Tata Motors To Buy Stake in Ferrari?
By Nick Kurczewski 
Like a hapless A-list celebrity being hounded by the paparazzi, Tata Motors can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to avoiding being the subject of wild speculation and outlandish headlines.
The latest round of Tata’s awkward celebrity status came via a story published by Italian magazine L’Espresso, which recently reported Tata Motors now has its sights set on purchasing a stake in Ferrari.
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VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda Unveil at Geneva Motor Show
By Pál Négyesi
Volkswagen Group held a rather intense press conference Monday evening at the Geneva Motor Show.
All the big bosses were present, including Chief of the Supervisory
Board Ferdinand Piech and Volkswagen Group Chairman of the Board of
Management Martin Winterkorn. 
Though there was no talk of financial
results, which will be announced later this month, Winterkorn was in
rather a good mood as he spoke of 2.9 million vehicles sold in 2007 and
figures "which everyone should be proud of."
A 15-minute film featuring a James Bond–like character offered short
glimpses of the new models, which later appeared on the scene.
Seat gave the audience a peek of the forthcoming new Ibiza
via the
Bocanegra sport coupe concept,
designed by Luc Donckerwolke, of
Lamborghini Gallardo fame. It remains to be seen how many of the sharp
styling cues survive when the new Ibiza is unveiled in 2009.
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Super Bowl Car Ads: Making the Grade, Failing Marks and No Shows
By Dale Buss 
The New York Giants certainly achieved their Super Bowl objectives Sunday. Did car companies?
It’s too early to tell. But automakers led the way in a field of Super Bowl ads that largely disappointed on their creative merits and failed to generate the kind of instant excitement that could help them meet their marketplace goals. In some cases, it didn’t seem as if their advertising approach was actually consistent with the strategic challenges faced by the company.
And when you’re paying $2.7 million for 30 seconds of rapt attention by the biggest TV audience of the year, you really should take advantage of the opportunity.
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Chevy Spot From Last Year's Super Bowl Still a Favorite
Aired during last year’s Super Bowl, the Chevrolet commercial featuring bare-chested men washing an HHR as the female occupants watch in terror remains a fan favorite, according to The New York Times.
The paper reports the commercial, created by student Katelyn Cravv of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee to win the Chevy Super Bowl Ad Challenge, was the year’s most TiVo-recorded ad last year, based on data released by media agency Starcom USA, which sampled 20,000 TiVo users.
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Sustainability Mystique Unraveled by Inforum Panel
Leaders from strategic auto industry sectors will discuss future sustainability trends in the auto industry at a breakfast meeting hosted by professional women’s network, Inforum, in conjunction with the Detroit auto Show on Wednesday, Jan. 16.
Michelle Krebs, editor of Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com, will moderate the “Beyond Green: Unraveling the Sustainability Mystique” panel discussion. Panelists will be: Charlene Wall, leader of Strategic Business Development for BASF Corporation; Sue Cischke, senior vice president -- Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering, Ford Motor Company; and Catherine Greener, vice president -- Consulting, ACT NOW.
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The Lighter Side of the Auto Beat
It’s been a grueling week for serious automotive business: more financial losses for General Motors and Ford fueling fears of more job cuts; a lousy economic outlook with oil skyrocketing near $100 a barrel and the U.S. dollar at the bottom of the barrel; and a jittery stock market.
So now for something completely different to end the week on a lighter note.
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Chrysler's Jim Press Speaks Publicly for the First Time Since Leaving Toyota
Former Toyota executive Jim Press, now vice chairman and president of Chrysler, told a Detroit radio show host that Chrysler and Detroit automakers in general will regain market share, lost to companies like Toyota.
“I think every 37 or 38 years you ought to try a new career,” Press, who was at Toyota for 37 years, told Paul W. Smith on his WJR-AM radio show in his first interview since joining Chrysler.
"It's great to be back on the home team. It’s great to be on this team," Press said.
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Taking Heat for “Uncool” Minivans
My comment printed in the Wall Street Journal, and later picked up by other 
publications including the Detroit News, about minivans being considered uncool drew a lot of heat –- mostly from colleagues and friends who love their sliding-doored vehicles.
"Frankly, sliding doors are what give minivans open access, but that's what makes them uncool. Practical, yes, but uncool," I told the Journal reporter, a story on the introduction of Chrysler’s new minivans and the segment entitled “The minivan is dead; long live the minivan?” The 2008 Chrysler Town & Country and the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan go on sale soon.
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Wiper Inventor’s Story Hits the Silver Screen
Don’t expect the automakers to fight for a product placement in this film!
The story of Robert W. Kearns, inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper systems used on most vehicles for decades, will hit the silver screen. Detroit’s Big Three automakers will play a starring role –- as the bad guys –- who lost after long court battles that ultimately reached the Supreme Court.
Actor Greg Kinnear, most recently appearing in the Oscar-winning Little Miss Sunshine, plays Kearns in Flash of Genius.
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Big Three Discuss Union-Run Health-Care Fund, Bloomberg Reports
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler may propose in this year’s labor talks that the United Auto Workers (UAW) manage a health-care fund financed by the automakers, Bloomberg reports sources as saying today.
The U.S. automakers have discussed such a fund as a possible alternative to eliminate most of a combined $114 billion in retiree health-care obligations, sources told Bloomberg. Under the joint fund proposal, the companies would contribute a percentage of their retiree liabilities to the fund, whose assets and investment proceeds would cover retiree medical benefits.
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Chrysler-Cerberus: Winners and Losers
“Who are the winners and who are the losers with Cerberus buying Chrysler?” Business Editor Rod Meloni of Detroit’s NBC affiliate, WDIV-TV, asked me.
The biggest losers are Chrysler’s unions. The biggest winner is Daimler.
However, there are flip sides to both.
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Edmunds.com, Inside Line Win Journalism Awards
Edmunds.com, the premier resource for automotive information (and parent of AutoObserver), and Inside Line, Edmunds’ high-speed online car magazine, were awarded six 2007 International Wheel Awards for excellence in automotive journalism presented by the Detroit Press Club Foundation.
Winners were selected by professor-judges from the the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago. The awards were presented during a ceremony on April 26 at the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan.
Edmunds received half of the awards presented in the Internet category, including all three Internet photojournalism awards.
“This is a credit to our entire editorial department, and we’re excited to be recognized by our peers for the work we produce. These awards highlight the talented team we have at Edmunds.com, Edmunds’ Inside Line and Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com,” said Kevin Smith, editorial director for Edmunds. “The Internet has become the leading source of information and entertainment for automotive consumers and enthusiasts, and these awards clearly demonstrate that Edmunds.com and Inside Line are the leaders in that space."
Winners of the Wheel Awards from Edmunds.com and Inside Line are:
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So, Toyota’s No. 1. What Now GM?
We’re recovering from the shell shock of Toyota dropping 
the bomb that it had surpassed GM as No. 1 in global sales in the first quarter –- news the industry had expected. It was a matter of not if but when.
“This was not an unexpected turn of events,” said Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Jesse Toprak, “but it happened a bit earlier than forecasted.”
And, as I told NBC’s Detroit affiliate Tuesday, it’s also not the end of the world. While certainly not a positive trend -– no one likes being No. 2 when they’ve been No. 1 for more than seven decades -– GM’s dethroning could have a silver lining. The pressure is off to maintain the No. 1 sales spot, while allowing GM to focus on the more important race -– the one for profitability.
As a Detroit marketing professor told a local reporter: “[GM is] no longer the New York Yankees. They can be the pursuer rather than the pursued.”
At the same time, Toyota will don the bull’s eye of the press and public, while it struggles to ensure quality, control costs and maintain profit margins during its rapid growth.
But what now for General Motors?
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Iacocca Speaks Out on Auto Industry and Everything Else
Former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca has written a new book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, scheduled for release by Simon & Schuster Tuesday, and, in it, he doesn’t mince words.
In the book that reviewers describe as a combination of memoir, business advice and political harangue, Iacocca rips President Bush, the proposed Chrysler sales and his Chrysler successor Bob Eaton, who engineered Chrysler’s sale to DaimlerChrysler.
Page 1 of the book, coauthored with Catherine Whitney, sets the tone: “We’ve got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we’ve got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can’t even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car…. I hardly recognize this country anymore.”
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Chrysler Is for Sale. Now What?
Now that it is a foregone conclusion that DaimlerChrysler has put Chrysler 
Group up for sale and it quite possibly will be sold to a private equity firm, what’s next?
Everyone –- employees, suppliers and the media –- wants a definitive answer to what will happen to Chrysler once it is sold. How will the deal work? Will Chrysler still exist when all is said and done? If it does, what will it look like?
Despite relentless questioning, no one knows. Not even DaimlerChrysler insiders. The sale of Chrysler is unprecedented. There’s no blueprint for how a sale of an auto company to a private equity firm would work. In an interview with CNBC's Morning Call Wednesday, I suggested we spectators “expect the unexpected.”
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Where Have All the Women Gone?
The drain of talent, both male but especially female, is one of the most dangerous signs of weakness 
for Big Three automakers and top suppliers, says a former Ford executive and television broadcaster turned industry consultant.
Anne Doyle, president of Anne Doyle Strategies, is a leadership and communications coach appearing on the television program, AutoLine Detroit, which began airing Sunday. Hosted by John McElroy, the show’s segment features Sarah Webster of the Detroit Free Press and me as guest panelists to discuss the massive departure of women from the top ranks of the auto industry.
For few decades, women executives were on the rise. The 1990s, says Doyle, a pioneer in sports broadcasting in Detroit before she went to Ford, were the golden years for women in the auto industry. But in the last few years, an alarming number of top-level female auto executives have left the industry. Scan the list of Automotive News top 100 women in the U.S. industry, published in 2005. A number of the women have left the auto industry for extremely significant jobs in other businesses.
One of the highest profile women to leave the industry of late was Anne Stevens, one of the industry's highest ranking women. She had been Ford executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Americas, working with Ford President of the Americas Mark Fields, heading the automaker's turnaround plan. She left Ford to take a top job with Carpenter Technology Corp. in Pennsylvania late last year. And just this yesterday, Ford announced its treasurer, Ann Marie Petach, was leaving to take a newly created position with BlackRock Inc. as managing director and head of business finance.
Downsizing isn’t the only reason, says Doyle. Many women are abandoning the auto industry for a better life, both professional and personal.
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In the Media: Saturn Surge
Detroit’s NBC affiliate, WDIV, aired a story on its Auto Insight report on Saturn’s growing success. The 
report stemmed from and included me citing an Edmunds.com’s AutoObserver report on Saturn’s surprising 60-percent increase in sales in February and heavy cross-shopping of Saturn’s new models by prospective Toyota, Honda and Nissan buyers.
An interesting tidbit uncovered by WDIV anchor Guy Gordon was the fact that the Saturn of Troy dealership, the Troy, Mich.,-based showroom where the segment was filmed, has engaged for years in a friendly competition with the neighboring Toyota dealership. Both owned by the same dealer, the two have run neck-and-neck in sales. But the Saturn dealership began pulling ahead last fall, and this month is likely to be 100 cars in front of the Toyota dealership.
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