Eideard

 
There are beaucoup conservative politicians in this nation who – if they had their way at the start of the recession – would have kept anything like this commercial from ever being produced. Because Chrysler and General Motors and tens of thousands of American workers would have been shoved off the economic scoreboard.

Keep on rocking in the Free World.

Shhhhh! Do you hear that? Neither do I. I’m talking about reaction from critics of the auto bailout to news that Chrysler will pay back the $7.5 billion that it borrowed from taxpayers of the United States and Canada. Chrysler is raising the cash to pay back its government loans through a combination of bond sales, a commercial loan and a cash infusion from its partner Italian automaker Fiat…

Granted, all this constitutes a refinancing of Chrysler’s debt and the company is far from being out of woods – it still owes the $7.5 billion. But the fact that an automaker that had been given up for dead a few years ago is now healthy enough to convince private investors to pony up billions is a positive sign. And the chief issue among bailout critics wasn’t the long-term survival of Chrysler (they were willing to let the automaker die after all) but whether the company could ever pay back the money it borrowed from the government. Well, it just did.

So Chrysler lives to fight another day, thousands of Americans keep their jobs and the company continues to expand and post profits. Which is good news, unless you are a Toyota state Senator, are paid by a think tank to opine that government can never do anything right, or are an ideologue who’s genetically incapable of uttering the word “government” without immediately blurting out the word “boondoggle.”

Ideologue being the operative word in my humble experience. Usually, the sloganeer is someone who could care less about the lot of someone who spent decades in an auto plant – overpaid for all the fun he had schlepping fenders onto a Chrysler chassis.

Nope. I have a lot more sympathy for the folks who spent a significant portion of their lives in the not-so-healthy atmosphere of an American factory instead of the ivory tower that makes some people “superior” to those getting a paycheck for manual labor.

GM, Ford and Chrysler showed much faster sales growth rates in April than Toyota and most other Japanese brands, in a sign that supply disruptions as a result of Japan’s March 11 earthquake are hitting Japanese manufacturers hardest.

Detroit automakers were also helped by the spike in gasoline prices to near $4 a gallon which fed consumer hunger for more fuel-efficient cars… And trucks.

GM sales were driven by its fuel-efficient Chevrolet compact cars and compact crossovers: the Cruze, Equinox and Terrain.

In March, for only the second time since 1998, Ford Motor Co outsold the larger General Motors Co. But in April GM sold 18 percent more vehicles than Ford. Ford came in No. 2 after it showed a U.S. 16 percent sales gain compared with GM’s 26 percent rise…

It was the third straight month that U.S. auto sales topped 13 million on an annualized basis — which had not happened since mid-2008…

Gary Bradshaw, portfolio manager with Hodges Capital Management in Dallas, said that a general U.S. economic recovery will allow consumers to continue buying cars at a rate that will also mean a gradual recovery in the auto industry…

Another beneficiary of the desire for cars that can go far on a gallon of gas was Hyundai Motor Co, which posted a 40 percent sales gain for its best showing ever for April. The cars it sold in April carried an average fuel efficiency of 36.2 miles per gallon, the company said.

In another sign of strength of the Detroit manufacturers, Chrysler Group LLC, managed by Italy’s Fiat SpA, increased April sales 22 percent, its 13th straight month of year-on-year U.S. sales growth…

Sales in Canada reported on Tuesday also showed gains linked to sales of fuel-efficient vehicles.

In my neck of the prairie, significant to the process of good sense overcoming habit, Ford’s best-selling F-150 pickup matched national numbers in that half of the sales were with the smaller Turbo V6 rather than the less efficient V8. Good news all-round, though I’d still prefer the small turbo-diesel they offer outside the US. RTFA for details on each manufacturer.

Long range, we’re still waiting and hoping for the Ford Focus EV to get its electric butt to New Mexico before my wife’s ancient Volvo gives up the ghost.

DISCLAIMER: I own enough shares in Ford to buy a breakfast burrito for each of us.

Marchionne at 2011 Chrysler product launch in Brampton, Ontario
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Fiat and Chrysler, has been forced on the defensive after causing a political firestorm in Italy by suggesting he could move the Italian company’s headquarters from Turin to the US…

His comments come just a month after he won tough labour concessions at Fiat’s flagship Turin plant on a pledge that he would not move production to cheaper sites in North America or eastern Europe.

Fiat is a symbol of Italy’s industrial might, and business leaders say any decision by Mr Marchionne to reduce its presence there would have a disastrous effect on the country’s already weak image as a place for foreign investment. Pierluigi Bersani, leader of the opposition Democratic party, demanding an explanation from Mr Marchionne said it was unacceptable for “Turin and the country to become a suburb of Detroit”.

On Sunday, John Elkann, Fiat chairman, sought to calm tension, telling Turin’s mayor that the city would remain a European headquarters of Fiat in any merger with Chrysler…

Fiat said only that Mr Marchionne spoke in his capacity as Chrysler chief executive. Even so, top bankers familiar with Fiat expect Mr Marchionne, who has made no secret of his frustration with Italian bureaucracy and labour relations, to seek to slim down operations in Italy and lead the group from the US…

How does it feel knowing that our economic worth – and guidance from Wall Street and Washington, DC in recent years – has made us as “desirable” as any other 3rd World country?

I’m not taking the time or space to explain class or history to y’all. I’m not explaining the times I appreciate willingness on the part of Eminem to stand up against imperial war and a scumbag like George W. Bush. Or the times he screws up, too. But, at root and heart this particular cranky old geek never stops being a kid from the East End of Bridgeport. Born and brought up downhill and downwind of coal-fired factories. The same factories where I went to work at seventeen.

Fix it, brother. You rock.

That’s right. #1 seller in the U.S. is still the F-150

Toyota’s U.S. vehicle sales fell in 2010 while industrywide sales rose 11 percent and every other major automaker reported gains. Ford moved up to second place behind only General Motors…Deliveries in December accelerated to the fastest pace of the year…

“The black clouds from Toyota’s recalls just don’t seem to go away,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends for Santa Monica, California-based auto pricing website Truecar.com. “We saw Ford, GM and Hyundai-Kia come on strong. Brand loyalty isn’t what it used to be.”

Industrywide sales in 2010 totaled 11.6 million, according to Autodata Corp., based in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. That’s up from 10.4 million the previous year for the first gain since 2005 and the largest percentage increase since 1984…

Like everything else associated with the Great Recession, you shouldn’t be surprised over dynamic percentage increases. Even the rate of jobs growth is larger than previous recessions – but, it doesn’t always feel like much since we’re starting back from the exceptional pit dug by neocon corruption and laissez-faire economics.

“This is a market that’s coming back significantly,” said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with IHS Automotive, a researcher in Lexington, Massachusetts. “And with really strong products coming from GM, Ford and Chrysler, there’s a lot of opportunity for change in the marketplace…”

Ford was the best-selling make in the U.S. in 2010, displacing Toyota’s namesake brand, which fell to third behind GM’s Chevrolet. Ford sold 1.76 million Ford-brand vehicles last year, while GM sold 1.57 million Chevrolets and Toyota sold 1.49 million Toyota cars and trucks…

Rising consumer confidence and retail spending bode well for car sales and may help boost 2011 industrywide sales, including heavy-duty trucks, to 13 million to 13.5 million vehicles, Don Johnson, GM’s vice president of U.S. sales operations, said today on a conference call.

RTFA for details on each marque. They all bode well. Well enough, I guess, for partisanship to resume among those of us who were cheerleaders for TARP and keeping an entire national industry from going down the tubes to satisfy those who base their dollar politics on redemption tales and the Kool-Aid Party.

You have to understand. We are an extended family of Dodge truck owners. I would solve the need for energy for all the planet with 32-litre Cummins turbo-diesel engines if possible.

I’m pleased with the beginnings of the new Fiat-controlled Chrysler Corporation. Especially the truck division simply known – now – as RAM.

But, this is one of the dumbest fucking commercials I’ve ever seen!

Fiat Bravo starts at prices below Saturn in Europe

Chrysler has secured court approval to sell most of its assets to a consortium led by Italy’s Fiat. The move, which is backed by both the US and Canadian governments, should enable Chrysler to exit bankruptcy protection in the near future.

Under the terms of the deal, Fiat will control 20% of Chrysler, while 68% will be owned by a union trust, and the two governments will share 12%.

It comes as General Motors is about to file for its own bankruptcy protection.

Under the terms of the Fiat-led deal, creditors holding $6.9 billion of Chrysler debt will receive only $2bn. However, 90% of them backed the deal.

Fiat is not paying anything for its 20% stake, which will give it access to the US car market. It has the option to increase its shareholding in Chrysler in the future. In return, Chrysler will be able to take advantage of Fiat’s expertise in making smaller, more fuel-efficient cars in its existing US factories.

The introduction of much of the broad Fiat line should get some factories back up to production. Though part of the equation depends on Americans learning from changing world circumstances and refusing to dash back to gas guzzlers every time the price of gasoline drops 5¢ a gallon.

I’ve said it enough times. An old geezer like me really doesn’t need to buy another car unless I figure on living to 100. Though I could be tempted by a Dakota pickup with the 3-litre Cummins turbo-diesel – or smaller.

Chrysler has told a bankruptcy court that it plans to close about one quarter of its dealerships. Chrysler said it wants to shut down 789 out of its current 3,200 dealers.

Just over half of the dealers account for about 90% of the company’s US sales, it added. “In addition, as suburbs grew and the modern interstate system continued to evolve, long-standing dealerships no longer were in the best or growing locations,” the company said in its filing.

As a result, the troubled carmaker has written to those dealers it wants to close down.

“It just says whether you’re in or out,” said Anthony Viviano, president of the Detroit Dodge dealers association. “Some of my fellow dealers have already called and said they’re out. They got the poison letter.”

The Dodge truck line is solid as a rock and needs damned little change to their big boys.

Offer me a Dakota with the 3-litre [or smaller] Cummins V6 diesel and I’d be waiting in line.

Still my favorite Chrysler product

Q. Will Chrysler cease to operate?

A. No. Chrysler is reorganizing under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. The law allows companies to shed assets, restructure debt, cancel contracts and close operations that normally would have to continue running. Once they secure financing to leave bankruptcy, these companies are reconstituted as new legal entities…

Q. How long will this take?

A. The Obama administration spoke of a “surgical bankruptcy” which it said could be completed in 30 to 60 days. It plans to use Section 363 of the bankruptcy code to sell assets, rid the company of liabilities and restructure its debt, creating a new Chrysler…

Q. What happens to Chrysler dealers?

A. Chrysler Financial will cease making loans for Chrysler vehicles; GMAC, with support from the government, will provide financing for Chrysler dealers.

Q. What happens to Chrysler employees?

A. The White House said it did not expect any reductions in white- or blue-collar jobs as a result of the bankruptcy. However, Chrysler employees who are not union members do not have any job security.

RTFA for details – though it’s just a starter. Chrysler-Fiat merger is on. That bodes well for Chrysler dealers who will begin to pick up salable, economical small cars.

Cripes – I would even consider adding a Fiat 500 to the family fleet though I’m still holding out for a Dakota Pickup with the Sprinter turbo-diesel.