The demise of a large Australian auto parts supplier threatens to bring Australian units of Ford and GM to their knees as early as next week.  Management is working feverishly on keeping the doors open, while complaining about “lack of support from key players in the industry,” Reuters says. (Read More…)

October sales data are coming in, and most are below forecast. Chrysler, Ford, and GM sold less than analysts predicted.  Analysts had higher hopes for Toyota also. Volkswagen, up 23 percent, more or less met expectations. We have the final sales table, courtesy of Automotive News [sub]. (Read More…)

Observers knew that something was in the bush when Ford scheduled a conference call for today 9 a.m. Eastern. Hosted by Ford CEO Alan Mulally and Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr., the call promised to be about more than October sales. It was about Ford’s future CEO. (Read More…)

Chrysler Group’s U.S. sales rose only 10 percent in October, the smallest gain since May 2011. As suspected yesterday, Super-Sandy has been fingered as the culprit. (Read More…)

Renault shows a facelifted Fluence at the Istanbul Motor Show, November 2-11, 2012. The car receives a new 1.6 16V 115 hp gasoline engine mated to a likewise new X-Tronic CVT. (Read More…)

Japanese subsidies for eco-cars expired in September, and analysts predicted a hard landing due to pulled-forward sales. In a way, this happened, but the fall was not as hard as expected. In September, sales on all automobiles in Japan were down  3.4 percent.  This month, they are down 5.7 percent. The fall would have been harder, would it not have been cushioned by the resilience of a Japanese oddity, the Kei car. (Read More…)

Toyota’s  China sales  dropped 44.1 percent year-on-year to about 45,600 units in October, The Nikkei [sub] says. Toyota confirmed the number. A territorial dispute over  uninhabited rocks in the East China Sea triggered a massive boycotts of Japanese goods, especially of high-profile cars. In September, Toyota’s China sales were down 40 percent in September.

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With GM’s  third quarter release also and finally came the long-awaited global production numbers for the first nine months. We need  production, because the race for the world’s largest automaker is decided by  how many cars are made, not by how many are sold. (Read More…)

GM delivered its October surprise by posting what Reuters calls “a surprisingly strong profit.” In a bit of a hail Mary pass, GM said it is targeting a return to break-even levels in Europe by mid-decade. (Read More…)

Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne finds it “most shocking” that the U.S. auto industry is not throwing its might behind natural gas, which has been found in abundance in the United States: (Read More…)

Chinese domestic brands are being outsold by international brands in China. Their quality is suspect even and especially among the Chinese. This may not last. Domestic brands are catching up fast, says J.D. Power. (Read More…)

U.S. automakers release October sales data this week. If they don’t come in to their liking, they can blame a villain everybody hates: Super Sandy.  GM already took precautionary measures and told Reuters that vehicle sales in the Northeast will be hurt by the hurricane. (Read More…)

A smuggling attempt turned into a borderline disaster when two  Mexicans entrapped themselves and their Jeep Cherokee on top of the 14 foot high fence that separates Arizona from Mexico. (Read More…)

One of the many victims of Sandy: Jalopnik. Along with the other servers of the Gawker network, Jalopnik joined the fate of some ten thousand websites served by 150 data centers on the East Coast that were drowned out by the ferocious storm. Even after going down, the site’s problems did not end. (Read More…)

We have documented how GM and Opel have a hard time separating themselves from the Bochum plant, something that is urgently necessary to address Opel’s dangerous overcapacity. The date to close the plant is being kicked more and more down the road and well past the use-by date of the current and some future Opel CEOs. Currently, it looks like Bochum and gaping wounds will stay open through 2017. Or maybe longer … (Read More…)