Detroit Auto Show: Demonstrations inside and out

The contrast was striking: Featured at GM's news conference was a group of about 600 rowdy GM employees bused in to participate in a "rally," chanting "100 more years!" and waving signs -- "Game Changer," "Charged Up" and "Here to Stay." The message was clearly "save our jobs." At the same moment, across the street from Cobo Center in downtown Detroit, about 50 autoworkers, union members and sympathizers stood in the knife-cold wind to demand the same thing. Only less politely.

"What's disgusting?!" howled a man with a loudspeaker. "UNION BUSTING!!" "What's outrageous?!" "SWEATSHOP WAGES!!"

The recent Washington three-ring circus over government-backed loans for the auto industry turned a harsh light on the United Auto Workers' compensation. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), among others, argued that the government shouldn't bail out the carmakers unless they can extract concessions from the UAW to bring members' compensation in line with non-unionized autoworkers in the South.

It's an argument that -- to say the least -- leaves autoworkers cold.

"Non-union workers who make less than us are taught to resent us," said Dianne Feeley, a retired UAW Local 235 member at American Axle. "We are not enemies; we want the same things they want."

According to Feeley, the industry's problems aren't its labor costs. Rather, she said, they come from overcapacity, bad product choices and the broken economy.

Kirsten Gibbs, on temporary furlough from Chrysler's Warren stamping plant, where she works as a welder, was marching with her father, Joe. He's a retired UAW member who also worked at Chrysler, in the Jefferson North Plant in Detroit.

"What frustrates me is that they're comparing us to the Southern worker. But our cost of living is higher," said the younger Gibbs. She said public perceptions of how much autoworkers make are greatly exaggerated. "It's ridiculous that people think we're all walking around with money falling out of our pockets."

-- Dan Neil

Photo: UAW protesters picket Sunday outside the North American International Auto Show outside Cobo Center in Detroit. Credit: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times.

Santa’s 21st-century sleighs

’Twas the night before Christmas and not a creature was stirring -- not even a reindeer. That’s because Santa has given himself a present and traded in his old sleigh for a new Bentley-designed model. British buff book, Car, wrote a little letter and left it by the chimney, asking for a few auto makers to create their own take on the most famous sleigh of all.

Bentley, Ford, Nissan and Rolls-Royce answered the call and put their elves in the North Pole design studios to work. The results are here. The Bentley effort has a W-12 engine, naturally. Ford came up with three ideas (too much spare time at the Blue Oval?), while Nissan’s sci-fi contribution was penned by a Canadian, so he knows all about trying to get around in winter weather.

Being somewhat traditional, Rolls-Royce has decided to retain deer power in place of horsepower, but has given Santa an elegant and no doubt supremely comfortable carriage section. There’s probably a little cocktail bar, should St. Nick fancy a quick snifter to keep him warm. All the sleigh images on the Car site can be sent as personalized e-cards. Ho, ho, ho.

-- Colin Ryan

Image: Car

Car theft stats hit home for actor John Schneider and puppies

It was a sad day last week for the family of actor John Schneider, best known for his character Bo Duke in the "Dukes of Hazzard" TV series. Not only was his Cadillac Escalade stolen, but two puppies that he had brought home recently to his family for Christmas were also taken from a Los Angeles mall. John is hopeful that the puppies will be returned, but the Escalade was found with the seats and instrument panel torn out. Sadly, the Schneider family has become a statistic in what the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently reported as the most stolen car, the Cadillac Escalade.

The IIHS recently gave us figures on the vehicles that have been 2008’s top 10 steals. And that isn’t some euphemism for a showroom bargain, but cars that get stolen the most. The stats apply to 2005 to 2007 model cars from their first sales to May this year.

>>Visit our photo gallery: Top 10 Most Stolen Vehicles

L.A. Auto Show's GM buys Westwood-area home for $2.4 million

Not everyone associated with the auto industry needs a bailout. Los Angeles Times staff writer Ann Brenoff reports that Andrew Fuzesi "is the new owner of a Westwood-area home that was on the market for a mere 10 days and sold for above its listing price." Fuzesi is the general manager and co-owner of the L.A. Auto Show, which ran this year from Nov. 21-30.

"The 1927 house had been a three bedroom, one bathroom with just 1,364 square feet," Brenoff adds. "The seller rebuilt the house, making it into a five-bedroom, five-bathroom home with about 4,000 square feet that is contemporary in style. It was listed at $2,395,000 and sold for $2,401,000."

For more information on this and other real estate transactions, check out The Times' Hot Property archive.

—Whitney Friedlander

Photo: Andrew Fuzesi inside the Los Angeles Convention Center while preparing for a past L.A. Auto Show.

Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

EBay cars under $10,000 that beat the pants off a Nissan Versa

Nissan’s announcement last week that it would offer a stripped-down version of its Versa model for under $10,000 -– a Sub-Versa, if you will -– occasioned a lot of media attention and interest, as if there was something to celebrate. To me it sounds like 1.6 liters of boredom, a mouthful of sand to thirsty car-buyers. Please. Ten grand? I can put you in automotive paradise for $10,000. Walk this way.

Go to www.motors.ebay.com and follow the link to “Cars & Trucks.” Don’t specify a make or model but simply order the 50,000 or so listings by price, and use the advanced search function to specify items with a “Buy It Now” price. What you’ll discover is an Elysian field of depreciation as the awesome rides of yesteryear -– in some cases cars that dominated automotive buff book covers just a couple of years ago –- are dispensed with for a fraction of their original sticker. With the recent spike in gas prices and the downturn in the economy, people are eating their cars -– “literally!” as Joe Biden would say.

Yes, these cars are a little older, but if you were to compare, wheel-to-wheel, the new Versa with, say, a 1991 BMW 850i –- a 12-cylinder supercoupe on 18-inch Hamann wheels and with only 47,120 miles on the clock –- well, your head would explode. The Bimmer has more technology in its ashtray.

So before you submit to lowered automotive expectations, consider these choices, all on EBay for $10,000 or less (after the jump):

An embarrassment of richness?

Isn’t it nice to know that someone is avoiding the depression-era mentality the rest of the automotive industry is adopting; that they are, indeed, partying like it’s still 1999? This piece of mobile hedonism comes from French designer Christian Audigier, the man behind the Ed Hardy fashion line. We’ve already seen Audigier’s interpretation of the Smart car.

This is the first customized effort from what Audigier sees as a range inspired by first-class travel and jet-set life. He has started his own company — CA Motoring — and plans to "reinvent traditional driven and chauffeur-driven vehicles" with "one-of-a-kind works of art on wheels" (CA Motoring’s words).

The plan is to have two distinct lines, each based on Audigier’s hand-sketched designs, although customers will be able to stipulate their own tastes. One is the Signature Series, the upscale version. The other will bear the moniker of Ed Hardy Custom Iron, which will have an "edgier" theme, with matte exterior paint and tattoo art. It’s more street, more rock ’n’ roll, y’know?

Pictured here is Audigier’s own set of wheels, called the VIF 1. Apparently, VIF in French means high-energy and lively, with V derived from the word vivre. It’s a lengthened (by 14 inches) and heightened (by about six inches) Cadillac Escalade, upholstered with leathers that have been custom-tanned and took weeks to produce. Certain parts of the cabin, such as the seatbelt clips, touch-screen controls and instrument bezels, are fashioned from 24-karat gold to "reflect a certain rock ’n’ roll street culture." From which we can only surmise that Audigier must live on a very nice street.

There also are some more sensible additions to go with the extra leg- and headroom: WiFi capability, beverage dispenser and plenty of storage space. There are additional batteries and a beefed-up electrical system to make sure all the LED lighting and toys get enough power. One such toy is a video system with a front-mounted camera so passengers can tell if they’ve reached their red-carpet destination without suffering the indignity of having to ask the driver.

Something like the VIF 1 would cost around $300,000, with a wait of 12 weeks or so. Naturally, such figures would be subject to variation, depending on what kind of customization a client might require. Lucky there isn’t a financial crisis or any kind of global warming going on right now; imagine how inappropriate this could look.

—Colin Ryan

Photos: CA Motoring

Auto loan picture grim

A $23.9-billion quarterly loss is hard to see around. But lost in all the heartburn over the effect that subprime mortgages had on Wachovia Corp.'s third-quarter results was the fact that the bank didn't get much help from automobile loans either.

The soon-to-be unit of Wells Fargo & Co. reported that 2.89% of its $27.5-billion auto-loan portfolio was delinquent by 30 or more days, up about half a percentage point from the same period a year ago. That's $795 million in past-due loans, compared to  $581 million a year ago.

Meanwhile, the value of Wachovia's nonperforming auto loans, generally defined as those that are 90 or more days delinquent, reached $93 million, up from $69 million a year ago.

Most tellingly, the bank charged off — essentially giving up hope of collecting on — $195 million in auto loans in the third quarter, a whopping 99% increase over  a year earlier.

As a result, the bank said it had tightened lending standards, raising the average FICO score for a new car loan to 673, and cutting way back on long-term auto loans, which can have a terrible effect on borrowers and lenders. At one point, 6.5% of Wachovia's new auto loans were for seven-year terms, a number the bank hopes to reduce to 2% of its originations. Wachovia also reduced overall originations of auto loans by 30% compared to the second quarter, to just $2.6 billion.

Of course, some of that reduction could be because fewer people are looking to buy a car in this down economy. But the figures also shed light on why consumers are complaining that they're having trouble getting financing for a new purchase.

Wachovia's auto woes are hardly unique...

Court mandates salvaged car database

Sixteen years ago, Congress passed a law requiring the creation of a national database of vehicle title information that would allow consumers to determine whether a vehicle had been in a serious accident. It seemed like a great idea, but it was never implemented.

Thanks to a federal court ruling today, however, that should soon be changing.

A U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of California handed down a decision that requires the federal government to create a database of stolen cars and state, insurance and junkyard title information. Government-supplied data are to be made public by the end of January, with private industry data coming out by the end of March.

The ruling comes after years of pressure from consumer groups, which pointed out that without access to such information, motorists cannot really know whether a vehicle has been severely damaged or "totaled." That's a serious safety risk, because badly wrecked cars can be unsafe to drive even if they're repaired.

Catching Up to Speed: Monday, Sept. 22, 2008

A quick roundup of other automotive stories ...

Shocking! Mini goes electric 
Website Engadget.com links to CAR magazine's spy photos of the electric version of the Mini Cooper taking a spin around Munich.

How to survive the used-car lot
Members of the car-obsessed pit crew at Jalopnik.com understand that not everyone can afford a shiny new ride. They offer seven steps on how to get a new-to-you purchase without breaking the bank.

Car shows in the area
Working for the weekend? Mark your calendar for these upcoming events:

12th Annual Car Show for the Son
Showcasing antiques, street rods, muscle cars, motorcycles and more.
9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, 1245 N. Euclid Ave., Ontario. www.socalcarculture.com

9th Annual Crusin' for a Cure
Over 3,400 American-made vehicles participate in the one-day charity custom/classic car show benefiting prostate cancer research at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, OC Fair & Events Center, Costa Mesa. www.cruisinforacure.com

Oktoberfest and Classic Car Show
Beer tasting and awards such as Best of Decade and Best Pre-1930. Held at (and benefiting) the 1892 Victorian-style Camarillo Ranch House.
11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. www.camarilloranch.org

Find more events at AutoBooks' Automotive Calendar of Events.

Photo: Electric Mini Cooper
Credit: CAR magazine

Detroit bailout?

With carmakers on the rocks, or approaching them fast, a hot topic is whether Washington would bail out a General Motors Corp. or a Ford Motor Co. should the shadow of bankruptcy fall upon them. Would either of the presidential candidates, John McCain or Barack Obama, come to their rescue? 

Well, Detroit isn't  waiting for November to find out. In recent months, the industry has been quietly lobbying Congress to back $25 billion in low-interest loans for auto manufacturers and suppliers. Now the industry, along with the United Auto Workers union, is asking for $25 billion more, and it's doing it with a lot more volume.

The original $25 billion loan package, which would cost the government an estimated $3.75 billion to guarantee, was written into the 2007 energy bill — the same one that imposed the new, more aggressive, fuel economy standards. The aim of the loan program was to help offset the estimated $100-billion cost of improving fuel efficiency in cars to 35 mpg by 2020. But that money has not yet been appropriated by Congress, and the Department of Energy has not yet written final rules on the loan program. Now the industry is amping up the pressure to get those things done.

With automakers reporting huge second-quarter losses — $15.5 billion for GM and $7.8 billion for Ford — Senate Democrats late last month proposed spending $900 million to back $6 billion of the $25 billion in loans to automakers; that proposal is set to come up for a vote next month. But the new plan being pushed by the industry would fully fund the already approved loan guarantees and provide $25 billion more over the next few years.

Complete details of the industry-backed plan should be unveiled after Labor Day, but early details suggest it would be a juicy deal: Interest on the loans would be about 4.5%, less than a third the rate that the credit-challenged carmakers can expect to get on the open market. Moreover, Congress would have the option of deferring all payments for up to five years. Likely backers come from the Michigan delegation, including Rep. John Dingell, a Democrat and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.