Legions of Toyota owners have brought their automobiles to their dealers to have their carpets zip-tied and their pedals shimmied. But did that end the customer complaints? You guessed it: It did not. The NHTSA has already received 10 complaints that the fixes were for naught and that cars still have a mind of their own. Understandably, do-nothing-NHSTSA, having received congressional tongue lashings about lackadaisical attitudes, is on it like sonic. (Read More…)

Should you be working at a Renault (or Nissan) outfit that is not directly involved in the making and selling of cars, be on the lookout for people from headquarters. Renault is combing its assets all over the world for “non-strategic” ones that could be sold off to raise cash. (Read More…)

The Geneva Auto Show is a great place to rub elbows, show concept cars, and plant or shoot down rumors.  BMW yesterday dismissed the view that premium carmakers would have to consolidate. This here is in the latter category.

BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer said that BMW would not merge with Daimler. Or anybody else for that matter. Now who had that crazy idea? Apparently, it’s going around. (Read More…)

China will most likely announce strong sales numbers for February. Not as strong as in January, when sales of all motor vehicles shot up by 126 percent, but still strong. How do I know this without the official numbers? By looking at GM. GM has always been a good leading indicator for China’s sales. (Read More…)

When it comes to the cause of the alleged Toyota unintended acceleration, the TTAC commentariat is divided into two camps:

One side is convinced they know what’s wrong with Toyota. (It’s the cursed computer. May it roast in hell and grow tin whiskers.)

The other side isn’t so sure and argues for caution. It could be pilot error. Plain old hysteria also isn’t ruled out. Or some trade warfare that reared its no so pretty head at yesterday’s hearings: “You block our beef because of mad cow disease. We do the same to your cars.”

Well, who says life is fair. Flash: The doubters are being discriminated against. The commentators who know what’s wrong with Toyota can become instant millionaires. Here is how it works: (Read More…)

Last December, France’s PSA group and Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors seemed to get really tight (and set off the memorable TTAC series of shibari illustrations.)

Something must have happened during their courtship. The main players met on neutral ground at the Geneva auto show and called off the engagement. (Read More…)

GM throws in the towel.  And throws a lot of (your, well, our) money after Opel. GM will invest a total of €1.9b into the German patient, says Das Handelsblatt today after talking to Bob Lutz. Nick Reilly confirmed the message today, and said the money can flow as paid in capital and loans from the mother-ship. It finally dawned on GM that European governments are just stringing them along until Opel runs out of money – again. (Read More…)

Toyota was listening closely to the “revolving doors” talk at last week’s hearings.

In today’s Senate committee hearing, Toyota will announce that former U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater has come on board to lead Toyota’s new quality panel of independent experts, reports The Nikkei [sub] this morning.

Slater was Bill Clinton’s LaHood. He since joined the lobbying firm  Patton Boggs and became a partner in James Lee Witt Associates, a risk management firm headed by former FEMA head James Lee Witt.

German car buyers boycotted the showrooms in February. Sales crashed to the tune of 29.8 percent. This according to the German car importers association VDIK via Das Autohaus [sub]. The number is not the official number (yet) but the VDIK is usually reliable. Only 195,000 new cars changed hands, compared to 278,000 in February last year.

Germany is in the vise grips of a huge hangover from the cash-for-clunkers Abwrackprämien-orgy of 2009. In February 2009, the program was launched, and sales started to take off by 21 percent.  Sales reached a 40 percent apogee in June. Compared to these numbers, the coming months will look absolutely awful. Small cars and subminiature vehicles, the big gainers of the Abwrackprämie, crashed the most. (Read More…)

„Itai!“ Or rather, „tong!“ Ouch, that hurts: Toyota boss Akio Toyoda bowed deeply to 300 reporters assembled in Beijing, and to 1.3b Chinese who could watch the drama live on national TV. Four times in one hour, Toyota’s chief  “apologized to customers in China for the company’s quality problems and emphasized the significance of the nation’s fast-growing market to his company,” as Shanghai Daily has it. There must be nothing more painful for an upstanding Japanese captain of industry than to bow deeply in front of the Chinese. But as they say in China: „bú tòng bù qiáng.” No pain, no gain.  Even more astonishing: (Read More…)

Japanese sales of new cars and trucks continue their solid comeback in February. Japan has filed away carmageddon. Japan is utterly unimpressed by the Toyota troubles. Japan has not been spared Toyota recalls. The hearings and public apologies have received wide coverage in Japan. And what is the Japanese reaction? A plus 47.9 percent vote of confidence. With the currently very tight Japanese wallets. There is a long waiting list for the Prius, Toyota’s best selling car. [Editor’s note: Japan is currently in the throes of its own Cash-for-Clunker prgram]

Also interesting: Sales of minivehicles, formerly feted as the future, are barely holding their own, whereas sales of “real” cars continue their double digit climb. Let’s look at the numbers: (Read More…)

Let’s make something very clear: This is not a post about Toyota. We are not advocating or accusing any brand. This is a post about a phenomenon called sudden unintended acceleration. An American phenomenon, as it seems at first glance. To get to the bottom of it, we need your help.

MarkKyle64 asked an interesting question during the discussion of TTAC’s NHTSA Data Dive: 95 Cars Ranked In Rate Of Unintended Acceleration Complaints:

”Can TTAC find out, for example, if German drivers report lower levels of UA than American drivers?”

I tried to. In an admittedly unscientific way. I had no other choice. (Read More…)

A quiet Sunday. Time to fire up Google and put in “Toyota AND [cause OR reason].” We come up with ample explanations why Toyota is not called Toyoda.  Or why Peiping turned into Peking, and then into Beijing. What about the causes of sudden acceleration? Let’s see what we find. (If you have other things to do on a  Sunday: We find a lot of questions and no answers.) (Read More…)

Toyota may record “a double-digit drop in the automaker’s U.S. sales for February,” says The Nikkei [sub] today. The Nikkei bolsters the assessment with interviews at dealerships in the U.S.A., but knowing the Nikkei, a sales droid in northern California is not their only source.

The Nikkei notes that “Toyota was the only major automaker to suffer a double-digit sales decline in the U.S. last month. Its sales were down 15.8 percent from a year earlier, compared with the 24.4 percent and 14.6 percent growth enjoyed by Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co..”

A continuation of this trend would be extremely dangerous for Toyota. We are comparing with the absolutely worst times of carmageddon, and if you are double digits below carmageddon, you roast in hell. (Read More…)

Surprisingly good news out of Japan: Seemingly unimpeded by the Toyota-bashing, production of cars, trucks and buses in Japan increased 30.7 percent on year in January. Output is up for the third consecutive month, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said today via The Nikkei [sub]. Vehicle output rose to 753,773 vehicles in January from 576,539 vehicles in the same month a year earlier.

Even better fared Japan’s exports of cars, trucks and buses: Exports shot up 45.6 percent from a year earlier in January, the first rise in 16 months, says The Nikkei [sub] in a separate report. “Shipments to key markets such as Asia, Europe and” – gasp – “North America increased in line with recovering auto demand.” To this embedded observer, it seems as if the jobs created by this brouhaha are in Japan.

Let’s see what the next month brings, especially in the U.S. Awfully little, predicts Reuters. (Read More…)