----- Forwarded by Calvin R Thudium/CARZ/DCC/DCX on 04/16/2010 02:50 PM -----
| Alex Eliopoulos/CARZ/DCC/DCX 04/16/2010 07:24 AM |
|
I've already printed a copy for employee's.
Thanks,
Alex Eliopoulos
Red Deer Parts Distribution Center
6777 Edgar Industrial Drive
Red Deer, Alberta T4P - 3R2
(403) 343. 5714 Fax: 5744
----- Forwarded by Alex Eliopoulos/CARZ/DCC/DCX on 04/16/2010 07:23 AM -----
| Bridget L Crane/HR/DCC/DCX 04/16/2010 06:57 AM |
|
Chrysler Early Clips Headlines (21)
-- Chrysler purchasing boss says adversarial days are over (Automotive News)
-- Chrysler lines up suppliers for Fiat 500, 145 firms will provide parts for subcompact, which goes on sale in U.S. at end of the year (The Detroit News)
-- Chrysler completes supplier selection for Fiat 500 (Allpar.com)
-- Gettelfinger likes 'down to earth' execs Marchionne, Whitacre (Automotive News)
-- UAW head says two new automaker CEOs are 'down to earth' (USA TODAY)
-- Marchionne's Chrysler may not survive as it exists today, analyst says (Automotive News)
-- Chrysler Plant Efficiencies to Save $1.25M per Year (Environmental Leader)
-- Justice Granholm?, Nomination of Michigan governor to U.S. Supreme Court would be an interesting choice (The Detroit News)
-- Investment Firm Agrees to Settle Kickback Inquiry (The New York Times)
-- Troubles Mount For Former Car Czar (The Wall Street Journal)
-- Ford lambasts bail-out for Opel-Vauxhall (Financial Times)
-- Toyota testing all SUVs for glitch (The Detroit News)
-- Toyota solution may come in summer, Regulators look at various fixes, NHTSA chief says (Detroit Free Press)
-- Toyota Expands Tests to All Its SUV Models (The Wall Street Journal)
-- Hopes Rise for Ford's Results (The Wall Street Journal)
-- Ford spotlights engineers’ role Chairman unveils Eco-Route system at SAE convention (The Detroit News)
-- Ford says auto future hinges on electric car, Technological advances to make eco-friendly vehicles mainstream (Detroit Free Press)
-- Ford slams GM’s struggling Opel unit (Detroit Free Press)
-- Ford beats VW, takes No. 1 spot in Europe (Detroit Free Press)
-- Engineering safer cars, NHTSA chief talks safety for automobiles — inside and out (The Detroit News)
-- As U.S. Tests the Lexus GX 460, Toyota Ceases Selling It Worldwide (The New York Times)
*Refer to © Notice Below
************************
Automotive News ( 04/15/2010 )
by Shawn Wright
Chrysler purchasing boss says adversarial days are over
DETROIT -- Dan Knott, head of purchasing for Chrysler Group, says the automaker's days of behaving badly toward its suppliers are in the past.
Knott, 49, spoke Thursday at the 2010 SAE World Congress as part of a panel of purchasing executives.
“The days of the arrogant” automaker, he said, “where we forced suppliers to kneel at our door and sprinkle rose petals before they come in, absolutely has to be over. It's a collaborative business. If we work together, we'll have a better equation at the end.”
Since taking his current position in December, Knott's main focus has been to repair relations with suppliers, many of which were demoralized during the days when Cerberus Capital Management owned Chrysler. Cerberus appointees made noises about working collaboratively with suppliers -- then sued a number of them.
Knott said he has met with about 80 suppliers this year. He said he makes sure that before any talks about future projects begin, he discusses with them any earlier strained ties between the two sides.
“If I talk about integrity and transparency with you, and we have legacy issues that we never talk about, it's a little disingenuous, isn't it?” Knott said.
He said that paying suppliers on time and direct dialogue have improved relations between Chrysler and its suppliers. Problems that once took two years to solve now take two weeks, Knott said.
“I think we're absolutely moving in the right direction,” he said.
Knott reiterated Chrysler's plan to pay suppliers at certain milestones a percentage of what they are owed, a sharp departure from the piece-payments approach of the past.
In January, Knott told Automotive News that it took Chrysler an average of 287 days from the time a supplier submitted a claim to the time Chrysler did its analysis and agreed to pay. Under Knott's watch, Chrysler launched a claim resolution process at the end of last year. In January, he said that Chrysler had reduced the payment timeline to 105 days.
Knott began his career at Chrysler in 1988 as senior engineer of air and fuel emission systems.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100415/OEM/100419926#ixzz0lG188HFC
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
The Detroit News ( 04/16/2010 )
by Alisa Priddle
Chrysler lines up suppliers for Fiat 500, 145 firms will provide parts for subcompact, which goes on sale in U.S. at end of the year
Detroit -- Chrysler Group LLC has finished sourcing the parts it needs for the North American version of the Fiat 500 car that goes on sale at the end of the year.
The subcompact from Fiat SpA has been on sale in Europe for years, where it has been a success.
Plans to build and sell a version in North America grew out of the Chrysler-Fiat partnership formed last June.
The car will be built in Chrysler's Toluca, Mexico, plant and parts sourcing is now done, Dan Knott, senior vice president in charge of purchasing, said Thursday at the Society of Automotive Engineers conference at Cobo Center.
There are 145 suppliers for the tiny car, of which 35 are NAFTA-based companies that did not already supply parts for the European Fiat 500, Knott said. Sixty-six percent of the business for the car went to companies outside the chain of Fiat 500 suppliers, Knott said.
Many are current Chrysler suppliers, including Android Industries, which is part of Chrysler's supplier park in Toluca.
Android Industries makes suspension modules for the Dodge Journey crossover. Android has added the 500 to its portfolio.
The criteria to choose new suppliers over existing Fiat ones was a combination of cost and quality, Knott said.
For example, sourcing for the radio went to Troy-based Delphi Corp. because its satellite radio in the U.S. was deemed better quality than using the supplier to the European car, Knott said.
(c) Copyright 2007, The Detroit News. All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
Allpar.com ( 04/16/2010 )
by Bill Cawthon
Chrysler completes supplier selection for Fiat 500
The deals are done, the winners have been picked. According to Dan Knott, senior v-p of purchasing announced 145 suppliers have been selected to furnish parts for the U.S.-market Fiat 500s to be built in Chrysler’s Toluca, Mexico, plant.
Among the suppliers are 35 NAFTA-based companies that did not make parts for the European 500. Knott said about 66% of the total business went to companies that were not in Fiat’s current supply chain though some make parts for Chrysler vehicles.
The new-for-America Fiat 500 goes on sale at Chrysler dealers at the end of this year.
copyright © 2001-2007, Allpar LLC. All rights reserved.
************************
Automotive News ( 04/16/2010 )
by Jim Henry
Gettelfinger likes 'down to earth' execs Marchionne, Whitacre
NEW YORK -- UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said today that he's a fan of Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler and Fiat, and also Ed Whitacre Jr., CEO of General Motors Co.
Why? Marchionne is not a “showboat,” Gettelfinger said.
Whitacre? “Same reason,” he said. “They're down to earth, not a showboat. This industry has had too many showboats.”
Gettelfinger, who is preparing to retire from the union's helm in June, spoke here today to the International Motor Press Association. He granted question-and-answer sessions before and after the speech.
He said it wasn't the union's fault that GM and Chrysler went bankrupt last year since in his view the union already had made big concessions in 2007 -- before high gasoline prices, the subprime mortgage meltdown and the credit crisis hit in 2008.
Gettelfinger also said the union itself does not have ownership stakes in GM and Chrysler.
“That's misunderstood,” he said. “We don't have an investment in GM and Chrysler. The VEBA [volunteer employee beneficiary association] has an investment in GM and Chrysler. It's set up with independent trustees, and there are more trustees [in charge] than there are union members.”
Gettelfinger also said he rated former Chrysler boss Dieter Zetsche's tenure at Chrysler poorly. Zetsche is now Daimler AG's chairman.
“He left it in bad shape. ... I think when he left, it is fair to say, it was not in good shape. ... They hadn't put product in the pipeline. ... We knew something wasn't right about it,” Gettelfinger said.
Gettelfinger said the UAW called it “the Valentine's Day Massacre” when Zetsche announced in 2007 that “all options were on the table,” signaling that then-DaimlerChrysler wanted to dump Chrysler.
In other comments:
• On CEO pay [all U.S. CEOs, not specifically automotive CEOs]: “In 1980, it was 40 times [what the ordinary worker gets paid], and now it's 344 times -- because some [CEOs] took a cut in pay to $6.5 million, something like that. People say we [UAW members] think we're entitled. The only thing we're entitled to is to work 58 minutes out of the hour, and at the end of the day we're working just as hard as at the beginning. Is anybody [among CEOs] working that hard? I'd like to see it.”
• On UAW health care concessions: “In my 45-year career the hardest thing I ever did was to say to retirees who had left after the companies promised them, after the union promised them, that they would have free health care for life, that we were going to pass costs on to them.”
• On whether organized labor and the UAW can make a comeback: “Our actual membership is about 385,000. In our best days it was about 1.5 million, but I haven't given up on it yet. As times are tough, people start reaching out. ... We're getting more and more interest in organizing efforts.”
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20100415/OEM/100419929#ixzz0lGAEEgjR
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
USA TODAY ( 04/16/2010 )
by Sharon Silke Carty
UAW head says two new automaker CEOs are 'down to earth'
Detroit's two newest CEOs -- Ed Whitacre at General Motors and Sergio Marchionne at Chrysler -- get the thumbs up so far from UAW President Ron Gettelfinger.
Gettelfinger, who can be kind of crusty at times, said he's a fan of Whitacre and Marchionne.
"They're down to earth, not a showboat," he told the International Motor Press Association Thursday. "This industry has had too many showboats."
Gettelfinger did not have nice things to say about one former CEO:
Dieter Zetsche, the former head of Chrysler who is now leading Mercedes. "He left it in bad shape," he said, according to Automotive News.
And CEOs in general are overpaid, Gettelfinger said. Pay in 1980 was 40 times the average worker salary, he said, and now it's 344 times.
"People say (UAW members) think we're entitled," Gettelfinger said. "The only thing we're entitled to is to work 58 minutes out of the hour, and at the end of the day we're working just as hard as at the beginning. Is anybody [among CEOs] working that hard? I'd like to see it."
© Copyright 2007 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
************************
Automotive News ( 04/16/2010 )
by Brad Wernle
Marchionne's Chrysler may not survive as it exists today, analyst says
DETROIT -- Chrysler Group may not survive in its current form even after posting an “astonishing” profit in March, an auto analyst said in a report today.
Analyst Max Warburton, of Bernstein Research in London, said many questions remain about CEO Sergio Marchionne's rescue strategy for the U.S. automaker despite his very “impressive” efforts to slash costs.
The report comes less than a week before Marchionne is scheduled to unveil his five-year restructuring plan for Fiat Sp.A. in Turin on April 21. Warburton said Marchionne likely will announce that Chrysler, rescued from bankruptcy last year by Fiat, came close to breaking even for the quarter after a profitable March.
“We remain unconvinced Chrysler will survive in its current form despite Marchionne's blood, sweat and tears,” Warburton said in the report, which was written as an analysis for Fiat investors.
Shareholders need to consider what Marchionne's strategy might be if he can't preserve Chrysler as it exist today, he said.
“A slimming down of Chrysler to be just Ram, Jeep and a U.S. production base for Fiat looks a realistic exit strategy to us,” said the report.
Chrysler spokesman Gualberto Ranieri declined to comment.
Bernstein Research said it based some of its conclusions on interviews with four “very senior industry sources in Detroit.” The report doesn't identify where those sources work and doesn't spell out their connection to Chrysler.
Cost-cutting heralded
The report praised the CEO's cost-cutting efforts: “Marchionne and team are reportedly ‘again and again' finding fixed cost savings” in key areas. Those cost-cutting measures have helped the company come “surprisingly close to breakeven” in the first quarter, the report said.
“While we believe Chrysler is set to show progress in Q1 2010, at least from an accounting perspective, we remain cautious about a full turnaround given the massive challenges the business faces,” the report says.
Those challenges include:
- Limited new-product development despite efforts to bring Fiat-based vehicles to North America.
- A skimpy product portfolio.
- “Very limited” synergies between Fiat and Chrysler.
The report also said Marchionne's targets for hitting 14 percent market share in 2014, the end of the current five-year plan, were not realistic. Chrysler's U.S. share was 9.2 percent at the end of the first quarter, and the company has targeted a range of 10 percent to 11.2 percent for 2010. The last year Chrysler held share above 14 percent was 2000.
“Chrysler's real cost structure is tough to assess, as no real financial statements have been published since 2007 and accounting treatments remain opaque,” says the report.Warburton says Chrysler's prospects would brighten considerably if the U.S. housing market recovers, boosting sales of the company's most profitable vehicle, the Ram pickup.
Warburton estimates Fiat's current stake in Chrysler at $1.6 billion. Fiat owns 20 percent of Chrysler.
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100415/OEM/100419927/1179#ixzz0lGH0OYjD
Copyright (C) 2007 Crain Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
Environmental Leader ( 04/16/2010 )
Chrysler Plant Efficiencies to Save $1.25M per Year
Chrysler spent three years trying to get LEED Gold certification for its Trenton South engine plant, which makes the Pentastar engine.
The building has a reflective white membrane on the roof, as well as an extensive recycling program.
The building was constructed of recycled steel. The concrete floor was made of recycled content.
In all, the building was made of 47 percent recycled materials.
The building uses direct-fire commercial boilers, which Chrysler said is more efficient than other options.
The building claims a 39 percent energy savings over similar structures, which translates to $1.25 million a year.
Click here to view supplemental video: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2010/04/16/chrysler-plant-efficiencies-to-save-1-25m-per-year/
************************
The Detroit News ( 04/16/2010 )
Justice Granholm?, Nomination of Michigan governor to U.S. Supreme Court would be an interesting choice
Gov. Jennifer Granholm is apparently on the short list for the U.S.
Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Her nomination would be an interesting, unusual choice.
Granholm is included along with more conventional candidates such as U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, former dean of Harvard’s law school and several federal appellate court judges. The other political figure prominently mentioned as a candidate is Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, former governor of Arizona.
If Granholm is nominated, it will break at least one pattern: all of the current justices are former federal appellate court judges.
It would mark a return to a previous style in nominations, in which political figures were named to the court, such as former California Gov. Earl Warren and former Michigan Gov. Frank Murphy. Murphy distinguished himself in the high court’s history by being one of the few justices to dissent from a now embarrassing Supreme Court ruling during World War II approving the West Coast round-up and removal to remote camps of Americans of Japanese descent.
Granholm would bring to the court political experience as a former governor and state attorney general, albeit one whose gubernatorial record, including a brief government shutdown and a controversial tax hike, has been a disappointment, though she did win a second term against a novice but well-funded opponent.
As one court watcher, Russell Wheeler of the Brookings Institution, told The News, a Granholm strength is that she would “bring empathy as the governor of a state that has had such high unemployment.”
A drawback could be her record of staunch support for her political party and its constellation of interest groups, hardly unusual for a governor but not the currently preferred record of candidates for federal judgeships.
She would likely be a reliable vote on what is termed the liberal wing of the Supreme Court. In that respect she would not change the balance of the court.
As a former assistant U.S. attorney, county corporation counsel during the regime of the late county Executive Ed Mc Namara and state attorney general, she has had practical experience in the real-world application of the law and its correlation with politics, an interesting perspective for the court.
A number of observers have said she is a long-shot for the nation’s highest judicial post, but presidents throughout history have made surprising choices for the high court.
If President Barack Obama wants to vary the mix of Supreme Court justices, the nomination of Granholm would offer hin a chance to do so.
(c) Copyright 2007, The Detroit News. All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
The New York Times ( 04/16/2010 )
by Louise Story
Investment Firm Agrees to Settle Kickback Inquiry
The investment firm founded by Steven L. Rattner, the politically connected financier who went on to lead President Obama’s auto task force, has agreed to pay $12 million to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to win lucrative business from the New York State pension fund.
But the agreement, announced on Thursday, explicitly excluded Mr. Rattner, leaving open the possibility that he could face separate lawsuits from state or federal authorities.
The firm, the Quadrangle Group, agreed to pay $7 million to the pension fund and $5 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission. As is typical in such settlements, Quadrangle neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.
But Quadrangle issued an unusual public rebuke to its founder, who left the firm to lead the Obama administration’s rescue of General Motors and Chrysler.
“We wholly disavow the conduct engaged in by Steve Rattner,” Quadrangle said.
News of the settlement came on the same day that the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, became entangled in the sprawling investigation of New York’s nearly $130 billion pension fund. The office of Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo acknowledged that its inquiry included Mr. DiNapoli’s tenure, although no evidence has surfaced to suggest that Mr. DiNapoli benefited improperly from pension business.
The three-year-old investigation has focused on allegations that friends and aides of the previous comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, reaped millions of dollars from investment companies seeking state business. Mr. Hevesi resigned in 2006 after pleading guilty to a felony related to his use of state workers to chauffeur his wife.
Quadrangle has acknowledged paying more than $1 million in fees to a political consultant, Henry Morris, in exchange for his help in landing a state investment contract. Mr. Morris was a longtime aide to Mr. Hevesi.
Mr. Rattner organized those payments, according to the attorney general’s office, which said that he also arranged for a company that Quadrangle controlled to distribute a low-budget film, “Chooch,” which was produced by a brother of the state pension fund’s chief investment officer, David J. Loglisci.
“That conduct was inappropriate, wrong and unethical,” Quadrangle said. No current Quadrangle employees were involved in the allegations.
Mr. Rattner’s lawyer, Jamie S. Gorelick, vigorously denied the attorney general’s claims.
“Mr. Rattner does not agree with the characterization of events released today, including those contained in Quadrangle’s statement,” she said. “Mr. Rattner shares with the New York attorney general the goal of eliminating public pension fund practices that are not in the public interest. He looks forward to the full resolution of this matter.”
Until now, Mr. Rattner was something of a shadow figure in the pension case. He was not named in a related complaint filed a year ago by the S.E.C., although he was widely believed to have been part of the inquiry.
Mr. Rattner’s troubles may stretch beyond New York. On Thursday, Mr. Cuomo outlined Mr. Rattner’s dealings with an adviser who helped the firm win investments from the Los Angeles fire and police fund and New Mexico’s state pension fund.
The S.E.C. on Thursday disclosed several e-mail exchanges between Mr. Rattner and various business associates that provided a glimpse into Quadrangle’s relationship with the New York fund.
The events in question began in 2004, when Mr. Rattner, who worked as a reporter for The New York Times before he went into investment banking in the 1980s, was trying to raise money for Quadrangle.
According to Mr. Cuomo’s office, Mr. Rattner had known since 2003 that a brother of Mr. Loglisci was trying to find a distributor for “Chooch.” In the fall of 2004, Mr. Rattner personally contacted the chief executive of Good Times Entertainment, a company owned by Quadrangle, and asked if Good Times would distribute the film if “we need to.” The next day, the executive told Mr. Rattner that he had offered the producers attractive terms.
Mr. Rattner later sent an e-mail message to Mr. Morris to let him know about the arrangement. “This is Steve Loglisci’s project. Wanted you to be aware,” Mr. Rattner wrote in an e-mail message in 2005. In February that year, the state fund invested $100 million with Quadrangle and has since paid the firm roughly $5 million in fees.
The New York investigation has prompted several other states to examine how their pension funds solicit investments, and firms including the Carlyle Group have settled related cases.
“This case has started a national investigation of public pension funds all across the nation,” Mr. Cuomo said in a conference call with reporters on Thursday. “A significant amount of this country’s wealth is in these public pension funds and I fear — seeing what we’ve seen in New York — that it’s going to be a serious problem for the nation.”
(c) 2007 New York Times Company
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
The Wall Street Journal ( 04/16/2010 )
by Peter Lattman
Troubles Mount For Former Car Czar
Steven Rattner, the famed Wall Street deal maker and former Obama administration car czar, came under fire from his long-time business partners for what they called "unethical" efforts to win a $100 million investment for their private-equity firm, Quadrangle Group.
Quadrangle made the accusations against Mr. Rattner as part of a settlement with the New York Attorney General and the Securities and Exchange Commission, in which the firm agreed to pay a $12 million fine to settle civil charges concerning its 2004 effort to win business from the New York State pension fund, one of the nation's largest.
Quadrangle was accused of improperly paying off a political operative and helping the brother of a pension-fund official distribute "Chooch," a low-budget comedy about hapless Italian-American buddies getting into trouble on vacation in Mexico. No current Quadrangle employees were involved in the allegations, and the firm has cooperated fully in the probe.
The matter has cast a cloud over Mr. Rattner, who returned to New York last summer after a five-month stint in Washington leading the Obama administration's restructuring of the U.S. auto industry. It has also been an albatross for New York-based Quadrangle, which now puts this case behind it as it prepares for its annual investor meeting next week.
New York's "pay to play" probe has since spilled into other states. Authorities in California and New Mexico are probing the investment activities of public funds there.
Mr. Rattner, 57 years old, is one of the most prominent individuals to figure in the probe. He remains under investigation and has been in settlement talks with both the office of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the SEC over his role in the case, according to people familiar with the case. He hasn't been accused of wrongdoing.
Mr. Rattner's lawyer, Jamie Gorelick, said in a statement: "Mr. Rattner does not agree with the characterization of events released today, including those contained in Quadrangle's statement."
The harsh words from his ex-partners at Quadrangle show the bitter split within the high-profile New York private-equity firm Mr. Rattner co-founded a decade ago. "We wholly disavow the conduct engaged in by Steve Rattner," the firm said in its statement, which was included as part of the New York Attorney General's press release.
Mr. Rattner left the firm in February 2009 to become car czar as Quadrangle was struggling through the depths of the financial crisis and dealing with the government investigation.
The developments are the latest in a three-year investigation into alleged kickbacks paid by money-management firms to secure investments from the New York state pension fund. A number of large private-equity funds, including the Carlyle Group, have made settlement payments related to the probe.
The regulators' concern: The pension fund's choice of money managers was guided by improper influence-peddling rather than merit.
The probe concerns whether people with ties to New York State's pension fund pressured money managers like Mr. Rattner to pay kickbacks to win business from the now-$129 billion fund. The investigation has led to six guilty pleas.
The SEC complaint, which was filed Thursday alongside the settlement, offered a detailed picture of the role Mr. Rattner allegedly played in trying to win the pension fund's business. The complaint refers to a former senior executive at Quadrangle who people familiar with the matter say is Mr. Rattner.
It chronicled his effort to secure a DVD distribution deal for "Chooch," a movie produced by the brother of a top pension-fund official.
Mr. Rattner allegedly pressed a Quadrangle-owned company to cut a deal for the film even though the company's chief executive was inclined "to take a pass," according to the SEC court filing.
Mr. Rattner also allegedly arranged for Quadrangle to pay about $1 million to a political operative to help the firm secure a $100 million investment from the pension fund, according to court filings.
Mr. Rattner's name first surfaced in the investigation a year ago after Mr. Cuomo's office and the SEC filed charges against the former chief investment officer of the pension fund and Hank Morris, a top political consultant to the fund's controller.
Authorities alleged that executives paid millions of dollars in improper finder's fees to Mr. Morris and others to become eligible for the pension fund's business.
Charges are pending against Mr. Morris, who through his lawyer has maintained his innocence.
On Thursday, New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli expressed outrage at the allegations of misconduct at the state pension fund.
"I inherited a mess," he said. "I have thoroughly and methodically evaluated and reformed the operations and investment policies of the Pension Fund."
Mr. Rattner's interactions with Mr. Morris, whom he knew through Democratic political circles, are under scrutiny in the case.
According to the SEC's complaint, at Mr. Morris's urging, Mr. Rattner tried to help the brother of David Loglisci, the former chief investment officer of the New York fund, produce "Chooch."
First, Mr. Rattner allegedly tried, unsuccessfully, to help secure a theatrical distribution deal. A year later, Mr. Rattner sought to arrange a DVD distribution deal through GT Brands, a Quadrangle-controlled media company. The chief executive of GT Brands emailed Mr. Rattner and told him he was inclined to "take a pass" on distributing Chooch on DVD, according to the complaint.
Mr. Loglisci's brother allegedly complained to Mr. Rattner, who in turn warned the GT Brands CEO to treat Mr. Loglisci's sibling "carefully" because Quadrangle was trying to obtain a pension-fund investment, says the complaint. This allegedly resulted in another meeting between GT Brands and Mr. Loglisci's brother, although it still didn't result in a distribution deal.
At that point, Mr. Rattner instructed the CEO of GT Brands to "dance along" with Mr. Loglisci's brother while Mr. Rattner determined whether Quadrangle "needed" to do a distribution deal to get an investment from the pension fund, according to the SEC. GT Brands eventually offered to manufacture and distribute the "Chooch" DVD at a discount to the company's typical fee, an arrangement approved by Mr. Rattner, the complaint says.
Several weeks later, Mr. Rattner was informed by Mr. Loglisci that Quadrangle was to receive a $100 million investment from the pension fund, the SEC says. Quadrangle paid Mr. Morris the $1 million finder's fee.
Mr. Loglisci pleaded guilty last month to a felony charge and is cooperating in the case.
He admitted that he had "effectively ceded" his authority over the fund's private-equity investment decisions to Mr. Morris, a former top New York political adviser.
Since the departure of Mr. Rattner, who had ambitions to build Quadrangle into a global asset-management firm, the firm has retrenched and now solely focuses on its private-equity funds, which have recovered substantially over the past year. The firm has either shut down or spun out ancillary businesses.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of Mr. Rattner's closest friends, recently shifted roughly $5 billion from Quadrangle into a new investment firm managed by former Quadrangle employees not involved in the allegations.
A spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg has said his decision to shift his assets had nothing to do with the probe.
(Copyright (c) 2007, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
Financial Times ( 04/16/2010 )
by John Reed, Gerrit Wiesmann and Bernard Simon
Ford lambasts bail-out for Opel-Vauxhall
Ford Motor hit out against a government bail-out of Opel-Vauxhall on Thursday, amid signs that Berlin was cooling towards aiding the carmaker, the European arm of General Motors.
The US carmaker said that the provision of soft government loans for “national champion” carmakers was holding back needed restructuring in the European car industry.
The industry has about one-third more plant capacity than it needs to make the cars it sells.
“We are definitely against any support for Opel for restructuring its business because we think this is the company’s own business and not the taxpayer’s business,” said Wolfgang Schneider, Ford of Europe’s head of legal, governmental and environmental affairs.
Ford of Europe attacked its weaker competitor as it unveiled March sales data showing that it was the continent’s top-selling brand, ahead of Germany’s Volkswagen and France’s PSA Peugeot Citroën.
Ford sold 192,500 cars in Europe last month and reported market share of 10.4 per cent in March, its best monthly share since August 1998, after strong sales of its Fiesta, Focus and Ka models.
The company said that its performance was largely due to “exceptionally strong” performance in the UK – its biggest European market – and that it did not expect to hold onto the number one spot for the full year.
Ford’s intervention in the debate over whether to aid Opel comes amid growing doubts in the German government over whether it should provide GM with the €1.3bn ($1.8bn) of loan guarantees GM is seeking from Berlin to restructure its European arm.
Dieter Zetsche, Daimler’s chief executive, said last month that the “time had passed” for a bail-out of Opel, which has been trying to finalise a politically contentious state-funded restructuring plan for more than a year.
Germany’s government is now reluctant to give Opel state aid as it believes that GM could be strong enough to fund its subsidiary itself.
Economy minister Rainer Brüderle this week pointed out that GM had recently turned in a good operating performance and said it was ready to repay bail-out loans from 2008 and 2009.
“There are signs that it [GM] is again building up strength,” he said.
GM last week said it expected to post an operating profit in 2010 and repay its loans to the US and Canadian governments by June.
Berlin reckons that GM has up to $30bn in cash and wants the company to explain why some of this money should not go to its lossmaking European subsidiary.
GM claims that it is not seeking special treatment for Opel, and that its aid request falls within the European Union’s scheme for companies hurt during the downturn.
(C) The Financial Times Limited 2007.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
The Detroit News ( 04/16/2010 )
by David Shepardson
Toyota testing all SUVs for glitch
Detroit — Toyota Motor Corp. is testing all of its SUVs worldwide for rollover concerns in the wake of its decision earlier this week to temporarily stop selling the 2010 Lexus GX 460.
A media report late Thursday in Japan said the automaker had found a software fix for the problem, but Toyota spokeswoman Alison Takahashi couldn’t confirm that. She didn’t have a timetable for when the company would resume sales.
Toyota said it would stop building the SUV for nine working days, starting today, as it investigates; it will suspend production until April 28.
Also Thursday, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the agency is aggressively investigating safety concerns raised by Consumer Reports about the Lexus GX 460. The magazine’s engineers experienced problems in emergencyhandling tests that suggest the vehicle may be prone to rollovers. The influential magazine issued a rare “Don’t Buy” recommendation, its first since 2001.
Toyota issued a “stop sale” order late Tuesday in North America, and expanded that directive worldwide on Wednesday. Toyota has sold about 6,000 of the models worldwide.
“Toyota has clearly made a determination independently that this is a defect that may have an impact on safety, so they made the decision to stop sale,” NHTSA administrator David Strickland told reporters on the sidelines Thursday of the SAE World Congress in Detroit. “At that point, that is legally the right thing to do.”
The stop-sale follows Toyota’s decision to temporarily stop selling 60 percent of its vehicles in the U.S. in January after it recalled 2.3 million vehicles for sticky pedal concerns. The automaker is trying to react more quickly to safety concerns amid a spate of bad publicity over its recall of 8.5 million vehicles worldwide for sudden acceleration concerns.
Toyota also is debating whether to pay a record $16.4 million civil penalty imposed by NHTSA over a four-month delay in the sticky pedal recall.
Strickland said the agency is aggressively investigating whether the Lexus GX 460 meets federal safety standards and is inspecting the vehicle that Consumer Reports tested.
“We should probably be getting answers on that very soon,” Strickland said. “We’ve made no decisions.”
David Champion, director of Consumer Reports’ auto test center, said Thursday at the SAE event that the solution would likely be a software upgrade for the Lexus that tweaks how the electronic stability control is activated to fix the “glitch.”
A Toyota official said the fix may be ensuring that the electronic stability control acts faster than it did.
“We’ve tested the Land Cruiser, the 4Runner, the RX, the Highlander on exactly the same course doing exactly the same thing and none of those have experienced the same issues,” Champion said.
NHTSA hasn’t yet tested the vehicle Consumer Reports purchased, Champion said.
Strickland said Toyota is moving fast to address concerns raised about the Lexus and praised the automaker for taking a “proactive step” to stop selling it.
“That is the kind of response I would hope every automaker would take,” Strickland said. “Safety is first. We’ll figure out details ongoing, but you should never pause safety ... for positioning yourself for press or trying to get permission. “Toyota has definitely been more responsive,” he added. “It is my expectation that they should be incredibly forthright in how they present evidence to NHTSA.”
He said automakers must make safety the highest priority.
“Your consumer should be your first priority at all times. If your car isn’t safe, nothing else really matters to a consumer,” Strickland said.
(c) Copyright 2007, The Detroit News. All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
Detroit Free Press ( 04/16/2010 )
by GREG GARDNER
Toyota solution may come in summer, Regulators look at various fixes, NHTSA chief says
Federal safety regulators are looking at a variety of potential solutions to the unintended acceleration issue at the root of Toyota’s recall of nearly 6 million vehicles in the U.S., but won’t know more about the problem’s cause until this summer at the earliest, said David Strickland, admin-istrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“We are looking at one-button on-off controls, smart brakes and electronic data recorders,” said Strickland, who spoke Thursday at the Society of Automotive Engineers 2010 World Congress at Cobo Center.
A group of NASA scientists is exploring electromagnetic interference, software coding and cosmic rays as possible factors in unintended acceleration.
They are expected to report to NHTSA this summer. Another group, from the National Academy of Science, has started a 15-month research project looking at similar issues.
Toyota executives have said two mechanical problems are causing the problem, which more than 1,100 owners have reported to NHTSA and is cited in hundreds of wrongfuldeath and injury lawsuits.
The automaker blames outof- place floor mats that become trapped beneath the gas pedal, or gas pedals that stick in a partially engaged position because of excess friction. Toyota is repairing or replacing gas pedals on 2.3 million vehicles it recalled in January.
Toyota has until Monday to pay or appeal a $16.4-million fine, the largest NHTSA has ever issued, for delaying that recall after receiving reports of the problem.
Separately, Toyota said Thursday it is testing all Toyota and Lexus SUVs to reassure buyers of their safety after Consumer Reports warned its readers not to buy the Lexus GX460 because of a tendency to roll over in tests the magazine’s staff conducted.
Lexus dealers in the U.S. have stopped selling the SUV until company engineers can address Consumer Reports’ concerns.
NHTSA is testing the SUV at a facility in Ohio, Strickland said.
(c) Copyright 2007, Detroit Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
The Wall Street Journal ( 04/16/2010 )
by Yoshio Takahashi and Jeff Bennett
Toyota Expands Tests to All Its SUV Models
Toyota Motor Corp., striving to take the high road on quality issues, said Thursday it would expand safety testing to all of its sport-utility vehicles, after suspending U.S. sales of its Lexus GX 460 amid rollover concerns.
The car maker also decided to suspend sales of the 2010 Lexus GX 460 in other countries where the luxury vehicle is sold and will halt production of the SUV for nine days beginning April 16 to prevent inventory levels from building up.
Toyota drew praise from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for taking "the proactive step" of offering owners of the luxury SUV a borrowed car until the problem is fixed.
"That is the kind of response we hope every auto maker would take," NHSTA administrator David Strickland said on the sidelines of the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress meeting in Detroit Thursday. Mr. Strickland said his staffers have noted that Toyota "has definitely been more responsive" since January, when he took over leadership at the federal safety agency.
Toyota will conduct tests on its Rav4, Highlander, 4 Runner, Sequoia, Land Cruiser and FJ cruiser models, as well as the Lexus LX and the Lexus RX. None of those models has shown rollover risk.
NHTSA Thursday said it will conduct its own tests on the Lexus GX 460. Mr. Strickland said Consumer Reports had given the agency a preliminary report before its public announcement Tuesday that the vehicle would get a rare "don't buy" rating slapped on it.
The agency is scheduled to hear by Monday whether Toyota will pay or challenge the $16.4 million in fines that NHTSA leveled against the auto maker for concealing a defect that caused some of its vehicles to suddenly accelerate.
Separately, a federal judge in Santa Ana, Calif., on Thursday set a date of May 13 for an initial hearing on the nearly 100 suits filed against Toyota related to recalls and allegations of sudden unintended acceleration.
Consumer Reports magazine found that the GX 460 could roll over in certain high-speed situations. Four of the magazine's auto engineers recently found the SUV had a tendency to slide out until the vehicle was almost sideways before the electronic-stability-control system was able to regain control, the magazine said. The problem had the potential to cause a serious rollover accident, Consumer Reports said.
Toyota is now seeking to re-create the situations in which the GX 460 was examined by Consumer Reports to determine whether its SUVs have stability problems. The tests being conducted don't involve recalling any vehicles, and the company won't suspend sales of SUV models other than the GX 460.
The Lexus GX 460 isn't a volume model. Toyota has sold 6,020 GX 460s since its November launch, including a combined 5,400 in the U.S. and Canada. But the problem with the GX 460 is yet another chapter in Toyota's ongoing vehicle-safety saga over sudden acceleration that has led the Japanese auto maker to recall 8.5 million vehicles globally, fix accelerator pedals and use incentive and marketing campaigns to repair its image with consumers.
Toyota has pledged to respond more quickly to safety and quality issues as it seeks to reverse negative publicity after its massive recalls.
Toyota has "to appear like they are right on top of these things because the general feeling was they were not on top of the acceleration issue," said Rebecca Lindland, an automotive analyst at IHS Global Insight. "They want to get the message across that they are listening loud and clear."
With Toyota offering hefty incentives to new-vehicle buyers, Ms. Lindland says it is hard to judge how its sales are being affected by the safety crisis. Earlier this year, IHS Global Insight lowered its U.S. market-share projection for Toyota to 15.7% for 2010, down from an original projection of 16.5%. That compares with 16.9% market share Toyota had in the U.S. in 2009.
"There were cracks in their armor, anyway, and they have just poured lemon on them," she said, noting that stronger competition and Toyota's weakness with young buyers could hurt its sales.
Lexus spokesman Bill Kwong said the company is optimistic that a solution for the GX could come out as soon as early next week.
The Japan-made Lexus GX 460 is exported to the U.S., Canada, the Middle East, Russia and Oceania.
The company sold 6.98 million vehicles overall world-wide in 2009.
Despite the production halt, the company will continue to run the No. 1 line at its Tahara plant, where it makes the luxury SUV, as it makes other models on the same line, the spokeswoman said.
Toyota's world-wide recalls forced the company to temporarily stop operations at five of its North American plants and a domestic plant in Japan in February, while the company started idling some of its output lines in France and the U.K. for a total of at least 12 days from late March.
(Copyright (c) 2007, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
The Wall Street Journal ( 04/16/2010 )
by Matthew Dolan and Jeff Bennett
Hopes Rise for Ford's Results
Ford Motor Co. is expected to post a sizable first-quarter profit after months of increased sales, market-share gains and stumbles by one of its chief competitors.
Early estimates by Wall Street analysts peg Ford's quarterly profit at 30 cents a share on revenue of $30.62 billion. A year ago, as the U.S. economy was in the midst of recession, Ford reported a loss of 60 cents a share on revenue of $24.8 billion.
Some analysts have revised their figures upward in recent days in light of Ford's increased production in the U.S. and Europe, its two largest markets, as well as solid sales of some of its new models. Goldman Sachs sees Ford reporting quarterly profit at 34 cents a share, above the consensus figure compiled by Thomson Reuters. UBS Securities this week set Ford's profit at 37 cents, and Craig-Hallum Capital Group raised its estimate by a penny on Thursday to 31 cents a share.
"I think it's product, product, product," said Steve Dyer, a senior research analysts at Craig-Hallum. "You can do a lot of different things out there in terms of incentives to try to get people to buy cars. But you still need to build vehicles that people want to buy and Ford has done that for the first time in a long time."
Ford on Thursday knocked down Volkswagen AG to become Europe's No. 1 brand for March, with sales of 192,500 vehicles, up 16% from a year earlier. For the first quarter, Ford sold 391,100 vehicles in the 19 largest European markets, a 9.1% increase from a year earlier.
Ford was the No. 1 brand for March in the U.K., Denmark, Hungary, Ireland, the Netherlands and Turkey. Driving sales was Ford's Fiesta subcompact. The company sold 70,000 Fiestas in March, lifting the total for the first quarter to 140,400.
In the U.S., Ford's vehicles sales climbed nearly 37% in the first quarter, as its market share edged up 2.7 percentage points from the year-earlier period; It now claims 17.4% U.S. car sales.
Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said earlier this week that the auto maker pulled in more revenue from car and truck sales in the first quarter than it did during the same time last year. He didn't disclose a figure.
"We haven't won anything yet. No one at Ford is cocky" about some of its recent successes, said Ford executive chairman Bill Ford on the sidelines of an automotive engineers conference in Detroit Thursday night. Mr. Ford added that while the auto maker was moving in the right direction, the company had only made "baby steps" in its efforts to achieve sustainable profitability.
Debt remains one of Ford's biggest hurdles. Hundreds of dollars of every vehicle Ford sells goes toward paying its debt, which carried $1.5 billion in interest payments alone last year. The company said last month it will make a $3 billion payment on a revolving loan in April, which will help reduce its overall debt to $31.3 billion.
Other headwinds include lower production in South America, a drop in earnings expected from Ford's wholly owned credit arm, and a forecast for slower European sales as scrappage programs end.
Several industry watchers have also cautioned that while global production at Ford was up in the first quarter over the year-earlier period, it fell slightly from the fourth quarter. The company's core automotive operations reported a fourth-quarter operating profit of $1.07 billion. Ford as a whole reported a profit of $2.7 billion for last year after four consecutive years of losses.
Ford was the only major U.S. auto maker to forgo a government bailout and bankruptcy reorganization last year. And this year, as Toyota Motor Co. struggled with recalling millions of vehicles over safety issues, Ford has been able to gain market share while keeping a lid on its incentive spending. This year, Ford will also introduce a new Fiesta and Focus compact car to the U.S., targeting the type of customers who have long had strong loyalty to Japanese brands including Toyota.
(Copyright (c) 2007, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
The Detroit News ( 04/16/2010 )
by Bryce G. Hoffman
Ford spotlights engineers’ role Chairman unveils Eco-Route system at SAE convention
Detroit — Ford Motor Co. Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. emphasized the importance of engineering innovation and the need to preserve American manufacturing during a speech Thursday night concluding the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress. “As we move past the financial crisis of the past year, the spotlight once again will be on the engineering community and rightly so,” he said. “The rate of innovation is happening at a pace unimaginable several years ago, and whether it’s electric vehicles, new safety devices or incredible customer features, they’re all being driven by you: the automotive engineering community.”
Bill Ford announced another of these innovations, a new feature of the My Ford Touch system that allows drivers to find the most fuel-efficient route to their destination.
When a driver enters a destination into the navigation system, the onboard computer will access historical and real-time traffic data as well as posted speed limits and offer three route options: fastest, shortest and “Eco-Route.”
In most cases, the latter will be a course that avoids freeway congestion and roads with many stop signs or lights.
When Ford of Europe engineers tested the prototype, the Eco-Route achieved average fuel savings of 15 percent.
The new My Ford Touch system will debut this summer on the 2011 Ford Edge. Similar systems will be available in Lincolns and Mercurys.
“We knew we had to do more than just cut costs,” Bill Ford said. “That is why Ford has continued to invest in technology, particularly fuel-saving technology.”
But he said government needs to do more to help promote new technology, particularly for vehicle electrification.
“Before we can rebuild our manufacturing base, we need to value it,” he said.
Bill Ford said he believes Washington finally does, but he called for more concrete steps — including federal support for battery research — to show it.
While he is proud of the progress Ford has made on its turnaround plan, Bill Ford stressed that no one on his team can afford to let up.
“We haven’t won anything yet,” he told reporters after his speech. “We run scared every day. We have to. There’s tremendous competition out there.”
(c) Copyright 2007, The Detroit News. All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
Detroit Free Press ( 04/16/2010 )
by BRENT SNAVELY
Ford says auto future hinges on electric car, Technological advances to make eco-friendly vehicles mainstream
Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford closed out the SAE World Congress on Thursday with an endorsement of the future of electric vehicles.
“All the early cars were electric,” said Ford, great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, at the engineers’ conference. “They’ve been around really for the past century or so, but they really haven’t had mass-market appeal.”
But Ford said the automotive industry is rapidly changing.
Ford, an ardent environmentalist who worked for years to change the carmaker’s culture so that it would embrace environmental goals, said new technology makes it possible to introduce electric vehicles that appeal to mainstream consumers.
“It appears that the biggest game-changer will be electric vehicles,” Ford said during a speech in Detroit. “Our plan includes the introduction of five new high-mileage vehicles.”
Ford said the automotive industry must introduce more fuel-efficient vehicles in order to meet the challenges of diminishing oil reserves, global warming and a desire by customers to spend less money on gas.
“The majority of our efforts are aimed at fueleconomy leadership,” Ford said. “We want to provide affordable fuel economy for millions of customers.”
Over the next three years, Ford plans to introduce a Transit Connect Electric commercial van, a Ford Focus electric vehicle, two new gasoline-electric hybrids and a plug-in hybrid.
Ford also said the company is committed to improving the fuel economy of all of its new vehicles.
This summer, Ford plans to launch the Ford Fiesta subcompact car. Ford has said it expects the Fiesta will get 40 m.p.g. on the highway and 30 m.p.g. in city driving.
Ford also is introducing technology in the car to help drivers get the most out of their vehicles.
On Thursday, Ford announced that the company is adding a new feature for the company’s navigation software called Eco-Route.
Eco-Route will map the most fuel-efficient route to a destination and can help drivers achieve fueleconomy gains of up to 15%, the company said.
The feature is part of Ford’s My Ford Touch, a new system that controls all entertainment, climate and information systems in the company’s vehicle.
In addition to introducing new technology, Ford is gaining market share both in the U.S. and Europe. Ford’s stock closed Thursday at $13.76 per share, up 41 cents from its close on Wednesday and more than four times higher than its 52-week low of $3.27 per share.
The company, which typically reports first-quarter earnings at the end of April, is expected to report a profit of 30 cents per share, according to a survey of 12 analysts by Thomson One Analytics.
“Nobody is getting cocky, or overconfident,” Ford said. “Because, frankly, we’ve only taken baby steps on the long journey to where we really need to go.”
(c) Copyright 2007, Detroit Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
Detroit Free Press ( 04/16/2010 )
by Brent Snavely and Tim Higgins
Ford slams GM’s struggling Opel unit
Ford, which said Thursday that it was No. 1 in European auto sales in March, used the occasion to say it opposes European aid for General Motors’ struggling Opel unit.
“You should not use taxpayer money to restructure your business,” said Wolfgang Schneider, vice president of legal and government affairs for Ford of Europe.
The comments were in contrast to U.S. automakers’ ordinarily cordial public stances toward each other. Ford, for instance, never criticized U.S. aid for GM and Chrysler during the recession.
GM, having abandoned plans to sell Opel, is seeking about $2.7 billion in loans and guarantees from European governments.
“We’re applying for loan guarantees, not grants,” said Opel spokesman Stefan Weinmann. “It’s not a handout.” Ford also called for closure of some auto plants in Europe.
With sales expected to decline by about 8% in Europe this year, automakers could drop prices to spur sales and keep their factories running, said Michael Robinet, an analyst at the research firm CSM Worldwide.
“That really hurts margins for everybody,” Robinet said.
(c) Copyright 2007, Detroit Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
Detroit Free Press ( 04/16/2010 )
by BRENT SNAVELY
Ford beats VW, takes No. 1 spot in Europe
Ford became the best-selling automotive brand in Europe in March, unseating Volkswagen, but it might have a hard time holding onto that position.
Ford said Thursday that sales of its cars and trucks increased 16.1% in its 19 primary markets compared with the same month last year. That result outpaced the industry’s 11.5% increase.
“Ford in Europe has weathered the storm quite well,” said Walt Madeira, manager of vehicle forecasting for CSM Worldwide. “Ford has fresh product, like the Fiesta, and the Focus is still holding its ground.”
But Pete Kelly, senior director of European forecasting for J.D. Power and Associates, said Ford’s sales were aided by a license-plate registration law in Britain that always spurs a spike in vehicle sales in March. Britain, Ford’s largest European market, accounted for 37.7% of total sales in March.
Ford also has benefited in Europe from government incentive programs similar to last summer’s U.S. cash-forclunkers program.
Those programs are the most attractive to buyers of small cars, Kelly said, and have helped to fuel sales of the Ford Fiesta and Ka subcompacts.
Ford said it sold 68,800 Fiestas in Europe in March — the highest total for any Ford model on record in a single month in Europe. Ford plans to begin selling the Fiesta in North America by early summer.
Meanwhile, sales of the Ford Focus increased 28.6% and sales of the Ka increased 27%.
But the incentives, called scrappage programs in Europe, expired in Britain in March and are to be phased out in Spain, Italy and France throughout 2010, making it hard for Ford to stay on top.
“In April, they will probably slip,” Kelly said.
On Thursday, Ford called on European governments to consider adopting incentives to spur commercial fleet sales. “The basic idea … is that scrappage programs would be in place until the crisis has ended,” said Wolfgang Schneider, Ford of Europe’s vice president of legal and government affairs.
Ford said it expects total industry sales of cars and trucks in Europe to decline to 14.5 million this year, down from 15.8 million last year.
Ford also said Thursday that, as sales decline, Europe’s longstanding overcapacity problem will become a bigger issue and criticized governments for propping up their own automakers.
“It basically sustains national champions … this does not bode well for the overall health of the industry,” Schneider said. “It maintains weak players that shouldn’t be players.”
But industry analysts said it is highly unlikely that many automotive plants will close in Europe because labor laws make it easier for unions to protect jobs than in the U.S.
(c) Copyright 2007, Detroit Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
The Detroit News ( 04/16/2010 )
by Alisa Priddle and David Shepardson
Engineering safer cars, NHTSA chief talks safety for automobiles — inside and out
Detroit — Federal regulators are moving quickly to make near-silent hybrid vehicles safe for pedestrians, avoid backingup accidents and minimize driver distraction.
Quiet electric and hybrid vehicles “could potentially put pedestrians at risk, especially blind pedestrians,” said National Highway Traffic Safety Administration head David Strickland.
At the Society of Automotive Engineers’ annual World Congress, Strickland said Thursday that data from 12 states “shows that hybrid electric vehicles do have a significantly higher incidence rate of pedestrian crashes than internal combustion engines for certain maneuvers — like slowing or stopping, backing up, entering or leaving a parking space, and making a turn.”
NHTSA, he said, is determining “how we might require vehicles to emit a base level of sound at low speeds to provide some level of identification to pedestrians that a vehicle is approaching.”
The safety agency also is considering a comprehensive approach to distracted driving — a term used to describe anything from cell phones to in-car entertainment systems.
“Rather than react to every technology as it pops up and becomes a distraction, NHTSA needs a framework that clearly defines the danger zone for the driver,” Strickland said. “We will not take a back seat while new telematics and infotainment systems are introduced.”
NHTSA also is working toward minimizing back-over accidents, Strickland said. The government ultimately could require automakers to install rear cameras or other equipment to alert a driver that something or someone is behind a vehicle, before backing up.
In 2007, NHTSA estimated back-over accidents result in at least 183 fatalities annually and about 7,000 injuries.
Other safety experts at the conference urged NHTSA to move cautiously.
When it comes to safety improvements, “be careful what you wish for,” said David Champion, senior director of automotive testing for Consumer Reports.
“You have to look at the consequences of improving one aspect of a vehicle that it doesn’t harm another.”
For example, wider pillars may prevent roofs from crushing in rollover accidents, Champion said, but they may impede drivers’ vision.
Also, he noted, Ford Motor Co. made changes in its Escape between 2001 and 2008 that improved fuel efficiency, but the vehicle had a longer stopping distance when the driver hit the brakes.
Safety should not be an option, but standard and global, said Beth Schwarting, a vice president with Delphi Electronics and Safety.
James Vondale, director of Ford’s automotive safety office, said he is concerned there will be a dual system of regulations: one U.S. and one for everyone else.
But he said he does not see litigation, or the risk of litigation, as delaying the introduction of new safety technology.
“If you don’t roll it out when it is ready, you risk litigation” that you didn’t roll it out fast enough or on enough vehicles, Vondale said.
(c) Copyright 2007, The Detroit News. All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
************************
The New York Times ( 04/16/2010 )
by MICHELINE MAYNARD
As U.S. Tests the Lexus GX 460, Toyota Ceases Selling It Worldwide
DETROIT — Toyota said on Thursday that it was testing the safety of all its sport utility vehicles and had suspended sales of the Lexus GX 460 in markets beyond the United States, where sales were halted this week.
The steps by Toyota, the parent of Lexus, came as David Strickland, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said his agency was testing the GX 460 for the same problems that prompted Consumer Reports magazine to issue a safety warning on the vehicle.
On Monday, Consumer Reports notified Toyota that its engineers had discovered a potentially dangerous problem with the way the vehicle handled on curves. A day later, the magazine said it was recommending that readers not buy the GX 460, a rare step for Consumer Reports.
Toyota stopped selling the GX in the United States on Tuesday and told dealers to offer loaner cars to owners uneasy about driving their vehicles. In Japan, the automaker said that it was suspending sales worldwide and conducting safety inspections of all its S.U.V. models.
Toyota will also delay plans to introduce the GX 460 in China, a dynamic market where it has raced to play catch-up. “We can’t move forward with those plans until the test results,” a Toyota spokesman, Paul Nolasco, said. “China’s a very important market for us. But we’re not going to be selling the model until we know for sure what’s going on.”
Speaking with reporters in Detroit after a speech to a conference of the Society of Automotive Engineers, Mr. Strickland said his agency was testing the Lexus GX to ensure that it met federal stability control standards.
“We’ll be taking action after that if it does not comply,” Mr. Strickland said.
He commended Toyota for quickly halting sales of the GX 460, in contrast to the agency’s efforts to fine Toyota at least $16.4 million for taking too long late last year to recall vehicles with defective accelerator pedals.
“Toyota has definitely been more responsive,” he said. “That is the kind of response I hope every automaker would take. Your consumer should be your first priority.”
Speaking of the Toyota recalls, Mr. Strickland said that the agency was looking into requiring automakers to use brake override systems or other technology that could prevent vehicles from suddenly accelerating but added that no decision had been made.
The handling problem arises if the driver of a GX eases off the accelerator pedal while driving quickly through a sharp turn, Consumer Reports said. That causes the rear end of the vehicle to slide toward the outside of the turn, a condition called trailing throttle oversteer.
David Champion, the senior director of Consumer Reports car testing, has theorized that the control system is at fault, but Toyota has reached no conclusion.
The carmaker has had high hopes for the latest version of the GX, introduced in December and built at a high-technology plant in Tahara, Japan. Lexus has sold 4,787 GX models so far this year, up 180 percent from 2009, when the previous version was phased out.
Based on the same frame as the Toyota 4Runner sport utility vehicle, the GX starts at $52,800 with destination charges and features a 4.6-liter V-8 engine.
(c) 2007 New York Times Company
© 2007 Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (trading as Factiva). All rights reserved.
