So now we know what happens when US$3bn of government-funded incentives runs out and poor old car buyers have to revert to using all their own money, borrowed or otherwise, to trade up. Sales return to more or less normal, post-crash, pre-‘cash-for-clunker’ levels.
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That had been widely predicted but there was, at least, some optimism for a gradual uptick from next year on. Little wonder, though, that UK dealers want our scheme to continue which it will, for a bit, after a GBP100m transfusion this week.
It was not a good week to be Toyota in the US, and facing a 3.8m-unit recall to check for incorrect or wrongly-fitted floor mats. This issue, not entirely unknown previously, finally came to a head after a tragic accident in which a mat apparently jammed the gas pedal in a dealer demonstrator Lexus a San Diego man was driving – he and three family members died after the car reached 120mph. I imagine a lot of lawyers are now very busy.
My first encounter with ‘unintended acceleration’ was when teacher at my school, c1970, traded a manual Morris 1300 for a new Mini automatic, her first self-shifter, and put it through the garage wall the third night she had it – got the pedals mixed up. Driver error was also often blamed for the spate of incidents in the US involving Audis in the 1980s, from that the auto industry eventually faced the need to install mandatory shift interlocks we now know so well – put the auto in Park or the key won’t turn, depress the clutch to start a stick shift. I wonder if we’ll see any legislative result of this high-profile recall – will possibly confusing start-stop buttons (Toyota’s reportedly must be held down for three seconds to turn off the engine) come under scrutiny now they have replaced conventional keys in so many models?
It was also not a good week to be a Saturn dealer. On Tuesday it looked like knight Roger Penske, a successful dealer and veteran of several successful company turn-arounds, would ride to the rescue, ultimately sourcing Renault-made vehicles to replace the ones GM would stop building around 2011. But then it all went downhill – a deal could not be reached – and GM said it would waste no time sending the ‘import fighter’ to the same place it earlier sent Oldsmobile and will soon despatch Pontiac.
For someone for whom the 1960s sight of a rare, shiny, new Canadian-made Laurentian or Parisienne in the sea of mundane Zephyrs, Veloxes, Holdens and Cortinas made his day, Pontiac’s passing will be mourned.
Have a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts
Deputy/News Editor
just-auto.com
