
On the success of a first-year sell-out of the i8 and high demand for the i3, BMW is making an additional investment into its joint venture with SGL Group, with the intention of introducing carbon fiber into models beyond the i and M collections.

On the success of a first-year sell-out of the i8 and high demand for the i3, BMW is making an additional investment into its joint venture with SGL Group, with the intention of introducing carbon fiber into models beyond the i and M collections.
Volkswagen officially announced their new 2015 Golf Sportwagen (nee Jetta Sportwagen) for the US market. And they’re still unclear about whether it will get 4Motion AWD.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne may be watching Ford experiment aluminium-bodied pickups from afar, but as far as the 2018 Jeep Wrangler is concerned, the lightweight metal may wind up on the iconic vehicle before the Ram 1500 considers taking the plunge.
The amount of time it takes to sell a new vehicle is usually a good indicator of demand for that model and gives a slightly different perspective from the more traditional number of days supply statistic. The average time that new cars and light trucks spent on U.S. dealer lots last month, 56 days, was up slightly from March’s 51 days, which was the same average selling time in April of 2013. Cars.com’s Kicking Tires blog has compiled lists of both the fastest selling vehicles in April as well as the cars that have lingered on the lots perhaps a bit past their shelf date. The ten fastest selling cars averaged just under 11 days from the time they rolled off their transporters until they were driven home by happy customers. The ten slowest selling cars took an average of 5 months to sell. The slowest selling car in America in April was the 2014 BMW 640i xDrive coupe, which sat on Dealer lots an average of 205 days. The two quickest selling cars were Subarus, the 2015 Forester and 2015 WRX, which both took an average of just 7 days to sell.
Complete lists after the break. Read More >

Once the darling of investors amid ambitions of taking on foreign automakers such as Jeep with its line of SUVs, Great Wall Motors’ recent fall from grace on the back of the upscale Haval H8 may be a sign Chinese automakers are not yet ready to move from production of cheap transportation.
Volkswagen partially answered one of its biggest questions today, with an announcement that a new mid-size SUV for the American market is in the pipeline.

Already dealing with a perception-is-reality problem over its ongoing product recall crisis, General Motors now has a new perception problem: Tier 1 suppliers find the automaker to be the worst automaker in the United States when it comes to their relationships with the company.
Imagine over 500 cars at your disposal, and you pick the exact ones you want to test on the open road.
There are no mind games. No bait and switch tactics. Nothing but you going to a computer, figuring out the most worthy candidates, and letting a salaried employee fetch the keys and answer the relevant questions to your car search.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, it’s already happened. There’s only one problem.
The place that does it primarily sells used cars, not new cars.

Volkswagen enthusiasts could soon have a 10-speed transmission to go with their 10-speed bicycles, as the automaker released more details on its 10-speed DSG unit currently in the works during this year’s Vienna Motor Symposium.
Sales of imported cars set a 17 year record in Japan, with brands like Maserati and Volkswagen leading the way, with Bloomberg reporting that non-Japanese brands captured 8.8 percent of non-key car sales – the highest figure since records started being kept in 1989.

As fuel economy figures from the Environmental Protection Agency have been put under the gun for being heavily inaccurate in a few cases, a third-party testing company is offering the public real-world mileage numbers for comparison.
Fans of the W123 Mercedes better book the next flight to Marrakech. If the Moroccan government has its way, the country’s ubiquitous fleet of W123 taxi cabs will be scrapped, in favor of Renault and Dacia minivans.
Nissan’s next iteration of the Leaf EV will hang on to its hatchback styling, but it will look more like a conventional car.

Having moved its smartphone business to Microsoft, Nokia’s next project is a $100 million investment fund for companies specializing in smart cars.

While hybrids like the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic Hybrid are doing well among most consumers, luxury and large SUV consumers are thumbing their nose at hybrid offerings aimed at them.
Recent Comments