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2010 Mazdaspeed3: The Most Hideous New Car Ever?

2010_mazda_mazdaspeed3

Look away, it’s hideous!

In one of the most disappointing debuts in the history of automobiles, the 2010 Mazdaspeed3 is almost laughably ugly. Uglier than an Edsel. Uglier than an Aztec. This car, based on the front end alone, is destined to land on every future top 10 list of ugly cars from now until eternity.

2010_mazda_mazdaspeed3_front2 The grinning front end looks like a combination of Ronald McDonald, that guy in the Smilin’ Bob commercials, and the inside of fish gills.

I’m shocked that the good people over at Mazda ever thought this was actually a good design strategy. Maybe all the effort went into the car’s performance, which I admit is impressive, and styling was just an afterthought left to an overly happy intern.

smiling-bob The thing is, I don’t care that the new Mazdaspeed3 is rated at 262 hp or puts down 280 lb-feet of torque at 3,000 rpm. Heck, I wouldn’t care if it had the engine from Aston Martin’s screamin’ new One-77, I’m not getting within 20 feet of a car that looks like a rolling Enzyte commercial.

The hood scoop looks out of place, and the bluntly rounded front end looks like a dead, bloated dolphin.

Reviewers really dig the Mazda’s exhilarating track performance, but that doesn’t change the fact that its ridiculously silly face looks like a pukey cutesy Pokemon character. Does Mazda seriously think a young hip adult will go for this happy-faced new 3 over a WRX or Mitsubishi Evo?

Studies have shown that buyers prefer cars with angry faces. That’s especially true with young, brooding 20-somethings, who won’t spend $25K on a car that looks like it belongs in a Candy Land game.

I sure hope disgusting front-end treatments don’t start getting popular. Acura did it and now Mazda. As much as I despise Acura’s cringe-worthy new beak, I think I’d rather have that than this new Mazda.

What do you think of Mazda’s new face on the 2010 Mazdaspeed3?

-tgriffith

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Pontiac G8 to Live On As…

Middle Eastern Chevy Caprice

General Motors came out of bankruptcy on Friday and already has some big surprises. First, formerly retired GM chairman Bob Lutz decided he wasn’t done yet and rejoined the company as vice chairman of marketing.

And then he brought back the Pontiac G8.

Can I have a big BOOOYAH please?!

2008 Pontiac G8 GT Not long ago CEO Fritz Henderson seemingly sealed the G8’s coffin when he responded to a question asking if it would be brought back as a rebadged Chevy by simply saying, “I’m not a fan of rebadging.”

Good thing Bob Lutz doesn’t mind a good rebadge every now and then! Okay, he likes terrible rebadges, too, but hey, I’m not judging him today, because he’s bringing back the best car America makes as a Chevy Caprice. Lutz realized what every auto writer in America already knew: The G8 is simply too good to waste.

I guess I should mention the G8 was a rebadge itself - a copy of the Australian Holden Commodore. So the new Caprice will actually be a rebadge of a rebadge. Still, though, as long as the Caprice is offered as an identical copy of the Pontiac G8 GXP, GM is going to make a lot of folks very happy.

Mr. Lutz is obviously a guy who appreciates V8 engines, as he has taken a lot of flack for putting an over-emphasis on them. Maybe with his influence, though, combined with Fritz Henderson’s excitement for economy, this new GM thing just may work. We’re excited to find out.

What do you think: Wait for the new Chevy Caprice, or go out and snatch up a remaining Pontiac G8?

-tgriffith

Here’s $7.5 Billion. Have a Nice Weekend.

CBUSINESS-US-GM-UAW GMAC got another big handout from the feds last night. The car finance company, now a bank, received $5.9 billion in December of last year. Along with yesterday’s $7.5 billion from Treasury, the lender will now be permitted to issue debt insured by the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) to the tune of $7.4 billion. That money will help it finance daily operations, according to the New York Times.

If you want more details, here they are. The good part: Both buyers and dealers need to finance car purchases, and GMAC will now provide a good chunk of that money for Chrysler and GM vehicles. The government badly needed to prime this pump. The bad part: GMAC failed the recent stress tests appallingly, coming up $11.5 billion short of what it needed to withstand a still-worse economy. And it desperately needs new capital. The ugly part: The feds have made a very big commitment to support the auto industry, and they probably aren’t done yet.

What do you think? Is enough enough, or will the government need to do more to get the industry on its feet?

—jgoods

The Road Ahead for GM and Chrysler

bankruptcy-loan Most informed analysts think we’re going to have a quick managed bankruptcy for both companies, with the U.S. emerging as majority shareholder. That’s the view of Steven Pearlstein, whom I respect as one of the least hyperkinetic and most measured observers of the economic scene.

Big haircuts will be the order of the day for all sides, because the government has the power to dictate a restructuring rather than putting the companies through liquidation and a piecemeal sale of assets. The UAW seems to recognize that it has no real leverage and has made concessions; it will have to go further.

Both Chrysler and GM bankers, however, are fighting for a lot bigger share of the pie than the government is offering. They want more cash and less equity in the failing companies, but it’s doubtful they will get it. Treasury asked Chrysler to slash 85 percent of its secured debt; the bankers yesterday offered 35 percent. It’s a high-stakes game of chicken, as some are calling it.

You can expect that this dispute will get hotter, since the government has already given a flat turn-down to the lenders’ proposal. Here’s Pearlstein’s scenario for the outcome:

Given the amount of money it is likely to put into the automakers, the government will be entitled to more than half of the stock of the reorganized companies. Then there is the union’s health fund, which will probably be entitled to stakes of 20 to 25 percent, reflecting not only the reduced cash payments it will receive but also all the other concessions made by active and retired workers. At Chrysler, there’s also the matter of Fiat’s contribution of technology and management services, which it offered for a 20 percent share.
That leaves only about 10 to 15 percent of each company. Bankers and bondholders will kick and scream and call it unfair, but in the end they’ll take it because, like everyone else in this adventure, they’ll conclude that it’s better than the alternative.

Yes, we are going to have an auto industry. What do you think it will look like after the presumed bankruptcy?

—jgoods

Is it time to buy a gas-guzzler?

2005-expedition I’m surrounded, I’m outnumbered, and I’ve finally had enough.

The people next door to me have a GMC Sierra and a Chevy Tahoe. Across the street from them are an ‘07 Tahoe and a Ford F-250 Super Duty. The people across from my house have a GMC Envoy XL, a Chevy Silverado, and just added a Ford Expedition. (Yes, I live in soccer-mom suburbia.)

Needless to say, I’m feeling inadequate as I pull out of the garage in my comparably minuscule Suzuki SX4.

When gas prices were over $4 a gallon, I was the one making fun of them and their outrageous fuel bills. While they were spending an easy hundred bucks per fill-up, I was driving out of the station for under 40.

The price of fuel isn’t that big a factor anymore, though, and I’m tempted to get something bigger. This morning I browsed through the CarGurus reviews of some bigger rigs and checked prices on some pre-owned vehicles in my area. Here’s what I found:

I know I could get one heck of a deal on any of these, and I’m pretty sure I’d be happy in one while making unnecessary road trips just to see how much I could pack into it.

I need your advice, though. I’ve read every comment that’s come through on our blog and I know there are a lot of smart car gurus out there. This CarGuru could use your advice.

Do you think it’s a good time to buy a bigger vehicle? Which one would you get?

-tgriffith

Ford Stock Nearing $2.00; UAW Stock, $0

big3-negotiation Well, they had to do it—sign a deal with Ford, that is, and make the concessions needed to keep the company alive, even if many UAW workers hated the deal. They gave back hard-won gains the union had negotiated years ago.

One of these was the retiree trust fund for health care (VEBA). The company will now fund half its $3.2 billon contribution due next year with its high-flying $2.00 stock instead of cash. And yes, that will likely soon make VEBA kaput. Other concessions include:

jobs bank ended
no cost-of-living increases
no performance bonuses
cuts in break time; other work rule and schedule changes.

Most important for the company, hourly labor and benefit costs will resolve to $55 an hour, compared to $48-49/hour for transplant auto workers. Ford will reach parity with them, the company says, in two years.

Ford's Rouge Plant

Ford will also close some plants, move production to others, and, for the moment, avoid having to beg like its Big Three cohorts for government aid. The new pact clearly will set the pattern for negotiations with GM and Chrysler. But the VEBA deal Ford struck—half cash, half penny stock—won’t work for Chrysler, a privately held company owing almost $10 billion to VEBA by year’s end.

Last week Ford offered its bondholders a similar cash-and-stock deal. It’s doubtful that GM can match this. And so the dance continues.

The VEBA deal will net Ford about $500 million in annual savings. How quickly do you think they will burn through that?

—jgoods

Once More, This Time with Feeling

Let’s dig into some of the headlines we saw this morning:

GM, Chrysler Push for More U.S. Aid After Legacy of Mistakes (Bloomberg)

Auto Maker Bankruptcy Looms (Wall Street Journal)

“YOUR TIME IS UP” (Steve Parker, the Car Nut)

The Tres Amigos are not showing up in person this time; two of them (Chrysler and GM) will be filing their reconstruction plans electronically late today. That is a good thing, as we don’t need another circus. They are probably having their own private circus with the UAW as the bargaining continues in Detroit over the $47 billion GM obligation for retiree health care. Yikes.

The money involved in all this is truly mind-boggling. It’s not just the industry’s tremendous fixed and legacy costs, its expensive and inefficient dealer network, its total fall-off in sales. As Bloomberg reminds us, it’s the cost of rebuilding that also must be built into any plan.

GM and Chrysler must show progress in getting creditors and the UAW to accept equity in place of billions of dollars in scheduled cash payments. The automakers must also ensure that future models will meet environmental rules that may require $100 billion in new technology.

The real deadline for the GM and Chrysler plans is March 31, when President Obama’s car task force (the car czar idea is out) will determine whether and how the industry goes forward. Heavy hitters Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary, and Lawrence Summers, National Economic Council chairman, will have help from others.

One of these is Ron Bloom, an expert in restructuring whose advice, we can predict, nobody will like. Says the Journal,

Mr. Bloom, a Harvard Business School graduate who spent 10 years at investment banks before joining a team advising the steelworkers union, is seen as one of the chief architects of a consolidation of the steel industry that has involved about 35 bankruptcies over several decades. He’s known as a blunt communicator. . . .

In a 2006 speech at a corporate turnaround conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., he described his approach to restructuring as “dentist-chair bargaining,” in which the patient “grabs the dentist by the b — and says, ‘Now let’s not hurt each other.’”

Under Mr. Bloom’s guidance, the United Steelworkers gave up pay, job security and benefits in a bid to help the industry recover. In some cases, thousands of steelworker jobs were lost when union leadership agreed to large-scale reductions in restructured companies. Mr. Bloom also negotiated benefits for union members and retirees that kicked in once reconfigured steel companies became profitable. Such solutions could also come into play at the automakers.

Finally, Steve Parker. After showing us a picture of dictator Benito Mussolini in his Alfa Romeo and reminding us how the crowd pulled him out and hanged him, Steve offers this tidbit about the impending Fiat-Chrysler deal:

Last week, a right-wing legislator in Italy called for public protests if any Italian money is used to pay Chrysler’s debt to taxpayers. Their government essentially owns Fiat and all its ancillary companies, and it’s the country’s largest manufacturer of any kind. Even a loan—or money used by Fiat to purchase Chrysler—may well be seen by Italians as their taxes going to the U.S. government, which is probably one reason Chrysler is willing to cede control of the company to Fiat for not one penny—or lira.

You and Ron Bloom both realize that there are 3 million jobs tied to the U.S. auto industry. How are you going to save them?

—jgoods

Lutz Leaving GM: End of an Era

LUTZ Bob They call him “Maximum Bob” for reasons that are obvious when you look at his career: maximum effort, maximum candor, and maximum love of cars. The ex-Marine worked for all of the Big Three, but did most for GM in the last 8 years. He will leave at the end of this year. There are tributes here and here and here.

People love this guy because of his no-BS attitude. He famously called global warming a “total crock of sh*t.” A maverick and a risk-taker who put Chrysler on its feet in the ‘90s and then came to GM to help revamp their marketing and production processes, Lutz created the GM cars that brought the company renown and new buyers.

We want to show you some of them, not just because they are his legacy, but because they helped bring GM back to life—at least for the present. Had the company proceeded on the Pontiac Aztek track on which it was headed in the ‘90s, there would be no GM to even consider bailing out.

Lutz is particularly proud of the Chevrolet Volt, which will be in preproduction form and testing this summer. And, in another key move, he revived the Pontiac GTO in a beautiful new shape.

The Cadillac CTS (2009 shown here) literally brought the brand back to life and has made everyone’s best U.S. cars list. Lutz also developed a reasonably priced sports car, the Pontiac Solstice, and made it the best-selling roadster in the U.S.

We wrote about the Opel Insignia last month. Reportedly it’s one of Lutz’s favorite cars. And then the Chevy Malibu, whose seventh iteration in 2008 finally got it right.

Lutz has said that the two key things he did at GM were to globalize product development and elevate design to its primary role in customer choice. Doing that in a company hidebound by its corporate culture is an incredible achievement.

We didn’t even mention his contributions to Chrysler (the Viper, the Prowler) and BMW (the 3-Series).

Or the fact that he flies fighter planes and helicopters.

Which of Lutz’s cars are your favorites?

—jgoods

Eight Simple Rules to Getting the Best Deal on a New Car

I tend to change my car as often as I change my shirt. Much to some local dealers’ delight, I’ve owned 10 different cars in 11 years, which is more than my 62-year-old father-in-law has owned in his entire life.

screwed-copy Through it all, I’m comfortable saying that I’ve only been screwed on a deal once (which is a story I’ll save for another time).

Here are eight rules you can follow to make sure you protect yourself from a royal screwing, dealership-style:

1. Shop around at dealerships and research online

When you’re shopping, go ahead and visit dealerships, but let the salesperson know immediately that you’re not buying today. When he approaches and says, “Hi, I’m Dick,” you say, “Hi Dick, I’m not buying today, but I’m shopping for a…”

After you’ve driven the cars that interest you, look them up on every car web site you can find. Start at CarGurus.com and read the telling comments people have posted about the cars you want. Edmunds.com has a great real-world pricing tool that tells you what other people are paying for the same car. Also research your current car’s trade-in value, and have a firm idea what you should expect out of your old ride. Once your choice is narrowed down, it’s time to…

2. Get your financing approved at a bank or credit union

For God’s sake please don’t walk into a dealership needing to rely on their financing. Get approved on your bank’s best rate first, so the dealership will have to try and beat that.

3. When you’re ready to buy, know exactly what you want

Your shopping is over by now. When the day comes that you’re ready to buy, your focus at the dealership should be simply getting the best deal on the car you want. But…

4. Don’t fall in love with any car on the lot

Cars are a dime a dozen, and there’s ALWAYS another one. Even if your emotions do get the better of you, never let the salesperson know it.

5. Don’t let the salesperson sell you a car based on monthly payments

Write down the price you want to pay for the new car, the amount you want for your trade-in, and your bank’s interest rate. Negotiate one thing at a time, starting with the price of the new car. Once you’re satisfied with that price, move on to the trade-in value and stay firm (this is where my deals have either fallen apart or come together). Keep in mind that it can be hard to keep the salesperson focused, because he’ll keep disappearing then trying to move you back to negotiating the monthly payment. Truthfully that shouldn’t even be an issue, because your bank has already given that to you. Talk monthly payments only after the new car’s price and your trade-in’s value are set and the dealer thinks they can beat your bank’s interest rate.

6. Be patient with the salesperson, but also be willing to leave the building

Stick with your numbers, and wait for the dealership to meet them. If it looks like they’re not going to, be prepared to stand up and say never mind. That can be hard after hours of negotiating, but when you start leaving you just might get called back before you hit the front door.

7. Don’t be afraid of the guy in the small room, but don’t let your guard down yet

After you’ve agreed on the deal, you’ll probably have to wait another hour or two to meet with a “finance manager” or “sales manager” who will try to sell you a variety of add-ons (paint protectant, undercoating, etc.). Refuse all his or her offers except for one: GAP coverage. This protects you from owing money in the case of an insurance loss, and it saved my butt once when my 6-month-old Honda Pilot burned up in a fire.

The coverage only costs a few dollars per month and is good for the life of your loan. It prevents you from having to come up with any difference between what you owe and what the insurance company says your car is worth. Plus, you can stop the coverage when you owe less than the car’s value.

8. Go show your friends your new ride

And tell them you got the deal of a lifetime!

How have you negotiated a car well under sticker price? We want to hear your story in the comment section! And feel free to share your car-shopping tips, too.

-tgriffith

Detroit Gets a Christmas Present . . . Sort of

Can you believe it? George W. Bush has saved the car industry. All those cheerleaders for instant bankruptcy, like Sen. Richard Shelby (R. Tenn.), can now go back to their drawing boards, along with the automakers.

Chrysler Line Worker Gets Paulson TARP Blood

Chrysler Line Worker Gets TARP Blood from Paulson

Chrysler and GM got a transfusion of $13.4 billion in loans to tide them over to March, with the prospect of $4 billion more to come in February if necessary. The deal is pretty much the same as the earlier bailout bill Congress offered that last week went down to defeat. It essentially buys the industry time to come up with a viable (much debate on the meaning of that term) plan for reorganization.

A couple of interesting add-ons to note: the administration, according to the Washington Post, “has set as a target that the companies convince holders of up to two-thirds of their outstanding debt to accept stock in exchange, and that half of the payments into a union benefit fund be made in company stock.”

The idea is to get all major stakeholders to take a haircut, sharing both the present pain and the risks to come.

Cerberus Capital, the buyout firm that owns Chrysler, agreed “to hand over [its] equity in the company’s automotive operations to labor and creditors as part of its loan agreement with the U.S. government.” GM boss Rick Wagoner acknowledged that the road ahead would be tough but also called the federal loans a blueprint for the company’s second 100 years.

So who is going to oversee all this? There is talk that Secretary Hank Paulson will function as the new car czar. Hmm. This is the guy who opposed helping the automakers in the first place and refused for months to take any money out of the TARP funds—which they have done, finally, to support this bailout.

And for the moment, Mr. Bush seems to have given over his talk yesterday of an “orderly bankruptcy,” though that may well be down the road for the industry in any case. The President said he didn’t want to drop this financial bomb on the President-Elect in his first day in office. But it looks like Mr. Obama will have to defuse it anyway.

Can you think of a worse person than Hank Paulson to oversee the bailout? Let us have your nominations.

—jgoods

Don’t fear collapse

Talking about the loss of Ford, GM or Chrysler scares a lot of people.

It seems like those companies have always been a part of the American economy, so their possible collapse is likened to the crumbling of a major American support pillar. In fact, the entire manufacturing industry in America is on the decline. FOX News recently reported that in Trenton, NJ in the 1950s, 1 in 2 people “made something” as a career. Today that number is less than 1 in 10.

Manufacturing in America will never go away completely. America will always innovate and will always succeed.

A quick example lies in a little American company called Carbon Motors, who sees an opportunity to build a better police car.

Traditionally, police cars are modified sedans built by Ford or GM. Carbon Motors is building a car from scratch with one use in mind: law enforcement.

Called the E7, the car has flashing emergency lights embedded in the frame for visibility and aerodynamic purposes. The front seats are designed with extra space to accommodate an officer’s utility belt. The rear passenger area is sealed off from the cockpit. The back seats are molded plastic for easy cleaning and to prevent prisoners from hiding anything.

And how Knight Rider is this: front-mounted cameras automatically scan license plates of nearby vehicles and alert police when they find a car flagged as stolen or involved in some other crime. Plus the car can detect nuclear and biological threats, all while delivering combined fuel economy ratings of 28-30 mpg.

See? Innovative. I’m not saying that Carbon Motors is the American car company of the future, but they prove the point that there’s always a better way to do things. Ways that may not be as old as GM’s, but are certainly more forward-thinking and better suited for a changing America.

If one of the Big 3 collapses, don’t fear the consequences. Be excited for whatever or whoever comes to fill their gap.

Are you afraid of losing Ford, GM or Chrysler?

-tgriffith

What is REVO EVOM?

Imagine you’re on an open freeway with nothing but clear pavement and blue sky in front you. You’re cruising comfortably at 5 or 10 over the speed limit when you see a car up ahead that looks like it’s passing a semi in the left lane. You put on your left blinker, check your blind spot, and change lanes so you can overtake the truck without messing up the cruise control settings.

You’re expecting the car in front of you to pass the truck, then move over into the right lane so you can continue on your merry way without changing your speed.

Only there’s a problem. The car in front of you ISN’T passing the semi. In fact, for some reason only explainable by insanity he’s decided to match the semi’s speed EXACTLY. You grunt as you wait until the last possible second before pushing ‘cancel’ on the cruise control. Your car’s RPMs drop in response, which wakes up your spouse, who thinks you’re exiting for the next gas station.

You’re stuck behind a 1997 Buick and a lumbering truck stacked full of cows, and you’re out of options for passing either of them.

I can’t think of another situation on America’s freeways that so instantly dials up the road rage meter.

Enter REVO EVOM, a decal people are placing on their hoods or windshields that when read from the Buick’s rear-view mirror will give a very clear message: MOVE OVER.

Take heed, fellow drivers, because some states are coming to the rescue by actually enforcing new laws and fining people for spending too much time in the left lane. In my home state, Washington, that fine is $124.

It’s about time those left-lane lugnuts get taught a lesson and give us our open road back!

Are you more likely to be the one getting a ticket, or ordering a REVO EVOM sign? Leave your comments here!

-tgriffith

It was also advertized as “mostly original.” The asking price nearly hit ...

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