Scion may have taken some heat for its heavy metal marketing initiative, but Toyota’s youth brand is about to put its money where its mouth (and marketing dollars are). Scion will launch a small-business incubator, dubbed Scion Motivate, to help young people get creative-focused start-ups off the ground.
Twenty years ago, the first Porsche limousine rolled off the assembly line at Stuttgart; four doors, 8 cylinders, wide fenders, big brakes and a period correct Alpine stereo system. It was built in small quantities, by hand. To those who knew, it was distinguishable at a distance, but to the man on the street, it was invisible. Truly a car for the one percent – in terms of both means and taste.
You won’t find it in any of the Porsche catalogs of the era. It was called the Mercedes-Benz 500E. And it wasn’t an AMG anything. Back then, AMG was an independently-owned speed shop, a Roush Performance with a stern accent.
Can’t bear the thought of another faux crossover? Too bad, we’re probably getting something like this when the next-generation Fit rolls around.
“When you do everything right but too late, you do it all wrong. Before reaching a dead end, PSA decided to forge a partnership with a manufacturer [General Motors] that I don’t consider to be among the industry’s leaders of the pack. Overall, I think there is a lack of ambition [when it comes to product] from the French manufacturers.”
Is Ford about to re-name the Lincoln brand? A Detroit News reporter asked Jim Farley that question point blank, and his answer was evasive.
Workers at an LG Chem plant in Holland, Michigan have already been put on furlough before a single battery has come off the line. Workers have three weeks of paid “work”, and one week off unpaid at the $300 million plant.
With Brazil’s national auto policy finalized, BMW has decided to go ahead with plans for an assembly plant in the country.
How does the French government save an ailing car maker that employs thousands of people without actually bailing out the auto maker? By baling out their finance unit, of course!
“When you are a young designer of course, you think everything is wrong and should be different… You want to conquer the world and with great ideas. But over the time you have to really understand what Golf is, what VW is, And to mature to a certain degree, I needed that time. It took 15 years before I really knew what I was talking about.”
Stefan Jacoby is out as Volvo’s CEO, with Hakan Samuelsson, former head of truck maker MAN, replacing him effective immediately.
The Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, or VEBA, was initiated as a way to get retiree healthcare costs off the books of Detroit’s auto makers. While VEBA makes balance sheets look better, they are still an exorbitant legacy costs for the Big Three, and things are about to get a lot worse.
GM’s stock is still considered a “Buy” in the eyes of much of Wall Street, but analysts say that more changes are needed to accelerate the pace of growth in the post-Bailout era.
Europe’s auto market implosion has led BMW to shift units earmarked for the continent over to the United States and China, where demand remains strong.
The first Chevrolet Corvette C7 will roll off the company’s Bowling Green, Kentucky assembly line on June 30th, 2013 – 60 years to the day after the first Corvette was built. Or at least that’s what Reuters is reporting, based on supplier information.
A Kia Sportage owner in the UK was in for a surprise after he found out that the “full leather” interior in his Kia Sportage was actually “…mainly plastic or vinyl.”
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