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Sunday was the grand opening of the Jaguar and Land Rover flagship store in Bombay. If you remember, the Tata Group over paid for Jaguar and Land Rover back in early 2008 when the automotive world was not in complete meltdown mode.  Oooh, how things have changed.

Anyways, the Tata Group decided to launch their new babies by housing the new dealership in arguably the most expensive piece of commercial real estate in India – CeeJay House in Worli. The new combined showroom for Jaguar and Land Rover looks awesome, they have been preparing for the Sunday launch all weekend long.

It occurred to me with these two new name plates added to South Bombay, all of the dealers are actually on the same stretch of road albeit with names changes along the way  - Hughes Road, Pedder Road, Annie Besant Road, etc… I’ll start the tour from the southern most dealer and imagine you are driving north towards Worli.

1. Mercedes Benz Sanghi – The original Mercedes dealer in South Bombay. On the right side of the road.

2. Porsche Centre Mumbai – Opened Nov 20, 2007. I remember the date because the opening was on my birthday. On the right side of the road.

3. BMW Navnit – This is located on the backside of Copper Chimney. On the right side of the road.

4. Jaguar – CeeJay House. On the left side of the road.

5. Land Rover – CeeJay House. On the left side of the road.

6. Rolls Royce Navnit – Ground floor of Atria Mall. The mall is pathetic but seeing a Phantom in the window is breath taking. On the right side of the road.

7. Audi Mumbai – At the base of the Worli flyover on the left side of the road.

The biggest glaring omission is the lack of a Ferrari dealer.  Other name plates such as Aston Martin, Bentley, Lamborghini and Maserati have yet to setup shop, not sure if they will.

Hope you enjoyed the virtual car ride.

It’s a sad day for Detroit and America when the largest company in the world at one point is just hours away from a bankruptcy filing.  This didn’t happen overnight but instead took many decades to destroy the brand and go from 54% market share to 19%.  When you watch old TV show clips on car shows from the 1950′s you could tell that GM was the company to work for and their product was king.  Today, when you mention GM most people snicker and talk about how the guys at Renaissance Center gave away the business to Japan.

As far as GM India, all the local press keep on insisting nothing will change the Indian operations in.  Which to be honest is really sad, I think even GM India needs a shakeup and should focus on the low end car market. Bringing the Saturn brand to India and those “dent/ding free” body panels would work wonders in a city like Bombay. But, I’m sure the current concerns will be around the US operations where the bulk of the revenue comes from.

It’s been 4 years since my first post on GM, below are my previous posts on GM:

Feb 20, 2009 - http://celestri.org/2009/02/20/gms-5-year-plan/

Nov 18, 2008 - http://celestri.org/2008/11/18/gmgoodbye-motown/

June 9, 2005 - http://celestri.org/2005/06/09/whats-wrong-with-gm/

As part of getting federal money, GM released its 5 year restructuring plan this week (download PDF). I briefly scanned the 100+ page document and it touches on some key points but misses the biggest point – build cars that people want to buy. Below are my recommendations:

Only 3 divisions should be left – Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC. Chevrolet should be focused on cars below USD 40,000.  Cadillac will focus on cars above USD 40,000.  GMC should be the truck/SUV division. Stop the overlap of designs and pricing between divisions which just confuses the shi@#$ out of consumers.  German cars are so damn easy – small, medium, large.  Small (A4, 3 series, C class), Medium (A6, 5 series, E class) Large (A8, 7 series, S class).

Buick/Pontiac – get rid of them. Once again, does anyone believe Tiger Wood’s drives a Buick? Pontiac had it’s glory days but it’s over (NY Times).

Saab/Hummer – Bye. Never could figure out who buys Saab, none of my friends. Hummer…really do we need this kind of fossil fuel consuming vehicle on the road?

Saturn – Should focus on India or China where cheap cars rule.  A Saturn car with ding/dent proof doors would do very well in Bombay traffic. But as far as a US entity selling cars…goodbye.

Of course, I have not addressed the two biggest issues ailing GM – unions and health care. That’s for another day.

GMAC, the automobile financing company spun off from General Motors, finally received USD 6 billion from the US Government via the TARP fund. GMAC was able to access the TARP fund by magically turning into a bank holding company (BHC). With this new cash infusion I’m sure the management of GMAC will do everything possible to spend it wisely and not have a repeat of the subprime lending practices in the housing market.

GMAC said in a statement that it would modify its credit criteria to include financing for customers with a credit score of 621 or above, a significant expansion of credit compared with the 700 minimum score put in place two months ago.

DOH…of course this is different from subprime lending! I wonder if people will really be taking out car loans if they know their job is in jeopardy or if the financial crisis gets worse. Since all US taxpayers are on the hook for the USD 6 billion, sucks to see the same thing happening over and over.

What a joke, spend USD 50 billion 25 billion (maybe USD 5 billion by next week) to bailout the automotive industry. And why? Because the automotive industry is essential to the American economy according to the CEO’s of the Big 3. To give them any money would be a waste, they have consistently shown they are clueless when it comes to cars.  GM is the biggest offender of building cars made just for fleet sales.  Avis I believe is the largest customer of GM cars, then Avis rents out that trash to unsuspecting tourists and business people.  Let’s be real, does ANYONE believe Tiger Woods’ drives a Buick?  Even the newly updated Pontiac G6, looks like garbage and that was just released today at the LA Autoshow.

If the automotive companies do get some type of government assistance, it all should go towards alternative fuel R&D. GM created the EV1 which was a great attempt at an electric car and then several years later they came by and crushed every single one of them which is just beyond words. The hubris that only Detroit can create an alternative fuel car was evident on 60 Minutes in early October when Bob Lutz of GM was talking about Tesla Motors.  Telsa Motors is based in Silicon Valley and Bob Lutz referred to Tesla as “being from Silicone Valley.”  Hugh difference between Silicon and Silicone. He went on to say that Detroit should be the guys making an electic car not some start-up in the valley.

Since the 1980′s the American car companies have completely fumbled when it comes to cars that American’s want. I get the sense they have lost their way and are confused between garage and garbage.  Instead of building cars to put inside a garage, they have been building garbage that sits outside.