The Japanese “Big Three” automakers all saw significant sales drops in August, thanks to similarly large increases in August 2009 sales spurred by Cash For Clunkers. Toyota/Lexus/Scion sales fell 34 percent, as Camry and Corolla crashed down from insane C4C volumes of 54,936 and 43,061 respectively. Only Avalon, Sienna, 4Runner/FJ Cruiser and Sequoia gained year-over-year last month for the Toyota brand, while lower-volume Lexus models like HS, LS, SC, GX and LX were the firm’s sole luxury gainers. As a brand, Scion sold only 4,012 units. Honda’s Accord and Civic mirrored the Camry/Corolla’s drop, as Odyssey and Pilot were the only Honda-branded gainers. Acura RL, MDX and RDX were all up on the month, and Honda/Acura ended up with a 33 percent decline overall. Nissan saw sales growth from Maxima, Titan, Xterra, Pathfinder, Armada, and Murano.Conversely,  G37 Coupe and FX were the the only Infiniti models failing to outperform August 2009 sales, resulting in an overall 27 percent drop. Full numbers after the jump…

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The third-generation Camaro, so much swoopier than anything else on the road back in 1982, looked more like a concept car than a production car. The throaty V8, though pitifully weak by today’s standards, at the time was easily capable of getting a 14-year-old’s pulse racing. Some critics dinged the car for its impractical packaging, […]

Subaru and Hyundai/Kia have been two of the strongest-growing brands in America over the past year or so, but even their momentum wasn’t enough to prevent “uh-oh” moments this month. Subaru sales fell 23 percent, despite another strong showing from Outback (+37%, 8,053). Forester and Impreza, which launched Subaru to a 52% sales jump last August, were down  39 and 42 percent respectively. Hyundai was another big winner in last year’s C4C sales glut, and its volume was down considerably by comparison last month. Accent and Santa Fe were down by 50 percent or more, but the redesigned Sonata did manage to nearly double its August 09 volume. Even Genesis was up (as was Tucson), but Hyundai still ended the month with a 11 percent overall sales decline. The biggest contributor: Accent, which sold 3,844 compared to 10,099 in August 2009. Kia fell about 23 percent, as Forte, Sorento, Sedona and Soul gains were offset by huge declines in Rio, Spectra, Optima and Sportage. Full numbers after the jump…

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Sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles fell 10.7 in August, as Ford’s success in last August’s Cash-For-Clunkers sales binge hurt year-over-year comparisons. And though that gives Ford a good excuse for its first year-over-year monthly sales decline since September 2009, the Blue Oval was down compared to last month as well (157,503 compared to 166,092). Mercury continued its death spiral, falling 22.5 percent, but Lincoln clawed back for a 9.4 percent bump. But things at Ford live and die by the Blue Oval brand, which was down 10.5 percent. Trucks performed best for the Ford brand, climbing 5 percent, but Utes were down 26.6% and Cars dropped 15.7 percent.

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Chrysler was one of the few firms that didn’t see much of a bump from last August’s Cash-for-Clunkers programs (due, it claimed at the time, to inventory shortages), and as a result it’s one of the few firms that actually increased sales this August. The Chrysler brand still dropped 4 percent, with only Sebring (+79%, 4,498 units) and T&C (+26%, 9,472) posting year-over-year gains. Jeep saw improvements across its nameplates (for a total volume increase of 17 percent), with only Grand Cherokee (-17%, 6,393) and Commander (-74%, 348) failing to beat their August 2009 numbers. Dodge was up 8 percent, with Caliber (+32%, 5,347), Nitro (+66%, 2,505) and sportscars leading the way. Both Ram (+8%, 18,995) and Dakota (+55%, 1,583) were up, but declines in Sprinter sales dragged Ram-brand sales down to a mere five percent increase. Unlike GM however, Chrysler did not release its fleet sales numbers. On the other hand, Chrysler Group did finally meet its 95k monthly “survival volume,” selling a total of 99,611 vehicles. By Chrysler standards, that’s as good as sales news gets. Full numbers after the jump…

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This was the Ooops month, previously called August. Before you get a heart attack from looking at the numbers, keep in mind that they are comparing with “Crazy August” of 2009, U.S. light vehicle sales were driven nearly up to the good old days of 2008 by Cash for Clunkers, only to drop 23 percent the next month. What we see this month is  a flashback of the withdrawal effects of 2009. All of this had (hopefully) been factored-in by analysts, but the numbers are coming in worse than expected.

If you don’t want to be sidetracked by the base effect of one crazy month, look at the rightmost column for the bigger picture: Up a bit for the year, but not by a whole lot.

The following list is complete. All precincts have reported. (Read More…)

Sales of GMs core brands dropped 10.6 percent in August compared to their Cash-For-Clunkers-fueled August 2009 performance, but overall sales were down 25 percent. Because the C4C program helped The General shift more value-oriented models, Buick was up 66 percent, Cadillac was up 83 percent, and GMC was up 12.3 percent, while Chevrolet shed 21.5 percent.

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TTAC Commentator Rehposolihp writes:

I drive a MKV GTI and despite it being a car that always brings a smile to my face when its working…well, just having to make that last qualification doesn’t bode well for me.

Combine that with a warranty on the verge of expiration and I’m fairly sure I should run away now.

The only thing I’ve done to it is popped on a boost gauge, and purchased an ECU flash (which can be locked back into stock), because I wanted to be reminded that I drive a turbocharged car from time to time.  Before I start snapping photos and trying to sell should I replace it back to stock?  I may have possibly broken the poor original vent assembly into tiny little pieces in my clumsy attempt to remove it, but the surrounding bits still look good.  So – is the minor hassle of replacing it back to stock going to net me a profit, or am I over thinking a boost gauge?

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An Ontario, Canada judge in July faulted the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and Attorney General of Ontario for attempting to confiscate $46,078 contrary to the law. Officer Paul Barkley had pulled over a 2000 Mazda traveling on Highway 401 near Morrisburg just after midnight on October 16, 2009. Barkley had assumed the driver, Remus Petran, might have been drunk because he was driving below the speed limit. After speaking to Petran, who was sober, Barkley decided to search the vehicle.

In the Mazda’s trunk, Barkley found a gym bag containing CDN $74,980. Petran explained that he worked in construction and was paid in cash. For this, Petran was arrested for possession of property obtained by crime and his car towed away. After police found no evidence of a crime, Petran was unconditionally released with his car and without any charges filed — but police kept the cash.

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Here at TTAC, we just love to talk about the Panther-based Town Car. I’m personally a big fan, but the rest of the staff is not as fond of the last full-sized Lincoln.

Whether you love or hate driving a TC, however, you have to admit that they are very durable vehicles. It’s no surprise, then, that “Charlie The Town Car”, a 2004-vintage model used daily as a cab in Austin, Texas, wasn’t laid low just 9,211 miles short of the half-million-mile mark by mechanical failure. No, it had to be rammed by a truck.

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In the former millennium, if you had a fantasy in overdrive and writing skills, you wrote books. These days, you join a management consulting company, and you author future scenarios. Easier and far more lucrative than coming up with “The Hunt For The Red October.“ Your client will give you the desired finale, along with a lot of money. All you need to write is a halfway logical plot that leads to the desired finale.

Everybody has decided that the future belongs to the electric car. Expensive batteries, high cost, low range, long recharge times, short battery life, these are just distractions. What we need is a halfway logical plot that leads us to the finale where the electric car gets the girl, and the ICE drives over a cliff.  In comes Frost & Sullivan. (Read More…)

Karl-Thomas Neumann, Volkswagen’s new Emperor of China, took over his job today. He replaces  Winfried Vahland, who now runs Volkswagen’s Skoda division. Neumann has a problem many would like to have. “We can’t build enough cars to meet the demand in China,” Neumann told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Now, if you have nothing to sell, you lose market share, and you really have a problem.  Neumann will build. he will build new factories, and  … (Read More…)

As China’s car market no longer delivers the obscene growth rates it used to deliver (pretty hard when you compare with prior-year months where car sales jumped nearly 100 percent), carmakers are looking for clever ideas to light a fire under their Chinese sales. They all come up with the same solution: Attractive loans.

But nobody wants them. (Read More…)

Japanese citizens raced to showrooms in August and bought cars as if they are going out of style. Domestic sales of new cars, trucks and buses increased 46.7 percent from the same month in the year prior. There is a reason to this: Cars will be going out of style in Japan any moment now … (Read More…)