This week started with an unprecedented open season on auto industry CEOs as we learned that General Motors’ Rick Wagoner had fallen on his sword at the request of Barack Obama’s autos task force and that PSA’s board had bid au revoir to Christian Streiff.
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While there didn’t seem to be much sympathy out there for Streiff, there was a degree of ‘no fair’ on Rick’s behalf in US media comment. After all, it was reasoned, the fed was only in the hole for US$13.4bn of the taxpayers’ greenbacks yet GM’s CEO had to go; how come some bigwigs got to stay at the banks who started it all and whose bailouts were far larger?
People will debate for years what Wagoner – who reportedly gets a $23m pension package – did or did not do but he certainly did some things right – think Volt technology, Car Guy Bob Lutz’s recall and effect, and a pretty successful foray into China.
The prez and his task force made clear that GM and Chrysler needed to Do Better in their reform plans and ponied up enough in extra fed funds to give Chrysler 30 days to sort a final deal with Fiat and 60 days for GM accountants to sharpen pencils and attack costs. So Sergio got on the plane to Detroit while our own Rob Golding opined that saving Chrysler might be beyond him, despite the headlines in the Italian press.
Obama’s late Monday White House speech stressed the US auto industry was not going to be allowed to die but also brought up the b-word again, suggesting that the right sort of ‘controlled’ bankruptcy might do wonders to clean-sheet the automakers. Splitting GM into ‘bad GM’ and ‘good GM’ parts is an idea borrowed from the banking clean-up; where and how it would leave retiree pensions and healthcare remains to be seen.
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By GlobalDataThe crunch nonethless goes on. Visteon put three UK plants into administration, immediately putting several hundred people out of work with minutes’ notice, and they retaliated by occupying the plants, demanding help from former owner and current customer Ford, which has re-sourced. That row bubbles on today.
Delphi sold off some more ‘non-core’ business and there are promising signs a meeting in Washington next week might remove some of the roadblocks and get this key tier one out of over three years of Chapter 11. Schaeffler, struggling to digest Conti, also made some progress on interim finance.
Hyundai Motor America looks like it started something with its free payment protection idea. If imitation is flattery, it came this week from Ford and GM in the US and was also picked up by Honda here in the UK though the offer is restricted to models made in the automaker’s local plant, presently shut for four months.
March auto sales in the US were better than expected though Ford could could not quite bring itself to say bottom and Toyota almost said it. Its Australian outpost said demand was stabilising, one of a number of optimistic comments we noted this week. There were even reports here in the UK of a house price rise.
Finally, we have started ‘tweeting’ on microblog site Twitter. For those unfamiliar with the phenomenon, the general idea is to share short snappy updates, or ‘tweets’, of day-to-day activities and thoughts. It’s very informal and can potentially be useful in the business and news spheres.
The editorial team will be posting stuff occasionally. It’s sure to be a mix, but we reckon it’s worth a go. You can follow our tweets at justauto. Enjoy.
Have a nice weekend, too.
Graeme Roberts
Deputy/News Editor
just-auto.com
