Angry shareholders yesterday ousted the chairman of the board of a major traffic camera company and two of his closest allies. Redflex Chairman Chris Cooper and Directors Peter Lewinsky and Roger Sawley resigned to avoid an embarrassing vote after learning that a majority of shareholder proxies expressed no confidence in their continued leadership. The internal revolt followed closely upon the revolt of Ohio voters in the cities of Chillicothe and Heath.

The Detroit News reports that Senator John McCain (remember him?) has declared Chrysler unlikely to survive. Mr McCain, who was serving as grand marshal of the NASCAR Sprint Cup series race at the Phoenix International Raceway, even went as far as to argue

No, I don’t think we ever should have bailed out Chrysler and General Motors. We should have let them go into bankruptcy, emerge and become viable corporations again. It was all about the unions. The unions didn’t want to have their very generous contracts renegotiated so we put $80 billion into both General Motors and Chrysler, and anybody believes that Chrysler is going to survive, I’d like to meet them.

In four day’s time, my byline will appear on this website for the last time. During the previous nine-and-a-half years, I’ve watched the mainstream automotive press slowly evolve from paid cheerleader to . . . nope that’s it. No progress there. Despite having written literally thousands of diatribes against the media’s willful ignorance on the auto industry, I’m still galled that people who call themselves professional journalists have such little moral fiber and testicular fortitude. Only more so, now that GM and Chrysler’s endless turnaround promises have been revealed as a combination of epic self-delusion, outright lying and near-as-dammit criminal conduct (e.g. we never got the bottom of that SEC accounting case). This morning’s Detroit Free Press continues the tradition. “ GM Chairman Ed Whitacre clear he’s in driver’s seat” is the worst kind of non-journalism—the kind that enables the rape of the American taxpayer by a bunch of egocentric incompetents.

Automotive News [sub] reports that President Obama’s Pay Czar has done an about face. Kenneth Feinberg pledged to remove the $500,000 salary cap for NEW executives hired for TARP-recipients—if he’s convinced that a rule-busting pay boost would help the bailout queens return U.S. taxpayer’s money. Feinberg’s climb-down comes just two days after New GM’s federally-appointed Chairman of the Board said that Uncle Sam’s pay caps could be, indeed should be, “modified.” Of course, Ed Whitacre didn’t make his suggestion directly. Nor did Feinberg reveal the locus of his “come to Jesus with cash” moment. “[Feinberg] said the automotive firms did not appeal his rulings. But he said he would be open to requests to hire in new executives at competitive pay. ‘If General Motors or any other company wants to bring someone in laterally — laterally — and competitive pay packages require that lateral hires get certain competitive pay, what have you, we’re perfectly willing to examine that.'” So the new rule: GM can hire someone for more than $500,000 in cash per year if that person was already making $500,000 per year doing the same job, only better (one would hope). Which would exclude, uh, no one. And create mucho resentment at that special place where RenCen’s express elevators ascend to glory. More Feinbergian 180 after the jump, and a mystery to be solved . . .

We’re not public yet but we will be and if we do our job that stock is going to have real value. We thought it was fair. We thought it was thoughtful

GM CEO Fritz Henderson comments on Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg’s decision to dock his salary to a flinty $950,000. The AP reports Henderson’s total compensation could be worth $5.5m, apparently based on some unfathomable projection of GM’s IPO value. But Fritz is going to work for it. When asked if he’d read Steve Rattner’s magnum opus calling GM management “stunningly poor” and “perhaps the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company,” Fritz’s responds in the affirmative…

Bob Lutz is, apparently. So is Jack Baruth. But will the “V-Series Challenge” prove anything? Not so much. Nobody will be surprised when a CTS-V sets the fastest lap time of the event (at the hands of GM’s test-driver John Heinricy), or if Lutz’s god-knows-how-many practice laps brings his lap time lower than his challengers’. As we’ve said before, GM has set the terms of a battle it is nearly incapable of losing… but what of the war? Who cares what your top-of-the-line sedan is (even if it’s amazing, which TTAC readily admits it is) when your point of entry is the Aveo? Oh, and how much profit does the CTS-V make? Still, we can’t say no to a few hot laps on someone else’s dime. Do you know what a membership to Monticello costs?

My name is Robert Farago and I invented the nickname “Maximum” Bob Lutz. I crowned Bob with the title at the New York Auto Show, standing next to GM’s all powerful Car Czar at the urinal. I had no idea that a man could take that long to take a piss. You could spend GM’s entire development budget on niche vehicles in the time it takes Maximum Bob to empty his bladder. With similar results. I’m not saying Maximum Bob is old and decrepit, but when he offered to prostrate himself in front of the Presidential Task Force on Autos, he was asking them to fund an operation.

Changes are coming to GM’s corporate ranks, likely as soon as government pay regulations are put into effect. CFO Ray Young’s departure is already a sure thing, and former car czarlet Steve Rattner has revealed that Fritz Henderson is an interim placeholder in everything but title. Oh, and Bob Lutz won’t last forever (gosh, that will be a sad day, won’t it?). Meanwhile, GM’s promote-from-within approach to culture change practically guarantees that some other denizen of the RenCen will move up at some point. Sweeping generalizations about GM management aside, is there anyone we should be particularly worried about? Autoextremist Peter DeLorenzo seems to think so. In his latest “rant” about Chevrolet’s decision to review its ad account, he skewers a particular GM executive in terms that make one almost believe he has given up his recent, lamentable role as GM’s resident cheerleader.

Mark LaNeve’s career success at GM—moving from minor league Cadillac man to the head of S&M (Sales and Marketing)—is a text book example of GM’s obliviousness to the idea of accountability. Despite failing to resurrect Cadillac’s fortunes, despite helping Rick “Captain Queeg” Wagoner fondle his balls (read the book) as GM sank into bankruptcy, LaNeve didn’t go down with the ship. While his turf was carved-up post-C11, the beneficiary of the slice and dice was none other than failed Car Czar Bob Lutz, who assumed LaNeve’s marketing remit. Did LaNeve even take a salary cut? Don’t make me laugh. But if you do want to solicit a sad sort of chuckle, remind me that LaNeve is headed to Allstate. You’re in good hands? The man is bitching about his Escalade payment, having overseen the destruction of billions in shareholder value and the disappearance of thousands of dealers. See? If it wasn’t so sad, it would be funny.

To: All GM Dealers

After 28 years in the auto business and 24 with GM, I can’t believe that beginning next week I will be doing something different than trying to sell cars and sweating out another month-end close.

It’s been a great ride to this point and I wouldn’t be leaving if not for a great opportunity in a great industry in a great town. To that end, Chicago is close enough to Detroit to make the relocation manageable and has outstanding special needs resources for my sons. In the meantime, I feel good that I’m departing at a time that GM is on the right track with great products, dealers and employees. A clean balance sheet for the first time in decades doesn’t hurt either.

I don’t think Automotive News [sub] knows what to make of Chrysler. Applying the “anyone with half a brain” test to their ChryCo reportage, we can see that AN possess the requisite 50 percent cranial capacity. And yet, for better or worse , Detroit’s denizens are their homies. So, really, AN’s never too far from the Kool-Aid dispenser. The tension between what is and the hagiography surrounding Chrysler’s tight-lipped Canadian CEO is obvious in this morning’s article about management disco in Auburn Hills (DO the shuffle). “In June, CEO Sergio Marchionne elevated Peter Fong and Michael Accavitti to lofty positions in the new Chrysler Group — Fong as CEO of the Chrysler brand and Accavitti as CEO of Dodge. They lasted only four months before resigning last week. The abrupt changes signal that the hard-charging Marchionne doesn’t play by Detroit’s old-boy rules in his attempt to revive recently bankrupt Chrysler.” Either that or . . . chaos. [Your guess here.] Check this out, revealed in the irony-free subhead “Machionne’s Gospel” . . .

On this Wednesday’s wailing wall, Autoextremist.com lambastes Motown’s marketeers for their cowardice and creative poverty—without naming names, providing egregious examples or suggesting rectification. “Automotive marketers are too often squeamish, risk-averse or clueless. There, I said it. Yes, at least 75 percent of the people involved in automotive marketing don’t know what the hell they’re doing – it’s a pathetic fact but it’s the High-Octane Truth.” Not in these parts it isn’t. You want the truth? DeLorenzo is guilty of the same timidity that he assigns to unnamed auto execs and their equally unidentified ad agencies. Where’s the indignation at GM for cutting Caddy’s cutting-edge ad agency adrift? Or some good-old-fashioned finger pointing at Bob Lutz, for his infinitely asinine decision to put Chairman Wiseacre at the front of the nationalized automaker’s laughable “May the best car win” ad campaign? Where’s Chrysler? What’s up with Ford’s epic failure to figure-out Lincoln? Someone show DeLorenzo how to sample crickets chirping. Meanwhile, truth be told, DeLorenzo’s dissing the competition for no greater goal than feathering his own nest . . .

Did you think that finally sacking Mark LaNeve might have been another step in the direction towards the “culture change” promised land? Time for some new meds. And while we usually have to sit on our sour-puss predictions for a few days before being proven right, GM decided to back us up early this time. Automotive News [sub] reports that none other than Buick-GMC boss Susan Docherty will be replacing LaNeve at the pinnacle of the GM sales operation. “She brings a fresh perspective to the job and she has an extraordinarily high level of energy,” says Fritz Henderson. By which he means she’s a lifer, and owes her career to the timid, inept culture Henderson is simultaneously a product of and ostensibly bent on breaking.

I have no idea why Mark LaNeve still works for General Motors. The former Cadillac man was serving Kool-Aid on the bridge when CEO Rick Wagoner was Richard Nixon channeling Captain Queeg. When Old GM sank into bankruptcy, LaNeve (and Bob Lutz and Fritz Henderson and the whole damn crew) should have gone down with the ship. Instead, they transferred to another boat and headed straight for the same iceberg. No surprise there: hitting icebergs is who they are and what they do. I’m not saying that LaNeve’s recent remarks about culling GM stores [via Automotive News] reveal that he’s wrong to trim the automaker’s bloated dealer network. I’m saying that LaNeve is going about it the wrong way. Here’s my thinking . . .

Bob Kruse, GM’s executive director of global vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicles and batteries and the man in charge of the Volt’s battery development and integration, is leaving General Motors. The Detroit News reports Kruse is leaving to start an EV consulting firm, creatively named E V Consulting. “My departure from General Motors has nothing to do with my view of the future success for the Volt,” says Kruse. “I’ve left on very good terms. I have a lot of respect for the leadership of General Motors.” And then he goes and confuses everything by claiming, “I’m not going to lie. Are they happy about my departure? Probably not.” And GM’s response? “There’s no good time to lose good people, but that said, the Volt team goes way beyond one person.” Which, for comparison, is a more straightforward response than Tesla’s Elon Musk gave when his head of development and manufacturing suddenly ditched. But the real irony is that GM’s bailout, which at this point is a gamble that rides on the success or failure of the Volt, was the motivation for the Volt’s top midwife to ditch in the middle of its frenzied gestation.

Automotive News reports, “General Motors Co. will launch a broad post-bankruptcy advertising campaign next week with an introductory TV spot featuring new Chairman Ed Whitacre . . . The idea is to showcase GM’s best products, with Whitacre urging consumers to take a look at what the automaker has to offer.” THIS is what Old GM Car Czar/New GM Ad Czar Bob Lutz thinks will turn around the nationalized automaker’s sinking fortunes? More pan-brand feel good advertising? Or is it worse than that; some kind of sick, twisted Motown plot to get Eddy boy to become a GM insider? I mean, guys, this is the former AT&T exec who celebrated winning his seat at the GM BOD table by publicly pronouncing, “ I don’t know anything about cars.” The guy who said he’d only need to jet into Detroit for a day or so. PER MONTH.

Fritz Henderson got a thumbs-up from the Board of Directors just days ago, but it seems that Chairman Ed Whitacre doesn’t want anyone to get comfortable. The Freep‘s Tom Walsh just posted a column describing GM execs as “rattled” by Whitacre’s recent revelation that at the New GM executives must earn their keep.

On Wednesday, Whitacre told a group of GM salaried staff — in one of several “diagonal slice” meetings, so called because they mix people from all levels — that he expects to see lots of changes in the next 12 weeks. Changes every day.

So, is the party over? Surely GM’s brass knew that there would be some accountability, someday. Right?

Anonymous sources tell the Wall Street Journal that former Toyota executive and current Chrysler Deputy CEO Jim Press will leave the Pentastar by the end of November. Press, who currently serves as a special adviser to Sergio Marchionne tells the WSJ ,”I don’t think anything has been released about management changes,” echoing Chrysler’s official “no comment.”

BusinessWeek (BW) offers its readers a look inside Brand Spanking New Chrysler, or whatever they call it these days. Although the article’s written in the style of a PR puff piece, there’s plenty to disconcert the inherently skeptical (guess who). For example, does this strike you as the best way to re-jig your executive ranks? “Rather than rely on suggestions from top management, Marchionne asked more than 100 middle- and lower-ranked staffers what they thought of their bosses. Then, say people familiar with the process, he picked people most respected by their subordinates. ‘If he didn’t hear expressions of leadership voluntarily from people, he took it as a sign that they didn’t view the executive as a leader.'” So no one lied about their boss? Or everyone did? Or Marchionne favored the suits favored by brown nosers? And how did he know whether a testimonial was voluntary or inspired by Christmas party pictures? Color me confused about Chrysler.

TTAC recently published a Wild Ass Rumor about Buick LaCrosse wiring problems. Jim Federico breached the GM – TTAC wall to quash the suggestion that production vehicles suffered from electrical gremlins. “I can confirm there is NO truth to this RUMOR,” the LaCrosse Vehicle Line Executive/Chief Engineer wrote. So I called the man responsible for “any car on the GM Global Mid-Size platform until I retire or get fired, whatever comes first.” [Note: GM no longer uses Greek names for its platforms. Literally. Federico flat-out refused to identify the Buick’s platform as an “Epsilon.”] Federico told me GM has delivered roughly a thousand LaCrosse to dealers; only one has been marked return to sender. “It was a car with a burned-out starter,” he revealed. “We identified the problem as a defective component and contacted the supplier to rectify the situation.” Now, as for that wiring rumor . . .