ON THE TABLE - APRIL 30, 2014

Editor-in-Chief's Note: The "orderly transition" at the Ford Motor Company - the handoff of the CEO title from Alan Mulally to Mark Fields - was officially announced yesterday. I've read most if not all of the hand-wringing about the transition and the myriad "to-do" lists for Fields from the "experts" in the automotive media and they were for the most part predictable and tedious. I'm always amazed at the depth and breadth of the lack of knowledge and insight demonstrated by the media, and much of what I read could have been written six months ago, easily. Suffice to say, Mark Fields has a tremendous opportunity to shape the future of the Ford Motor Company. He also has a laundry list of challenges and issues, a brace of crucial product launches, and the ever-changing landscape of the global automotive business to deal with. Is Mark Fields up to the challenge? I am absolutely convinced that he is the right executive, at the right time, at the right car company. He understands what "focused consistency" truly means in this business and he will build on Alan Mulally's legendary legacy to move the Ford Motor Company confidently into the future. Will there be complications and difficulties? Certainly. Some of those problems will even be generated from within the Ford Motor Company itself.  I will have more to say on the subject in future columns. - PMD

Editor-in-Chief's Note: The Japanese automaker formerly known as "The Juggernaut" is picking up stakes and headed to Plano, Texas, abandoning its long-established Southern California beachhead for good. The automaker is hoping to accomplish the move by the end of the year, in 2017. Many factors were involved, but the bottom line is that Southern California had become untenable in terms of costs, for the company and its employees. Will some people refuse to make the move? Certainly. We saw that when Nissan moved to Tennessee. But the die is cast and the move will happen. It will be a different company and a different "feeling" to be sure. And there may be lingering repercussions surrounding this move, for its people and dealers. See my column this week for more. - PMD

Daimler. Editor-in-Chief's Note: Uncle Dieter Zetsche, Daimler's CEO, is gloating because Mercedes is on a roll, with profits up due to increased volumes. But the profit margin was notably less than expected, much less than what Audi delivered to be exact. But then again Mercedes is a volume-oriented company now, with the good stuff (the new S-class, S63 AMG Coupe, etc.) being eclipsed by their insatiable desire to churn out CLAs like Corollas. That dichotomy between the "good" Mercedes and the "volume" Mercedes will continue to grow as Zetsche tries to cement his career legacy at the company. It's a giant bowl of Not Good for the Mercedes-Benz image, but clearly no one there cares anymore, or knows the difference. - PMD

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Though engineered well, GM's full-size pickups - especially the Chevrolet Silverado - are getting hammered in the market and the situation is getting ugly, with Chevy dealers particularly incensed, as Ram trucks are taking chunks of market share away from the Silverado. The problem? GM Design went overly conservative on the look of the trucks, with the Silverado specifically lacking that aura of "new" that it needed right out of the gate. That's why GM's full-size pickups are undergoing an urgent, all-hands-on-deck redesign. And that's why there are going to be some transitional changes at GM Design before the end of the year. - PMD

Editor-in-Chief's Note: What are the three crucial things GM needs right now? 1. The company needs a new PR chief who is strategically savvy, someone who is able to help Mary Barra - a rookie in every sense of the word - navigate the dangerous, media-infested waters and the political quagmire that GM finds itself in. Someone who can see the Big Picture and more important, keep Mary and the entire company on message and focused on the issues that matter. Sound easy? It certainly isn't, but the company needs to fill this need immediately. Julie Hamp's name keeps popping up, so we'll see how this develops. 2. Despite upper management's staunch belief otherwise, GM desperately needs a Chief Marketing Officer. As in Right Now. GM's top executives seem to think Alan Batey (GM's sales chief) can do it in passing and that they don't need anyone in that position, but that's a complete joke because Alan Batey can't even do the job he has now - just ask key GM dealers around the country what they really think of Batey's "talent." This guy is a frickin' disaster that is costing the company dearly, but the problem is that Mary and Co. are so focused on the recall that the urgent needs of the company are getting lost or ignored all together, which is a container ship of Not Good. And 3. GM's Legal Staff needs to be blown-up, starting with a regime change at the top and a thorough purging of any and all who have enthusiastically taken their marching orders from the current Chief Counsel. Nothing represents the "old" GM more than the GM Legal Staff. If there's a "culture" at GM - and I use that term reluctantly, because in reality the only "culture" at GM revolves around making money - there's a culture of paranoia and internal meddling that has been handed down from generation to generation in the Legal Staff, which functions for all intents and purposes as GM's secretive internal security force, something akin to The Adjustment Bureau or a rogue element in the College of Cardinals. That culture of paranoia started back in the 60s when a wayward staffer on the GM Legal Staff who worked for then Chief Counsel Aloysius Powers decided to investigate Ralph Nader without any authorization whatsoever, or knowledge by anyone else in the company. And when confronted with the news Powers had to admit in an emergency executive staff meeting called by then chairman James Roche that the GM Legal Staff was indeed responsible. A true account that was authenticated by my father, who was in that meeting. The High-Octane Truth is that the GM Legal Staff has been on a downward spiral ever since, and if any one aspect of that reeling company hard by the Detroit River needs to be blown-up, it's that. - PMD (4/23)

(Photos courtesy of GM/Chevrolet)
The 2015 Corvette Stingray will be available in two new Design Packages at intro: the track-focused Pacific Coupe and the luxury GT-focused Atlantic Convertible. “One of the design goals for the Corvette Stingray was to provide customers with the flexibility to tailor the car to their personality,” said Kirk Bennion, Corvette exterior design manager. “The Atlantic and Pacific Design Packages were originally designed to showcase how the Stingray could be configured as a luxury sport GT car or as a high-performance motorsport car.” (Editor-in-Chief's Note: Corvette True Believers within GM also got sick of seeing Porsche make ca$h hand-over-fist with special edition after special edition, too, let's be clear about that. - PMD) The 2015 Corvette Stingray Atlantic Design Package is said to be influenced by the luxury and performance of private jets, and the 2015 Corvette Stingray Pacific Design Package is supposedly inspired by West Coast drivers who attend weekend track events. Order away...

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Hot rod builder, historian and filmmaker Brian Darwas ("A Sweet Sickness,” “The Devil at Your Feet” and “The Road to Bonneville") talks about the making of "This is Long Beach" in a brand-new video just released by Atomic Hot Rods (www.AtomicHotRods.com). In his latest film, Darwas shadows three generations of custom car & hot rod aficionados, The Long Beach Cavaliers. Each generation, from the 1940's to present, recounts detailed memories and pays homage to the cars that bonded them in a lifelong brotherhood all while chopping a 1947 Ford in Brad Masterson's Kustom's car shop in historic Lynwood, California. Watch the clip here. - PMD