China has been the engine under record earnings at German automakers such as Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW. China helped GM offset its heavy losses at Opel, and provided more than 2 million cars that earned GM the (some say undeserved) title of world’s largest automaker. All of them have invested heavily into added capacity in China. All of them have reason to be worried. (Read More…)
Consumer Reports has their Fisker Karma back from the dealership, and has finally been able to get their driving impressions. The folks at CR are apparently being cautious with their new six-figure sports sedan, for fear that another breakdown could happen far from home, rather than within their compound.
Chevrolet’s Spark minicar will go on sale in July starting at a price point below the Sonic’s $14,600 (destination included). The Korean-built minicar competes in the “A-segment”, alongside the Fiat 500, Smart Fortwo and Scion iQ.
The EU Commission in Brussels made good on its threat to drag Germany in front of the European Court of Justice. According to Automobilwoche [sub], Brussels has filed suit in Luxemburg. Brussels demands that the “special treatment” for Volkswagen is to be dropped. If the suit is successful, and if Germany remains obstinate, then a penalty of at least €46.6 million ($62.2 million) is demanded. The fine would have to be paid by the German government, not by Volkswagen. (Read More…)
When, some seven weeks ago, the Nikkei had the rumor that Nissan would revive its Datsun brand for low cost cars, targeted at emerging markets, official sources at Nissan – not surprisingly – had no comment.
One not so charitable source at Nissan conceded that “this time, the Nikkei is less on crack than sometimes.” Another more diplomatic source said: ”I guess you can expect a press release soon.”
That press release arrived today. (Read More…)
An impromptu dinner meeting with a friend last night led talk of a possible G-Body project car (and two very bored girlfriends). Joey, who has long wanted a G-Body Monte Carlo, asked what it would take to make a cool street car out of an old G-Body car, like a late 1980’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS.” It can’t be that hard,” I said. “Can’t you just drop in a crate motor from GM Performance Parts?”
NBA star Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks will endorse Volvo cars, after signing a deal with the company. Lin, who graduated from Harvard and took an unconventional path to the NBA, has Taiwanese-born parents, is extremely popular in China, where basketball has a strong following.
Copyright reasons prevent us from showing you spy photos of the Volkswagen XL1 – if you want them, take a look here . The XL1 will apparently be the world’s most fuel efficient car when it goes on sale in 2013, getting 0.9L/100 km – or about 260 mpg.
The Fiat 500L may be joined by another Fiat product, but the brand’s North American head said that it won’t necessarily resemble the 500 vehicles.
TTAC commentator Philosphil writes:
Hello everyone,
I’m looking to replace my 03 Jetta wagon soon and have test-driven many vehicles. I have periodic back issues and so want a vehicle that has easy ingress and egress (so that ideally I neither have to climb up nor drop down when entering or exiting the vehicle). I’m about 6’, but have a relatively long upper body. I’m also looking for something in the $17,000-$20,000 range (Cdn, or about about $15,000-$18,000 US). Of the cars I’ve tested so far, the ones that seem best suited to my needs are the boxes (to my wife’s dismay–they tend to have the largest opening between the driver’s seat and the top of the door sill). I would also like to keep this car (and actually like it as well) for 8-10 years. (Read More…)
We were impressed with Dodge’s blue-collar Grand Cherokee when we tested it back in 2010, but we also noted that the vehicle’s success would be linked to fuel prices. Naturally, the story since then hasn’t been great: the Durango’s 2011 sales of 51,697 put it well behind the Grand Cherokee, Liberty, and Patriot. The humble Compass was only four thousand units behind, which says a lot about… something something rental fleets, I’m not actually sure what it says a lot about.
Mainstream America may no longer be willing to pay for macho street appeal with an endless supply of $4/gallon gasoline, but the public sector seems to have no such issue. Thus, we have the Dodge Durango Special Service.
Darcy Snider inherited a fair amount of money from his grandmother, but he doubts very much that she would appreciate how he spent her hard-earned cash.
Darcy is a hardcore car guy. His natural instinct kicked in and he invested in this rare 1984 W-40 Hurst Olds. (Read More…)
At a busy intersection in the San Francisco Bay area, the team stationed “pedestrians” at crosswalks… Drivers of shiny, expensive cars were three times more likely than those of old clunkers to plow through a crosswalk, failing to yield to pedestrians as required by California state law. High-status motorists were also four times more likely than those with cheaper, older cars to cut off other drivers at a four-way stop.
Rich people behaving badly! It’s easy to imagine the kind of satisfaction the researchers from Berkeley enjoyed when their research showed that class warfare extends all the way to the concrete traffic jungle… but the other behavior they observed was probably a bit tougher to swallow.
In Europe, half of the cars sold are diesels. In The U.S. and especially in Japan, automakers literally wrinkled their nose at oilburning cars. This is slowly changing, says The Nikkei [sub]. (Read More…)
The launch of the Acura ILX kicked off on Sunday, and Acura told the crowd of assembled journalists that their new ILX sedan will cost “around $27,000”.
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