Opel chief Karl-Friedrich Stracke was asked to tell his workers unambiguously whether the Opel plant in Bochum will be closed or remain open. Today, Stracke met with workers in Bochum. He told them that no decision has been made – yet. Read More >

An obviously Axis-inspired driver was seen today in Kamakura, Japan, complete with aloha shirt and toy poodle. A British crime writer who stood next to me swore up and down  that this is the real thing and an original Messerschmitt Kabinenroller. What do you think? Read More >

Allegedly, there is rampant overcapacity in Europe. Not so at BMW. “The BMW plants are busting at the seams,” writes Germany’s Handelsblatt. BMW is looking into building new factories abroad. Possible locations are Central Europe. Or rather Mexico, writes the paper. Read More >

Each year around this time, owners of – what is the German equivalent to rice racer? Reichs Racer? – overengined hatches congregate around the Wörthersee in Austria for the annual GTI Meeting. This is the 31^st year it will take place, the roads will be packed, beer and gasoline will flow in equally monstrous quantities, and the bucolic lake will boil. Also as usual, Volkswagen will send some special specimens to entertain the devotees. Here they are. Read More >

What was highly probable yesterday is definite: GM will shift production of the Astra compact from Germany to Ellesmere Port, England. Workers at the UK plant agreed nearly to a man and a woman (approval rate 94 percent) to a deal with GM that keeps Ellesmere Port open and that spells the near certain doom of Opel’s plant in Bochum.

Workers agreed to a four-year deal that freezes wages for two years, and that allows only moderate rises of around 3 percent for the following two years, Reuters heard from a source. The source also said: Read More >

Tomorrow, Thursday morning, GM will most likely announce that the new Opel Astra will be built at the Ellesmere Port plant near Liverpool, and no longer in Germany. This ends weeks of hard-nosed gamesmanship, where one plant was played against the other. Read More >

While GM is withdrawing from Facebook advertising, over in Europe, Opel does the opposite:  Opel spent untold budget amounts to hire Orlando Higginbottom, better known as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. The hot UK producer, remixer and DJ was hired to flog … clicks to Facebook. Read More >

You would have to travel far to shoot (bad boy as you are) a Bali tiger. Germany’s Auto, Motor und Sport Magazin did not have to travel further than the Golfanlage Schloss Nippenburg to shoot themselves a Macan. Macan is Indonesian for tiger, better known as the name for Porsche’s upcoming SUVlet. Read More >

In case you have surplus cash sitting around, doing absolutely nothing, hang on to it until the end of 2013. This is when Porsche finally wants to crank up production of its Über-Porsche, the 918 Spyder. Porsche has finished the initial prototypes, which are cleverly camouflaged: If you see something whizzing by, and you think to yourself: “This looked just like a Porsche 917 race car,” then you actually saw a 918 in drag. Read More >

A lot of the Opel news seen below emanated from an all hands meeting at Opel’s ancestral home in Rüsselsheim. Opel CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke explained the restructuring plan for Opel. According to German media reports, Stracke delivered more questions than answers. According to Reuters Germany, “the management of the lossmaking GM subsidiary did not contribute to a heightened confidence of employees.” The impression is that the management has no plan. Read More >

The tempo of Porsche’s global growth slowed to 7.2 percent in April on sales of 12,588 units. This is down from the 12.6 percent gain the folks from Zuffenhausen racked up from January to April. “What do you expect, European malaise,” is the knee-jerk reaction.

The surprising malaise is elsewhere, further east, much further east. Read More >

If GM’s Opel would have a jobs bank, its accounts would be bulging. Opel has far too much capacity for far too little sales.  The situation at Opel “is more dramatic than thought,” writes Germany’s Focus Magazin. The magazine got is hands on confidential production plan (most likely leaked by interested parties,) and the numbers are horrific. Read More >

Good news for armchair brand strategists: Porsche’s race to the bottom (of the price range) has been cancelled. There will be no entry-level roadster below the Boxster, Porsche CEO Matthias Müller told the Stuttgarter Zeitung today. It’s not that there won’t be lots of new customers for the bargain-Porsche. Current customers don’t want their brand to be devalued and debased, Müller says. Read More >

Yesterday, Volkswagen sent out a gushing report, saying that group deliveries rose 6 percent in April and 8.6 percent January to April. Something smells in Wolfsburg. Let’s take a look. Read More >

Audi is on a roll. In April, the four ringed brand outsold BMW on a global basis. Today, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler promised at the annual shareholders meeting back home in bucolic Ingolstadt that Audi may reach its goal of selling 1.5 million cars per year earlier than planned. The reason: Unabated demand in China, the U.S. and Russia. Read More >