I Thought MD/DC Drivers Were Terrible – Now It’s Confirmed

When I was younger…heck even today I have those conversations that go like “Maryland drivers are the worst, or Pennsylvania drivers are the worst.  Well it’s official: Baltimore drivers are second to worst, and the worst…Washington DC drivers.  Allstate did a study on how often accidents occur in metro areas, and Baltimore and DC had the worst rate of fender benders and accidents.  The best…not too far away: Alexandria VA was the safest driving area.  So now I can officially say that I grew up with the worst drivers in the country!

If you’d like to see the whole list, click the link below:

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House Passes “Cash For Clunkers” Bill

The House has pushed through what is called the Cash For Clunkers bill.  The bill will give you up to 4500 bucks to turn in your low mpg SUV, truck or car for a more fuel efficient car.  To be eligible for a 3,500 dollar voucher your car must get 18mpg combined or lower (that is city and highway miles averaged together), and your new car must get at least 22mpg.  If you new car gets at least 10mpg over your trade-in you can get a 4,500 dollar voucher.  The House bill will also apply to leased cars.  My biggest question in this whole thing which I cannot find an answer to, is this 4,500 bucks above what the car dealer gives you as a trade in, or is the 4,500 bucks the max you can get a trade-in time?  If 4,500 is the max, the population for which this applies drops significantly, and it makes no sense to include leases.  So until I get more information I cannot tell how helpful this deal will be.  

I understand how getting new fuel efficient cars on the street not only help the environment, but can also get the economy moving.  New car purchase means sales taxes for the state, dmv fees getting collected, plus getting the car companies selling cars again. We’ll have to wait and see what the Senate version is before anyone gets too excited.  It seems that the environmentalist lobbyists might have a few Senator’s ears and they might get more strict rules pushed through in their bill.  

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First In, First Out – Chrysler Preparing To Exit Bankruptcy as GM Head In

GM declared Chapter 11 yesterday, hoping to be considered bankrupt for 60-90 days.  At the same time the judge presiding over Chrysler’s Chapter 11 case gave approval of its sale of assets to Fiat, and also the approval to exit Chapter 11 as early as Friday.   The big question can either of these companies even survive with a new lease on life?  No one knows for sure. Chrysler had 30 billion is losses on their books which have been reduced to nearly 2 billion.  GM had a whopping 178 billion in losses on their books which they hope to have reduced down to about 20-30 billion.  I guess 30 billion is better than 178, but that still seems like a lot for a company that probably won’t break even until the economy improves hopefully next year.  

With Chrysler coming out of Chapter 11 this week you won’t see too many changes.  The biggest change will be the 800 dealers that no longer will be selling their cars.  Our local Jeep dealer will no longer be selling Jeeps come June 8th.  Changes to Chrysler’s lineup needed to happen last year, but you wont be seeing any major changes for at least 18 months as Fiat cars are cast in Chrysler DNA.  Can the company make it for 18 months in the current climate?  I do not know.

As for GM, there will be some broad changes taking place.  Hummer, Saab will be sold off.  Saturn will be sold or will disappear.  Pontiac, gone.  In Europe, Opel has been sold.  GM will be down to Chevy, Buick, Caddy, and GMC in the US.  The only reason Buick is sticking around is because they actually sell in China, where Buick is considered a lux brand.  Their dealer ranks will be shrunk considerably to the tune of 2000-4000 dealers across the US.  Will they make it?  Again no one knows.  If GM cannot stand the market, I have a feeling you’ll see its pieces survive, but if Chrysler fails I believe the only thing left will be its Jeep brand, and with higher CAFE standards coming, who knows if Jeep would survive.  

The next 12 months will be telling for the two car companies.  For the sake of US jobs and GDP, lets hope the two can recover.

How to Calculate A Lease Payment

I’ve leased a car a few times in my life, and have never understood how the car dealer came up with the monthly payment for a lease.  The only thing truly know is that while on a lease you are paying for the depreciation of the vehicle, you are paying interest, and you are paying sales tax.  The rest of it has been a lot of hocus pocus to me.  If the payment seems reasonable, I usually am OK with it.  Well next time I go to lease a car, I can now figure out if I am getting screwed or not.  Edmunds.com has a great write up on how to determine your monthly lease payment.  By asking for a few numbers from the dealer you can make sure you aren’t being taken to town, and not realizing it.  Getting a 299 month payment might sound great, but what if you could do better? Many people do not realize that the cost of the car means a lot in the lease calculation.  The dealer could be packing on 1000’s of dollars in profit because they they start with a high price on the car (sometimes higher than MSRP), but since the payment looks good you don’t notice.  Click on the link below to learn what makes up a lease payment, and how with a little knowledge, you can get a better deal next time.

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GM’s Innovation…Really?

I was at a stop light the other day and was totally fooled by a car that was sitting next to me. I thought it was the new Chevy Malibu…but can anyone guess what it really was?  Here are two pictures, I’ll let you guess.

Picture 1 (thanks Edmunds):

Picture 2 (Thanks Edmunds):

OK, Picture Two is a 2009 Chevy Malibu.  It was supposed to be THE new car, the take the country by storm car.  It won awards, and people were supposed to flock to it.  Though it has been a mild success, the terrible market has dulled the shine on this car that Chevy thought would bring them up to the Honda and Toyota level.  Was this car innovative, did it show that GM knew how to make a car for the people, or was it more of the same? To answer that, let me tell you about the other picture.

Picture One…are you ready?  Picture One is a 2006 Buick Lucerne.  2006! If you saw the two cars in person it is very hard to tell them apart.  I could go on and show you how similar the interiors are (the Malibu interior was supposed to be leaps and bounds over the previous model), but I think you get the point.  Chevy’s new baby, that was supposed to bring people back to American cars, that was supposed to show that Chevy had learned from their ways and changed as a company appears to be a child of a 3 year old Buick.

I know it seems that I might be stretching it out, but I just want to get my point across that even though GM’s lip service says they are changing to survive in the future, and that they deserve the government’s millions, I believe it’s just more of the same.

 

Innovation Or Just More Of The Same?

For those that know me, I have been pretty supportive of the loans given to GM and Chrysler.  I thought (think) that by keeping them alive the government is keeping hundreds of thousands of people working, if not millions.  Yesterday both GM and Chrysler had to present plans to the government which detail how they are going to get out of the mess they are in by restructuring the company, restructuring their contracts, and restructuring their debt.  What I believe we got was more of the same posturing, and not only that, requests from both companies for more money.  Slowly the details on the plans have started to trickle out.  GM will be closing down one way or the other Saab, Hummer, and Saturn brands.  Chrysler stated that they will be working towards a working agreement with the Italian company Fiat, and discontinuing three more models (which they said they were going to do anyway).  Both companies said they made progress on their deals with the UAW, but neither would provide evidence of such…other than talks are “on going”.  

Without putting all my words together yet, I have come away quite disappointed.  Neither speak to innovation, neither speak to how to survive in the future…both keep their hopes alive that they market will improve, just keep giving us money until then.  My support is waning, and I have begun to believe that even if we are not saying that both GM and Chrysler are bankrupt, in reality that’s exactly what they are.  GM has 35 billion in debt…21 billion of that was collected last year alone.  GM is saying that they are coming out with new innovative cars that everyone wants, and we have the Chevy Volt which will take over the car business as we know it.  I wish they explained who is going to be able to find a loan for a $40,000 battery pack, and how are you going to make money off of it when you probably can make about 1000 of them each year (at a loss mind you).  Chrysler is saying that their fate falls with the acceptance of their alliance with Fiat.  They say they have a bunch of new models coming out that will bring people back.  They released a diagram which laid out their plans until 2015.  Outside of a new large sedan, and a new Jeep Grand Cherokee, everything else will basically be Fiat based or a niche electric vehicle.  Chrysler’s plan for a new mid size car (think Accord, and Camry), won’t be coming out for another 3 years.  With the plan that Chrysler laid out, I cannot imagine how they can survive alone for the next 24-36 months without tax payer dollars. 

So needless to say I am disappointed. I was expecting big things from GM and Chrysler today, instead I got a piece of bad steak and some steak sauce to make it easier to go down.  Following this post, I’ll follow up with a few more examples how innovative these companies really are.

The Minds of the Big 3 CEOs

Autoblog is one of the bigger car related blogs out there, and one I follow almost on a daily basis.  I am sure most of you are aware of the current auto crisis which had the Big 3 CEOs in DC over the past few weeks with their hands out.  Regardless of how you feel about an “auto bailout”, Autoblog has been drafting humorous stories to go with each new update to the CEOs saga.  They have added pictures to each entry with talking bubbles you typically see in a comic book.  I know it had me laughing as each new entry was posted, and they were nice enough to post all of the pictures in one gallery for all to see.  If you have a minute I suggest clicking on the link below.  Might make you lose your case of the Mundays :)

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Great Photoshop Ad of the Auto Bailout

I frequent the blog “The Truth About Cars” on a regular basis, and they had this hilarious photoshop of a car ad that seems to be true with the current auto bailout being discussed.  Now I for one am for the bailout, but the following picture still made me laugh

 

 

 

Here’s the link to the original blog post:  Click Me