After throwing enthusiasts a few wagon-shaped bones at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Volkswagen is set to debut the long-roof product that really matters for the auto maker’s American division: a crossover.
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Category: New Cars
Quebec’s love affair with small, efficient cars is well-known around these parts. And a new government measure will only further enable that, as Quebec is set to raise annual vehicle registration fees based o vehicle’s displacement size.
Not long ago, I described the Mercedes-Benz GLE as “a cross between the new S-Class coupe and a growth of the Human Papilloma Virus.” I stand by that statement.
Its looks leave the B&B cold, and is powered by a fuel whose infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired. So, how popular could the Toyota Mirai possibly be? Better than you’d expect.
13 years ago, the Golf-based Volkswagen GTI produced 180 horsepower from a 1.8L turbocharged four-cylinder powerplant. Over the last week, I’ve been driving a brand new Golf that’s also fitted with a 1.8L turbocharged four-cylinder. It generates 170 horsepower.
In 2002, you could pair Volkswagen’s 1.8T with a 6-speed manual transmission. Our test car used a 5-speed manual.
Is this progress? Strangely, yes. Read More >
With Holden set to lay off hundreds of engineers as it shuts the doors of its Australian factories, Ford is looking to grow its ranks. The Blue Oval is set to hire 150 ex-Holden engineers to help develop cars for the Chinese market.
Not long ago, Canada was, according to ex-GM CEO Dan Akerson, the most expensive place in the world to build a car. A strong Canadian dollar meant that the cars and crossovers built at GM’s plants in Oshawa and Ingersoll, Ontario, weren’t as profitable as those built in the US or Mexico, where labor costs were significantly lower.
But even a newly weakened Canadian dollar isn’t going to save Oshawa.
Today’s Question of the Day is remarkably simple, but it took a reader suggestion to make it appear.
What an unfortunate time for Mercedes-Benz. Brazil and India are limping along economically, and the sub-$70 oil prices are surely going to limit the number of Rosneft bigwigs (and outright criminals…err, oligarchs) able to gallivant around in the latest crop of crossovers. At least China is still churning, right? Of all the luxury car makers in China, Mercedes-Benz owners are the wealthiest.
Take a look at the Vauxhall Viva – or Opel Karl in the rest of Europe. The South Korean-built minicar is very likely to be our next Chevrolet Spark.
Things are rough for Ford on Truck Mountain, with ground lost for the fourth consecutive month in November in a market-share situation that isn’t about to improve any time soon.
New vehicle buyers registered 1.3 million cars, SUVs, crossovers, vans, and pickup trucks in November 2014, a 57,000-unit improvement compared with November 2013.
No volume brand accelerated at a faster rate in November than Ram, which shot up 31%. Scion sales, on the other hand, plunged 21%. Land Rover, Cadillac, Smart, Infiniti, and Jaguar all posted double-digit losses, as well. Ford is America’s top-selling auto brand, both in November and the first eleven months of 2014. With a 10% decline in F-Series sales last month, however, Ford was down 2.6%. Total GM sales are up 4.1% this year and rose 6.5% in November, spreading the manufacturer’s lead by 39,484 units to nearly 409,000 units.
As for premium brands, Mercedes-Benz claimed a broad victory in November but trails BMW by 1830 sales heading into 2014’s final month. Lexus, the third-ranked premium automaker, is almost 25,000 sales back of Mercedes-Benz, but the first 22 NXs were sold in November. We also saw the arrival last month of the Chevrolet City Express and Alfa Romeo 4C, both of which produced their first 24 sales. The Toyota Camry was America’s best-selling car; the Honda CR-V led all utility vehicles.
| Automaker | November 2014 | November 2013 | % Change | 2014 YTD | 2013 YTD | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Acura
|
14,857 | 14,559 | 2.0% | 150,034 | 149,685 | 0.2% |
|
Alfa Romeo
|
24 | — | — | 24 | — | — |
|
Audi
|
16,650 | 13,636 | 22.0% | 162,773 | 141,048 | 15.4% |
|
BMW
|
31,019 | 31,752 | -2.3% | 298,212 | 271,891 | 9.7% |
|
Buick
|
19,143 | 15,072 | 27.0% | 208,606 | 190,130 | 9.7% |
|
Cadillac
|
13,148 | 16,172 | -18.7% | 154,600 | 164,378 | -5.9% |
|
Chevrolet
|
149,673 | 145,089 | 3.2% | 1,848,504 | 1,793,632 | 3.1% |
|
Chrysler
|
27,243 | 21,024 | 29.6% | 277,855 | 282,222 | -1.5% |
|
Dodge
|
42,108 | 41,506 | 1.5% | 527,577 | 548,654 | -3.8% |
|
Fiat
|
3,111 | 3,075 | 1.2% | 42,337 | 39,491 | 7.2% |
| Ford | 178,221 | 182,978 | -2.6% | 2,167,162 | 2,194,934 | -1.3% |
|
GMC
|
43,854 | 35,727 | 22.7% | 448,815 | 407,781 | 10.1% |
|
Honda
|
106,957 | 101,948 | 4.9% | 1,253,557 | 1,240,372 | 1.1% |
|
Hyundai
|
53,672 | 56,005 | -4.2% | 661,211 | 657,778 | 0.5% |
|
Infiniti
|
11,398 | 13,152 | -13.3% | 105,323 | 103,223 | 2.0% |
|
Jaguar
|
1,253 | 1,446 | -13.3% | 14,090 | 15,408 | -8.6% |
|
Jeep
|
57,489 | 45,415 | 26.6% | 629,074 | 437,179 | 43.9% |
|
Kia
|
44,936 | 45,411 | -1.0% | 534,647 | 501,548 | 6.6% |
|
Land Rover
|
3,644 | 4,601 | -20.8% | 45,711 | 44,246 | 3.3% |
|
Lexus
|
27,472 | 25,611 | 7.3% | 271,510 | 239,090 | 13.6% |
|
Lincoln
|
8,113 | 6,727 | 20.6% | 84,784 | 73,710 | 15.0% |
|
Maserati
|
1,203 | 887 | 35.6% | 11,531 | 3,715 | 210% |
|
Mazda
|
21,242 | 20,754 | 2.4% | 280,993 | 260,982 | 7.7% |
|
Mercedes-Benz
|
34,578 | 34,376 | 0.6% | 296,382 | 279,501 | 6.0% |
|
Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
|
2,532 | 2,010 | 26.0% | 22,457 | 18,988 | 18.3% |
|
Total Mercedes-Benz
|
37,110 | 36,386 | 2.0% | 318,839 | 298,489 | 6.8% |
|
Mini
|
5,009 | 4,575 | 9.5% | 49,497 | 59,910 | -17.4% |
|
Mitsubishi
|
6534 | 6071 | 7.6% | 71,098 | 55,671 | 27.7% |
|
Nissan
|
91,790 | 93,376 | -1.7% | 1,164,254 | 1,035,439 | 12.4% |
|
Porsche
|
4,699 | 3,966 | 18.5% | 43,732 | 39,077 | 11.9% |
|
Ram
|
40,864 | 31,255 | 30.7% | 420,511 | 331,815 | 26.7% |
|
Scion
|
3,907 | 4,968 | -21.4% | 54,192 | 63,998 | -15.3% |
|
Smart
|
815 | 959 | -15.0% | 9,480 | 8,409 | 12.7% |
|
Subaru
|
45,273 | 36,621 | 23.6% | 463,770 | 384,511 | 20.6% |
|
Suzuki
|
— | — | — | — | 5,946 | -100% |
|
Toyota
|
151,967 | 147,465 | 3.1% | 1,833,012 | 1,742,111 | 5.2% |
|
Volkswagen
|
31,725 | 30,727 | 3.2% | 332,911 | 373,689 | -10.9% |
|
Volvo
|
3,623 | 4,233 | -14.4% | 51,446 | 56,345 | -8.7% |
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
BMW-Mini
|
36,028 | 36,327 | -0.8% | 347,709 | 331,801 | 4.8% |
|
Chrysler Group/FCA
|
170,839 | 142,275 | 20.1% | 1,897,378 | 1,639,361 | 15.7% |
|
Daimler
|
37,925 | 37,345 | 1.6% | 328,319 | 306,898 | 7.0% |
|
Ford Motor Company
|
186,334 | 189,705 | -1.8% | 2,251,946 | 2,268,644 | -0.7% |
|
General Motors
|
225,818 | 212,060 | 6.5% | 2,660,525 | 2,555,921 | 4.1% |
|
Honda Motor Company
|
121,814 | 116,507 | 4.6% | 1,403,591 | 1,390,057 | 1.0% |
|
Hyundai-Kia
|
98,608 | 101,416 | -2.8% | 1,195,858 | 1,159,326 | 3.2% |
|
Jaguar-Land Rover
|
4,897 | 6,047 | -19.0% | 59,801 | 59,654 | 0.2% |
|
Nissan Motor Company
|
103,188 | 106,528 | -3.1% | 1,269,577 | 1,138,662 | 11.5% |
|
Toyota Motor Corporation
|
183,346 | 178,044 | 3.0% | 2,158,714 | 2,045,199 |
5.6% |
|
Volkswagen Group *
|
53,387 | 48,652 | 9.7% | 542,007 | 556,336 | -2.6% |
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
—
|
|
Industry Total
|
1,302,655
|
1,245,189
|
4.6%
|
15,023,111
|
14,243,037
|
5.5% |
* Volkswagen Group includes sales figures for Audi, Bentley, Porsche, and Volkswagen brands
** Industry total includes Automotive News sales estimates for ultra-low-volume automakers and their 2200-unit (November) Tesla sales estimate.
Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net, which obsesses over the free and frequent publication of U.S. and Canadian auto sales figures.
Derek’s Grandma returns, by popular demand.
I am a very lucky lady. And I don’t say that because I have won the slots every time I have gone to Vegas. I live in the kind of comfortable circumstances than many seniors do not enjoy. I have had a fulfilling career as an educator of children and adults that I only recently gave up. I am surrounded by amazing friends and family and have been fortunate to get through 81 years without any major health problems. So it was just my luck that my brand new Honda Fit was crashed into just days after I got it.
Perhaps as a result of having twice left our spacious two-bedroom apartments for smaller dwellings with less than 500 square feet of living space, my little family has come to love storage. Though we now have a basement and a shed in which to toss assorted detritus, we still look back fondly on the days when our only available storage space was located in the apartment building across the street or in the multiple small closets of the “bachelor pad” that we pressed into more-than-bachelor duty. But not too fondly, mind you. Space for people and stuff is a good thing.
The 2015 Honda Fit is only 160 inches long, 19.4 inches shorter bumper-to-bumper than Honda’s own Civic sedan; shorter than hatchback rivals like the Hyundai Accent and Nissan Versa Note. Yet Honda says the Fit offers more rear legroom than any of those cars. With the rear seats folded, the Fit has 38% more cargo capacity than the Versa Note and 11% more than the Civic. In other words, more of a good thing. Read More >
Want to literally taste the future? Toyota would like for you to reconsider that notion.
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