plus 3, Wood admits to drunken driving while fighting to stay in the Assembly - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wood admits to drunken driving while fighting to stay in the Assembly - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Auto sales: Still a contact sport - CNN Money
2010 GMC Terrain SLE-2, an AW Drivers Log - Autoweek.com
Daimler 2009 Annual Report Now Available - Yahoo Finance

Wood admits to drunken driving while fighting to stay in the Assembly - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 08:53 AM PST

March 2, 2010 | An investment bank sued by five Wisconsin school districts that allege they were misled into making risky investments has filed its own claim in the case, saying the districts should pay the bank back any winnings they might receive from bank in the lawsuit.

Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., filed its counterclaims Monday against the trustees for trusts run by the five districts -- Kenosha, Kimberly, Waukesha, West Allis-West Milwaukee and Whitefish Bay -- as part of its response to a new complaint in the case. The districts sued Stifel and Royal Bank of Canada in Milwaukee County Circuit Court in 2008, alleging that the banks had misled them into making $200 million of risky investments that now are nearly worthless.

Proceeds from the investments, which were funded mostly by money borrowed from DEPFA Bank, were intended to help pay for district employees' retirement benefits.

The St. Louis-based bank's counterclaims assert that school district officials, acting in their capacity as trustees for district-run trusts, signed letters and other documents that indemnifed the bank against "any and all losses, claims, damages, or liabilities claims that arise out of or are based upon any action, suit, or proceeding" from the transactions.

"I think this establishes that Stifel believes that the districts and the trustees bear the financial responsibility for these trusts, as stated in these letters and agreements," said Dan Callahan, a spokesman for Stifel. »Read Full Blog Post(5)

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Auto sales: Still a contact sport - CNN Money

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 08:53 AM PST

By Alex Taylor III, senior editorMarch 3, 2010: 11:55 AM ET

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The tabulation of U.S. auto sales for the month of February contains some big surprises. Consider:

Ford outsold General Motors for the first time in 12 years.

The Honda Accord passenger car outsold the Chevy Silverado pickup truck, which almost never happens absent a gas crisis.

Despite all its well-publicized troubles, Toyota sales only declined by 8.7%.

And some less heralded brands -- Volkswagen and Subaru -- recorded sales increases of a third and more.

Analyzing auto sales is notoriously tricky business. One-month results can easily be skewed by low inventories, high incentives, or an abnormal bulge in fleet sales. Just to add some spice to the mix, automakers have been known to fudge the results, counting as sold cars that have barely touched ground at a dealer's lot or, at times, holding back sales in a good month to boost results in the following month.

The most important message from February's results is that the selling of cars is still a contact sport. Stung by its fall from first place, GM already has reorganized its sales and marketing organization. It demoted some players and promoted others, to put more authority in the hands of the new North American boss Mark Reuss. Listening to Reuss' conference call announcing the moves, it was clear that he is already impatient to get sales moving. CEO Ed Whitacre now knows exactly who to call when he wants better results.

Meanwhile, anybody who thought Toyota (TM) was going to sit back and wait for the sales impact from those congressional hearings on unintended acceleration was badly mistaken. Of all the Japanese automakers, Toyota has the most aggressive marketing operation and the deepest financial pockets. Its dealers are just finishing up a company-ordered upgrade of their stores and are anxious to get a return on their investment.

So when Toyota cranked up its incentive spending by more than a quarter, it registered on the sales floor. Even so, Toyota got off cheaply. Its average incentive of $1,833 per car is still only a bit more than half of the $3,300 that Ford (F, Fortune 500) spent.

Now Toyota is upping the ante again. Early in March, it said it is offering 0% financing for 60 months, a free two-year maintenance plan, and other incentives. And it will start broadcasting new commercials designed to make customers feel more comfortable buying its cars.

GM responded within hours, announcing its own 0%, 60-month financing program on 2010 products. With customer loyalty a thing of the past, automakers too often find themselves selling the deal instead of the car.

Ford didn't immediately follow suit, though it vowed to remain competitive with the others. The Dearborn automaker was looking unusually strong in February. Besides its perennial best-seller, the F-series pickup truck, its Fusion sedan was the industry's seventh strongest performer, and the Escape crossover was ninth.

Ford has an unusually strong product pipeline, according to research by Bank of America Merrill Lynch -- second only to Hyundai/Kia, as measured by the percent of volume it is replacing. Since customers like new models, that bodes well for the future.

February results also spotlighted two smaller automakers that are clearly on the ascendancy. After years of neglect, Volkswagen is finally making a concerted effort to sell cars in North America, and customers are responding to the opportunity to buy a German nameplate for less-than-luxury-car prices.

Subaru, meanwhile, has some fresh new models in the Outback and Legacy, attractive mainstream designs, and the added feature of all wheel drive across its model line.

What all this churning in the marketplace means for the rest of the year is hard to say. Ford may be coasting right now, but it will have to remain responsive to the two battleships maneuvering beneath it.

Driven by CEO Whitacre, GM is clearly operating under a mandate to boost unit sales and revenue. Nearly a third of its February sales were made to fleets, with fleet sales expected to rise for the next several months.

For its part, Toyota has made clear that it will compensate for any slackening in consumer confidence by sweetening up its deals. "The promotion for March is unprecedented in the history of Toyota," said division general manager Bob Carter.

Let's just wait and see what April brings.

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2010 GMC Terrain SLE-2, an AW Drivers Log - Autoweek.com

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 07:27 AM PST

EDITOR WES RAYNAL: I like the way this new small crossover drives in both Chevrolet and GMC forms, since they're basically identical. I also like the looks of the GMC Terrain, which I know some people don't. I think it looks chunky and tough, and I like that. I think it's a nice contrast to the Chevy and gives customers more choice.

As I've stated before, I wouldn't even bother with the V6 if I ran Chevy, but for GMC, I think you need it, if for no other reason than to separate yourself from Chevrolet so that the GMC buyer thinks he's getting something special and different.

This GMC is a home run for those big-truck and SUV owners looking for a way to downsize, cut costs and increase fuel economy without having to give up everything they've come to know and love. There's good legroom here, a lot of cargo room, good acceleration, and a really steady and quiet ride. Like the four-cylinder I sampled in the Chevy, the V6 in the GMC is smooth and perfectly pleasant.

Build quality is up to snuff. Between GMC and Chevy, I think General Motors will sell a ton of these. They're competitive with the other small utes on the market.

SENIOR EDITOR FOR NEWS BOB GRITZINGER: Though this styling could prove polarizing, I find very little here to warrant a comparison to the ugly Pontiac Aztek. To me, it's more like the Jeep Patriot--a soft-roader with a buff body--and its overall size versus a vehicle such as the Patriot helps absorb some of the overly brawny bits. Even the big, stacked front end is a reasonable look with the big GMC grilled taking up a large part of the real estate (unlike similar horizontal stacks on such models as the ill-fated Isuzu Ascender).

Inside, it's still obvious that this trucklet started out as the Pontiac Torrent replacement, until Pontiac got the ziggy and GM needed a new home for its crossover companion to the Chevy Equinox and now-dead Saturn Vue. A Buick version of this, coming soon, will help fill the void left by the Torrent and the Vue, but the real volume lies with the Chevy and this GMC.

Why Pontiac? Note the Pontiac red splattered all over the dashboard, including the lettering on the controls. This isn't a bad thing--in fact, the red illuminated highlight lines framing the center console look great without being too distracting (and without getting too hot, a longtime Pontiac bugaboo).

Though I raved about the four-cylinder, six-speed auto version of this in an Equinox we drove recently, I have no complaints with the six-cylinder in this model. The engine winds up impressively to redline--with all the right noises--and shifts smartly through the range, all while getting this 4,000-pound ute up to speed in a hurry. That extra punch alone might be worth the trade-off of fuel economy and extra cost versus the four-cylinder, which isn't a slouch by any measure.

This is yet another GM engine that feels more like it was engineered by Honda than by the powertrain folks at GM, which to me is about the highest praise that can be given to any mainstream engine. At the same time, there's no torque steer and my guess, without testing it, is that it'd do a nice job hauling up to its rated 3,500-pound towing capacity.

The suspension isn't that of a sports car, but it's taut and stable, with accurate and responsive steering, and with little body roll. This thing drives a lot more like a car than an SUV, and more like a good car than some cars.

I'm still not sure who at GM decided on this weird fishnet-like fabric for the seats (in this and the Equinox), but it will likely wear well, and in this case it comes with bun warmers, so who's complaining (at least until you catch a back pants-pocket button in the weave and rip your pants while exiting).

There's plenty to love here, and compared with the very similar Equinox, the Terrain offers a touch more cargo room thanks to its squared off rear-hatch styling, and a touch more attitude to the overall experience. While I'd likely opt for a Chevy (and would have picked a Vue as a first choice), this Terrain offers all the same stuff and then some.

2010 GMC Terrain SLE-2

Base Price: $26,595

As-Tested Price: $29,930

Drivetrain: 3.0-liter V6; FWD, six-speed automatic

Output: 264 hp @ 6,950 rpm, 222 lb-ft @ 5,100 rpm

Curb Weight: 4,032 lb

Fuel Economy (EPA/AW): 20/19.1 mpg

Options: 3.0-liter V6 engine ($1,500); sunroof ($795); convenience package including heated front bucket seats, remote-vehicle-starter system ($440); trailering equipment ($350); 18-inch machined aluminum wheels ($250)

For more Car Reviews for new cars, trucks, SUVs, vans and crossovers, click here.

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Daimler 2009 Annual Report Now Available - Yahoo Finance

Posted: 03 Mar 2010 06:22 AM PST

STUTTGART, Germany, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Daimler AG filed its 2009 Annual Report on Form 20-F with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 3, 2010. The report, which includes the company's audited consolidated financial statements for the year 2009, is also available on its Internet website at www.daimler.com/ir/reports.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080409/NYW017LOGO )

Shareholders may request a copy of the report free of charge by contacting Daimler AG, Investor Relations HPC 0324, 70546 Stuttgart, Germany.

Further information from Daimler is available on the internet at: www.media.daimler.com

About Daimler

Daimler AG is one of the world's most successful automotive companies. With its divisions Mercedes-Benz Cars, Daimler Trucks, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Daimler Buses and Daimler Financial Services, the Daimler Group is one of the biggest producers of premium cars and the world's biggest manufacturer of commercial vehicles with a global reach. Daimler Financial Services provides its customers with a full range of automotive financial services including financing, leasing, insurance and fleet management.

The company's founders, Gottlieb Daimler and Carl Benz, made history with the invention of the automobile in the year 1886. As an automotive pioneer, Daimler continues to shape the future of mobility. The Group applies innovative and green technologies to produce safe and superior vehicles which fascinate and delight its customers. With the development of alternative drive systems,

Daimler is the only vehicle producer investing in hybrid drive, electric motors and fuel-cell systems, with the goal of achieving emission-free mobility in the long term. This is just one example of how Daimler willingly accepts the challenge of meeting its responsibility towards society and the environment.

Daimler sells its vehicles and services in nearly all the countries of the world and has production facilities on five continents. Its current brand portfolio includes, in addition to the world's most valuable automotive brand, Mercedes-Benz, the brands smart, Maybach, Freightliner, Western Star, Fuso, Setra, Orion and Thomas Built Buses. The company is listed on the stock exchanges of Frankfurt, New York and Stuttgart (stock exchange symbol DAI). In 2009, the Group sold 1.6 million vehicles and employed a workforce of more than 256,000 people; revenue totaled euro 78.9 billion and EBIT amounted minus euro 1.5 billion.

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