October 3, 2008

When I had my Ferrari 308 GTB, I wanted to restore it to original which meant buying 14" Cromodora wheels.  Mine came with 17" Speedlines which were another original manufacturer of Ferrari rims along with Campagnolo.  I searched online and found a decent set on ebay.  The starting bid was $550 but everyone would tell me that an unrestored set should run about $400.  I let the auction run its course and then contacted the seller as all "shrewd" ebayers do.  Turns out the guy worked a mile from my house.  I met up with him during lunch.  I don't think he was drunk that day.

We chatted quite a bit about Ferraris, I came to find out that these wheels came off of his 400i that he had back east.  They were his snow wheels.  Mental note.  Who in the gosh darn heck drives a Ferrari in the winter?  Ok, you're right it was a 400.  The wheels were fine, I bought them for $400 and made my way home.  Since we were car guys and in close proximity to each other, we met out for beers one night and talked shop.  He was rebuilding a 328 that he got for a steal and still had the 400.  I told him I was thinking about a 400, the last of the cheap V12 Ferraris but my wife put the kabash on it.   She hates the styling, too "80s". 

He told me the car was in great shape, had and original interior but just drove like a big boat and he wasn't interested in it anymore.  And if it were some sidebar statement, the car had a salvage title from it being stolen.  The interior, stereo and othe items were ripped apart but all restored even though it was salvaged.  He went on to say how much he didn't think that should matter.  The car was still as good as any other car of that vintage, it's just a piece of paper.  May I get you another beer?  It was really as if he was trying to sell me on it.  If we hadn't been in touch after it sold, it might be the only reason I thought he'd email even once in a while.  You know, to check my temperature on it or how much brain capacity I had past ooooohhh Ferrari V12.

The few times I saw, Bob as we'll call him, has been at Coffee and Cars.  Always good to say hello.  Funny thing about Bob, he always smelled liquored up at 7AM in the morning.  Once... sure, I can see a late night of boozing spilling over to the olfactories of the passerby the next morning.  But this was like three consecutive mornings.  This time he told me about how he sold the 400 a while back. 

"That car was such trouble.  Every time I drove it, I had to put $1000 dollars into it.  So glad to be rid of it." 

"Really, that bad huh?" I replied.

"Oh yeah, it was like a $1000 per mile."   Bob harrumphed.

"You drink much Bob?" 

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 

Look, nothing against old, fat white guys, some of them are my best friends.  But when it comes to running the American sales arm of a company, let's just say it's best to diversify.   

You need not travel far to see the has beens and has nots of America's Big Three that ended up at Kia, Hyundai, Suzuki, Daewoo, Isuzu, Mitsubishi, etc.  For the American that go the job, it was their chance at the next Honda or Toyota.  For the guys that hired them, it was "experienced" labor willing to settle for a crap salary or too washed up to find another job.  Come on, you know that guy.  He's pushin' 50, shows up on time, talks the talk, kisses tremendous ass and does just enough right so he doesn't lose his job... again.    

What kills me about this guy, is he often has a critical roll within the company such as distribution, marketing or sales.  He knows how to tweak the data or blame the vendor so he never looks bad to upper (foreign) management.  A tangled web of beaurocratic righteousness leftover from a tail fin era. The mediocrity of his old style thinking robs the company of innovation and stagnates growth.  Strong talent will never replace him because the pay grade isn't there.  And the good people that joined the company for experience end up leaving with no mentors to look up to or career path to good money.  

These companies, and you know who you are, need to wise up.  Start hiring quality people that will guide your company in the right direction and break off a piece of your budget to pay for them!  Provide careers paths for the young, hard working and smart talent you conveniently ignore.  Finally, remember what comes around goes around.  Forums, blogs and word of mouth can be a bitch.    

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Most people are usually sleeping-in on Saturday mornings.  At 7AM, I was standing in line holding my pants as I waited to place all metal objects in the x-ray machine, belt included.  The airport is worse.  Here, at least we leave our shoes and jackets on in the interest of speed.  Once inside room S4 of the Laguna Niguel court house, I picked up a clip board and book, sat in the front row ready to soak up a days worth of corrective actions.

"Take off your hats.  This is a court of law," our instuctor Cliff said.  

I thought the judge made it a court of law and this was just a room for Saturday school.  But who was I to argue, this was Cliff's moment to shine. 

"Let's get started shall we?" 

If you had any question about our society being dumbed down, I highly recommend going to traffic school.  Cliff must have preached the instructions, repeated the instructions and demonstrated them again and again for 45 minutes.   You don't do that unless you've learned you have to. People that looked smart and could speak English still got them wrong.  Think I'm being prejudice?  There was a woman there that couldn't speak English, got everything wrong that was asked of her but still passed the course.  If you wonder why there is road rage in Los Angeles, there's one answer.

This wasn't going to deter me though.  For 7 hours and 15 minutes this was my moment.  I was going to learn how such a smart plan on paper -- re-educating thousands of drivers when they get tickets in trade for no points on their insurance -- could be such a disappointment.

It became apparent pretty quick that this was less about learning and more about listening to retiree Cliff relive his glory days for the sixth time this year.  We watched old 20/20 videos with Jane Pauley about how the car is a weapon but you don't get the book thrown at your as if you used a gun... good advice for somebody in that room.  We filled in our work books and answered out loud.  But what was most entertaining was listening to a disgruntled old man prop himself up as the know-it-all when clearly he was way out of touch.

Case in point, I girl got up and felt compelled to tell us, maybe as her own form of therapy, that she hit and killed somebody earlier that year.  We were all in shock that she would come out in public about it.  Turns out a drunk walker crossed in front of her at a green light at night.  She didn't see him coming and hit him.  He blew a 3.5 or something rediculous, she was let go.  But Cliff immediately went into his mental files and related the story to something else he had heard and told her she did right by the entire thing, as if he knew all the details, was the expert and maybe even her attorney.  Me on the other hand, when we left, I cut in front of her in the parking lot knowing full-well she wasn't about to hit another one.

The real issue I had with Cliff was when I brought up a recent article from Car and Driver by Patrck Bedard.  I simply asked the question "are traffic accidents going up or down at camera intersections?"  Oh, going down said Cliff. 

"That's not what I've read." 

"Oh?  Where did you read that?" Cliff replied.

"In Car and Driver."

"Oh, they have their facts wrong."

What?? The number one car magazine in the world doesn't fact check before putting out a story?  I decided the proper thing to do was take three deep breathes, like I'm doing while I write, and get the article over our lunch break.  Instead of humiliating him in front of the class, I would politely show him the article afterwards so we could have an open discussion.  

After class, I quoted the article.  "A report last year, funded by the Federal Highway Administration and the Virginia Department of Transportation, said that 'cameras were associated with an increase in total crashes.'  Six Virginia cities with re-light cameras were studied.  Injury crashes were down five percent in one and up from six to 89 percent in the others.  Rear enders were up in all the cities, by 136 percent in Falls Church nd 139 percent in Arlington."

Before I could get Federal Highway Admin... out of my mouth, Cliff interrupted and said "oh we get all our data from the California Highway Patrol, not the Feds."

Oh, I said and went to paragraph 2.  "Crashes were up in Stockton, California, too, from an average of 14 per year before to more than 20 per year in the 2004-06 period after red-light cameras were installed."

I turned the article around to give it to him.  He shoved it back at me, turned around and walked away without hardly saying a word.

Cliff, this Buds for you.  The man who takes himself and his job so seriously, until the moving just outside his comfort zone.  Then it all falls apart and traffic school becomes another wasted Saturday.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008 

My wife and I were in her favorite restaurant, Street Side, waiting for a table while on a business trip to Birmingham, MI.  I had gotten there early to put our name in, and in typical fashion, I turned to talk with the people next to me. 

"Your kids are really good," I said, "they're so well behaved I didn't even know they were standing besides you until looking down."

Not really fun bar room chatter but when addressing a parent, that seemed like a pretty good opening.  We chatted a bit as my wife made her way to the back of the bar area and joined in.  After about five minutes of questioning, we realized the guy didn't want to talk about his job.  He had just moved from California to be both on the "engineering and marketing side of Chrysler."  Yup, it was Jim Press.  I couldn't tell in the dark smokey bar and why would I have even been looking for him?  He was very nice and cordial.  I think it was within three minutes of him walking away that I wished Chrysler was still public.

It's now been a year. Chrysler with owner Cerberus Capital Management have slashed, cut and burned to bring a positive EBITA in 2008.  But what's behind the success?  How do you take such a dynamic car company with past German ownership, long American history, plants, design centers, people, pensions and make change?  You start by using your balls. 

What?  It takes some sort of trade secret and years of being in the business, ie. 37 that Jim had at Toyota, to come up with:

- Stop making and marketing cars that compete against eachother
- Shut down plants and quit producing excess inventory
- Focus new product development on cars that are right for the market
- Stop selling into fleet to "make your numbers" when they kill resale values

No, it takes some real cajones to stand up to unions, old management and the board to make the gutsy decisions you need to survive.  The masses may glaze over when it comes to political fodder and what to believe when picking a president.  But when it comes to buying cars, they pretty much have it nailed down.  They look good or they don't.  They work or they don't and that's what you are selling against.

Don't get me wrong, the decisions Mr. Press are making take experience to execute.  But read any one of the top buff books and you'll find the writers have been touting these solution for tens of years.  It's about time someone executed on them so we can build back the great American auto industry.  Well done Cerberus.