TTAC News Round-up: The Chrysler 200 Was More Unpopular Than Anyone Imagined

There is something sincerely wrong with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ math, although things are starting to add up for why some of its sales numbers were so inflated.

That, Ford decides to get a little less global at the expense of the small car, Hyundai pays the price for lying, and parts suppliers see doom and gloom on the horizon for the automotive industry… after the break!

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So Musk Now Owns 22 Percent of Tesla, But Does It Matter?

The automotive and tech blogs are aflutter Saturday with news that Elon Musk has gobbled up another chunk of Tesla stock — this time at a discount.

Musk exercised and held a stock option this week that saw the multi-billionaire increase his ownership of Tesla Motors by 532,000 shares. In total, those shares are worth over $101 million as of the last closing price of $191.20/share.

Here’s where the discount comes in: Musk’s option dictated a price pegged to the share value as of Dec. 4, 2009, before the automaker went public, of $6.63/share — or just over $3.5 million.

Sounds like Elon got a stellar deal. But does any of it matter? Is owning 1/5th of Tesla a big deal?

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  • Mike Beranek To have any shot at future relevance, Cadillac needs to lean into it's history and be itself. That means investing real money into differentiating them from the usual GM "parts bin" strategy.Build big cars with big, bespoke engines. Build a giant convertible with suicide doors. Build Escalades that aren't just Yukons with bling. Bring back the CT6, but make it available at a more reasonable price, to balance out the halo models.Build cars that famous people want to be seen in. That's what made Cadillac what it was.
  • Wolfwagen Cadillac's naming scheme makes more sense than Lincoln's ever did
  • Redapple2 Cadillac, Acura and Infiniti have very tough rows to hoe.
  • Redapple2 First question: How do you define Sales Success?1 they ve lost more than 35% of all dealers in the last 5 years.2 transition to BEV will cost Billions. No money for new designs3 cars for #2 above have already been designed in BEV form and wont be redone significantly for - what- 10 years? 3b-Lyric and whatever its called are medusa level ugly. How could this design theme be fuglier than arts and science? Evil gm did though4 the market is poisoned. 1/3 of folks with $ would never consider one/ridicule the product. Under 40 yr olds dont even know the brand exists.It is dead and doesn't know it. Like a Vampire.
  • Redapple2 Focus and Fiesta are better than Golf? (overall?) I liked the rentals I had. I would pick these over a Malibu even though it was a step down in class and the rental co would not reduce price.