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Report: London Mayor Boris Johnson hits Obama’s motorcade with congestion charge

Filed under: Sedan, Government/Legal, Cadillac, UK

Cadillac 1 in London

Rules are rules, and they apply equally to everyone – including the President of the United States. Especially when he’s on foreign soil.

After President Barack Obama’s famous Cadillac limousine – known as The Beast – got stuck exiting the US embassy in Dublin, it was shipped across the Irish Sea to England, the next leg of the president’s European road trip. Now the mayor of London is demanding Obama pay the congestion charge for his limo and the rest of his motorcade.

A notorious car nut and onetime automotive journalist, Major Boris Johnson insists that the £10 ($16) charge applies to each of the president’s vehicles, and that the bill is currently being tabulated. The fees are only the latest part of an ongoing dispute between the city’s transportation department and foreign missions like the American embassy, an issue that Johnson reportedly raised directly with Obama during his visit.

London insists that embassies in the British capital city owe some £51 million ($83m) in congestion charges for driving through the city during peak hours, of which the American embassy’s share is estimated at £5.3 million ($8.7m). Diplomats view the fee as a tax from which they are exempt under international law.

London Mayor Boris Johnson hits Obama’s motorcade with congestion charge originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 31 May 2011 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Obama’s limo gets banged up in Ireland

Filed under: Europe, Government/Legal, Videos, Cadillac, Police/Emergency, Celebrities, Humor, Specialty

Presidential Limo gets stuck in Ireland

Presidential limo gets stuck in Ireland – Click above to watch the video after the break

This is no ordinary limousine. Rumored to be built on a heavy-duty truck chassis, this stretched Cadillac boasts armor plating all around, window glass thick enough to stop bullets and enough high-tech communications equipment to run the entire United States from the comfort of its leather-lined back seat. You’d think it would take a nuclear bomb to halt the progress of President Obama’s black Cadillac.

Apparently, all it really takes is one particularly nasty speed bump.

Just below the break you’ll find a video shot by a casual passer-by that shows the Presidential Limousine (also known as “The Beast”) getting high-centered on the apparently oversize down-ramp that exits the parking lot of the American Embassy (in other words, on U.S. soil) in Dublin, Ireland.

Nobody can say for absolutely sure (except for the Secret Service, and they ain’t talkin’) whether POTUS was actually in this limo or not. Some are suggesting that this may have been a decoy, and, due to the quick response from the Commander in Chief’s safety crew, we can’t really say for sure how this fiasco ended up for President Obama or the First Lady, or if they were even in the car.

In any case, you should definitely check out the video after the break… if only to see – and more importantly hear – The Beast getting stuck entering Ireland. Thanks for the tip, Jay!

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Obama’s limo gets banged up in Ireland originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 23 May 2011 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opinion: Obama should have tapped Ford’s Mulally for adviser role, not Immelt

Filed under: Government/Legal, Ford, Earnings/Financials

Immelt and Obama

When President Obama tapped General Electric chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt to be his top outside economic adviser, my first reaction was: Really?

Maybe I’m partial to the auto industry, the industry I follow the closest, but my next reaction was: Was Ford CEO Alan Mulally’s line busy? His email down?

Immelt took over for legendary CEO Jack Welch in 2001. And I’ve never been aware of a huge fan club for Immelt as a great CEO. According to published reports, though, he is very socially and politically connected, and has visited the White House some 16 times since Obama took office.

[Image: J. Scott Applewhite/AP]

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Opinion: Obama should have tapped Ford’s Mulally for adviser role, not Immelt originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 01 Feb 2011 18:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: Rattner bio reveals Obama Administration wanted Ghosn to run GM

Filed under: Government/Legal, GM, Celebrities

Steven Rattner, former automotive adviser to President Barack Obama, has just written a juicy account of last year’s automotive bailout, complete with insights on the coming and goings of CEOs, courting foreign saviors and the General Motors plan to abandon its Renaissance Center headquarters. In his book, “Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry,” Rattner says that GM wanted to walk away from its expensive towers in downtown Detroit and move to Warren, MI. While the move would have likely saved the company plenty of money and lent the impression of a hands-on management approach, the Obama administration apparently refused to allow the move, saying that it would cause a double-digit drop in property values in the area.

There’s also the fact that GM pays around $20 million in taxes to Detroit per year.

According to The Detroit News, Rattner also offered the GM CEO position to none other than Nissan/Renault head honcho Carlos Ghosn after Rick Wagoner was shown the door. Ghosn, who had previously sought a partnership between his empire and The General, politely declined the offer. How’s that for a head job?

Even through all of the turmoil, The Detroit News quotes Rattner as saying that the automotive bailout is one of this administration’s “unambiguous successes.”

[Source: The Detroit News | Image: Neison Barnard/Getty for Fortune Magazine]

Report: Rattner bio reveals Obama Administration wanted Ghosn to run GM originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Obama working to pitch success of auto bailouts to American public

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Chrysler, GM, Earnings/Financials

You don’t have to be a pollster to know that for the most part, the American public remains none too happy about the federal government handing over the people’s hard-earned tax dollars to pull General Motors and Chrysler out of the fires of insolvency. Despite the fact that both companies have managed to keep their lights on, doors open and paychecks flowing due to their generous federal loans, Joe Plumber still can’t stand the thought of paying the price of the two companies’ failures. With midterm elections right around the corner, President Obama is in Detroit to attempt to sway that opinion.

The Commander-in-Chief will speak to crowds at Chrysler’s Jefferson North plant about the positive side of loaning close to $85 billion to two of our country’s largest automakers, including the fact that in 2010, the Big Three have re-hired a total of 55,000 of the 334,000 workers it sent packing a year prior. That may seem like a fraction of the total, but the President is certain to point out that without the loans, that job loss figure would have been much higher.

And then there’s the matter of getting the federal government’s money back. President Obama is also focusing on sharing his belief that a large majority of the country’s money will be returned once GM and Chrysler go public once again.

Interested in keeping tabs on Obama’s visit to Motown? The Detroit Free Press has a liveblog that you can follow along with (including live audio) by clicking here.

[Sources: Bloomberg, Detroit Free Press | Image: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty]

Obama working to pitch success of auto bailouts to American public originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Michigan and Ohio senators demand Obama gets tough on South Korean auto importing

Filed under: Government/Legal, Hyundai, Kia, South Korea

Talk to most analysts in the auto world, and they’ll say that the recent rise of South Korean automakers like Hyundai and Kia have been an absolute blessing to the industry as a whole. Consumers now have an array of quality, inexpensive products, extra jobs have landed in rural areas of the deep south thanks to American-based manufacturing facilities and the competition from low-priced models have forced domestic manufacturers to up their game.

But not everyone’s thrilled about the balance of automotive trade between the two nations. According to The Detroit News, senators Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, recently wrote to the Obama administration in order to urge the President to take a hard line on the South Korean Free Trade Agreement.

The two senators aren’t taking issue with Korean products here in the U.S., they simply think it’s unfair that South Korea has made it economically difficult to import vehicles into the country. The senators want American companies to have the opportunity to do business on the peninsula – something that most automakers, with the exception of General Motors, have been pushing for since before the second President Bush was in office. GM, meanwhile, owns Korean automaker Daewoo, so it has no problem dealing with the current ban on auto imports.

For its part, Obama administration has said that it will once again open talks about the free trade agreement in hopes of making more American goods available in the global market.

[Source: The Detroit News | Image: Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images]

Michigan and Ohio senators demand Obama gets tough on South Korean auto importing originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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