Remember Oleg Deripaska? The Russian oligarch that had been under suspicion of money laundering and organized crime activities?  The very same Deripaska GM did not want to have close to Opel for fear of losing their precious intellectual property ? Yes, him. GM just handed him the blueprints and the tooling for the Chevy Aveo. (Read More…)

Porsche is known for fleecing is customers for extras. Now, they give them away. Porsche sells two special editions of the 911 Carrera and the Boxster, filled with a lot of extras for the price of a base model. Or thereabouts. „A special edition at Porsche is as common as a total eclipse of the sun in Europe,“ writes AutoBild in Germany. Why the sudden generosity? (Read More…)

To develop a new car takes a lot of cash, with unsure payback in some 5 years. During carmageddon, most large automakers delayed or stopped development of new cars. These new cars are missing now, especially at GM and rival Toyota.

Volkswagen went through carmageddon relatively unscathed and never stopped developing. Actually, they approved a record R&D budget of $71 billion for vehicle development and to boost production capacity from 2011 to 2015.

A preview of what all that money can buy will be given at the Geneva Motorshow, to be held from March 3 through 13^th. (Read More…)

Most automakers are suspending operations in Egypt while riots continue. Here is a list of current closures: (Read More…)

Impatient souls who already count Porsche and Volkswagen as one will have to exercise restraint for a while. The planned amalgamation of the Wolfsburg monster with the racy shop from Zuffenhausen can drag on for a while, reports Automobilwoche [sub]. The reason: Pricks Lawyers. (Read More…)

License plate recognition, a technology that helps police track down stolen cars, that assists shopping malls in guiding customers to their cars, and that raises privacy concerns when doing so, will be used in Manly County, in Australia’s New South Wales, to combat illegal parking in local streets. (Read More…)

Germany’s auto motor und sport magazine caught Lamborghini’s Murcielago-successor Aventador in the wild, only covered by some artsy pasties on the paintjob. It should be available for viewing without the camouflage at the Geneva Auto Salon. (Read More…)

Developing new cars costs a good deal of money. Developing new power trains costs a huge pile of money with unsure payback. So what do you do when you are on the bottom rungs of the Top Ten, or god forbid if you traipse around somewhere in the twenties and if you have neither the money to invest nor the volume to quickly amortize your investment? You find friends to share the burden. This is what PSA and BMW do. (Read More…)

More little steps on the hydrogen fuel cell front, part of the walk-up to the big 2015 launch: Hyundai signed a memorandum of understanding with Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland to supply hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles to public organizations in a pilot program, The Nikkei [sub] reports. (Read More…)

Japanese domestic new car sales (excluding minivehicles) have been down 21.5 percent in January, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association told The Nikkei [sub]. 187,154 new cars changed hands. This does not surprise anybody in Japan. Some even see a silver lining. (Read More…)

When January sales numbers will be announced tomorrow, just about everybody should have reason to celebrate. Analysts from J.D. Power to TrueCar, along with industry watchers of major banks and brokerage houses, expect a strong January. They predict the highest seasonally adjusted annual rate, or SAAR, since the shortlived cash for clunkers episode in August 2009.

The results of a poll by Bloomberg go like this: (Read More…)

The new 2012 Mercedes-Benz SLK could give you reason to keep its trick roof up at all times, especially if you wrinkle your nose at diesel smell. Yes, the Daimler’s new roadster will be available with an oil burning option. (Read More…)

“Honda Reports First Profit Drop In Five Quarters”

Headline of a story about Honda’s October-December results, published in  The Nikkei [sub].

And then, there is: (Read More…)

Today, none of the 50,000 workers employed at Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg plant have to punch in at work. The factory is waiting for parts. You may think that is their good or tough luck.

Not so, says Dan Sharkey, a Detroit lawyer who counts many auto suppliers as his clients. The shortages affect us all. Parts shortages are “”beyond a trend; it’s an epidemic,” Sharkey told Automotive News [sub]. These shortages are stopping assembly lines around the world, just when demand is beginning to pick up.

Here is a current snapshot, taken by Automotive News: (Read More…)

Again, China’s vaunted export machine received a black eye: China imported more cars in 2010 than it exported. Of the 18.27 million cars China produced in2010, a pittance of 2.98 percent left the country according to statistics released by China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) via China Autoweb. (Read More…)