Bottlenecks are bad things to experience. Around 70,000 years ago, the Toba supervolcano eruption reduced humanity to anywhere from 1,000 to 10,000 breeding pairs — thus creating a genetic bottleneck — alongside a global cooling event concurrent with the Last Glacial Period.
For automakers in the United States and their North American supply chain, their Toba event is coming.
Subprime borrowers have accounted for more than 27% of new car and light truck loans this year, the highest level since 2007, according to Bloomberg. A year ago, a buyer with a credit ranking in the bottom percentile would not likely have been able to buy a car. This year people with credit stores as low as 500 or lower have qualified for loans.
After the Federal Reserve has kept interest rates near zero for five years now, the subprime car loan market is now being described as “frothy”. With interest rates so low, investors are willing to purchase the riskier bonds that back subprime car loans in pursuit of higher returns. A number of financial companies have entered that market. Citigroup reports that 13 loan backers have accessed the asset-backed market to fund subprime auto loans this year. (Read More…)
The Vito, which is smaller than Mercedes’ Sprinter commercial van, would compete with the Ford Transit and the Nissan NV 200, which is also being marketed as the Chevrolet City Express. (Read More…)
Having already launched the all new fullsize 2014 Silverado & GMC Sierra pickups and 2015 Heavy Duty versions of those trucks this year, General Motors is turning its attention to midsize trucks as it gets ready to reveal the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon later this month at the Los Angeles Auto Show. GM has already teased photos of parts of those trucks’ front ends and now they’ve released another image, this time of a draped Colorado sitting next to the new Silverado. (Read More…)
After consumer complaints over quality issues in its home market of Korea and a string of recalls there, in the U.S. and other countries. Hyundai Motor Group’s president for research and development, Kwon Moon-sik and two other executives in charge of engineering and electronics have resigned. The shakeup comes as the automaker prepares some important new vehicle launches.
Subaru will reveal the production 2015 WRX at the Los Angeles Auto Show later this month, after showing the concept at the New York Auto Show in the spring. In preparation for the LA show, Subaru has released this teaser image, showing the ‘Rex in ruby red. (Read More…)
Fuel cells are back in the news, with Toyota revealing the FCV concept and Tesla CEO Elon Musk comparing fuel cells to bovine excrement. Now Hyundai says that they are preparing an electrically driven CUV powered by a fuel cell for a North American debut next year. Just before he was apparently forced to resign over quality control issues, Kwon Moon-sik, Hyundai Motor Group’s president of r&d, told Automotive News that the Korean automaker sees fuel cells and not batteries as the future for EVs. He said that money is the reason, seeing greater opportunities to reduce the cost of hydrogen fuel cells than batteries.
“There is no problem with the technology — only with the cost and profitability,” Kwon said of battery EVs. “We cannot make a profit with them.” (Read More…)
Best known for underwriting public radio programming such as “All Things Considered” and “Marketplace,” Ally Financial — formerly known as GMAC until the subprime market collapse kicked off the Great Recession — has decided to go for the gold in the used car and leasing markets, citing “irrational” pricing found in the superprime mortgage loan sector for its move from the latter toward the former.
When the year 2025 comes around, and your sons and daughters purchase their autonomous commuter pod sans steering wheel, you may want to check the automatic brakes just to be sure they’re able to stop your children from smashing through the commuter pod in front of them, much like what happened to one customer during a test drive at a Mazda dealership in Japan over the weekend.
Reports out of South Korea are confirming the news that French car enthusiasts have been waiting on for decades: Americans will soon be able to buy French cars again, with Renault Samsung confirming that the first Mitsubishi-branded product exported to America will be the Renault-Samsung SM5.
The Tokyo Motor Show is always good for an unusual transportation device or two and this year’s show looks to be no exception. Toyota will be debuting the FV2, which appears to be a cross between a leaning trike, a jet ski and a horse. That’s right, a horse. The FV2 is supposed to connect the driver physically and emotionally to the driving experience and it is controlled by the rider’s body motions. Shifting the driver’s body will cause the vehicle to move forward, backward, left or right. Toyota sees the driver and FV2 developing a relationship similar that between a rider and a horse, with the FV2 learning the driver’s behavior. The vehicle even uses voice and image recognition to analyze the driver’s mood and suggest destinations.
There’s nothing the internet loves more than some good clickbait, and the hype surrounding Dodge’s ads featuring Ron Burgundy, star of the Anchorman movies, and the Durango CUV, are perfect fodder for this type of content. Web publications like Mashable, along with numerous auto blogs, have run articles cliaming that the Anchorman-themed ads have caused Durango sales to “skyrocket”. But as Tim Cain shows us, correlation does not necessarily equal causation. Durango sales have been on the rise for some time now. But never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
While new car and light truck October sales were up in France, Spain and Germany, giving hope that the European market has finally bottomed out, Italy’s car market is not showing any signs of recovery with car sales down 5.6% from a year ago. Fiat’s European chief, Alfredo Altavilla, remains pessimistic about that brand’s home market. “We are not seeing signs of a recovery in Italy, while in other markets we are seeing the glimmer of recovery where the market has touched bottom,” Altavilla told Reuters. “The real problem in Italy continues to be lack of consumer spending.” (Read More…)
For anyone who admires the Volkswagen XL1 attributes but desires a less Teutonic, more cute vehicle, the fun will be doubled when the Twin up! debuts at both the LA and Tokyo auto shows later this month.
From the Blade Runner future in Dubai to the shores of Tripoli, Ford aims to launch an aggressive campaign in the Middle East and Africa markets through the creation of a fifth business unit that will consolidate the Blue Oval’s operations in the two regions.
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