Daimler is unimpressed by Beijing’s plans to limit new vehicle license plates to 240,000 next year. Daimler still expects double-digit car sales growth in China in 2011.

BMW is similarly sanguine. (Read More…)

“This could be Toyota’s iPod,” said UK’s Fifth Gear. The iQ is Toyota’s (some say much smarter) answer to Daimler’s Smart. But the trouble is: The iQ is only available in Japan and Europe. Its impending arrival in the U.S.A. has been announced many times. More on that later. While in Japan, I wanted to […]

It’s a few million square feet. More than sixty football fields. And even on this holiday weekend, it’s not silent. In one corner, a group of men congregate around a folded-up seating assembly. Elsewhere, a tractor-trailer backs up to a dock and a green light flashes on as sensors click and an unattended door rolls up. Electric carts and small tractors whiz by me during my long walk through the darkened, cavernous interior spaces. A persistent, high-pitched whine emits from a timeclock. A poster details the instrument panel changes in a 2011 model.

In a society which has largely forgotten the divine and chosen to worship commerce, production, and marketing, this is a cathedral; still, I’m walking quickly without a genuflection to the rows of engine-transmission assemblies suspended above me, because I need to rush home and observe the same rituals. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine closet.

(Read More…)

The Denver self-service wrecking yard a few miles from my house had a section packed with a few dozen examples of vintage Detroit iron, plus a few MGs. I say had because they just crushed everything. Fortunately, they did so to make room for a new crop of American machinery from the 1950s and 1960s, including this Mopar wagon. (Read More…)

Readers of On The Road gush about the incredible asphalt journeys taken by the book’s protagonists, but they did most of their driving in a brand-new Hudson and a brand-new Cadillac limousine. Here is a truly heroic road trip: a solo San Diego-to-Miami drive in a basket-case Citroën ID19 that ran for the first time in 25 years when it clanked a single lap around the Sears Point paddock and then headed onto the track. (Read More…)

Purveyors of high gloss paint sealants (and high margin up-sells for car dealers) read with horror the story in today’s Wall Street Journal that matte finish is the “new black” for cars. If this trend catches on – and the WSJ says it does – then the sparkling profits will be a goner. (Read More…)

Speaking of exports, a Canadian columnist of the Saint City News made out an eager market,  lusting for American cars, right in front of our noses. The writer found “a market of 11 million people who love GM products and paste Chevrolet bowtie logos on decrepit Ladas and Skodas.” However, the American government has denied that market the American dream, “year after year for more than half a century.” You know which market we are talking about. No? It’s some 100 miles from Key West. Right:  Cuba. (Read More…)

With the economy pretty still mostly on the ropes all over the world, the favorite policy appears to try to export yourself out of the crisis, and to keep imports to the barest minimum. In pretty much all countries but one. Would you believe it: China. (Read More…)

Yes, owners of classic cars still drive them on the street during the winter in Denver (though we haven’t seen any real snow yet); I spotted this rare Bavarian at the park yesterday. (Read More…)

Developing and manufacturing new cars is expensive. You need a lot of volume to amortize the cost. That’s why more and more Japanese automakers skip the development and manufacturing part altogether. They outsource both and slap their badge on someone else’s car. Last in that development has been Mitsubishi. Ten days ago, Nissan and Mitsubishi snuggled closer and added more OEM deals to the ones they already had. Yesterday, it was announced that Suzuki would supply subcompact vans to Mitsubishi.

Suzuki will supply its latest 1.2 liter subcompact van Solio to Mitsubishi, which will start selling them as a yet unnamed Mitsubishi vehicle beginning in spring 2011. Just another OEM deal? Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun sees a bigger picture. (Read More…)

I’ve got this intimidating stack-o-car books to review— it’s been five months since the last one— and so I figured I’d skim them all and pick out a few winners. I cracked this one open, got hooked right away, and read the whole thing while ignoring the rest of the pile. (Read More…)

From TTAC’s family to yours, we wish you the very best during the festive season. Just be ready to grab a dab of oppo when you’re dashing through the snow!

In this third installment covering my long-sought West Virginia road trip (part one, part two) we meet some of the local talent.

After six hours on the road I cross the Ohio River into West Virginia. New Martinsville is large enough to be ugly. And full of cars. Leaving town on WV 7/20, I’m stuck behind a half-dozen of them. Hopefully most will continue on 7 instead of 20—a glance at the nav shows the split ahead. After a few miles a passing zone finally opens up, and I take it, giving the Infiniti G37 coupe’s 330-horsepower V6 free reign, grabbing third at the redline…only to see the right turn for WV 20 flash by mid-pass. D’oh! Hit the brakes, turn around, this time successfully turn onto 20, and pass some of the same cars for a second time. A fair amount of embarrassment notwithstanding, with so much power on tap passing is effortless fun—as long as there’s a zone to do it in.

(Read More…)

Kia has been targeting Scion for some time now, having built a better xD with the Soul, and taking on the tC with its Forte Koup. Now Kia seems to be going after Scion’s last (relatively) uncontested model, the xB, with this NAIAS-bound concept called KV7. And though there are clearly some concept elements to the design which won’t make production (hello Gullwing), Kia’s statement accompanying this teaser image notes

For the past several years Kia Motors’ design-led transformation has been delivering production vehicles – such as the Soul, Forte Koup and Sportage – that bear a very close resemblance to the original concept designs that preceded them. At the 2011 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Kia will make another dramatic design statement with the world debut of an all-new, convention-challenging concept vehicle named “KV7.”

They’re a fixture of holiday television: car ads showing a loving family member presenting a new car as a Christmas gift, complete with an oversized red bow. But is there any truth to this popular advertising cliche? CNW Marketing Research says nearly 57k new and used cars will be given as gifts during this holiday season, but I sure don’t know anyone who has given or received a car (let alone a new luxury car) for Christmas… do you?