Say what you want against Volkswagen, but they are moving the metal. In the first 10 months of 2010, Volkswagen delivered just shy of 6m cars to customers. 5.98m to be exact. In the same period of 2009, they had sold 5.32m, so that’s a plus of 12.4 percent. According to a message from Volkswagen HQ, the world market only rose 4.5 percent in October, the Volkswagen Group increased sales by 9.8 percent in the same month. That’s market share, baby! (Read More…)
Recently, I wrote about how Tata is reaping huge profits thanks to the acquisition of the “toxic” JLR brands. It was a huge gamble to buy them, but it paid off. Literally. Well, it appears that Tata’s growing profits are going to benefit not only Tata, but ironically, Ford, as well. (Read More…)
Regular readers of automotive luminary Mike Spinelli’s Twitter account were informed yesterday that his employer, 0-60 Magazine, is ceasing publication. Is this the canary in the print-rag coal mine?
As mentioned in an earlier article, I’m getting old. Far too old to understand the younger generation. But with experience comes cynicism (maybe that should be a TTAC slogan?). The more things change, the more things stay the same. In the recent cutbacks, which the new UK government introduced, a fund called the “Grant for Business Investment Scheme” (GBI) is to be phased out by 2012. The fund was used by Nissan for their plant up in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. Production of the Leaf came to the UK on the back of a £20.7m grant from the GBI fund. Well, Nissan didn’t take too kindly to the news of the dry money well, says the Daily Mail. (Read More…)
The rest of the world is busy tearing down tariff borders by entering free trade agreements, such as the one between South Korea an the EU. Japan doesn’t want to stand on the sidelines and is in FTA negotiations with the EU. At the same time, the U.S. and Korea yesterday shitcanned their free trade plans. The reason? Cars. Allegedly. (Read More…)
GM appears to be sick of the constant needling it receives about their Wuling joint venture in China. Here is a company that produces half of the 2 million cars GM proudly announced as theirs in China, and GM owns only 34 percent. (The 37 percent that had been bandied about apparently were also exaggerated.) 50.1 percent are owned by SAIC, the rest by Wuling. Contractually, GM is entitled to pull the wool over the heads of the world and OICA, and count the millions of diminutive Wulings as theirs. Now, GM is taking steps to redeem themselves. Or to redeem some of the IPO take. But just a little. (Read More…)
John writes:
That’s right, the Yuppie is back. After reading every one of the 117 comments to your July 29th response to my previous question, I have come to yet another crossroad. As much as I hate to admit, Steve won that argument. Ignoring some of the more ignominious comments about how much our family should spend on a house, 401K, kids, etc., here now is the master plan. I will cap my next car budget at $12,000, with $1000 set aside each year for maintenance. My desire would be to buy a 5-10yr old used car, use it for a year (spending less than the banked $1000 on maintenance), then being my fickle self sell it and get a “new” used mobile. I live in a state without vehicle transfer taxes or sales tax, so there are few transfer costs associated with selling a buying a new ride. The $1K maintenance account will be renewed each year.
So, now the question – best ride under $12,000 that won’t blow a tranny and cost me more than $1K a year to operate?
Top picks right now: S4 (yes, an Audi, but most on the market have had all the required maintenance done just to sell the bad boy…and I’ll only keep it for 12 months), Mazda 6, BMW 3, Lexus IS manual, G8…..the list goes on. Wife drives an Outback so we have our family hauler. I am 6’4″ though, so need some leg room. Thanks!
Did you know that all drivers in Germany are potentially subject to an Idiotentest? Well, “Idiot Test” is the popular term; technically it’s called the Medizinisch-Psychologische Untersuchungen (Medical-Psychological Test) and it’s administered to some 100,000 Germans each year by the Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (Federal Highway Research Institute). The point is, if a German driver does something colossally stupid, like run a red light, wreck while racing, or get caught driving drunk, the Bundesanstalt makes him or her take a test to determine that they are medically and psychologically capable of driving safely. If you fail, either get sent back to (mandatory) driving school, or you lose your license (and gain the sneaking suspicion that your high school counselor was right, and you really are an idiot). Anyway, while you’re pondering the pros and cons of this system compared to America’s lassez-idiot approach, consider this: the number of idiot tests administered to German drivers was up three percent last year, the first time in years that the number went up. Apparently you can’t keep automotive idiocy down. (Read More…)
Occasionally, when talking to other car folks, I’ll hear, “well, you live in Detroit”. It can mean different things. Sometimes it’s an accusation of jingoist bias in favor of the domestic automakers. I plead guilty in not wanting to see lots of my neighbors and customers unemployed. Other times, it’s more wistful, more envious. For a car guy, Detroit can be Mecca and nirvana on Christmas morning with a cherry on top. I don’t have to fly in for press events at the Big 3 and because there are so many automotive writers around here, even the foreign brand press fleet is stocked pretty nicely.
Though not as common as they once were, you can still take a factory tour at Ford’s [not quite so] giant [anymore] Rouge complex, and while you’re in Dearborn it’s definitely worth your while to visit the Henry Ford Museum. Just one note, you won’t find it listed under that name. A few years ago, for some insane marketing reason, the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village decided to rebrand itself, choosing “The Henry Ford”. I suppose that goes over big with museum curators – I’m sure that everyone in Manhattan knows what the Guggenheim is, but in a region that has hospitals and schools named after Henry Ford (I & II), dropping Museum from the eponymous Henry Ford, is just confusing and a little too precious.
Just when you thought that Ford was winning the compact-sedan mileage war, the Cruze ECO 1.4L Turbo manual-transmission model has claimed a 42/28 rating for highway and city mileage. How’d they do it?
The Auto Prophet brings up a point that completely escaped our discussion of General Electric’s EV mega-buy:
By gobbling up EVs, GE certainly helps to jump-start the industry, but they also gobble up future tax credits that consumers would have gotten, unless GE opts to forego the EV tax credit. Which would be bad business.
Yup, GE’s huge EV buy will be good for GE… but it won’t be so great for the 25,000 Americans whose tax credit will slurped up in the process. After all, the credit expires after a manufacturer sells 200k qualifying vehicles, so every credit GE uses brings GM and Nissan that much closer to the day they have to ask consumers to pay full price for their pricey EVs. No wonder GM is already pushing for an extension of the credit past 200k units.
We’ve heard a lot of arguments on all sides of the bailout, but we had yet to hear anyone call for prolonged government ownership and involvement in General Motors… until now. What follows is a letter from Ralph Nader, former NHTSA boss Joan Claybrook, Center for Auto Safety honcho Clarence Ditlow and Public Citizen president Robert Weissman, urging the Obama administration to suspend GM’s IPO and take firmer control of the government-owned automaker’s decisions on a number of issues including lobbying, employment and the environment. Because, despite appearing to be stuck in the 70s, Nader and company have never heard of British Leyland. Taste the madness below.
Dear President Obama,
The U.S. government bailout of, and acquisition of a majority share in, General Motors was anexceptional action, taken in response to exceptional circumstances. The U.S. stake in GM obviously poses novel managerial challenges to the government. The appropriate response to those challenges, however, is not to run from the responsibility through passive ownership and premature sale at a loss to taxpayers.
Science fiction author Charlie Stross recently penned a blog piece on the future impact of autonomously computer-driven cars. Let’s call them “robocars.” I’ve pondered this before and Stross’s post is the perfect jumping-off point for a discussion of the many issues standing between science fiction and the robocar future. Let’s take a look.
Is time slowing down? Just fifteen years separate this 1960 Imperial and the Horizon’s birth. Or was it just that Detroit was terribly slow to embrace the inevitability of modern European design? Better late then never, because not only were the Horizon and Omni the first proper small cars ever built in Detroit, they also saved Chrysler from irrelevance and bankruptcy just in the nick of time. (Read More…)
A federal appellate court ruled Tuesday that a portion of a lawsuit against the red light camera and speed camera program in Cleveland, Ohio could proceed. Daniel McCarthy and Colleen Carroll argued that the city had unconstitutionally deprived them of their property after the Parking Violations Bureau fined them $100 when the municipal traffic camera ordinance did not give the city any authority to impose a fine on someone who leases his vehicle. A district court judge threw out the case, but the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit found merit in the state law aspects of their argument.
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