Someone is fanning the flames between Volkswagen and Suzuki, and we aren’t talking flames of love. Today, the German Platow Brief reported a bit belatedly that the German-Nipponese alliance is on the ropes. Something that the attentive reader of TTAC has known for quite a while and as always free of charge. The expensive subscription to the German financial newsletter is not in our editorial budget. A friend of TTAC sent us today’s Platow missive, which can’t be found on-line. After going through the usual blah-blah, the letter drops a high explosive bomb: Read More >

With BMW breaking new eco-friendly premium ground with its “i”-branded concepts, it seems Audi does not want to be out-greened… or out-weirded. This “Audi e-tron Urban Concept” was seen in Berlin’s Potsdammer Platz, ahead of its introduction at the forthcoming Frankfurt Auto Show, where we’ll doubtless learn more about why this is the future for environmentally correct urban dwellers. For now though, all we know is that it’s heavily Messerschmitt Kabinenroller-inspired, as Autobild reports that it features tandem seating and a slide-back canopy along with its modern carbon fiber construction and electric drivetrain. From the look of this video though, the most surprising part of this car (to Berliners, anyway) appears to the Audi badge. What a strange new world we live in…

Within the next ten years, the car industry will change more than in the past fifty years. At least at Volkswagen, says Audi Chief Rupert Stadler. Platforms are a thing of the last century. The future of the car industry is kit cars. Or make that cars designed and built using elements of a common kit architecture. Currently, there are two families of erector kits which can be assembled into all kinds of cars at Volkswagen. They have Teutonic names like “Modularer Querbaukasten” (MQB)  and “Modularer Längsbaukasten” (MLB). Porsche is developing a “MMB” (Modularer Mittelbaukasten) for Mittelmotor (mid-engined) cars. Or possibly a MSB (Modularer Standardbaukasten), which could be the Mutter of all Baukasten.

Audi is already working with the MLB architecture. This coming year, Volkswagen will start using the MQB. Says Automobilwoche [sub]: Read More >

At Volkswagen, the sales chief sits right next to God, or the CEO. Now imagine a sales chief that suddenly find himself with the title “Vice President of Customer Experience” and most likely with the responsibility to increase customer satisfaction like tomorrow – what would you do in his shoes? Polish your resume. This is what Mark Barnes likely is doing right now. Read More >

Mercedes-Benz is currently trying to recapture the number one position in global luxury sales, but  a quality problem on its home turf in Germany seems to be undermining confidence in the brand. Autobild reports that the M272 V6 and M273 V8 engines used a sintered steel timing chain gear made of various materials starting in 2004, but switched to conventional steel in 2006, eliminating the problem with gear wear. The problem: nobody seems to know how many vehicles built between 2004 and 2006 are affected. Mercedes claims, based on secret internal defect tracking, that one percent, or about 1,500 vehicles, are affected. If you have a vehicle with one of these engines built between 04 and 06 and your check engine light comes on, Mercedes encourages you to visit your M-B dealer rather than an independent shop, as Mercedes is offering free repairs to affected customers. And as Autobild’s Matthias Mötsch argues, when your motto is “the best or nothing,” the only answer to a situation like this is to fix 100% of the defects for free.

For the first minute and ten seconds or so of this video, you might be thinking “so what, it’s just an SUV with quad pipes?” After the 1:10 mark, though, when the development mule for the new Mercedes ML63 AMG starts flying around the track, you may just begin to wonder if the laws of physics are being bent. There’s something a little distressing about watching a 5,000+ lb ute tucking through tight corners, as if the car guy’s traditional fetish for light weight were suddenly revealed to be some kind of cruel joke. But perhaps what’s really bothering me is that I know I’ll never see one of these things driven this way, unless some famous football player commits a heinous crime of some kind and leads cops on a modern, high-speed update of OJ Simpson’s infamous chase. In which case, I’d say this might just be the vehicle to have.

For the first time since the days of the 912, Porsche will be selling cars with a boxer-four engine. This new engine will power everything from the forthcoming “Baby Boxster” to the next generation of Boxster and Cayman, likely differentiated by different states of turbocharged tune. Here, a mule of the next-gen Cayman (released in Europe next year), which is growing to accommodate the new entry-level model, shows off the sweet sound of its new turbocharged 2.5 liter four-banger, which is rumored to put out 365 HP in “S” trim. And by “sweet sounds” I mean, it sounds a lot nicer than the 2.5 liter boxer in my girlfriend’s Impreza… although some of our more discriminating readers might feel that it’s still not up to Porsche standards. What say you?

Toshihiro Suzuki, executive vice president of Suzuki said Volkswagen conducting a review of their troubled marriage is “a step forward.” He quickly added  that Suzuki had not heard any details, says Dow Jones via The Nikkei [sub].

“Our cooperation is based on the premise of being equal partners,” said Suzuki. “We’ll wait to hear from Volkswagen to confirm that the review under way is being carried out with this idea in mind.”

This doesn’t sound like the remarks of a partner who is ready to kiss and make up & out. Read More >

With the luxury market defying sluggish economic conditions, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche doesn’t want the upstarts at BMW and Audi to slip past it… which they are. Six months through 2011, the Mercedes brand found itself in third place among the German global luxury brands, at 610,531 units. A surging BMW captured 689,861 sales in the half, while Audi took second with 652,970. This, for Zetsche, is an unthinkable state of affairs.  In a letter to his employees, excerpted by Automotive News Europe [sub], Zetsche makes it clear that leadership in the luxury space is a Daimler birthright.

Some of our competitors are now growing faster and more profitably than we are. Granted, those are just snapshots in time and should not be overestimated. After all, many of our best new products are yet to come… In the long run we can’t be content to be in a “solid second” or even “third” place: We are Daimler – we should be far ahead of the pack! And if that requires something that we don’t currently have, then we’ll identify and develop it.

Enjoy your summer and refill your tanks. Because in the second half of this year we’re going to continue to play some hard offense!

New car sales were up 9.9 percent in July in Germany, says the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt. As the picture above shows, sales are slightly above 2010 (red line) and below the Abwrackprämien-addled 2009. Normalcy ensues in Deutschland, which is mostly on vacation anyway. The summer months are not for car buying, they are for car driving. Read More >

Don Jackson, manager of Volkswagen’s spanking-new plant in Chattanooga, dispelled rumors that unionization of the VW works is imminent. “No one from the UAW has visited the plant, or asked to visit,” Jackson told Bernie Woodall of Reuters. Jackson said that neither he nor anyone else at the new VW plant has been in contact with UAW representatives, and dismissed talks about the UAW representing workers at the plant as “speculation.” Read More >

According to Germany’s usually well informed AUTO BILD, Korea’s Hyundai either did or still does cast longing eyes on struggling Opel. Opel is on Hyundai’s horizon, literally: Hyundai’s German tech center in Rüsselsheim is only a few miles away from Opel. “Hyundai is growing faster than any other automaker. They are desperately seeking new engineers at the Hyundai tech center,” writes AUTO BILD, “and the plant in Czech Nošovice cannot be expanded further. Opel with thousands of well trained engineers, precious EV know-how (Ampera) and underutilized plants would be a great fit.” And this is how the latest car-cliffhanger started … Read More >

As we’ve already seen, BMW is building a record number of variants of its next-generation 3 Series, including “GT” hatchback and X4 “Sport Activity Coupe.” But as this photo shows, there is at least one other Dreier bodystyle that we hadn’t heard about yet: the long wheelbase sedan (top). Given the brand’s post-Bangle swing towards extreme styling consistency, the decision between a LWB 3 series and a 5 series seems to have serious head-scratching potential… but it’s not something we’ll have to worry about. The LWB sports sedan will only be sold in China, according to Auto Motor und Sport, where upmarket buyers favor chauffeurs… even in the Ultimate Driving Machine.

While natural and man-made disasters rattled the globe, Volkswagen, Europe’s largest and by the end of the year most likely the world’s second largest auto manufacturer, reports eye-popping numbers for the first half year of 2011.

Including China, Volkswagen made $13.5 billion in the first half of 2011. How did they pull off that economic miracle? Read More >

Better late than never: After refusing for months to comment on rumors that Opel might be up for sale, and after having been lambasted from his own workers up to Germany’s government, GM CEO Dan Akerson said the magic words: “We don’t comment on speculation — and there has been a lot of speculation — but I will say this: Opel is not for sale.”

Akerson made the remarks at a GM plant while celebrating the official launch of labor talks with the UAW, Reuters reports. Read More >