When you want to make and sell cars in India, you don’t need a joint venture partner. Except when you are GM. In the dark days of December 2009, GM cut a deal with Chinese partner SAIC, gave them half of its India business and a golden share in China for much needed cash. SAIC underwrote a $400 million loan when GM was out of money. Now, India is flooded with Chinese cars bearing the Chevrolet badge. (Read More…)
Today, the seventh generation of the Volkswagen Golf was presented in Berlin. 38 years after the launch of the first Golf in 1974, and 29.13 million cars later, Volkswagen shows a new Golf that is 100 kg lighter and up to 23 per cent more fuel efficient that the predecessor. If a new Golf ever was “all new” then this one: Built with the new MQB architecture, everything in the new Golf had to be redesigned. And here is a picture count-up, from first to newest. (Read More…)
GM is backing out of plans to share the Opel Insignia platform with its partner PSA, says Der Spiegel. It was planned that PSA will build a mid-sized Peugeot and Citroen with next gen Insignia underpinnings. The cars would have been made at Opel’s Rüsselsheim factory. Together with the Opel model, the cars would have filled the available capacity. Scratch that plan. It wasn’t killed because it was a bad idea. It was killed because Buick and especially GM China complained, says the magazine. (Read More…)
In just a few short years, Myanmar has gone from Southeast Asia’s pariah state to the new darling of investors looking for the next emerging market.
Volkswagen and Toyota join Chrysler in delivering better than expected numbers for August as our table starts to populate. (Read More…)
A shocking report from Automotive News has broached a previously unfathomable development; Alfa Romeo’s U.S. launch is apparently delayed, catching countless observers off-guard, after expecting an efficient, trouble-free re-introduction for the historic marque.
Forecasters predicted that August sales numbers, published today, will be strong. Chrysler opened today’s barrage of sales numbers with much better than expected results. (Read More…)
Neil Armstrong died on August 25th of this year and the nation mourned, doubly so. First for the man, and second for what he stood for: hero, explorer, icon of a time when all that was best in America rose up on a pillar of smoke and flame to dance among the heavens. The astronauts, […]
“Volkswagen is on course to bump General Motors into the world no.3 ranking this year,” writes Reuters. That’s not all. Volkswagen “aims to sell a world-leading 10 million vehicles by 2018, up from the 8.36 million recorded last year, and push past Toyota.”
The car that is supposed to lead Volkswagen to world domination is an also-ran in the U.S., but it is one of the world’s most sold cars. It is the Golf, and its seventh generation will be revealed tonight in Berlin at the Neue Nationalgalerie, the Mies van der Rohe designed temple of modern art. (Read More…)
Toyota is well known to develop quality cars but for the very first time, there is an exception. This exception comes in the form of the Toyota Etios, which lacks the quality Toyota is known for. The Etios is positioned as an entry level sedan in India, where it competes with the Maruti Suzuki DZire […]
A few days ago, an anonymous source told us that Lincolns have been in China for years, and that Ford won’t admit it. Ford said they probably were grey imports. Before the Chengdu Motor Show opened its doors, three Lincolns were seen entering the hall with big grins on their faces, and everybody thought they were brought by Ford. No they were not. (Read More…)
9:15 A.M. Labor Day.
I get a surprise message on Facebook this morning from a guy who bought an old Volvo 940 wagon from me nearly six years ago.
“That BMW? What did it go for?”
A month ago, I posted this article regarding the grey market Bimmer. It had sold on the block for a mere $2,300 due in part to a broken odometer. I clicked on the Ebay listing hoping for a fair disclosure. Instead I got…
It looks like news of the sacking of Joel Ewanick has not reached China. Or at least not Chengdu. (Read More…)
If you want to make cars in China, you need a joint venture partner. The Chinese joint venture partners have done well. 98 percent of last year’s sales of central government-owned Dongfeng came from joint ventures with Nissan, Honda, and Peugeot. Largest Chinese automaker SAIC derives 60 percent of its sales from made-in-China GM and Volkswagen cars.
That policy “is like opium. Once you’ve had it you will get addicted forever,” said former machinery and industry minister, He Guangyuan. (Read More…)
Sometimes we work too hard for success. We listen to others, constructive criticism or not, doing our best to make a change for the better. But are we really accomplishing that? I’ve always wondered if the ends justify the means. Not for me at CCS in Detroit: after trying to change myself to fit a certain mold and failing, I realized I’m totally okay with (most) everything I do. On or off the vellum.
I wonder if vehicles like the Infiniti JX are the byproduct of a design studio trying too hard to address criticisms. Or maybe this is just a common case of “over-styling” a vehicle. Either way, here we are.
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