The Auto Writer

I’m not at this year’s Detroit auto show, in part to keep my travel costs down for 2009. Much of what I would have liked to see I already previewed at the Los Angeles Auto Show this past November, but the North American International Auto Show in Detroit still offers a lot of action for the auto industry.

Under the dark cloud of a sharp industry downturn, the automakers have put on their Game Day faces and are marching out product introductions at a feverish clip. Today, I’m going through my inbox to see which introductions and concepts are most noteworthy and I will share that information herein as the day progresses.

Today’s issue of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) included a noteworthy article about industry inventory, with an emphasis on the position of Chrysler. In their piece, Inventory Traffic Jam Hits Chrysler, the WSJ noted that Chrysler’s December 2008 inventory levels were far higher than the industry average of 92 days, with dealers having cars on their lots for an average of 142 days.

Chrysler shut down all of its assembly lines just before Christmas for one month, in a bid to shrink inventories. However, they’ve also been pressuring dealers to take more stock and will likely continue to do so when production resumes later this month. Dealers are resisting as customers are simply avoiding Chrysler LLC products.

Chrysler is working with the feds to get an additional three billion dollars later this week, but in my opinion the auto maker will remain in dire condition and will be forced to declare bankruptcy this Spring.

In Detroit, Chrysler is touting its now five (up from three) electric vehicles — the Jeep Patriot EV, Chrysler 200C EV, Jeep Wrangler Unlimited EV, Dodge Circuit EV and the Chrysler Town & Country EV — saying that two will be marketed beginning in 2010, with the remaining three appearing by 2013.  Nice ideas, but Chrysler doesn’t have the resources to pull these plans off.