Jerry York, Industry Exec, Straight-Talker and Critic, Dies at 71
Former auto executive Jerome York is dead at the age of 71 after being suffering a brain aneurysm on Tuesday.
In the 1970s, York held high executive posts at Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. and was a central player in Chrysler's early 1980s turnaround, yet always was a vocal and strident critic of Detroit automakers for what he characterized as a myopic management culture.
York's seemingly perpetual prediction that Detroit would fall if it did not change essentially came to fruition with last summer's bankruptcies at GM and General Motors Corp. and Chrysler.
York had a colorful career for someone who often was characterized as relentlessly methodical and calculating - a perception that may cost him the CEO chair at Chrysler when legendarily emotional Lee Iacocca retired in 1992.
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Posted by Bill Visnic at 3:31 PM under Business , Chrysler , Ford , GM , In the Media , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Ex-GM's Stempel: From Gasoline to Batteries to Water
Robert C. Stempel, General Motors' CEO in the early 1990s, is joining the board of directors of Genesis Fluid Solutions Holdings, a water purification company in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Stempel was chosen for the company's board for not his automotive experience but his chairmanship of the Council of Great Lakes Industries. That experience provided him with valuable insight into the complex problems that plague America's largest bodies of water, said Genesis Chairman Michael Hodges in a statement.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:26 AM under GM , Personalities , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Toyota on Sikes' Runaway Prius: We're Not Buying It
James Sikes said last week the accelerator on his 2008 Toyota Prius hybrid-electric vehicle 
stuck open and the car took him prisoner on a 20-minute high-speed run on a San Diego freeway.
After examining and testing Sikes' Prius for two days, Toyota Motor Corp. engineers effectively are saying, "No sell."
Sikes' account of the event, in which he said his Prius accelerated of its own accord to speeds as high as 94 mph, has come under increasing skepticism in the week since it was reported, initially by Sikes himself calling 911. Now Toyota's investigation results -- although some will brand them as anything but unbiased -- add more doubt regarding Sikes' credibility.
"While a final report is not yet complete, there are strong indications that the driver's account of the event is inconsistent with the findings of the preliminary analysis," Toyota said in a press conference Monday.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 1:45 PM under Featured , News , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
Despite Whitacre at GM Helm, AT&T Buys Ford Transit Connect Electric Vehicles
AT&T has agreed to buy two of the first electric-powered Ford Transit Connects, despite the 
fact that the company's former CEO, Ed Whitacre, is now CEO of Ford-competitor General Motors and, it was revealed this week, still flies AT&T corporate planes as his retirement perk.
GM, where insiders have criticized the Transit Connect for its raw simplicity, almost crudeness, has nothing to directly compete with Ford's clever compact cargo van. The Transit Connect is carving out a new segment for urban delivery vans and, largely for that reason, was voted by journalists as the 2010 North American Truck of the Year in January.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:30 AM under Business , Ford , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Risk Professor Isn't Scared of Driving a Toyota
Paul Fischbeck, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and a "risk expert," noted in a 
release late last month that although Toyota Motor Corp. has captured the attention of the media and the driving public numerous reports linking its vehicles to unintended acceleration, driving while talking on a cell phone or even innocently walking a mile are riskier than piloting a recalled Toyota.
"There hasn't been a discussion about the actual risk of driving one of Toyota's recalled vehicles," said Fischbeck, a professor of social and decision sciences and engineering and public policy, in a statement. " I think it's important for people to realize that when you look at the actual risk of driving one of these cars, it's actually very low."
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:23 AM under Commentary , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Lutz Plans Busy Retirement
So what will the 78-year-old Bob Lutz, who has spent nearly half a century in the auto 
business, do in what he quips is his "early" retirement?
He's got a long to-do list: write, talk, fly, advocate and entertain other options put before him.
Last week's Geneva motor show was abuzz with the rumors that Lutz, who had already announced his retirement from General Motors once, would do it again at any moment.
At the dinner he hosts with media during the show on what turned out to be the eve of the announcement, Lutz dodged the question of when but the conversation clearly sounded like swan song.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:16 AM under GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Powerful Divisional General Managers Are History in New GM Management Restructuring
An executive position at General Motors Co. with a long tradition for power and attracting 
ambitious -- and often quirky -- personalities has been eliminated in the top-to-bottom management restructuring GM unveiled for its four sales divisions last week.
The role of division general manager -- the executive who for decades wielded the almighty last word on everything from marketing to manufacturing -- is gone, the historic position replaced by a structure that assigns sales and marketing functions to separate executives at each of the Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick/GMC divisions.
"It's become extremely clear to me since taking this role that there is a better way to structure this organization," Mark Reuss, GM North America president, said in detailing the new management configuration. "The premise of the structure is simple -- a clearer marketing focus to sell more vehicles, and freeing our sales and service experts to focus on customers and dealers.
"We've worked with a small group of executives to align this model and appoint the best candidates for each job," he added.
Say goodbye to one of the last vestiges of GM's management-style history: the single and all-powerful division general manager.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:40 AM under Commentary , Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Cadillac Execs Reportedly Canned; Signs of a "New" GM?
Doubts abound whether a "new General Motors" truly is emerging from the old GM with its 
old, stodgy and coddling culture, but the reported ouster of a trio of marketing executives associated with struggling Cadillac may be a sign that, in fact, the times are a-changing.
Quoting eight unnamed sources familiar with the situation, trade journal Automotive News reported last week that GM had terminated Steve Shannon, John Howell and Jay Spenchian, all associated with Cadillac.
Being fired by the old GM was almost unheard of. One had to be stealing from the company, sexually harassing co-workers or doing something so outrageously obvious that it couldn't be overlooked. Underperforming or playing a key role at an underperforming operation was rarely grounds for dismissal, it seemed.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:14 AM under Commentary , GM , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Lutz To Retire May 1
General Motors Co. vice chairman Bob Lutz, the company's energetic and often combative product guru - and long the embodiment of the auto industry's quintessential "car guy" executive - will retire May 1.
The company announced Lutz's retirement today.
The 78-year-old Lutz has had a larger-than-life automotive career that begin in 1963 and included stopovers with significant executive roles at each of the Big Three automakers and BMW AG prior to rejoining GM in 2001.
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Posted by Bill Visnic at 11:50 AM under GM , In the Media , News , Personalities | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
Another GM Management Shuffle Coming?
General Motors Corp., prodded by impatient chairman and newly named CEO Ed Whitacre to start hiking sales and market share, reportedly is planning a new management restructuring that will place more power with GM North America president Mark Reuss.
Automotive News reports Reuss will take over responsibility for sales from vice president of sales and marketing Susan Docherty, who will continue to head GM's marketing functions.
Each of GM's four remaining sales divisions -- Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC -- will have newly appointed chiefs for both sales and marketing, with divisional sales bosses reporting to Reuss and divisional marketing heads reporting to Docherty.
Currently, division heads are in charge of both functions.
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Posted by Bill Visnic at 8:10 PM under Business , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Toyota Chief Leaves Legislators With Little Resolution
Other than apologizing to a raft of House of Representatives lawmakers for accidents 
involving their constituents and pledging to improve the company's quality, communications and transparency, Akio Toyoda, president and CEO of embattled Toyota Motor Corp., didn't give Congress much to chew on after a day of exhaustive testimony in Washington, DC.
Testifying for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform along with Yoshimi Inaba, president and COO of Toyota Motor North America, Toyoda was hampered by the need to mostly speak through an interpreter and by delivering precious little in the way of definitive answers for House members desperate to produce public satisfaction.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:01 AM under Featured , News , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (6) | digg this | del.icio.us
Toyota Hearings Round 2: The Big Show Starring Akio Toyoda
Tuesday's hearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce into Toyota's 
recalls and safety record - as heated as it was - was just the warm-up act for Wednesday's big show starring Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company's founder.
The automaker already has indicated what Toyoda will say before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform with Op-Ed pieces published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday and distribution of excerpts of his speech.
Toyoda can be expected to deliver messages to Toyota customers and employees about the company's commitment to quality, to outline specific steps the company is doing in that regard and to make it personal with lines like "my name is on every car."
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:20 AM under Commentary , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Toyota's Lentz Admits Slow Response on Safety Issues, Promises Improvement
Toyota's top U.S. sales executive will tell Congressmen Tuesday that the automaker was too 
slow to act on safety issues, was poor at communicating but will do better in the future.
"It has taken us too long to come to grips with a rare but serious set of safety issues, despite all of our good faith efforts," Jim Lentz, Toyota Motor Sales president and COO will tell the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. His statement, to be read to the committee, was released by Toyota Tuesday morning.
Lentz said the automaker's slow reaction has been "compounded by poor communications both within our company and with regulators and consumers."
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:25 AM under Featured , News , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Toyota's Lentz To Testify at First Congressional Hearing
Toyota's president of U.S. sales, Jim Lentz, will testify at the first U.S. House hearing on Toyota's recalls next week, rather than the originally planned appearance of the company's North American president Yoshimi Inaba.
Toyota has been called to testify at two congressional hearings next week. The House Energy and Commerce Committee moved up its hearing by two days to Tuesday, February 23. Toyota said the date change would require Inaba to alter his travel plans. He will testify at a February 24 hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, she said.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda said he does not plan to testify at any of the Congressional hearings.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:32 AM under News , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Toyoda Leads Quality Task Force But Is a Washington No-Show
Toyota Motor Co. President Akio Toyoda, in a press conference held in Japan, said he would personally lead a global task force to improve quality-control management, but he would not appear at Congressional hearings in Washington next week.
In his third news conference in two weeks, Toyoda also said the automaker is examining steering complaints on its Toyota Corolla. A recall of the Corolla, one of the world's best-selling cars, is possible.
Toyoda further confirmed the automaker plans to install brake-override systems in its future models. He said Toyota also will make better use of the onboard black boxes in its vehicles to alert management to problems.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:58 AM under Featured , Personalities , Technology , Toyota | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
President Toyoda Details Plan To Restore Toyota Quality, Consumer Trust
In advance of Wednesday's Congressional hearings on the automaker's recent recalls, Toyota Motor Co. President Akio Toyoda detailed in a letter published in the Washington Post his plan to restore product quality and regain customer trust.
In the letter printed in Tuesday's edition, Toyoda, grandson of the company founder, accepted personal responsibility and apologized for the recalls, vowing to Toyota back on track.
Toyoda, who has been largely invisible during the last few weeks of recalls and negative headlines, wrote: "You have my commitment that Toyota will revitalize the simple but powerful principle that has guided us for 50 years: Toyota will build the highest-quality, safest and most reliable automobiles in the world."
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:03 AM under Commentary , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Toyota Recalls 437,000 Hybrids Globally, Including Toyota Prius
Toyota Motor Co., as expected, announced Tuesday the global recall of 437,000 hybrid 
models, including the Toyota Prius and Lexus HS 250h, to fix faulty braking systems.
The latest recall covers four models and brings the total number of recalled vehicles for various problems to about 8 million worldwide.
Toyota Motor Co. President Akio Toyoda announced the hybrid recall at a press conference in Japan Tuesday. As he did at a press conference last Friday, Toyoda, grandson of the company founder, apologized for causing customers to worry about Toyota's quality and safety and vowed to "redouble our commitment to quality."
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:58 AM under Featured , News , Personalities , Technology , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
President Toyoda Assures Toyotas Are Safe, Customers Are Top Priority
In his first public appearance since Toyota's quality issues captured global headlines, Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corp. CEO and grandson of the company founder, told the media in Japan Friday that Toyotas insisted are safe to drive and customers remain the automaker's top priority. He apologized for causing customers' worry.
"The fact that we have caused such concern is a cause of regret for us," he said in the press conference, which was not aired globally but was blogged live by the Wall Street Journal. "We are all working in unison to establish confidence again ... We have to earn back the trust of our customers."
Toyoda said he has spoken with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who earlier this week announced he wanted to talk with the Toyota CEO. However, Toyoda would share little of those discussions. "We aim to cooperate fully with the U.S. authorities," he said.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:19 AM under Featured , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Are Toyotas Safe To Drive? Transportation Secretary Confuses the Issue More
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood publicly recommended that owners of recalled Toyotas should stop driving them during Congressional hearings on Wednesday. Then he backtracked on his statement in later in interviews, only adding to the confusion Toyota owners are experiencing.
"This flip-flop is not helping concerned motorists who are being presented with confusing and contradictory information about the Toyota recall at every turn," stated Edmunds.com CEO Jeremy Anwyl.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:19 AM under Commentary , In the Media , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Transportation Secretary Says Stop Driving Recalled Toyotas
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said owners of Toyota vehicles recalled for 
accelerator-pedal defects should "stop driving" them and bring them to a Toyota dealer for repair.
"We need to fix the problem so people don't have to worry about disengaging the engine or slamming the brakes on or put it in neutral," LaHood told a House Appropriations panel hearing in response to questions from a lawmaker.
"If anybody owns of these vehicles, stop driving it and take it to a Toyota dealer," he added.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:29 AM under News , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Toyota's Lentz Making the Media Rounds
Jim Lentz, a Toyota sales exec who rose through the ranks to become Toyota Motor Sales president and COO in the U.S., faces his hardest sell yet: convincing Toyota buyers that their cars are high quality and safe.
Lentz, who stars in the company's video aimed at consumers and located on the automaker's Web site under the "recall update" section, is the front man for explaining the remedy for Toyota's latest recall that covered 2.3 million vehicles, in addition to a 4.2- million recall late last year. The automaker had largely gone silent in recent days after announcing the recall, stop-sale and production halt of eight of its most popular models mid last week.
On Monday, however, Toyota is covering the airwaves and the headlines. Lentz kicked off a host of interviews on national media with an appearance on NBC's "Today" show. He'll be on a number of other networks, including MSNBC and CNN, before hosting a media conference call at 11 a.m. Eastern.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:16 AM under Personalities , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Toyota CEO Apologizes; Company Advertises Apology in U.S. Media
Akio Toyoda, grandson of the founder of Toyota who was named president and CEO of the company last year, made his first public comment about the massive recall that led to a stop-selling order of eight popular models in the U.S. this week.
"I am deeply sorry," Toyoda said in a brief interview with the Japanese network NHK as reported by ABC News. Toyoda was attending the famous economic conference in Davos, Switzerland.
He apologized to customers for causing them worry. He said he could not answer questions because the company "was still investigating," but he hoped to provide customers with an explanation soon. "I would like for people to trust us," he said.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:35 PM under In the Media , News , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Whitacre Stays on as CEO To Create Stability
General Motors Chairman Ed Whitacre announced Monday morning that he will stay on as 
permanent CEO at the request of the automaker's board of directors. Whitacre said the board called off a search as it looked to create a stable situation at the company that went into and out of bankruptcy and has had a series of CEOs in the past year.
"The board asked me at a special meeting last week if I would be willing to stay on," Whitacre said at a press conference Monday. "I'm honored and pleased to accept this role. It's a great company with a terrific future, and I'd like to be part of it."
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:39 AM under Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Fiat Marchionne Faces Tough Sales Job in 2010
At past Detroit auto shows, one could always count on Chrysler to provide the event's glitz and 
glamour with sexy or wild concept cars introduced with theatrical flair, like minivans leaping through the air and Jeeps crashing through glass.
Not so this year. Chrysler held absolutely no press conferences during this week's press preview, and the automaker whipped together a new show stand at the last minute -- one that is simple, clean and noticeably absent of new vehicles.
That void points out the seemingly unwinnable battle Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne faces in 2010.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:05 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Makers Cautious as Subdued Detroit Show Starts Pivotal New Year
Most of the energy at this week's Detroit auto show epicentered at Ford Motor Co.'s display, 
with eddies splashing out to General Motors Corp.'s guardedly optimistic stand and Audi AG's gleaming base of operations.
But the majority of automakers were laying low, and media crowds were visibly reduced at the show with a reputation for over-the-top product introductions and boastful talk about the coming year.
There was no avoiding the 2010 Detroit auto show's subdued and geared-down mood, fashioned from the collective attitude of automakers licking their wounds and hoping the worst is past.
It also was yet another evolution of the show itself: there was plenty of room thanks to fewer automakers opting to display and fewer journalists opting (or fewer existing) to attend. A surprisingly expansive area of main-floor real estate was occupied by seemingly inappropriate electric vehicles of all manner, few of them of the road-going passenger variety.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:49 AM under Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Personalities , Technology , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Saab Fate Revealed Soon?
General Motors confirmed Friday morning that it is moving ahead with the wind down of its 
Saab division, despite 11th-hour bids from interested buyers.
GM said it had selected AlixPartners "to supervise the orderly wind down of Saab, and has requested approval of the selection by the appropriate authority in Sweden." AlixPartners is the same company GM has employed to wind down its other discontinued divisions, Pontiac and Saturn, and to rid the old GM of unwanted assets.
GM also confirmed that it has received several proposals for Saab and is continuing to evaluate these proposals.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:35 AM under Companies , Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Whitacre Sees Chance for 2010 Profit, Little Hope for Saab
General Motors Chairman and Interim CEO Ed Whitacre said the automaker has a shot at earning a profit in 2010, but he sees little hope to a rescue of Saab.
In a wide-ranging conversation with media in Detroit on Wednesday, Whitacre said GM's top priority to is earn a profit so that it can pay back its government loans and become a public company again. Going public wouldn't happen earlier than late this year, however.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:18 PM under Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Lutz Details Automaker's 2010 To-Do List
General Motors' Bob Lutz, in an editorial on AutoObserver's sister site, Edmunds' Inside Line,
lays out the automaker's 2010 to-do list.
Top to bottom of the list is a focus on product.
"GM builds cars and trucks and crossovers. That is what we do," writes Lutz. "In 2009, we were given an opportunity to continue doing so, and we must not squander that opportunity.
"Therefore," adds Lutz, "we are resolved, if you will, not to lose sight of the fact that if we don't build the best cars, trucks and crossovers on the planet, that opportunity will go for naught."
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:53 PM under Commentary , GM , Personalities , Technology | Comments (4) | digg this | del.icio.us
Apple COO Rumored To Be Top Pick for GM CEO Job
The speculation on who will become the next chief executive officer of General Motors has 
begun with the latest rumor putting Apple COO Tim Cook at the top of the list for the job.
Cook, who took the reins of Apple when CEO Steve Jobs was on medical leave, is the first choice of GM's executive search firm Spencer Stuart for the top post at General Motors, an anonymous reader of The Business Insider's Silicon Valley Insider told the blog.
"We have no idea whether this is true or not, but it makes sense," wrote Senior Editor Nicholas Carlson, the December 31, 2009 post.
A GM spokesman said the automaker had no comment on the rumor.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:04 AM under Business , GM , Personalities , Rumors | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Distinguished Automotive Journalist Bill Visnic Joins Edmunds.com
Automotive publishing veteran Bill Visnic joins Edmunds.com as full-time senior editor for 
Edmunds' AutoObserver.com.
Having been a regular freelance contributor to the automotive industry blog since 2007, Visnic will expand his role, providing expert analysis of business and technology developments.
Visnic brings to the position 16 years of experience as an automotive journalist. As Senior Technical Editor at Ward's Automotive Group, he implemented the highly regarded Ward's 10 Best Engines program. Prior to Ward's, Visnic worked as Associate Editor at Car and Driver.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:46 AM under In the Media , News , Personalities | Comments (5) | digg this | del.icio.us
The Best and Worst Ideas of 2009
Desperate times require desperate measures, as the saying goes, and 2009 was about as 
desperate as it gets in the auto industry.
Companies sometimes do the most interesting things when they're desperate -- and that maxim seems particularly relevant to auto companies. Because their products are so visible, with such potential emotional impact. Because their executives and designers and engineers are in charge of the process that creates those products.
Desperation in 2009 -- as defined by coming up some 6 million sales short of the industry's glory days of just three years ago -- generated products and strategies that ran the gamut from ridiculous to sublime. Some ideas were inspired; some were just tired.
Here are a few of the best and worst ideas from the auto industry in 2009:
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:22 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Personalities , Technology | Comments (4) | digg this | del.icio.us
The Euro View on the Decade
We know our U.S.-oriented prism is limiting so we turned to Europe's Just-Auto.com for its view on the decade.
With the Just-Auto's blessing, we excerpt here Dave Leggett's take on the Top 10 things - people, events and trends that shaped the automotive decade.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:38 AM under Commentary , Companies , Ford , GM , Personalities , Technology | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Hires CFO from Microsoft
General Motors announced Monday it has hired as its new CFO Chris Liddell, most recently 
CFO for Microsoft Corp.
"Chris brings a depth and experience to this job that were unmatched in our search for a new financial leader," Ed Whitacre, GM chairman and CEO, said in a statement.
"Chris will lead our financial and accounting operations on a global basis and will report directly to me," Whitacre added. We're also looking to his experience and insights in corporate strategy as a member of the senior leadership team in helping our restructuring efforts."
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:09 AM under GM , News , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
This Week's AutoObserver Reader Favorites: GM Plans; Award Finalists; VW-Suzuki
Not surprisingly, this week's favorite post by AutoObserver readers was our coverage of 
General Motors Chairman and Interim CEO Ed Whitacre's outline for the automaker's short-term game plan.
The former AT&T CEO held his first media roundtable since adding the CEO title two weeks after the ouster of Fritz Henderson.
At the press briefing, Whitacre said GM's priorities are paying back $6.7 billion in government loans by June and selling more cars and generating more revenue. He also called GM's sale of Saab to Dutch sports car maker Spyker is "possible" by year-end, but, if not, Saab would be eliminated.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:07 AM under Analysis , Business , Companies , Ford , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Trucks Deemphasized in Chevy's New Direction
Chevrolet's "Like A Rock" trucks and SUVS may be gathering a little moss in the coming 
years as General Motors Co.'s most important division shifts gears to concentrate on cars and crossovers, said new Chevrolet general manager Jim Campbell at a media event in Detroit Wednesday.
Noting that many would be surprised to know the now fully global Chevy sells 61 percent of its volume outside the U.S., Campbell said the home turf will be where the action is in the coming years.
"Chevrolet's biggest growth opportunity is right here in our own country," Campbell said, adding that new expansion will come "on the back of cars and crossovers."
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:39 AM under Business , Companies , Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Whitacre Outlines Automaker's Short-Term Game Plan
In his first media roundtable since adding CEO to his title only 14 days ago, General Motors Chairman Ed Whitacre said: the automaker would pay back $6.7 billion in government loans by June; selling more cars and generating revenue are GM's top priorities; and a sale of Sweden's Saab to Dutch sportsmaker Spyker is "possible."
Whitacre, the retired CEO of AT&T who became GM chairman at the request of President Obama's automotive task force following GM's emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy July 10, said GM will make a $1.2 billion payment on the loan it received from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) this month.
GM then intends to make quarterly payments until June 2010 when it will pay in full the $6.7 billion in TARP funds it owes. At the same time, GM will make payments on its loans from the Ontario and Canadian governments.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:11 AM under Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (4) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Close to Hiring New CFO; Current CFO Young Moved to International Ops
Clearing the path for the arrival of a new CFO, General Motors announced Monday morning 
its current CFO Ray G. Young has been named vice president of GM's international operations, a newly created post.
President Obama's automotive task force, and particularly its member Steve Rattner, took GM to task for its poor financial management. As a result, GM launched a search for a new CFO. Ed Whitacre, GM chairman and interim CEO, said in a Web chat last week that a new CFO was close to being appointed.
GM said Young will remain as CFO until that replacement is named, likely by Feb. 1.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:50 AM under GM , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Broke It Off With Tiger Woods Even Before it Became Fashionable
The personal and business fallout for his "indiscretions" continues for professional golfer Tiger Woods, as a variety of companies and organizations do the damage-control two-step to the certain detriment of "Woods Inc.'s" bottom line.
But at least one former corporate sponsor managed to avoid having to be in the position of judging Woods as his personal life becomes a tabloid bonanza: General Motors Co. Owing to its shaky finances, GM had to cut loose Woods and his big-bucks contract nearly a year ago.
For the nine years prior to parting ways with Woods at the end of 2008, GM reportedly had paid the golfing phenom a heady $8 million per year to be a spokesman for the Buick brand. That had to stop -- leading up to its federal bailout and eventual bankruptcy, GM jettisoned everything with the appearance of extravagance, from corporate jets to corporate golf spokesmen.
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Posted by Bill Visnic at 8:10 AM under Business , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chevy Boss, Another GM "Lifer," To Retire
General Motors Co.'s crucial Chevrolet division has a new general manager as yet another long-serving executive is leaving GM.
The company announced late Wednesday that Brent Dewar, 31-year GM veteran and vice president, global Chevrolet, will retire effective April 1, 2010. Taking over immediately as Chevrolet general manager is 45-year-old James M. Campbell, who had been in charge of GM's Fleet and Commercial Operations.
Since GM emerged from bankruptcy in mid-July, chairman Ed Whitacre has emphasized GM is striving for younger faces and fresher thinking -- not to mention fresh blood from outside -- to reinvigorate GM's hidebound executive culture.
Chevrolet's new general manager is appropriately young, perhaps, but is no newbie at GM, having been with the company since 1988.
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Posted by Bill Visnic at 7:19 PM under Analysis , Business , Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (4) | digg this | del.icio.us
Former Saturn Boss Heads to Smart USA
Penske Automotive Group Inc. said Tuesday Jill Lajdziak, former general manager at General
Motors Co.'s now-disbanded Saturn division, is joining Penske's Smart USA Distributor LLC unit as vice president, sales and marketing.
Lajdziak's appointment seems a strategy to address the startling drop-off of Smart car sales after the brand's second year on the market. Currently the brand's only model for sale in the U.S. is the two-seat Fortwo city car, sold exclusively by Penske at 79 Smart "retail centers."
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GM's Whitacre Web Chats With Media, Keeps It Light
General Motors Co. chairman and interim CEO Ed Whitacre conducted a Web chat with 
automotive media Tuesday and the most that can be said is he obviously takes seriously the light connotation behind the term "chat." Although fielding several questions, Whitacre industriously said almost nothing of substance.
The media left the Web chat session with little more than the last time it met with Whitacre face-to-face, when he refused to answer questions following his announcement of CEO Fritz Henderson's resignation last week.
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Latest GM Shakeout Possible Precursor to Lutz Departure
Since 2001, Bob Lutz has been the North Star for everyone who cares about the product at General Motors Co.
But the GM executive firmament is rapidly evolving thanks to a Big Bang orchestrated by chairman and temp-CEO Ed Whitacre, one that likely will lead to Lutz's departure sooner than later, some GM insiders believe.
The de-emphasis of vice chairman Lutz's role (although not title) to "advisor" on global product development and design could be the result of persistent rumors there's not enough room in a room for both Lutz's and Whitacre's egos.
Or it could be just what it appears: at 77, Lutz is a highly visible contradiction to everything Whitacre -- and the government-dominated GM board of directors -- professes needs to change with GM's moribund "lifer" executive culture: that GM management is dominated by executives who are too old or have been at GM too long. Or both.
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GM Details Management Shuffle
General Motors made official a number of key leadership changes, including the elevation of 
Mark Reuss, a 46-year-old engineer and "car guy," to president of GM North America, Nick Reilly to president of GM Europe and Vice Chairman Bob Lutz becomes an advisor on design and product development.
"I want to give people more responsibility and authority deeper in the organization and then hold them accountable," said GM chairman and interim CEO Ed Whitacre, in a statement. "We've realigned our leadership duties and responsibilities to help us meet our mission to design, build and sell the world's best vehicles."
Reuss served ever so briefly as vice president of global engineering after being brought back early as head of Holden in Australia.
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More GM Gyrations: Lutz To Be Reassigned, Reports Say
General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz is being reassigned to a new role and some younger execs will be moved up in the continuing shake-up of the management ranks, being 
outlined later Friday morning.
Chairman Ed Whitacre, who replaced ousted Fritz Henderson as interim CEO, is building a team until a replacement CEO can be found, Bloomberg News reports.
Younger managers are being given "more prominent" positions, thus triggering the reassignment of 77-year-old Lutz to a product adviser role, the Wall Street Journal reports. Board member and auto analyst Stephen Girsky becomes an adviser; Mark Reuss, recently appointed vice president of global engineering, gets an expanded role, Bloomberg reports.
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GM CEO Search Could Take a Year, Report Says
General Motors Co. Chairman Ed Whitacre, now acting CEO, told employees Wednesday that it may take up to a year to find a replacement for Fritz Henderson, who was ousted by the board on Tuesday, according to a report by Bloomberg News quoting employees who watched Whitacre's 30-minute broadcast.
Those employees told Bloomberg that Whitacre, who spoke conversationally from a few notes, said the search would not be rushed and will be given as much time as is needed.
That suggests that GM's marketing chief Bob Lutz is ruled out. A number of media reports speculated he could be Henderson's successor. It is more likely that his replacement will come from outside of GM.
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Lutz Fills in for Ousted Henderson; Dodges Questions on the Subject
General Motors' just-ousted CEO Fritz Henderson had been slated to speak at the Motor Press Guild's breakfast Wednesday to kick off the Los Angeles auto show's press days. But a day earlier, Henderson got the boot. GM's marketing chief Bob Lutz was called upon to fill in.
He dodged all Henderson-related questions, which reporters didn't hesitate to ask. USA Today's Jim Healy asked: "Isn't it a bad time to lose your CEO?" The normally loquacious Lutz responded, "Next question." The room erupted in laughter.
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GM's Henderson Resigns, Whitacre Takes Over
General Motors' CEO Fritz Henderson has resigned and government-appointed chairman Ed 
Whitacre has assumed control as interim CEO of the automaker. A search for a CEO begins immediately, Whitacre confirmed late Tuesday at a hastily scheduled press conference at which he refused to answer questions.
The decision had been made at the GM's board of directors monthly meeting earlier in the day.
In a prepared statement that Whitacre read to reporters gathered at GM's global headquarters in Detroit's Renaissance Center and aired via webcast, Whitacre praised Henderson for his career-long service to GM, including steering the automaker through bankruptcy this past summer. But his statement indicated that while progress had been made post bankruptcy, the pace need to accelerate.
"While momentum has been building over the past several months, all involved agree that changes needed to be made," said Whitacre, retired chairman of AT&T and former college professor.
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Renault's Apparent Cold Feet Killed Saturn-Penske Deal, Report Says
Just as General Motors was about to seal the deal to sell Saturn to the Penske Automotive 
Group on Sept. 30, French automaker Renault, which had pledged to supply small vehicles to the venture, backed out, an executive involved in the negotiations told a Detroit newspaper.
Tom LaSorda, retired Chrysler president who was helping Penske negotiate the Saturn-Renault deal, laid to rest any notion that it was Penske who wanted to back out of the deal. "Somebody got cold feet" at Renault, LaSorda told Detroit Free Press columnist Tom Walsh, whose article ran in Wednesday's edition.
"We were shocked," LaSorda told paper in his first public comments on the aborted Saturn sale. In fact, little has been said by anyone involved since the deal went sour.
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GM Engineers Call Customers Who Returned Cars
At the request of General Motors' new chairman, Ed Whitacre, the automaker's top engineers are calling the couple hundred customers who are returning or exchanging their GM cars under the 60-day money-back guarantee policy to find out why.
Mark Reuss, GM's recently appointed vice president of global engineering, told reporters Thursday that he personally is calling customers.
This evening, Reuss will call a customer who was dissatisfied with and returned a Chevrolet Malibu under the program. And he will call the buyer of a Chevrolet Silverado who reported the interior room wasn't roomy enough and the exterior paint and finish were unsatisfactory.
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Ford Stock Sets 2-Year High as Investor Boosts Stake
Ford Motor Co. stock closed Monday at its highest price in more than two years after 
billionaire investor George Soros upped his stake in the automaker.
Ford shares rose 30 cents, or 3.6 percent, to close at $8.71 a share on Monday. That's the highest price since the shares closed at $8.95 per share on Nov. 2, 2007, according to Bloomberg. Ford shares have risen 25 percent since Oct. and more than tripled this year.
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Nissan-Renault's Ghosn: World Ready for EVs Now
The Nissan-Renault alliance is making a major push to accelerate the adoption of fully electric vehicles despite persistent skepticism the public - and the world's vehicle infrastructure - is ready to adopt such a paradigm shift, says the alliance's chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn in a guest editorial at Edmunds.com's Inside Line enthusiast website.
In the exclusive column, Ghosn explains why Nissan-Renault is making a leap of faith for EVs and underscores that once all the environmental and energy-independence debates are set aside, he also believes EVs can provide a new style of emotion to the driving experience.
Ghosn also enumerates why Nissan-Renault believes it is well-positioned to hasten the adoption of EVs through its steady involvement in initiatives for developing and manufacturing high-performance batteries as well as infrastructure.
Ghosn said the company believes EVs could comprise as much as 10 percent of global sales by 2020. Research conducted by Nissan-Renault showed 9 percent of consumers in Japan would choose and EV as their next vehicle; 8 percent of consumers in the U.S. responded similarly.
Nissan Leaf electric vehicle (photo courtesy Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.)
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GM's Whitacre: A Sense of Urgency to Repay Taxpayer Money
General Motors has made remarkable strides since emerging from bankruptcy July 10 and is "better positioned for success than I thought was possible" then, said Ed Whitacre in his first public speech since becoming GM chairman in July.
"We're getting into a fighting shape. We have a long way to go, but we're definitely on our way," he told an audience at Texas Lutheran University near San Antonio. The retired AT&T chairman taught at the university just before taking GM's top job at the U.S. government's behest.
Whitacre said there's a strong sense of urgency inside the automaker to repay the billions GM owes in government loans.
"I can't tell you when (we'll pay it back) but it'll be sooner than you think," Whitacre told a political science student who asked when the company would repay taxpayers.
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GM Makes Right Decision to Keep Opel
General Motors' decision to keep Opel has ruffled political feathers and rankled the union 
rank and file in Germany, but it is - and always was - the right business decision for the automaker.
While it is in dire need of restructuring that it clearly is about to get, Opel gives GM a presence in Europe that Chevrolet alone cannot. Even more important, Opel architectures and engineering expertise are the backbone GM's global growth.
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GM-Europe Chief Reportedly Quits; Opel Restructuring Begins
The chief of General Motors European operations, Carl-Peter Forster, plans to leave the company after this week's u-turn that calls for the automaker keeping rather than selling Opel. European media reports claim. GM's head of all international operations Nick Reilly is said to be stepping in for the time being.
GM is not commenting on the personnel changes. However, on Thursday - the day after GM's announced it would keep Opel -- GM CEO Fritz Henderson told reporters in Detroit that a transition team is being quickly gathered to oversee the restructuring of GM's German subsidiary. GM also will keep its British subsidiary, Vauxhall
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Chrysler Outlines 'The Plan.' Now, Can it Work?
After Chrysler Group LLC detailed an all-encompassing, five-year business plan to a horde of analysts and the media Wednesday, most left the company's headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., wondering whether it was fair to judge the plan outlandish or merely wildly ambitious.
The two critical components to Chrysler's rejuvenation at the direction of 20-percent owner and managing partner Fiat S.p.A.: a) a massive increase in global sales, from 1.3 million units projected for this year to 2.8 million by the plan's finish in 2014; and b) a wholesale but hardly radical refreshening of its product portfolio that will enable the tremendous sales leap.
Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne acknowledged the plan's numbers and assumptions invite skepticism. In his closing comments, he enumerated at length epitaphs written for Fiat when he took over as CEO and Fiat was in similar straits.
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Marchionne Disarms Alfa-In-U.S. Speculation, Calls Cost of Coming 300 Platform 'Shocking'
At Chrysler Group LLC's unveiling of its 5-year business plan at its headquarters in Auburn Hills, MI, today, CEO Sergio Marchionne laid to rest a few rumors about the new joining of Chrysler and Fiat S.p.A. One of them was the long-rumored ambition for Fiat to use the alliance to distribute its Alfa Romeo brand in Chrysler's U.S. dealerships.
There is no current plan to sell Alfas in Chrysler dealerships, said Marchionne. In wearing his Chrysler hat (he also is Fiat's CEO) Marchionne insisted that Alfa Romeo would have to "make a convincing case" about which Alfa Romeo models could be profitably exported to the U.S. and sold in Chrysler showrooms.
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Fiat's Marchionne: Chrysler Is Better Off Than Most Think
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, in kicking off a six-hour business meeting outlining Chrysler's 
five-year plan, said Chrysler is in better financial shape than the media and outsiders suggest.
He said Chrysler has boosted its cash reserves by $1.7 billion from the $5.7 billion it had on June 10 when it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He said at the end of September the automaker was profitable on an operating basis.
Massive cost reductions have been underestimated, he said, adding the company is downright "cheap" in its spending.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:09 AM under Business , Chrysler , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Only Five GM Execs on Pay-Czar List Involved in Car Business
The new compensation plan for General Motors Co. CEO Fritz Henderson made the 
headlines last week after particulars of the ruling from Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration's "pay czar" became known. But there were many other interesting details in that report - including the fact that of the 20 highest-paid GM executives whose pay packages had to be approved by Feinberg, only five work on the operational side of GM.
Fifteen of the 20 executives whose compensation packages came under review have nothing to do with GM's automaking business - they are employees of Promark Global Advisors, GM's asset-management company that until this past March was known as General Motors Asset Management.
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'Old' GM May Offload Plant on New-Age Automaker
The "old" General Motors Corp. - now known by the name Motors Liquidation Co. - could be 
on the verge of completing a deal that would bring in some revenue to pay back some of the former GM's creditors, according to a report over the weekend from the Wall Street Journal.
Motors Liquidation reportedly is ready to sell its assembly plant in Wilmington, Del., to Irvine, Calif., new-tech automaker Fisker Automotive Inc. The company, whose CEO is Henrik Fisker, a former designer for BMW AG, has made headlines in recent years with his Fisker Karma extended-range electric vehicle, a slinky, nearly-$90,000 sport sedan set to go on sale next year. The Karma will be produced in Finland under contract with known low-volume vehicle assembler Valmet Automotive.
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Chinese Automaker Investment Pays Off for Buffett
A stake purchased in Chinese automaker/batterymaker BYD is paying off for billionaire 
investor Warren Buffett.
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. last September paid $230 million for a 10-percent stake in BYD. Since then, the stock has risen from the $1.21 a share that Buffett paid to $10.55 a share, the Detroit News reports.
The stock-run up has made company founder Wang Chuanfu the richest man in China, according to the Hurun Report, a list of the wealthiest Chinese.
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Former Ford Exec Becomes Continental Chairman
Former Ford executive Wolfgang Reitzle has been named chairman of the supervisory board 
of auto supplier and tiremaker Continental.
A lieutenant of former Ford CEO Jacques Nasser and head of Ford's now-defunct Premier Automotive Group, Rietzle is chief executive of Linde AG, an industrial gases and engineering company.
Reitzle remains one of Germany's most high-profile executives and must lead Continental through the economic downturn and deal with an ugly take-over situation.
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COMMENTARY Memo to Detroit Auto Bosses: Hold Your Tongue
Put up or shut up, albeit in more polite European terms, is basically financial columnist Antony Currie's advice to Detroit's auto bosses.
The Big Three bosses have returned to one of their favorite past times, writes Currie on the financial blog site, Breakingviews.com: "... each of the Big Three's bosses has been indulging in painting rosy scenarios for their firms. But like pronouncements of the past, they're a tad premature."
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:48 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Ford , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
"New" GM Goes on the Offense with Quarterback Lutz
Expect the "new" General Motors to play offense when it comes to marketing and communications, Bob Lutz, GM's chief marketing quarterback, told the media Tuesday.
"We have to shock Americans into a new awareness about the competitiveness of GM products," Lutz said. "We can't do it the way we used to do it by gently showing our products. We've got to take it on boldly and head-on. We can stand the comparison with just about anybody."
The recently launched May the Best Car Win, starring GM's government-appointed chairman Ed Whitacre was just the beginning.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:10 AM under Featured , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (6) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Fritz Henderson Deserves Nobel Prize, Columnist Says
General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson deserves the Nobel Prize more than President Barack Obama because he has the toughest job in the world, Wall Street Journal's Evan Newmark wrote in his Mean Street column.
Henderson "has to save GM, once America's proudest company and now its national disgrace," and he doesn't have four years to prove himself nor does he have Congress or Fox News to blame if things go wrong, Newmark writes.
Henderson has accomplished a lot in his inaugural months, most notably getting through bankruptcy. "None of that was easy. But now comes the difficult Nobel-worthy stuff - putting an executive team in place, overhauling GM's culture and making cars that Americans actually want to buy," Newmark points out.
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Volvo's Doug Speck on AutoLine Detroit
Doug Speck, president and CEO of Volvo Cars North America, is in the guest chair on this 
week's AutoLine Detroit with Edmunds' AutoObserver Michelle Krebs, Business Week's David Welch and show host John McElroy firing the questions at him.
The show is available now on AutoLine Detroit's Web site and airs on Detroit Public Television on Sunday, October 11 at 10:30 a.m.
Volvo was put on the auction block by Ford Motor Co. a couple of years ago. Ford eportedly has bids for the 82-year-old Swedish marque from Chinese automaker Geely, which just got a boost financially and in image with an investment by Goldman, and Crown Consortium, a group of former Ford executives with some private equity funds.
But no matter what goes on at the ownership level, the beat goes on for Speck and Volvo.
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Mega-Dealer AutoNation Supports GM's Axe-Swinging
The boss of the nation's largest auto-dealer chain is saying it now - and General Motors Co.'s Saturn knew it almost 25 years ago: GM has too many dealers.
Automotive News reports that Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation Inc., the country's largest auto dealership group, said in a speech this week that GM was right when it made the decision that as many as 40 percent of its dealers need to be closed if the newly restructured GM -- and its dealers -- are to survive in a vastly changed automotive market.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:12 AM under Commentary , GM , Personalities | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
Brent Dewar: Chevrolet Is General Motors
The future success of the new General Motors Company rests largely on the bowtie of 
Chevrolet. With the automaker winnowing its brands from eight to only four, Chevrolet carries the load for sales and market share around the world.
And the weight of Chevrolet rests on the shoulders of Brent Dewar, who was named the vice president of Chevrolet Global after the automaker emerged from bankruptcy in July. He headed Chevrolet in the early part of the decade as the automaker made plans to take the brand global.
"Chevrolet needs to be the General Motors Company," Dewar told AutoObserver.com in an exclusive interview recently.
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GM Names Susan Docherty New Sales Chief
General Motors wasted no time in naming a new sales chief. 
Susan Docherty, who was heading Buick-Pontiac-GMC, will become GM's vice president of U.S. sales, replacing Mark LaNeve, whose departure from the automaker was announced Wednesday morning.
"Susan will bring a wealth of experience from previous marketing and sales assignments," GM CEO Fritz Henderson said in a statement. "I have confidence that she will bring a new perspective to the position as she guides a new, lean and customer-focused dealer network."
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GM Sales Chief LaNeve Leaves the Automaker
Mark LaNeve, General Motors vice president of U.S. sales, is leaving the automaker effective October 15, GM CEO Fritz Henderson announced Wednesday morning.
The announcement comes as no surprise as GM has cut about a third of its management ranks since emerging from bankruptcy in July. GM sales and market share continue to shrink. In July, LaNeve's role at GM was narrowed to U.S. sales only. Bob Lutz, who chose to stay with the company instead of leaving as he had planned, took over marketing.
Henderson said his replacement has not been selected but that the company would move fast to find one. He also didn't rule out bringing someone from the outside.
LaNeve has taken a position in a business outside of the auto industry.
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GM, Penske To Close Saturn Sale This Week
Detroit media reports that General Motors will announce Wednesday or Thursday it has completed the sale of its Saturn division to Penske Automotive Group, though no one from either GM or Penske will confirm the report.
GM and the Penske group have been negotiating the deal since June. In an exclusive interview with Edmunds' AutoObserver.com then, Roger Penske laid out his vision for Saturn as a different kind of global motors -- one that sells GM-made models but also sells vehicles made in other parts of the world by offshore manufacturers.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:23 AM under GM , News , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Ford's Turn To Scratch Microsoft's Back
Microsoft Corp. said Ford is among a handful of companies that will upgrade to the new 
Windows 7 operating system and help the company promote the new system that goes on sale next month.
Sounds like "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" deal.
Ford uses Microsoft's Sync communications and music system in many of its vehicles, and Microsoft, including its famous founder Bill Gates personally, has helped Ford promote it.
Now it's Ford's turn to help out Microsoft.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:49 AM under Companies , Ford , News , Personalities , Technology | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler Puts Pedal to the Metal on New Models, Report Says
Addressing its glaring problem of an empty product pipeline, Chrysler will do a speedy makeover of at least five models by mid-2011, along with 
introducing the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee and redesigned Chrysler 300 that year, as part of a five-year plan reportedly being submitted to the automaker's board by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne on Friday.
The Detroit Free Press reports Marchionne wants makeovers accomplished within a quick 18 months on the Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Caravan minivans; the Dodge Caliber, Jeep Compass and Jeep Patriot compact crossovers; and the Chrysler PT Cruiser, which Fiat revived from the to-be-killed list.
The Fiat 500 minicar will be built at the Toluca, Mexico, plant that also assembles the PT Cruiser, for a mid-2011 U.S. introduction, the newspaper reported.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:04 AM under Chrysler , Featured , News , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Fiat's Guy To Run Chrysler Powertrain; Hemi Future Cloudy
Chrysler Group LLC 20 percent owner and managing partner Fiat S.p.A. continues to import 
its home-grown management to run Chrysler's U.S. operations, Tuesday naming another Fiat executive to a key Chrysler management position.
The company said a "realignment" of Chrysler's powertrain department brings Paolo E. Ferrero as senior vice president of Chrysler Powertrain. Ferrero apparently replaces Bob Lee, a popular Chrysler executive who has spent his entire career at Chrysler and most recently was head of powertrain engineering. Chrysler told Automotive News late Tuesday that Lee remains employed by Chrysler.
Lee, who holds mechanical engineering and MBA degrees, is widely recognized as the "father" of the new-age Hemi V8, which was launched for the 2003 model year and went on to become an icon for the company and a performance benchmark for the industry.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:38 AM under Business , Chrysler , Commentary , Companies , Featured , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
So Far, So Good for GM's 60-Day Guarantee
General Motors' just-launched marketing program that provides the consumer with a 60-day moneyback guarantee on the purchase of a Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet or GMC vehicle is generating interest in the early going, according to Edmunds.com and GM data.
Shopping consideration for GM vehicles on Edmunds.com's Web site -- which suggests future sales -- shows a 10 percent increase in the first couple of days since GM's "May the Best Car Win" campaign and the accompanying advertisements, featuring government-appointed chairman Ed Whitacre, hitting the airwaves on Sunday.
"What we'll be watching if GM's consideration stays at those levels or whether it rises or drops," said David Tompkins, Ph.D., Edmunds.com's executive director of Business Analytics. If it stays at 10 percent, he noted, that could result in a market share hike of 2 percent.
But it is too early to know which way GM consideration will go, he added.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:35 AM under Analysis , GM , Personalities | Comments (6) | digg this | del.icio.us
President Obama Visits GM Ohio Plant; AutoObserver Follows Him on Twitter
President Obama is visiting General Motors' assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, Tuesday, 
giving a speech on jobs, the economy and, of course, the mention of health care to a packed house of auto executives, local dignitaries and United Auto Worker union employees.
GM CEO Fritz Henderson will host the president at the more than four-decades-old plant that now builds the Chevrolet Cobalt and will soon convert to building GM's all-important Chevrolet Cruze.
The trip marks the president's first one to an auto plant since the federal government's bailout of GM and Chrysler from bankruptcy. He visited several auto manufacturing facilities during his campaign.
AutoObserver's senior contributing editor Bill Visnic will be chronicling the president's visit to the plant on Twitter @autoobserver.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:10 AM under GM , News , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Unnecessarily Viral Story of the Week: GM Volt Buyers 'Idiots'
Audi of America President Johan de Nysschen said to a reporter last week something to the 
effect of "people who want to buy Chevrolet's Volt (General Motors Co.'s endlessly hyped extended-range electric vehicle) are idiots."
Strong sentiment, to be sure. But worthy of the Internet firestorm the remark (in whatever form) fueled through the Labor Day weekend? Hardly. Auto industry and media: get a life. Relax. Enjoy a holiday every now and then.
There is something about the Volt - and what it represents as an environmental statement - that some think makes it above reproach. As de Nysschen discovered, criticism of the Volt often is interpreted as a political incorrectness manifesto.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:51 AM under Commentary , Companies , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (4) | digg this | del.icio.us
Porsche's Off-Message Models Axed in VW Takeover
Get a good look at the Porsche Cayenne SUV. In the wake of the bizarre German corporate 
soap opera whose end will soon see the absorption of Porsche AG into the mighty Volkswagen Group, the controversial Cayenne -- and even more astoundingly, the just-released Panamera four-door sport sedan -- has no future after VW takes over.
Such is the report from Britain's Car magazine, which says a "massive U-turn in Porsche's product plan" resulting from the bitter VW boardroom triumph means Porsche will be forced to discontinue the Cayenne and Panamera after their product cycles are complete around seven years from now.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:10 AM under Business , Companies , News , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Report: Chrysler's Press Is Out
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday afternoon that Chrysler Group LLC Deputy Chief Executive Jim Press will leave the company sometime before the end of the year.
It had been widely speculated that the ever-optimistic Press -- who served as Chrysler president under majority ownership of Cerberus Capital Management LLC and prior to the company's Chapter 11 bankruptcy -- would leave not long after the company's post-Chapter 11 restructuring and resulting management control by Italy's Fiat S.p.A.
Press has been serving as special advisor to Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne.
Marchionne already has been at work reorganizing Chrysler's executive ranks in a structure based on better supporting the company's Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands.
Neither Chrysler or Press would confirm the news. Press, prior to his Chrysler stint a longtime, high-ranking executive at Toyota Motor Corp., told the WSJ, "I don't think anything has been released about management changes."
Posted by Bill Visnic at 11:24 AM under Chrysler , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
U.S. Investor Out of Pending Saab Deal
A controversial U.S. investor and part owner of Koenigsegg Automotive AB - the exotic 
sportscar maker planning to buy Saab Automobile from the "old" General Motors Corp - is out of the picture as the Koenigsegg Group progresses with its plan to acquire Saab.
Swedish business media report that Mark Bishop, who made a name and a fortune as an investor in securitizing sub-prime mortgages, sold his holding in Koenigsegg to another investor. Tiny Koenigsegg is hoping to acquire Saab by the end of this quarter.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:12 AM under Companies , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Debbie Dingell, Wife of John Dingell, Takes GM Buyout
Debbie Dingell, wife of powerful House Democrat John Dingell, will retire from her long-held post at General Motors.
She was vice chairman of General Motors Foundation and executive director of public affairs and community relations. She is one of many GMers who had to decide last Friday to stay with the new GM or take a buyout to leave the automaker, which is winnowing its executive ranks by at least a third.
(Read more...)
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Toyota's Inaba Looks To Spice Up Models, Revive Scion, Reshape Lexus, Turn a Profit
Making Toyota's North American operations profitable again is the top prioity of the
new boss, Yoshimi Inaba. That's why he was sent back to the U.S. by new Toyota global chief, Akio Toyoda.
But that won't happen for awhile. Inaba told reporters in Detroit Thursday that Toyota in North America will not be profitable in this fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2010, but just might eke out a profit in the following fiscal year, depending on industry sales.
On the job just over a week, Inaba said he's looking at short-term, quick fixes but also studying long-term solutions to Toyota North America's financial woes.
"There is no dramatic reorganization or consolidation of our North American operations planned, but I do hope to create a stronger and better integrated regional business that can make faster decisions based on local needs," he said.
(Read more...)
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GM Names Designer To Head Cadillac, Report Says
General Motors reportedly will name designer Bryan Nesbitt to head its flagship Cadillac
division, the Wall Street Journal
Reports.
Nesbitt started his automotive design career at Chrysler where he soared to fame for his design of the innovative Chrysler PT Cruiser. GM lured him away where he penned the similar Chevrolet HHR.
Nesbitt then headed design operations in Europe, returning to the U.S. to head North American design.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:12 AM under GM , Personalities , Rumors | Comments (5) | digg this | del.icio.us
Former Ford Exec Nasser in Running To Head Mining Company
Former Ford CEO Jacques "Jac" Nasser has reemerged, this time as a top contender to head the
world's largest mining company, BHP Billiton. The job is described by Australia's Business Day
as "one of corporate Australia's most prized positions."
Born in Lebanon and raised and educated in Australia, Nasser currently is a non-executive director of BHP. The Australian business press reports he and one other candidate are being interviewed this week to replace BHP CEO Don Argus, who retires in November.
(Read more...)
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Porsche-Volkswagen Settlement May Be Delayed
A decision on how to settle the contentious Volkswagen-Porsche ownership battle may not
occur on Thursday, as many had anticipated, and instead be delayed until the end of the month.
The supervisory boards of the two German automakers were set to meet separately in Thursday, presumably to work out terms of a possible merger. But German media reports suggest a decision may not be forthcoming after all.
(Read more...)
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Pontiac G8: The World's Best Car Nobody Was Buying
By Bill Visnic
On the FastLane blog
at General Motors Co.'s Web site, vice chairman Bob Lutz now concedes the company can't make a business case for rebadging the suddenly lamented Pontiac G8 sport sedan, the car that caused a first-week-on-the-job train wreck between Lutz's vision of GM's product-strategy future and that of CEO Fritz Henderson.
Days before and barely hours into his return to GM's salaried-exec payroll, Lutz said GM was going to rebadge the underappreciated, Australia-sourced Pontiac G8 as a Chevrolet, calling it a car "too good to waste."
The pronouncement flew directly against an earlier thumbs-down verdict about the G8 from Henderson, who said he does not favor rebadging and insists every model in GM's line "pay its own rent."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:32 AM under Analysis , Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (7) | digg this | del.icio.us
Strange Automotive Bedfellows, 2009 Edition
By Bill Visnic
There are plenty of strange auto-industry tie-ups to get accustomed to this year, such as internal-combustion innovator Daimler AG and electric-car impresario Tesla Motors Inc., or, well, Chrysler Group LLC and Fiat S.p.A.
But one of the weirder six-degrees-of-separation connections of the year is between Steve Rattner, now-retired czar of the Presidential Task Force On Automobiles and Cerberus Capital Management, former majority owner of Chrysler.
(Read more...)
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"New" GM Has Busy First Week
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT - The "new" General Motors, which emerged from bankruptcy just last Friday, had a busy first week
The automaker announced a series of executive retirements, departures and re-assignments, likely the first of many as it sheds about a third of its executive ranks. The top three executives, it was revealed in government filings, will retain their previous pay. Unretired executive Bob Lutz had his first misstep in the communications role he now heads. And the automaker got back to the business of building, promoting and selling vehicles
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:55 AM under Business , Featured , In the Media , News , Personalities , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
VW- Porsche Settlement Appears At Hand
Finally, Porsche and Volkswagen appear close to a settlement, according to various parties
involved who are being quoted by global media outlets.
Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking told Bloomberg Television Thursday that an agreement is likely in days. He refused to provide details but he did say a proposal for Porsche to be sold to Volkswagen "is already on the table."
(Read more...)
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Payday For Old GM Liquidators
Old General Motors, now known as Motors Liquidation Co., has appointed another outside restructuring expert to its board and revealed compensation for its execs in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The new-old company is headed by Al Koch, as president and CEO, who will be paid $835 an hour. Koch, is vice chairman and managing director of Detroit restructuring firm AlixPartners. He has been joined by James Selzer as vice president and treasurer; he is also a director of AlixPartners. He will receive $555 an hour.
They will be in charge of the sale and liquidation of the old GM's assets, including Pontiac, Hummer, Saab and Saturn.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:13 AM under Business , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Mission Accomplished: Auto Task Force Could Be History
This week's departure of Steven Rattner fromPresident Obama's automotive task force suggests the panel soon could be dissolved now that General Motors and Chrysler have emerged from bankruptcy.
The possibly imminent dissolution of the task force suggests what its members and President Obama have insisted all along - but have not been believed - that they do not want to run the day-to-day business of GM and Chrysler
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Ex-GM CEO Wagoner Retires With $8.6 million
Former General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, who got the boot from the Obama 
Administration in March, will officially retire in August with a compensation package worth more than $8 million in the first five years, the company said in a report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
That's substantially less than the $20 million he was entitled to at the end of last year.
Wagoner, who is 56 and spent 32 years at GM, officially retires Aug. 1.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:45 AM under Business , GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's "Mr. Environment" Retires, Report Says
DETROIT - Larry Burns, General Motors vice president of R&D and strategic planning, plans
to retire from the auto company. His departure is the one of many upcoming retirements and involuntary departures as the new GM sheds a third of itstop executives.
Burns informed GM CEO Fritz Henderson of his decision to retire a month ago, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday.
Dubbed GM's "Mr. Environment" in a 2007 profile by The New York Times, Burns was the automaker's most visible spokesman on green issues, long before it was trendy and often when it was at odds with more traditional-minded executives.
Burns is considered a pioneer in the development of hydrogen-powered fuel cells for vehicles. His group oversaw the development of such vehicles as the GM Hy-wire with its by-wire operations and skateboard chassis containing fuel cells a hydrogen tanks; the also hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Sequel; and the recent Segway-based GM P.U.M.A., unveiled at this year's New York auto show.
(Read more...)
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GM's Lutz Already Making 'Em Nuts
By Bill Visnic
The ink wasn't yet dry on Bob Lutz's new contract with the newly constituted General Motors Co. to be vice chairman of, ah, just about everything, and Lutz was back to the business of baiting the media and most likely making his peers and superiors (if he has any) slightly crazy.
Exhibit 1: Lutz - whose job GM loosely and rather unnervingly describes as "vice chairman for all creative elements of products and customer relationships" - had Automobile magazine slurping out of his hand when he tossed out the remark that GM isn't going to let the rear-drive G8 sport sedan slip away with Pontiac when the division shuts down at the end of the year. The G8, Automobile breathlessly reported, will "live on" in the Chevrolet division as a new-age Caprice.
"The last time we looked at (the G8), we decided that we would continue to import it as a Chevrolet," Lutz told Automoblile.
The problem: GM CEO Fritz Henderson was widely quoted last month, including here on AutoObserver, as summarizing his product-development preferences by saying, "I'm no fan of rebadging," squarely implying the G8 would not continue under another nameplate after Pontiac's shutdown.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:58 AM under Commentary , Featured , GM , In the Media , Personalities , Rumors | Comments (8) | digg this | del.icio.us
Porsche and Volkswagen: Who's Buying Whom?
By Bill Visnic
For those who thought the mostly business - but partly familial - control struggle between the Volkswagen Group and Porsche AG couldn't get any weirder or more complicated, it has.
Porsche, strangled with debt incurred in trying to acquire more than 75 percent of VW, reportedly was negotiating a non-binding agreement with the Qatar Investment Authority that would not only see the Middle Eastern investors gain as much as 25 percent of Porsche but also be granted options to buy as much as 20 percent of VW.
The situation's increasingly circus-like atmosphere was bolstered by Porsche's rejection of a VW offer to buy half of the tiny sportscar maker for a reported $5.6 billion - a refusal that came with a petulant admonishment that VW's offer went to Porsche chairman Wolfgang Porsche instead of the company's executive board.
(Read more...)
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New GM: Fresh Blood Coming From Within
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- Fritz Henderson, the president and CEO of the new General Motors that emerged from bankruptcy Friday, lists changing the corporate culture as one of his top three priorities, along with focusing on taking care of customers and producing great cars.
To that end, Henderson said in a conference call with reporters that over the next few weeks, new faces will rise to the top at GM.
"You'll see some unusual names in some jobs," he hinted. "Stay tuned."
(Read more...)
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New GM Goes High-Tech, High-Touch
DETROIT -- The new General Motors will be closer to the customer and will employ high-tech as well as low-tech ways to do so.
Next week, the new GM will launch a "Tell Fritz" Web site that allows consumers and others to send ideas, questions and concerns directly to GM CEO Fritz Henderson.
"I will personally review and respond to some of these every day and will encourage other executives to participate as well," Henderson said at a Friday news conference.
(Read more...)
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New GM Management: Who Goes? Who Stays?
DETROIT -- The new General Motors, unveiled Friday, will be leaner particularly at its top
levels, which is begging the questions who goes and who stays?
The North American management structure is completely eliminated. So what happens to high-level, high-profile executives like Troy Clarke, who had held the post of North American president, and Mark LeNeve, who headed sales and marketing for North America.
CEO Fritz Henderson reiterated 35 percent of the U.S. management, largely at the highest
levels, will be eliminated. Who goes, who stays and what jobs those who stay will hold will be rolled out by the end of the month.
(Read more...)
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Lutz Stays On With New GM; Heads All Things Creative
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors' Bob Lutz will stay on with the new version of the automaker as head of not only product development but also GM's brands, marketing, advertising and communications.
Earlier, Lutz, 77, had announced plans to be an advisor through the end of the year when he would retire entirely. He turned over his day-to-day duties as head of global product development to Tom Stephens on April 1.
In his new role, Lutz will report directly to GM CEO Fritz Henderson and will be part of the executive committee. Lutz will work directly with Stephens and Ed Welburn, vice president of design.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:23 AM under GM , News , Personalities | Comments (4) | digg this | del.icio.us
The "New" GM Focuses on Customers, Cars, Culture
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- The world was introduced to the "new" General Motors company Friday, one thatis largely owned by U.S. taxpayers and will be focused oncustomers, cars and culture.
"Going forward, the new General Motors is fully committed to listening to customers, responding to consumer and market trends, and empowering the people closest to the customer to make the decisions," GM CEO Fritz Henderson said at a Friday morning press conference.
"Our goal is to build more of the cars, trucks and crossovers that customers want, and to get them to market faster than ever before," Henderson said.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:14 AM under Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (5) | digg this | del.icio.us
What's Next for GM's Lutz?
General Motors' retiring Vice Chairman Bob Lutz could be back for an encore performance.
Fox Business is reporting that Lutz will return to GM in a new capacity when it emerges from bankruptcy Friday.
Lutz announced earlier this year that he was stepping down from his day-to-day duties as vice chairman of product development, turning that job over to Tom Stephens on April 1. Lutz was to finish out the year in a senior advisor role until his official retirement at year end.
Still, there had been much hand-wringing about GM without Lutz and who would be the champion for the product. Lutz threw out some tantalizing comments to Detroit's Automotive Press Association in May when he said he would "do something else" and "would not be unemployed."
Lutz is said to be staying on at the new GM indefinitely in a new, yet-to-be-announced operating capacity.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:38 AM under GM , In the Media , Personalities , Rumors | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Exit Package for GM's Wagoner Near
Former General Motors Chairman Rick Wagoner will find out in days about his exit package,
the Wall Street Journal
reports quoting an unnamed Obama administration official.
Wagoner, who had agreed to work for $1 a year as part of the deal to obtain federal funding for GM, was forced out of his job by President Obama in late March but technically remains a GM employee.
Pay and benefit packages for executives -- including exit packages for the many executives who will leave -- will be revealed as the "new" GM emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, likely on Friday. Wagoner was eligible for about $20 million in compensation accumulated over his 32-year career at GM.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:40 AM under GM , Personalities , Rumors | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Culture Clash, Part 2: Chrysler Small-Car Big-Wig Outta There
By Bill Visnic
First it was Americans and Germans who couldn't make it work at Chrysler Group LLC. Now it might be Germans and Italians having trouble finding the love while mutually working to revive Chrysler.
Automotive News reports that barely a month after new managers from 20 percent owner Fiat S.p.A. hit the ground at Chrysler's Auburn Hills, Mich., headquarters, Andreas Schell -- a fast-track engineer-manager who stayed on after former Chrysler partner Daimler AG exited in 2007 -- is leaving the company.
This after Schell was just named vehicle line executive for Chrysler's A- and B-class cars, the compact and subcompact models it either will borrow wholesale from Fiat or on which future Chrysler small cars will be based.
(Read more...)
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Chrysler Completes Board of Directors
Chrysler Group LLC announced it has finished naming the last of its nine-member board of directors, with the new (and still private, despite billions of dollars in government loans) company's first board meeting scheduled for July 29.
(Read more...)
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Maybe Corker Should Have Corked It
DETROIT -- Ah sweet revenge.
General Motors execs obviously won't admit it, but clearly politics played a part in their decision to build future small cars in Michigan instead of Tennessee.
After all, it was Republican Sen. Bob Corker from Tennessee who was among the harshest critics of GM, Chrysler and Ford when they came to testify before Congress last fall about their financial woes.
Corker insisted they should be allowed to go into bankruptcy. He scolded the automakers for doing a poor job of running their business and howled about union benefits. Their business models were unsustainable, he said.
(Read more...)
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Miata Designer Matano Provides Cryptic Clues to His Mysterious New Venture
By Michelle Krebs
Ah -- theplot thickens.
Legendary Mazda Miata designer Tom Matano, who last week was revealed to be the design director for a start-up company that will assemble cars in Louisiana, provided only cryptic clues about the kind of vehicle to be produced and the more important, innovative business model to be employed.
Without giving away any secrets, Matano said in a phone interview with AutoObserver that the business model is more revolutionary than the car itself. But he promised a kinship between the buyer and the car, not identical but similar in spirit to that between the Miata and its owner.
(Read more...)
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Miata Designer Matano, T. Boone Pickens Part of Start-Up Car Company
MONROE, La. -- Mystery solved. Or at least the players behind it.
Mazda Miata designer Tom Matano and Texas billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens are key figures behind acar plant being established in Louisiana to build environmentally friendly vehicles by a start-up company that has never beforebuilt cars.
V-Vehicle Co., of San Diego, is a start-up company being financed by California venture capitalists. Its CEO is Frank Varasano, a former executive vice president of Oracle Corp. who is described as the project's visionary.
Company chairman is Ray Lane of the California venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers, which has been extensively involved in environmentally friendly projects and companies, including Fisker Automotive. John Doerr, a managing partner with the California venture capital company, is a V-Vehicle board member. Former Vice President Al Gore recently joined the firm. Matano will direct design.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 12:23 PM under Business , Companies , Featured , GM , News , Personalities , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM CEO Henderson on Dealers, Clunkers, Exec Compensation and More
By Bill Visnic
In a wide-ranging and comparatively wide-open web chat with the automotive media on Tuesday, General Motors Corp. CEO Fritz Henderson confirmed GM has rescinded the decision to close at least a few dealers, is committed to further cutting its executive ranks and believes it will benefit - to a degree - from the still-debated "cash-for-clunkers" legislation.
Henderson took on several questions about the contentious decision to deny franchise renewal to some 1,100 dealers by the end of next year. He said that of the reported excess of 800 dealer requests for review of their franchise termination, GM has relented on 49 and will be done with the review process this week.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:05 PM under Featured , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler, GM Losing and Moving Execs
By Bill Visnic
The Chrysler Group's bankruptcy is over, General Motors Corp.'s is accelerating like a Corvette and both companies are moving and losing significant personnel in sync.
None of this is unexpected, particularly as Chrysler is sure to be entertaining a certain amount of Fiat S.p.A executive injections now that Fiat is Chrysler's operational owner. And most insiders and industry analysts say GM still has plenty of management dead wood to burn and will see more voluntary separations, too.
GM still dealt a serious surprise when announcing Friday that purchasing chief Bo Andersson is leaving the company. Andersson was generally well-regarded in the supplier community, despite its usually tumultuous relationship with Detroit automakers for the past decade or more. Andersson had a reputation for being demanding and calculating but eminently fair in one of the toughest jobs in Detroit, if not the entire auto industry.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:48 PM under Chrysler , Featured , GM , News , Personalities , Rumors | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Right-Wingers Push Obama Protest Through GM Boycott
WASHINGTON -- Right-wing radio hosts says there's only one choice for conservatives angry
about government involvement in the auto industry: Boycott GM.
"Nobody wants to support an Obama company," Rush Limbaugh told his audience, citing a poll showing that 17 percent of Americans backed a boycott of GM, the Detroit News reported.
Limbaugh didn't outright call for a boycott, but said he understood why people would want to avoid GM vehicles. "They don't want to patronize Obama. They don't want to do anything to make Obama's policies work."
Added conservative host Hugh Hewitt online: "Every dollar spent with GM is a dollar spent against free enterprise."
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:46 AM under Business , GM , Personalities | Comments (6) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Names New Chairman: Former AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre, Jr.
DETROIT -- Edward E. Whitacre, Jr., former chairman and CEO of AT&T Inc., will become chairman of the new General Motors that emerges from bankruptcy later this summer, the automaker announced Tuesday morning.
GM's interim chairman Kent Kresa will continue in his post until the launch of the new GM.
(Read more...)
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Chrysler-Fiat Deal: Will It or Won't It? Only Supreme Court Knows for Sure
By Bill Visnic
Tension mounted over the weekend as investors in Chrysler LLC asked the U.S. Supreme
Court to consider their appeal of the sale of Chrysler's assets for Fiat S.p.A.
Given past history, it was unlikely the Supreme Court would further delay the decision of a New York appeals court that approved the sale. But the three objecting constituencies -- investment funds located in Indiana, including ones for state police and teachers -- submitted an emergency request that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg will consider, the Associated Press reported.
It was expected Justice Ginsberg would decide on the merits of the emergency appeal Monday.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:02 AM under Chrysler , Featured , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Penske: Envisioning Saturn as a Global Motors
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- Roger Penske's dealership group doesn't hold a single Saturn franchise, but now he's offered to buy from General Motors the whole kit and caboodle.
Penske's vision, as he laid it out in an exclusive interview with Edmunds' AutoObserver.com Friday shortly after GM and the Penske Group announced they had made a deal for Saturn, is twofold: to sell GM-made models in Saturn showrooms while shopping the globe for other vehicles to sell, eventually convincing the offshore manufacturers of those vehicles to make them in the United States.
(Penske announced on Sept. 30 it terminated discussions with GM for the purchase of Saturn.)
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:49 AM under Business , Companies , Featured , GM , News , Personalities , Technology | Comments (5) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM, Penske Make a Deal for Saturn; Hummer, Opel Deals Floundering
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors confirmed Friday morning that it has a deal to sell its Saturn brand to the Penske Automotive Group. If completed, the deal would save more than 350 dealerships and 13,000 jobs at Saturn and its retailers in the United States, and would preserve the customer-focused Saturn brand, GM said in a statement.
At the same time, GM's agreement to sell Hummer to a Chinese company is hitting a roadblock with China's government, and Magna's proposed partnership with Opel looks to be floundering.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:15 AM under Companies , Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM, Chrysler Defend Dealer Cuts in U.S. Senate
By Michelle Krebs
WASHINGTON -- General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson and Chrysler President Jim Press found themselves on the hot seat yet again in Congress Wednesday as they testified that it is essential to cut thousands of dealers in order to survive.
And once again, much as Detroit Three executives were at last fall's hearings for federal loans, the executives were grilled and skewered by members of Congress. Dealers being put out of business and dealer association executives chimed in as well.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:41 AM under Chrysler , Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Scrambles To Clarify Financial-Disclosure 'Tude
By Bill Visnic
Barely 48 hours into its new era as a bankrupt company, General Motorsexecutives hustled to backtrack on a provocative statement from its chief financial officer that also was tinged with an arrogance that could damage the company's need to appear contrite before customers and politicians.
GM CFO Ray Young told the media that thanks to its now-bankrupt status, GM technically is a private company -- and as such is not obligated to make available the same depth of corporate financial information as are public corporations.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:41 AM under Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
President Obama, CEO Henderson: Paving the Way for a New GM
By Michelle Krebs and Bill Visnic
DETROIT -- President Obama, in a White House press conference Monday, said General Motors' filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy "marks the end of an old GM and the beginning of a new GM."
The president, recalling the famous quote of former GM CEO and U.S. Defense Secretary Charlie Wilson in the 1950s, that "we'll be able to say again what's good for General Motors is good for America."
And in a statement less than an hour later, GM president and CEO Fritz Henderson called the action a "defining moment in the history of GM."
GM, which only last year celebrated its centennial, made history Monday by filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. Henderson said the company expects the bankruptcy to be complete in 60 to 90 days.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:12 AM under Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Saturn Files Separate Bankruptcy; Loses Lawsuit to NJ Dealer
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- While General Motors filed bankruptcy on Monday, so, too, did its Saturn Corp., in a move that seems to set up Saturn for a buyer and, perhaps, to first cull its dealership network.
Meantime, Saturn lost a case brought by one of its once most supportive dealers in New Jersey courts last week.
(Read more...)
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GM Bankruptcy: History in the Making
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- Once the largest and one of the mightiest corporations on the planet, General Motors, which only last year celebrated its centennial,makes history Monday, June 1, as it files for bankruptcy.
The automaker is asking the Southern District of New York court to grant it protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy court early, to approve the transfer of most of its global assets to a new GM entity and to allow GM's operations to continue operating uninterrupted during the process.
"Today marks a defining moment in the reinvention of GM as a leaner, more customer-focused, and more cost-competitive company that, above all, can quickly generate winning bottom line results," GM President and CEO Fritz Henderson, who will hold a press briefing later Monday, said in a statement.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:42 AM under Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Lutz: "New" GM Will Be Smaller, Leaner "Powerhouse"
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors' Bob Lutz predicts the "new" GM will be "smaller and leaner but a powerhouse" that is very profitable after the "cleansing fire" ofthe radical restructuring the automaker is undergoing.
Lutz would not confirm to reporters at an Automotive Press Association luncheon in Detroit Thursday if, indeed, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is inevitable. Speculation is that GM will file for bankruptcy Monday and transfer its good assets to a newly created company.
Lutz did say if GM files for bankruptcy, it would be a quick one. "We intend to get in and out very soon," he said. "The U.S. government wants its money back, and our plan is to pay it back as quickly as possible. The U.S. government doesn't want to own auto companies."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 1:10 PM under Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (3) | digg this | del.icio.us
Maserati Names McNabb Its North American Top Exec
Mark McNabb, who has done stints with Nissan and General Motors, will take over as president and CEO of Maserati North America
on June 1.
McNabb announced he was leaving GM only weeks ago. During his short stint at the Detroit automaker, McNabb was vice president for GM's premium brands, which include Cadillac, Hummer and Saab. Before joining GM, he held senior positions with Nissan.
(Read more...)
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Fiat Dangles Opel Carrot: Fewer German Job Losses
By Bill Visnic
Evidently seeking to up the ante in its gambit to take over General Motors Corp.'s Adam Opel AG, Fiat S.p.A. Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said over the weekend that job losses from the takeover would be far fewer than press accounts have speculated, reported the Associated Press.
Marchionne told the AP that Fiat's plan for restructuring Opel and integrating it and most of GM's European operations into a mega-automaker consisting of Fiat, Opel and Chrysler (the assets of which Fiat expects to acquire through Chrysler's Chapter 11 bankruptcy) would mean less than 10,000 job losses in Europe - not the 18,000 some reports have suggested.
(Read more...)
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Chrysler Names C. Robert Kidder as New Chairman
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- Chrysler announced the appointment of a new chairman. C. Robert Kidder, former chairman of Borden Chemical and Duracell International, who will lead the company after its completes its alliance with Fiat.
Kidder is currently chairman and CEO of 3Stone Advisors LLC, an investment firm that focuses on clean-tech companies, according to a statement issued by Chrysler.
He succeeds Robert L. Nardelli, who earlier announced he would return to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, Chrysler's current owner, when the automaker emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and joins with Fiat.
(Read more...)
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Ford: Perfect Timing for EcoBoost Celebration
By Michelle Krebs
Once again, Ford has lucked out in terms of timing.
As President Obama was announcing stricter fuel economy and emissions standards in Washington, D.C., Ford was celebrating the production of its new EcoBoost engine in Cleveland.
The opportunity to promote Ford, which has tried to set itself apart from General Motors and Chrysler by not taking government assistance -- and staying away from bankruptcy -- was not lost on company CEO Alan Mulally, who flanked President Obama at his White House press conference.
(Read more...)
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President Obama To Announce Fuel-Economy, Emission Standards Tuesday
WASHINGTON -- President Obama is expected to announce newfuel-economyandgreenhouse-gas standards at a White House press conferenceTuesday.
The new standards are expected to raise fuel economy for cars to 35 mpg by 2016, Washington sources are saying. That's four years earlier than federal law had required.
The trade-off is that the state of California apparently has agreed to back off from its effort to establish its own greenhouse-gas emissions standards for automobiles, sources are saying. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to attend President Obama's press conference, the Web site Politico.com reports.
(Read more...)
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Volkswagen Breaks Off Talks With Porsche
Volkswagen broke off merger talks with Porsche. Volkswagen said it did not see Porsche, the smaller of the two with a heavy debt load but still VW's major shareholder, as ready for a merger.
The two companies had planned to meet Monday to develop merger plans after the financial crisis scrapped Porsche's plan to raise its stake in VW to
75 percent.
"We recognized at the end of the week that Porsche is lacking several fundamental conditions for the discussions," a VW spokesman told Reuters on Sunday. Porsche does not have a strategy for a possible integration of the two companies and has to sort out internally where it is headed, VW said.
(Read more...)
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Nissan Vows To Fix Itself; "Not on the Offensive"
By Bill Visnic
Announcing this week a 2008 fiscal-year net loss of $2.32 billion, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. President and CEO Carlos Ghosn said the company expects to lose about three-quarters that much again in fiscal 2009 -- so don't look for the Nissan-Renault alliance to get involved in the global auto industry's realignment of players and power.
"You will not see the (Nissan-Renault) alliance on the offensive," said Ghosn at a press conference in Japan to report Nissan's 2008 financial performance. He said Nissan's emphasis will be to return to positive cashflow, not pursue new partnerships with other automakers.
(Read more...)
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GM: Still Trying To Avoid Bankruptcy, but Preparing Anyway
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors stillhopes to accomplish its restructuring outside ofbankruptcy court, but is preparing for bankruptcy nonetheless, most notably by monitoring Chrysler's Chapter 11.
GM's chief financial officer, Ray Young, normally cool, calm and collected, expressed in passionate terms, during his conference call with media and analysts on financial results Thursday, that GM wants to avoid bankruptcy.
"If we go into bankruptcy, it is imperative that we get in and out quickly," Young said, adding the automaker is watching and learning from Chrysler's current Chapter 11 proceedings.
(Read more...)
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Penske Confirms Interest in Saturn
DETROIT -- The Penske Automotive Group confirmed it is indeed interested in General Motors'
Saturn brand.
In a statement issued Tuesday morning, Penske Automotive Group, headed by Roger Penske, said "we confirm that we have an interest in looking at future opportunities with the Saturn brand."
The company's statement continued: "Penske Automotive buys and sells dealerships as part of our normal operations; we have experience in the distribution business and are constantly looking for opportunities to grow our business and further diversify our overall operations."
The group, which also has the U.S. distribution rights to Daimler's smart franchise, said it has not made a proposal to GM. "The time frame involved is extremely tight," the company said.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:49 AM under Companies , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
With Chrysler Captured, Fiat Moving on Opel
By Bill Visnic
With Chrysler LLC now in bankruptcy and its assets all but promised to Fiat S.p.A. as part of a months-in-the-making ownership and alliance proposal, Fiat's hyper-acquisitive chief executive Sergio Marchionne already is laying out a plan to take over General Motors Corp.'s foundering European operations.
And yes, Marchionne's already throwing around the "S" words: synergies and savings.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:12 AM under Chrysler , Companies , Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler's LaSorda Will Retire; Nardelli Returns to Cerberus
By Michelle Krebs
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Former Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda, most recently vice chairman and president, said Thursday in a conference call that he will retire. He gave no effective date for his retirement but said he will not stick around through Chrysler's Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Current Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli said he, too, would be leaving Chrysler after it emerges from bankruptcy to return as an advisor to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, which owned Chrysler before Thursday's deal with Italy's Fiat was announced.
Chrysler President and Vice Chairman Jim Press said he has had no discussions regarding his employment status.
(Read more...)
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GM To Give Update on Plans Monday Morning
DETROIT -- General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson will host a media briefing at 9 a.m. Monday
to provide an update on the automaker's revised viability plan, the company said Sunday night.
Though GM is not providing detail about what he will say, Henderson is expected to announce more cuts, including the elimination of the Pontiac brand. Other moves could include permanent plant closings and job cuts. Initiatives to reduce the number of dealers and obtain a debt-for-equity swap from bondholders likely will be addressed. And the shakiness of parts supplier Delphi Corp. may be on the agenda as well.
(Read more...)
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Peapod NEV Opens for Orders Beginning Today - Earth Day
By Dale Buss
At least for today, Chrysler will be able to hold its new keepers in the Obama administration at bay. Because on Earth Day in New York City, Chrysler's Peapod unit has begun taking orders for the company's new Peapod Neighborhood Electric Vehicle
.
There's nothing more "green" -- especially for a company that has notably lacked in environmental orientation -- than an all-electric vehicle that operates at low speeds with no emissions. Peapod is designed to jump-start interest in an NEV segment that always has been the dowdy province of true Earth Firsters; residents of planned communities such as Celebration, Florida; and older folks who live around golf courses.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:30 AM under Chrysler , In the Media , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Obama Administration Loans Chrysler, GM More Money
The Obama administration, as promised, is providing more funds for Chrysler and General
Motors as working capital to keep them afloat as they try to meet the government-imposed deadlines. 
Chrysler received about $500 million to get it through the end of April. The Obama administration has set an April 30 deadline for Chrysler to negotiate a final deal with Italy's Fiat in order to be granted $6 billion more in government funds or face bankruptcy. And the government will end its support of Chrysler if it goes into
bankruptcy.
GM is receiving $5 billion through May to help it meet its June 1 deadline to return to the Obama administration with a viable restructuring plan or it faces bankruptcy, during which the government will provide funding.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:16 AM under Chrysler , Companies , Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Good and Bad Ideas From Massachusetts
By Bill Visnic
There are all manner of schemes being proposed to address the needs of dwindling state and federal coffers, many of which often focus on hitting the wallets of the driving public.
But rare is the state that has two driving-taxation plans as simultaneously enlightened and enraging as the state of Massachusetts. Both have been promoted by Gov. Deval Patrick.
(Read more...)
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GM's Henderson: Four-Brand, Not Two-Brand, Strategy Remains the Plan
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson, in a Friday morning conference call, brought the media up to date on the progress of the automaker's latest "go deeper, go faster"plan required by the U.S. government and tried to dispel some reports that have been circulating.
Henderson reiterated bankruptcy still is not GM's preference, but it remains a possibility and is more probable as time marches on. He said GM is planning two tracks -- one for restructuring out of court and another within the bankruptcy court. Should bankruptcy be required, Henderson said, the plan in the works is to do it quickly, something many experts doubt can happen.
On other topics, he said: potential buyers and investors are lined up for a look at Saab, Saturn and Opel; more job cuts are coming; and no other brands, namely Pontiac and GMC, have been targeted for elimination as of now.
(Read more...)
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Fiat's Marchionne: Union Concessions or We Walk Away
By Michelle Krebs
TORONTO -- Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne told aToronto newspaper thata Fiat-Chrysler
partnership had only a 50-50 chance of success because of lack of progress in talks with union leaders, especially those in Canada. He said that the Italian automaker is prepared to walk away from the proposed alliance with Chrysler, which must be completed in two weeks, if the union doesn't cut costs. That likely would leave Chrysler headed to bankruptcy court.
"Absolutely we are prepared to walk. There is no doubt in my mind," Marchionne said in an interview with Toronto's Globe and Mail newspaper. Instead, he said, Fiat would find another international partner.
Nomura analyst Michael Tyndall told Reuters Marchionne was probably not bluffing in talking tough with the unions. "He's playing hardball," he told the newswire, adding that the unions' position would make the deal too costly for Fiat. "We want them [Fiat] to walk away...I don't see any benefits in this deal."
(Read more...)
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Toyota, Mississippi Officials Sued for Racism
A black-owned construction company has filed a federal civil lawsuit against Toyota,
MississippiGov. Haley Barbour andthe Mississippi Development Authorityclaiming racial discrimination in the construction of Toyota's new plant innortheast Mississippi.
The owners of Fish & Fisher, Jacqueline Williams and Renna Fisher, say Barbour, MDA and the car company acted in concert to bar them from participating in what they claim was a whites-only bid process for site preparation.
(Read more...)
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Fiat CEO Marchionne Could Be Chrysler CEO as Well, Trade Journal Says
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne could add Chrysler CEO to his list of titles under one scenario
being discussed by the two companies regarding an alliance, a trade journal reported.
The future Chrysler board also may include members of President Obama's automotive task force, Automotive News says in Monday's edition.
The publication says the companies are discussing a revised ownership structure, a new board and possibly a different management team for Chrysler. Under consideration is splitting Chrysler chairman and Chrysler CEO into two jobs. Robert Nardelli currently holds both titles. Marchionne could gain the CEO title, giving him a direct role in Chrysler's operations. The chairman role would be held by an American, Automotive News said.
(Read more...)
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GM's Tom Stephens: Lutz Successor Is a Serious Engineer - and Serious Enthusiast
By Bill Visnic
DETROIT -- The ouster of General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner grabbed all of the headlines at the start of this month, but, at the same time, another changing of the guard was taking place quietly inside the auto company.
GM career engineer Thomas G. Stephens took over April 1 for the industry's most consistently anointed "car guy," Bob Lutz, who stepped down from daily responsibilities and will remain a GM advisor until his official retirement at year-end.
Stephens is an executive with no paltry credentials -- and plenty of his own car-guy chops.
(Read more...)
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Tennessee Senator Is Whistling a New Tune
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Bob Corker, the "let the Big Three go bankrupt" Republican from
Tennessee, is now whistling a different tune since General Motors' potential bankruptcy could hit his state.
Corker, according to the Detroit Free Press, has been arguing in news releases, interviews and columns in Tennessee newspapers that GM should not close its assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee, plant -- the one built in the 1980s to build Saturns and that now builds the Chevrolet Traverse. The plant now employs 3,000 voters --- er -- people.
(Read more...)
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Fiat Managers Held Hostage by Employees
Three managers of Italy's Fiat are being held against their will by employees in the company's Brussels commercial headquarters, an official told Bloomberg News. The managers were discussing job cuts for the facility that employs about 90 people.
Holding executives hostage is becoming increasingly more commonplace in Europe as the stress of the economy and job losses loom.
(Read more...)
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Fiat's Marchionne Back In the USA; Hurdles In Chrysler Deal Remain
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne reportedly is back in the U.S. to continue hammering out an
alliancewith Chrysler.
Marchionne and Alfredo Altavilla, Fiat's head of business development and chief executive of its powertrains division, reportedly are dividing their time between negotiations in Detroit with Chrysler and the UAW and meetings in Washington with U.S. Treasury officials.
President Obama has given Chrysler until the end of this month to
finalize a definitive agreement with Fiat. And that's "ample time," said Chrysler President Jim Press Wednesday at the New York auto show, where he was driven onto the stage in a Fiat 500.
(Read more...)
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Treasury Team Parked At GM For Next Two Weeks
A team from the U.S. Treasury Department is in Detroit this week and next helping General
Motor devise a plan to save the company froma potential June 1 bankruptcy.
The Treasury Department's Harry J. Wilson, a former partner in Silver Point Capital LP, and about 14 other people including advisers from Boston Consulting Group and Rothschild Group are part of the group, Josh Earnest, a White House deputy press secretary, told Bloomberg News. Earnest added that the team will work to speed existing cuts and identify new savings.
(Read more...)
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Toyota Considers Revamp Of U.S. Operations To Stem Losses, Reports Say
Toyota Motor Corp. is considering a reorganization of its U.S. operations, pulling
sales, marketing and manufacturing under one powerful executive in an effort to stem its current losses, reports say.
The possible reorganization, reported by the Detroit News Wednesday and confirmed by AutoObserver sources, comes as Akio Toyoda, grandson of the company founder, is about to take over as president and CEO in Japan.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:54 AM under Personalities , Rumors , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
New York Auto Show: VW's Jacoby Sees Little Recovery Until 2010
NEW YORK -- U.S. car and truck sales may come in at under 10 million units this year and may not rebound until next year, said the head of Volkswagen's North American operations.
"We may not see a recovery until the end of this year, or even into next year," Stefan Jacoby, president of Volkswagen of America, said in a speech Wednesday at the New York auto show.
(Read more...)
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"Fast & Furious" Shows That Consumers Are Watching Cars, Though Not Buying Them
Consumers aren't buying cars, especially sports cars, but they're watching them on the silver
screen -- in droves.
The newly released movie Fast & Furious took in an April record of $71 million in ticket sales at U.S. and Canadian box offices.
The movie had the biggest April opening ever by a wide margin as cash-strapped consumers seek to escape the reality of the dreary economy to the fantasy within the movie theater. Anger Management, starring Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler, set the previous record of $42 million in 2003.
(Read more...)
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College Hoops and Ailing Automakers
What do college basketball and troubled U.S. automakers have in common?
Plenty this year. The NCAA championship is taking place in Detroitand the "blue-collar" hometown team, Michigan State University, is in the final Monday night, to the surprise of many and the upset ofthose playing the brackets.
Indeed, as Wall Street Journal columnist Austin Kelley noted in Monday's edition, sports fans who wanted to forget General Motors' troubles and divert attention to college basketball were out of luck this weekend. "The specter of the ailing automaker was everywhere," he wrote.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:56 AM under Commentary , Ford , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
President Obama: Auto Industry Cannot Vanish
President Obama sent a message this weekend to auto workers and residents of
auto towns that the U.S. "cannot let our auto industry vanish."
President Obama, in a column under his byline that appeared in select Midwest newspapers, said the reason the U.S. government is supporting General Motors and Chrysler with loans is because the auto industry "is an emblem of America" that helped build and sustain the middle class."
Obama acknowledged auto workers and auto towns had been through much pain and indicated they needed to brace for even more.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:15 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Companies , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Henderson: File Bankruptcy Only if Required
By Michelle Krebs
Less than a week after becoming the new CEO of General Motors, replacing ousted Rick Wagoner
, Fritz Henderson
appeared on two major news shows Sunday -- CNN's State of the Union
and NBC's Meet the Press.
In both interviews, Henderson insisted the automaker still prefers to avoid bankruptcy court to accomplish its restructuring, "but if it's required, that's what we'll do."
Henderson reiterated on Meet the Press what he'd told the media in his first press conference last Tuesday that GM needs to "go deeper and we need to go faster" in its restructuring. "We either accomplish this job outside of bankruptcy in the short term, or alternatively, if it's necessary, we'll go into bankruptcy in order to get this job done," he said."
(Read more...)
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GM's Henderson: "We Will Get the Job Done"
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- Frederick "Fritz" Henderson, the newly appointed CEO of General Motors, said in his first press conference Tuesday that the automaker understands what the U.S. government wants from GM and promises to get the job done.
"We will get the job done," Henderson told reporters emphatically with confidence and calm. "We'll do it in court or we'll do it outside of court. But we will get the job done."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:19 AM under Companies , Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Fiat's Marchionne Is Bound for Detroit
DETROIT -- Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne immediately headed to Detroit Tuesday, a day after
PresidentBarack Obama,gave Chrysler and Fiat only30 days to pull together a deal if they had any hope for obtaining another $6 billion from U.S. taxpayers.
A Chrysler spokesman late on Monday announced a "framework agreement" with Fiat, reflecting progress since the two sides presented the broad outlines of a prospective alliance in January. "It's one step closer to the definitive agreement," a Chrysler spokesman said.
Under that framework, however, the Fiat's initial stake would be lowered to 20 percent from the originally planned 35 percent, according to various media reports. The government will allow Fiat to own no more than 49 percent of Chrysler.
(Read more...)
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GM's Fritz Henderson: The New Man on the Hot Seat
By Dale Buss
DETROIT -- General Motors has always reserved its top spot for executives with strong financial backgrounds. So from that perspective,Fritz Henderson, previously GM president and chief operating officer, is a natural to take over for just-departing CEO Rick Wagoner, who also rose through the company's treasurer's office.
But the highly regarded Henderson faces at least two big problems if he hopes to extend his "interim" as GM's new CEO into a permanent gig.
(Read more...)
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GM's Rick Wagoner: Runs Out of Tomorrows
By Dale Buss
DETROIT -- Rick Wagoner finally ran out of tomorrows. The man who had survived at the helm of General Motors as it suffered unprecedented financial losses and a freefall in market share ultimately couldn't shake an even more procrustean force -- the vagaries of a U.S.-government bailout.
The 56-year-old former wunderkind beancounter resigned at the suggestion of the Obama administration as the new federal auto task force deals with the very latest of the recent disappointments overseen by Wagoner: GM's inability to coax and cajole unions, bondholders and other constituencies into agreeing to a sweeping new viability plan for the automaker. The government will have to extend GM's taxpayer-funded lifeline and try to wrap up a restructuring under a new CEO.
(Read more...)
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Obama Appoints Auto Recovery Director
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Barack Obama has appointed Edward Montgomery, a top
labor economist and former deputy secretary of the U.S. Labor Department as director of Recovery for Auto Workers and Communities.
In making the announcement of his appointment early this morning, the Obama administration said Dr. Montgomery "will work to leverage all resources of government to support the workers, communities and regions that rely on the American auto industry."
Montgomery received his Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. Montgomery has served as dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland and been a professor at Michigan State University and Carnegie Mellon University. He also has held various economic posts and advisory roles with the government, including the U.S. Department of Labor and Federal Reserve.
His research has focused on the effects of economic and social policy on labor market behavior.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:51 AM under News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM CEO Wagoner Out as Obama Administration Goes "Hands On" With Detroit
By Bill Visnic
General MotorsCEO Rick Wagoner has been asked to resign as a condition of extending addition federal aid to the auto company he's run for nine years.
"On Friday I was in Washington for a meeting with [Obama] administration officials. In the course of that meeting, they requested that I 'step aside' as CEO of GM, and so I have," Wagoner said in a statement early this morning.
The prospect of Wagner's leaving or being forced to resign first emerged last fall when the Detroit Three automakers initially reported to Congress about their deteriorating businesses and GM and Chrysler LLC proceeded to accept federal "bailout" loans from the U.S. Department of Treasury's now-infamous Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).
(Read more...)
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GM Advisor: Doubts Bankruptcy Is Chosen Route
Roger C. Altman, chairman and CEO of investment firm Evercore Partners and currently an
advisor to General Motors in its restructuring, says he doubts bankruptcy is the way struggling automakers likeGM and Chrysler will go.
Altman was asked in an interview with the Financial Times, if we will see prepackaged bankruptcies for some carmakers. "The administration hasn't entirely made clear its position on that. So I'm not sure, but I would be skeptical that's the route this will go," he responded.
"I think the companies -- and let me focus particularly on General Motors, because that's the one I know best because we represent GM -- have made much more progress than people realized, in improving product quality, improving fuel-efficiency, streamlining themselves, lowering labor cost differentials dramatically relative to the transplant costs, and so forth," he added.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:32 AM under Commentary , Companies , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler Rhetoric Gets Contradictory - and Desperate?
By Bill Visnic
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- In the weeks leading up to March 31, the day President Obama's auto industry task force gives some directionabout whether the government will continue to invest billions to keep General Motors and Chrysler afloat, Chrysler executives have spoken in terms that seem to indicate a festering anxiety at the company's headquarters here.
In some cases, executives have issued threats. Some have deeply contradicted one another. Always-provocative CEO Bob Nardelli has contradicted himself.
And last Thursday, Chrysler Chief Financial Officer Ron Kolka violated the spirit of "we're all in this together" with probably the most inflammatory -- and reckless -- remark yet; Bloomberg News reported Kolka as saying Chrysler could be considered more deserving than GM of receiving continued government assistance.
(Read more...)
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Global News: Volvo Truck Sales Collapse; Chrysler Stays in China; Valeo Ex-CEO Gets Golden Parachute
In Global News Tuesday, Swedish truckmaker AB Volvo's sales nosedived in February, Chrysler is focusing on imports to China and the French government is outraged over a golden parachute paid to the departing CEO of supplier Valeo.
(Read more...)
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Cerberus' Feinberg: Hanging in With Chrysler and GMAC
Cerberus Capital Management, which owns large chunks of Chrysler and GMAC, plans to stick with the automobile and financial industries as long as possible, the founder of the New York-based private equity firm told a London newspaper.
"As far as GMAC and Chrysler are concerned, we will hang in there as long as it takes," the reclusive Steve Feinberg was quoted as saying by the Financial Times. "There is the feeling of a greater calling."
The paper's profile of Feinberg posted Tuesday quoted his friends as saying he always criticized them for buying foreign cars, but since buying 80 percent of Chrysler, he's "likely to lecture them for an hour on the subject."
(Read more...)
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Survey Says: Americans Oppose Government Auto Loans
DETROIT -- And here comes yet another survey showing that Americans oppose government loans to General Motors and Chrysler, just as the two face a March 31 deadline to convince the government they have made progress, deserve to keep the money they've received and should get more.
This survey comes from Detroit-based R.L. Polk & Co., released on Monday. It shows 61 percent of Americans oppose the loans.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:11 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Global News: Auto Riches to Rags From Europe to Asia
In news from around the world Monday, auto magnates in Japan and Russia have seen their fortunes crippled, the outlook for Germany's economy has worsened, German automakers may pull out of the shortened Tokyo auto show and French supplier Valeo's chief executive has stepped down over a strategy disagreement.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:16 AM under Chrysler , Companies , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Obama Recognizes Unpopularity of Auto Bailout
President Barack Obama didn't give any hints about which way his administration was
leaning in terms of more loans to domestic automakers, General Motors and Chrysler. But he did acknowledge the unpopularity of such loans by the American public, during his interview with CBS' 60 Minutes
, which aired Sunday night.
The President said he is still committed to helping GM and Chrysler avert bankruptcy, but he says they have yet to demonstrate they can remain economically viable. And there are major political obstacles.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:33 AM under Business , Chrysler , GM , In the Media , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
AIG's Automotive Connections: "Red" Poling's Son Receives Biggest Bonus
Turns out Doug Poling, the son of former Ford Motor Co. Chairman Harold "Red" Poling topped the list for biggest bonuses paid to executives of American International Group Inc., an honor that earned him a personal visit by protesters over the weekend.
News reports say 48-year-old Poling, an executive vice president in charge of energy and infrastructure investments, received -- and says he will return -- the $6.4-million payment he received in bonus.
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Obama on Leno: Talking Auto Industry
By Michelle Krebs
President Obama didn't spend much time during his historic appearance on The Tonight Show
talking about the auto industry to car-crazed host Jay Leno. But what he did say made it sound like he understoodthat new-car sales are simply too low for the industry to be successful.
President Obama noted that the U.S. car sales are running at an annual rate of 9 million vehicles, well below even the usual rate of replacement for worn-out vehicles, and that 14 million new cars a year would be more normal.
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Newly Born Baby Boomers: What Cars Will They Buy?
By Michelle Krebs
When he was Toyota's top American executive, Jim Press often cited his visits to the hospital nursery to support his prediction that U.S. motor vehicle sales would hit 20 million units a year.
"What I see in each of those baskets is 20 purchase cycles," Press, now president of Chrysler, would say of the rows of babies -- future car buyers -- in cribs.
Press no longer predicts 20 million vehicle sales; instead he sees 14 million at best for the near future. Nevertheless the hospital nurseries are jampacked with a record number of new babies.
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AIG Angst: The Auto Industry and Detroit Protest Bonuses Loudest
By Michelle Krebs
President Obama and others on Capitol Hill expressed their indignation Monday over the revelation that American International Group Inc. (AIG) plans to reward its top executives with $165 million in bonuses despite the fact that the insurance giant is being kept afloat by U.S. taxpayers.
But no one is more outraged about the AIG bonuses than those in the auto industry, especially those in Detroit.
Michigan Congressman Gary Peters introduced a bill Monday night, one he's been promoting on the airwaves of business programs all day Tuesday, that allows the AIG bonuses to be paid -- and then taxes them at 100 percent to recover the cash for taxpayers.
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Obama Auto Task Force: What Did They Think About Their Detroit Visit?
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- You could imagine a collective sigh of relief as General Motors and Chrysler executives closed their doors late Monday behind the most important guests they've ever had visit.
And you could imagine them wondering what kind of impression they had made on the representatives of President Obama's automotive task force that will decide their fate. "So what did they think?" they must have been asking.
Yet those task force members, none of whom have automotive experience, remain as poker faced as any card player, not providing even the slightest hint about their impressions of their Detroit visit, their thoughts on the precarious situations of GM and Chrysler and their plans for what they will do when the March 31 deadline arrives.
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Tracinda's Jerry York Says "I Told You So" in More Polite Terms
You just know Jerome York is dying to say it: "I told you so."
The former Chrysler executive who served on General Motors' board of directors representing the interests of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, had insisted the Detroit automakerditch money-losing Saab and Hummer. ButGM executives refused to entertain the notion. They insisted the automaker's many brands were an asset: not, as York contended, a drain on resources.
Now look where GM is -- staying afloat on government loans as it sets Saab loose and has Hummer on the auction block with a plan to eliminate it if no buyer is found.
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President Obama's Auto Advisors Visit Detroit
DETROIT -- Representatives of President Barack Obama's automotive task force are visiting
Detroit Monday. Their trip includes a tour of a Chrysler assembly plant and General Motor's Technical Center and a test-drive of the Chevrolet Volt.
All the while, auto company executives will try to convince them further federal assistance is a worthwhile investment for taxpayers.
Their visit comes as Republicans cranked up the volume on their opposition to support Detroit automakers and yet another survey showed the American public generally is opposed as well.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:59 AM under Business , Commentary , Companies , Ford , GM , Personalities , Technology , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler's Jim Press: "Things Aren't So Bad"
By Michelle Krebs
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Chrysler is looking for March sales to be better than those in February, a month that Chrysler President Jim Press said was not bad.
In an interview with AutoObserver.com, Press said Chrysler has in place for March all the programs that worked well in February and then some.
"It's hard to say things are good when sales were only down 25 percent [retail]. That's terrible, but it's less terrible than the industry decline of 40 percent," said the always upbeat Press. "Things aren't so bad. At 80,000 vehicles sold in February, we're doing OK. We're not paying dividends or bonuses but we're OK."
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GM's Wagoner Made $5.5 Million in 2008; Will Be Paid $1 In 2009
By Michelle Krebs
General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner was paid a total of $5.5 million in 2008, down from $14.1
million in 2007, according to documents filed with the federal government's Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday morning.
In 2008, Wagoner received a salary of $2.1 million and earned no bonus.
Wagoner will work for $1 in 2009 as part of its loan deal with the U.S. government. Pay is cut to all GM executives in 2009 in order to keep the $13.4 billion in loans from the U.S. government and to possibly obtain as much as $16 billion more in additional loans.
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Toyota Brings Inaba Back To Clean Up U.S. Mess
Toyota Motor Corp. has rehired Yoshimi Inaba to revive the automaker's operations in North
America where U.S. vehicle sales have plunged to their lowest level in nearly three decades.
The 62-year-old Inaba left Toyota in 2007 to run Central Japan International Airport Co. in Nagoya. He first joined Toyota in 1968 and later was president of North American sales. A Toyota spokesperson said he will oversee some North American projects.
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GM, Chrysler Bankruptcy Not Impossible, Obama Aide Says
DENVER -- President Barack Obama's chief spokesman said the administration can't rule out a restructuring through bankruptcy for struggling automakers, while adding the industry is "tremendously important" to the economy, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday afternoon.
Traveling to Colorado on Tuesday with the president, who signed the economic stimulus package, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters the administration won't "prejudge" the next steps for General Motors and Chrysler until the automakers present their own plans under terms of a government aid package. Those plans are to be filed after the stock market closes today.
The auto companies "represent a huge part of our manufacturing base, and to have a strong and viable auto industry is tremendously important for the future."
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Hyundai Boss Blasts Auto Industry, Says It's 'Viewed With Contempt'
By Bill Visnic
CHICAGO -- Telling an assembled crowd of media and auto-industry representatives here for the Chicago auto show that although the global economic meltdown certainly helped to destruct the auto industry in the U.S., John Krafcik, acting president and CEO of Hyundai Motor America, said the industry itself is largely to blame because of its past bad behavior.
And now the day of reckoning with consumers (and legislators) has arrived.
Avowing the auto industry is "viewed with contempt" in the U.S., Krafcik dealt out a staccato string of candid and hard-hitting tough-love messages in a speech to open the media days of the show.
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GM Announces Lutz Retirement
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT -- General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who heads global product
development,will retire at the end of 2009.
The 76-year-old Lutz will be replaced by Tom Stephens, 60, who now heads global powertrain development.
Lutz steps down from his current post on April 1, becoming vice chairman and senior advisor, while Stephens takes over Lutz's previous duties.
Lutz's retirement is not entirely unexpected, though many thought he would stay on through the launch of the Chevrolet Volt in November of 2010 since he has been the car's biggest champion. But clearly the automaker's current financial crisis and GM's forced restructuring required as part of its acceptance of government loans accelerated Lutz's retirement.
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Nissan Cuts 20,000 Jobs; Posts First Loss This Decade
Nissan will cut 20,000 jobs globally, as the Japanese automaker announced Monday its first loss in nine years.
Nissan said it expects a net loss of $2.9 billion for its fiscal year, which ends March 31. Nissan said in October it estimated its annual earnings would be $1.8 billion.
"Our worst assumptions on the state of the global economy have been met or exceeded," Nissan-Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said Monday. Declining consumer confidence and lack of access to credit are "the most damaging factors," he added.
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COMMENTARY Behind the Headlines: News and Maneuvers Get Weirder
By Bill Visnic
The auto industry seemed to have reached agreement earlier this month to hunker down and allow the geared-down Detroit auto show to flicker on without anything as distracting as news to interfere.
That all changed this week, as it seems everyone's talking, dealing, reporting, conjecturing and speculating. Plenty of this news is explicitly bizarre.
A rundown of some of this week's happenings, along with the between-the-lines summary courtesy of AutoObserver's branded decoder ring:
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:04 PM under Chrysler , Commentary , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler's Press: On Sales, Incentives, Cash and Alliances
LINTHICUM HEIGHTS, Md. -- Chrysler President Jim Press told reporters here that it has other possible partners it can tap in case the Fiat alliance
doesn't work out, that the automaker's new incentives are helping its market share this month and that it needs the additional $3 billion in federal loans to survive the first quarter.
Press held a roundtable with reporters as he tours the country visiting dealers, urging them to push out the old 2008 inventory and order more 2009 models so Chrysler can keep its factories running and badly needed cash coming in.
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Elena Ford Appointed to Ford Global Sales Post
DEARBORN, Mich. -- Ford announced Elena Ford, the great-great-granddaughter of company founder Henry Ford and cousin to CEO Bill Ford, has been promoted to director of global marketing, sales and service operations.
Elena Ford most recently was executive vice president of marketing for Ford Motor Credit Co. In the newly created post she assumes on February 1, she will report to Jim Farley, Ford's group vice president of marketing and communications.
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Chrysler Greets Fiat Visitors
By Michelle Krebs
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Chrysler had a visit from executives of Italy's Fiat this weekend, including its high-profile CEO, Sergio Marchionne
.
Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli told employees in a memo Monday that the executives from Fiat held meetings at the company's headquarters over the weekend. He characterized the meeting as positive and said the "alliance is very promising."
Fiat has offered to take a 35 percent stake in the Detroit automaker in a deal that could be completed by the end of April. It could eventually raise that stake to 55 percent.
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Auto Industry Slump To Continue a Couple Years, Ghosn Says
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn predicts the current slump for
automakers will continue for the next couple of years.
Ghosn forecasts global vehicles sales will fall 14 percent this year to 55 million units from 63 million in 2008. Further, he expects it will take at least seven years to return to the peak level of 69 million units in 2007.
"It's not a short-term kind of correction. It's a real slump," Ghosn told reporters at an economic gathering here.
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Car Czar Gives Way to Car Czars
By Michelle Krebs
Timothy Geithner, President Barack Obama's nominee for U.S. Treasury Secretary, testified to Congress Wednesday that the new administration intended to assembly a team of experts to oversee the loans to automakers.
Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee during his confirmation hearings that the team would have "expertise in manufacturing, in restructuring, who understand how these labor contracts work."
Automakers should be thrilled at the news since it was frighteningly evident during last fall's Congressional hearings on aide to U.S. automakers that most government officials and Congressmen are generally ignorant about the extremely complex auto industry. Finding a single individual who understood all of the aspects of the auto industry would be impossible. And if President Obama's picks for other government posts are any indication, the car czars will a bright, talented and pragmatic lot.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:23 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Ford , GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Fiat CEO Marchionne Has Led an Unlikely Turnaround
By Dale Buss
Sergio Marchionne has been predicting an epic consolidation of the global automotive business for several months now. And by striking a perhaps slyly sensiblenew partnership with Chrysler, Fiat's determined CEO already has taken the industry's biggest and boldest step toward fulfilling his scenario.
The 56-year-old Italian is credited with Fiat's financial turnaround since 2004 but also much more: He's increasingly seen as a visionary who has the guts to shape the industry's future rather than just react to it.
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Billionaire Kerkorian Sells Last of Ford Stock
By Michelle Krebs
Perhaps now, at age 91, Las Vegas billionaire Kirk Kerkorian has finally given up on the auto industry that has not been particularly good to him.
On Tuesday -- just in time to take year-end losses -- Kerkorian sold the last of his investment in Ford. The move came just six months after Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. bought a 6.49 stake in Ford and carries with it deep losses. Kerkorian's purchase was seen as a vote of confidence in Ford's turnaround strategy and its management led by former Boeing exec Alan Mulally.
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Buffett Invests in RV Business
By Michelle Krebs
As investor Kirk Kerkorian was selling off the last of his shares in the U.S. auto industry, another elder American investor was easing into the business.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. reported to government regulators Monday that it had purchased $40 million in recreational vehicle maker, Coachmen Industries Inc., which assembles Viking travel trailers in Middlebury, Ind.
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GM's Wagoner Staying Put
By Michelle Krebs
General Motors Rick Wagoner is staying on the job.
"Do you think I would have gone through what I did the last two months if I were thinking of leaving," Wagoner asked a reporter during Friday's news conference on GM and Chrysler receiving government loans.
Indeed, numerous people from various quarters, including U.S. Congress, had called for the resignation of Wagoner, who has led GM for the past eight years when it racked up billions in losses.
"I'm absolutely not leaving," Wagoner said adamantly. "We're more energized than ever now that we have funding."
And how do he and GM win the confidence of the American people, he was asked. "Test drive a Chevy Malibu," Wagoner said in forceful salesmanlike talk that he should have used during Congressional hearings.
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Chrysler Announces Executive Departures
By Michelle Krebs
Two of the highest profile hires made by Chrysler following its purchase by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management are leaving the company.
Philip F. Murtaugh, who headed Chrysler's Asia-Pacific operations, and Deborah Meyer, Chrysler's chief marketing officer, are gone, Chrysler announced just moments after President George W. Bush said Chrysler and General Motors would receive $17.4 billion in government loans.
The hiring of Murtaugh and Meyer, along with Vice Chairman Jim Press, were hailed as coups by Chrysler when they occurred just 18 months ago.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:45 AM under Business , Chrysler , News , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
New Blood? It's Another Important Issue for Big Three
By Dale Buss
The president's expected short-term bailout of the Detroit Three automakers will leave the industry with lots of short- and long-term issues. One of the biggest is who will lead them.
As they pulled the plug on their own rescue deliberations last week, some in Congress seemed to believe they could run the Detroit Three automakers better than the CEOs do. President-Elect Barack Obama also has suggested that some top auto executives have a "head-in-the-sand approach" and should lose their jobs. And the American public, at least as measured by polls, don't seem to want to give a break to the automakers' current leadership either.
Could others actually perform better as CEOs of General Motors, Ford or Chrysler than Rick Wagoner, Alan Mulally or Robert Nardelli have -- and will? If so, where would these executive savants come from? And will we ever see any of this new blood in Detroit?
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:49 AM under Analysis , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Personalities | Comments (4) | digg this | del.icio.us
We've Not Hit Bottom, Ghosn Says
Nissan-Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn said the global auto industry has not hit bottom yet.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy invited Ghosn and Christian Streiff of PSA Peugeot Citroen to discuss the crisis in the global industry Monday, after promising to help the carmakers if they promised not to move jobs abroad. Renault, PSA and others are shedding thousands of jobs in France and elsewhere in Europe as they cut output.
"I do not see a rapid issue to the crisis in the automobile industry," said Ghosn. "We have not touched the bottom yet."
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:03 AM under Business , Companies , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Former Fed Chairman Volcker Favored as Car Czar
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker looks to have the inside track for the newly
created post of car czar, if the federal loans for Detroit automakers is approved by the Senate today -- an approval that is in doubt.
Nevertheless, the Bush White House reportedly is coordinating with the incoming Obama administration in choosing a new "car czar" to oversee the auto company restructurings required under the loan legislation passed by the House Wednesday night. Volcker appears to be acceptable to both sides.
The 81-year-old Volcker has been an important economic adviser to President-elect Obama and on November 26 was named head of Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Volcker has the added benefit of automotive bailout experience -- he was Federal Reserve Board chairman and a principal government participant in the Chrysler bailout. He and the oversight board played a key role in winning concessions from the United Auto Workers union and from Chrysler's banks..
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Scalp? Scapegoat? GM's Wagoner Remains One Vulnerable CEO
By Dale Buss
As he testifies before Congress today and tomorrow, Richard Wagoner will be doing more than attempting to seal the deal for some $12 billion in government loans and a $6-billion line of credit that he has requested to rescue his employer, General Motors.
GM's chairman and CEO also may be auditioning to keep his job.
Wagoner certainly looks to be in better shape to hold on to GM's top post this week than he did a couple of weeks ago, after his singularly uninspiring first round of bailout testimony on Capitol Hill. He has done all the right things since then, inside the company and for external audiences.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:02 AM under Analysis , Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Wants as Much as $18 Billion; Prioritizes Brands
By Bill Visnic
General Motors Corp. Tuesday released the plan submitted to Congress in application for federal bridge loans to carry the company through 2009, when it expects a host of structural improvements and general downsizing to create "a new General Motors, one that is lean, profitable, self-sustaining and fully competitive."
What GM wants: up to $18 billion -- up to $12 billion in direct federal term loans and another $6 billion committed line of credit to guarantee the company can weather an auto-sales environment even worse than GM's projected 12-million-unit sales rate for 2009.
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Ford, Rivals Stress New Parsimony to Congress
By Bill Visnic
Scrambling to enlist the aid of the federal government in surviving the nation's drastic economic downturn, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC are submitting today their restructuring "blueprints" that will have at least one element in common: symbolic pay cuts for their chief executive officers and pledges to accelerate the introduction of higher-efficiency models and technologies.
Ford CEO Alan Mulally will work for $1 per year, Ford announced, and it is believed GM CEO Rick Wagoner will do the same when his company releases details of the company's plan later today. Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli already had offered to work for $1.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:47 AM under Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Personalities , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM, Tiger Woods Part Ways
General Motors and golfing great Tiger Woods announced Monday they were parting ways.
GM's longtime deal with Woods, who served as spokesman for Buick for the past nine years, ends December 31.
For GM, it is a cost-cutting move as it struggles to survive. GM reportedly paid Woods $8 million a year for the endorsement. Woods claims he wants more personal time since he and his wife are expecting a second child in late winter.
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Nissan-Renault's Ghosn Supports Bailout, Predicts Industry Consolidation, at L.A. Show
By Danny King
LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. government's proposed $25 billion bailout of American automakers is essential for investment in electric vehicles and other alternative-power
initiatives, said Carlos Ghosn, CEO at Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA, speaking at the Los Angeles auto show Wednesday.
Ghosn added that consolidation in the auto industry is a likely result of the current financial crisis though he said Nissan won't try to buy Chrysler or any other car company in the near future.
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Mitt Romney: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt
By Michelle Krebs
Detroit-born Mitt Romney, a candidate for this year's Republican presidential nomination and whose father was Michigan governor and an auto company executive, advocates letting Detroit automakers go bankrupt.
In an OpEd piece carried in Wednesday's edition of The New York Times, Romney, who is expected to make another presidential run in 2012, wrote: "Detroit needs a turnaround not a check." He suggested the turnaround path is through a managed bankruptcy.
What a difference a failed presidential run makes! Romney won the Michigan Republican primary against the eventual presidential candidate John McCain by being a booster for Detroit's auto industry.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:42 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Outlook for Automaker Loans Fragile as Senate Hammers Detroit Chiefs
By Bill Visnic and Michelle Krebs
Chief executives from each of the Detroit Three automakers couldn't
have come to Tuesday's session of the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee at a less-receptive time. Seeking $25 billion in emergency loans to keep their ailing operations afloat, they might as well have been kids who've gorged on all their Halloween candy and now are whining for more.
Although the committee is chaired by a receptive persona in Senator Chris Todd (D-CT), Republicans are largely presenting an icy posture regarding Detroit's plight - and senators on both sides of the aisle grilled Ford's Alan Mulally, GM's Rick Wagoner and Chrysler's Bob Nardelli with varying degrees of understanding and acidity. The three are scheduled for a House committee hearing Wednesday morning.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:36 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Nissan-Renault CEO Ghosn Supports Retooling Loans
Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said he supports the idea of
government-backed, low-cost loans to help carmakers retool to produce more-fuel-efficient vehicles, and said Japan and Europe should offer such programs.
Ghosn, who is the keynote speaker for the opening press day of the Los Angeles auto show Wednesday, also told the Wall Street Journal that the global credit crunch hasn't eased, and he warned that Nissan's profits will likely go to "zero" in its fiscal second half. Renault's operating profit margins for 2008 will be well below earlier goals.
"We have to recognize 2009 will be one of the most challenging years for our industry and the whole economy in the last 50 years," he said.
(Read more...)
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Chrysler Executives Could Receive Bonuses, Report Says
The revelation that Chrysler is paying millions of bonuses to keep top executives at the automaker while it cuts thousands of jobs ought to really help the Detroit Three get government bailout funds that already look like they are doomed.
The lead story in Friday's edition of the Detroit Free Press says Chrysler is paying about $30 million in retention bonuses to keep top executives on the job. Chrysler owes the bonuses under its contracts with about 50 executives, based on a retention incentive plan crafted early last year by former German parent DaimlerChrysler, when it was preparing to sell Chrysler, the paper reported.
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GM Looking for Warren Buffet-Style Investor, Report Says
General Motors is looking for a large investment from outside investors similar to the investment Warren Buffett made in General Electric and Goldman Sachs, the Financial Times reported Tuesday.
But the paper cited an unnamed banker as questioning the chances of GM finding an investor to do so.
A source briefed on the matter has told Reuters that representatives of GM and Chrysler's majority owner Cerberus Capital Management have approached at least one major investor with a pitch to invest in their deal. But the pitch for a capital injection for a merged automaker that would control about a third of the U.S. light-vehicle market was met with "a great degree of apprehension," the source said.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:18 AM under Business , Chrysler , GM , Personalities , Rumors | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Renault Styling Plays It Safe, But Only Bold Moves Will Ensure the Company's Survival
By Nick Kurczewski
PARIS - At the recent 2008 Paris Auto Show, Renault unveiled its new C-segment Mégane hatchback and coupe. Sized and priced to compete withEurope's best-selling vehicle, the Volkswagen Golf,the Renault Mégane is vital to the French automaker's financial health that has been in decline in recent months.
As designers pulled back the covers on the new Mégane to reveal its quirky-turned-conservative styling, the world's financial markets were spinning out of control, taking Renault's already downward spiraling fortunes with it.
As Renault plays it safe with the styling of its Mégane and other models, only a bold move -- as speculation has it with Chrysler or Ford -- may bolster its shot at survival.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:23 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Personalities , Rumors | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Intrigue, German-Style, in Ongoing Porsche-VW Tussle
By Bill Visnic
Take volatile and imperious-but-brilliant exec Ferdinand
Piech. Add a dash of labor-union maneuvering. Spice comes from high-line maker Porsche. Throw into the pot that is Germany's largest automaker, VW.
The resulting stew is on the boil in another late-summer German industrial power play.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:57 AM under Business , Commentary , Companies , Featured , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's "Future Leaders": Christopher Borroni-Bird
By Dale Buss
With so much pressure from every quarter on General Motors and other automakers to make huge leaps forward in fuel-efficiency -- and now! -- Christopher Borroni-Bird has become a major player on the most important stage in the global automotive industry.
And he understands the urgency of the task.
"There's more urgency than even six months ago," said the 43-year-old U.K. native, who is GM's director of advanced vehicle technology concepts in Detroit.
(Read more...)
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GM's "Future Leaders": Jeffrey Kimpan
By Dale Buss
From his first job as a summerintern turning copper ingots into wire at a Packard Electric plant in Warren, Ohio, to his new post as vice president of human resources for the company's entire Asia-Pacific region, Jeffrey Kimpan has learned about as much as anyone could about General Motors and its people.
(Read more...)
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GM's 'Future Leaders': Maryann Combs
By Dale Buss
Maryann Combs still remembers vividly her first assignment for General Motors: bolting generators to engine blocks on the Pontiac, Mich., truck-assembly line, as part of her internship while attending General Motors Institute.
"For a teenaged female right out of high school, it was an eye-opening experience," recalled Combs, who now is president of GM's Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center in Shanghai.
Beyond awakening, Combs found the experience transforming.
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GM's 'Future Leaders': Mike Devereux
By Dale Buss
A few years ago, General Motors canned its initial task force that was charged with making sense of Internet sales and marketing, called eGM, and Mike Devereux was one of those who got dislocated. "EGM was wine before our time," he said.
But now, as GM's executive director of digital and CRM marketing, Devereux believes that he and the company finally are in the right places when it comes to exploiting the online medium. "The job I have now isn't wine before its time," said the 43-year-old native Brit. "It's prime time."
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GM's 'Future Leaders': Carlos Barba
By Dale Buss
Carlos Barba will mark the 24th anniversary of his employment by General Motors on Tuesday - the same date, September 16, that GM itself was founded exactly one century ago today.
And in many ways, Barba, who is general director of GM's Latin America design studios in Sao Paulo, embodies so much of what has changed about the giant company. He's a designer working in an important developing market - but also a player in the increasingly integrated global design network that GM has been putting together to share best designs and best practices in each of its markets around the world.
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GM's 'Future Leaders': Anthony Lo
By Dale Buss
As he worked his way up through the design ranks at Lotus, Audi, Mercedes-Benz and Saab, Anthony Lo proved his creative chops over and over again on models ranging from the Audi A4 to the Mercedes-Benz F200 concept car.
But now that he is executive director of design for GM of Europe, the demands on Lo are more often about organizing and motivating others, and balancing budgets and priorities - not only putting his stylistic imprints on future models. And he's willing to admit the different nature of the challenges.
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GM's 'Future Leaders': Alain Visser
By Dale Buss
It hasn't even been a year since Alain Visser became chief marketing officer of General Motors of Europe, but he can't learn from his predecessor: There wasn't one. As the division's first CMO, Visser is getting a chance not only to put a big stamp on the organization but also to define his own job.
"We didn't have a multi-brand marketing leader before, so it's a bit of a challenge for the organization," said Visser, a veteran auto marketer. "We believe there are more synergies to be found from a cross-brand point of view. But also, we want to keep [brands] apart and differentiated - that is my key objective."
(Read more...)
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GM's 'Future Leaders': Sheila Jain Sarver
By Dale Buss
As newly promoted vice president of engineering for General Motors of India, Sheila Jain Sarver is on the front lines of the company's crucial efforts to expand its share of the rapidly growing car market there.
Her recent promotion from the position of director of engineering and operations "underscores the significance of what we're doing in India to raise our technology footprint here in what we expect to be a key market," said the 44-year-old American born to parents of Indian descent. Increasingly, technology and vehicles GM develops in Bangalore, heart of the area known as the "Silicon Valley of India," also will be important in other markets ranging from China to the United States.
(Read more...)
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GM Spotlights 'Future Leaders,' to Kudos - and Competitors
By Dale Buss
Sheila Jain Sarver, just promoted to vice president of engineering for GM of India, is one of General Motors' most promising executives in the whole world. Alain Visser, chief marketing officer of GM of Europe, also is considered an up-and-comer. And as a product manager who may know more about ethanol power than anyone else in the company, GM do Brasil's Henrique Pereira is becoming a more valuable player too.
But this isn't just inside dope. The whole world now knows GM's high opinion of these executives because -- among the many things the automaker has changed lately -- one of the most intriguing and even iconoclastic has to do with its people, not its cars.
As part of its centennial celebration that concludes this week, the automaker has designated Sarver, Visser, Pereira and about two dozen other executives and managers from throughout the company and around the world as the leading faces of a wide-ranging corporate self-tribute it called GMnext. AutoObserver will profile some of them in the coming days.
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Memo to Chrysler's Ralph Gilles: Speak Plain English and Don't Let 'Em Push You Around
By Bill Visnic
It's the end of an era at Chrysler LLC, as design chief Trevor Creed now is retired, pulling down the curtain on a period in which Chrysler attained a reputation for adventurous and often outrageous design initiatives, particularly for concept vehicles - of which a refreshingly high proportion made the transition to production models.
Taking Creed's place - starting this week - is Ralph Gilles, 38-year-old father of Chrysler's 300 sedan, which launched in 2004 with near-universal admiration.
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Questions for General Motors' Troy Clarke
Is the current downturn cyclical or are fundamentals changing so that the market will never return to normal?
We think there are cyclical elements of it and some structural elements of it, and we think there are more structural elements than cyclical elements at this particular point in time. When I say that, though, I'm talking about a market that should be running in the 14-million unit range, not a market that's running in the 12.7-million unit range... We think that is still somewhat of an anomaly...We think the market should be running probably just a little north of 14 million units."
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Kathleen Ligocki Heads Mexican Auto Company Selling Chinese Cars
By Michelle Krebs
MEXICO CITY -- One of the auto industry's highest profile women is now the top executive of a Mexican company that sells - and will eventually build in Mexico -- cars from China's First Auto Works.
Kathleen Ligocki has been named CEO of GS Motors, the automobile division of Grupo Salinas. One of her critical roles will to oversee the continued sales in Mexico and Central America of cars built by China's FAW and the eventual production of those cars in Mexico.
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One of Russia's Richest Men Talks to GM about Buying Hummer, Report Says
By Michelle Krebs
DETROIT - One of Russia's richest men Oleg Deripaska reportedly has held preliminary talks with General Motors to buy Hummer, sources told Reuters.
We're not surprised. As GM now has discovered, we guessed interest in Hummer would be high, especially from overseas investors. We figured Deripaska, with heavy interest in the auto industry and ties already with GM, was among them.
Deripaska owns Russian automaker GAZ and purchased a chunk of GM stock about a year ago. In May last year, Deripaska paid $1.54 billion for 20 percent of Canadian auto supplier Magna. It appeared his purchase was tied to Magna's attempt to purchase Chrysler, which Magna lost to Cerberus Capital Management.
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Ford Loses Another Designer as Larry Erickson Heads College Design Department
Well-known auto designer Larry Erickson has left Ford as chief designer of the automaker's advanced vehicle development to chair the transportation design department at Detroit's College for Creative Studies.
Erickson has been named the Paul and Helen Farago Chair of Transportation Design at CCS, considered one of the world's best automotive and transportation design schools. Erickson also will oversee the school's Master of Fine Arts in Transportation Design program when it launches in the fall of 2009.
Erickson most recently served as chief designer in Ford's Strategic Design Group, but is well-known for his hot rod designs, including ones done with the late Boyd Coddington.
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GM: Remapping for a More Euro-Style Vehicle Landscape
By Michelle Krebs
The days of the U.S. being out of step with the rest of the world in terms of the vehicles Americans drive are nearing an end.
"We were the anomaly. We were the region with the artificially cheap fuel that created huge -- you could say unhealthy demand - for very large vehicles. But that has flipped," said Bob Lutz, General Motors' vice chairman in charge of product development, in a conference call with bloggers, including AutoObserver
, Tuesday.
(Read more...)
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GM's Bob Lutz Runs Out of Juice
GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz is the greatest champion for the Chevrolet Volt, which runs on electricity but has a back-up gasoline engine to generate power for the battery. He became even more of a fan of the concept when his battery-powered motor scooter ran out juice.
In June, Lutz took delivery of a Vectrix electric scooter, an event captured on YouTube as he took his first test drive.
However, one on of his first solo, long-distance rides, Lutz ran into trouble. "The gauge showed I had 19 miles of power left," Lutz related on a conference call of bloggers Tuesday. "But when it hit 17, it came to a complete stop. I had no battery left.
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Out-Of-Touch Alert: McCain Doesn't Know Cost of Gasoline
Just about everyone's already exhausted from the daily political finger-pointing about who's responsible for the cost of gasoline.
But the interplay of politics and gas prices achieves a new and comical aspect today with The Huffington Post's sarcastic replay of a conversation earlier this week between Republican presidential nominee John McCain and a reporter from California's Orange County Register. In that interview, reports Huffington, McCain admitted he had no idea how much a gallon of gas currently costs.
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GM Battery Boss Running on Full Charge
By Bill Visnic
DETROIT -- General Motors' Denise Gray talks a little fast, a little earnestly. We don't think it's because she's nervous -- more like she's got a lot to tell you about things you likely don't understand, and she figures her time is limited.
In a way, her time is quite limited -- Gray is in charge of delivering the most critical component for one of the highest-profile vehicle-development projects GM has ever undertaken, the Chevrolet Volt "extended-range" electric vehicle.
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Chevy Volt: Traveling Public Roads and Hitting Its Mark
By Michelle Krebs
WARREN, Michigan -- General Motors inched closer to making the Chevrolet Volt a reality in November 2010 as thevehicle's innovative gas-electric powertrain is being test-driven for the first time on public roads and is hitting its target of 40 miles on pure electric power.
"Today is a big day," GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told Edmunds' AutoObserver in an exclusive interview Tuesday. "Today is the first day it is running on the street on battery power."
Lutz said the Volt's powertrain, comprised of an advanced lithium-ion battery and a small gasoline engine, was installed into a mule vehicle and is being driven on public roads around the automaker's proving grounds in Milford, Michigan. More important, Lutz said, the battery is hitting GM's goal of 40 miles on pure electric power.
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Saleen-ASC Combine Motor City Grit, California Glamour
By Joseph Szczesny
TROY, Michigan -- Behind the introduction of the Saleen S5S Raptor at the New York International Auto Show in March is the story of a corporate reorganization that blends two companies previously struggling on their own.
The new Saleen Inc. combines Motor City grit of the former ASC and the California glamour of the former Saleen operations in finely calibrated balance, said Paul Wilbur, CEO of the new Saleen.
Wilbur told AutoObserver that the Raptor is the first project in which both sides of the house have contributed. It combined the efforts of Saleen engineering and ASC's creative team, which usually labors in anonymity for big clients such as General Motors.
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ArvinMeritor: Former Ford Exec To Run Auto Parts Spin-off
Former Ford Executive Phil Martens will become CEO of a new company, Arvin Innovations, a spin-off of auto parts supplier ArvinMeritor, Inc., struggling to return to profitability by restructuring, expanding globally and becoming less dependent on Detroit’s Big Three.
Martens, who ran product development at Mazda and later Ford North America, was among a handful of executives who left Ford in a political battle that had Martens’ rival Mark Fields becoming Ford’s President of the Americas.
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Rick Suzuki: Fall on Sword Justified?
By Michelle Krebs
It was puzzling and surprising when Rick Suzuki announced in late March that he would
step down as chairman of American Suzuki due to the company’s poor performance.
After all, American Suzuki sales haven’t appeared that bad on the surface. In fact, Suzuki sales have nearly doubled since 2003. In March this year, Suzuki sold 10,510 vehicles, its highest amount since June 2007 in an extremely tough sales environment when the industry as a whole and most automakers reported a sales decline.
But a closer look by Edmunds.com shows those sales came at a cost that led to the operating losses to which Rick Suzuki referred in his March letter to employees.
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Porsche Charges Eavesdropping on CEO Via a Baby Monitor
The Porsche-Volkswagen saga is becoming more bizarre every day; the latest chapter includes charges of eavesdropping via a baby monitor.
Porsche confirmed Sunday night that it has filed a criminal complaint with authorities
regarding a suspected attempt to eavesdrop on CEO Wendelin Wiedeking. A report by the German weekly Der Spiegel
, picked up by the Wall Street Journal
Monday, said the complaint came after the microphone of a baby monitoring device was discovered behind a sofa in a hotel suite a day before last year's meeting of the supervisory board of Volkswagen.
Porsche holds 31 percent of the shares of Volkswagen and is seeking a majority stake.
(Read more...)
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Kerkorian's Tracinda Builds Stake in Ford
He’s back and Ford is the object of his affection this time.
Last Vegas billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, through his Tracinda Corp., has amassed 100 million shares for a 4.7 percent stake in Ford just this month. Further, Tracinda said it plans to buy up to 20 million more shares at a premium to last week’s closing price.
Kerkorian’s move on Ford is a vote of confidence for Ford management led by CEO Alan Mulally and the company’s turnaround prospects.
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Done at BMW But Now At Rolls-Royce, CEO Tom Purves Says Luxury Market will be Challenging
By Kate McLeod
Editor's Note: Auto Observer interviewed Tom Purves, chairman and CEO, BMW U.S. Holding Corp., in late March, as he still was scheduled to retire from the company. But this week, BMW announced Purves will remain, becoming CEO of the company's Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Ltd. division in the United Kingdom, starting in July. He spoke with Kate McLeod about his decades with BMW and the company's future in a toughening U.S. market.
Tom Purves has worked for BMW either 23 or 24 years. He can’t remember exactly.
In November, at age 60, he was scheduled to retire - but now will take over as CEO of BMW's Rolls-Royce unit. Purves leaves BMW as the company is dramatically expanding its production capacity in the U.S., and creating more niche vehicles. One is a stunning modernization of the iconic 2002, the 1 Series, and another, the X6, is so new it has no category or market.
That may sound idyllic but the current BMW management in Europe is in shuffle mode, which creates chaos. “It is not really, in a sense, for me to make a judgment whether it is unusual or not,†said Purves about all the management changes in Germany. “We in America are just passing the baton.â€
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General Motors Hires Ex-Nissan McNabb
General Motors has hired former Nissan executive Mark McNabb and reorganized its sales, service and marketing divisions.
GM will have four brand channels -- Chevrolet, Saturn, Buick-Pontiac-GMC, and Cadillac-Hummer-Saab. McNabb will head the "premium" channel of Cadillac-Hummer-Saab.
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Cerberus’ Feinberg: “A Recluse Lifts the Veil a Little”
A rare interview with Stephen A. Feinberg, the founder of Cerberus Capital Management, which now owns most of Chrysler and much of General Motors Acceptance Corp., provides the ever-so-slightest glimpse of Feinberg the man, but provides not a morsel of what he’s got in mind for the much anticipated end game of Chrysler.
New York Times’ “Dealbook” columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin spent two hours interviewing the reclusive Feinberg -– “the money man some hope will save Detroit” as he describes him -- at his Manhattan office. It was Feinberg’s first interview in a couple of decades –- and he still refused a photograph. His yearbook picture is the one media outlets are forced to use.
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Former UAW President Douglas Fraser Remembered
Hundreds of union members, political figures and corporate executives gathered with
family members Saturday for a memorial service honoring former United Auto Workers President Douglas Fraser, who died Feb 23 at age 91.
Fraser led the union through its zenith in the 1970s and through the bleak times of the 1980s. He played a key role in saving Chrysler from bankruptcy. In exchange for workers agreeing to concessions to save Chrysler, Fraser gained a seat on Chrysler’s board, making him the first major union chief on the board of a large corporation.
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‘Cuda Designer John Herlitz Celebrated at Memorial Service
John Herlitz, the Chrysler designer who penned the legendary 1970 Plymouth Barracuda as
well as the 1971 Plymouth Road Runner, numerous concept cars and important recent production cars, died last month at the age of 65. A memorial service was held Saturday.
Upon graduation from Pratt Institute, Herlitz began his career at Chrysler in 1965 as a manager of the Plymouth Intermediate Car Studio. He retired in 2000 as senior vice president of design.
Herlitz made his mark with the classic American muscle car, the 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. His Barracudas, especially those with powerful Hemi engines, currently fetch millions of dollars at auction from collectors.
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Ford Dealers Get a Glimpse of 2010 Taurus
Ford CEO Alan Mulally showed dealers the next-generation Ford Taurus behind closed doors at a Las Vegas gathering. The Taurus is believed to be scheduled as a 2010 model and could be unveiled at the Detroit auto show in January.
Ford has given no official details about the new Taurus to the media yet. However, last week, the Taurus Car Club of America Web site posted a hazy photo showing a far more chiseled shape and European appearance than the current model, as reported by Edmunds' InsideLine.com.
Jim Farley, Ford's group vice president for marketing and communications, told the Detroit Free Press that dealers gave the Taurus a standing ovation.
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Peter Arnell Comes Back to Chrysler: Savior? Svengali? Or Both?
By Dale Buss
Two things are clear about Peter Arnell. He and his ideas are stepping on some mighty big toes at Chrysler. And he isn’t transgressing quietly.
But two other matters aren’t so certain – and, ultimately, they’re more important to the success of CEO Robert Nardelli’s recent move to bring in the controversial branding Svengali as the company’s “acting chief innovation officer.â€
The first decisive question about Arnell: Can everyone get over the debacle that ended his first stint with Chrysler a few years ago? And the second is: Can Arnell really bring significant and quick improvements to the company now, with his broad edict to overhaul crucial areas including product design, passenger-facing technology, branding and dealerships?
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In a Recession or Headed Toward One?
Is the U.S. headed for a recession or already in one?
The man on the street likely would say we're in one, but experts are debating it.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Tuesday the U.S. was in recession. On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund's issued its latest World Economic Outlook that said the U.S. will slip into a recession that will spread globally.
(Read more...)
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Ford’s Farley to Unveil Marketing Plan
Next week, Ford’s long-awaited marketing plan will be unveiled by Jim Farley, Ford’s
group vice president for marketing and communications who was lured away from Toyota last fall.
The marketing plan includes an experiential aspect taking place this weekend in conjunction with the ABC TV show "Oprah's Big Give"; a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, with the tagline "Drive One," rolls out Tuesday.
(Read more...)
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Ford: One Less Mouth to Feed as Worker Wins the Lottery
Ford Motor Co. has been offering all kinds of incentives to shed workers from its ranks, but this week it has one less, thanks to a payout bigger than anything Ford could deliver when one of its employees won the lottery.
David Sneath, a Ford hi-lo operator from Livonia, Mich., won Michigan’s $136 million Mega Millions jackpot — Michigan’s third-largest ever — on Tuesday, which was both April Fool’s Day and his 60th birthday.
What did Sneath do first? He quit his job at Ford, where he’d worked for 34 years.
(Read more...)
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Volkswagen U.S.’ Biggest Problem: Metal to Move
By Bill Visnic
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sure, Volkswagen Group of America is concerned about the debilitating dollar-euro exchange rate, which almost daily shrinks its profit margin on vehicles built in Europe and sold for U.S. dollars.
But new Chief Operating Officer J. Mark Barnes’ biggest concern is having enough metal to move. Barnes said dealers are practically rioting for more product. Anything will do.
(Read more...)
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Nissan’s Electric-Powered Future
By Nick Kurczewski
MONACO -- Kazuhiro Doi can engineer you a boring electric car if you want it, but he’d prefer not to. As Nissan’s general manager and technology chief, Doi has the inside line on Nissan’s work in everything from electric vehicles to hybrids, and advanced safety features.
Under Doi’s leadership, Nissan developed a vehicle th at can detect when a driver is too intoxicated to drive. One of his latest projects is the Nissan Mixim, which was at the EVER Monaco ecological car show, held March 27-30.
(Read more...)
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Venturi Automobiles: Homefield Advantage at EVER Monaco
By Nick Kurczewski
It’s rare that an interview has to be postponed for royalty. But as Prince Albert of Monaco made his way through the displays at this year’s EVER Monaco ecological car show, that possibility was business as usual for Venturi Automobiles, the world’s only Monegasque car company.
AutoObserver caught up with Venturi’s charismatic CEO, Gildo Pastor, to discuss his tiny company’s latest electric, solar, and even wind-powered automotive technology projects. One eye scanning the floor to make sure Prince Albert’s entourage was not approaching, he also provided us with a few tantalizing hints as to what lies ahead regarding Venturi’s push into the American market.
(Read more...)
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Toyota Denies Japanese Government Helped with the Prius
Toyota Motor Corp. denied Wednesday it had received any funding from the Japanese
government to develop its Prius hybrid, The Associated Press reported.
Former Toyota executive and board member Jim Press, now vice chairman and president of Chrysler, had been quoted in the March 24 issue of Business Week magazine as saying, “The Japanese government paid for 100 percent of the development of the battery and hybrid system that went into the Toyota Prius."
(Read more...)
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BMW Hydrogen 7: A Surreal World Trial Run
By Nick Kurczewski
MONTE CARLO, Monaco — A hydrogen economy might still be a decade or more into the future but that hasn’t stopped BMW from continuing its real-world hydrogen trial run, courtesy of some surreal clientele. Prince Albert II of Monaco was handed the keys to a BMW Hydrogen 7 sedan at this week’s EVER Monaco ecological car show.
He joins an elite list of roughly 100 celebrities and VIPs who have been loaned one of BMW’s Hydrogen 7s. The average loan extends from six to eight weeks. A BMW spokesman at the EVER Monaco ecological car show confirmed Prince Albert would have a Hydrogen 7 for a two-month trial.
(Read more...)
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GM's Mary Barra: Tuning Up Automaker's Plants
By Kate McLeod
Mary Barra isn’t the new kid on the block. She is a tested General Motors veteran. She isn’t even that new to her new job as vice president of global manufacturing and engineering. Barra, a native Michigander, has been around GM — in particular around manufacturing and plants — for 27 years.
We’re well beyond writing stories about the first woman plumber or jockey, or indeed the first woman anything. Barra is worth a story because of her job, global responsibility for stamping and die plants around the world — Poland, Brazil, Russia, China and yes, Wisconsin, among others. This is part of GM's new focus — trying to create one company out of many. At GM they think it is the key to survival.
(Read more...)
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Wolfgang Reitzle: Thriving in the Prosperous Gas Business
When German engineer and businessman Wolfgang Reitzle departed Ford Motor Co. in May 2002, it was expected he eventually would turn up somewhere in the auto industry he’d grown up in.
Dubbed the auto industry’s preeminent car guy by Fortune magazine in 2000 and advocated by some to become CEO of BMW, where he had spent most of his career, Reitzle ended his automotive career as head of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group.
(Read more...)
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Chrysler's Nardelli: Private Equity Can Rebuild Chrysler
NEW YORK — Chrysler President and CEO Robert Nardelli reassured his audience of automotive reporters, often skeptical of late about the automaker's future, that a private-equity firm such as Cerberus Capital Management can build a car company like Chrysler back to greatness.
Nardelli was the keynote speaker Wednesday at the International Motor Press Association's breakfast kicking off press days at the New York International Auto Show.
(Read more...)
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Middle East Aston Martin Sues Aston Martin Lagonda UK for $50 Million
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — British luxury car maker Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. UK is being sued for
$50 million by its distributor in Dubai, Middle East Aston Martin, for breach of contract.
The lawsuit contends the strained relationship between Middle East Aston Martin (MEAM), the exclusive distributor of Aston Martin cars in the region, and the parent company to which Ford sold the bulk of the company a year ago is due “to the entrenched interests of its majority shareholder, the Kuwaiti investment group DAR, and their intention to refinance its stake in the company which had been purchased in March 2007, allegedly for an overprized rate.â€
(Read more...)
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Ford Beefs Up Global Management Team
By Michelle Krebs
Ford beefed up its global management team with the elevation of five executives to group vice president reporting directly to Ford CEO Alan Mulally and naming a chief operating officer in Europe.
Since his arrival more than 18 months ago, Mulally, a former Boeing executive, has said repeated like a mantra that he wants Ford to be a truly global car company a la Toyota, not a global carmaker made up of a disparate regional units.
(Read more...)
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Nissan’s Mark McNabb To Depart the Company
By Michelle Krebs
Nissan North America has confirmed Mark C. McNabb, who returned to the automaker last July as senior vice president of sales and marketing, will leave the auto company for personal reasons on April 1.
Rumors of his imminent departure had been swirling in recent weeks. And some speculation has McNabb going to an unnamed Detroit car company.
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GM: Won’t Intervene in American Axle Strike
A top General Motors executive said the automaker is concerned by the two-week strike against parts supplier American Axle & Manufacturing, which has slowed or stopped production at 29 GM plants. But he said GM won’t intervene in the dispute.
Fritz Henderson, promoted last week to GM president and chief operating officer, told The New York Times in an interview Monday that GM would be more concerned if it were losing sales due to lean inventories. The strike has mostly affected plants that make GM’s pickup trucks and large sport-utility vehicles, which are in abundant supply and low demand.
(Read more...)
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Bush Comments Lend Another Boost to Cellulosic Ethanol
By Dale Buss
The politicians in Washington aren’t on the same page on every issue with the U.S. auto industry. But it’s increasingly clear the most important of them see eye to eye with some major automakers when it comes to cellulosic ethanol.
Remaining presidential candidates have made a point of touting cellulosic ethanol — which can be made from a number of sources other than corn — as an important alternative fuel. On Thursday morning President Bush added to the chorus of support at his White House news conference. He emphasized cellulosic ethanol as a crucial part of the short-term answer to problems of fuel pricing and availability, as well as a long-term solution.
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Maserati's Selwa Leaves North American Distributor
Maserati North America Inc., announced Thursday that James Selwa, president and CEO, has left Maserati, effective Friday.
The Italian automaker said Maserati CEO Roberto Ronchi will continue to directly oversee the market in coordination with the Maserati North America team.
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Ghosn Says the R-word — Out Loud
Nissan-Renault Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn told reporters in South Korea on Friday even if the United States is not in recession, its auto industry is, The Associated Press reported.
"We are very lucid on the situation of the industry that there is a recession in the United States, at least in the car market," said Ghosn, adding automakers face rising costs for iron ore, precious metals, aluminum and other materials. "These represent risk for the industry."
Still, he expressed optimism the market will improve. The American auto market "will not stay in recession for a long time," he said.
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Tata Shareholders Not Thrilled with Proposed Jaguar, Land Rover Purchase
A lot of people — investors, specifically — are not thrilled with India’s Tata
buying Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford. They insist the company should focus on the $2,500 Tata Nano microcars, not $100,000 Jaguars.
Bloomberg News reported a number of investors, including A.S. Thiyaga Rajan, who manages a $250 million fund, are dumping their Tata stock.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:19 AM under Commentary , Companies , Ford , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GMAC Cuts Jobs, Offices
GMAC, the financial services group owned by General Motors and Cerberus Capital Management, said it would close 15 of its 20 offices and eliminate 930 – or 15 percent – of its jobs in North America.
The cost-cutting moves come on the heels of GMAC reporting a loss of $724 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, compared with a $1-billion profit a year earlier. GMAC’s troubles are due to the crisis in the housing and subprime lending businesses. In addition, delinquencies on car loans are rising.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:03 AM under Business , Chrysler , GM , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Delphi’s Steve Miller Publishes Memoir, Turnaround Lesson Book
The turnaround of Delphi Corp. is far from complete. The latest chapter in that saga came last week when the banks were unable to find funding that would allow the nation’s largest auto-parts supplier to emerge from bankruptcy.
Nevertheless, Delphi executive chairman Robert S. “Steve†Miller, a former Chrysler executive and a veteran of a dozen turnarounds, has written a book, The Turnaround Kid: What I Learned Rescuing America's Most Troubled Companies (Collins, $25.95, 272 pages). It is due out in April.
Fortune magazine’s Editor-at-Large Allan Sloan reviewed the book in an article picked up Tuesday by the Washington Post, entitled “Self-Portrait of a Turnaround Artist.â€
Sloan said he got hooked immediately on the book, not only because the autobiography talks about Miller’s 30 years of corporate troubleshooting but more because it shows him to be a human being, “a business man in full†and “not a calculator with legs.â€
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:55 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Companies , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Tata Nano Bound for Europe
By Nick Kurczewski
Launched at the New Delhi Auto Expo to a frenzy of worldwide interest, the Tata Nano city-car is coming to Europe within four years, according to Reuters.
The Nano was the unequivocal star of the New Delhi Auto Expo in early January, where it was announced the car’s Indian-market price will begin at only “1-lakh,” the equivalent of $2,500. About the only thing louder than the waves of applause during the Nano’s debut was the sound of other automotive executives’ jaws hitting the floor.
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Chrysler Won't Survive; Sell It, Advises Ex-Chrysler Exec
Chrysler LLC won't survive on its own and its private-equity owners should sell the company to a foreign automaker, Dow Jones reports a former finance chief of the automaker.
"Step A is that Cerberus Capital Management should do everything they can to fix it, and step B is that they should sell it to a foreign automaker that has strong market share in emerging markets," said Jerry York, who was Chrysler's chief financial officer between 1990 and 1993. He now serves as a representative of billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian.
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Ford Marketing: Restore the Trust
Ford Motor Co. plans to unveil a new marketing campaign in March or April that works to restore consumer trust in the Dearborn automaker's products, according to Jim Farley, Ford's group vice president of marketing and communications.
"The key elements are" to "restore the trust," he said Sunday, following a meeting with Ford dealers in San Francisco at the National Automobile Dealers Association's annual convention.
Farley is expected to lay out his plan for revamping Ford’s global marketing efforts on the eve of the New York auto show in March.
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Blessed Is Poore in Spirit, for He Shall Inherit -- Nissan’s Brands
By Dale Buss
Nissan didn’t mount a news conference at the Detroit auto show last month. But the company and its vehicles were still there in force. The $70,000 cult supercar, the 473-horsepower Nissan GT-R, was beckoning gawkers ahead of its midsummer launch. Also the concept minivan, Forum, which Nissan unveiled in December.
It was sort of the same with Ben Poore. He didn’t march front and center with a mini-mic, TelePrompTer and portfolio of gestures to address a media throng about sales expectations or future models. But the company’s new North American vice president of marketing communications was certainly available around the display for interviews.
And even just three months after moving into his job from Ford, the 41-year-old Poore already has reached plenty of conclusions about where he wants to lead the third-ranked Japanese brand in the U.S. market.
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Kia Revolving Door Turns Again as Latest Execs Leave
The top two executives of Kia Motors America Inc. are out. The U.S. marketing arm of the South Korean automaker confirmed at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in San Francisco over the weekend that CEO Len Hunt and Ian Beavis, vice president of marketing, had left the company.
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BMW Names New Top Exec
BMW (U.K.) Ltd. Managing Director Jim O’Donnell will take over as president of 
BMW of North America LLC, replacing Tom Purves, who has announced he will retire April 1.
O’Donnell will report directly to Purves, who will remain chairman and CEO of BMW (U.S.) Holding Corp. and chairman of BMW North America’s management board. O’Donnell will also assume the duties of Howard Mosher, vice president of operations, who will retire March 31.
Prior to his current role, O’Donnell oversaw sales for BMW in South Africa and the U.K. Before joining BMW, he held various positions at Ford.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:12 AM under Companies , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler: Back in Business For Now After Deal with Plastech
Production at Chrysler assembly plants is largely returning to normal now that the automaker has reached a tentative agreement with supplier Plastech Engineered Products Inc.
Chrysler cut production at five assembly plants Feb. 4 due to parts shortages of plastic interior parts, the result of the automaker canceling contracts with Plastech, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Detroit on Feb. 1.
The dispute between Chrysler and Plastech illustrates the changing of the guard at the automaker as well as the continued poor health of the automotive-supply base.
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UAW Will Help Elect Democrat — Either One — to the White House
United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said Sunday the union will work hard to elect a Democrat to the White House, but said the union would not endorse either Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., or Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., for the Democratic nomination.
“The stakes in this election could not be any higher. Our jobs are on the line,” Gettelfinger told an assembly of about 1,000 union activists gathered in Washington for a conference. More than 3 million manufacturing jobs in the U.S. have been lost since January 2001, he noted.
Gettelfinger said the union will support the Democratic presidential candidates with money and sweat equity.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:42 AM under News , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
BMW Chief Hits the Roadshow Circuit
Norbert Reithofer will this week become the first chief executive of BMW to go on an investor roadshow as the German automaker seeks to deflect worries about its profitability and shed its reputation as an industry laggard, the Financial Times reported over the weekend.
Reithofer will visit London on Wednesday as well as New York and Boston on Thursday and Friday to update investors on his efforts to cut costs.
The paper noted these visits mark a cultural break for the German carmaker, which until now only made its chief financial officer or other lower-ranking executives available to its shareholders.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:29 AM under Commentary , Companies , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Auto Marketers Grapple with the Glow of Celebrity
By Dale Buss
Where would Buick be without Tiger Woods? General Motors executives can’t decide if they really want to find out. They believe the golfing phenom and global celebrity (leading in this weekend's Dubai Desert Classic) is so popular he -- rather than Buick vehicles -- became central to the brand over the years.
But now that the Enclave has rescued Buick from the sales doldrums, a new advertising campaign shows division executives are unafraid to put a renascent Woods front and center with the stylish crossover vehicle.
“These spots are very significant because they represent both Buick and Tiger moving to another stage in our life cycle,†Maria Rohrer, Buick’s marketing director, told AutoObserver. “We’ve used him in testimonial before, but we’ve never used him in this kind of emotional way. It’s wonderful when the stars align like this.â€
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:58 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM Go-Fast Guy to Lead New Hybrid, EV Development Team
By Bill Visnic
DETROIT – General Motors Corp. this week put its top performance-vehicle
development engineer in charge of a new global team oriented to going fast in another fashion: speeding development of GM’s new hybrid-electric and so-called “extended-range” electric vehicles – and the critical battery-storage technology to enable those next-generation vehicles, like the Chevrolet Volt.
Robert Kruse, executive director of vehicle engineering for hybrids, electric vehicle and batteries, is running the new engineering team. Kruse, most recently head honcho at GM’s Performance Division, is well-regarded in the GM empire and should be an ideal engineer-executive to direct GM’s efforts to implement high-tech, electrically oriented powertrains.
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Nissan Needs "Interesting" Cars, Wants To Reinvigorate Maxima
By Bill Visnic
DETROIT –- Tom Lane, Nissan Motor Co. corporate vice president of the product strategy and product planning division, wasn’t much in a mood to mince words when AutoObserver spoke with him at the Detroit auto show. He says Nissan needs more small cars.
More importantly: “I would like to have more interesting small cars.â€
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Mercedes Stalks Better Returns, Pins ’08 on Smaller Crossover
By Bill Visnic
DETROIT – Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz unit, which despite a beaten-down market managed its 14th consecutive record sales year in the U.S. and gutted out a 2 percent worldwide sales hike, wants to improve its return on sales to an ambitious 10 percent by 2010 “at the latest,†says Dieter Zetsche, chairman of Daimler’s board of management and Mercedes Chief Executive.
“Thanks to the hard work of the previous few years, we’re starting out this year from an excellent position – in terms of efficiency, quality, service and unit sales,†Zetsche says at a reception here prior to the opening of the Detroit auto show.
He says for ’08, the company will get behind two all-new products: the GLK compact crossover and the CLC coupe, a 2-door hardtop based on the mechanicals of the recently launched, all-new C-Class.
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Unabashedly American Design
By Jane Nakagawa
Now that Toyota has become the second-largest selling carmaker in the U.S., it appears that the Japanese brand is on the way to becoming the world’s largest automobile manufacturer, surpassing General Motors. In every competition, there are winners and losers, and in this case, slow and steady looks set to win the race.
Toyota’s decades-long pursuit of QDR (quality, durability, and reliability), plus consistent brand building has made the company the darling of business schools as well as consumers. Yet the good news for Detroit is that there is another round to this race, and even the best of companies has an Achilles heel.
And with the 2008 Detroit auto show on the horizon this week, it’s a good time to talk about it. Because it all has to do with design.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 3:30 AM under Commentary , Companies , Featured , Personalities | Comments (6) | digg this | del.icio.us
Kid Rock as a Car Dealer?
By Michelle Krebs
Kid Rock, pictured rehearsing for his performance at the GM Style gala on Saturday night, almost had a different career than music.
His father wanted him to be a car dealer.
In the early days of his career, Kid Rock’s father, Bill Ritchie (Kid Rock’s real name is Bob Ritchie), desperately wanted his son to settle down into a real career in the family car business.
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Q&A: India’s Tata Motors Chief Ratan Tata
NEW DELHI, India -- Hounded by journalists and chased for interviews all day
Thursday, Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group and Tata Motors, has become an instant celebrity now that his company has delivered on its promise of delivering a production-ready vehicle priced at only $2,500.
The Tata Nano will be the world’s cheapest car when it goes on sale later this year in India. Ratan Tata promises that other markets will follow within two or three year’s time. Sitting down with the foreign media, Ratan Tata answered questions pertaining to his revolutionary small car, the hurdles that lay ahead, and whether the Nano will ever be sold in Europe or the United States. AutoObserver correspondent Nick Kurczewski, covering the New Delhi Auto Expo this week, excerpts some of that briefing:
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GM’s Turnaround: A Glimmer of Hope, Fortune Magazine
Fortune
magazine suggests there’s reason to be optimistic about General Motors’ future in an article written by auto veteran and long-time GM watcher Alex Taylor and entitled “Gentleman, star your turnaround.” The subtitle is “Rick Wagoner’s overhaul of GM is producing cooler cars and a glimmer of hope.”
GM CEO Rick Wagoner tells Fortune what he’s been saying often in recent weeks is that 2008 will be another tough year for the automaker. He cites the same headwinds as his counterparts at other companies cite: weaker economy, high commodity, steel prices and energy prices. "Frankly, more headwinds, especially from the first two, than I would have hoped. We're going to be in soupy water for a while," Wagoner told Fortune.
Still, he added, he feels good about GM’s progress.
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GM Appointments Bolster International Growth Spots
Having just reported record sales outside of the U.S., General Motors has made some employee appointments to bolster fast-growing regions, especially Russia and Turkey.
Chris Gubbey, appointed chairman and managing director, GM Holden Ltd., in Australia only months ago, becomes GM Europe vice president and managing director, responsible for GM Russia and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States).
GM, like most automakers, is scrambling to expand in Russia to keep up with growing vehicle demand there.
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Ford Dishes Up News Tidbits
Ford’s sale of Jaguar and Land Rover to India’s Tata Motors should be wrapped up by the end of March, a rear-drive Lincoln is in the works and the automaker’s future growth will come from outside of the U.S.
Those are just a few of the news tidbits that came out Tuesday during one of the dinner/press briefings Ford CEO Alan Mulally and his management team occasionally host.
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GM's Wagoner: Cars as Sophisticated Consumer Electronics
By Bill Visnic
LAS VEGAS – At the enormous and ever-growing Consumer Electronics Show here this week, General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner leaves a telling indicator about his view on the hierarchy of the automotive and electronics industries, saying autos essentially have become electronic devices.
“If the automobile were invented today, I’m pretty sure it would debut at CES,†Wagoner says. “Because more and more, that’s exactly what today’s cars and trucks are – highly sophisticated consumer electronics.â€
Wagoner’s keynote address is the first by an auto executive in the 41-year history of CES, a trade show whose hype is exceeded only by its audacious size. And if anyone thought Wagoner was clinging to any old-school notions that the electronics industry is subservient to the auto sector, Wagoner went on to describe his view of a world in which consumers will begin to see automobiles in the same light as a cell phone or an MP3 player.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:43 AM under Featured , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Wagoner: Future Growth Is Overseas
About three-quarters of General Motors' car and truck sales will come from outside the U.S. within a decade, Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner told Bloomberg Television
in an interview.
GM plans to push sales in the fastest-growing markets as demand in the U.S. stagnates, Wagoner said. In the third quarter of last year, 58 percent of GM's sales came from outside its home market. GM relied on the U.S. for most of its volume as recently as 2004.
Auto analyst John Casesa, managing partner at Casesa Shapiro Group in New York, told Bloomberg, that’s the kind of sales mix “that will eventually save GM.†Casesa said: "Overseas growth is an absolute necessity if GM is going to compete, not just with Toyota, but with emerging market automakers.''
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Buick Design Will Grow Bolder,GM’s Top Design Exec Says
By Dale Buss
Expect future Buick vehicles to rip a big page from the success of the aggressively styled Enclave crossover and move quickly away from design-legacy retreads such as the company's Lucerne and LaCrosse midsize sedans.
Ed Welburn, GM’s vice president of global design, told AutoObserver that Buick is shifting decisively toward “bold†and “dramatic†design statements such as Enclave while still trying to retain some “elegant†and “romantic†elements from its design theme over the previous generation. He said to expect more iterations of the sort of overstated approach used with Enclave, which is distinguished by cues such as big curves in the sheet metal, lots of chrome exterior trim and huge, elongated headlights.
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No Retirement, GM’s Lutz Insists
General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz insisted reports by the Associated Press, picked up by AutoObserver
Wednesday, of him considering retirement are not true.
"Read my lips: I am not thinking retirement," wrote Lutz in an e-mail to trade journal Automotive News, which also picked up the story. "The job is better than ever, and so is GM!!!!"
The Associated Press, of course, is standing by its story.
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Ford's Farley Demonstrates Qualities He Wants the Automaker to Exude
By Michelle Krebs
DEARBORN, Mich. – In his first appearance before the automotive press corps since joining Ford Motor
Co., Jim Farley, the former Toyota exec now in charge of Ford’s global sales, marketing and communications, exuded warmth, humility, sincerity and authenticity.
Farley spun an emotional yarn about his grandfather, lunch bucket in hand, walking through the same doors of the historic Rouge complex, which served as the stage for Farley’s premier.
Describing himself often as Ford’s “communicator,†Farley demonstrated exactly the qualities he wants the Ford brand to exude when he unveils his new marketing plan in the next 90 days.
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Chevrolet Volt May Be Swan Song for GM’s Lutz
DETROIT -- Robert Lutz, General Motors vice chairman for global product development, says he may
make the Chevrolet Volt his swan song.
The 75-year-old Lutz, who is credited with GM’s product renaissance, told reporters this week that he wants to retire GM after the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid is introduced, around 2010.
Often heard ranting about the ridiculous of global warming and a pooh-pooher earlier on of hybrids like the Toyota Prius, Lutz has done somewhat of an about-face. He sees plug-in electric vehicles like the Volt as a paradigm shift in the auto industry.
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GM’s Top Salesman LaNeve Sees the Glass Half Full
By Dale Buss
DETROIT -- Oil prices were surging to near $100 a barrel. The housing downdraft was whacking economic optimism with each new report. General Motors’ sales were in the process of dropping by a double-digit percentage. And GM bean counters were putting the finishing touches on a quarterly statement that would yield an industry-record quarterly loss.
But still, it was a good November for Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing. That’s because he was seeing a bunch of other numbers, too -– the ones that showed significant and sustained upticks in the company’s market share, consumer purchase consideration of GM vehicles, product-quality scores and even the equity of GM’s brands.
And ever the salesman, LaNeve was touring the country, hitting 14 cities for meetings with 40 GM dealers and ladling out the Kool-Aid with the help of a 10-slide PowerPoint presentation that told the story of GM’s comeback and sounded a rallying cry as 2007 was nearing a close.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:15 AM under Analysis , Featured , GM , Personalities | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Retired GM Chairman Roger B. Smith Dies at Age 82
By Michelle Krebs
Roger B. Smith, the General Motors chairman who led the world’s largest automaker in the 1980s 
through a period of significant change, died in Detroit on Thursday after a brief illness. He was 82.
Smith served for only a decade as GM chairman, retiring on July 31, 1990, but, for better or worse, Smith changed the world’s largest manufacturing corporation more than any chairman since Alfred P. Sloan Jr., who chaired GM from 1937 to 1956 and had defined modern-day GM to that point.
And the change was tumultuous -– forced by external factors and brought about by Smith himself.
Roger Smith's name became a household one with the satirical so-called documentary about the fall of GM and the demise of Flint, Michigan, a GM town, in Michael Moore's first major film, Roger & Me.
Smith is credited -- or blamed -- with: dismantling the corporation and eliminating some of its sacred institutions, like Fisher Body; reconstructing the corporation in a new way; forming a joint manufacturing venture with now arch-rival Toyota to build small cars; introducing GM's first front-wheel-drive cars to compete with the rising Japanese makes; creating the Saturn division; and adding new entities with the purchase of Hughes Aircraft and H. Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems.
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Bose Shops Suspension System to Automakers in '08
BOSTON – After 27 years and $100 million in investment, Bose Corp. is ready to fit its innovative sound-wave suspension system into an upcoming luxury car – if it can find an automaker willing to joint venture with the Boston-based maker of premium audio systems.
Dr. Amar Bose, said in an interview with AutoObserver.com
Tuesday at the New England International Auto Show, that the company would be going out to talk with automakers in the coming year about doing a joint venture to put the innovative suspension system into future cars. Bose said likely candidates for the system will be top-of-the-line luxury cars that are being newly developed.
Bose has been personally interested in developing a new kind of suspension system since the 1950s, one that would deliver the passenger comfort of a luxury sedan with the vehicle control of a sports car. His privately held company has been working on such a system for 27 years, investing $100 million.
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Chrysler’s Wahl-Meyer Makes “50 Women To Watch” List
The Wall Street Journal
published its 2007 50 Women To Watch list. Only one can be considered strictly an automotive executive, that being Chrysler’s Deborah Wahl-Meyer.
Ranking No. 39 on the list, Wahl-Meyer left her post as head of marketing post of Toyota’s Lexus last summer to become Chrysler’s chief marketing officer. The newspaper points out that the 44-year-old Detroit native, who worked for Ford before joining Toyota, is among a string of executives to join Chrysler as it struggles to make a comeback.
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General Motors’ “Cowboy” Rides Off into the Sunset
Few true characters have filled the automotive industry’s top ranks, but John Rock, the former General Motors executive who put GMC on a growth path and later tried to resuscitate Oldsmobile, was one of those.
Rock, 71, died Friday after a brief illness at his ranch in South Dakota, where he’d grown up, the son of a Chevrolet dealer.
A hulk of a man, Rock strode into a room like a cowboy, commanding everyone’s attention by his very presence. His talk was as straight as a cowboy’s shot -- and every bit as salty.
Anyone who knew Rock, in fact, immediately recounts the famous John Rock angry cowboy story.
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Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:08 PM under Commentary , GM , News , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Ford Forms Advisory Council for Environmental Matters
Ford Motor Co. announced the formation of Transformation Advisory Council that consists of Ford
senior executives as well as outside thought leaders to explore solutions to energy independence and global warming.
Initial outsiders selected for the council are big names -- Amory Lovins, Paul Hawken and Peter Senge.
“This is the start of a world-class group of innovative thinkers who will help propel us along the road to sustainability,†said Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford in making the announcement made Tuesday.
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Chevrolet Volt: It Won’t Look Like the Concept
By Kelly Toepke
Did you like the way the long-slung Chevrolet Volt looks?
Well, forget about it. The production version won’t look like that concept. It's not aerodynamic enough.
"The final version of the Volt won't look like the concept,†General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told reporters attending the Los Angeles show at a dinner Tuesday night. “In the wind tunnel it was a cruel disappointment. We probably would've gotten better drag coefficient if we put it in the wind tunnel backwards. "
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Iacocca: Chrysler on "Right Path"
Former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca, credited with turning around the near-bankrupt automaker in the 1980s, says the New Chrysler is "on the right path for sure'' with owner Cerberus Capital Management LP and CEO Robert Nardelli in charge.
"They've got real problems yet. It's not solved, but it's looking up,'' Iacocca, 83, told Bloomberg News in an interview Tuesday at his Los Angeles home. Iacocca retired from Chrysler in 1993.
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Cerberus' Snow Hints at More Big Hires
John Snow, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary who now heads Cerberus Capital Management, hinted in
an interview that more big hires will be made by Chrysler, and he praised Robert Nardelli, the former Home Depot exec that Cerberus installed to head Chrysler.
Snow, caught by the Financial Times for a quick interview after he delivered a speech in Chicago, said Nardelli has proven himself.
“He's a terrific world-class executive, and now joining him is Jim Press, who is really one of the strongest people in the whole automotive industry on a global basis,†Snow told FT.
(Read more...)
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Cerberus’ Snow: Chrysler Is on the Right Track
John Snow, chairman of Cerberus Capital Management, which owns 80 percent of Chrysler, said he’s optimistic the automaker is on the right track for a turnaround though he wouldn’t say when profitability restored.
Speaking Monday at the Executives Club of Chicago, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary said the company had not set “artificial deadlines†for achieving profitability, according to Dow Jones.
"What's important is 'are you getting this thing turned around?'" Snow said. "If it takes a little longer or a little less, it doesn't really affect the long-term cash flows. And what we're in it for is long-term profitability and long-term cash flows…This is a big engine. If you get it working right, it’ll reward our investors.â€
(Read more...)
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Hillary Clinton Backs 40 MPG Standard
She wasn’t going to get many votes from the captains of Detroit’s auto industry anyway, but now Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has guaranteed they won't vote for her as she upped the ante in the fuel economy debate.
On Monday, Clinton called for a 60 percent increase in fuel economy standards by 2020 for a combined fleet average of 40 miles per gallon and a combined fleet average of 55 miles per gallon by 2030. To soften the blow, she also called for $3 billion in battery research and $20 billion in government-backed “Green Vehicle” bonds to help automakers shift to more efficient vehicles. She also promoted tax breaks for plug-in hybrid and government purchases of plug-in hybrids -– 100,000 by 2015.
(Read more...)
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Toyota Promotes Jim Lentz to President
Toyota announced Tuesday that Jim Lentz, currently executive vice president of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A, Inc., the marketing arm of the Japanese automaker, has been promoted to president.
"Jim Lentz is especially well qualified to lead TMS into the future as it marks 50 years in America," said TMS Chairman Yuki Funo in a statement. "His experience spans all major operational areas and he has an outstanding sense of what our customers, dealers and associates expect from Toyota."
Lentz, 52, has spent 29 years in the auto industry and joined Toyota in 1982.
(Read more...)
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Chrysler SRT Spared From the Cost-Cutting Knife
By Bill Visnic
Last week, Chrysler LLC announced cuts in production, people and products, but the automaker’s in-house SRT performance division appears largely unscathed.
Chrysler “lifer,†Michael Accavitti, who is director of the Dodge Brand and SRT marketing communications, is confident about the future of the performance division. He believes Bob Nardelli, Chrysler’s chairman and CEO with no auto industry experience, is a fine choice to lead Chrysler in its new life following its split with former owner Daimler AG.
And SRT got a vote of confidence from Jim Press, the Toyota executive brought to Chrysler to run sales, marketing and product planning. “SRT is giving those customers what they want in emotion, in passion, in driving,†he said recently, though he hinted the SRT label would focus on Dodge products.
(Read more...)
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Chevy Malibu: Same Price, More Profit
General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz says though the new Chevrolet Malibu, going on sale this month, has about the same list price as the old Malibu, GM could make more – significantly more – on the midsize sedan.
Lutz told the Detroit News at the Chevy Malibu launch in Memphis this week that GM could make $5,000 more on each new sedan sold compared with the older model. He said the Malibu will command a higher price premium than the previous Malibu, which was dragged down by deep discounts and heavy sales to daily rental fleets. Edmunds.com data shows the 2007 Malibu sells for about $2,800 below the Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price.
"My bet is that we're going from a car people have to be bribed to take, to a car people will actually pay for," Lutz told the newspaper.
(Read more...)
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One-on-One With Chrysler's Phil Murtaugh
TOKYO -- Phil Murtaugh, credited with building General Motors’ phenomenally successful business in
China -- from scratch, vowed he’d never do that again. But when Chrysler Vice Chairman Tom LaSorda came calling, he said yes; he’d do it again -– this time for Chrysler and not only in China but in India and other parts of Asia.
Making his public debut as a Chrysler executive at the Tokyo Motor Show, Murtaugh, who wears the official title of CEO, Chrysler Asian Operations, has his work cut out for him. As he described it to AutoObserver in an interview at the show, he's got to sign on partners, assign dealers, fill a sparse product line, build brands and ultimately sell more cars and make money.
And that's just in China. Then he's got to do the same or more in fast-growing India and other Asian markets, where, in some case, Chrysler's presence is even less than it is in China or totally nonexistent.
(Read more...)
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Ford Exec: Taking Time Off – For Now
Richard Parry-Jones
, one of Ford’s executives who last week announced his retirement from the company, told AutoObserver at the Tokyo Motor Show that he’s headed for the beach and three straight months of decompression after his departure at year-end.
But the talented engineer, who, at 56, seems too young and energetic to retire completely, appeared open to new possibilities after a vacation. Maybe he’s got something lined up already.
(Read more...)
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Ford's Parry-Jones Retires; GM Loses Ballew
Two high-profile industry faces are moving on.
Ford reported that engineer extraordinaire Richard Parry-Jones is retiring at year's end. General Motors announced that its oft-quoted top analyst Paul Ballew was moving on to a new job in the insurance business.
(Read more...)
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Ford Robs Toyota To Fill Top Marketing Job
Toyota has been robbed again!
Ford announced Thursday that it has hired Jim Farley away from Toyota. Farley, 45, currently group vice president of Lexus, will be Ford's first global chief marketing and communications officer.
"I wanted to bring to our team world-class marketing talent," Ford CEO Alan Mulally told AutoObserver in a phone interview just after the Ford board of directors agreed to hiring Farley.
(Read more...)
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Daimler-Chrysler Divorce Final with Name Change
By Joseph Szczesny
BERLIN -- In the end, circumstances beyond management control forced DaimlerChrysler’s German management to sell Chrysler to private equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management, and the new Daimler AG will be stronger without Chrysler and its dependency on North America, Daimler Chairman Dieter Zetsche told shareholders.
Zetsche, chairman of the Daimler AG's board of management, was persistently challenged by some of the 6,000 shareholders at Thursday’s special shareholders meeting to officially change the company’s legal name to explain the shift in strategy.
(Read more...)
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Et Tu, Tom Friedman!
In his October 3 column entitled “Et Tu, Toyota?” New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman expresses his shock and utter dismay that his beloved Toyota is siding with Detroit automakers in what he calls a Michigan-style “assisted suicide” –- opposing stringent fuel-economy standards proposed by the Senate.
In previous columns, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Friedman advocated Toyota take over General Motors and rule the automotive universe on the basis of its pioneering leadership in fuel-efficiency as expressed through a single model, the Toyota Prius hybrid.
Now, Friedman is disappointed and stunned: Toyota, along with GM, Ford and Chrysler, is opposing the tough mileage standards in the U.S. Senate’s draft version of the energy bill, and are lobbying for another bill that is more stringent and separates cars and trucks.
Toyota wasted no time in responding to Friedman's column. General Motors has as well. And so have other industry watchers, including columnists from Motor Trend and Fortune magazines
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:13 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Featured , Ford , GM , Personalities , Technology , Toyota | Comments (5) | digg this | del.icio.us
Exclusive One-on-One: Mitsubishi Motors President Osamu Masuko
By Peter Nunn
The past decade has been a true roller-coaster ride for
Japan's Mitsubishi Motors. Beset by scandals in Japan, a dramatic fall off in North American profitability and having its main partner, DaimlerChrysler, part company, Mitsubishi had been buffeted by one storm after another.
After racking up huge losses on top of those storms, now comes the turnaround. A three-year business plan coupled with a string of hot new models, with the new Outlander and Lancer leading the way, has seen Mitsubishi undergo the classic product-led recovery.
On Monday, Mitsubishi, now Japan's fastest-growing car exporter, saw its stock jump to its highest level in two months on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. That came after Mitsubishi tripled its operating profit forecast last Friday.
Since January 2005, Osamu Masuko, 58, has been Mitsubishi's personable president and chief operating officer and the man at the helm as Mitsubishi trod the harrowing but now successful path back to profitability. Masuko, who has a business background from the Mitsubishi Corp. and is a 35-year Mitsubishi veteran, spoke to AutoObserver’s Peter Nunn in Tokyo.
(Read more...)
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BMW Outlines Strategy; Hints at New Models and Possible Fourth Brand
BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer held a highly anticipated press
conference in Munich Thursday to outline the German luxury maker’s strategic plan for the future. That plan includes global sales increases, substantial spending cuts, aggressive financial targets, U.S. production increases, more alliances, and the possible establishment of a fourth brand.
(Read more...)
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Nissan's Thompson Out; Ex-Ford's Poore In
Nissan’s Jan Thompson, one of the auto industry’s top female marketing executives, has resigned, under pressure. Ex-Ford marketer Ben Poore will replace her.
Thompson, well known in the automotive marketing community having worked at Nissan, Mazda and ad agencies handling other major automotive accounts, had been head of both Nissan and Infiniti advertising and marketing.
Her resignation comes as no surprise. Nor is Poore's departure from Ford a shocker.
(Read more...)
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Ex-Hyundai Exec Bound for Ford?
Hyundai Motor America has confirmed its chief operating officer, Steve Wilhite, has resigned, effective Monday.
Wilhite is rumored to be a candidate for a newly created post of chief marketing officer at Ford, according to trade journal Advertising Age.
Ford will not confirm if Wilhite will be appointed to the job or is in the running.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:57 AM under Commentary , Ford , Personalities , Rumors | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Ford U.S. Sales Exec Codina To Retire
Francisco Codina, Ford’s top sales and marketing executive, will retire on November 1, the automaker announced Thursday.
The retirement of Codina, better known as Cisco, comes as no surprise. Ford CEO Alan Mulally told a roundtable of reporters in August that marketing is one of his top priorities as he enters his second year as head of Ford.
The automaker, on and off, has searched inside and outside of Ford for a chief marketing officer. But none has ever been hired.
(Read more...)
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Honda’s John Mendel: Redefining Acura
When Honda renamed the former Arrowhead Pond entertainment and sports
venue in Anaheim, California, the Honda Center, the automaker did what it does with its car owners: it asked customers what they thought.
Specifically, Honda asked what patrons thought about the center’s name change. But, the company got more than what it asked for: it got comments like "now that Honda runs the center, the food will be better and the bathrooms will be cleaner."
“Holy s---,†John Mendel, who was promoted to executive vice president of automobile operations for American Honda Motor Co. this year, recalls thinking as he read the survey responses. “Now we’re being held responsible for hot dogs, beer, bathrooms and everything else.
“But,†he adds philosophically, “that’s the power of the Honda brand. You put the Honda name on something, and there’s a certain level of expectation.â€
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 9:31 AM under Analysis , Companies , Featured , Personalities , Technology | Comments (12) | digg this | del.icio.us
UAW’s Gettelfinger's Swan Song: An "Acceptable Resolution" to Tough Issues
By Joseph Szczesny
In the summer of 2006, no one around the United Auto Workers (UAW) union would have been surprised if its president, Ron Gettelfinger, had decided to call it quits.
Rumors that Gettelfinger was tired of the union presidency floated through union halls for months prior to the UAW's constitutional convention in Las Vegas last year.
The 63-year-old Gettelfinger, however, said he never really considered retiring even though he is now caught in a tense struggle between the union's proud legacy and traditions and the forces of globalization, which have left American carmakers with only half of their home market.
Yet, in what is Gettlefinger’s swan song, a deal that both sides can live with appears imminent.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:02 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Featured , Ford , GM , Personalities | Comments (4) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler: Employees Heartened by New Hires, Investments
FRANKFURT, Germany -- Chrysler employees attending the Frankfurt auto show this week are upbeat about
all of the radical changes that have taken place in the last 30 some days of the automaker being owned by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.
Employees, speaking at Chrysler’s private party unveiling of the Dodge Journey making its debut Tuesday at the Frankfurt show, are particularly heartened at last week’s news that Chrysler has hired former top Toyota exec Jim Press to run sales and marketing for Chrysler in the U.S. and former General Motors/Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. exec Phil Murtaugh to run its Asian operations.
Some hint that Chrysler’s hiring spree may not be over.
(Read more...)
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Another Shocker: Chrysler Steals Expert on China
As the industry recovers from the shock of Thursday’s announcement that Chrysler had hired Toyota’s top-ranking, Jim Press, the automaker dropped another bombshell: it has hired Phil Murtaugh away from Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp., General Motors’ joint venture partner in China.
In Chinese circles, the news of Murtaugh joining Chrysler in China is nearly as big as the news of Press joining Chrysler in the U.S. as he is credited with building GM’s extraordinarily successful China business.
And the move demonstrates, yet again, Chrysler’s new owner, Cerberus Capital Management, is pulling out all of the stops to buy the world’s best automotive talent to turn Chrysler around.
Murtaugh’s hiring also suggests what AutoObserver has long suspected – that there is a serious China connection involved in Cerberus’ purchase of Chrysler.
(Read more...)
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Volkswagen's Jacoby: HQ Move Tip of the Iceberg
By Bill Visnic
In a conference call with journalists following Thursday’s announcement that Volkswagen of America Inc. will move its headquarters from the suburbs of downtrodden Detroit to tony northern Virginia, new VWoA president and CEO Stefan Jacoby insists the relocation is much more than a change of scenery: this time, VW intends – really intends – to change its thinking.
Jacoby says the move is the beginning of the company’s urgent, there-is-no-tomorrow philosophy to re-connect with customers and offset years worth of brand-management missteps. In addition, macroeconomic forces have built up, demanding a more focused attack in the increasingly challenging U.S. market.
He says the strategy is based on addressing five crucial areas: product, brand positioning, its dealer network and its internal organization. Ah, but that’s only four. The fifth point – the very real possibility of VW building a new U.S. assembly plant – is the most provocative.
The following are some select snippets from Jacoby’s question-and-answer session:
(Read more...)
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BREAKING NEWS: Toyota's Press Goes to Chrysler
The New Chrysler announced this morning that Toyota’s Jim Press is joining
Chrysler as vice chairman and president.
Press, a 37-veteran of Toyota, was the first and only non-Japanese to be elected to Toyota's board of directors in Japan. He also was the first American to be named president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motors in North America, making him Toyota's highest-ranking exec in North America.
At Chrysler, Press will be responsible for North American Sales, International Sales, Global Marketing, Product Strategy, and Service and Parts. Marketing is an area of serious weakness for the Detroit automaker.
The stunning news demonstrates that the traditional automotive playbook is out the window when a private equity firm buys an automaker, as Cerberus Capital Management did with Chrysler, a deal consummated only in early August.
It also demonstrates how fast-moving -- and anxious -- private equity firms are in turning around ailing properties in order to earn a return on their investment. Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli, formerly Home Depot CEO, is leading the charge -- moving quickly and decisively and bringing in fresh blood from outside -- at whatever the cost.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 6:17 AM under Chrysler , Featured , News , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (8) | digg this | del.icio.us
Fisker: Shifting Gears To Go Green
Southern California exotic sports carmaker, Fisker Coachbuild LLC, has shifted its business strategy from producing purely exotic high-end sports cars to ones that are environmentally friendly.
“We want people to drive beautiful fast cars that make environmental sense –- cars that are eco-chic and will have less of an impact on global warming,” said Henrik Fisker, CEO of the newly formed Fisker Automotive, Inc. Fisker is a former BMW and Aston Martin designer.
(Read more...)
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John Edwards: Fellow Americans, Sacrifice Your SUVs
Democratic Presidential Candidate John Edwards is calling for Americans to make a sacrifice for the environment by getting out of their SUVs and into more fuel-efficient vehicles.
"I think Americans are actually willing to sacrifice," Edwards told the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Wednesday. "One of the things they should be asked to do is drive more fuel-efficient vehicles."
It didn’t take long for one automaker to respond.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:04 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Personalities , Technology | Comments (6) | digg this | del.icio.us
Indian-Owned Jag, Land Rover?
It is looking increasingly likely that an automaker from India could become the new owner of the now Ford-owned Jaguar and Land Rover.
Two Indian automakers, Tata Motors Ltd., and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., are among the bidders for Jaguar and Land Rover, which Ford hopes to sell as a package. And they may well be the front-runners among the bidders.
(Read more...)
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Daimler Exec Appointed to Chrysler Board
Rüdiger Grube, the German strategist who helped put together the DaimlerChrysler merger in 1998 and then take it apart nine years later, will represent Daimler AG's remaining 19.9 percent stake as a member of the five-person board of Chrysler Holding LLC, the Detroit News reported.
Quoting unnamed sources familiar with the situation, the paper reported Grube's role will be to safeguard Daimler's interests and oversee cooperation between the two automakers.
The other roughly 80 percent of Chrysler is owned by Cerberus Capital Management Corp.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:41 AM under Chrysler , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler's Nardelli: "We're in Good Shape"
By Joseph Szczesny
In his first mingling with the masses after a couple of weeks on the job, Chrysler’s new CEO Bob Nardelli said the company has resources for its recovery plan without making capital spending cuts, and he gave his nod to Chrysler’s future product pipeline.
"We're in really good shape†in terms of funding, Nardelli said Thursday during an impromptu news conference outside Chrysler's headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Nardelli was attending the 10th anniversary party for the Plymouth Prowler at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum. In the process of moving to Detroit, Nardelli brought his 2001 “Black Tie†Prowler that he had trucked in for the event.
(Read more...)
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Lexus Marketing Exec Headed to Chrysler
Lexus marketing vice president Deborah Wahl Meyer is headed for the top Chrysler marketing post.
Chrysler confirmed today that Meyer is the new vice president and chief marketing officer of Chrysler, effective Aug. 28.
Meyer, 44, is considered a marketing whiz kid; Chrysler needs some marketing magicand some first aid for its damaged dealer relations; new Chrysler owners are bound to sweep some current folks and bring in new troops to achieve its ambitious plan to turn the company around in three years.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:04 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , News , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (2) | digg this | del.icio.us
Jaguar, Land Rover Suitors Are an Intriguing Cast
Ford’s proposed sale of its British marques –- Jaguar and Land Rover –- is growing more intriguing by the day.
We’ve got a couple of up-and-coming car companies from India looking to expand globally through the acquisition of the brands, and two former Ford execs bidding against each other.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:51 AM under Ford , Personalities , Rumors | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Tesla Management Shuffles
The big news kicking off this week is that Martin Eberhard, the co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, has been replaced as chief executive and will become the company’s president of technology, according to a statement on Monday on Tesla's Web site.
Eberhard will remain with the company as president of technology. Michael Marks, the former CEO of electronics assembler Flextronics and an early investor in Tesla Motors, will take the reins as interim CEO.
Question is, does the management change suggest the company is struggling, experiencing growing pains or simply growing up?
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:33 AM under News , Personalities , Technology | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM's Lutz Blasts Auto "Experts"
General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz blasted so-called automotive experts who refer to Big Three auto executives as "Detroit Dinosaurs" during his speech delivered to the Center for Automotive Research's annual management conference Thursday.
"We have been routinely dismissed as dumb, unprepared, anachronistic, an endangered species...
(Read more...)
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One-on-One With Toyota’s Jim Lentz
Jim Lentz, executive vice president for Toyota Motor Sales, discussed the opportunities and challenges of the auto industry during his speech to the Center for Automotive Research’s annual management meeting in Traverse City, Michigan, Wednesday. After his speech, he elaborated on those topics and others in an exclusive one-on-one interview with AutoObserver.
Are you spending more on incentives than you had anticipated on the Tundra?
Probably a little bit. But I think that’s a result of softness in the market. When we planned this launch, we had expected growth of the total market to be 200,000; instead, the market is 200,000 shy of last year. We also thought there would be growth in full-size trucks. We thought Chevy and Toyota bringing out new models and Ford introducing the Super Duty would stimulate the market. Instead, the segment is down.
What lessons did you learn from Tundra? Was it a tougher sell than you anticipated?
It hasn’t been tougher, but our biggest surprise was in dealing with conquest buyers. We didn’t realize they are really locked into a certain spec level and an exact vehicle.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 2:15 PM under Featured , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
Toyota’s Lentz Forecast Tough But Promising Industry Future
Jim Lentz, executive vice president of Toyota Motor Sales, predicted a promising long-term future for the U.S. auto industry, with sales reaching 18 million vehicles a year. But along the way, he sees formidable challenges.
Speaking at the Center for Automotive Research’s annual
management seminars in Traverse City, Mich., Lentz said sales this year likely will be 16.3 million vehicles, down about 2 percent from 2006. However, he forecasted a rebound in 2008 with steady growth into the next decade.
The major challenges facing the industry in the meantime, he categorized as politics and powertrains, pleasing new youth buyers and improving the industry’s retail reputation.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:18 AM under News , Personalities , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
Chrysler Designer Gives Glimpse into Historic Day
As Ralph Gilles, Chrysler’s famous designer of the Chrysler 300 and now vice president of Jeep, truck and advance interior design, tooled into work Monday morning, he decided he ought to trade his music for AM radio -– something he never does.
But, this was a special day -- the first day of Chrysler’s new ownership and the celebration of that event.
He then heard the news that the press had broken the night before but he hadn’t heard: ex-Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli was his new boss as Chrysler’s chairman and CEO.
“I about fell off my rocker,†Gilles told the press at a Chrysler gathering in Traverse City, Michigan, where industry leaders are meeting for the University of Michigan's annual management conference and at which Gilles was scheduled to speak Monday on innovation.
(Read more...)
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New Chrysler CEO's First Car Was a Dodge
When Ford held the first press conference to introduce ex-Boeing executive Alan Mullaly to the press, he was asked what kind of car he drove: A Lexus, he responded.
Today, ex-Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli was asked the same at his first press conference as Chrysler chairman CEO. He said he has a fleet of vehicles that includes some Chrysler products. Among them are a Jeep, a Chrysler PT Cruiser and a Plymouth Prowler.
“My first car when I graduated from high school in 1966 was a Dodge Dart GT,” Nardelli said at today’s press conference. “My first date with my wife was in that Dodge Dart GT. I thought I was Lee Petty.”
He said when his appointment to head Chrysler was announced, his wife sent him an email saying “it must be fate” that he got the job.
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 10:02 AM under Chrysler , Personalities | Comments (0) | digg this | del.icio.us
New Chrysler: The Party Is Over Before It Starts
Even before the party celebrating Chrysler’s divorce from Daimler and its
marriage to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management Corp. began for employees Monday, the party was over.
The late Sunday night announcement that the controversial former CEO of Home Depot, Bob Nardelli, is Chrysler LLC’s new chairman and CEO is an indication that business as those at Chrysler have known it is over.
Despite all of its claims of patience, being in for the long haul and seeming compassion, Cerberus has sent the clear message that it intends to move quickly -- and likely ruthlessly -- to turn Chrysler around. In fact, Nardelli’s compensation requires it.
No more status quo. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:04 AM under Chrysler , Commentary , Featured , Personalities | Comments (7) | digg this | del.icio.us
Cerberus Appoints New Chrysler Chief: Former Home Depot CEO
Before the party even starts today, Cerberus Capital Management Corp. has initiated a changing of the guard at Chrysler. The new chairman and CEO of Chrysler LLC is none other than the controversial former Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli.
The appointment of Nardelli is a clear sign that Cerberus means business about turning Chrysler around -- and turning it around quickly.
CEO Tom LaSorda will remain as vice chairman and president. Wolfgang Bernhard declined a top job with the automaker and will leave Cerberus. Chrysler COO Eric Ridenour has left the company.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:13 AM under Chrysler , Featured , News , Personalities | Comments (1) | digg this | del.icio.us
GM’s Volt: More Stretch Than Toyota’s Plug-In Hybrid, Bloomberg Reports
Kudos to Bloomberg News for reporting what many of us covering the auto
industry noticed but hadn’t written -– and shame on us for not doing so: Toyota's recently announced plug-in hybrid
has far less range than does General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt
concept -– as little as half the range, in fact.
GM intends for the Volt to travel at least 40 miles after being charged; Toyota’s model may go no more than 20 miles on a single charge and possibly as little as 10 miles, Bloomberg reports, quoting sources familiar with the vehicles.
Interestingly, Bloomberg also quotes an unlikely source of praise for GM: Chris Paine, whose 2006 documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? criticized GM’s decision to drop and destroy the EV-1.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:41 AM under Commentary , Featured , GM , Personalities , Technology , Toyota | Comments (6) | digg this | del.icio.us
Tower Automotive CEO Steps Down
One of the auto industry’s highest-r
