Industry

Editorial: Things Are Not Always What they SEMA

By Edward Niedermeyer
November 6, 2008 - Environmental exploitation is here to stay. Even the threat of industry collapse has failed to take the collagen out of American automaker's eco-friendly lip service. In this they are hardly alone. The litany of firms running advertisements professing their undying love for our Mother Earth, and building concept cars to show their unconsummated devotion, continues apace. 2008 is the first year that the SEMA has set aside a portion of its annual show for green trendiness. It's not a concept that sits well with the show's ethos of excess. But never underestimate the power of hypocrisy. And America's ability to co-opt controversy to unite our society under the banner of the almighty buck. Amen.

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Posted in Editorials | Industry | Sales and Marketing | 6 comments

Editorial: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Bankruptcy…

By Robert Farago
November 5, 2008 - Back when the “first” Detroit bailout bill was headed for the President’s desk, U.S. automakers scrambled to justify their $25b call on the public purse. Read the goddamn label, they cried. It’s a LOAN. For building FUEL EFFICIENT CARS. Meanwhile, Michigan Senator Stabenow displayed the political instincts for which she is rightly famous. “It’s about jobs, jobs, jobs,” the Debster decried. Well exactly. And thanks to “jobs, jobs, jobs,” the domestics will get a second, third, fourth and fifth turn at the taxpayer trough. But first, there’s a little business to take care of: Cerberus.

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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 23 comments

Editorial: So… SEMA’s Boring Eh? Well, MAYBE NOT

By Edward Niedermeyer
November 5, 2008 - I waited all day for the fear to take hold. Wandering through a parking lot jammed with alien whips, I wondered when the icy fingers would make contact with my sun-baked scapulae. But it never came. As the desert sun faded to dusk and Las Vegas slowly came to life with humming neon, I couldn't help but take what alcoholics call a searching and fearless moral inventory. What had robbed these ferociously unnecessary monuments to excess of their terrifying power? Were they too much at home in glittering Babylon, little more than tiny microcosms of the glaring titans that loom over the Vegas Strip? Or had some infectious irony (gone pandemic in the face of national malaise) landed in this last bastion of shallow glitz, reducing each glittering status symbol to so much light parody? Or was I (and the creators of these mechanical beasts) simply preoccupied with said malaise, and the seemingly inevitable national transformation which has only now, as I write from my hotel room, been officially realized? Nobody goes to Vegas seriously expecting answers, but was a little existential fear now too much to ask for too?

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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 23 comments

Editorial: How Porsche NSFWed the Hedge Funds

By Bertel Schmitt
November 3, 2008 - So you thought Porsche financed the VW takeover by foisting overpriced floormats and trucks on their well-heeled buyers? Yesterday’s issue of Die Welt, Germany’s conservative newspaper, thinks different. They undug the dirt on Porsche’s takeover-machinations of Volkswagen. It’s a story that makes Cerberus look like a frisky puppy. It’s an account that makes banks and hedge funds look like morons.

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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 30 comments

Editorial: American Leyland: The GM - Chrysler Bailout That’s Guaranteed To Fail

By Justin Berkowitz
October 29, 2008 -

After the initial media support for a potential GM-Chrysler hookup (e.g. Jalopnik.com's Ray Wert), the bandwagon began to roll like a snowball down the proverbial mixed metaphor hill, and everybody soured on the deal. We even charted how individual commentators changed their positions and eventually "threw Chrysler to the Wolves." In Monday's New York Times, Andrew Ross Sorkin said that GM CEO Rick Wagoner's continued employment is a "minor miracle." But the commentatorati are still behind the curve re: the government's rumored $10b "intervention" in the GM - Chrysler merger. In the main, they have't even acknowledged that the bailout is happening. That, and the critical fact that it's structurally designed to fail.

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Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | Industry | 19 comments

Editorial: General Motors Death Watch 203: GMAC Headed for Bankruptcy

By Ken Elias
October 16, 2008 - GMAC will go bankrupt. The U.S lending giant is cut off from all lending sources. Smart depositors will flee its small bank (relative to GMAC itself). And its majority owner, Cerberus, won’t save it. It’s a pure liquidation play now-- with the bank going into FDIC receivership, maybe as soon as this Friday. Whether or not all Hell will break loose is an open question, with many answers...

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Posted in Editorials | GM Death Watch | Industry | 49 comments

How to Make Money From GM’s Chapter 11

By Ken Elias
October 15, 2008 - There are winners in every financial disaster. There are always a few folks-- heroes or scoundrels depending on how they make their profits-- who understand that the Chinese symbol for danger and opportunity are one and the same. GM’s impending bankruptcy (and likely Ford as well) will produce some winners. But not without serious financial and psychological risk to those who seek their fortune from misfortune. For those of you with a robust constitution, here's one potential game plan for GM's C11. First, some background for those uninitiated in the ways of the American automobile business...

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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 45 comments

Domestic Car Sales and The Riddle of the Sphinx

By Andrew Dederer
October 14, 2008 - Whatever the qualifications and diplomas accumulated by auto executives, it’s a pretty safe bet that they failed mythology. Automobile names are a silly subject already, bring in some of the poorer choices, and you have the makings of high comedy.The assorted Zodiac names are harmless, if a bit silly. I’ll accept that no one at Chevy realized that Cobalt is a poisonous metal named for a demonic imp. But really, who green-lighted “Gremlin” back in the day? Odyssey is a cool-sounding name, but really, shouldn’t it be some sort of mid-life-crisis car? Well, maybe it’s a car for a “homer”. What would Oedipus drive? That’s easy: a black 300 with tinted windows cause he’s one baaad.. OK, I’ll stop. But mentioning the poster boy for tragic screw-ups reminds us of something that does have relevance for today’s auto market, the riddle of the Sphinx.

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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 35 comments

Between the Lines: Jalopnik’s Ray Wert on GM - Chrysler Merger

By Justin Berkowitz
October 11, 2008 - Last night, the New York Times “broke” the story that General Motors and Chrysler/Cerberus were discussing a merger. The report lacked only one crucial component: facts. As RF reported in his initial blog on the subject, the story unravels by paragraph two. We learn that the entire story is based on “two people close to the process.” While anonymous attribution is common new industry practice, a story without independent corroboration is a nothing more than rumor— especially when it defies common sense. General Motors’ assertion that they routinely talk to other manufacturers about collaborative efforts doesn’t count. But it does reveal the truth of the matter. [Continued]

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Posted in Between the Lines | Editorials | Industry | Media | 22 comments

America’s Love Affair with Horsepower, RIP

By Robert Farago
October 10, 2008 - I was walking the dog the other day when I heard a V8 bellow. I turned around to see a perfect example of a latter day muscle car: a Chevy Silverado pickup truck. I was surprised by my surprise. Although the Northeast represents Middle America’s automotive tastes about as well as Harvard professors reflect conservative political values, I wondered if society has reached the point where the sound of unabashed engine power has become, well, boorish. Has the average American automobile, once a symbol of status, virility and pride, been castrated? And is that a bad thing?

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Posted in Editorials | Industry | 77 comments