First there was the highest-ranking gaijin in the organization, Jim Press, who’d been president and COO of Toyota Motors North America and senior managing director of Toyota Motor Corp., who went over Chrysler LLC as its vice chairman and president. Certainly going from the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer (or maybe that hasn’t happened yet, with, perhaps, GM still at number one, but give it a day or so) to number three of the once Big Three is something that one doesn’t do before the Brinks truck arrives at the front door.

And yesterday, Ford Motor Company, the so-called Blue Oval that ought to change its official color to red, given the ink of that color its financial people are using on reports, announced that it has hired former Scion and Lexus brands head Jim Farley to become its group vice president of Marketing and Communications. Let’s see: Ford doesn’t have a youth brand—or even a youthful product—and its idea of luxury is apparently a variant of the Ford Fusion (a.k.a., Lincoln MKZ) or the Ford Expedition (a.k.a., Lincoln Navigator).

Must be one hell of an advantage to have the word “Toyota” on your resume.

Sure. And they’re going to donate all profits from the sales of their vehicles to charity.

Those guys are good at what they do, and what they do is make money. Not cars and trucks and minivans. Money.

The company has also hired Phil Murtaugh, an ex-GMer who managed to make Buick the number-one vehicle in China, which tells me that he must be a veritable miracle-worker.

All of which is to say that there is something of a “dream team” at the top of the pentastar.

But why does this indicate any long-term thinking? Let’s say that the plan is to sell off divisions. Wouldn’t it be good to have a guy like Press, who is one of the most engaging and affable guys in the industry, who is heading sales and marketing as part of his new portfolio, working a deal with, say, GM for the Jeep brand? GM could combine it with Hummer and essentially corner the market on crazily capable vehicles. And Murtaugh’s bona fides are gold-plated in China, so what about the possibility that they’d flip the Chrysler brand to Chery Automotive, the Chinese OEM with which they’ve already inked a deal to supply B-class cars?

Or it could be that Cerberus is just going to show that they’ve got the muscle, moxie and money to kick ass in Detroit and elsewhere where cars, trucks and minivans are sold?

What’s that road paved with good intentions?

To be fair, Mulally hasn't had a whole lot of time to make substantive changes. But shouldn't one expect more than, well, that?

Now it seems that Mulally has decided that he’s going to bring back the slogan “Have you driven a Ford lately?” While that certainly had charm in its day, one begins to wonder how a guy who helped engineer some aerospace marvels, some gems of contemporary aviation, is so fixated on things gone by. Isn’t this a bit like saying, “Hmm. . .the Ford Trimotor had a fairly good run; maybe I ought to talk to my pals at Boeing about that”?

People within the so-called Glass House (a.k.a., Ford HQ) are probably worried that he’s going to discover that Ford sold over 15 million Model Ts and that the color palette was rather limited. Imagine: "Back in Black: Return of the Car That Put America On Wheels."

But there are probably more than a few former GM employees who are rather pissed off when they peruse the results.

Saturn Corporation was once a car company that did things comparatively differently. For example, when the Saturn factory was built in Spring Hill, Tennessee, not only were the buildings painted such that they’d blend into the environment, as much as massive factories can, but they erected a white wooden fence around it and planted corn. Given most industrial sites, it was well done. The initial goal of Saturn was to make cars in the U.S. that would take on cars, oft times made in the U.S., but companies that happened to be headquartered in Japan. Due to a variety of reasons having to do with the sclerotic nature of owner General Motors, Saturn never really fulfilled its promise. Lately, however, with the introduction of some new vehicles, Saturn is on a bit of a roll. But what it started out to be and what it has become are different.

According to the study, Ford vehicles have an average of 1,427 TGWs, which is 159 fewer than last year and better than the overall average of 1,447 by a whopping 20. The overall customer satisfaction rating for Ford is 75%, which is three points less than the survey average of 78%. Figure that one out.

The ostensible good news for Ford is that the Mustang Shelby GT500, Ford Explorer and Lincoln Mark LT came in first place in TGW performance. The not-so-good news is that through June, Mustang sales are down 11.4%, Explorer sales are off 21.9%, and the Mark LT is down 33.9%.

Oh, just blame it on those people who think that 75% customer satisfaction is 20% or so too low. But then again, those are real people, not statistical ones.

Jet aircraft—commercial as well as military—often have names, and given the close proximity to Heaven that one reaches while on-board, the prospect of a soul may be contemplated, as well. Which, perhaps, leads us to a notion based on driving styles and vehicular spirituality or the lack thereof.

And soon, coming to a Chrysler Group dealership (probably Dodge) near you, will be product from a company based in Wuhu. Chrysler is going to be sourcing products produced by Chery Automobile Co., a company that is probably most widely known in the U.S. (and it isn’t all that widely known) for having created a knock-off of a Korean designed-and-built GM subcompact. According to a press release from Chrysler regarding the agreement, “Chrysler will identify several small-car models now being developed by Chery in China and work collaboratively to make any necessary branding and regulatory modifications prior to their entry into other markets.” Given what we’ve learned about some of the food and toothpastes coming from China, wouldn’t it be more encouraging if it was stated “any necessary regulatory and branding modifications”? That Rams-horn logo may be nice logo-wise, but knowing that the product is going to meet regulations would be more encouraging before knowing that it will meet the strictures of the brand guidebook. How about exceeding those regulations? Wait, that’s not the route to low prices.