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From Hemi powered and "bling" marketed Hybrids to products domestic auto execs say “we” want to buy, reality is clearly being missed. (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=132811)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Chrysler_Aspen_Hemi_Hybrid_-_19_city_-_21_highway.jpgWayne Gerdes – CleanMPG (www.claenmpg.com) – Aug. 6, 2008

Chrysler’s 2009 Aspen Hemi Hybrid – 19/20 mpg city/highway.

The Motor City, once home to the American automobile's best and brightest is now home to an executive core that appears to be listening to its own upbeat press releases. While fuel costs have nearly tripled in 4 short years, the Big 2.5 continue to lack direction and a future business model to cover the contingencies highlighted by the question, “What if... ?”

Focusing on the Problems

Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers

Although the alliance represents more manufacturers than just the Big 2.5, their purpose since inception has been unwavering opposition of any and all legislated increase in corporate fleet average fuel economy. With grandiose declarations about lost jobs and competitiveness, their lobbyists have succeeded. The Big 2.5 are jettisoning jobs faster than at any time since the Great Depression even though the current CAFÉ standards have not changed in over two decades.

Unfortunately, the law of unintended consequences has now convinced the Big 2.5 they won a war with last year's energy bill -- the 2020 CAFÉ standards increase mandates a paltry 28.6 mpg for trucks, Van’s and SUV’s while passenger cars are require to hit the low target of 35.7 mpg (approximately 26 mpg on the 08 EPA in reality). With the bar for success set so low, Toyota's support of Alliance goals has systematically destroyed any chance the Big 2.5 had to succeed in a future of higher fuel prices and fuel supply constraints.

Ford

The new Taurus and Taurus X were launched at the 2007 Detroit Auto show. Unfortunately, the nameplate was simply affixed to the poor sales performance 500 and Freestyle vehicles with additional HP added to the mix. While Ford execs were exalting customer response to name recognition including benefits to corporate bottom line calculations, most in the audience were shaking their heads in amazement. Why would a Fortune 100 company even consider re-badging what were already market failures in an attempt to regain market share? Was this a sign of things to come?

With Ford’s upcoming EcoBoost solution for their 3.5L engine equipped vehicles, HP and Fuel economy are supposed to increase by up to 20%! 20% of what? The 3.5L equipped Ford Edge is EPA rated at 18 mpg combined. Will a 22 mpg combined rating move people to the showroom? At $3.75 for a single gallon of fuel, it will take $14,000 to fuel an EcoBoosted Edge -- and that does not include the massive deprecation hit a purchaser will receive over the next 5-years/75,000 miles.

What is Ford’s hope for the future? Perhaps they believe the upcoming European based Focus and Fiesta will pull them out the danger zone. Unfortunately, these vehicles will be lacking the 50 and 60 + mpg European super diesels and will instead be equipped with EcoBoost. A possible 20% increase in Fuel Economy over the current Focus just won't be enough!

GM

Fuel efficiency promotion from GM’s own marketing team has taken center stage the past few years and proved itself the biggest bait and switch since WMD’s and terrorists in IRAQ caused the US to go to war.

“From gas-friendly to gas-free, GM is leading the way toward innovative energy solutions.” -- a lofty slogan heralding the solution. A wonderful sentiment, but one lacking an actual product delivering on the promise.

What about flex fuel? Did GM really believe E85 marketing could cure lagging sales or was it really just the CAFÉ standards dodge it appears to have been?

“GM has the most models with EPA estimated 30 mpg or higher highway fuel economy.”

Let's take a look at the veracity of this claim.


HHR – 25 mpg combined (Stick and Auto).
Cobalt Sedan, Cobalt Coupe and G5 – 28 combined (Stick, Auto and XFE)
Aveo sedan and hatch – 29 mpg combined (Stick and Auto).
Vue Hybrid – 28 mpg combined
Aura Hybrid – 29 mpg combined
Vibe – 28 (1.8L Stick and Auto)
Malibu and Malibu Hybrid – 27 mpg combined (I4 Auto)
Astra – 27 mpg combined (Stick and Auto)
G6 coupe and sedan - 25 mpg combined (Stick and Auto)
The future Volt platforms and possibly the 1.4L DI-Turbocharged Cruze are cause for hope but some of the pieces and parts have yet to leave the drawing table. This makes for quite the gamble in a day and age when the corporation is losing as much as $15.5 Billion in a single quarter (2008). The time for action was long ago.

Chrysler

The Chrysler (http://www.chrysler.com/en/) website says it all. A Chrysler 300 is shown with the headline “Vanity plates would be redundant.” Marketing an 18 mpg rated 300 with fuel costs just below $4.00 a gallon might be good for the bottom line but with sales off 58% last month and almost 40% for the year, the public is not deceived. Chrysler is missing what the public sees and needs.

Throughout the rest of their lineup, the best FE available is delivered by the aging Avenger at a whopping 26 mpg combined.

Ford’s Mulally walked into a company on the brink. GM’s Wagoner has been orchestrating his company's own demise for years and Cerebrus’ Nardelli has been dealt a whole slew of inherited problems.

Did any of the three get the message? Will they stay the course or choose to survive?

“From gas-friendly to gas-free, GM is leading the way toward innovative energy solutions” was heralded as the solution. Unfortunately missing from the slogan and massive media blitz was an actual product that delivered on the promise.

Going into a showroom at a GM dealership must be a truly frustrating experience. Forget about asking for the Volt. Just ask for a fuel efficient car and you will probably be shown an Aveo and then get talked out of it by the dealer who will convince you that "Meanwhile while you buy your new ...fill in the blank for your favorite gas guzzler ... a new generation of Chevy vehicles will be coming out in the next, 2, 4, 6, ... years that will provide substantial jumps in fuel economy but you should buy one of these Impalas, Malibus, Suburbans, while GM pushes ahead to the future and builds the next generation of fuel efficient and gas free vehicles in 2012, 2014, 2016, whenever."

Excellent points!

And exactly the reason that I, a life-time GM car & Ford truck buyer, just bought a Honda Civic! Detroit doesn't have a clue.

Is CAFE based on car's sold? If so, are the American 3 seeing rises in economy just because no will will buy their FSPs?

I'm running outside to hug my Honda.

lmao Shiba. good one. i dont think it's based on cars sold though. they take the fuel economy of every auto they make, add it up, and average it. i believe they do this based on class, so SUV's/trucks/vans in one lump, cars in another

HHR – 25 mpg combined (Stick and Auto).
Cobalt Sedan, Cobalt Coupe and G5 – 28 combined (Stick, Auto and XFE)
Aveo sedan and hatch – 29 mpg combined (Stick and Auto).
Vue Hybrid – 28 mpg combined
Aura Hybrid – 29 mpg combined
Vibe – 28 (1.8L Stick and Auto)
Malibu and Malibu Hybrid – 27 mpg combined (I4 Auto)
Astra – 27 mpg combined (Stick and Auto)
G6 coupe and sedan - 25 mpg combined (Stick and Auto)

My 9-year old Chevrolet Prizm w/auto has a combined 08 EPA (28) equal to or better than all but two: the Aveo and the Aura hybrid -- a heavy subcompact and a hybrid SUV, respectively -- and those only beat it by 1 MPG combined.

1 MPG in 9 years. Leading the way toward innovative energy solutions.

the Aveo and the Aura hybrid -- a heavy subcompact and a hybrid SUV,


Sadly, the Aura is the sedan (basically a Malibu or G6) with BAS. They need to 2-mode that thing ASAP.

“From gas-friendly to gas-free, GM is leading the way toward innovative energy solutions.” -- a lofty slogan heralding the solution.

I have always disliked this tag line in GM's advertisements since the started using it a little while back.

I assume gas free applies to the EV-1.;)

Sadly, the Aura is the sedan (basically a Malibu or G6) with BAS. They need to 2-mode that thing ASAP.

That's right...I got my Saturns mixed up -- I was thinking of the Vue Green Line....:o

And of course the `99 Chevy Metro w/1L and a stick blows away all these anyway (36 MPG combined, 08 EPA).

Ford has had a very good hybrid system for many years and yet it only builds the FEH in very limited numbers. Why is that?

GM has a very inexpensive mild hybrid system that they could cheaply add to the Aevo and Cobalt. And yet they do not. Why not?

Chrysler... well... Cereberus pretty much bought a mountain of problems.

That is one sobering summary you have laid out, Wayne. If the big .003 were selling items that America could take or leave, (discretionary items) few would care about their stupid little games. Unfortunately, that is not the case. They and their buddies in crime, the oil industry, realize that their actions are making this country and its economy reel. They know that their actions continue to destroy our moneys worth, destroy our standard of living, destroy our housing market and throw thousands of American families out on the street (yes, big oil and auto is mostly responsible for this), and a whole host of other crises, and, yet I see commercial after commercial telling Americans that their cars are energy efficient and will help them in their quest for solutions to their awful predicament. I hear them tout 24 MPG as a way out of peoples budget crises. 24 MPG will help them about as much as hiding behind a stop sign will protect you in a hurricane. They are just simply lying to America. They know what we need and they have kept it away from us and, it is obvious also that they do not care what becomes of America. They could care less what their lies are doing to this country. They are greedy.

I think we as Americans have to begin to come to grips with the concept that big companies can do whatever they feel gives them the greatest return, regardless of the consequences to our country.

I think we as Americans have to begin to come to grips with big companies price fixing, engaging in restraint of trade, and paying off our elected officials and regulating agencies thru lobbying, special interest groups, and legal "contributions".

I think we as Americans have to begin to come to grips with demanding accountability from our elected officials. There now is none.

We have to clean up this mess before they clean our country out. These big companies will NOT stop on their own!!

Very sad indeed. While they may fool themselves and the government into accepting their despicable fuel economy, it's good to see that at least some of the public isn't biting.

I do have a thing to point out on your essay though. You quote :“GM has the most models with EPA estimated 30 mpg or higher highway fuel economy.” but then list the combined milage of their vehicles. In the quote they say it is highway mpg alone. I know, a fickle thing, and it does serve them right anyway, as 30mpg is a pittance all the same.

They are greedy.

Greed isn't the problem. Short-sightedness and stupidity are. They just grab what they can get in the next quarter or next year, and don't look beyond that. An intelligently greedy management (like Toyota's, for instance) would have concentrated on producing efficient, quality products, so that instead of making a few billion & getting out before the whole thing comes tumbling down around them, they could go on making those same billions - or even more - every year for the foreseeable future.

Is CAFE based on car's sold? If so, are the American 3 seeing rises in economy just because no will will buy their FSPs?

I don't know about that, but with the maximum fine for missing CAFE cat $55/mile, they sure aren't going to take it seriously.

Think about it- they can do nothing FE wise for 12 years, sell nothing but 18MPG FSPs and pay a $550 fine.

Because you Know the price of a $35K FSP won't go up $600 in 12 years.:rolleyes:

It is funny that for the last 77 years up untill this year GM out sold everyone. What does that say? It says to me that if you build it they will buy it. When they stop buying it is when you change. I am not pro GM, but I am for the thousands of workers who will be the one hurt by this non-action by the Big 3, yes I said Big 3.GM,FORD and Chrysler are the Big three of, if not the US, Detroit,MI.

As far as the Avenger being Chryslers highest combined MPG car. I have a 2007 Dodge Caliber SXT with the CVT transmission, I have gotten as high as 30 MPG combined.

...I see commercial after commercial telling Americans that their cars are energy efficient and will help them in their quest for solutions to their awful predicament. I hear them tout 24 MPG as a way out of peoples budget crises.

Hey, Bob,

You forgot the TV commercial where GM has the nerve to advise consumers to trade UP to a Silverado, to get 20 mpg!

And how about my favorite, the one with the flim-flam man teaching a group of young children about cars, and how they should avoid "teensy weensy" hybrids in favor of a Tahoe Hybrid!

It'd be funny if it weren't so pathetic!

Harry

When I look at Detroit I see ugly cars that get awful gas millage and have even worse interiors. My chevy prizm is going to die but I can't think of any car I'd want to replace it with.

Oh my, my tired old totalled held together with ductape 267000k V6 minivan is getting the same mileage as all those cars!:eek:

All this makes me like Nader more... (only half kidding).

Nader? You might stop and think about the way things might possibly have gone, if he hadn't come out with his book of lies & half-truths, and so blocked Detroit's only real attempt an a fuel-efficient car. (For its day, of course.)