And the answer to the big question above?  Chrysler.

Ouch.

See, this is doubly unnerving after discovering that, yesterday, they were still trying to get a cohesive corporate strategy together and won’t actually have one until sometime later today.  Or at least not one they want to tell their franchisees about, who are probably all looking at this news with a kind of confused rage and just longing to scream various epithets at anyone who’s in charge over there.

Chrysler needs a comeback, plain and simple.  So what they’ve got to do is offer stuff you can’t get anywhere else.  Frankly, I have a hard time imagining just what it is they CAN do.  I drive a Chevy, myself, a wonderful if aging Monte Carlo, and my folks drive Ford Explorers.  There’s not a whole lot of taste issues as I’m considering switching to a pickup fairly soon anyway, and chances are I will go either Ford or Chevy.

Chrysler needs to get some new and interesting product, or it doesn’t matter how many bailouts it gets–it’s still done for.

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…um…yeah.  The phrases “vested interest” and “wanted to keep his job” scream at me like thieves in the night, but apparently, Mike DiGiovanni, top GM sales analyst, says that GM’s market share will likely increase for the third straight month.

Oh, great…GM sales, up from squat to squat and a half!

Seriously, isn’t this report just the teensiest bit biased?  Especially with GM probably going to do a stock reissue in the very near future as its current per-share value is actually worth next to nothing?  So some putz from GM announces BIG BIG SALES A-COMIN’ and anyone’s supposed to take this seriously?

And okay, maybe GM market share will go up next month.  Does this really mean anything to any serious investor in the face of the bloodbath they’ve seen?  And how much of that hike is due to the now-over Cash for Clunkers program?  I look forward to seeing how this prediction plays out, but I have my doubts it’ll look anything like reality.

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General Motors of India is reportedly set to unveil a new mini car this coming December. The codename for the mini car is M300, a car that is undergoing its final round of testing and will be officially displayed at 2010 autoexpo in New Delhi. Production is set to commence at the Talegaon plant and may be priced somewhere in the Rs 4 lakh category. This car will go in line with the Chevrolet Spark and follows the recent launch of the Chevrolet Cruz.

(Source) Express India

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Consider that, despite all common sense or simple logic, we Americans actually own a major chunk of GM thanks to the massive bailouts they’ve received courtesy of us.  Thus, it behooves us to keep an eye on our investment, and for some reason, they’re spending like drunken sailors.

No, that’s an insult to the drunken sailors. They’re spending like the government owns them–which, I guess, it DOES.

They’ve recently announced plans, you see, to introduce between seven and ten new models of GM car over the next year.  Sure, this will get them loads of ink in places just like here, and it’ll also get them a lot of word of mouth interest, but it’ll also sink them in the red like nobody’s business.  Introducing even one new model is a pricey endeavor–seven to ten will cost billions.

Like with a “b” billions.

Excuse me if I don’t think this is a horrendous idea–a couple new models, maybe…but that many in that short a time speaks of impatience and desperation.

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Late last month we told you that GM was in talks with Tengzhong to finally sell off the dying HUMMER brand. Well, today, reports have surfaced that say the deal is officially going down for $150 million.

This wad of cash will net Tengzhong 80% of HUMMER whos vehicles will still be built by GM through June 2011. The other 20% will be going to a private investor which means GM will finally be able to wipe their hands clean of the brand.

What’s really interesting though is the fact that HUMMER, an iconic American brand, is now a Chinese company. What will come from this? Only time will tell.

via autobloggreen

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GM’s Chevy Volt has yet to hit dealerships and already tremendous amounts of buzz has begun circulating partially due to advertising efforts.

This is only the beginning says GM’s Bob Lutz as when the car is closer to hitting dealerships GM will be “pulling out the heaving artilery and get Volt buzz going”. In other words, GM is going to pour unheard of amounts of money into the Volt’s advertising campaign in hopes that it will catch out.

Read (Autoblog)

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GM will revive the Chevrolet Caprice brand in 2011. However it will not cater to the private vehicle groups but rather towards law enforcement. The Caprice will be brought back for a new fleet of North American Police cars which will not be based on any current GM model. They will come in V6 and V8 engines and will pick up of from the expected exit of old brands, G8 and Pontiac. The Caprice was a popular choice for law enforcement until it stopped production in 1996.

Dealers will start taking down orders by the fourth quarter of 2010 and delivery of the vehicles will commence in 2011. No word on the pricing though.

(Source) NY Times

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It seems that Saturn’s days are numbered — Recent reports have let us know that Penske Automotive group has backed out of a deal with GM that would have effectively purchased the entire Saturn brand.

The reason for the backing out is because Penske fears they will not be able to provide the Saturn dealerships with inventory after GM stops supplying them with vehicles at the end of 2010. The deal said that they would have to find their own manufacturers to produce vehicles for the dealerships, something Penske doesn’t think they will be able to do.

So, in lieu of this deal falling through, GM has said they will be phasing out Saturn, closing all dealerships and directing current Saturn owners to other GM dealers for service. Goodbye Saturn, you shall be missed.

via autoblog

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It’s been just six weeks, but GM has officially announced that it will no longer sell new cars at auction on the auction site eBay, instead choosing to focus on “other marketing efforts”, or, those that’ll help keep the automaker from completely tanking.

Neither GM nor eBay was prepared to reveal sales numbers, but going over the website by standard channels revealed an absolute wasteland of sales, and chances are, this is what ultimately killed the deal.

However, GM will continue to sell used cars on eBay, as will several other manufacturers, and both eBay and GM were quick to mention that their involvement with each other was far from over.

GM does have other marketing irons in the fire, such as their recently announced sixty day money back guarantee.  So it’s a fair bet that they’ll carry right on until the day they finally crash and burn, which actually looks more likely with every passing day.

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I got a look at this little sucker recently and it’s the stuff of all my science fiction dreams.  Well, at least most of them–it can’t hover and it doesn’t come standard with particle beam weaponry, but still!

It’s called Project Puma, short for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility, and for urbanites it may well be the next best thing to driving a car.

It’s produced as a partnership between GM and Segway, and is described as a “small, nimble, electric vehicle” that looks a LOT like an enclosed Segway.

Basically, if I’m interpreting this right, it’s a car pod.  A tiny little electric vehicle that acts like a car.  Now, I can see a LOT of appeal in something like this.  You know what it’s like to have to go just a couple miles to go somewhere like the post office or the grocery store, and you think, what’s the point in taking the whole car?  But you can’t WALK, or even bike there because it’s just a bit too far for that.  This is where some people think moped, but that’s still a gas engine.

Problems?  You betcha–I can’t imagine this thing doing well in winter for a panoply of reasons, not least of them those two wheels on icy slush or in high winds.  Even if traction isn’t an issue, an unheated cab sure would be.

But hopefully they can iron out the kinks and get these to market, inexpensively.  I’d sure like to try one.

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The badly embattled GM recently sold off its Hummer arm to Tengzhong, a Chinese motor company, and the first thought on everyone’s mind was, what would happen to the jobs in the area?  Most thought that Tengzhong would pull Hummer’s operations overseas, or at the very least, out of state.

Well, those autoworkers are breathing a sigh of relief to discover that Tengzhong’s leaving things as is.  The state of Michigan dumped fully twenty million dollars in state tax credits over the next ten years into Hummer, and expects Hummer to put in just over nine million dollars of investment into its new headquarters.

This is of course incredibly good news for Detroit, who badly needs any job it can get.  Losing more of them would have come as a serious blow, but the cost is positively massive as the state itself is having budget problems of its own.  Where they expect to make up such losses is a blank space at best.

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Trouble afoot for TagAZ as GM’s South Korean manufacturer Daewoo (whose name I literally cannot hear without thinking of the Tank sketches from Mad TV–see what I mean below) is bringing suit against the Russian firm for allegedly copying the Lacetti sedan.

Here’s the interesting part–two TagAZ engineers who used to work for Daewoo were arrested in connection with taking roughly six thousand computer files with them to their new company.  Plus there was a Daewoo executive, former, who left notes proclaiming his innocense in  the matter…just before he killed himself.

It sounds like a pretty straightforward case of industrial espionage from here, especially given the sheer amount of documents the former employees were accused of taking with them.  That and the suicide who died proclaiming his innocence in the matter certainly suggests that something’s going on at some level, at the very least.  No one knows how it’ll turn out, but I personally look for a nice out of court settlement featuring some mediators and wrangling.

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GM has a new car for us, the Buick Avant, a concept of what the premium market should look like in the future. So what does the Avant bring to the table? We’re looking at swinging/sliding doors (yes, you get to choose how to open them), a driver’s seat capable of moving sideways too, a luggage shelf ready to bring luggage to you, opaque/transparent roof (yes, you get to choose what kind of roof you want at a certain time), six exterior themes, four interior themes and probably a price you won’t be able to afford anytime soon. What do you think?

via gmlab

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I suppose it might come as a surprise, if you haven’t read a newspaper or watched any TV in the last six months or so, that the luxury car market is collapsing.  But what’ll really surprise you is the depth to which it’s falling.  For instance, the total sales for luxury car sales this year has fallen fully one third from this time last year.

A third of the market, just gone.  That’s bad enough for anybody, but he luxury car makers aren’t taking this lying down, no sir or ma’am as the case may be.

A recent BMW marketing push, for example, pointed out that its diesel sedans were the most fuel-efficient in their class.  And Bentley offered up incredible financing rates on its catastrophically priced car that was almost the same deal as a GM pickup’s rate.

I’m not really surprised that luxury car makers are finding things tough in the new economy–when pundits bust out lines like “frugal is the new black”, you really have to wonder about the whole mess.  But this may be a sign of much more systemic weakness in the overall economy, and that’s something we’ll all have to watch for.

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Despite the fact that Ford is still the last of the big three automakers to not have accepted any government bailout money, they’re still operating in a tough environment.  Let’s face it–everybody’s been operating in a tough environment ever since about 2007.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone to hear this:

“We plan to sell,” Booth said. “It’s not about Volvo, but because we want to focus on Ford. The situation for Ford around the world is still tough. Ford is still losing money.”

Ford is still losing money and they want to focus on Ford.  Well, frankly, you can hardly fault them for planning to deal with their own problems and, meanwhile, spin off some divisions.  Especially given that Volvo is a loss-maker for Ford.

Who’s going to buy?  Well, some have said that the Chinese are interested.  But some Chinese firms have said that they never actually made an offer.  If something doesn’t happen soon, Volvo will be Ford’s albatross.

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