdy”.

One of Lutz' main ambitions has been to return the "performance" to Ponitac. He decided to import the Holden Monaro, built by GM of Australia, already outfitted with the Corvette 350 horsepower drivetrain and 6-speed stick shift, and call it the Pontiac GTO.

Sacrilege, at best, to GTO traditionalists; a bomb as far as sales.

Resurrected GTO sales were so poor its first year that the company quickly “went back to the drawing board” and added the much-needed hood scoop and multi-pipes which purists rightly insisted should have been on the first models.

Sales targets were never reached, and even with the engine hot-rodded to 400 horsepower and the car involved in some racing  to try and draw attention to it (NHRA drag racing, Drifting), the car was announced as “dead” in 2006. Lutz would only say that IF the new Camaro were actually built for production, and IF it were successful, along with a Pontiac Firebird on the same platform, then  GTO MIGHT once again make an appearance. In classic GM form, this "new" GTO would be the third planned-for model on the same platform with the same drivetrain. That GTO will be dead before the first one is built.

Wagoner and Lutz are not responsible for all of GM’s problems today. Those problems began back in the company’s most arrogant hey-days of the late 1950s and early ‘60s, when the only troubles the company had were two-fold: 1) Producing enough vehicles to meet the demand, and, 2) Keeping the government from breaking the company up as it was considered a monopoly.

Today’s GM problems are much different and much more serious; it is, however, clear that Wagoner and Lutz are not the men to set straight what is still America’s most important manufacturing concern, directly affecting over 1 million employees and retirees, and the families, company’s, dealerships and city’s they underwrite.

What’s YOUR feeling?