Peugeot Gets It

US automotive industry observers, and the industry's political supporters, are mourning the forced removal of Rick Wagoner as the head of GM.

Although GM's share of the US marketed has fallen by 50% since he took over at the turn of this century, and the corporation's product offerings consistently demonstrated they appealed to fewer and fewer purchases, he had to be asked to leave as condition of continued federal support for the corporation.

It makes you wonder what the Board of Directors was thinking. Of course, most Boards wind up representing the interests of senior management; that's how you get invited to join a major Board. GM's Board has promised that next year, "you'll see a majority of new members."

PSA, the parent corporation of French automakers Peugeot and Citroen, removed their CEO this weekend because under his leadership, the automaker lost over 340 million Euros, or over $400 million. Their Board of Directors did not need a French government official to participate in a commission review of the company; they saw the existing leadership wasn't producing the desired results. Their new CEO comes from Corus Steel, so he might bring a fresh perspective to with the excellent engineering already on board with the company.

BTW, Corus is owned by Tata, the new parent for Land Rover and Jaguar.

No firing makes either Rick Wagoner or Christian Streiff reprehensible. No one should ever doubt the enormous energy and commitment it takes to run a giant corporation. Neither man went to his office each day looking for the easy way out. Automotive manufacturing is not an industry for the faint-hearted or intellectually deficient. The Donald Trumps of the automotive world might be entertaining to watch but they don't produce any better results than the Donald himself.

That said, the industry cannot pretend that its future operations will resemble the past ones. GM under Wagoner looked an awful lot like GM in the 1980's, and change was unlikely to occur on his watch.

Felicitations to PSA's Board for moving to make change on their own; let's hope that they're not just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Why Minivans?

Since their first appearance in the US in the 1980's, minivans have become a symbol of automotive dorkdom. They offer many, many advantages in terms of comfort, carrying capacity, efficiency and ease of use. That's why I have no use for them. Give me a car with character anytime over an appliance.

For a minority - but growing percentage - of Americans, they seem to offer housing. An NPR reporter spent time in Florida this week and interviewed a 40-something man from Alabama. He had a good job for many years, lost it in the recession, couldn't make his house payments, and then became homeless.

So he and two friends now live in his minivan. The roominess of the minivan enables them to sleep in the car, albeit without great comfort. They're finding enough day labor to have food and gas but not enough to make deposits and rent an apartment.

He joins a lot of workers finding tough times in this employment market. Bob Herbert noted today that "“What we’ve seen over the past eight years, for young people under 30, is the largest age reversal with regard to jobs that we’ve ever had in our history,” said Andrew Sum, the director of the Center for Labor Market Studies. “The younger you are, the more you got pushed out of this labor market.”

So the fellow with the minivan will be joined by a lot more people, and it looks like minivans will have an unfortunate role in this economy for a lot longer than we would want.

I have to admit; it would be hard to sleep in my TR-7.

The New Duke of Deception

In 1979 Geoffrey Wolfe wrote The Duke of Deception, a memoir of his life with his father, a master con artist. Arthur Wolfe - one of his several aliases - created a persona about himself that enabled him to live a life far beyond his means. He never shared his con with his family so their discovery of the truth provides the core of the book.

One hallmark of Arthur's life was the possession of the sports cars of his era, from MG's to Jaguars. Turns out it was one of his first post-war purchases. In their time these largely British sports cars helped define visually the man who could afford carefree driving; if it required maintenance, there would be a mechanic on call or he would have the time to fix it himself. You could be your own country squire, the gentleman sportsman, right here in America.

We loved the imagery of the lifestyle and we loved the cars themselves; they sold in far greater numbers here than they ever did in Great Britain. My first exciting drive was in an MGB-GT; while I drove it with care, the owner drove it with abandon just to show me what they could do. I pined away for one and finally, in 1968, bought my first Triumph Spitfire for $600. I've never been without a British sports car since then; now, it's a 1980 Triumph TR-7 Spider.

So it was no surprise to me that when the Boston Globe did a front page story [12/21/08] on the "connection" to the scam artist Bernard Madoff, a money manager named Robert Jaffee, they pictured him in his concours-level MG-TF, impeccably coiffed and dressed [he did not plan on getting greasy!]. The photo was first taken by the Palm Beach Daily News.

Two cheers for the new Duke of Deception.

Why I Love Winter

It's 4 days before Christmas and like a lot of the country, Maine lies underneath over a foot of snow. It will be a White Christmas The snow will continue all evening and throughout the night. I can hear the house moaning in the high winds. As this is an island town, there's no question that the ferry boats to the mainland will not run much of the day.

I have a cellar full of firewood and food that can be heated on the woodstove if necessary. I'm trying to get this blog finished before we lose power.

The driving is frightful right now, but earlier, heading out in either of my 1966 cars showed what enduring engineering is all about. The Corvair, with its rear engine, rear wheel drive, combines superb traction, excellent driver feedback and light weight to prove a great winter car. You always know, because you can feel it, where the wheels are planting themselves on every inch of roadway. With a wheelbase of only 108", you can feel any incipient skid and make corrections in plenty of time.

I drove around the very slippery, very windy roads here during the day, on a church run and a dump run, and felt in complete control the entire time. Unless the belly pan of the car high-centers on deep snow, it won't get stuck. All I'm running is ordinary snow tires on the rear, too.

When I needed to get into the woods to get more firewood, it was easy with the Land Rover. With its superb gearing, it won't get stuck unless it high centers on a snowbank or drops into a snow covered ditch. The car only has an 88" wheelbase but it will carry a lot of firewood in its square dimensioned body.

These cars are 42 years old in construction and engineering, but because they do not try and isolate you from the road - they connect you instad - you know exactly what's happening on a winter's day. Precision and connectivity will win out over electronic aids any time - I wonder if GM or Land Rover are listening?

Britain Gets It Right

The government of Gordon Brown recognizes the importance of the automotive manufacturing industry to his country. Even though the number of British-based automobile companies is small, the number of plants - regardless of corporate ownership - is deemed important.

Jaguar and Land Rover are now a single company, owned by the Tata conglomerate in India. The merged corporate structure pays 15,000 workers a year; its collective impact on far more workers [sales, repair shops, parts manufacturers and retailers] is even larger.

Great Britain has led the world in seeking out effective solutions to the banking/lending crisis; indeed, it wasn't long after Secretary Paulson announced his $700 billion plan that the Brown government came up with an alternative plans. By all measures theirs has worked better than ours.

So I was not surprised to read that when Jaguar and Land Rover found that they needed support in this difficult automotive environment, their government listened and indeed appears ready to act. Meanwhile, Washington continues to suck air as it approaches the end of December - when GM and Chrysler will run out of funds.

So You Think That Detroit was Faking It?

So you - yes, you, Senate southern Republicans - think that Detroit is faking their financial distress? I don't thnk so.

You see, according to the Assoicated Press, all 30 Chrysler plants in the US will shut down this Friday and remain closed until January 19. That's a great way to conserve funds and reduce inventory. Of course, a lot of auto workers, blue collar and white collar, will no longer have the same paycheck or will go on unemployment. That should do wonders from strapped state unenployment funds.

Well, good thing that the Senate Republicans refused to be bamboozled by those Big 3 CEO's.

Senate Republicans Fiddle While Detroit Burns

I took the ferry to the mainland from this Maine island this morning but made it home this afternoon to note that the Senate Republicans have decided to defy their President, the House of Representatives, and a wide array of economists and Wall St. experts. The bailout bill for GM and Chrysler [and Ford if they need it] looks doomed.

What's fascinating here is the hypocrisy. Senators from states that have offered huge incentives for foreign manufacturers to establish factories there refuse to assist American-based companies whose factories happen to be in other states. Maine's two Republican Senators have appropriately asked lots of questions and demand accountability, but they have not yet sounded nonsensical.

What part of "one nation" don't they understand? Maybe one of them can explain just why throwing hundreds of thousands of new people out of work is such a great idea?