Peugeot might be one of the biggest car makers in Europe, but it has absolutely no presence in the Indian market. With the Indian car market growing bigger day by day, there is no big automaker which doesn’t have the presence in the sub-continent. The most recent car maker to set up operations in India is Porsche, which used to import vehicles through a third party. So why doesn’t Peugeot have a presence in India? (Read More…)
Uh oh. Here we go again. GM apparently wants a 10 percent stake in Isuzu to build commercial vehicles.
There are some cars that no one will appreciate… but the owners. A bad brand name. Fatal and expensive defects from times past. Even a body style made of a designer’s frump can turn a brilliant vehicle into a showroom relic. This week I majored in buying unloved cars. Seven cars. Seven sins. More than likely seventy-seven plus days on the pavement.
It’s pretty rare that I’m completely stumped by an old car in a self-service junkyard, but at first glance this car looked like some sort of mutant Renault Caravelle, or maybe a member of the Glas family. Then I saw the (somewhat melted) air-cooled boxer twin in the back and knew that those crazy Bavarians must have had something to do with building this car. (Read More…)
We ran into Darryl de Souza and his 1962 Mercury Monterey at many car events this past summer. The two constant companions every time were his donkey hood ornament and his prehistoric man skull replica. On more than one occasion, there also was Darryl’s most important companion: His wife. (Read More…)
Each Saturday morning, at a somewhat ungodly hour, drivers of always beautiful and often rare cars congregate on Mazda’s parking lot in Irvine, CA. (Read More…)
It’s impossible for a government to do anything with a market, for example, regulate, tax or subsidize, without distorting that market. Whether or not those distortions are necessary is a matter of public policy debate, but they’re a fact of life. Another fact of life is that if you make your business plan dependent on governmental policies, subject to the ebb and flow of politics in democracies, you may find your enterprise becoming a controversial topic of political debate. That can hardly be good for business. That may explain why Coda has withdrawn their request for $334 million in Department of Energy loans. It also pretty much describes Fisker’s current situation as a political football.
Looks like I have my work cut out for me yet again; the new Mitsubishi Mirage will be coming to Canada, but Mitsubishi may not bring their new small car to the United States. Yes, I’ll take time to review it.
Now that nearly all of you know are familiar with the Top 100 best-selling cars in the world and the Top 318 best-selling models in Europe, what if we looked no further than the United States of America and go through the Top 265 best-selling models here over the First Quarter of this year…
No?
So you’re bored with home already. But that’s ok because I have sales info for 159 additional countries for you to visit in my blog, all one by one. So don’t be shy and click away!
Now for those of you who are still interested, I will start by saying that no, the Honda Element is not the least selling car in the country, but just: with just 3 models sold in the last 3 months and down 99.8% year-on-year it ranks #261 out of 265 models accounted for…That would be because the model has been discontinued and is no longer produced.
Why did I focus on the Honda Element? Just because.
For more see below the jump.
A reader sent us this photo, explaining the “success” of the Smart Fortwo in Canada. It’s not because of rising gas prices or Canadian small car love. The real reason is that the Fortwo is just so easy to park in the tight confines of Toronto!
If you are an automotive journalist who socializes with people who don’t have a bizarre fascination with the automobile and its associated trivia (there’s not many of us, believe me), you will inevitably be asked a few stock questions at parties. Among them;
1) Wow, you have the best job in the world, don’t you? (The answer is, no, not really, but working at TTAC is great)
2) What’s the fastest you’ve ever driven? (The answer is, 30 thousand, 100 million)
This article answers another common question – “What do you think of (insert car here)?”, and more specifically, what happens when expectations and reality are not the same.
Vice-President Joe Biden has been talking about the auto bailout frequently as the campaign for his re-election heats up in the coming months. A speech to NYU had him tout the record of the Obama administration, while also criticizing Gov. Mitt Romney’s famous “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” op-ed.
Ah, the Mazda RX-8. Given that it shares many underpinnings with the NC Miata, has a high-reving, silky smooth powerplant, 4 doors and a useable backseat, it should be a shoo-in for my next car, right? Not at all.
Some folks like music. Or at least a series of sounds that vaguely resembles music.
They will rip CD’s. Collect several yards of vinyl. Develop a nice little Youtube playlist. Perhaps even have an Ipod-like device with hundreds of digitized recordings. Some play. Others listen. But the enjoyment is always there.
Right around the early to mid-30’s something happens to these people. Either they become more into music. Or they have music merely serve as background noise for other hobbies.
Or, if they are among the Best & Brightest who regularly visit TTAC, they surely have certain types of music that reminds them of certain cars.
Those are the ones that truly enjoy a musical Nirvana. Or perhaps a Welk-ish purgatory.
The Portland city council two years ago put in place regulations that force limousine and sedan services to charge a $50 minimum for rides to and from the airport, and at least 35 percent more than taxis for trips to any other destination. And these transportation companies cannot pick up customers until at least an hour after the customer calls for a ride… “The main thing is that you don’t want the Town Cars to take all of the best fares, which are to the airport, and not leave any for the taxi industry,” [a city official] said. “That’s why there’s a minimum fare and a one-hour wait requirement.”
That’s right: the city of Portland is attacking the Lincoln Town Car, by name, in legislation and public speech. To the diminishing community of people in the United States who give a damn about the so-called “Constitution”, that’s called a “bill of attainder”. Nor is it empty talk: the city recently fined TownCar.com $635,500. Why?
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