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Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22
is an assault on bureaucratic circular logic, and when talk turns to
Chrysler’s bankruptcy, you can almost picture the book’s character,
Yossarian, shaking his head about the latest developments surrounding
warranty claims. Current Chrysler owners might find themselves owning
vehicular orphans whether or not the company manages to stick around in
some form. Chrysler’s bankruptcy deal, where there’s an upside and a
downside to the Schwartz, could see the new, “Good” Chrysler floating
above any responsibility for any Chrysler vehicle sold before the
bankruptcy.
Consumers groups, realizing that buyers will have
no recourse, have filed an objection that’s spurred a quickly organized
hearing of the House Judiciary Committee. According to a report by
ABC<, the new Chrysler has agreed to cover normal warranty claims,
but when some new issue that would normally prompt a recall campaign
pops up – or some other kind of defect rears its ugly head – the
company would want nothing to do with it. Bad thingamajigy covered,
horrible manufacturing or design defect that causes you injury, not
covered. No right to sue, either.
It’s not like Chrysler
vehicles have stellar resale values now, but if this is how things
shake out, the machinations to avoid standing behind its product are
likely to further devalue anything wearing a Pentastar.
[Source: ABC]
I shall do my best in finding it. It’s on a private forum, for now. [Thanks Goozy!]
The two brands who lost and gained the most sales last month (MINI and HUMMER) sum up nicely what happened to auto sales during May in the U.S. Brands armed with small cars weathered the storm and big trucks and SUVs continued to nose dive. In fact, after 17 years worth of being this country’s best-selling vehicle, the Ford F-150 full-size pickup (42,973) has fallen for the first time to fifth place behind the Honda Accord (43,728), Toyota Camry (51,291), Corolla (52,826) and your new best-selling vehicle in the U.S., 
47.2% at 6,312 (5/07: 4,130)
-61.7% at 1,843 (5/07: 4,636)
Remember when I said 
28.6% at 4,713 (4/07: 3,382)
-49.8% at 2,380 (4/07: 4,375)
Though many news outlets will decry March as a horrible sales month in the auto industry, it wasn’t that bad and there are some notable successes. The reason it isn’t as bad as some will tell you is because most outlets compare the volume of cars sold last month to the same month in 2007, rather than comparing the average number of cars sold per day. Since there were two extra selling days last year (28 vs. 26), looking at the raw numbers is very misleading. All of our numbers below represent the change in the Daily Sales Rate (DSR) rate, so some brands that actually sold less overall did well by selling more cars per day.
26.4% at 4,289 (3/07: 3,655)
-23.3% at 3,451 (3/07: 4,847)
February 2008 will go down as the ugliest sales month ever in the history of By the Numbers posts. Out of the 35 brands we track, only four improved their daily average sales rate versus the same month last year: Honda (1.9%), Mazda (2.5%), Mercedes-Benz (3%) and our Biggest Winner, MINI (38.5%). Leap year is to blame, as the rare return of February 29th offered most automakers an extra to day to suck. 
38.5% at 3,415 (2/07: 2,368)
-36.1% at 14,801 (2/07: 22,225)
Analysts and automakers alike have been warning us that 2008 is going to be another tough year, and January only served to prove them right. 
13.3% at 32,270 (1/07: 28,488)
-52.2% at 664 (1/07: 1,390)
Whoa, Mazda, slow down or you’re going to hurt yourself. The Zoom Zoom brand was the big winner in March with sales that rose an impressive 42.6%. Other notable gains include Saturn beating last March by 22.5% (and being the only GM brand on the positive side in sales last month) and Mitsubishi, sales for which rose 17.9% over March of 2006. 
-6.5% at 16,986 (3/06: 17,524)
10.6% at 8,020 (3/06: 6,994)