An excellent Forbes article recently explains that, though Ford is tossed into the “Big 3″ when everyone is talking about failing and government loans, they certainly aren’t in dire straits. With a number of smart moves by Alan Mulally, the chief executive imported from Boeing a number of years ago Ford is still in a relatively strong position compared to GM and Chrysler. Mulally mortgaged much of Ford’s assets (for $24 billion), signed up credit lines two years ago, sold Jaguar, Land Rover, Aston Martin, some of Ford’s Mazda ownership in the last two years. All this was way ahead of the current economic tribulations. Was it foresight into the future economic woes? I have a feeling it was just good business and focusing on what was important to Ford. Having a great business model makes them recession-resistance.

Another key to Ford’s performance is their European car lines and development of small cars:

Both Ford and GM are unlike Chrysler in that they have robust foreign operations. For Ford, Europe and South America earned $2.5 billion pre-tax in the first nine months this year. Those markets are slowing, yes, but they are strong businesses. Europe is providing the small-car knowledge and engineering that Ford needs in the U.S.

With the possibility of the government giving out money, can you blame them for at least asking for access to lines of credit? They are taking responsibility for anything that might put them in a position where they need more time to trim down operations and paying back anything they get from the government as you or I would with a line of credit as opposed to loans that give government partial control of operations and subject to congresses absurd whims. Ford One FTW.

Source: Forbes

With the recent approval of a House bill to provide $14 billion, the Senate remains in question as to whether the American auto makers will get their BAILOUT anytime this week. With this money comes the inevitability of Federal oversight in the guise of a “car czar” that would handle how the money is spent. Another possible action is the immediate removal of the Big 3 CEOs to introduce some fresh blood. Despite the constant reinforcement of many car people like Lee Iaccoca, I have come to the conclusion that infusion of new CEOs into the American auto industry is probably the best thing that could happen. This conclusion hasn’t been rash as I’m completely against the bailout. Why should the Federal government pick winners and losers? Adam Smiths “Invisible Hand” has worked pretty well in cleaning out the failures of inept (ex. Enron, Delta, Adelphia and others) and despite the inevitable financial pain, the economic principals of “shock therapy” have proven themselves time and time again to be true. Suffer in the short term instead of languishing for the next 10-15 years with constant pain. Simply put, the quicker you get to the bottom, the sooner you’ll start to see growth again. So, with my complete support of letting the Big 3 suffer, how can I be for ousting Wagoner, Nardelli and Mulally?

Recently a few other auto blogs have done some testing on the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid. As the peak of Ford efficiency technology, the car got almost a combined cycle of 45MPG. A recent CNN Money story has shown that GM has spend almost $750 million developing the new Volt. I have no idea where Chrysler is as there’s almost nothing exciting coming out of there the last few months. Besides that, how, you say, could I be against companies spending so much money and bringing such efficient cars to the road at a time when energy efficiency and research is so important? Because it’s all a sham.

Let’s look at the Chevy Volt. $750 million dollars and what does GM have to show for it? A test mule. In terms of car development, that’s a huge amount of money. GM has stated most of that money went towards battery technology. So, that mean GM is going to be a battery maker? If their supplier Cobasys (currently in financial trouble) fails, they will.  So, why hasn’t GM decided to work with companies like GE, EnerDel (Tesla, Mercedes) or even Toyota for that matter in acquiring proven battery technology created by people who have been at this a lot longer than them. Why are they trying to re-invent the wheel? I understand that the vertical nature of the car business works in many cases. However, can you possibly say that you can make a better battery for hybrids than someone who has been doing so for 10 years already? Additionally, why would GM buy a failing company?

Let’s check out this Ford Fusion Hybrid now. 45MPG combined cycle for city and highway driving. To the average American, that sounds pretty good. However, what about the average European? The Ford Mondeo (Fusion equivalent) with a 2.0L diesel engines gets almost 57MPG. The 2.2L petrol engines gets around the same 45MPG as the Hybrid Fusion but without all the time and effort and money spent in developing a new, COMPLEX hybrid drivetrain. Look to some other brands that are selling full sized sedans like BMWs 320d and you’ll see a ~$30,000USD car that gets 59.1MPG and still does 0-60 7.9 seconds. The point is, why is Ford spending all this money when they already have a product that surpasses all US safety and economy standards for sale in Europe and the rest of the world?

Chrysler still has nothing new in any sort of hybrid that stands out or they have tried to make a huge deal about. Maybe this is a good thing. Though I can’t see the point of cars like the Aspen Hybrid that still only gets 19 / 22 MPG in the city and highway, respectively. UPDATE: Ah, here’s what happens when you’re that boring… Detroit Free Press

The point of all this is to show that even in a time of changing requirements (fuel efficiency) and dramatic economic upheaval that would end in bankruptcy if nothing is done, Detroit has done nothing truely dramatic to change their destiny. Whereas Tesla and Fisker are coming out with amazing plug-in electric cars liks the Roadster and Karma, whats sporty or fun about the Chevrolet Volt (most unoriginal electric car name ever, besides the Chevy Ohm, Ford Ampere and Chrysler Impedance). Have they shifted their brand (or attempted to) like BMW has with the EfficientDynamics or Mercedes with their “Blue” (BlueTec, BlueZero) brand? They all could just as easily gone the complete opposite way and say, we’re just going to be super cool fuel efficient cars like the Toyota iQ that doesn’t need hybrid technology and slow down production of our trucks to create more of a “halo” arond the large vehicles with a more limited brand.

There are a thousand reasons why Detroit needs new leadership but only one of them matters. They are all about to go bankrupt without huge amounts of car purchasing today or large scale loans (from either banks or the US Government). Considering even banks realize how bad an idea loaning them money is, shouldn’t that mean that tax payers money is an even worse idea? Let’s clean house in the Motor City and turn these car giants into lean, mean machines that can compete with their Japanese (and French in the case of Nissan/Renault), German and Korean counter parts. Either let them fail for their lack of foresight. Bankruptcy isn’t the worse thing in the world. Neither is failure. Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted and this is exactly what America will be getting. Experience. “Saving” these companies now will only hurt the American car makers in the future. If you though the credit crunch was bad Detriot, wait until you feel the wrath of the American consumer. You will have stole their hard earned money via taxes so you could continue to waste cash and live off the fat of the land like some sort of corporate welfare recipient. Do like millions of Americans and earn your money by being the best. That’s how we got to be the most wealthy and prosperous nation in the world and it works. There is no “easy” way out and in the end, taking the bailout money will hurt you. It may not seem like it when you get that first check from Uncle Sam, but in 3, 5 maybe 10 years from now when your market share has eroded to almost nothing, you can look back and know exactly when it all went wrong.

UPDATE: Well, the entire process has stopped again with the death of a bill in the Senate this evening. It seems GM, Ford and Chrysler have been given another chance to fail. I applaud the Senate for not approving a plan of action that they were not 100% sure would work. Throwing money you don’t have at a problem that might not be fixed by it is a waste and the American people should applaud this.

This about sums it all up, doesn’t it?

The UAW is likely to seek a seat on General Motors Corp.’s board and expects the automaker to offer another round of hourly buyout and retirement incentives next year in the event the union grants concessions to help the automaker win federal loans.

Maybe someone forgot to tell the UAW what a seat on a Board of Directors does. A member of a board is appointed and these appointed persons jointly oversee the activities of a company, most notably accounting to the stakeholders for the organization’s performance. It is the job of the board to make sure the officers and various managers are running the company in such a manner as to maximize efficiency. That doesn’t mean offering huge sums of money to labor unions when it’s been shown time and time again that unions do nothing to improve the quality of work, size of the paycheck or conditions of the workers. They are a relic of a time when workers were easily exploited. A Detroit Free Press article in 2007 even explains in real number how well non-unionized workers do:

Toyota Motor Corp. gave workers at its largest U.S. plant bonuses of $6,000 to $8,000, boosting the average pay at the Georgetown, KY, plant to the equivalent of $30 an hour. That compares with a $27 hourly average for UAW workers, most of whom did not receive profit-sharing checks last year.

Make a great product and you’ll be rewarded. Sounds like a great system as opposed to the UAWs entitlement system. Are we supposed to believe that the UAW is going to give into some small hourly buyouts and retirement incentives for a seat on a Board that will not be able to do anything because he’ll be working against every other member? I’m 100% for paying workers whatever they are worth, but adding the union middleman will only cause liabilities to stay high and wages to continue to plummet, if not implode with the rest of the “big 3.”

Source: Detroit Free Press

vs.

Lock up your GMs! Seem as if criminals have it out for you this year. Between Cadillacs and Hummers, GM hold 4 of the top 8 spots on this list. In fact, if you have any large American car, you might want to think about building a small shed to house it.

Car: Claims Per 1,000/Average Loss Payment Per Claim

10. Honda S2000 Convertible: 8.1/$13,624
9. 2005-2007 Dodge Durango: 8.1/$9,682
8. 2005-2007 Hummer H2: 8.7/$18,791
7. 2005-2007 Dodge Magnum: 9.9/$8,926
6. 2005-2007 Hummer H2 SUT: 10.0/$23,771
5. 2005-2007 Ford F-350 SuperCrew: 10.7/$20,138
4. 2006-2007 Dodge Charger: 11/$7,047
3. 2007 Cadillac Escalade: 11.3/$14,657
2. 2005-2007 Ford F-250 SuperCrew: 13.1/$19,250
1. 2007 Cadillac Escalade ESV: 15.0/$13,060

For the same reason American car makers love to sell large SUVs and truck, thieves are seeking these behemoths out. They are large, cheap ways to get a nice car that will allow you to put expensive stereos, large rims and other accessories on that are easy to steal and resell without too much worry. Dropping 24s on your Hummer may say, “You’re ballin’” to your friends, but it says, “Come steal me” to every car criminal out there.

On the other hand, should be you be looking for the most inconspicuous (boring) cars on the road to protect your insurance premiums and pimped car stereos, you might want to check out the list below. To be honest, not all of them are boring or lame. Some of them just have excellent security systems and car-jackers know that it’s not worth the time to steal the car or there will be no way to re-sell the expensive parts off the car. As you can see, most of the cars are people carriers though with a preponderance of SUVs. The interesting thing is that whereas some of the cars are rather popular (Ford Focus, VW Beetle, Toyota Prius) some of the cars are the most obscure models available (Buick Terraza, Saturn Relay).

10. 2005-2007 Ford Freestyle
9. 2005-2007 Saturn Relay
8. 2005-2007 Toyota Prius
7. 2005-2007 Volvo V70
6. 2005-2007 Ford Focus
5. 2005-2007 Volkswagen (New) Beetle
4. 2005-2007 Buick Terraza
3. 2005-2007 Subaru Forrester
2. 2005-2007 Buick Rainier
1. 2005-2007 Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Source: Highway Safety and Highway Loss Data Institute

Breaking news has Congress creating a tentative agreement between the US Government and the “Big 3″ that allows $15 billion of available loans. An agreement reached between the White House and Congress posed that the money should come from $25 billion in loans previously approved to help the automakers retool for energy fuel efficient vehicles, rather than drawing the aid from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Fund for struggling financial institutions. Does this mean at some future time the US Government will be asked for yet another $25 billion for the retooling? The Senate and House of Representatives have confirmed they will be meeting on Tuesday to vote on the deal and finalize the appropriation of money. In addition, this is only part of the money that has been asked for. In March, after President Elect Obama takes office, a meeting to determine if additional money will be granted will take place.

However, on the other side of the world, as American automakers get $15 billion in federal loans, Kia has been setting the auto industry en-fuego on fire with it’s aggressive push into small and innovative cars that rival their Japanese counterparts. Looking at what the Japanese have been doing for the last 20 years, Kia (and Hyundai) have been slowly and silently creeping up behind Toyota and Honda with great looking cars and industry leading warranties. With the new Optima, Boreggo, Soul and Forte, Kia is slowly and surely clearing a pathway to the top of the entry level car market.

On more than a few occasions, numerous people recently have accused Detroit of building cars Americans don’t want. People are blaming Detroit’s choice in car production for their desperate position.

Bullocks!

There are many reasons the Detroit Big-Three are failing. However, they have build exactly what Americans WANT. Note the word choice. WANT. Americans have a love affair with large trucks and fast cars. Cars like the Ford F-150, the Ford Mustang, Cadillac Escalade and Chevrolet Corvette are the American cars people WANT. They are stylish, reliable, fast and are enjoyable cars to be in. In the past 15 years the American car companies have realized they need to compete on a reliability level with Japanese automakers becuase that’s what American’s started to value in a way they never had before. However, as gas prices started to rise and the economy started to take a nose-dive, Ford, Chevy and Dodge started to build cars like the Chevy Cobalt and Ford Fusion hybrid get over 30MPH and are as reliable as their Japanese counterparts. Even their styling is starting to come along. So, why is GM, Ford and Chrysler are in such dire straits?

The simple answer is labor unions and the huge liability of unions and their pensioning system. Almost $1500 from every car goes to pay for liabilities for employees that no longer produce cars. The complex answer has to do with generally poor judgement about labor contracts and leveraging credit beyond what was reasonable for an auto manufacturer. Poor mangement decisions from a group of people who thought the car business could continue this unlimited growth have put the companies in a bad position. So, what do you think? Do American car companies make cars people want? Am I totally wrong?

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Well, it’s another turkey day and EasyAutoSales is in full swing! With recent updates of new feeds like VINAssist and AutoDealerTraffic, EasyAutoSales is still fleshing out our sites inventory with as many clients as possible. If you would like your feed or site to be listed on EasyAutoSales, please email us at service@easyautosales.com. Also, we’ve finally gotten our first financial partner with the addition of Web2Carz! If you’re looking to finance your next car, please check out http://www.easyautosales.com/finance and follow this to our credit application form. Web2Carz will then match you up with the best lenders!

With all this said, we have many things to be thankful for. We at EasyAutoSales are thankful that so many of you chose us every day to shop for your next car online. We are also thankful for all the great cars that are for sale today. No matter what you do or what your needs are, there’s car or for you! So, with that said, here’s my “What Cars I’m Thankful For” in honor of Thanksgiving 2008:

1. The Audi Coupe GT - This was the car I learned how to drive and my first real car I drove in high school. It was a super sweet ride that came over as a grey market car in 1986. I believe there were something like 500 of them brought over to the states. With an inline-5 engine and a slick 5-speed (and some awesome quality leather), this was a super rare and stylish ride at the time. Though the car was originally supposed to be giving to my brother when he graduated college, it got caught on some black ice while I was driving and ended up t-boning a Lincoln. RIP Audi.

2. The BMW E30 3-Series - This was my first car ever that I bought myself. I’ve had 3 of them thus far, including a 1991 318is that’s sitting in my garage. In my spare time, I’ve been taking it apart with plans to restore the car and get it out autocrossing. The car is super light, super cheap, efficient and a significant portion of the cars were build before the fall of the Berlin Wall, so they were built like a German tank. There will always be a special place in my heart for these cars.

3. The BMW 850CSi - This was my first “dream” car. While other kids had Lamborghinis and Ferraris on their wall, I remember watching a MotorWeek on TV back in the early 90s and recall the review of the ultra-exclusive BMW 850CSi. With a supurb 5.6L 12-cylinder engine (later derivatives of the V12 from this BMW were dropped into the McLaren F1), the 850CSi was the peak of german GT performance in the 90s.

4. The McLaren F1 - This was my first “dream” super-car. This was it. This was the car that embodied everything I wanted in a car. Speed. Handling. The look and a it had been the fastest production car for an incredibly long period of time. Even by today’s standards, there’s only a few cars that can match the F1’s performance. I’ll take mine in LeMans Orange. Now, all I need is the $4 million these cars are going for these days.

5. “New” Mini Cooper - It’s one of the most fun, efficient and safe cars I’ve ever had the chance to drive. In terms of pure performance, it’s not the fastest car in the world. However, it runs like it’s on rails, it’s got tons of low end torque and it just gives you the feeling of being in a much faster and more expensive car. They are just an all around great car! Though the new turbocharged Coopers are fantastic, there’s something really sweet looking about the previous generation’s GP edition. Just make sure and get yours without run-flat tires. Just no good…

6. Ford F-150 - Used to have a 1997 Ford F-150 and like the Mini Cooper, there’s something fun about driving it. You get a king-of-the-road type feeling, super hauling power and the great sound of a rumbling American V8. Due to some “lemon” issues with the car, I had to return it to the party I bought it from, but it’s on my list of cars that will tow my eventual race cars. The F-150 has/had been the best selling car for many years in a row and it’s no wonder. Though the older cars interior is pretty shady by modern standards, that’s not why you get a pickup truck.

7. Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder - In my opinion, one of the most beautiful cars made today. The overt and absurd styling of Lamborghinis crossed with the sex appeal of a drop-top (and reliability of an Audi) make this car exactly what I want to drive along the A1-A on a sunny day with my wife by my side. A car like this is also an investment, as quality Lamborghinis like the Gallardo are sure to keep their value in years to come. Though the Murcielago is the “big brother,” many have described it as a powerful, 4WD Elise due to its compact size. I love small cars and this one acts much larger with it’s 5.0L V10.

8. Lotus Elise - Proof you can have a car that has super-car performance and get well over 30MPG. Not much to say about this car, as it’s legend in its own right.

After watching yesterday’s Top Gear Australia, I got the Ford GT bug again and thought, “What the heck, let’s see what eBay’s got in it’s inventory these days.” After doing a quick search and organizing Ford GTs by date (sure, an original 1966 Ford GT40 would be sweet, but the premium these cars bring is huge and as much as I love the rawness of the old ones, I would drive the car daily and stuff like AC would be nice in GA) I came up with this Gulf Color’d beauty. The colors are a throw back to the original GT40s in the 1960s and the performance is as much race car as the original too. This particular car has had a 3.4L Whipple Supercharger upgrade, upgraded diffs and axles, big brake kit, uprated adjustable suspension and performance tuning, among other things.
This car screams speed, handling and “meant for extreme track use.” Truth be told, I would love to have this car for something like the One Lap of America or the Targa Newfoundland. However, until the time comes when I can drop $375,000 on a whim, this car’s going to have to sit on my desktop as inspiration for the future.

By the way, if you happen to be looking for a nice new GT, check these Ford GTs out.

Check out this live glimpse inside Ford’s Allen Park Test Labs for the F-150 Forum today at 1:30pm. Ford F-150 Chief Program Engineer Matt O’Leary and Truck Marketing Manager Doug Scott will discuss all things F-150, and make some news along the way.