ON THE TABLE

September 28, 2011

Paul Copses. He becomes the first U.S. vice president of Customer Experience at General Motors, charged with leading efforts to win and keep customers for Chevrolet, Buick GMC and Cadillac. According to the GM press release, Copses is currently executive director – Customer Care and Aftersales and will begin his new job Oct. 1. and will be tasked to ensure GM leads in providing the highest levels of customer care in the U.S. automotive industry. He will report to GM North America President Mark Reuss and regularly provide updates directly to GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson. Copses will lead a strategy development team and coordinate GM's customer relations activities including call centers, post-sale policies and dealer network customer care standards. Memo to Mr. Copses: Your first order of business? Make sure GM builds better cars and trucks. Secondly, make the dealers more than tolerable to visit. And lastly, don't tell us what you're going to do. Just frickin' do it.

Politics. With the senate avoiding a U.S. government shutdown, the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program survived, meaning that a $1.5 billion cut in a program intended to help the auto industry retool for fuel-efficient vehicles was avoided. That's the good news. The bad news? Vaporautoware manufacturers Fisker ($529 million) and Tesla ($465 million) still get their money.

Chevrole Cruze. Kudos to GM for going "all-in" in developing a competent even desirable compact car in the Chevy Cruze. And congrats goes to Chevy marketing as well for pounding the goodness of the Cruze home. Now, will success go to GM's collective heads? Doubtful, especially when the B and C segment competition is only going to get tougher with each passing month. If GM can keep it together with the Cruze, it bodes well for how they'll handle the rest of their upcoming lineup. Well, technically at least anyway.

OnStar. The GM-owned vehicle navigation system is in hot water - and deservedly so, we might add - for collecting data from customers who have canceled the service. OnStar revised its policy and informed its customers last week saying that the company would sell or share anonymous data, including a vehicle's speed, location and safety-belt usage to third parties "for any purpose." Read that last phrase again. For any purpose. This anonymous data doesn't identify an individual customer or a customer's vehicle, according to OnStar. But people are royally pissed about it anyway, including U.S. senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who wants OnStar investigated. Not that he's a bellwether for the common good by any means, since he's jumping on an "issue" for the facetime it might give him. (Do senators do anything for any other reason, really?) But the practice still is out of line and out of bounds. Oh, and it sucks too, btw. Editor-in-Chief's Note: In late breaking news, OnStar has rescinded the aforementioned policies so that this thing doesn't become more of a PR disaster than it already is. Good move. - PMD

Olivier Francois. From the "Oh Please Just Shut-Up" File comes word that Francois, Sergio's marketing "genius," when asked about the nonsensical placement of the infamous JLo spot - a spot clearly aimed at women - on Monday Night Football responded to AdAge with the following gem: "America is aware that there is a car. We needed this kind of spark." Huh? And that's our AE Quote of the Week, such as it is.

Dan Akerson. At a Bloomberg News forum in New York, GM CEO Dan Akerson praised the Treasury Department, as reported by David Shepardson in The Detroit News, which still holds a 26.5 percent stake in the company, for not attending board meetings and being a hands-off shareholder. Especially when it came to the Opel deal. "I'm sure quite frankly we've shocked them with some decisions," Akerson said, commenting on GM's decision not to sell Opel, when everyone predicted they would. "It was just black and white a bad deal; we were giving it away." And that's our AE Quote of the Week, Part II.

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Try as I might I can't find a better sports car to recommend to an enthusiast looking for a real driver's car than the Porsche Boxster S (or its companion coupe version, the Cayman S). Quick, agile, comfortable and with a level of day-to-day usability that's completely unexpected for enthusiasts new to the brand, the Boxster S and its stablemate, the Cayman S simply have no peers. To get in our Guards Red tester (my least favorite all-time Porsche color, btw) was to get into a perfectly-rendered driving environment. How you sit in it and how the interior surroundings look and feel - especially when you grip the steering wheel - are simply how it's done. And the way it drives? With overall balance being the operative word here the steering, brakes and handling combined with the terrific sounding - and performing - engine result in a package that's pure unadulterated perfection. I've had nine 911s pass through my hands over the years (as well as a Boxster and a Cayman) and I can honestly say that the Boxster S and Cayman S (especially the Cayman S) are closer to what a Porsche sports car should look and feel like than the most recent 911s. Don't get me wrong, the iconic 911 is still great, but it has grown too big and too accommodating, while the Boxster and Cayman maintain a taut brilliance that seems more lustrous every time I get behind the wheel. Whether your driving pleasure is defined by open-air motoring (Boxster S) or you seek a closed coupe (Cayman S), these Porsche sports cars represent the quintessential definition of what modern, state-of-the-art sports cars should be.

2012 Porsche Boxster S: $67,580, ($58,600 Base Price; Guards Red/Black Standard Leather; 3.4-liter horizontally-opposed, direct fuel-injected, double overhead cam 6-cylinder with 310HP and 265 lb. ft. torque; VarioCam Plus valve timing and lift; 2 stage resonance exhaust system; 6-speed manual gearbox with dual mass flywheel; 12.5" vented rotors with 4-piston calipers (front); 11.8" vented rotors with 4-piston calipers (back); 8x18 alloy wheels with 235/40ZR18 tires (front); 9x18 alloy wheels with 265/40ZR18 tires (back); Porsche Stability Management; Convenience package, $2490; Infotainment package for Bose, $3640; Heated seats, $525; 18" Cayman S II wheels, $390; Full color Porsche crest in wheel centers, $185; Ventilated seats, $800; Porsche crest embossed in headrests, n/c; Destination Charge, $800).

(Ford)
This very interesting bright red LEGOLAND Florida edition Explorer was created from more than 380,000 LEGO bricks. Created by 22 designers, it weighs 2,654 pounds and is supported by a 768-pound interior aluminum base. After its debut at the historic Chicago Assembly plant, which produces the real Explorer, the vehicle will be loaded onto a trailer with transparent sides so motorists can see the LEGO Explorer as it makes its way to the new 150-acre LEGOLAND Florida theme park just outside Orlando. There it will be featured in front of one of the park’s attractions, the Ford Driving School for children. The LEGOLAND Explorer marks the beginning of a long-term alliance between Ford and LEGOLAND® Florida theme park, which opens October 15.

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Once again our talented friend Casey Shain aka "art and colour" has graced us with some of his cool digital stylings. This time it's for a "top shelf" Cadillac, a sporty version of the new VW Up! and a futuristic Mustang. Casey has attached his comments below. Enjoy!! - PMD

"Interesting to read the J Mays is going future-forward with the new Mustang for the next generation. That's exactly what will be needed and I can hear the cries of 'that's no Mustang' already. I bet it has some über EcoBoost V6s and a really powerful high-tech 4-cylinder standard. Which I would totally agree with but will freak out the 'Stang Neanderthals' out there. My new Mustang is from the Evos, but it's probably not futuristic enough now!"

"The Cadillac is from the XTS Platinum concept but I call it the XTC and it would have a V12 for a true flagship, 450hp for the luxury version, 600hp from twin superchargers for the V-series. The V is probably a bit too boy racer, but I was feeling randy when I chopped it, lol. Imagine a NASCAR worthy sound from that V12, rather than a Ferrari whine. : )"

"The VW Up! Churada is my fanciful attempt to "sportify" the new Up! city car. It would be a 2 seater with lots of room for luggage or the battery pack for the e/hybrid version. "Churada" is a wind/rain event in the Marianas Islands, going back to VW's use of 'wind' names."