Some Good -- and Fun -- Automotive News for the Holidaze

Really wish there were better news to post about, but the auto industry is reeling worldwide, and there's no better example than Toyota. The world's biggest carmaker said Wednesday its global vehicle sales plunged 21.8% in November, the biggest drop in eight years.

But stick with us through this post; we'll try to inject a little fun for this holiday week and next's.

Even bedraggled Toyota (see above), unaccustomed to losing at anything, has some good news to report for racing fans. In spite of not winning a single race after seven years in Formula 1, Toyota will continue to support their F1 team, with an annual budget estimated at $445 million.

(Toyota thinks the $445-million annual cost to support their F1 team is worth the money and effort; they haven't won a race after seven years in the sport).

General Motors and Chrysler received their year-end gifts early this year, with Washington approving $17.4 billion in loans to those companies. Also, the Detroit Three now have access to DC's Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP).

And there's more good news for GM and, by extension, American car-buyers.

The US Federal Reserve has granted General Motors Acceptance Corporation's application to become a bank holding company, giving GMAC, too, access to what's left of the $700 billion TARP fund. GMAC can use the money to help their dealers with floorplanning (financing cars and trucks dealers buy from GM) and, it's hoped, with loans to consumers to buy new - and even used, depending on the dealer - GM cars and trucks.

(GM CEO Rick Wagoner arrived in Washington last week driving what looked like the high-mileage Chevrolet Cruze, due for the US in 2010, but GM PR-types said it was a "test mule," outfitted with the drivetrain from their Volt "extended-range EV" [that's what the company calls it]; among Wagoner's passengers were the Levin boys from Michigan, Senator Carl and Representative Sandy).

This year's Rose Parade in Pasadena, CA, will mark its 120th running. About 1990, I was doing PR for the gigantic RV group, the Good Sam Club, which stages an annual "Sam-boree" in a Pasadena Junior College parking lot, and Good Sam members fill one entire grandstand along the parade route. A Sam-boree, as you've probably figured out, is a huge gathering of club members and their motorhomes and travel trailers, most tending towards the 32' and longer size. Big rigs, all.

My single trip to the Rose Parade was due to my work for Good Sam, and afterwards I came to one big conclusion: Everyone should go to the Rose Parade - once.

This year, the parade will be led by a hydrogen-fueled fuel-cell EV Honda FCX Clarity and a Super Cub motorcycle, a scooter which Honda has sold over 60 million of since its introduction; the Cub first came to the US in 1959.

American Honda's float this year is a 49-foot-tall animated Asimo robot wearing a top hat. Perhaps this particular Asimo wants a job as a headwaiter.

(American Honda's Rose Parade floats are eagerly awaited, always on the cutting-edge; this year, it's a 49-foot tall Asimo which will get all the attention, and just check-out those hip dancers; crazy man! This is the float before it gets its covering of seeds, flowers, bamboo and who-knows-what-else which the all-powerful Rose Parade Committee demands. While watching the parade, be on the look-out for the folks in white jackets accompanying each float and band; they are committee members, considered minor gods in conservative Pasadena year-round).

An event press release says the parade will be watched by millions of people on both television and, as Pasadena always claims, more than one-million in person. Take that estimate with a grain of salt; it has about the same credibility as the film industry saying more than one-billion people watch the Oscars.

In 1985, Nobuhiko Kawamoto, Honda's president at the time, told me over lunch, after our small group of American journalists had just been introduced to the original Asimo, "We need robots like Asimo to work on our assembly lines, because young Japanese people don't want to do such work anymore."

He told me this while Japan was still enjoying a strong economy; it seemed there was nothing the Japanese car industry couldn't do. Today there are probably many Japanese, young and old, who wouldn't mind pushing aside an assembly line Asimo and take its place.

Subaru lovers, rejoice! The company, reports Automotive News, expects to post a sales increase for their American division, albeit a small one, for 2008, and says they will set records for three of its vehicles.

A Hawaiian Chevrolet dealer jacked-up a Suburban with monster truck-style tires ($5,000 apiece) to crush a vintage Honda Accord to "send a message to anyone buying Japanese cars." Whatever that "message" might be was forgotten when the Chevy truck blew a hydraulic hose and started leaking fluid after its first pass over the Accord. A few hours later the truck was repaired and the Accord was replaced with a Hyundai Excel. No word yet on the outcome.

(It was Accord vs. Suburban at a Hawaii car dealership; after the Chevy failed, the Honda was removed, replaced by a Hyundai).

Indian carmaker Tata, which this year bought Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford, are said to be readying an investment of up to $1-billion to improve the quality of their new acquisitions.

Also in India, reports www.team-bhp.com, a new-generation Rolls Royce Phantom has been turned into a cell phone store. This Roller can visit small towns and villages which don't have landline service but do have cell sites, and there are thousands of them throughout the subcontinent.

(Thought we were kidding, didn't you?).

And in the spirit of the late and much-lamented Jean Shepherd, radio host, author and screenwriter of the 1983 film, the now-classic "A Christmas Story," which involves a First Depression-era kid trying to convince his parents, teachers and even Santa Claus that a Daisy Red Ryder BB gun "with a compass in the stock" would be the perfect Christmas present ever. And he got one, too.
(Thanks to the enormous popularity of Jean Shepherd's "A Christmas Story," Daisy is making this replica of their 1938 Red Ryder BB gun; one can be yours for about $55, and be careful not to shoot your eye out).

With that, we ask your indulgence and contribution to the following:

Please tell us: What was the best car, truck, train or plane - anything with an engine or motor - holiday gift you ever received - or gave?

Told you this would be fun.

Follow Steve Parker on Twitter: www.twitter.com/autojourno

Comments

[rocketman69]

How could Toyota's sales go down? Only the stupid American auto execs are allowed bad news. Toyota had the foresight to make the Prius and tiny cars like the Sequoya and 4-runner. How can this be? Do we need to replace the Toyota execs so they will make cars people want to buy?

[Ridgemore]

Don't forget the Land Cruiser and the Tundra.
Toyota recalls more than 120,000 cars in China
http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE4BP07H20081226

[Steve Parker - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for your comment!
Toyota is indeed criticized - and rightly so - for producing trucks and SUVs with atrocious mpg numbers. But, at the same time, they are the only major carmaker I know of which has made a commitment to build hybrid versions of every vehicle they currently sell in the US.
Don't know if that applies to their big trucks, but it does for their line of cars. Along with the Prius, there are already hybrid versions of the Camry, Highlander and several Lexus models are hybrids, too. What I am waiting for is a Scion hybrid; seems a no-brainer to me. But because that line is aimed at younger buyers, Toyota probably feels the extra cost of a hybrid model won't appeal to those buyers.
Then there is this: "Toyota and Lexus models have earned 11 segment awards out of a possible 19 in the 2008 J.D. Power and Associates Vehicle Dependability Study(SM) (VDS), more than any other manufacturer for the third consecutive year" (from Reuters).
Steve

[KenGirard]

People bought fewer cars.
(Number of cars bought in 2007) compared to (Number of cars bought in 2008) shows smaller number of sales in 2008.
The difference is that the Big 3 have tons of unsold cars sitting around, while Toyota only has a few. Toyata made less money over all, but also spent less over all. The Big 3 made less money and spent as much as last year. This leads to Toyota's profit-per-car-sold being higher then that of the Big 3.

[Steve Parker - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks for your comment.
GMAC is getting about $6 billion from the TARP fund, and GM says this will allow buyers with FICO scores above 620 to get new-car financing at their dealers (the threshold had been 700 and above the past two or three months).
Watching GM's print and TV advertising, though, they are heavily discounting and promoting their bug trucks and SUVs (because they have more of those in their lots than any other vehicles).
They are promoting some of their cars (like Chevy's high-mileage Cobalt FXE) but the overall advertising emphasis is on their trucks, most of which have V8 engines.
With gas prices seemingly stable, Americans are buying big trucks again - and those are the vehicles GM (Escalade, Tahoe, Suburban), Ford (new F-150) and Chrysler ("Hemi hybrid" trucks; 20mpg on the highway) are advertising heavily.
What was that old song? "When will they ever learn ...?"
Steve

[truthbrigade]

The Prius was built for those with brains (Toyota does NOT make money on those); Sequoia & 4-runner are built exclusively to quench the rabid lust of American consumers (Toyota makes a lot of money on those). In other words the dumb consumers are subsidizing the smart ones.

[Steve Parker - Huffpost Blogger]

You make a very good (and very funny) point.
Reminds me of my old line, "I'm against motorcycle helmet laws because they are bad for the gene pool."
If it's okay, I'll steal it from you ... ;} (god, I hate emoticons...).
Steve Parker

[Steve Parker - Huffpost Blogger]

Happy New Year!
As KenGirard commented (below), every carmaker posted horrible sales figures the past few months, and I mean really horrible. The full 2008 sales figures should be out this week and I'll post them here on the blog.
But your sardonic point is well-taken ...
Also, as I said below, too, Toyota remains the only carmaker I know of with a stated commitment to make hybrid versions of each model they sell in the US.
And, as they say in Missouri, "Show me."
Steve Parker