February sales are coming in stronger than expected, indicating a post-Presidents Day boom. Chrysler and Volkswagen lead the charts with a 40 and 43 percent gain over February 2011. (Read More…)

First new car sale numbers are coming in for February, and they are better than the most optimistic projections.  Chrysler Group is up 40 percent, with the sales of Chrysler branded cars up a whopping 114 percent. GM did beat expectations by registering a small 1.1 percent gain on 209,306 units sold in February. Analysts had expected a drop of GM sales by several percent. (Read More…)

This Beijing policeman has a hard look at this BMW X1. Not because it’s extremely dusty. A few days parked outside in Beijing, and any car looks like that. No, this car has no license plates. The plateless car has been gathering dust for a while on Beijing’s streets.
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The European malaise seems to have selective impact on European automakers. Audi announced record results today. Audi reported an operating profit of €5.35 billion ($7.16 billion) in 2011, and wants to have even better results this year. (Read More…)

GM and PSA praised monstrous synergies and annual cost savings of $2 billion a year as an effect of the alliance that was announced yesterday. The savings won’t come immediately, rather in about 5 years from now. Moody’s thinks it’s a bad deal, and did cut PSA’s debt rating to junk status. (Read More…)

We have been saying for quite a while that Honda looks a bit pale around the nose. The Nikkei [sub] agrees. According to the Tokyo business paper, Honda blew it by relying too much on the U.S. market, by ignoring the emerging markets, and by disregarding the fact that Japan has a love affair with 0.6 liter midget-mobiles, a.k.a. kei cars. All of this has to change in a hurry, and Honda’s turn-around hinges on the success of a new kei car, the N Box. Says The Nikkei: (Read More…)

When the stock markets close in Europe today, PSA Peugeot Citroen and GM should announce that they are going ahead with the plan of GM buying seven percent of PSA. That according to “sources with knowledge of the discussions” that talked to Reuters. (Read More…)

There is nothing wrong with updating the logo of a car company once in a while. At Volkswagen, we did it about once every twelve years, to the joy and enrichment of corporate design houses and makers of backlit signage. But did you ever notice that the Volkswagen logo changed? You are not supposed to. The holy grail of logo updating is doing it while the world remains oblivious and thinks it’s the old one.

Jaguar blew that bigtime, says the branding blog BRAND NEW. Boy, did that logo update ever get noticed. (Read More…)

From London’s Telegraph to Fox News, from Autoblog to Autoguide, the story this week is that the Chinese will turn against foreign carmakers by mandating that the Chinese government only buys Chinese cars. Why was TTAC not writing it? I learned to ignore that story. I have lived in China since 2005, and just about every year, there was an announcement that the Chinese government will from now on only buy Chinese. It never happened. Despite the annual announcements, foreign brands still account for 80 percent of the Chinese government motor pool. But maybe it’s different this time? (Read More…)

After a lot of soul-searching, googling, and a good dose of arbitrary decisions, Edmunds published the list of the 100 Most Beautiful Cars of All Times, something that should bring traffic to the Edmunds site for years to come.

Interestingly, one of the most expensive cars of all times, the Bugatti Veyron, landed on rank 100. Which is the Edmunds way of saying that it is butt-ugly. The Volkswagen CC, a Pontiac Grand Am, even a Chrysler Town & Country are considered prettier.

While Volkswagen is devastated by the verdict, which cars are the absolute rulers in Edmunds’ beauty pageant? (Read More…)

Porsche put its Boxster on a diet. The result, a lighter Boxster with a wider stance (or, as Porsche calls it, a “road posture that is more muscular and more striking”) will be shown at the upcoming Geneva Auto Salon. Porsche promises “significantly enhanced driving dynamics,” resulting in “unadulterated driving fun.” For green cred, the new Boxsters are promised to be 15 per cent more fuel-efficient.

As dark clouds bunch up over Europe the less healthy of the many European carmakers frantically look for friends that help them get through the hard times ahead. Fiat-Chrysler is “talking to everyone,” CEO Sergio Marchionne told Reuters. Marchionne isn’t picky when it comes to corralling companions: “We can be an active partner everywhere around the world.”

“Roughly, we’re looking at a number in the neighborhood of 20 percent of installed capacity that may be viewed in terms of being structurally redundant,” Marchionne said. I guess he wants (but does not dare) to say that every fifth car plant in Europe should be closed and its workers fired.

How does Marchionne want to do this? The American way: (Read More…)

Hear that chafing sound? It is analysts scratching their heads. They wonder why in the world would GM buy 7 percent of France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen. Bloomberg says this is about to happen. Neither GM nor PSA wants to confirm the deal. However, Bloomberg already has intricate details of the planned transaction, someone seems to be talking on deep dark background. Sounds like the odd couple is about to do it.

The question remains: Why? (Read More…)

While strolling around in Nissan’s Tech Center, looking for secret cars, I lucked into this: Nissan’s first EV. Along with its Chief Engineer. Both retired. (Read More…)

Today, Nissan had invited distinguished guests, from the Governor of Kanagawa province all the way to the chief of the local fire department, to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of the Nissan Technical  Center. Nissan’s main R&D hub is a city of 9,500, nestled into the foothills of Mount Fuji and surrounded by hills that keep it away from prying eyes. To get there, you must drive through a tunnel. Let’s see what we find here … (Read More…)