TTAC News Round-up: Investors Pump the Brakes, Daimler's Dig, and Chapo's Crapwagon

Aaron Cole
by Aaron Cole

Investors aren’t necessarily drinking automakers’ Kool-Aid that 2016 will be full of beer and Skittles.

That, the China-made Cadillac CT6 that’ll eventually get here, El Chapo’s cheapo getaway car and General Motors’ questions get down and dirty … after the break!

Investors aren’t embracing automakers’ continued enthusiasm

Even though automakers are boasting fatter bottom lines and better outlooks for 2016 over 2015, investors are wary of their optimism, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Slowing sales in China, rising interest rates and an inability to keep pace with record sales have slowed investors’ interest in automaker stocks such as General Motors and Ford. Those stocks have slid 11 percent and 8 percent respectively this month.

Suppliers have been particularly vulnerable to the slide as well. Shares of Delphi have dropped 13 percent since the beginning of this year.

Here’s the China-made Cadillac CT6

CarNewsChina released pictures of their Chinese-built Cadillac CT6, which will go on sale in that country later this year.

That normally wouldn’t mean much for U.S. customers — our CT6s will initially be assembled at GM’s Hamtramck, Michigan plant — except Bloomberg reported Monday that the plug-in version of the CT6 will be imported from China. The China-made plug-in hybrid CT6 will be the second “import domestic” from GM after the Buick Envision reaches our shores this year.

So, CarNewsChina has pictures of our next Cadillac CT6, I suppose.

Daimler’s Dieter digs at VW for diesel disgrace

(Alliterations are great. — Aaron)

Daimler’s CEO Dieter Zetsche said Thursday that the automaker wouldn’t be caught up in a scandal similar to Volkswagen’s cheating diesels because if “anyone had this kind of idea with us, this person would very quickly find someone else who would say ‘we don’t want it like that, and we will not do it like that,’” according to Reuters.

Zetsche’s comments about Volkswagen were warranted, he said, because “there is nothing else to do,” considering the damage it’s done to the entire industry.

The CEO went on to say that Daimler would stay committed to making diesel cars, despite the cloud of suspicion that those cars can’t pass emissions tests.

Billionaire drug kingpin stole battered white Jetta to escape

(Above photo is a dramatic reenactment of the beat-to-hell Mexican Jetta. — Aaron)

Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman initially drove a beat up Volkswagen Jetta with a broken transmission to escape from Mexican marines closing in on him at his compounds, Reuters reported.

El Chapo and an associate stole at gunpoint the white Volkswagen Jetta with more than 100,000 miles on the clock before ditching it after driving a mile. The duo hijacked a red Ford Focus after and calmly obeyed traffic laws before they were finally apprehended, according to the report.

A worker at an auto repair shop said she watched the druglord and an aide sit at a stoplight before calmly taking off.

“They respected the law,” Karim Barajas told Reuters. “They set off normally, nice and slow.”

GM lawyers probing ignition switch victim’s painkiller use

Lawyers for General Motors are asking whether painkillers had anything to do with the injuries sustained by a man who crashed his Saturn Ion into a tree in Oklahoma in 2014 and is suing the automaker as part of a larger lawsuit for its faulty ignition switches, Bloomberg reported (via Automotive News).

The lawsuit is a “bellwether” trial for similar complaints against the automaker for covering up a faulty ignition switch that could disable a car’s safety systems, including airbags. GM admitted that its faulty ignition switches killed 124 people and injured more, but argued in court Thursday that a man’s pre-existing injuries could be blamed for his hospitalization after the crash.

A judge ruled that GM couldn’t ask questions to determine whether the man was impaired by pain medication at the time of the crash, but lawyers for the automakers are questioning whether the man’s repeated surgeries and earlier ailments could be to blame for his neck and back pain — not the crash.

Aaron Cole
Aaron Cole

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  • Polishdon Polishdon on Jan 14, 2016

    "Daimler’s CEO Dieter Zetsche said Thursday that the automaker wouldn’t be caught up in a scandal similar to Volkswagen’s cheating diesels because if “anyone had this kind of idea with us, this person would very quickly find someone else who would say ‘we don’t want it like that, and we will not do it like that,’” according to Reuters." That's right! You just purchases a profitable company with a moron for a CEO, pilfer it's cash, technology and skills. Dump on it second and third rate products and cheapen those items until the company falls apart. Then dump the carcass to the curb. That's the Daimler way !

  • Hifi Hifi on Jan 14, 2016

    After farting around for nearly a half century, Cadillac has started to build legitimate luxury vehicles again. And what do they do? They go and screw it up by manufacturing them in China. China? Screw that. As long as there's an option to not buy a Chinese product, I'm happy to pay a premium for it.

  • TCowner We've had a 64.5 Mustang in the family for the past 40 years. It is all original, Rangoon Red coupe with 289 (one of the first instead of the 260), Rally Pac, 4-speed, factory air, every option. Always gets smiles and thumbs ups.
  • ToolGuy This might be a good option for my spouse when it becomes available -- thought about reserving one but the $500 deposit is a little too serious. Oh sorry, that was the Volvo EX30, not the Mustang. Is Volvo part of Ford? Is the Mustang an EV? I'm so confused.
  • Mikey My late wife loved Mustangs ..We alway rented one while travelling . GM blood vetoed me purchasing one . 3 years after retirement bought an 08 rag top, followed by a 15 EB Hard top, In 18 i bought a low low mileage 05 GT rag with a stick.. The car had not been properly stored. That led to rodent issues !! Electrical nightmare. Lots of bucks !! The stick wasn't kind to my aging knees.. The 05 went to a long term dedicated Mustang guy. He loves it .. Today my garage tenant is a sweet 19 Camaro RS rag 6yl Auto. I just might take it out of hibernation this weekend. The Mustang will always hold a place in my heart.. Kudos to Ford for keeping it alive . I refuse to refer to the fake one by that storied name .
  • Ajla On the Mach-E, I still don't like it but my understanding is that it helps allow Ford to continue offering a V8 in the Mustang and F-150. Considering Dodge and Ram jumped off a cliff into 6-cylinder land there's probably some credibility to that story.
  • Ajla If I was Ford I would just troll Stellantis at all times.
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