Car companies the world over get in line to spend $185,000 (for starters) to register their brands as what is called a “Top Level Domain” or TLD. Instead of, say “Chevrolet.com,” in the future, you will be able to type only “Chevrolet” to get to the site. Google allows you to do the same right now, but also gives you a long list of other choices. (Read More…)
Carnewschina spotted this Panther with a – shall we say – unique paint scheme in Shanghai. Black was not enough for this Town Car. Gold was not enough for this Town Car. It needed to be orange-gold on black. Use eye protection, and don’t stare at the picture for too long. (Read More…)
The previous BYD F3 was known as a more than blatant copy of the Toyota Corolla. Many buyers pay a small extra fee to have (fake) Toyota badges affixed, making the F3 nearly indistinguishable from the real thing. The next generation BYD F3 wants to be known for groundbreaking innovation: The car will be remote controlled. (Read More…)
At 3pm Eastern, TTAC’s software will be upgraded to a newer and hopefully greater version of WordPress. We are promised it will take only 20 minutes, and not to expect any major disruptions. Should you just stare at a blank screen, you know why. If you can read this after 3pm, TTAC has cheated death once again.
European carmakers are hurting. They hurt so much, they ask for government-prescribed painkillers. Renault’s COO Carlos Tavares wants a return of cash for clunkers. Credit rating agency Fitch warns there would be nasty after-effects. (Read More…)
A hitherto unknown Chinese business man who leads a shadowy “consortium” buys the assets of Saab. The media eats it up. Dalong “Kai Johan” Jiang takes the microphone and says what everybody wants to hear: “Electric cars powered by green electricity is the future and electric cars will be built in Trollhättan.” Jiang says there is a huge market for these made-in-Trollhättan EVs, waiting in China.
Nobody dares to say that it does not make sense at all. We say it. (Read More…)
Last Saturday, Opel CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke wanted to address the workers at Opel’s Bochum plant. All he addressed was 2,000 backs as the workers got up and left. (Read More…)
Guess which car company did profit the most from Greece’s weekend elections. It’s Mazda. Mazda’s stock was up 6 percent in Tokyo today.
There is an unusual exhibitor at the International Tokyo Toy Show: Toyota. The company shows a grown-up toy car. The car seats 3 children up to 4 feet tall. It has an engine. It drives. Being a toy, it can be dismantled and put together in many different ways. Twist a few knobs, and the car converts from a retro sedan to an offroadish buggy. There is another turn: the toy is supposed to turn on kids to cars. (Read More…)
“This is my baby,” said Nissan’s Andy Palmer last year at the Tokyo Motor Show, and affectionately patted the head of Nissan’s new NV350 Caravan. “Let’s be honest. The competitor is the Hiace. This car beats Hiace in every single way you could imagine.” This morning in Yokohama, Andy’s baby did its first steps into the rough world of light commercial vehicles. (Read More…)
The European car market – if taken together, the world’s second largest behind China and before the U.S. – continues its slow drift to the bottom. Sales in May were down by 8.7 percent in the EU. This is the eighth month in a row that sales are in minus territory. Five months into the year, the market is down 7.7 percent. (Read More…)
If you read Volkswagen’s global sales report for May, you get the impression that this was yet another great month. Global sales are up 7.8 percent in May. Things don’t look so rosy when you analyze the numbers a bit further. (Read More…)
Rattled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and reminded by smaller quakes that are a daily occurrence in Japan, every large Japanese automaker entered the smart home business. We have seen smart homes from Toyota and from Nissan. Today, we went all the way to Minamiyono in Saitama to visit the smart home from Honda. (Read More…)
Moody’s has been less than impressed with GM’s recent pension cuts/buyouts: (Read More…)
“An almost 100% perfect copy of the Volkswagen Amarok, which is actually and only made in Argentina” has been spotted in China by Carnewschina. The Hengtian T3 will slot above the Hengtian T1. That one drew its design cues from Chevy trucks, now it’s Volkswagen’s turn to inspire. (Read More…)
Recent Comments