GM and PSA Peugeot Citroen have a mutual problem: Losses in Europe. Now, the two want to share the burden. General Motors and PSA are discussing a broad manufacturing alliance, if today’s media reports from Europe are to be believed.
PSA and GM? Read More >
Michigan’s upcoming Republican primary has made the Bush and Obama administrations’ bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler a political football that both the Republican candidates and Pres. Obama are kicking around. The Seattle Times published an Associated Press fact-checking piece that was fairly balanced in that it pointed out that both the Republicans and Pres. Obama might be stretching the truth in their respective claims about the bailout. Read More >
Back in the Clinton Era I worked as a financial analyst. My job was to make numbers dance on a computer while the masters of all things corporate made their decisions. It was brutally boring work. But when you’re only 23, you figure this rite of passage is just part of being a grunt before finally making it headlong into middle management.
I hit the middle management level a little over a year later, and then took a LOT of time off. Two hour lunches. Random walks in the middle of the day. I created Excel macros for most of my work and left the rest to other grunts in the corporate machine. I focused my spare time towards three things: cars, social life, and investing.
The first two were naturally interesting. The final one was about seizing opportunities and figuring out where, beyond Wall Street, I could develop a niche.
Since then I’ve made hundreds of loans and finance deals. Cars, new businesses, even real estate. It’s worked out well… but that’s only because I usually insist on collateral.
Travel on U.S. roads fell to its lowest level since 2003, while Americans hold on to their cars longer than ever, two Detroit newspapers report to the horror of their carbuilding readers. Read More >
“If you want a Veloster Turbo,” quipped Hyundai CEO John Krafcik, at September’s launch of Hyundai’s oddball, front-drive Veloster hatchback, “you can buy one right now. It’s called the Genesis Coupe.” The Veloster Turbo ended up materializing at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show – and so did a new Genesis Coupe. Apparently, Hyundai never planned on making a Veloster Turbo until after the car’s launch. But they did plan on a refreshed Genesis Coupe, and a brawnier Veloster means that the Genesis gets to move up in power and price.
It’s probably fair to say that, of all the ridiculous Special Advertising Awards in the print rag business, the Car and Driver “10 Best” comes closest to being a legitimate honor. True, the years where the awards had to be split equally between “import” and “domestic” were kind of ridiculous, and the backslapping, manufacturer parties, and exchange of honoraria between C/D and the “winners” cast an unfortunate shadow of cronyism and back-room dealing over the whole thing, but it’s some order of magnitude more respectable than the “Car whose manufacturer bought the most ad space Of The Year”.
This year’s awards, like always, are predictable enough that most TTAC readers could guess most of them ahead of time. If you want to test your knowledge, go ahead and write ’em down then click the jump. You’ll be semi-wrong about one of them, however. This year, there’s one “surprise” that will either confirm or destroy your faith in the so-called “10 Best”…
Toyota plans to more than double its exports to South Korea to 20,700 vehicles this year, says The Nikkei [sub]. The cars come from places that used to be import nations for Toyota: The U.S. and Europe. After announcing plans to export U.S.-built cars to South Korea, Toyota now is looking to bringing made-in-Europe cars back to Asia. Read More >
A mere 72 hours after I picked up my Mazda3 SKYACTIV hatchback with the 6-speed automatic transmission, Mazda informed me that they had a 6-speed manual transmission hatch available, and that I was welcome to return the automatic version in exchange for the stickshift. The next day, I dropped off the white automatic for a bright blue manual version. What a mistake.
Fisker Automotive CEO Henrik Fisker is doing some major damage control after the Department of Energy announced that loans totalling roughly $336 million would not be issued to the company. Fisker Automotive is apparently seeking private equity funding to solve what’s being called a temporary cash-flow issue, but the company may be facing deeper problems than that.
If you are lusting for extra oomph, and if all you have to transport is that sadly childless trophy female of yours, then Ferrari has good news from you. The Italians will show a successor to the 599 GTB Fiorano two-seat coupe at the Geneva auto show next month. Read More >
Auto blogging sites large and small are going gaga over Rinspeed’s announcement of a backpack. The Swiss tuner promises a rear extension for compact electric cars such as the smart fortwo EV. The extensions are modular. One is a motorized appendage that had been fueling the fantasy of EV enthusiasts for a while: If you want to go beyond the meager range of your EV, simply tow a trailer with a conventional engine. Voila, a docked range extender. Hence the name Dock+Go. Read More >
Chinese authorities are so sensitive about self immolation that live events are sent with a time delay – if someone sets himself on fire, there is always time to cut to commercial. No such sensitivities if a Ferrari FF decides to end its life in flames. Read More >
It’s that time of year again. Tax season always results in a wave of frenzy for good cars at the auctions. This Thursday evening I voyaged down to a public sale where bargain hunting folks with tax refunds commiserated with dealers and wholesalers.
The returns were beyond the imagination.
MINI will unveil their new Clubvan (isn’t that clever), a Clubman-based van with the rear seats removed and a metal screen placed in the back to separate the cargo compartment from the two seats up front.
While Department of Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood and the National Transportation Safety Board aren’t on exactly the same page when it comes to regulating drivers’ use of cellphones and other personal electronic devices it’s clear that official bureaucratic Washington has decided to control the way Americans act behind the wheel. In December, the NTSB proposed using the power of the federal purse to impel the 50 states to outlaw all cellphone and PED use, including hands-free devices, while driving. At the time Sec. LaHood said he thought that went too far, saying that he didn’t think that hands-free and other devices were necessarily a problem. LaHood did, though, recommend more study. Apparently, in the two months since LaHood made his statement enough study has been done for the DOT, through NHTSA, to release the first phase of voluntary guidelines (PDF) to auto manufacturers concerning devices that cause drivers’ distraction. The guidelines address “visual-manual” distraction, “meaning the driver looking at a device, manipulating a device-related control with the driver’s hand, and watching for visual feedback”, and they call for manufacturers to disable built-in access to social media, the Web, and text messaging while driving, as well as prohibiting any built-in devices that require drivers to use both hands or take their eyes off the road for more than two seconds.
Recent Comments