Posts By: Derek Kreindler
“The sports car market is roughly half of what it used to be,” Ian Robertson, BMW’s head of sales, said in an interview at the manufacturer’s headquarters in Munich. “Post-2008, it just collapsed. I’m not so sure it’ll ever fully recover.”
First it was Jack. Then my Grandma. Now it’s my turn to buy a new car.
At a base price of $30,900, the BMW X1 is the cheapest new vehicle you can buy with a Roundel. That price tag, as well as the crossover body style and a lack of a manual transmission, hasn’t endeared the X1 to the BMW faithful, or the enthusiast crowd.
Two weeks ago, residents of the Windsor, Ontario region learned that Ford would not be bringing a new engine program to the two Ford assembly plants in the area. Although the small engine program was a long-shot from the start (it had apparently been destined for Mexico, but union officials tried to “steal it away”), news reports and enthusiastic publicity campaigns from union head Jerry Dias had given the impression that the new engine deal was all but sewn up. For residents of the auto-dependent city, with an unemployment rate of 8.9 percent (compared to 6.5 percent nationally), the decision was a blow to their collective morale.
What you’re seeing above isn’t the rendered visage of the next Mazda rotary sports car, but the leaked fascia of the new CX-5 crossover. Better get used to it.
The coming-out party for the Lexus RC has been canceled in its home market of Japan. Apparently, Japanese journalists just aren’t interested.
The last time we heard about Proton, our own Jack Baruth was flying nearly 23,000 miles to go drive a diminutive, Mitsubishi-based Proton hatchback in a Malaysian time-trial series. Proton may be best associated with their Mitsubishi partnership, but the two parties went their separate ways long ago.
Chevrolet is ending American imports of the Captiva Sport, a fleet-only crossover that was popular with rental car companies.
Yesterday’s announcement of record fines for Hyundai and Kia regarding their incorrect fuel economy claims is the strongest message yet that the Department of Justice ” firm commitment to safeguarding American consumers, ensuring fairness in every marketplace, protecting the environment, and relentlessly pursuing companies that make misrepresentations and violate the law.” But if your cars kill scores of people due to neglience, you’re getting off easy.
Faced with dismal sales of the Volvo V60, the Swedish auto maker has decided to adopt a time-tested strategy for boosting sales of slow-selling station wagons: turning it into a pseudo-crossover.
TTAC’s authorial corps have been the lone contrarian element in their praise for the Toyota Camry – but not even Jack Baruth could have imagined a Camry XSE like the one that debuted at the SEMA show.
Mercedes-Benz is introducing a version of its V-Class van to the North American market, and is using the SEMA show to preview the new vehicles.
Aside from the Ford Probe/Mazda MX-6, the collaboration between the Blue Oval and the pride of Hiroshima didn’t produce much in the way of performance cars. But a little know rebadge effort did give Ford a 4WD, rally-derived pocket rocket.
The Datsun Go was awarded zero stars in the global NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) for vehicle safety. NCAP says that “The zero-star result highlights the need for India to introduce minimum crash safety regulations.”
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