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Chrysler Early Clips Headlines (16)
-- Chrysler wins 1st case, tries to settle others (Automotive News)
-- Software face-off at Chrysler, Switched CAD system would send ripples down supply chain (Automotive News)
-- Chrysler fights Colo. law (Automotive News)
-- Men are from Dodge, women are from ... (Automotive News)
-- Dodge pitches Charger to police (Automotive News)
-- Cars in 'Full Blown Recovery' As Discounting Aids Sales (The Wall Street Journal)
-- No new Fiat partners (Automotive News)
-- GMAC pumps up liquidity to gain share (Automotive News)
-- Today's GM and Ford: Worlds apart (Automotive News)
-- Merkel Says Germany Should Be Electric-Car Leader to Aid Climate (Bloomberg)
-- Who cares what GM did? I do (Automotive News)
-- Geithner and GM tell a whopper (Political News Now, Washington Examiner)
-- GM loan story gets more complicated (Midwest Voices, The Kansas City Star)
-- Geithner sees auto payback (Automotive News)
-- Toyota discovers silence is golden (Times Colonist)
-- Mustang out to grab younger buyers, Ford to tout muscle car’s fuel efficiency (Detroit Free Press)
*Refer to © Notice Below
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Automotive News ( 05/03/2010 )
by Neil Roland
Chrysler wins 1st case, tries to settle others
WASHINGTON -- Even before Chrysler Group learned on Friday that it had won its first dealer arbitration case, the automaker began offering cash settlements to some rejected dealers who are in arbitration. Chrysler is trying to reduce litigation expenses.
Despite the small number of settlement offers reported by dealers, the step was another move away from the company's original hard line on arbitration.
Four Chrysler dealer lawyers and a dealer activist said they know of about 18 closed dealerships that have received offers since Tuesday, April 27.
Most of these offers have been for $25,000, with the range stretching from $20,000 to $200,000, they said. At least half the Chrysler dealers who received offers have rejected them, they say.
"The Chrysler offers are paltry in comparison with what the dealers' businesses were worth, and I expect most to turn them down," said Tammy Darvish, co-leader of a rejected-dealer group called the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights.
Darvish, who is a rejected Chrysler dealer, has filed for arbitration in an attempt to win reinstatement of her Fairfax, Va., and Jacksonville, Fla., stores. Darvish declined to say whether she received an offer.
She and four dealer lawyers said they knew of Chrysler settlement offers to dealers in Illinois, Michigan, California, Florida, West Virginia and Montana.
In a statement, Chrysler said it is making the offers "in an effort to find mutually beneficial alternatives to dealer arbitrations, to reduce the costs of litigation and to protect the existing dealer network."
The company added: "Resolving cases below anticipated litigation expenses makes good business sense."
Chrysler declined to say how many settlement offers it has made or the amount of compensation offered.
Mark Lyman, a Chicago lawyer who represents a rejected Chrysler dealership in arbitration, said it makes economic sense for the company to offer settlements.
Chrysler's expenses for a single arbitration may exceed $100,000 when fees for lawyers and expert witnesses are taken into account, Lyman estimated.
But Chrysler's offers fail to take into account dealers' perceptions of what their closed stores were worth, he said.
"There's very little incentive for dealers at this stage to accept Chrysler's offers," Lyman said. "The only circumstance where it makes sense for a dealer is someone whose tolerance for arbitration has been exhausted. But I don't know any dealers who feel that way."
In March, Chrysler offered to reinstate 50 closed dealerships out of the 387 that had filed for arbitration.
In contrast, GM has offered to reinstate 666 of the 1,160 dealerships in arbitration -- while offering to discuss possible settlements with the remainder.
GM's settlement offers have gone beyond compensation to include reinstatement hinging on dealership upgrades, store moves and sales goal achievement.
Lyman said Chrysler's arbitration tab could hit tens of millions of dollars -- at a time when the automaker is trying to get back on its feet after bankruptcy.
That makes a compelling case for the company to come up with settlement offers that are more attractive to dealers.
Said Lyman: "Chrysler may just be testing the waters now to see what dealers' tolerance is."
Arbitration tally
Of the 1,574 arbitration filings by GM and Chrysler dealers
• 797 cases withdrawn or closed
• 99 cases on hold
• 10 hearings held in April
• 267 hearings scheduled in May
• 227 hearings scheduled June 1-14
• 130 hearings scheduled June 15-30
• 25 hearings scheduled July 1-14
• 62 hearings not yet scheduled
Note: Total exceeds 1,574 because of double counting of multiday hearings scheduled at end of one month and beginning of another.
Source: American Arbitration Association
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20100503/RETAIL07/305039947#ixzz0mrZxTj6Q
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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Automotive News ( 05/03/2010 )
by David Barkholz
Software face-off at Chrysler, Switched CAD system would send ripples down supply chain
Sergio Marchionne's plan to meld the engineering operations at Fiat S.p.A. and Chrysler Group is spurring a battle between two software giants over whose products will be used to create Chrysler cars and trucks.
The battle has multimillion-dollar implications that will ripple down through the supply chain.
For 20 years, Chrysler has used CATIA, which replaced drafting boards for engineers designing parts, subsystems and vehicles. Those digital designs also are the basis for testing parts and creating the tools and dies used by factories. Other users of CATIA, a product of global giant Dassault Systemes of Paris, include Honda Motor Co. and Daimler AG.
But Fiat uses a competitor, Siemens PLM's NX software. So do General Motors Co. and Nissan Motor Co.
Marchionne, CEO of both Fiat and Chrysler, aims to phase out Dassault and integrate Siemens PLM for design software over several years as Chrysler introduces new platforms, said a source familiar with the plan.
But Dassault plans to fight to hold onto Chrysler, one of its premier customers, a Dassault executive responsible for Chrysler sales said.
At stake are software sales and licensing pacts for thousands of computerized work stations -- and not just at Chrysler.
Suppliers have to hook into these companies' systems. A switch in software suppliers would affect engineers at thousands of Chrysler suppliers because of the need for the automaker and its suppliers to share engineering designs.
Spokeswomen for Chrysler and Siemens PLM, a U.S. arm of the German company, declined to comment.
Computer-aided design is the use of three-dimensional software to design and engineer parts and simulate their use in vehicles and the processes needed for production.
Managing that process, from design through engineering and manufacturing, is called product lifecycle management.
CATIA is short for Computer-Aided Three Dimensional Interactive Application.
Already, Fiat has broken the monopoly that Dassault's CATIA software held at Chrysler.
The Italian automaker is requiring the use of NX computer-aided-design software for the North American revisions being made to the Fiat 500 and the powertrain for the minicar that will be built in Mexico, the source said.
As part of Fiat 500 development, Fiat also has introduced Siemens PLM software that captures product-development data, the source said. Until that recent introduction of Siemens PLM's Teamcenter software, Dassault's Enovia software had ruled that domain at Chrysler as well.
Robert Brincheck, Dassault's client executive for Chrysler, acknowledges that Chrysler is now using rival software for Fiat 500 design.
He said a "political struggle is going on" at Chrysler whether to unify on one CAD software or allow CATIA and NX to co-exist. Ford Motor Co., for example, uses CATIA for design software but uses Siemens PLM products as well.
But Brincheck said Dassault remains the dominant player at Chrysler.
And the company intends to fight to participate on all future Chrysler vehicle programs, including platforms brought to Chrysler by Fiat, he said.
"Actually, CATIA usage at Chrysler has increased in the past year," Brincheck said.
He said Chrysler has been adding designers and engineers in recent months as Fiat and Chrysler hustle to jointly develop new vehicles.
Marchionne re-emphasized last week the carmakers will undertake a unified product-development process that will give Chrysler access to Fiat's small-car technology and Fiat access to Chrysler's truck and large-car expertise.
CATIA has been a linchpin in Chrysler product designs since the late 1980s, Brincheck said.
The software traces its heritage to Dassault Aviation of Paris, where engineers interested in aerodynamics developed the product in the 1960s.
Chrysler was a pioneer of CATIA's use in the U.S. auto industry, Brincheck said. Today CATIA is a fixture in the auto and aerospace industries, with Dassault Systemes touting 8,000 CATIA customers.
Siemens PLM is the other leader in the industry, along with Parametric Technology Corp., with its Pro/ENGINEER software.
GM is Siemens PLM's largest and one of its longest-running customers. GM has used the software for years, going back to when the software was known as Unigraphics and owned by EDS.
Siemens PLM acquired UGS Corp. in 2007 and began marketing the software as NX.
The battle may spill over beyond Chrysler. Brincheck said Dassault is pitching CATIA and its suite of design software to GM.
What happened?
-- Chrysler, suppliers use CATIA design software for 20 years.
-- Fiat, which uses rival software, takes control of Chrysler.
-- Fiat/Chrysler CEO Marchionne plans to shift Chrysler away from CATIA.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100503/OEM01/305039958/1143#ixzz0mrakKGfm
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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Automotive News ( 05/03/2010 )
by Neil Roland
Chrysler fights Colo. law
WASHINGTON -- Chrysler Group is asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to block a Colorado dealer reinstatement law, arguing the law is pre-empted by bankruptcy laws.
The law requires Chrysler and General Motors Co. to offer a rejected dealership the right of first refusal if the automaker wants to reopen a point in the rejected dealer's market. If the automaker has awarded such a franchise, it must offer to reinstate the rejected dealership or compensate it. In December, Chrysler challenged similar laws enacted by Illinois, Oregon, Maine and North Carolina. North Carolina backed off enforcement in a settlement with Chrysler. Illinois, Oregon and Maine are contesting the challenge.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20100503/RETAIL07/305039959#ixzz0mraEJBN0
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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Automotive News ( 05/03/2010 )
Men are from Dodge, women are from ...
Dodge's Super Bowl commercial, called "Man's Last Stand," may not have turned around sales of the struggling brand, but it certainly has generated plenty of chatter -- and a few parodies.
The commercial, created by Dodge's new ad agency, Wieden+Kennedy, showed a series of weary, resigned-looking men staring blankly at the camera as a voiceover speaks of the sacrifices men make to make relationships work.
One example: "I will put the seat down."
The ad ended with the voice saying: "Because I do these things, I will drive the car I want," as a Hemi roars to life and a Dodge Charger surges forward on a highway.
A parody, or rather several of them, have turned up on Youtube.com. "Woman's Last Stand" showed a bunch of weary women talking about the sacrifices they make for their relationships.
A few choice lines: "I will put my career on hold to raise your children. I will make 75 cents for every dollar you make to do the same job. I will see Paul Blart Mall Cop twice. I will watch Super Bowl commercials that depict men as emasculated and oppressed."
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20100503/RETAIL03/305039964#ixzz0mrZlDtoJ
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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Automotive News ( 05/03/2010 )
by Brad Wernle
Dodge pitches Charger to police
DETROIT -- Chrysler Group will boost efforts to market the Dodge Charger to police departments, part of a larger drive to sell more vehicles to government and commercial fleets, said Peter Grady, Chrysler's top dealers executive.
"We plan on going after the police market pretty hard," Grady, the Chrysler vice president in charge of fleet sales, said in a speech to the NAFA Fleet Management Association expo here. The re-engineered 2011 Charger is scheduled to arrive in the fourth quarter.
Chrysler plans to cap its sales to rental fleets, says Peter Grady.
Chrysler will cap sales to rental car fleets in order to concentrate more on government and commercial fleet sales, Grady said. Chrysler has leaned on less profitable sales to rental fleets too heavily in the past, a practice that has hurt residual values. Chrysler is refocusing its fleet business on the government and commercial sectors in an effort to preserve residual values and strengthen brands, Grady said.
Dealer sources said fleet sales spiked in the first quarter, accounting for 58 percent of total Chrysler sales. Grady called the fleet market "overheated" because many rental companies replaced high-mileage vehicles.
Grady predicted fleet sales would normalize at 2.1 million units in an 11 million unit industry for this year, or about 18 percent. Chrysler has set a goal of 25 percent sales to fleets.
Chrysler's alliance with Fiat opens new opportunities to fleets because, he said, Fiat is strong in compressed natural gas technology.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20100503/RETAIL03/305039974#ixzz0mraPg2wP
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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The Wall Street Journal ( 05/03/2010 )
by Sharon Terlep
Cars in 'Full Blown Recovery' As Discounting Aids Sales
DETROIT -- U.S. auto sales continued to climb last month as the stabilizing economy and attractive discounts brought more consumers into showrooms.
Monthly sales totals, are expected to come in Monday at a seasonally adjusted rate of 11.3 million cars and light trucks, according to people familiar with the figures.
That would be slightly less than the 11.78 million vehicles sold in March, but it would be a clear increase from the year-earlier level of 9.72 million vehicles sold.
The seasonally adjusted annual rate for the first quarter as a whole was 11 million vehicles.
"The automotive industry is in a full-blown recovery," Jesse Toprak, an analyst at TrueCar Inc. said in a written statement.
TrueCar, which is based in Santa Monica, Calif., and tracks U.S. auto sales and prices, said it believes the monthly sales pace will surpass 12 million vehicles by summer.
Several auto makers reported substantial sales gains in April, according to data from analysts and people familiar with the figures.
Ford Motor Co. is on track for an increase of about 25% from a year earlier, these people said.
Nissan Motor Co. could report an even greater increase and be the industry's biggest leader. Some analysts predict Nissan will report sales growth of 50% or more for April.
General Motors Co. is likely to see a gain of around 5%, modest in part because it has phased out its Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer brands and sold Saab, which helped boost sales a year earlier.
Chrysler Group LLC, which struggled with sales declines in the first quarter, is expected to report a rise in April, perhaps of 10% or more, analysts said.
The total was given a boost by significant sales to fleet customers, such as rental-car companies, people familiar with the matter said.
Sales have been spurred by higher sales incentives. Toyota Motor Corp., for example, increased incentives in March to halt a slide in sales stemming from its recall and quality troubles.
It then extended the deals into April and recently told dealers in parts of the U.S. that it would continue the effort into this month.
(Copyright (c) 2007, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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Automotive News ( 05/03/2010 )
No new Fiat partners
MILAN, Italy -- Fiat S.p.A. "doesn't need" partners beyond its alliance with Chrysler Group, Fiat Chairman John Elkann said.
Elkann, who was appointed chairman last week, said Fiat is focused on turning around Chrysler, Bloomberg reported. "Fiat doesn't need other partners," Elkann said on the sidelines of the annual meeting of Exor S.p.A., the Agnelli family company that owns the largest stake in Fiat.
Elkann, 34, the grandson of former Fiat Chairman Giovanni Agnelli, said, "We have a strong relationship with Chrysler, and that is what we are actively working on."
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100503/OEM02/100439983#ixzz0mraZM1pi
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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Automotive News ( 05/03/2010 )
by Donna Harris
GMAC pumps up liquidity to gain share
GMAC Financial Services has raised $18.1 billion through a variety of nongovernment sources since last fall in a drive to go after market share.
The latest jolt: Ally Bank, GMAC's retail banking subsidiary, obtained a $7 billion revolving credit line with a syndicate of lenders. The funds will be used to expand GMAC's commercial and retail loan and lease business, says spokeswoman Gina Proia.
The revolving credit line -- which matures within a year -- is a first for Ally Bank, said GMAC Treasurer Jeffrey Brown in a statement. The funding "further strengthens and diversifies its liquidity sources," Brown said.
GMAC raised about $3.9 billion in unsecured debt to date in 2010 and earlier this month launched a debt offering in Europe. Ally Bank sold $3.6 billion in auto loan securities to U.S. investors since September and $3.6 billion in auto loan securities to investors in Canada in the first quarter of 2010.
At the end of 2009, Ally Bank also had $29.9 billion in deposits.
The U.S. Treasury Department has invested more than $16 billion in GMAC since December 2008 and had a 56 percent stake in the company as of last December.
Sid DeBoer is CEO of publicly held Lithia Motors Inc., which has a large concentration of Chrysler Group and General Motors stores. DeBoer says GMAC began competing aggressively for the retail finance business in the fourth quarter last year, though it still lags in commercial finance.
For years, GMAC was the nation's highest-volume retail auto lender. But GMAC slid into second place behind Toyota Financial Services in 2008 and into fifth-place in 2009, according to Experian Automotive's AutoCount rankings of the top automotive lenders.
As GMAC expanded its access to funds late last year, it increased its share of the retail finance business. In the fourth quarter, GMAC ranked third on Experian's list of the nation's top lenders.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20100503/RETAIL02/305039986#ixzz0mrb0QcLP
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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Automotive News ( 05/03/2010 )
by Keith Crain
Today's GM and Ford: Worlds apart
General Motors announced last month that it is paying off government loans. A few days later, Ford reported profits of more than $2 billion for the first quarter.
What a study in contrasts.
Ford never borrowed money from the government, so today the company still owes more than $30 billion to lenders. Ford needs to pay it back and service the debt. This is not an insignificant challenge.
GM went bankrupt, which wiped out all its debt. GM's bondholders lost billions. Then the new GM borrowed $6.7 billion from the U.S. government and $1.4 billion from the Canadian government -- on top of $50 billion in aid from the U.S. government, for which GM swapped 61 percent of its equity.
GM didn't need the $8.1 billion in loans, so the automaker gave it back early in three payments. This is a significant achievement.
GM could have taken the Ford route and mortgaged the company a few years ago but chose not to do it.
GM is seeing small improvements in North America after eliminating four brands along with much of its dealer network.
For GM, China is booming.
Ford has sold more vehicles, increased market share and is introducing models that the public seems to want in large volumes.
Ford seems to be repeating the success of a couple of decades ago, when the company cut costs like crazy, introduced the Taurus and watched profits skyrocket for several years.
Ford appears ready to enjoy that same kind of success in the second decade of this century.
GM, particularly in North America, seems to understand its mission: Design, engineer and build cars and trucks that customers want to buy. It won't happen overnight.
GM must be patient if it expects to do an initial public offering and raise anywhere near enough money to repay the U.S. government's $50 billion.
The two companies are a study in contrasts and style.
Ford seems on the right track with only the normal challenges of an extremely volatile economy.
GM will need far more patience to understand a complex business. Mark Reuss is the right guy for the spot.
Meanwhile, Chrysler is becoming more intertwined with Fiat -- for better or worse.
The domestic market has never been more complicated. It will be fascinating to watch the winners and the losers -- today and tomorrow.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20100503/OEM01/305039996#ixzz0mrZaScFt
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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Bloomberg ( 05/03/2010 )
by Aaron Kirchfeld
Merkel Says Germany Should Be Electric-Car Leader to Aid Climate
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany should become the market leader in electric vehicles to help climate protection.
Germany aims to have one million electric cars on its streets by 2020, helped by investments in research and development, Merkel said in her video podcast.
Merkel also stressed the importance of reaching an agreement on climate protection at a UN conference in Mexico at the end of the year, according to a press release about the podcast.
©2007 Bloomberg L.P.
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Automotive News ( 05/03/2010 )
Who cares what GM did? I do
To the Editor:
Executive Editor Edward Lapham's Friday segments on Automotive News TV generally hit the mark, and I look forward to them.
But his comments on the April 23 newscast regarding "What is Normal?" were so far off the mark -- i.e., "So who cares if GM did it by robbing Peter to pay Paul?" -- I have to comment.
GM took money it had borrowed from the Troubled Asset Relief Program out of an account held in escrow and made a payment. Then it went on TV saying, "Thank you," making it seem like it was repaying the loan in full and out of earnings in order to sell product and grease the slide for its upcoming stock sale.
Sorry, Ed, no "good job" on this one.
JOSEPH R. PUGIA SR., CEO, Leader Transits LLC, Boxford, Mass.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20100503/OEM01/100429803#ixzz0mrZOPeUK
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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Political News Now, Washington Examiner ( 05/02/2010 )
Geithner and GM tell a whopper
Special Inspector General for the Troubled Assets Relief Program Neil Barofsky testifies on the financial crisis and TARP program on Capitol Hill. (Harry Hamburg/AP)
Here’s a multiple-choice test that should be of particular interest to taxpayers, professors of business ethics and the fraudulent advertising complaints department at the Federal Trade Commission: Which of the following statements is true?
A. If frogs had wings, they could fly.
B. I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.
C. We have repaid our government loans in full, with interest, five years ahead of schedule.
D. There’s gold in them thar hills.
Implausible, perhaps, but yes, if frogs had wings, then it is conceivable they could fly. And if one accepts Mr. Clinton’s novel understanding of what the meaning of “is” is, then his familiar statement of denial about his relationship with a White House intern is true. And there is no doubt that somewhere on God’s green Earth there are still hills in which there is gold to be found.
Statement C is being repeated daily in a national advertising campaign featuring General Motors Chairman Ed Whitacre. (He is referring to $49.5 billion the Treasury Department gave GM in last year’s bailout. In return, Treasury got a 60.8 percent common equity stake in GM, $2.1 billion in preferred stock and $7.1 billion in GM debt.)
Whitacre sounds convincing in a down-home sort of way in the TV spot, but the reality is that this statement is a blatant misrepresentation. And Whitacre knows it. He’s probably not worried about that fact, however, because it was endorsed by none other than Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, who issued a supportive statement saying, “We are encouraged that GM has repaid its debt well ahead of schedule and confident that the company is on a strong path to viability.”
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Midwest Voices, The Kansas City Star ( 05/02/2010 )
GM loan story gets more complicated
General Motors’ announcement that it had paid back $6.7 billion in government loans was welcome news for the embattled automaker, which employs 3,500 workers at the Fairfax plant in Kansas City, Kan.
Alas, the news wasn’t as reassuring as it first appeared.
And GM’s chief executive, Ed Whitacre, is rightly facing criticism for misleading consumers in a TV ad bragging about the matter.
It turns out the loan wasn’t repaid with GM earnings. Rather, it came from a government-created escrow account maintained by the Treasury under the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP.
TARP Inspector General Neil Barofsky said the repayment is still “good news,” because it means GM doesn’t need that money.
Still, Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican, branded the maneuver “an elaborate TARP money shuffle” and wrote to the Treasury Department seeking an explanation. Treasury replied that it was “public knowledge that GM would use these specific funds to repay the … loans, if it did not otherwise need them for expenses.”
In the TV ad, Whitacre boasted that GM had “repaid our government loan, in full, with interest, five years ahead of the original schedule.” The ad doesn’t mention that the repayment proceeds came from another government account, or that $50 billion in federal aid had been converted to GM stock and taxpayers could still lose that investment.
GM appears to be climbing out of its financial hole, although the climb may be a bit slower than Whitacre’s ad suggests; its financial reports over the next few months will tell the tale. But GM’s recent ad left out key facts, and in the minds of many consumers may have damaged its credibility.
Read more: http://voices.kansascity.com/node/8836#ixzz0mrVLkhcQ
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Automotive News ( 05/03/2010 )
Geithner sees auto payback
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said taxpayers are still at risk of losses on investments in General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group, but he cited a "reasonable chance" that all the aid may be recouped, Reuters reported.
Geithner, testifying last week before a Senate subcommittee, said he was aware of concerns over GM's claims in a commercial that it has repaid its government loans and that he wanted to be clear that there was still risk of taxpayer losses on equity holdings in GM and Chrysler.
Said Geithner: "We still have substantial equity investments left in those companies, and, as a result, some risk of loss, although a fraction of what we feared."
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100503/OEM02/305039957/1429#ixzz0mrWGvFUM
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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Times Colonist ( 04/29/2010 )
by Derek McNaughton
Toyota discovers silence is golden
Listen. Bend a little closer. Closer still, it’s still very faint. Can you hear it now? I know it’s hard — it’s just a whisper, after all — but considering the deafening roar that has been the litany of Toyota recalls these last six months, it’s the sound of a seismic shift in policy from the corporate giant.
Toyota has just gone through another rough patch on its way to brand rehabilitation, yet this time there has been a complete absence of the allegations of cover-ups and corporate obfuscation that seemed to follow all previous revelations. That lack of recriminations is the sound of public relations working. It is the sound of the world’s largest automaker finally accepting responsibility with a minimum of fuss.
To wit, Toyota has agreed to pay a record US$16.4-million in fines for failing to disclose to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) its knowledge regarding the sticky pedals affected in its recent recall of 2.3 million cars. Oh, sure, Toyota denied the NHTSA’s allegation “that it violated the Safety Act or its implementing regulations.”
But, it seemed more like a pro forma reaction. In reality, the company finally determined what most of us would have thought an obvious truth — that simply paying the fine is far easier than digging in for a protracted battle that media and consumers alike have already determined is lost. Besides, with this debacle already said to have cost Toyota as much as $2-billion, the NHTSA’s fine is quite literally chicken feed.
Even more indicative of Toyota’s new-found “silence is golden” attitude is the company’s reaction to the news that the influential Consumer Reports magazine issued a “Don’t Buy” for Lexus’s new GX 460 for safety reasons (reportedly the first such warning in almost a decade). CR blamed the warning on the big ute’s propensity for lift-off oversteer — something the computerized onboard stability control should have corrected — and noted that such misbehaviour could cause rollovers (the consumer advocacy group did, however, point out that it was not aware of any GX 460s rolling over).
Instead of the denials that have surrounded previous allegations of malfunctions or delaying action as it waits for its own engineers to study the problem, Toyota Canada immediately suspended sales of the GX and offered the 149 Canadians who have already taken delivery of the luxury SUV alternate loaner cars. It’s difficult to argue with such an unqualified solution to a problem, especially when it’s accompanied by a total lack of strident denials. Or, as Josh Billings (America’s second most famous humorist of the 19th century after Mark Twain) said, “Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.” Ditto recent recalls of the Sienna, Tundra and Highlander.
It’s been a hard lesson for Toyota on how to deal with safety issues/recalls/accusations seemingly without cessation. And, although Toyota Canada was perfectly right in recently noting that the floor mat problems that plagued American Camrys et al were not an issue here, the company still mishandled the issue. Certainly, reminding MPs investigating Toyota’s disclosure of the recalls that the company was not obligated to inform the federal government of any complaints is not the stuff of positive public relations.
Nor are such admissions, while technically true, likely to gain the confidence of consumers shaken by Toyota’s rapid fall from grace. Indeed, way back in January, Irv Miller, Toyota U.S.A.’s vice-president of environmental and public affairs, recommended a complete mea culpa regarding the sticky gas pedal issue. “We are not protecting our customers by keeping this quiet. The time to hide on this one is over,” Miller said in a January 16 email obtained by the Detroit Free Press that was among the 70,000 pages of documents collected by NHTSA as part of its investigation into the unintended acceleration issue.
The email, according to the Free Press, was in response to another Toyota public relations executive advising that, “We should not mention” the accelerator pedal failures because “we have not clarified the real cause” and mechanical failures “might raise another uneasiness of customers.”
Considering how utterly and completely Toyota’s actions failed to quell the unease of its customers, I can think of no stronger proof that traditional public relations “spin” was a key factor in extending and magnifying the company’s woes. And that Toyota Canada’s recent policies — while just the start of a process that will hopefully see its brand rehabilitated — are a step in the right direction.
Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/Toyota+discovers+silence+golden/2967199/story.html#ixzz0mrV0aYdR
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Detroit Free Press ( 05/03/2010 )
by BRENT SNAVELY
Mustang out to grab younger buyers, Ford to tout muscle car’s fuel efficiency
The muscle car war between Ford and General Motors is to rev up this month as Ford’s 2011 Mustangs reach more dealerships and as Ford launches an advertising campaign aimed at younger buyers.
Ford said the marketing campaign for Mustang will feature a heavy dose of social media and Internet marketing, as well as TV commercials that include an appearance by the new 2011 DUB Edition Mustang that Ford is announcing today. The DUB Edition Mustang drew inspiration from a Mustang custom built for hip-hop star Nelly and is a collaboration between Ford, DUB and Roush Industries.
The 305-horsepower DUB Edition will sport 20-inch TIS Wheels and Pirelli tires, and will be available as a coupe, convertible or with a glass roof by fall.
The DUB Edition is just one version of Ford’s new 2011 Mustang lineup, which includes either a 3.7-liter V6 engine with 305 horsepower or a 5.0-liter V8 engine with 412 horsepower. In a break from the past, Ford plans to heavily market Mustang’s V6 engine rather than the V8 and tout fuel efficiency, said Steve Ling, Ford’s North American car marketing manager.
“It’s all about the V6,” Ling said, because it will get 31 miles per gallon on the highway. “The 3.7-liter engine really opens Mustang up to a broader audience.”
Ford said its marketing will target younger enthusiasts and women.
The battle for sales supremacy between the Mustang and Camaro resumed in March 2009 when GM brought back the Camaro after a nearly seven- year hiatus.
Last year, Camaro fell less than 5,000 short of outselling Mustang, despite being on the market for fewer months.
From January through March 2010, Chevrolet sold 20,157 Camaros while Ford sold 15,691 Mustangs.
Ling said excitement about Mustang’s new engines ratcheted up preorders for the 2011 Mustang to about three times last year’s preorders.
“We’re feeling very good about where the Mustang sales are going to be,” Ling said.
(c) Copyright 2007, Detroit Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
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