Official numbers for July sales are not out yet (the Kraftfahrtbundesamt will report later today aor tomorrow), but Automobilwoche [sub] heard from the usually reliable Verband der Importeure VDIK (German Association of Car Importers) that new registrations dropped in July by 30 percent compared to July 2009. Germans bought 237.500 cars in July. This is bad, but not as bad as it sounds. Read More >
Great artists steal, and I’m obviously inspired by Paul Niedermeyer’s GM’s Deadly Sin series here. I am currently the owner of three Porsches, as pathetic as that may be, and I’ve experienced firsthand the many ways in which Porsche disappoints its fans and buyers. Few companies have been as comprehensively whitewashed by the media and the corporate biographers, but the truth is available to those of us who wish to look a bit harder.
We will start with the big betrayals, of course, and the unassuming fastback you see above represents perhaps the worst of Porsche’s many middle fingers to the customer base. It is a 1999 Porsche 911, known to everyone in the world as the “996”.
From 1964 to 1998, the 911 evolved on an incremental basis. As with the first and last Volkswagen Beetles, there are very, very few parts which survived the thirty-four-year journey unchanged, but there’s an amazing amount of interchangeability. It is possible to “update” a 1971 911T to look just like a 1998 Carrera 2S, and it’s also possible to “backdate” a 1994 911 Carrera to look like a classic 1973 Carrera RS. Both of these offenses against human decency have occurred many times, incidentally. Take a look here to see a rather lovely example of a “964” turned into a “long-hood” 911S, in a color that will be familiar to many TTAC readers.
When the New York Times asked me to write an editorial about the Chevrolet Volt, it never occurred to me that it would be published on the day that Barack Obama toured Michigan’s auto plants touting the success of the auto bailout. Because of this timing, however, my piece was apparently taken as a partisan attack on the White House… and it touched a nerve. How do I know? Because, according to the Washington Examiner, on the Air Force One flight back to Washington D.C., White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs joined a proud tradition that dates back to at least my first year of kindergarten: he made a Niedermeyer-based funny.
“Did you guys ever see ‘Animal House?’ Right?” Gibbs asked reporters on Air Force One. “Remember when they go, ‘Neidermeyer dead?’ I’d say his argument is largely there.”
I always feel a little trepidation about abandoning the internet for a weekend in order to focus on a new car review (2011 Jetta, coming soon), but never in my most paranoid moments did I imagine that I’d come back to find the White House press secretary comparing me to the villain of Animal House.
Your humble editor will be appearing on America’s Nightly Scoreboard on the Fox Business channel today at 7:30 PM Eastern (4:30 PM Pacific) to discuss my NY Times Op-Ed on the Chevrolet Volt.
Yesterday, I wrote about how GM had beaten the French and made them concede benefits in return for job security. Well, it seems that the French got their own back on GM in a round about sort of way. Bloomberg reports that Opel sales in France dropped a massive 30 percent to 6,462 units in July. This doesn’t bode well for Nick Reilly, head of GM’s European division, as he tries to make Opel attractive enough for the corporate mothership to finance a turnaround with American taxpayers’ money. Shall we take a closer look at the French sales figures…? Read More >
TTAC Commentator SexCpotatoes writes:
I lost a car this past weekend. No it wasn’t stolen…worse, it was totaled sitting outside my mechanic’s shop. Let this be a lesson to 18 year old kids everywhere: Don’t Text, or call & drive or you will lose control, spin around and wreck into a car with the passenger side of your early 90’s Dodge Caravan, losing your cell phone out the window. If you chose to leave the scene, the State Highway Patrol will track you down.
The only good thing is that he had valid insurance. My frame is bent because it pushed the bumper over, so I’m pretty sure the insurance company is going to write the car off. Which I had JUST (literally) had the shocks replaced with KYB G/2 Gas-A-Just shocks, two new front window motors put in, & the door lock actuators that had given up were on the list for being done early this week. So I guess I’ll never be getting throttle responsive LED strips put in the opera lights like I was thinking of doing if I ever got the money.
I’m writing Piston Slap to see if anyone has any tips for dealing with the kid’s insurance company. I maintained this car in top mechanical shape, even replaced the rear tail lamps with LED’s and installed a sequential turn signal kit. Sure it had about $500 or so worth of rust repair needed, but it was a great car. The insurance company is probably going to low-ball me. My mechanic said they should offer me about 3-4 G’s, but on a ’91 Grand Marquis with only 114,000 mi.? I’ve got other people at work telling me I’ll see $5-700 offered, max. There are only 3 cars within 300 miles of me for sale on AutoTrader. If I expand the search to 500 mi. & include ever car of this body style ’88-’91 the avg. price works out to $2900 regardless of mileage. EBay doesn’t have any ’91s for sale but their range of sold prices is $452-3988 (which makes the average $2225.) NADA & KBB wholesale numbers are not promising.
So I ask you, Sajeev and the Best & Brightest, any advice?
Hot summer. Hot deals. Time to clear out the lot for the 2011 models. Bloomberg figures that July sales broke all records since last August’s short-lived cash-4-clunkers frenzy. Eight analysts, polled by Bloomberg’s, predict a July SAAR of 11.9 million.
Real numbers will be released tomorrow, and TTAC will be there for the blow-by-blow.
In the meantime, all indicators are in the top band. Read More >
In the market for a new Toyota Corolla? Now is the time. Your friendly Toyota dealer will lease you a well-equipped Toyota Corolla for just $189 a month for three years. With a little shopping around, your monthly payments can be below $150. This may be a great deal for you. “For Toyota, the deal could be a financial disaster,” reports an aghast Freep. “To keep customers coming to its showrooms amid a series of embarrassing recalls, Toyota has been offering some of its best leasing terms in years.” Read More >
It’s that time of the month again, and welcome to another episode of Chinese Numerology. As it has become a TTAC tradition, the China Automotive Technology & Research Center jumps the gun again with an off-the-wall number. Shameless Bloomberg prints it and reports that “retail deliveries of cars, sport-utility vehicles and multipurpose vehicles rose 15.4 percent last month from a year earlier to 822,300, the China Automotive Technology & Research Center said in a statement today. That compared with 10.9 percent growth in June.” No, it did not. The CATRC is known for pretty good safety research and for awfully wrong numbers. You can safely ignore them, along with the rest of that Bloomberg tale. Read More >
Red light cameras are becoming less popular among municipal leaders in California. On Monday, the Yucaipa city council voted unanimously to cancel its photo enforcement contract with Redflex Traffic Systems of Australia. The previous week, Costa Mesa officially pulled the plug on its automated ticketing machines.
When you hear “McLaren” mentioned during Formula One races, do you sometimes want one? Now you can. Street legal. And a steal for only $280,000 MSRP. To make that dream possible, McLaren group has taken on £40 million ($63m) worth of loans from HSBC to finance the construction of a new factory in Woking, Surrey. The new factory will be the home of McLaren’s new super car, the MP4-12C (catchy name!). McLaren is forecasting to build 1,000 units in the first year of production, but within five years, McLaren is hoping to be building 4,000 units per year. One of the main selling points of the MP4-12C is the fact it’ll be able to get to 124mph in 10 seconds. It even has air brakes, implements usually used to bring jet fighters to a stop. Read More >
With all the hubbub over Volvo, it’s easy to forget that Geely already owns a foreign carmaker: Managnese Bronze, the company that makes London’s iconic black-cabs. Well, Geely doesn’t “own” Maganese, they hold a 19.97 percent share. That is about to change. Read More >
Did we say last Thursday that the sale of Volvo from Ford to Geely „could close as soon as next week?” Did I believe it? Did I live in Chine for six years? Honestly, there was an element of surprise when, this Beijing afternoon, my inbox made that noise and there was an email from Ford, titled “Ford Motor Company Completes Sale of Volvo to Geely.” The deal is closed. Volvo is Chinese. Read More >
One can always count on the Japanese to be first with a precise sales count for the preceding month. New car sales in Japan rose for the 12th straight month in July, up 15.5 percent compared to July of the previous year. Customers bought 333,403 units in July, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association told The Nikkei [sub]. Read More >
The Korea Times reports that the Seoul Central District court has ordered the union of a subcontractor of Hyundai-Kia to remove a picture from the walls of the union headquarters. A court order? To take down a picture? Why? Read More >
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