Tesla is one of the ten highest rated car brands in America, says the Consumer Reports 2012 Car-Brand Perception Survey. Is that a good thing? Marketers are troubled by this development. The trouble is not that a newcomer like Tesla is rated so highly.

Overall, the halos of the top brands are fading fast. (Read More…)

Once a month, TrueCar publishes what they think are the best deals of the month. They also give you the best day to get those deals: TrueCar “is forecasting that Saturday, January 28 will be the best day of the month to purchase a vehicle with an average discount of 8.19 percent.”

Wouldn’t it be just awful if the best day would be, say, Friday the 20th, and now they tell us? Anyway, here is the list of the best cash, finance and lease deals. (Read More…)

Distracted driving is very much in the news, and so far, cellphones were fingered as the culprits. Now, there is a study that finally identifies the biggest distraction: Passengers. A study by State Farm, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health goes to the bottom of what experts have known for long: Peer passengers increase driver crash risk, especially amongst adolescent drivers.  (Read More…)

Some car dealers are missing the bad old times when Detroit was preoccupied with problems at home. Carmakers again have the bandwidth to look at “the channel,” and some don’t like what they see. Suddenly, dealers find themselves at the receiving end of harsh criticism. Both Chrysler and GM dealers are receiving  a derriere chewing. (Read More…)

Renault and Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn continues to prepare the battlefield of world opinion for a drop in Europe. According to Ghosn, Automobile sales in Europe could decline two to three percent. For Renault’s home market, he expects a drop of five to six percent, Ghosn said in an interview with France Inter radio: (Read More…)

Launching the “world’s cheapest car,” the Nano, into one of the world’s fastest growing auto markets, India, looked like a surefire concept back in 2009.  Today, it looks stupid. Like many surefire concepts, the Nano turned out to be a dud. Says India’ Economic Times:

“After several years of disappointing sales, it has now become clear that the snubnosed hatchback’s unique selling point — its price — was actually a commercial sticking point.  (Read More…)

We must be going into the last week of the month: The sales forecasts are beginning to arrive.  In January, some 900,000 cars should change hands, 10 percent more than January 2011, but a whopping 30 percent below December. GM will be the only major automaker with a minus, both before the growth number and the market share. (Read More…)

Today, “Italian automaker Fiat rolled out an introspective 90-second video for its new Panda compact car on the internet,” says Reuters. The wire claims that the ad is “aimed at tapping into the austerity zeitgeist.”

The commercial is inspired by last year`s “Imported from Detroit” ad that struck a chord with American buyers who want the good times to be rolling again. Now, Fiat wants to do a repeat in Italy. (Read More…)

The Porsche-Piëch clan, ca. 1942. Grandfather Ferdinand Porsche, brother Ernst Piëch, sister Louise Piëch and mother Louise Piëch-Porsche. Ferdinand Piëch (nicknamed "Burli") is sitting in the grass on the left.

Volkswagen does not own Porsche yet. For all intents and purposes, however, Porsche is part of Volkswagen. Volkswagen executives give orders from Porsche board seats. Porsche engineers need to consult Volkswagen Group R&D departments. Insular solutions at Porsche require a written permission from Wolfsburg.

“Actually, Piech and his minion, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, could leave it at that. The integration of both enterprises has progressed so far, that is does not make a difference whether Porsche morphs into a Volkswagen division, or remains legally independent.

Actually.” (Read More…)

After having been more or less luckless (Lupo, Fox ..)  in the minicar category, Volkswagen appears to have finally found a winner with its autocorrect-busting Up! In Germany, the two-door city car immediately took first place in its class. In December, the Up! sold nearly the same as the former class champs Renault Twingo and Toyota Aygo sold together (see table.) To make backseat drivers more comfortable, Volkswagen introduces a four-door version of the Up! (Read More…)

Rare earth free electric motor

China is learning an interesting lesson: Only take a hostage if the other side wants it back. According to Japan’s Kyodo Newswire [sub], Toyota “has acquired technology to produce hybrid and electric vehicles without using rare earths and may begin doing so in about two years.” (Read More…)

Reporters gasped at the $160,000 a hand-built custom Ford Mustang went for at the auction in Scottsdale. The same reporter nearly had a heart attack over the $4.2 million a rare 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Alloy Gullwing fetched ( it could have been $4.62 million, accounts by the same reporter differ.)

The media missed the sensation of the day: An oil burning six year old Jetta sold for $35,000. (Read More…)

According to media reports and TTAC, all kinds of high-powered parties are interested in sucking the last bone marrow out of the corpse of bankrupt Saab. China’s Youngman supposedly is ready to plunk down  a billion Euro (or $1.3 billion) for the carcass. In Turkey, Brightwell Holdings “will make a bid very shortly, there’s no question,” as Brightwell board member Zamier Ahmen told Bloomberg. The trouble is: Nobody is bidding. (Read More…)

Yesterday, I wrote about the Melbourne Grand Prix and its inability to solicit cars for its stars for the purpose of a celebrity race. Would you believe this made me an intellectual property infringer? No? Just wait.

This morning, I find an email from a tej@transportbrokergroup.co.uk who writes: (Read More…)

It used to be that car companies would kill to have their cars seen with stars. That seems to be changing if a frightening development in Melbourne is an indicator.  The Melbourne F1 Grand Prix used to attract spectators and sponsors with a celebrity race. The celebs of course did not race their own cars. To make it a fair and even-handed race where only driving skill decides, they were handed cars supplied by a sponsor. This year, the luminary laps are a scratch. Oh, there is no shortage of stars. There just aren’t any cars. The organizers could not find a sponsor that was able to supply the more than 25 cars needed. (Read More…)