For no immediately obvious reason, Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has a long article today, which says that GM is running out of patience fast with its money-hemorrhaging Opel unit. The paper predicts new negotiations (read firings and plant closures) with the unions – “or worse.” (Read good riddance Opel.) The sound of rattling sabers is all over the article. Read More >
Automotive News Europe [sub] spotted a new trend in Tokyo: Daredevil CEOs:
“On Nov. 27, Toyota boss Akio Toyoda wowed a crowd of spectators in Japan by racing through a lineup of Lexus LFA supercars in the new Toyota 86 sporty coupe. One day later, Honda CEO Takanobu Ito hopped on a Honda MotoGP racing motorcycle and blasted around the company’s Twin Ring Motegi racetrack.” Read More >
One of the most closely watched quality indicators in Europe and especially in Germany is the annual TÜV-Report. With German thoroughness, the report tells exactly which cars were naughty or nice. It’s the law: Three years after you buy a new car in Germany, it must be inspected by the Technischer Überwachungsverein. Thereafter, every two years. This is not your run-of-the-mill drive-to-the-gas-station-get-a-sticker exercise. At the TÜV, each car undergoes a thorough and invasive physical. Fail the physical, and it’s back to the shop. Fail again: No inspection sticker, get that POS off the road. No wonder that a date with the TÜV is considered as even less attractive than a meeting with the proctologist. One out of 5 cars fail the test on the first attempt.
Once a year, the TÜV compiles its TÜV-Report, using the actual results of the check. This is no J.D.Power CSI. This is the real world, a report compiled with screwdrivers, flashlights, emission probes, brake testers. Executives at automakers await the report with high anxiety. Bad positions on the list can be career-ending.
The TÜV-Report 2012 will be published on December 16. Some results are already dribbling out, but the list itself remains under wraps. We twisted some arms and finagled an advance copy (your Teutonic old boys network at work.) Let’s see who will be promoted and who should polish his resume. Read More >
Yesterday, you had your private tour of the Tokyo Motor Show, and you could not find a more competent and entertaining tour guide than Nissan’s head designer Francois Bancon. (Officially, „Deputy Divisional GM for Product Strategy.”) The former Renault man has seen the world. He was a Frenchman of the first hour at Nissan.
If you want to see the Japanese market through European eyes, then please tag along for part deux of the tour, where Bancon talks about Suzuki, Honda, and Daimler. Listen closely to what Bancon says about Daimler. Renault/Nissan and Daimler have an alliance, and Bancon knows where it is heading
Executive summary for the video-impaired: Read More >
Jack Baruth showed you the Alfa-based new Dodge Dart – but what does it mean? For Sergio Marchionne, the little car means a lot. It means the final five percent of Chrysler, to be exact. Read More >
The UAW called off the transplant war. It won’t even identify an organizing target among foreign automakers with U.S. operations, UAW President Bob King told Reuters (via Automotive News [sub] ):
“We are not going to announce a target at all. We are not going to create a fight.” Read More >
With a strong November under its belt, BMW is planning the festivities for a record year. The BMW Group sold 138,978 units in November, up 7.7 percent over November 2010. For the year, global sales stand at 1,510,862 units in the first eleven months, up 14.5 percent. Read More >
GM is close to having a fix for the Volt battery that had a tendency to go up in flames after a crash. Meanwhile in Washington, senators are getting the grill ready. Read More >
Checking out the competition has a great tradition at auto shows. Executives usually try to avoid doing it in front of rolling cameras. They don’t want to end up like Volkswagen’s Winterkorn, who immortalized himself in his “Da scheppert nix” candid camera video, while admiring the non-rattling steering column of the latest Hyundai.
Now imagine the dropped jaws at Nissan when the crew at Nissan’ Global Media Center floated the crazy idea to have their own walk around of the Tokyo Motor Show, and to – gasp – say good things about the competition? Read More >
December 16 is the day Saab’s fate will be decided. Court appointed administrator Guy Lofalk, who yesterday was ready to pull the plug, pulled it today. Currently, Saab is under creditor protection. However, Lofalk asked the Vänersborg District Court to lift the protection, opening the door to final bankruptcy. In a statement cited by Reuters, Lofalk said:
“Since the required funding has not been received and the stated schedule not been kept, the (Saab) companies lack the ability to pay upcoming liabilities.”
Lofalk also named General Motors’ unwillingness to approve proposed deals. GM had driven what looks like the final nail in the coffin, by denying the deal that was proposed a few days ago: Read More >
Edmunds emission-tested a 2011 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor Crew Cab and a 2012 Fiat 500 against an Echo PB-500T and a Ryobi RY09440 leaf blower.
The Raptor has a 411-horsepower 6.2-liter V8. The Fiat 500 is powered (if you can say that) by a 1.4-liter four.
The leaf blowers tested receive their blow from a 50.8cc two-stroke air-cooled single-cylinder engine for the Echo and a 30cc four-stroke engine for the Ryoby. Which pollutes more? Read More >
Toyota will still be #3 in cars made this year, but in terms of profitability, it has become an also-ran. Toyota shares that fate with their Japanese peers at Nissan and Honda. The Nikkei[sub] tabulated yen-denominated group earnings of 10 major automakers worldwide for the July-September quarter and comes to the conclusion: Read More >
Would you like to know how to build one of the world’s fastest (top speed 202 mph) and most agile (Nordschleife time 7:14.64) supercars? If you want to have a look at how the Lexus LFA is built, then you need to buy one. As part of the ownership experience, you become access to the “LFA Works” at the Motomachi plant in Toyota City, and you can witness how your car is made. At upwards of $375,000 MSRP for the car, this will probably also be one of the world’s most expensive factory tours. Fiscally responsible as we are, Thetruthaboutcars.com brings you a miniature Motomachi. Let the tour begin … Read More >
Here it is: the Alfa-based new small car to be known as the Dart. There will be three engines, detailed after the jump. For Mopar small-car fans, however, the most important and interesting part isn’t the car itself; it’s where the car will be made.
Remember those movies where the ‘bad guy’ would take a driver hostage and, “Whoa! Where did that random roadblock come from?!” After some pleasantries from a naive officer, the car would be waved through and the action would continue.
I’m not sure if those were old James Cagney movies or a more contemporary Cheech & Chong flick. But I do know that the holidays are coming and that many towns and cities will be orchestrating random roadblocks to ferret out the intoxicated and the illegal.
My question to the B&B is, “When, if ever, should there be random roadblocks applied towards the driving public?”
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