Former head of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, Steve Rattner has penned a retrospective for Fortune on his time guiding the auto industry bailout. He covers everything from how he assembled his team and developed a strategy to the decision to fire Rick Wagoner and the showdown with Chrysler’s creditors. There are no real surprises if you’ve followed TTAC for the last year or so, but it’s fascinating stuff to read coming from the horses mouth. Take Rattner’s initial impressions of the GM “culture thing”:

Everyone knew Detroit’s reputation for insular, slow-moving cultures. Even by that low standard, I was shocked by the stunningly poor management that we found, particularly at GM, where we encountered, among other things, perhaps the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company.

For example, under the previous administration’s loan agreements, Treasury was to approve every GM transaction of more than $100 million that was outside of the normal course. From my first day at Treasury, PowerPoint decks would arrive from GM (we quickly concluded that no decision seemed to be made at GM without one) requesting approvals. We were appalled by the absence of sound analysis provided to justify these expenditures.

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Congress has passed legislation qualifying three-wheeled vehicles for federal subsidies by classifying them as advanced technology vehicles. According to Automotive News [sub], the legislation has passed the House and Senate and should be signed by President Obama by week’s end. The classification is crucial for firms like Aptera to secure the federal Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Incentive Program funds that have been critical for firms like Tesla, GM and Ford. Aptera has asked for $75m, but efforts to include the three-wheelers like Aptera’s 2e have been criticized by GM, which is waiting on $10b in Department of ATVM funding. So, on the one-hand you have self-interested, tax money-bloated firms like GM who want the money for themselves, and cottage industry EV freaks who call their three-wheeled designs “innovative.” But not only are three wheeled designs far from unique (they tend to show up in every major recession), they also aren’t cars. If the Feds are going to give money to to the makers of three-wheelers, which have to be licensed as motorcycles, they should have to allow electric motorcycle firms like Brammo and Zero to apply as well. After all, a $10k motorcycle isn’t any less ridiculous than a $45k Volt or a $40k Aptera.

I think what I saw at Chrysler is what people felt when Iacocca was there. It’s a new level of energy and enthusiasm because there’s new leadership of people that know what they’re doing, of people that have been successful in the automobile manufacturing business.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood waxes eloquent about the New New Chrysler and its Iacoccian leader, Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne. Speaking at the Detroit Economic Club [via Automotive News [sub]] LaHood said Marchionne represents “the next generation of leaders for the American automobile industry.” But who’d have thought Detroit would have had to look outside of, well, Detroit for that? Luckily LaHood was able to ward off such awkward questions by simply stating that “Detroit is back.” Yeah, now that the Italians have taken over. Elsewhere in his Detroit visit, LaHood also pronounced “Taurus is back. Ford is back” after a test drive, confirmed that “high speed rail is not competition for cars,” and predicted Detroit would become a “Midwest cruise-ship capital.” TTAC is still trying to confirm rumors that Secretary LaHood has money on the Lions making the playoffs this year.

Growing up my family owned a Jeep Wagoneer that consistently broke down towing our boat.  My frugal parents couldn’t afford to have it repaired by a mechanic so my Pop dutifully bought the repair manual and spent his days off cursing under the hood in our driveway.  He eventually grew so frustrated that he dropped a 500cu Cadillac engine in that old Jeep. Technology has made do-it-yourself repairs little more than nostalgic memories.  Now it takes expensive diagnostic computers to identify why the light on the dash came on. And not only are the diagnostic computers expensive but in many cases the codes are proprietary. With recent dealership closures, congress has proposed legislation to protect consumers access to this critical repair information. HR 2057, the Rural Communities Stranded Without The Right To Repair Act would require auto manufacturers to make repair information and computer diagnostic codes available to the general public.

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“What do you think the percentage likelihood is that, if we give this deal a chance, it will succeed?” Rattner didn’t make the decision any easier. “Fifty-one per cent,” he said. “But, Mr. President, in my experience, deals get worse, not better, over time.”

Ryan Lizza recounts the decision to bail out Chrysler in his epic New Yorker piece on Larry Summers and the president’s economic team [via Kausfiles]. This exchange came after the economic council split 4-4 on the automaker bailout, and Rattner was identified as the tie-breaking vote. Is it safe to say now that nobody expects Chrysler to survive?

A UK government group has just released a proposal that would impose a per-mile tax on motorists to rescue the planet from an imagined catastrophe. The Committee on Climate Change (CCC), a body established by the UK Parliament to advise the government on environmental issues, has set a target of a two-percent annual reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. CO2 is a naturally occurring gas that is essential to human life. The committee believes it can reach its goal by imposing massive new taxes on drivers that will reduce demand for driving which, in turn, would reduce carbon dioxide output.

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Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood kicked off the DoT’s first-ever “Distracted Driving Summit” in Washington today with a speech calling texting while driving a “menace to society.” LaHood cited just-released NHTSA data (PDF) showing that 6,000 road deaths, or about 15 percent of the 2008 total, were caused by distracted drivers as evidence of what he termed a “deadly epidemic.” According to the Detroit News, LaHood singled out drivers under the age of 20 as the worst offenders and called for “a combination of strong laws, tough enforcement and ongoing public education.” And though there seems to be little outcry over the singling out of young whippersnappers, the cell phone industry wants to make sure its products don’t become the scapegoat for LaHood’s ominous metaphors.  Makeup, GPS systems, food and other distractions are being discussed as potential targets for action. The summit’s media facts page even points out that “distraction from cell phone use while driving (hand held or hands free) delays a driver’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent.” Sorry Ford!  A Maine law banning all forms of driver distraction is being looked at as an example, but even LaHood concedes that “We cannot rely on legal action alone, because in reality, you can’t legislative behavior. There aren’t enough police on patrol to catch everyone who’s breaking the law.” Which is a fantastic point, but one that’s apparently not stopping LaHood from considering invasive enforcement techniques.

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A major criteria for spending funds from the recent stimulus bill was that qualifying projects had to be “shovel ready.” Though that stricture was put in place to speed up the stimulus’s impact on the economy, it’s preventing the replacement of many of the worst roads in the nation. USA Today reports that only 20 percent of the $10 billion in stimulus money being spent on road repairs will go to the 74 counties that host half of the country’s worst roads. According to USA Today’s analysis, those 74 (mostly-urban) counties will split $1.9 billion in stimulus road repair funds. Counties with no roads in need of major repairs mysteriously ended up with $1.5 billion. “Objective reviews show that Recovery Act dollars are going to the communities that need it the most to repair roads and bridges in need of help,” say Federal Highway Administration spokesfolks. However, USA Today’s study is based on FHA data from 2007. USA Today has an interactive map comparing miles of “unacceptable” roads and amounts of stimulus dollars  allocated. Check it out here.

Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for TARP (SIGTARP), will audit the closure of 2,139 GM and Chrysler dealerships, reports Automotive News [sub]. Barofsky told members of the Senate Banking Committee [download PDF of Barofsky's testimony here] that his office “will examine the process used by General Motors and Chrysler to identify which automotive dealerships should be maintained or terminated” [start your own audit of GM's cull here]. Barofsky also indicated that he would conduct a separate audit of “governance issues when the U.S. government has obtained a large ownership interest in a particular institution.” Though he didn’t explicitly confirm that the “particular institution” is GM, that seems to be a safe conclusion, given the Treasury’s 60 percent stake in The General. “The extent of government involvement in management” is said to be the focus of Barofsky’s GM audit, along with “risk management, monitoring, internal controls, performance measures and transparency.” In other words, we’re going to be learning a lot more about post-bailout GM… at some point. Maybe.  Barofsky didn’t indicate when his audits would be complete of whether the information would be made public.

Retool this! Fisker will use the majority of its Advanced Technologies Vehicle Manufacturing Loan Program (ATVML) loan towards developing its next generation of plug-in, range-extended hybrids, according to the company’s press release [via Yahoo]. Preliminarily dubbed Project NINA, Fisker’s next vehicle range will be “affordable and fuel-efficient” vehicles with a similar drivetrain to its Karma sibling. Unfortunately, Fisker’s idea of affordable is $39,999 “after tax credit.” Sound familiar? Some portion of the AVTML money will go towards wrapping up Karma development, but it’s clear that Project NINA is the new priority. “Inspired by the ship belonging to explorer Christopher Columbus,” Fisker’s release intones, Project NINA “is symbolic of the automobile industry’s transition from old world to new.” Which is oddly appropriate. If it weren’t for state funding, that voyage would never have taken place either. [Thanks for the tips!]