Señor Jehuda, aka "El Blogo de Conservo", is an attorney and media professional with a background in TV marketing and production, copywriting, independent filmmaking, and spontaneously speaking perfect Spanish. A proud Texan who recently escaped from Los Angeles to Albuquerque, he spends far too much time thinking about movies - especially since his job requires it. Jehuda is also a contributor at YesButHowever.com and PJ Lifestyle.
Ben Popken: “Having screwed up in the automotive industry, maybe GM should get into the thriller film business instead.”
Well, it’s not like the average Hollywood thriller could get any worse…
GM should instead borrow a page from the advertising playbook of fellow bailoutee Chrysler.
As an enemy of the crony capitalism Obama and his allies at the UAW embraced in the GM and Chrysler bailouts, I think I can safely say my favorite American automobile manufacturer is Ford Motor Company.
Still, I need to give props to Chrysler for its current Dodge Challenger and Jeep Cherokee TV advertising campaigns. The ads elicit a sense of American pride that frankly you don’t see much on TV – or anywhere – anymore (in fact, at least one member of the media commentariat seems to have missed the point of the Dodge Challenger spot).
Not sure which ad agency is behind either one of these spots, but again, kudos to Chrysler’s marketing people. This campaign is perfect for the week of the 4th of July…or anytime.
Dodge Challenger’s Ferocious Independence:
Jeep’s American Manifesto:
UPDATE: Related content from The Anchoress: Washington Meant What He Said: George Washington versus the “idiotic cerebral meritocracy”.
Engadget: “A team of researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California San Diego have determined that, with physical access to your car’s ECU, a hacker could ‘adversarially control a wide range of automotive functions and completely ignore driver input’”.
The Hill: “Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information.”
I thought giving government the power to say “Your papers, please” was bad and Nazi-like. I see I was wrong. Either that or Jonah Goldberg is as right as ever
UPDATE: “All new cars would have to be equipped with ‘black boxes’that record performance data and federal safety regulators would be granted the authority to order immediate recalls under newly proposed auto-safety legislation being considered by Congress.”
Wow. When it rains it pours…Where’s Glenn Greenwald? How should an Arizona-hater act?
MORE: Dems will be dems: Remember the Dem congressman who required photo ID from town hall meeting attendees? A caller on Rush just brought it up…
A rare distinction for POTUS and his union cronies: Three GM vehicles among Forbes‘ Worst-Made Cars On the Road.
Probably not street legal.
Consumerist: Know the warning signs.
UPDATE: Link was bad. Just fixed it. My apologies.
Wired: BMW’s New Vision.
Nice!
The Hill: McCain and McCaskill to vote against more funding for Cash for Clunkers.
McCaskill for lower spending? Could it be? Hmm…
How’s all that liberal throat-stepping working out, by the way?
WSJ: Economics Wasn’t GM’s Only Criteria For New Plant.
Not exactly a surprise…
P.J. on the future of the American automobile:
Via DailyUprising.
It’s a compact four-door powered by a lithium-ion battery .
No Problem! NYT: The 31-Year-Old in Charge of Dismantling G.M.
Via Althouse. Surreal seems not quite appropriate…
Mickey Kaus: “[I]s the Obama Administration really planning to cut off GM’s intravenous drip of federal billions, if when the $50 billion doesn’t put the company back on its feet? It doesn’t look that way…”
Yikes. Well – when you think about it – now that the UAW will own such a large chunk of GM, I suppose no Democrat in his right mind would ever allow it to go belly up. So GM will in fact be like – analogizing to the old SNL Shimmer skit – both an auto manufacturer and a redistribution of wealth.
UPDATE: I wish I could take comfort from this pie chart Megan McCardle generated (via her guest post here) but if anyone can throw billions of dollars down a tiny, little, itsy-bitsy bottomless pit – which is the way GM looks within the big picture of Corporate America – it’s Obama.
WSJ: Car Crazy – Bankrupt companies making 39 mpg autos. Are we nuts?
You have to wonder…
Sherman Frederick: Chrysler is alive – and scary.
Shock and Awe. NYT: Chrysler’s Fall May Help Administration Reshape GM: “Fresh from pushing Chrysler into bankruptcy, President Obama and his economic team are hoping that the hard line they took last week gives them leverage to force huge changes in General Motors, a far larger and more complex company.”
So now the administration pushed Chrysler into bankruptcy? I thought it was those evil hedge funds who were at fault. At any rate, demonizing creditors in GM’s case will not be as simple as it was in Chrysler’s:
In Chrysler’s case, a handful of the company’s 46 lenders presented the biggest roadblock. Mr. Obama could portray them as obstructionists who put their demands for repayment ahead of preserving the company.
But General Motors’ creditors number in the tens of thousands and include pension funds that bought the company’s unsecured bonds. G.M. bondholders have no claim on its plants or inventory, but they will probably attract more sympathy than Chrysler’s Wall Street lenders did.
Is it just me or does it seem like the Times gets off on the White House’s strong arm tactics?
The government is only trying to help, you say? Well, hopefully they’ll do a better job of helping GM than pairing it with mediocre FIAT. Is the plan to “revive” domestic auto manufacturers or to have them die a long, undignified death?
Not to worry. GM will be spared such an unseemly demise:
G.M.’s case…differs from Chrysler’s in [a] crucial sense: there is no Fiat in the wings, no big private investor ready to bring new money and new technology. Instead, Mr. Obama will effectively use taxpayers as that investor, with the federal government getting slightly more than a 55 percent stake in the company in exchange for forgiving $10 billion in the automaker’s outstanding federal loans. The United Automobile Workers’ retiree trust would have just under 40 percent of the stock, under the G.M. plan.
Yeah, nothing to worry about. Same old GM, but controled by retired auto workers and Uncle Sam…with the added bonus that now the American taxpayers get to see their money sucked into its vortex.
UPDATE: Insta-lanche! Thanks for the link, Professor Reynolds!
WSJ: Ford outsold relatively healthy Toyota last month, even as auto sales have seen better days.
First, the auto industry got a raw deal. Now it looks like there hardly will be a domestic auto industry as we’ve come to know it.
Wouldn’t it have been easier and cheaper to just have Chrysler declare bankruptcy months ago?
WSJ: “A better Scion xB”?
At Wired‘s Autopia blog.
Nice car…
At NewGeography.com, How Detroit Lost the Millenials.
This has been some time in the making. I’m Generation X and haven’t driven a Big-Three-made vehicle for more than 15 years.
Except for SUV drivers, I don’t believe most of my peers during that same period have driven so-called American cars. I say “so-called” because corporations are owned by their shareholders; and I doubt very much the shareholders of the Big Three are exclusively American (Chrysler was part of German conglomerate Daimler-Benz for years, if you want to focus on management).
Same goes for Japanese cars. So many of them are made in the USA these days, that I think calling them “Japanese” is not entirely accurate either.
Test-driving a Hummer H3 in Baghdad.
(Via a Dr. Fiancee tip)
The wait is over: Plug-In Hybrids are here.
Wired: “[W]hile the Prius is the world’s most-popular hybrid and the poster child for green(er) motoring, the Volt is more technologically advanced.”
Ironically, Ford cannot afford bringing it to America.
With hybrid and plug-in models.
And that’s popular as in best-selling, because these cars are all quite ordinary; and you’ll probably find them all a little dull as far as cars go. At any rate, they all have had several traits in common.
And a unique ad campaign for it (even more peculiar considering it has no name yet): don’t buy it for its performance, buy it because…it’s expensive?
Who needs a Batmobile when you can get one of these (assuming you have $70,000 handy).
Another cool interactive slideshow from Wired.
Over at Ridelust, they’re oozing with automotive memories from movies and TV shows.
Seeking to catch up with Toyota and Honda, “with batteries twice as powerful as conventional technology”. Check it out.
You might. There are other costs to consider that should factor in your calculus.
First the Prius, now the Winglet. Toyota has revealed at a press conference in Tokyo that they’ve begun testing a motorized personal transport similar to the Segway.
It is slower than the Segway, though. But hey, you gotta start somewhere. Anyway, there are no plans to manufacture it for sale to the public just yet, but I think they are on to something.
