Is That an ‘09 Escalade or a ‘90 Blazer? I Can’t Tell…

Remember seeing old VW Beetles with a Rolls-Royce grille attached to the front?

When I was growing up I’d see them around town, shaking my head in disgust at even a relatively young age. Why take a cheap car and adorn it with a front end associated with the super rich? I sure knew it wasn’t fooling anyone into believing the driver had a Rolls. And it was plain ugly. Even today, the point of such modifications completely passes me by.

I was reminded of the absurdity of it all when a friend sent me this picture of a Chrysler 300C (below). With a Bentley grille.

Right. I can understand wanting to modify your car and personalize it so it suits your personality, but why on earth identify yourself to the masses as someone who thinks everyone else on the planet is moronic enough to believe you actually bought a Bentley?

I don’t question the fact that Bentleys look a lot like Chryslers, which is not a compliment (in fact, I’ve gone as far as calling Bentley one of the ugliest cars available.) There’s still an undeniable luster a Bentley has that a Chrysler will never approach, even with Bentley’s logo gracing the front end.

I’ve even seen an obvious Chevy Blazer decked out in Cadillac Escalade badging. Pretty convincing, especially with the Chevrolet badge still dangling from the rear end.

Why do people do this to their cars? If you were to customize your car with an exotic front end, what would you do? I’m thinking an Aston Martin V12 Vanquish front end would look sweet on my ‘07 Suzuki SX4.

-tgriffith

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The American (sort of) car company you’ve never heard of

Which car would you rather buy:

1. A $27,000 made-in-America commuter that gets 60 miles per gallon, or
2. A $14,000 car that’s identical, but made in China

That’s a question the founders of ECO Motor Company had to address as they discussed bringing their three-wheeled commuter car to production.

ECO Motor Company began as a summer project between CEO David Joner and his son. Eventually design engineers from around the world were brought in and the innovative EMC3 Commuter was born.

Rated at 54 horsepower from its 1.0-liter, three-cylinder engine, the rag-top convertible is officially classified as a motorcycle. In truth, though, it’s a car and built to automobile safety standards that include front airbags, dynamic side impact beams, and reinforced A and B pillars. ECO Motor Company is having crash testing performed on the EMC3 by the same laboratory used by big automakers and the NHTSA.

A base price of $13,995 will get you a manual transmission, convertible top, power windows and locks, air-conditioning, an AM/FM/MP3 player, and those precious front airbags.

I believe the EMC3 represents the kind of innovative thinking required for the auto industry to succeed. It is very basic transportation with a smart design that uses a regular gas engine and should deliver phenomenal mileage numbers while not compromising safety.

Quality is a natural concern, though… as ECO Motor Company has elected to have their car built in China by Geely, China’s largest privately held automaker. Even so, I think they made the right choice, as the pricetag is affordable, and the warranty is the same as if the car had been built in America: a three-year/36,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty and a 100,000-mile powertrain warranty.

Production on the EMC3 has already started, with the first deliveries expected by May of this year.

So what do you think: Are you more apt to buy a $27,000 car made in America or an identical car made in China costing about half that?

-tgriffith

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The Bailout Collapse: Getting Partisan

The Senate, house of political intrigue, punts on the auto bailout bill and here we are, now looking to the White House to solve the industry’s cash flow problems. Imagine what Jon Stewart and Jay Leno will have to say on this tonight. In fact, leave us your comments on that!

As we’ve said before in this blog, there has to be an element (or appearance) of fairness in these matters. Yet we should have learned a long time ago that politics has to do with advantage, not fairness. The Democrats put themselves at a big disadvantage by offering up a bill with so many flaws and so little to enforce a restructuring. Republicans seized the moment by piling on to the UAW which, whatever its past sins, had been the only stakeholder to come to the table.

In a news conference, UAW Chief Ron Gettelfinger “felt the union was being asked to make immediate sacrifices that other ‘stakeholders’—bondholders, executives, retirees, and others—were not. . . . The GOP caucus was insisting that the restructuring had to be done on the back of workers and retirees rather than having all stakeholders come to the table.”

Said Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), “It sounds like UAW blew up the deal.” Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) agreed. Really?

Given the fact that labor cost, as we reported, is only about 10% of vehicle cost, that does seem a mite unfair. Josh Marshall in TPM today thought so too and offered three Republican motives:

“Finally, this issue now goes well beyond the fate of the American automakers. Senate Republicans are following this course for three key reasons—first is payback against a major industrial union; second is payback against states like Michigan and Ohio who have been moving away from the GOP; third is the desire to advantage Japanese auto manufacturers who disproportionately do business in their southern states.”

With all this leveraging for political position and jockeying for power, maybe the best course is bankruptcy after all. Jospeh Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winner and one of our most insightful economists, has this to say in the Financial Times:

“The debate about whether or not to bail out the Big Three carmakers has been mischaracterised. It has been described as a package to help the undeserving dinosaurs of Detroit. In fact, a plan to bail out the carmakers would benefit shareholders and bondholders as much as anybody else. These are not the people that need help right now. In fact they contributed to the problem.”

The problem was created, says Stiglitz, by the industry’s mismanagement and the financial markets “which failed in their oversight” and allowed the companys’ shortsighted, short-term focus on profits to continue.

“As the bail-outs continue, numbers that once looked huge are starting to seem almost normal. Hundreds of billons are being given to banks and insurance companies. AIG got $150bn. Compared with that $34bn, or even $125bn, for the automotive industry seems a modest request. Even so, we should not forget that a few months ago, President George W. Bush said there was not enough money for health insurance for poor children although it cost just a few billion dollars.”

If Stiglitz is right, then a prepackaged bankruptcy finally may be the best and only real option. I urge you to read the article.

Let us know how badly you think the government has fumbled this bailout question. Is Stiglitz right?

–jgoods

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