After the March 11 quake, when the office buildings stopped shaking, Toyota told its 500 staffers in Purchasing to contact suppliers. Each damaged supplier received a red pin on a large map of northeastern Japan. Soon, the map was swamped by a tsunami of red pins. Some suppliers “suffered the complete destruction of their factories,” writes The Nikkei [sub], “and were unable to determine how many of their employees were still alive.”
With more than 10,000 dead, more than 16,000 missing, and whole towns razed in the Tohoku area, many shops are now believed to be at the bottom of the furious sea.
“The word ‘ordeal’ does not even convey the gravity of the situation,” Toyota President Akio Toyoda says. (Read More…)
Honda is thinking about delaying its earnings announcement while the company has all hands full dealing with the fall-out of earthquake, tsunami and radiating power plants. A Honda spokesman told Reuters: “We’re considering it, but nothing has been decided.” (Read More…)
Somebody took me up on my offer. My old #187 Performance Touring “E” Neon is off to another home, where, it is fervently to hope, it will become a first-rate LeMons racer.
I don’t want the history of this car to disappear. No, it’s not a Parnelli Jones Mustang or Sunoco Camaro, but it was a factory(ish) race car for much of its life and it deserves to be remembered. So, if you have some time, and you want to read about a car which spent sixteen years in rough-and-tumble competition, read on… (Read More…)
“Production at a Nissan Motor plant in China dwindled dramatically two weeks after Japan’s earthquake and tsunami disrupted the supply of key auto parts,” reports China’s People’s Daily, citing “sources with the company.”
In a land where alleged spokespeople of a company get a heart attack and hang up when a reporter calls, those sources turned out to be workers at the Dongfeng Nissan joint venture in central China’s Hubei Province. “We used to assemble 304 cars a day, but today our plan is set at 82,” said a worker. (Read More…)
There are two words guaranteed to cause heavy Maalox and Valium intake in the world of my (former) fellow Mad Men, and to increase billable hours at their shrinks: “Agency review.”
The client calls in the competition to present ideas. A lot of time and huge amounts of money are wasted spent in the beauty contest. Now all ad agencies of BMW U.S.A. are pummeled by anxiety attacks: BMW has called for the dreaded agency review. (Read More…)
Who will be the world’s largest car company this year? There appears to be at least one car company that is (so far) totally unaffected by any parts malaises, supposed bursting bubbles in China and any other possible impediments to vehicular growth: Volkswagen. Veedub’s sales jefe Christian Klinger remarked at the sidelines of a press conference today that Volkswagen’s sales will hit record levels in March.
The Wall Street Journal could not believe its ears and sought confirmation. A Volkswagen spokesman said they heard right. Klingler didn’t give any further details, says the WSJ, but record levels can’t mean anything else than the best March ever in VW’s storied history. (Read More…)
A shortage of engine-related micro control units (MCUs) resulting from damage to Japan’s Renesas Electronics plant in Naka will curtail global auto production, says the market intelligence service ICSIS, citing a report by Germany’s Deutsche Bank. Renesas Electronics is the world’s biggest maker of automotive microcontrollers. It more and more emerges as a “key bottleneck in Japan’s parts shortage,” says Automotive News [sub]. One of its two auto-related factories damaged by this month’s earthquake won’t be operational until July.
Renesas supplies 18-20 percent of the world’s automotive MCU market. About 70 percent of the production is sold to Japanese automakers, the remaining 30 percent goes to US and European car companies. “The supply of these MCUs is not easily replaceable,” says ICSIS, “as boosting production at other sites could take as long as six to nine months.” (Read More…)
When I graduated as an engineer, little did I know that I would be going to end up working inside a car (or truck) assembly site, even less so in one controlled by a rogue government that has a big bull’s-eye painted on it on a map in Langley, Virginia.
But life is what it is, and usually it tends to bring people to interesting situations and places. Still not convinced? Go and read one chapter of Niedermeyer Sr biography, Herr Schmitt’s autobiography, or any of Baruth’s racey adventures.
So in one of the hair needle turns of my life, I ended up spending some time around Iran’s national car. It wasn’t in Iran, but under Hugo Chavez. (Read More…)
Not sure if this is an appropriate Piston Slap question, but here goes. I’m the owner of a 2009 Infiniti G37S coupe, manual trans, approx 30,000 miles. I’m very happy with the car (aside from a touchy clutch that gets tiresome in slow traffic), but ever since I bought it I’ve felt that I won’t really have gotten my money’s worth until I do some real hooning. I recently received a track day package as a gift, consisting of five half-hour sessions, the first with some manner of instructor. I’ll be attending next week, with just about equal parts excitement and trepidation.
Having never done anything of the sort before, and with little experience with truly “enthusiastic” driving, I’d like to ask you (and the B&B) for any advice you might have, in all aspects of the experience but with a particular emphasis on potential damage to my car’s powertrain innards. As laughable as it may seem, given the context, I do actually care about the long term health of this car, and I’d like to avoid doing anything too grievous to it. A fool’s errand?
A Grand Jury in Napa, California last month issued a report calling for reform and refunds in the city’s red light camera program. The jurors uncovered yellow light timing discrepancies and an unusual dependence upon right-turn tickets to generate revenue at the most productive intersection. The Australian vendor Redflex Traffic Systems began issuing tickets in May 2009, and citations at four intersections now cost $475 each. So far, 9278 tickets worth $4 million have been mailed — 3789 of which were sent to vehicle owners that turned right on red.
Does General Motors have an unfair advantage when it comes to taking the top prize in 24 Hours of LeMons racing? The General’s LeMons soldiers have taken something like a third of all Index of Effluency wins during the course of LeMons racing’s four-year history… and today another GM marque was added to the IOE victors’ list: Opel! (Read More…)
The Sears Pointless 24 Hours of LeMons race was all about a Nissan NX2000 versus BMW 3 Series versus Honda motorcycle-engined Geo Metro battle for quite a while, but black flags on the Nissan and the Geo gave the Spin-N-Out Burger BMW E30 the chance to grab the win on laps. (Read More…)
David E. Davis, Jr. died today during an unspecified “cancer surgery”. Readers wishing to read a historically accurate, solemn, heartfelt tribute to the man from one of his most devoted acolytes should turn to Eddie Alterman’s blog entry at Car and Driver.
The rest of you can come sit here by me. (Read More…)
Before you read this article, go back and read the History of the Gol (Partes Um and Dois). Really, go. Now that you’ve read this icon’s history you are better prepared to opine on what lies ahead. In celebration of the model’s 30th anniversary, Volkswagen do Brasil has launched a commemorative version of the Gol. VW is calling it “Vintage”. What is it? Simply the most expensive Gol in history. (Read More…)
My friend Goto, a former Japanese judo national champion who somehow got caught up in the Summer of Love as an exchange student in Berkeley, and who never looked or went back, once told me: “My father say, some people have death wish, and you have to glant it to them.“
There are some people who are just dying to lose posting privileges on TTAC. It’s fast and easy. Simply do what some commenters did. (Read More…)
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