If you are stuck in Beijing traffic, while police closes the center lane to give preferential treatment to a government motorcade, you will notice a penchant for foreign brands amongst Chinese government officials: White license plates (= government) are usually found on bigger bore Audis, BMWs, and Mercedeses (or “Benz” as they are called in China.) After all, they are made in China in joint ventures, and only petty people will point out that an Audi A8, a Volkswagen Touareg, or a Benz S Class are imports.

The tastes are about to change, albeit not too drastically.
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As is all-too obvious, I have a particular soft spot for older Japanese cars, especially the more obscure varieties. So when I walked into this Cordia, I just had to stop, shoot and write. I haven’t seen one since moving to Oregon, but there might well be some logical rationale behind that: the Cordia was almost surely was never sold there. Good luck finding any Cordia, or its Tredia sedan sibling, but if anywhere at all, its going to be here in California. (Read More…)

Why exactly does this car create such a powerful response (in me, anyway)? It projects such solidity, dignity, and self-assurance. It flew in the face of GM’s 1965 coke-bottle styling, and showed that hard-edged angularity still had some serious life in it. Most of all though, this Chrysler New Yorker represents a pinnacle: never again would the New Yorker attain this degree of success, prestige and quality. (Read More…)

The “S” word became one of the more popular words in online discourse this year, typically derailing discussions way off topic and resulting in the kind of partisan screeching that drives everyone bonkers. More often than not, these fruitless debates settle around a single major point of contention: the definition of Socialism. Well, thanks to a 48-picture gallery of auto ownership in the former East Germany at Autobild, we now have a distinctly automotive definition of Socialism. Autobild’s thesis is that automobiles helped destroy Socialism, and certainly being forced to choose between a Trabant, a Moskvitch and a Lada would be enough to turn Che Guevara into Milton Friedman. But the gallery also includes images of the Neo-Trabant, an EV concept that plays on Germany’s strange quasi-nostalgia for the bad old days. Or at least the bad old cars of the bad old days. Which indicates that the most typical response to all forms of politics is ambivalence.

Why should I want to be Toyota? They’re losing billions.

Today’s Quote Of The Day comes from the executive of a certain up-and-coming automaker with dreams of becoming a global player. Think you know who it is? Here’s a hint: it’s not Ed Whitacre.

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The Washington Examiner reports that, having previously moved its lobbying efforts to an exclusively in-house arrangement, GM is now hiring outside lobbyists again [UPDATE: GM's chief in-house lobbyist just retired]. GM has rehired its old lobbying firms the Duberstein Group and Greenberg Traurig, and has added GrayLoeffler to its K-Street roster. GM is also keeping the “well connected” Washington Tax Group on its lobbying payroll, having picked up the firm’s representation in 2007. From these firms, some 18 lobbyists have registered as GM representatives, including a list of what the Wasington Examiner calls “well-connected revolving-door players from both parties.”

Former Reps. William Gray III, D-Pa., and Jim Bacchus, R-Fla., are both on GM retainer, as are fabled Republican and Democratic operatives Ken Duberstein (White House chief of staff under Ronald Reagan) and Michael Berman (counsel to Vice President Walter Mondale and campaign aide to every Democratic presidential nominee since LBJ).

Heading GM’s lobbying push for expanded R&D tax credits is the Washington Tax Group’s Gregory Nickerson, formerly the top lawyer at the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee and the staff director of the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures. Nickerson’s partner is Mary Ellen McCarthy, formerly the top lawyer at the Senate’s tax-writing Finance Committee.

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“They don’t write songs about Volvos,” proclaimed an infamous Chevy billboard once seen in the Detroit area. Of course it wasn’t strictly true, but then Chevy’s two most recent forays into musical marketing, Volt Jingles versions 1 and 2, weren’t exactly “Little Red Corvette” either. And the trend seems to be holding: quality car-inspired music is slipping away. Even this song, the first Saab-inspired tune I’m aware of, is a wholly forgettable drone about fighting Saab’s inevitable closure. It’s not as bombastically awful as, say, the infamous Mercedes “One Goal” tune, but you know automotive culture is in trouble when the only music it inspires is about the closure of a niche Swedish nameplate. Unless the lyrics “we’re gonna make it, not gonna break it” has some kind of mysterious resonance for the daily Saab driver that I’m not getting. Either way, the world of car-inspired music needs some work.

Nissan Motor Co. failed to declare some $700m in income with the Japanese tax-san during a three-year period through March 2007, the Nikkei [sub] reports today.

The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau has sent Nissan an order to pay back taxes, including unspecified billions of Yen in penalties. Nissan has appealed.
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Wonders never cease. Saab’s date of execution had been set for December 31. 24 hours before the last gasp, Saab has received a reprieve.

“We are preparing the wind-down process. At the same time we are open to options, to bids that come in. Therefore the deadline has also been dropped,” Saab spokesman Eric Geers said to Reuters. The news even surprised GM.
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To have a chance of succeeding with its Opel turnaround, GM needs two things: Financial support from the European governments to the tune of €2.6b. And concessions by Opel workers worth €265m a year.  GM itself doesn’t have more than $600m to contribute. Not the best bargaining position.

Chances of government support are getting slimmer as time goes on. Now, Opel labor representatives flat out refuse any support if GM sticks to its turn-around plan for Opel. It is “totally unacceptable” said Opel labor leader Klaus Franz. “A reduction of 9,000 jobs in Europe is out of the question,” Franz said to the Frankfurter Rundschau.
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