#CammyCorrigan

When people get married, they normally follow it up with a honeymoon and (at least traditionally) the consummation of said marriage. So, when Daimler and Renault-Nissan got hitched, how do you think they’d celebrate their first year of marriage? Build a car a together? Announce a joint venture factory? Start sharing dealerships? No. They had an argument. Just like your old polyamorous married couple.

You may not know that Cammy is a Chemist by trade. With a degree at college and university. If you bug me, I know enough to blow you up. That aside, in chemistry, there is a theory called “Le Chatelier’s Principle”. It states that:

“If a chemical system at equilibrium experiences a change in concentration, temperature, volume, or partial pressure, then the equilibrium shifts to counteract the imposed change and a new equilibrium is established.”

Now why am I telling you this?

The BBC reports that Daimler is deserting Iran.

Free market economics are a simple process. Or so they say. Dive in, and whoever survives, survives. Let the market decide. According to the pure tenets of free market economics, it’s important that the government shows no favoritism. Yeah, right.

The Korea Times reports that President Lee Myung-Bak is showing more than just interest in Hyundai-Kia.

Which drive train will own the future? ICE, hydrogen, hybrid? BMW bets it will be all of the above. Autocar reports that BMW has mated a regular ICE with a fuel cell, electricity-storing supercapacitors and an electrically driven rear-axle. The reasoning behind this new type of hybrid is that BMW’s engineers believe that this power train will make the cars capable of switching to an emissions free propulsion system and switch back to ICE when needed. Now I know what you’re thinking at this point. “Cammy, aside from being the worst new writer of the year, why would anyone want to buy a car like this?” Well, the answer lies in Europe.

When all this SUA happened to Toyota, many predicted that Toyota was on a downward spiral to assured destruction. Well, turns out rumours of their death were a bit premature. In February, Toyota achieved record sales in Australia and Canada and their decline in the United States, was a lot less than many had predicted. In March, Toyota’s sales (with the help of some incentives, which were below industry average) grew. Now Toyota can add the UK to the mix.

Don’t you just hate it when a band or stand up comedian you like is doing a show in your area but the second tickets go on sale, they’ve sold out? Then, if you’re really desperate, you enter the world of the ticket tout, where you could pay exorbitant prices for tickets which might not be genuine. Then, if that fails, you fall back on the “Oh, I’ll wait till it comes out on CD/DVD.” train of thought. Then, when you do get it, you’ll always listen/watch it with a sense of emptiness, knowing you missed out on that live performance. Are you feeling depressed now? Well, think how the people of Europe are feeling. At least those who yearn for a certain Ford Focus.

As many of you have probably figured out by now, I’m a firm atheist. You die, you become worm food, and your relatives divide up your estate. Life goes on. However, when I was learning religious education at school, I was told about the many different Gods on offer. We have God, Allah, Buddha (not really a god, but you get the gist), Zeus, Apollo, Thor and loads of others. But at no point did my teacher mention a Japanese car company. Bob Lutz just did.

The UK gets a bit of a harsh stereotype. Allegedly, we’ve got bad teeth, drive on the “wrong side of the road” and are very reserved (apparently, that’s a bad thing). We also call ads or TV commercials “adverts.” We may be odd, but believe it or not, we can kick “bottom” when we feel like it. Now I could point to the Burning of Washington, but I’ve been advised by Führer Schmitt that this may be “too soon,” and could “hurt their feelings.” Nor will I point to Waterloo or the Iranian Embassy Siege. What I’m pointing to is the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA). They are quite a rabid bunch. If they don’t like something, they’ll kick its bottom and ban it. Like this advert, or this one. They’re also quite hard on automotive adverts, too. In 2007, the ASA banned an advert from Toyota about the Prius for being “misleading” (you can watch the advert here). And now, Renault is copping it in the neck (as we fancy to say.)

I’m not actually that cynical a person. Honestly. I want to see the best in everything, but 9 times out of 10, my cynical side is normally proven right. So, pardon me as I cast a caustic eye at the following lines.

Milwaukee’s WISN reports that a Myrna Marseilles crashed her 2009 Toyota Camry into a wall of a YMCA in her hometown Sheboygan Falls, Wis., while she was trying to park the car. “All of a sudden, there was this very loud noise and the car shot forward and hit the wall,” Miss Marseilles said. “There wasn’t time to think what I might do because the car was zipping toward the building.”

Whilst grazing on the internet I come across some weird and wonderful things. From discovering Bill Maher’s New Rules on YouTube to learning about the different strains of marijuana available in the coffeeshops of Amsterdam (for research purposes, ahem). But the following article is one of the funniest and I found it on the Ford’s own website. Ford got into this Web 2.0 social networking thing with a vengeance at thefordstory.com

The article starts off OK. Ford crowing about their quality beating everyone else. O.k., we’ll discuss that another time. It’s the comments that raise my interest. The second comment starts off a “Toyota vs Ford” debate by saying “Toyota is so much better.” I call flame-bait, that comment was written March 13, at the height of the Toyota-troubles. Then the conversation turns into an “All MBA’s aren’t bad” string (conveniently forgetting that Alan Mulally is an engineer, first and foremost). The comment is finished with a flourish: “WE MUST PROMOTE AN ‘INNOVATIVE AMERICA-‘ENVISIONEERING’ ITS FUTURE”.

In the world of automobiles, it appears that China isn’t the only fruit ripe for the plucking. Brazil is buzzing. They’re weathering the current economic fragility very well, and companies are looking to invest in there. Down in Brazil, economically speaking, it’s car-naval time!

Media from Associated Press to The Business Standard of India are abuzz with reports that Fiat (the company) is planning to cut 5000 jobs and will be spinning off its car division this summer. The stock market seems to like the idea: Fiat’s shares rose 4.15 percent.

Joel Ewanick is a name you’re probably not familiar with. I wouldn’t blame you, he works in Marketing, which is a pretty dull affair. However, you may be familiar with his work. He helped bring Hyundai to the mainstream with clever and well executed marketing plans. The Hyundai Assurance Plan (lose your job, return your car) was his idea. Not to mention during 2009, when the car industry was failing, his marketing plans helped Hyundai increase market share and even turn a good profit. Advertising during the Superbowl? His idea. Advertising at the Academy Awards? His idea again. Hyundai’s market share grew from 3 percent to 4.4 percent as of February (according to data from Autodata). To cap it all, he was named Marketer of the Year 2009 (the year of carmageddon) by Advertsing Age. So why am I writing about him? Well, he’s leaving Hyundai.

The NYTimes reports that Norbert Reithofer, CEO of BMW AG, is thinking the unthinkable. Dr Reithofer said at a shareholders’ meeting in Munich: “We are exploring the possibility of developing a joint architecture for the front and four-wheel drive systems of these cars,” WHAT?! An FWD BMW? An act against nature. Say it isn’t so! He didn’t.

Peter Schiff (the man who saw the financial meltdown coming from a mile away) continually asserts that financial stimulus isn’t cure, it prolongs or postpones the problem. Any hardcore free capitalist will find it hard to disagree with Mr Schiff. There is no governmental stimulus such as in Europe. There is plenty of stimulus from the car makers.

March sales for the United States are forecast to explode according to ecreditdaily. They report that JD Power & Associates forecast that new vehicle retail sales going to increase 25 percent. New vehicle sales for the month of March 2010 are expected to be around 883,300 units. The majority of the growth is expected to come from a certain manufacturer who’s been in the media for other reasons. Our own Darth Niedermeyer, saw this coming.