Posted by: David Welch on July 02
In Detroit’s hey day, American cars were been fawned over in rock and roll tunes both for their brawny performance and cultural significance. Songs like Bruce Springsteen’s “Cadillac Ranch” glorified big, ostentatious Caddies. “Hot Rod Lincoln” by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen did far more as an homage to horsepower and a polish job for Ford’s luxury brand than it did for the band’s career. But the same can’t be said for the Chevy Camaro.
The most recognizable tune I can think of is the ‘80s punk ditty “Bitchin’ Camaro” by the Dead Milkmen. In the tune, the Milkmen lampoon the Camaro as a car for rich spoiled kids who guzzle gas and tear up their neighbor’s yard. It’s the hood ornament for crass American suburbia. Here’s a clip of the lyrics:
So you'd better get out of my way
When I come through your yard
Cause I've got a bitchin' Camaro
And an Exxon credit card
For much of its history, the Camaro was a gaudy guzzler for the buzz cut and gold chains crowd. The cars were usually fast, but also inexpensive and unsophisticated. So, frankly, when GM announced two years ago that Chevy would bring the car back, I was very skeptical. It arrives later than Ford’s Mustang and Chrysler’s Challenger. And let’s face it, reborn muscle cars preach to the 50-something guys who already buy American brands, not the import owners that Detroit needs to win back to survive. It sends a signal to people shopping for Bimmers, Hyundais, Priuses and the like that Detroit is stuck in 1970.
But after driving the new Camaro, I have to erase all of that. The car is simply terrific. And it’s far more sophisticated in many ways that competing cars and certainly than the old Camaros. Start with the engine. My test model had a direct-injection V6 which kicks 304 horsepower but gets 29 mpg on the highway. All that grunt still guzzles 19 mpg in the city, but a combined 22 or 23 mpg for a car with that much oomph is impressive. You can get a V8 in the SS version, but it starts at $31,000. The V6 models start at $23,000
Then take a look at the car. Love the design or hate it, you have to say that it’s not just reproduced retro. Chrysler simply knocked off a 1970 Challenger. The Camaro looks like a new-era interpretation of the old pony car. If GM never killed it, the Camaro may have just evolved into this design today. It’s fresh. The Camaro really handles quite well, too. At 3,700 pounds it doesn’t feel as heavy as other big sporty cars.
The cabin is decidedly retro and not the car’s best feature. GM took many cues from the early ‘70s cars. And while the plastics inside don’t feel top grade, they’re good enough for a car that starts at $23,000 and offers as much as it does in terms of performance and style. My test car, by the way, was about $30,000 loaded up with satellite radio, blue tooth, stability control and a nine-speaker Boston Acoustics sound system.
Still, the new Camaro is a very impressive car. I was surprised by how much I liked it. I’ve never been a Camaro guy. But I was also suspect of how GM would execute it. When Pontiac brought back the GTO in 2004, GM was content to take a ‘90s jelly bean body style from its Australian unit, shove a big engine under the hood and call it reborn muscle. It didn’t last. This is a purpose-built muscle car for a new age, and quite a good way to usher in the New GM assuming the company emerges from bankruptcy in a couple of months as planned.
Posted by: David Kiley on July 01
Chrysler Group LLC CEO Sergio Marchionne tells Bloomberg News that the company is burning less of its valuable and limited cash than it was a few months ago, but he doesn’t say how much less.
Chrysler is not publicly listed, so Marchionne says he doesn’t have to get into specifics.
Chrysler went through $9.6 billion in cash in 2008. The automaker reorganized around what it considered its best assets in Chapter 11 and $6 billion in fresh financing from the U.S. and Canadian governments.
"We are still burning cash, but it's slowed down by far," the news agency quoted Marchionne.
That said, it is not lost on the CEO, who is also head of Fiat’s auto group in Italy, that the American public has a vested interest in knowing some of Chrysler’s specifics.
He says he is discussing with the U.S. Treasury auto task force how much information will be disclosed and how often going forward.
Fiat owns 20% of Chrysler and is managing the company now after the Federal government lent the automaker billions to stay in business.
Today is the day that monthly sales are reported by the automakers. Chrysler, reporters were told yesterday, would issue a press release with sales information. But the automaker plans to discontinue the traditional monthly sales call with reporters to discuss the sales figures in more detail, and offer media outlets an opportunity to ask a few other questions.
GM, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota have long held conference calls with reporters to discuss their company and industry trends. Right out of the box, though, Fiat is pulling back access by the media too its executives.
Let’s see…a foreign owned company takes over an American icon with the aid of U.S. taxpayer money and then gets, some might say, uppity about disclosing information as a first impression.
Hardly seems sociable.
Posted by: Ian Rowley on June 30
It's seems an unlikely combination, but is the deal between Toyota and Aston Martin, announced yesterday, such a bad idea? Under the plan, Aston Martin will sell a version of the tiny Toyota iQ (pictured above) called the Cygnet to existing clients. The price is likely to be around $30,000. "Small is beautiful these days,” Ulrich Bez, Aston Martin’s chief executive said yesterday reports the Times of London. “We have to move on from the preconceived ideas regarding what Aston Martin is about.”
Predictably, most comments on car blogs have been pretty harsh, ranging from outright rage to disbelief. But why not? The iQ, while not exactly a popular sight on Japan's roads--I think I've seen four since it was released late last year--is a fun, innovative car. In Cygnet form, may be useful for Aston Martin when fuel economy regulations get stricter in the years ahead. Aston Martin when fuel economy regulations get stricter in the years ahead. It may also help Aston Martin enthusiasts assuage concerns, assuming they have any, about the environmental damage caused by their 4.8 liter V8 or 6.0 liter V12 Vantages. And as it's only going to be sold to Aston Martin owners, it's not as if the hoi polloi will be able to get their hands on one easily.
From Toyota's point of view, even a small association with a brand like Aston Martin, won't do any harm. New president Akio Toyoda insisted on June 25, at his first press conference as Toyota chief, that cars must be more than just appliances for getting from A to B.
Interestingly, the move seems to have stemmed from a racing friendship built up between Toyoda and Bez. At the June 25 press conference, the Japanese exec name-checked Bez when asked about his love of racing. Under the pseudonym Morizo, Toyoda has been known (most recently in May) to drive a Lexus LF-A in races at Germany's Nürburgring circuit. Bez, a fellow racer, got in touch with Toyoda after seeing an iQ on show at the track. When asked if he would quit racing now he is boss of the world's biggest carmaker, Toyoda admitted his colleagues were urging him to hang up his racing overalls but (somewhat unconvincingly) said that driving around the 'Ring was a good way to test new cars. If the Aston Martin deal works out, perhaps he can use that as an additional argument if he wants to keep racing.
Posted by: David Welch on June 29
The 25-year marriage between General Motors and Toyota is over. GM said today that it will pull out of New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or NUMMI, the joint venture plant in Fremont, Calif. The plant’s 4,700 workers---most of who are United Auto Workers union members--make the Toyota Tacoma pickup, Toyota Corolla compact and Pontiac Vibe.
Pontiac sold 46,000 Vibes last year and 17,000 of them through May of this year. That’s not massive production, but it helped keep NUMMI’s passenger car line running near full capacity in better times. Without it, NUMMI’s profitability will be under pressure.
That plant’s workforce will be feeling heat for other reasons. While it was founded to marry GM’s knowledge of the U.S. parts making network with Toyota’s factory smarts, now it has a nasty combination of GM and Toyota problems. It has UAW wages and Toyota’s cultural aversion to layoffs. Toyota is also wary of cutting jobs in the U.S. because it might hurt the company's image as the kind of generous employer that doesn't need a union in the shop to guarantee nice wages and job security.
So Toyota has a problem on its hands. The company went on an expansion binge when car sales were booming by building new plants in Texas, Canada and one in Mississippi that has not yet opened. But now many of its plants are underused and the company doesn’t know how much the U.S. market will really rebound. But the company has a lot of production, and GM’s latest move makes add to the excess. Without a sales rebound, Toyota will have to contemplate the politically stressful decision to cut workers at NUMMI or at its other plants.
Posted by: Ian Rowley on June 23
It is annual shareholder meeting time in Japan and, after receiving dozens of questions from Nissan investors in Yokohama this morning, CEO Carlos Ghosn answered a few more from reporters.
Nissan's plans for electric vehicles dominated the discussion. Ghosn, who is also CEO of France’s Renault, confirmed that Nissan will make around 100,000 electric vehicles from 2011 or 2012 in Smyrna, Tennessee. He declined to give many more details, pointing out that Nissan is still waiting to hear from the Department of Energy regarding an application for loans made under the $25 billion program created by Congress to help automakers upgrade factories to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles.
In Japan, Nissan's EV plans continue to move ahead. On August 2, Nissan will show off the first of three EVs it plans to begin making in 2010. Renault, Nissan's major shareholder and partner, will make three more. Ghosn says the six models will come in a range of different shapes and styles, including larger and smaller cars, and a commercial vehicle. In 2010, Nissan will make 50,000 electric cars before increasing production at its Oppama plant. In addition to the Smyrna plans in the U.S., a further plant will also be added in Europe, although its location is still to finalized.
Nissan differs from rivals in the speed in which it is planning to raise production. Mitsubishi Motors will begin delivering its electric vehicle, the i-MiEV, in Japan from next month, but currently plans to make just 30,000 a year by 2013. At over $40,000, the price is unlikely to appeal to most drivers. Nissan is basing its strategy on making electric vehicles that cost the same as regular cars when fuel costs are taken into account. To bring costs down, in addition to economies of scale through mass production, Nissan is asking governments around the world to subsidize "emissions-free" cars with tax breaks and other incentives. "We’re not into a niche strategy. We won’t come with a high price,” Ghosn said.
Coming from the charismatic CEO, it all sounds very convincing. Still, given the numerous challenges facing electric cars, including infrastructure, high battery costs, limited driving ranges and the reliance on government funding, I couldn't help but questioning if EVs can really enter the mainstream in the next five or ten years. Ghosn, though, was even bullish enough to (once again) take a swipe at gas-electric hybrids, such as Honda’s Insight and Toyota’s Prius. He pointed out that hybrids, which debuted a decade ago, only account for 6% of new car sales in Japan this year and far smaller proportions in Europe (0.2%) and the U.S. (2.2%). “When you read articles in the press you get the impression that 30% of the car market is hybrids,” he said. "The global market share is below 1% after so many years of hybrids and huge advertising by the media."
