Post by Kasey Kagawa

Animals living in the wild usually find this time of year particularly trying. The dead of winter makes water and food harder to find, and many individuals do not survive. Pundits (Gossipus Speculatum) have the worst time of all, historically having nothing to sustain themselves but the occasional spy photo and leaked press images from the rich auto show season a month away. Conservationist efforts to help keep up pundit numbers, such as moving the Los Angeles Auto Show up to the end of November, have made some headway in preserving population numbers. However, the biggest boost this year in the local pundit populations has been the rumors of GM or Ford merging with a foreign company. When GM CEO Rick Wagoner met with Renault/Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosen back in October, it created a pundit boom that many thought would sustain them well into the Geneva Auto Show. However, the lack of news and the indiscriminate use of NDAs by major automakers has put them back in serious risk. Thankfully, Ford CEO Alan Mulally’s meeting with Toyota executives on Tuesday has given this struggling species just the lift it needed. If Car and Driver keeps on leaking confidential press information and our rumor-recycling program gets off the ground, we might just keep this fragile species off the endangered list.

Ford Chief Seeks Ideas From Toyota [New York Times]