Mulally: ?Car czar? shouldn?t have power over product strategy

[SVT666]

Mulally: ?Car czar? shouldn?t have power over product strategy

The Big Three finally landed their emergency bridge loans ? with possibly more cash on the way ? but unlike the financial sector?s $700 billion bailout, the Detroit automakers will be kept under a microscope in return. One of the stipulations for the bailout cash was a ?car czar?, a position Ford CEO Alan Mulally hopes steers clear of product development.

The exact role of the car czar has yet to be define, but Mulally hopes the position will not include the power to oversee product strategy. ?My god, I hope that a car czar does not get into the product strategy of the companies,? Mulally told Automotive News. ?The product strategy has to be led by the companies.?

The car czar will oversee the Detroit automakers? North American turnaround, but it still remains unclear exactly how much power the position will wield over the automakers? lineups. Many on Capitol Hill have called for more fuel-efficient vehicles from Detroit but, in all actuality, Detroit already produces several vehicles with better fuel economy than their foreign rivals.

President-elect Barack Obama is expected to appoint a car czar in the next few weeks.

[GoCougs]

He's right of course, but it's unrealistic to expect it not to happen.

You can't sell only a part of your soul to the Devil - it's an all-or-none affair.

Gods - the bleating for more hybrids and electrics from Capitol Hill makes a decent person sick...

[TBR]

Eh, depending on who it is I don't know that it's really that bad of an idea.

I just had a horrendous thought though: Al Gore.

[FoMoJo]

I would hope the only purpose of the 'Car Czar' is to make sure the money loaned is spent according to the agreement.  Once the money is repaid, the 'Car Czar' is gone.

[GoCougs]

I would hope the only purpose of the 'Car Czar' is to make sure the money loaned is spent according to the agreement.  Once the money is repaid, the 'Car Czar' is gone.

Not a chance - when has federal government ever scaled back its power?

Detroit has been nationalized. We Americans had just better get used to it.

Algore would be AWESOME.

[SVT666]

Would the Car Czar have any power over Ford, since Ford has taken no money?

[the Teuton]

I can't wait.  My predictions:

1) Ailing car companies take tax money, don't fix core issues such as wages and contracts.

2) Obama appoints a 'car czar' to oversee product development and regulations like CAFE

3) Someone sees rapid progress with the development of 40 MPG cars, decides to accelerate CAFE

4) Henry Waxman decides that we still pollute too much, increases environmental standards

5) Cool companies like Porsche and Ferrari can't sell cars in America anymore, pull out

6) American companies make uninspired boxes that are dictated by regulations

7) American companies aren't getting any better and gas levels off at $2.50/gallon max

8) A Dem president has to regulate unions to get wages down to competitive levels, pisses off all of his constituents

9) In the meantime, the Big 2 go into financial peril, the government either takes the loss for us or pumps more money into a failed system.

10) We become socialists like no other, and we have no cool cars to show for it.

[NomisR]

10) We become socialists like no other, and we have no cool cars to show for it.

Sucks to be you then.. i got mine! 

[the Teuton]

No thanks, I think I will enjoy my American Trabant.

[Soup DeVille]

A couple of semi-connected rants:

WTF is it with all these "czars?" Drug czar, education czar, car czar. Seriously,, does whoever come up with these titles know where the term Czar comes from? The last time I checked, this country wasn't exactly pro-monarchy, and I sure as hell it isn't pro-Russian monarchy emulating Roman empirialism.

No, Ford shouldn't have to worry about a "Car Czar," becausethey didn't sign the deal, but guess what: they will anyways. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but sooner or later, people are going to forget how it was that the US automotive industry became another federal level bureaucracy, and wonder why Ford is allowed to run their own show while GM and Chrysler have to fill out everything in triplicate and submit all their ideas to the D.C. Certainly, once GM and Chrysler feel the full weight of the monkey, they'l lobby for Ford to be fitted for a saddle as well, in the name of competitive fairness.


Cross pollination between domestic and import carmakers will soon cease, either because of pressure from the "Buy American" crowd, or because of the unwillingness of the Japanese to submit their own operations to Czarist control.

[Tave]

A couple of semi-connected rants:

WTF is it with all these "czars?" Drug czar, education czar, car czar. Seriously,, does whoever come up with these titles know where the term Czar comes from? The last time I checked, this country wasn't exactly pro-monarchy, and I sure as hell it isn't pro-Russian monarchy emulating Roman empirialism.

I said the same thing a few weeks ago!

I love how the government feels totally comfortable throwing the word "czar" around like it's some sort of joke. We've got Drug Czars, Intelligence Czars, Terrorism Czars... These people wield enormous power, and it's almost as if the fed is rubbing it in our faces.

[3.0L V6]

I was under the impression that the car czar position died with the bailout bill in the Senate and that money released under TARP didn't come with conditions.