An alliance of European truck manufacturers have pledged to stop selling vehicles that produce any emissions by 2040 — pushing up its previous target date by a full decade.
The group, which includes Daimler, Scania, Man, Volvo, Daf, Iveco, and Ford, have all signed a pledge to focus on developing hydrogen and battery technologies so that petroleum-derived propulsion can be phased out of the trucking industry.
Axalta released its 68th Global Automotive Color Popularity Report today, and it said 81 percent of vehicles are white, black, gray or silver. White at 38 percent is the most frequently purchased automotive color worldwide and has been for 10 years consecutively. Black remains at 19 percent year-over-year and is a luxury vehicle favorite. Gray, at 15 percent, is up two percent and is at a 10-year high. Meanwhile, silver is in decline in all regions, now at just nine percent. This shift from silver to gray in many markets is its perception as a more modern and luxurious color.
The Alfa Romeo 4C Spider is at the end of the road in the U.S. Unlike some cases, in which models are dropped with little fanfare, FCA has decided to send the 4C out in style with the roll out of the 4C Spider 33 Stradale Tributo, a salute to the ’67 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale.
The U.S. Department of Justice has reached a proposed civil settlement with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the gigantic corruption case that absorbed two former presidents and a slew of union officers over the last few years. With many involved already serving the first part of their prison sentence, the UAW has reportedly agreed to hold a referendum among the rank-and-file to change the way it elects the top brass. The proposal predictably includes some court oversight designed to catch any new instances of fraud coming from inside the union but doesn’t appear to address the corporate aspect.
As a positive, it’s not assumed that the union will see a complete government takeover. Like laundry, it’s already better to separate your alleged corruption to create legal buffer zones.
Today’s Rare Ride is one of those that’s always been on the to-do list, but never floated to top of mind. That changed the other day, when this very tidy example was posted on Twitter.
Let’s talk about Privilege.
The ninth annual Looking Further with Ford Trends Report has us asking if consumers are as resilient amid the pandemic as Ford claims. The study expresses how COVID-19 has wrought economic, political, and emotional woes, testing the limits of individuals, families, healthcare systems, and society. Focusing on global trends to understand shifting consumer behaviors, it measures how far we’ve come, and where we’re going. This year, the OEM also examined how resilient people are.
“COVID-19 has changed us – but to what degree?” said Sheryl Connelly, Ford’s global consumer trends and futuring manager.
Looking at my Junkyard Find posts for 2020, I find that I’ve been neglecting American trucks for much of this year (I don’t consider the PT Cruiser to be a true truck, despite being categorized as one by the federal government). For that reason, I’ve decided to share this thoroughly used-up IHC Metro-Mite stepvan before the year ends. (Read More…)
Lisa Materazzo has been appointed group vice president, Toyota Marketing, replacing Ed Laukes, who is retiring after 32 years with the automaker. Materazzo, who currently serves as vice president of Lexus marketing, will run the entire gamut of Toyota division market planning, advertising, merchandising, sales promotions, incentives, NASCAR and motorsports, and all social and digital media. According to Statista, in 2019 Toyota spent $1.51 billion on advertising alone, behind General Motors and Ford.
A replica of the 1992 Land Rover Defender from the 2015 James Bond movie “Spectre,” has been created by Wilmington, North Carolina’s Osprey Custom Cars, specialists in restomodding classic Land Rover Defenders, Ford Broncos, and Toyota FJs. One of Osprey’s latest, the truck’s outward appearance is identical to that of the movie vehicle, but the similarities begin and end there.
Mitsubishi released a teaser image of the new Outlander on Thursday, making good on the summer promise that it would actually continue designing new vehicles. Unlike the recently refreshed Eclipse Cross, the 2022 Outlander will be an entirely new model.
The brand is promising refined, on-brand exterior styling and some modest changes in the vehicle’s overall dimensions. Outlander is supposed to herald in a new design strategy without looking out of place in the existing lineup. While the teaser was too shadowy to offer much help, some light image manipulation on our part has given us a better sense of what the crossover will look like when its global debut takes place in February.
Ferrari CEO Louis Camilleri has abruptly resigned from the company with the official announcement providing few details to build upon. Despite numerous news outlets fixating on his testing positive for COVID-19 and subsequent hospitalization, Ferrari failed to mention it in the release. But Reuters had reported that an inside source had claimed Camilleri, 65, had suffered health complications that required him to be hospitalized for weeks, adding that he was also stepping down as executive chairman of Philip Morris International.
However, he’s now said to be recovering at home and the coronavirus diagnosis apparently had nothing to do with his decision to retire. Ferrari only cited “personal reasons” and stated it had already begun considering his replacement, noting that it had no intention of rushing the process.
We’ve featured a Quattroporte at Rare Rides on two prior occasions: a beautiful first-generation model, and one in its more modern form which was reworked into a slinky wagon.
Today’s Nineties model is … neither of those things.
The 2022 Honda Civic hatchback, the sportier sibling to the sedan revealed earlier, has been previewed by spy shots on the Civic XI forum as reported by CNET’s Roadshow. Added to the sedan, the hatchback will join the also likely-planned Si and Type R as the four permutations offered in the U.S.
Following reports that Hyundai Motor Company managed to purchase American engineering and robotics firm Boston Dynamics from Japanese financial conglomerate SoftBank for a cool $921 million, we’ve learned that the South Korean automaker has also fallen into embracing on-demand features. The trend, which is sweeping through the automotive industry to our dismay, basically involves manufacturers hiding vehicle options behind a subscription paywall instead of just letting you purchase the options you wanted upfront.
That means tomorrow’s car shopper might find themselves buying a vehicle that’s already fully loaded from the factory only find themselves forced to unlock heated seats or an upgraded sound system via monthly payments. In our estimation, the whole concept is ludicrously wasteful, diminishes the private resale values of automobiles, and seems like the kind of corporate nonsense reserved for dystopian fiction novels.
The Mazda MX-5 is the automotive embodiment of ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.’ Despite having gone through several generations since its debut in 1989, the Miata has remained remarkably consistent. But the industry believes there’s a subset of motorists who absolutely cannot live without vehicular connectivity and active safety technologies, even on a petite roadster that’s supposed to be focused on entirely on driver engagement.
This is why Mazda sells the luxury-oriented Grand Touring trim and has decided to continue sprucing it up for the 2021 model year. Though we cannot say this makes it the best option for everyone.
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