Our new editor-in-chief sits down for a chat with GM marketing czar Mark LaNeve.

On the afternoon that General Motors announced its Total Confidence buyer-assurance plan, our new editor-in-chief, Eddie Alterman, sat down with Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president of sales, service, and marketing for North America and the architect of the program. Topics ranged from buyer confidence to product delays to the dissolution of GM’s High-Performance Vehicle Operations to the future of GM’s brands. LaNeve was forthright and interesting throughout, and didn’t back away from the hard questions.

In a move sure to spark outrage, the White House announced today that GM and Chrysler must cease participation in NASCAR at the end of the 2009 season if they hope to receive any additional financial aid from the government. Companies around the globe—Honda and Audi, to name two—have drawn down racing operations, and NASCAR itself has already felt the pinch in the form of reduced team spending. A complete withdrawal from America’s premier racing series is expected to save more than $250 million between GM and Chrysler, a substantial amount considering the drastic measures being implemented elsewhere.

“Automakers used to operate on the principle of ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday,’ but the Auto Task Force’s research just doesn’t validate that as true,” said the statement from President Obama. While fans have decried the Car of Tomorrow for heavily limiting what little personalization the cookie-cutter series had previously allowed to participating manufacturers, and drivers have slammed its brick-like aerodynamics and unpredictable handling, even the governmental oversight committee sees that the full-scale regulation of the cars leaves the manufacturers very little space for research and development. “NASCAR is a racing series that regulates down to the smallest detail of the cars, where a car badged a Chevrolet or Dodge differs only marginally from a Ford or a Toyota. There’s no technological development to speak of.”