Most likely filled with a certain degree of foreboding, Volkswagen signed today contracts with their joint venture partner FAW to build a new plant in the south of China, we hear from a Volkswagen press release. That VW has designs on building cars in the South of China is no news to the avid TTAC reader. But why the anxiety? Read More >
Salutations, my good friends of the United States of America!
I am Mrs. Cammu Cori-Ganacha, the third wife of the former Nigeria head of State who died on the 8th of June, 1998. Under the strictest of confidence, I bring sad news that Automotive World are reporting that our good friends of Stuttgart, Daimler AG, are under investigation from the oppressive regime that is Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for alleged bribes of 15 million of your U.S dollars. The alleged crimes of this upstanding and fine German company go back the 1970’s when they set up a joint with a local vehicle assembler called Anammco. Read More >
On Wednesday, June 9 2010, the German government will decide whether they’ll grant Opel live support. Or whether Berlin gives Opel a pat on the head and best wishes for their future endeavors. That’s the current plan, says Die Zeit, based on reports by the German wire service DPA. Plans can change, as they did in the past.
It looks grim for Opel. Read More >
World Cup Soccer: the hidden killer. German scientists dispatch their top men to understand exactly how wrong things can go when you celebrate a World Cup victory by piling drunk fans into a car and performing a low-speed victory parade. Of course, this simulation clearly needs some work. Among the obvious missing factors: a keg of beer in the back seat, three inches of oversteer-inducing vomit on the road, and a healthy serving of casual racism. Ah, football!
China is an important market for Daimler. China already buys more S-Class cars than any other country. Why not buy a chunk of Daimler and get it over with? The Chinese would find open doors: Daimler’s CFO Bodo Uebber “would welcome it if there are Chinese names in our shareholder structure.” Read More >
Got a nice empty property in an industrial park in Germany? Centrally located, close to a major airport like Frankfurt, or Munich would be a plus? Then we know some Chinese you may want to talk to. They are in Shenzhen and work for BYD. BYD is coming to Europe. And they want to put their European HQ right into the German hornet’s nest. Read More >
If anybody would offer me Nick Reilly’s job, I would scream. I don’t have the nerves the assignment takes. Yesterday, Opel made headlines for losing 51.5 percent in May. In today’s mass publication BILD Zeitung, there is even worse news: Read More >
Remember carmageddon? It is not forgotten in Germany. As a matter of fact, Germany’s biggest carmageddon happened last month, in May. While champagne corks popped in the U.S., propelled by a 19 percent plus in May, the Germans are crying into their beers. According to numbers released by the German Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA,) the new car market collapsed by heart attack inducing 35.1 percent in May. That’s not the worst part of the story. Read More >
Ferdinand Piech is cultivating long standing traditions. He always liked to watch a good catfight between his people. In the olden days, he did let plants in Europe compete and bid for cars. Now for the battle royale: Who will develop the basics on which all future sports cars in the Volkswagen empire will be built? Porsche or Audi? The answer should be obvious: Read More >
Designing a product for local tastes is a tricky affair. Just getting the name right is a hassle. Everyone remember the Toyota MR2? Not the French. They remember the Toyota MR. Why? Because “MR2” in French would have sounded like “Em-Ar-Deux” (“Deux” being French for “two”). And “Em-Ar-Deux” sounded very close to “merde” which is French for…..let’s not go into that. So, if getting the name right is a chore, you must do your car research with care if you want to pander to local needs. I mean, get that wrong and you could end up in deep Em-Ar-Deux. But Volkswagen reckons they’ve found what the Russians want … Read More >
The Lexus LF-A is sold out. Your $375k may now resume burning a hole in your pocket, bank account, investment portfolio, Scrooge McDuck-style treasure vault. Bonus LF-A trivia point (courtesy: Automotive News [sub]): one out of every three LF-As sold in Europe went to Germany. And that’s all Toyota will say about that. Meanwhile, ToMoCo’s other, more “mission critical” sales numbers are slightly less inscrutable…
This video is the kind of thing that a pretentious grad student would call “an artifact.” For one thing, it proves that Germans do have a sense of humor… they just need Porsche to add enough consonants to the end of its racing models to be activated. This, in turn, gives a keen insight into the reason nobody mentions Germany when it comes to identifying nations that build the “coolest” cars. The Germans, and I say this as an often-overly-serious person of Germanic descent, are just too damn serious. In fact, the satire here is so seriously deadpan as to be almost un-funny. If the humor isn’t obvious enough for you, go ahead and start calculating how much Porsche charges for each “G,” “T,” “R,” and “S.” You’ll be laughing in no time.
Financial Times calls “Volkswagen a long-time skeptic about hybrid and electric cars.” As a long time observer of the Wolfsburg boys, I have to agree. Despite green initiatives for public and political consumption, their private position has been that the consumption and emissions of a hybrid could be achieved with their low displacement supercharged engines and some weight savings. Some electric initiatives notwithstanding, this position has not changed. Case in point: Their new Touran. Read More >
To be perfectly honest, we weren’t familiar with the work of Weinsberg, Germany-based Xenatec group before hearing that the custom bodywork shop would be building a Maybach Coupe. Thanks to a tip from Auto Motor und Sport, we headed over to Xenatec’s website, and found that the firm offers a wide variety of custom bodywork ranging from the absurd to the sublime. Some of Xenatec’s customs, like the stretched Audi R8 shown above, show just how pointlessly nuts things can get when money is not a factor. Others, like the four-door BMW 6-Series and the Mercedes CLS Wagon actually represent pre-emptive swipes at forthcoming niche models. A four-door Porsche 911 even gives sufficiently well-heeled buyers the option of buying a “real” Porsche four-door as an alternative to the front-engine Panamera. You know the industry is passing through strange days when OEMs and tuning houses start meeting in the middle…
Around the world, drunk driving is a deadly problem without an easy solution. After all, the link between driving under the influence and generally screwing up your life (and the lives of others) has been conclusively proven, and yet the problem continues. What to do? Volvo’s answer: buy a Volvo and spend €850 (plus up to €90 for installation) on “Alcoguard,” a dealer-installed optional breathalyzer ignition interlock. With this system in place, drivers must blow into an interlock, proving that they are beneath the legal blood-alcohol-content limit before the vehicle will start.
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