Global warming, Chrysler’s chronicles, and the cosmic implications of our editor’s writing - it’s all on the table this week as TheCarConnection.com sifts through its mailbox and answers your questions on the big car news of the day.
“‘Vette Gets More Power!” If we had a dime for every time in our careers we wrote that headline…we still couldn’t pay for a Starbucks. And God, do we need one right now.
In Dearborn, there’s a glimmer of turnaround at Ford again in better than expected Q1 results. We say full steam ahead with the Flex—and somebody, please, if you’re going to kill off the Panther cars, don’t leave them on death row another year.
Holy crap! We wanted you to call, we wanted you to write – and all we had to do was print an unpopular opinion. We’re getting the hang of polemics, bear with us.
Gas at $4 a gallon is here already. Do we hear $5? $6? It’s like the Price is Right, only there’s seemingly no upper limit.
Rondoism no, Kia Rondo, yes. Forget the ads and give us the car.
Earth Day came and went, and still, cars are 90 percent cleaner than ever before. So where’s the backslapping from Dennis Kucinich? That’s what we thought.
Can you imagine a General Motors that only sold Chevys, Saturns and Caddys? We can too. And so can Alex Taylor. Tell him why he’s wrong.
Lastly, a warm send-off for Warren Avis, rental car king who was returned a little late to the big parking lot in the sky, but presumably, with a full tank of gas.
Whenever we talk at cocktail parties--yes, we do get invitations--and people ask us about Detroit, we always respond, "Are you going to finish that?" But when they get serious and ask us why GM in particular is having problems, we tend to point out that there are more divisions inside the company than a middle school math book and that the development pie can only be cut into so many pieces.
GM management might demur, but we're not alone. Fortune car writer Alex Taylor neatly sums it up this week in his column that advocates nothing less than the shuttering of four GM brands and the redefinition of another. And it's logical: until GM slices more brand fat off the fairly muscular body underneath, it's going to bleed money away from its strengths merely to shore up its historical weaknesses.
Taylor calls it thusly:
"It is past time to perform euthanasia on Buick....the Buick brand can soldier on in China, where it is uniquely beloved;
"Pontiac should get the same treatment, though without the Asian escape hatch...In a world that increasingly is going green, there is little upside for its testosterone-laced pavement rippers;
"Whatever noble intentions GM had for Hummer, they have been permanently damaged by the greenhouse gas debate. Hummer should be sold to whomever winds up with Jeep after Chrysler is broken up....
"Say goodbye to Saab...The success of Japanese sport-luxury brands Infiniti and Acura has made Saab irrelevant."
Taylor also wants GMC to become GM's commercial truck brand, leaving only Chevrolet, Saturn and Cadillac behind.
We like this plan. And we know what GM's chieftans would say to it. But what do you think? Is it time for more slicing and dicing, or is GM on the road to recovery just as it is?
TheCarConnection's blog gives you news and opinions on the latest, hottest, greenest and fastest new vehicles on the market--and what's coming down the road.
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