Past, present and future come together for the latest TTAC daily podcast.

Why is Chrysler’s new board chock full of former airline men and the governmentally well-connected? Because auto firm experience isn’t necessary for these things. Just ask Chrysler’s former owners Cerberus. Or, for another perspective, ask United Airlines employees about their experience with employee ownership. Meanwhile, the Aveo still sucks and the SL65 Black Series is still bat-shit loco. Plus, we’re working on getting our sales data in a more universal format.

Because it wants to, Buick is headed upmarket. Because it has to, Cadillac is headed downmarket. Who wins? Not GM. An Epsilon II, FWD/AWD Cadillac isn’t going to have the phrase “standard of the world” tripping off anyone’s tongue. And since GM exists at the pleasure of the politicians, it doesn’t seem likely that Cadillac will ever get around to making the huge investments in opulence that it would need to regain its former glory. And besides an aging CTS and a “2005 called and wants its SUV back” Escalade, what is Cadillac again? Some days it’s a good day to die. Some days it’s a good day to record a podcast.

TTAC’s Sajeev Mehta ruminates on all things automotive in an all-new evening address.

Will Chevrolet’s Volt ever be test-driven in range-extended mode? With pre-production underway, one hopes that the “we don’t want people to hear the engine turn on” excuse won’t be long for this world. Meanwhile, see if you can tell where in the podcast Farago and Niedermeyer switch into their own range-extended mode.

Did Iacocca get it right? Is the Volt the new K-Car? Is Buick’s catch-up act starving the Cadillac brand? So many questions, so little time…

The daily podcasts keep coming, as Farago and Niedermeyer learn that the Chrysler Sebring replacement is screwed, Bob Lutz should keep quiet and that the Germans care about our energy independence. Plus the usual daily reminder that this is a car website.

GM Prius, Buick woes, car personality and the Task Force on Auto Advertising all get what’s coming to them on the continually-improving TTAC daily podcast. Meanwhile, we’ve got to give away a copy of the Taschenwörterbuch der Kraftfahrzeugtechnik (German-English technical dictionary), so give us your favorite German automotive phrase in the comments section. We’ll pick our favorite, and the lucky winner will be able to impress their local Porsche club with their new-found understanding of compound, car-related words.

Or not.

Yes, it’s a palindrome. No, it’s not my favorite. (Do geese see God?) But as a history buff—as in that’ll buff right out—I’ve always considered this palindrome something of a prose poem. The Panama Canal was certainly not the vision of one man. In 1534, Charles V of Spain contemplated a man-made waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In 1880, after completing the Suez Canal, French Vicomte Ferdinand de Lessepss rose to the challenge. Nine years later, disease (amongst other things) put paid to the entire engineering endeavor. American President Theodore Roosevelt picked-up the cudgel. Crucially, the plan in question eventually changed from a sea level passage to a system of dams and locks. The Canal opened on August 15, 1914. As for Panama, it received control of the Canal in 1977. So what does this tell us about the U.S. car industry? The simplest ideas may be the greatest, but all great ideas take time; and time is money. What’s so great about rebuilding GM, and do we really have the time to do it?