#2009

Badge engineering! Always near the top of my search list when poking through car graveyards, obscure examples of marketing-inspired rebadgitude will jump right out from the ho-hum ranks of Elantras and LaCrosses in any yard. I haven’t managed to find a discarded Suzuki Equator yet, sad to say, but I have documented such rarities as a Mitsubishi-badged Hyundai Excel, an Isuzu-badged Chevy Colorado, and a Dodge-badged Renault 25. Today we’ll visit one of the most puzzling examples of badge-engineering history in the North American automotive marketplace: the Volkswagen Routan.

The years 2008 and 2009 were interesting times for GM, with the company filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on June 1, 2009 and the Pontiac Division clearly on the ropes (despite the Bondo applied over Pontiac’s rusty image by the Solstice).

To The General’s warlords, only one solution to Pontiac’s woes made sense: take the Chevy Aveo, itself a South Korea-built Daewoo Kalos, and give it Pontiac badges!

In all of my 35 years of exploring junkyards in the western United States, I had never found a Mexican-built, Mexican-market car until a few weeks ago, when I spotted this General Motors de México-manufactured 2009 Opel Corsa in a Denver-area self-service wrecking yard.

It’s unusual, though not unheard-of, for sub-10-year-old cars to show up in the cheap self-service wrecking yards; most that do are from Detroit.

Or Korea.

I saw this ’07 Sedona covered with fingerpaint and hippie stickers in Wisconson a couple months ago, and now I’ve found this ’09 Kia Rondo in Colorado. The Rondo never made much of an impression in the United States and disappeared without a trace after the 2010 model year, so it’s of some interest as a forgotten car.

According to the LA Times, Volkswagen’s falsified emissions data made certain 2009 model year vehicles eligible for a $1,300 green car subsidy. That subsidy, applicable to 39,500 Jetta and Jetta Sportwagen units sold, equated to a total of $51.35 million available to buyers from the government.

The LA Times used Internal Revenue Service data and Motor Intelligence, an automotive industry research body, to calculate the numbers.

The $51 million in total tax credits is just another case of automakers leveraging dumb government money to incentivize consumers to buy their vehicles.

For the last few months, the esteemed commenters of TTAC have welcomed me onto their screens. I’m here to tell you that I’ve been using you. I’m using the B&B as a sounding board to help me decide on my next car, and to help generate enough factual ammunition to sell it to domestic management.

So, let’s play the game again, shall we? This week, like last, Chris decides he wants a GM muscle car. Can’t buy new since the SS might as well be vaporware. Mark argues that the new Sierra with the 6.2 is a new hotrod, and he may have a point – but I’m just not a truck guy. I need four real seats, too.

The man who helped General Motors restructure in 2009 now wants the automaker to buy back $8 billion in shares to help boost its value.

Before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia this week, the Center for Auto Safety asked the judge to make public the U.S. Treasury’s role in the 2009 General Motors bailout.

Remember how GM brags that they are the largest auto manufacturer in China? CAAM, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers says otherwise (via Gasgoo.) Here is the official CAAM list of the 10 largest passenger vehicle manufacturers in China, and their units sold in 2009:

1. Shanghai Volkswagen Automotive Co: 708,100 units
2. FAW-VW Automobile Co Ltd: 669,200 units
3. Shanghai General Motors Co Ltd: 668,200 units
4. Beijing Hyundai Motor Co: 521,000 units
5. Dongfeng Nissan Ltd: 459,300 units
6. BYD Co Ltd: 448,400 units
7. Chery Automobile Co Ltd: 409,300 units
8. Guangqi Honda Automobile Co Ltd: 337,200 units
9. Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co Ltd: 334,700 units
10. Geely Holding Group Co Ltd: 329,100 units

Taken into account that VW makes their Chinese cars with two joint ventures, SVW and FAW-VW, Volkswagen’s combined total rises to 1,377,300. The imported VWs bring the number well above 1.4m .