Matthew Guy is a seasoned car buying professional who is fond of making money while offering loud opinions. Years of experience casting his critical eye across crapcans and luxury vehicles alike have left him critical of bad machines and appreciative of fine ones. Mark Stevenson, on the other hand, has an automotive history that would make an AMC Gremlin Owners Club member blush. From early-90s J-Bodies to somewhat respectful yet plebeian family cars, Mark’s purchasing patterns are reminiscent of a disease, for which there is no 12-step program nor neighbourhood support group. Fortunately for TTAC readers, they live in the same town and get to drive the same cars. This is Vendition Juxtaposition.
Our inaugural Vendition Juxtaposition is Infiniti’s soon-to-be renamed JX35. The 7-passenger luxury crossover slots between the current EX and FX models – even though it is larger than both – giving it a future designation of QX60. This murderously competitive segment is littered with sales-success examples that trumpet luxury and all-weather capability in equal measures. An opportunity, then, to test Infiniti’s assertion they can play with the best of them.
China’s love affair with crossovers and PSA’s desire to expand in the country has led to a logical conclusion; why not a crossover for the Citroen DS line, one that PSA is trying to push hard as a premium alternative to the usual upscale offerings?
Some people like to bitch about the crafty Nips who are manipulating their currency again. Other people like to cash-in on sudden swings in currency valuations. If you are of the second kind, then Reuters recommends a look at formerly beaten-down stocks of Japanese carmakers who nearly went under during years of unfettered appreciation of the ¥en. Read More >
While the US won’t get the Suzuki SX4 any more, the flow of cars isn’t being cut off from Canada. Might we see this facelifted version of the SX4 (meant for the Chinese market) appear in the Great White North? The Canadian International Auto Show is only a couple weeks away, but we’ve got no indication about Suzuki debuting anything new at the show. Only time will tell.
The rebellion of German Opel dealers against a new, complicated and – in the dealers’ views – disastrous distribution system was victorious. Opel’s sales chief Matthias Seidl withdrew the discredited and disdained design. “Dealers succeeded with their demands for a simpler system,” writes Automobilwoche [sub].Read More >
As Detroiters wait to see if the latest plans to raze the decrepit century old abandoned Packard plant on the city’s east side come to fruition, someone apparently tried to make a point by putting up posters reading Arbeit Macht Frei in the frames of the broken windows of the overpass at Concord Street that connected the two halves of the giant factory. That phrase, German for “work makes you free”, sat above the gates of many Nazi concentration and death camps. Of course that slogan was part of the Nazis’ cruelty because in those camps, the only freedom a prisoner could hope for was the freedom of the grave as they were at best worked to death in labor camps and slave factories, or exterminated in factories of death. The Nazis dangled that carrot, the hope that you could survive if only you worked hard enough, but for eleven million of their victims, more than half of them Jews, that hope was not fulfilled. But in Detroit? Read More >
Presenting its Q3 financials in Tokyo today, Toyota delivered much higher profits and much higher sales while promising even higher profits at pretty much flat sales for the future. With a man on his left who looked like an accountant, and who had a big accountant’s briefcase on his knee, ready to pull whatever document his master needs, and a very quiet Shigeru Hayakawa on his right, Toyota Senior Managing Officer Takahiko Ijichi did forecast a net profit of 860 billion yen ($9.3 billion) for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2013 up from the previously forecasted 780 billion yen. He also signaled a pause in Toyota’s rapid expansion: Read More >
Three days ago, I showed you how to become a clairvoyant without even trying, or just by reading TTAC. If you followed my simple method of predicting the Chinese market in January and February, you could now collect on your first bet. GM, our patent-pending sales oracle for the Chinese market reports humongous sales, and an “all-time record month in China.” Is that the big turn-around? Read More >
It is good to hear that bad puns have survived a decade of uptight up-positioning at Volkswagen, and are alive and well. You had me worried, friends. Under the tagline “As sun as possible”, Volkswagen starts a digital campaign that brings the new Beetle Cabriolet to the Interwebs. Read More >
Opel’s new CEO Karl-Thomas Neumann isn’t officially CEO yet, and he already is facing a rebellion of his troops. Opel dealers threaten to discontinue the brand if Opel won’t withdraw a new distribution system. The dealers say the system comes from where Neumann and Opel’s sales chief Matthias Seidl come from: From Volkswagen. Read More >
You think gas is finally getting cheaper? Cars that use less gas may be a bit more expensive, but save you money in the long run? Households in the United States spent a record amount on gasoline last year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Monday. More of your income is going out and exhaust pipe than at any time since the 1980s. Read More >
TTAC founder Robert Farago receives fame and notoriety at the tip of a gun. Not just a gun, Farago owns 18 of them – at least that’s what he disclosed to the Washington Post. The liberal paper has a big feature on the former car blogger who turned into the eye of the storm that surrounds the gun debate. Read More >
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