In a reminder of the dark days of 2008, GM did put its Strasbourg, France,  transmission plant  up for sale. GM had tried to sell the plant in the crisis year  of 2008. Not able to find a buyer, GM decided to keep it. Now, GM wants to unload the plant again. (Read More…)

As I walk into Toyota’s basement-bunker Tokyo conference room for the annual results conference today, the Toyota people are all smiles. Genuine smiles. Not the frozen polite smiles so common in Japan. Happy, relaxed smiles. Looking in their faces, I read that this will be a day of good news. (Read More…)

Today, Opel revealed the real name of its Junior. Via Facebook. Everybody, say Hallo to Adam. Give that boy an apple!

Now that GM has published  global production numbers in its quarterly report, we can take a first read of how the race for world’s largest automakers may end this year. It will be a tight race. And GM is likely to lose the title it took last year. (Read More…)

The number of people killed on U.S. highways fell in 2011 for the sixth straight year, the longest streak of declines in the nation’s history, Bloomberg reports.

Crash fatalities are down 1.7 percent to 32,310 from a year earlier, NHTSA data shows. How can you counteract this alarming trend? Pile young people in the car. (Read More…)

Google received the first license the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles to test driverless cars. The Las Vegas Sun believes this is the first such license issued in the country. Does that mean that driverless cars will roam Nevada? Not exactly. (Read More…)

There is new trouble brewing in an important part of GM’s business: Ally, the former GMAC. Nearly 75 percent of the credit that GM dealers in the United States use to finance their inventories is from Ally, says a Reuters report. The report also says that Residential Capital (ResCap) – Ally’s mortgage servicing and lending unit – is again on the verge of being put into bankruptcy. (Read More…)

For the 11^th straight month in a row, Toyota’s Prius topped the list of Japan’s best-selling cars in April. Toyota’s new compact hybrid, the Aqua, known in the U.S. as the Prius c, was a close second. (Read More…)

A man bought a new pickup. A few days after he had driven off the dealer lot, he received a phone call. There were a few changes, please bring paperwork and truck back to the dealer. At the dealer, the man was told that the financing had fallen through. The man jumped over the desk, grabbed the sales manager by the throat and started strangling him. Police were called, and the man was taken away in handcuffs.

This story, described in “Confessions of an auto finance manager” repeats all too often. Many people become victim of what is called “yo-yo financing:” (Read More…)

After a lot of talk, GM is beginning to create facts at Opel: The production of Opel’s volume model, the Astra, will be moved from Rüsselsheim to Opel/Vauxhall sites in Ellesmere Port and Gliwice, Poland. This according to reports in Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which receives usually reliable information from Opel’s unions. (Read More…)

With the closure of Japan’s last operating nuclear power plant hitting the news over the weekend,  people asked me what that means for Japan’s auto industry. My answer: Nothing.  The shutdown of the first nukes on March 11 a year ago was much more dangerous than the long scheduled downing of the last. Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn sees a much bigger danger: the power of the yen. The high yen at the currency exchange. And higher yen numbers on the electricity bill. (Read More…)

At the Beijing Auto Show, Volkswagen dropped jaws with a W12 motorized monstrosity of a Bentley SUV and a 600hp off-roadable Lamborghini. While these super SUVs are good for headlines, much slighter specimens will produce volume. Volkswagen plans SUVlets based on the Polo, and is working on pocket SUVs based on VW’s midgetmobile, the Up! If you think Volkswagen’s Tiguan is small, you’ll assume that the target group for the new class of minus-sized SUVs is ants. (Read More…)

News of strong April results of key players in the world’s largest auto market China may indicate than China’s rest and recuperation period is over. SAIC’s auto sales are up 12.6 percent, says Reuters.  GM reports record sales from China, up 11.7 percent for the month. Toyota told Reuters that its April sales in China were up a whopping 68 percent.  Is the Middle Kingdom turning the corner to another episode of hyper growth? Let’s take a look. (Read More…)

BMW turns more and more into the world’s purveyor of engines. If recent talks are successful, BMW motors could power Hyundai cars. This according to a report in Germany’s industry publication Automobil Produktion.

The magazine reports that Chung Eui-Sun, Vice-Chairman of Hyundai Motor Company and only son of und Hyundai CEO Chung Mong-Koo, has been in Munich to start the talks. (Read More…)

As sales of EVs are tallied-up, keep one thing in mind: Many are not meant to be sold in earnest. “They’re only built to meet California regulations for zero-emission vehicles–which is why they’re called “compliance cars,” says Green Car Reports. The green blog separated the “real” EVs from the compliance chariots. (Read More…)