March was a great month for the auto industry, and an analyst’s Waterloo. The real-time data equipped heavy-weights of Edmunds, TrueCar and Kelley were solidly trounced by bankers with a better feel, better sources, or simply better luck. The podium of March’s “Grade The Analysts” is populated by brokers and bankers, the professional auto oracles have been degraded to also-runs. (Read More…)
We saw a Crusher-bound 1970 Corona last week, but that wasn’t the only 1970s Corona in this particular Northern California wrecking yard. A few rows away was this equally beige, but much larger and more sophisticated, ’79. (Read More…)
The ancient Chevrolet Impala will finally get a replacement, in the form of the 2014 Impala shown above. The newest GM full-size will get a V6 engine, setting it apart from the 2013 Malibu. An eAssist 4-cylinder will be the base engine.
Last month Mitsubishi announced that it will be running an i-MiEV based race car up Pikes Peak in this year’s version of the famed Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Now comes word that six time consecutive winner and current Pikes Peak course record holder Nobuhiro “Monster” Tajima (you can see his record run from last year below) will be attacking the mountain in another electric car, sponsored by Japan’s Association for the Promotion of Electric Vehicles, a trade group of over 170 companies with an interest in EVs, including Toyota and Tesla. Winning an event six times in a row in any form of motorsport is impressive. Doing that and setting a course record at 62 years old is even more impressive. As the saying goes, he’s big in Japan. Tajima has joined the APEV as a “commissioner” and his high profile will be used to promote EVs and APEV’s environmental and humanitarian efforts, including aid to victims of last year’s earthquake and tsunami.
Those environmental and humanitarian efforts ironically come as Bloomberg reports that EV’s have lost some of their green sheen in Japan in the wake of the tsunami caused meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. (Read More…)
Car companies severing ties with Iran are making headlines. After GM’s new partner PSA decided to stop sending parts to Iran, Hyundai “has quietly ended its business dealings with Iran, where it had extensive operations,” says the New York Times. The Times chalks this up as a win for “United Against Nuclear Iran, an American group that has advocated economic sanctions.” UANI keeps a list of companies that still do business with Iran, it also lists companies that have withdrawn from doing so. Hyundai has received a check mark in the “withdrawn” list.
Detroit is looking nervously at that list. Let’s have a look as well. (Read More…)
A design studio gets shocking when someone shrugs off their stereotypical work, coming up with a whole new game. But all your designs look the same! You are too retro! I’ve had better looking bowel movements than your last luxury sedan proposal! The end result of this hate can be shockingly different from what they normally make, and the person behind it can have new found swagger. In my case as a student at CCS? Not so much. But for the Lexus? Maybe so.
For about 15 years, the Civic and the Accord were untouchable in the American marketplace; Honda sold all they could build here plus as many as they could import under the limitations of the Voluntary Export Restraint agreement of 1981. Then… well, Soichiro Honda died and Honda sort of lost its way. Sure, their cars were still good, but the competition had caught up and the Honda magic had worn off for American car buyers. Honda car sales in Japan had never been so great, so what kept Honda going through the lean times? Two-wheelers! I spent two weeks in Vietnam last month and came away with a new appreciation for Honda’s utter dominance of the Asian motorbike market. (Read More…)
“For 100 years, people have been dreaming about flying cars,” says, well, a promotion video that attempts to drum up investor interest for a flying car. Despite many attempts, we don’t see many flying cars, nether flying, nor driving. At TTAC, the story is as old as the old Farago-era layout. Fear not, flying cars will be here, real soon now, promise. One will even be at the New York Auto Show. (Read More…)
Stories of Greek defaults and Italian austerity programs make you think that Europe as a whole is just about to implode. Not true at all. The export-oriented German economy profits from the still relatively low Euro. The good mood in Germany is reflected in the number of new cars that were registered in March. Germany’s Kraftfahrtbundesamt reports a 3.4 percent rise in March, compared to the same month of 2011. (Read More…)
Finally, we can dispense with the dumb teasers and show you the face of the 2013 Nissan Altima. Bad news – a CVT is standard across the board.
We knew that Buick’s new Enclave was due be revealed simply by looking at our Facebook feeds and seeing reports of an elaborate, alcohol-and-buffet laden event somewhere far beyond the means of most journos. As we sit here eating our McDonald’s Value Menu entrees while sipping a bottle of Thunderbird, we, your humble servants, bring you information on Buick’s newest crossover.
Grizzled automotive veterans of the VRA (that’s Voluntary Restraint Agreement to you whipper-snappers) often wake in the night screaming about “ADP! ADP!” That’s “Additional Dealer Profit”, a little markup sticker found on everything from Accords to Z-Cars in the Reagan era. Honda dealers were perhaps the worst offenders, adding as much as three thousand dollars’ worth of pure markup to vehicles which often had MSRPs below ten grand.
There’s no “agreement” on the books that limits the number of Elantras that Hyundai can import from the far-off land of Alabama (or, in the case of this Touring model, Korea) but it looks like at least one dealer has decided to revive the glory days of automotive “stealerships”…
The Detroit-Hamtramck plant that builds the Chevrolet Volt will be shut down for three weeks instead of the standard two weeks this summer, and according to GM, that’s just business as usual. Even when it’s not.
Despite high gas prices and a still shaky economy, customers appear to be tired of their old cars and frequented the surviving car dealers en masse in March. Better inventories, juicy lease deals and new models light a fire under sales. We will update this table throughout the day as new numbers come in. (Read More…)
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