It’s obvious that Suzuki isn’t surviving the global downturn on US sales. Stateside, the Japanese automaker’s sales fell over 50 percent last year, with only 38,695 vehicles sold. Globally, Suzuki sold 908,302 units, meaning fewer than one out of 20 Suzukis sold worldwide were in the US market. That’s no big surprise as Suzuki has long focused on developing markets for growth. What is surprising is that Suzuki’s Indian joint venture Maruti actually outproduced its parent company, racking up 966,399, of which about 130k were exported. Wilder still, Maruti sold 967,581 units last year, more than it could produce and more than Suzuki produced worldwide. Suzuki owns 54 percent of Maruti, the best-selling brand in the Indian market by a healthy margin. The Indian market grew by 19 percent last year, while the Japanese market fell by ten percent.
Category: News Blog
Volkswagen’s recent go-fast specials like the Golf R32 and New Beetle Rsi have typically been developed by a little-known branch of the automaker known as Volkswagen Individual. But performance isn’t necessarily VW Individual’s main focus, as the sub-firm also builds to-order customization of VW products, from police specials to to custom-built stretched Phaetons, and helps VW R&D on new products. In order to focus its efforts, VW is spinning the “R”-vehicle development program into its own unit: R GmbH. “BMW has its M, Mercedes has AMG, and our sibling Audi has Quattro. This new R division will be our Quattro,” an unnamed VW exec tells Inside Line. You know, because Audi and its Quattro performance division isn’t owned by Volkswagen or anything.
Though Toyota is getting the brunt of the attention for what are apparently faulty gas pedals, the fact that the problem has been traced to supplier CTS means that Toyota isn’t the only OEM that’s shutting down production until a fix for the pedals is found. Bloomberg reports that Ford’s JV with Jiangling Motors in Nanchang, China has halted production of the Ford Transit commercial van, after switching over to CTS-supplied pedals in December. “We think it’s pretty isolated, but we are aggressively running it to ground,” Ford’s Alan Mulally told analysts in today’s financial results conference call. No other Transits are said to be affected, and Jiangling says that they have not received any reports of unintended acceleration for its Transits.
An automated enforcement company is turning to an unelected branch of government to re-write Arizona law regarding proper service for traffic tickets. Redflex Traffic Systems of Melbourne, Australia convinced John D. Wintersteen to file a petition earlier this month that asked the Arizona Supreme Court to modify the state’s rules of civil procedure to better accommodate red light cameras and speed cameras.
“Unlike the majority of other jurisdictions that have implemented photo enforcement, Arizona’s rules governing service of process have not been simplified to accommodate the unique challenges presented by the widespread use of photo enforcement equipment,” the petition prepared by Redflex lawyers stated. “Rule 4.1 does not currently allow defendants in photo enforcement proceedings to be validly served with a copy of the summons and pleading by first-class mail.”
The Ford Motor Company [full results in PDF format here] earned net income of $2.7b last year, on pre-tax operating profits of $454m. The company enjoyed a strong fourth quarter with $868m in net income and an after-tax operating profit of $1.6b (excluding special items). Ford Motor Credit [full release in PDF format here] earned $1.3b in net income and $2b in pre-tax operating profit last year. Ford Credit’s receivables were down at the end of 2009 compared to 2008, with $93b receivable compared to $116b at the end of 2008, and leverage of 7.3 to 1.
GM is cautiously putting its toes back in the shark-infested waters of Europe and plans to sell Cadillacs and Corvettes to EU buyers, says Das Autohaus. When their previous importer, Kroymans in the Netherlands, went belly-up in summer of 2009, sales had ceased. At the time, GM had more pressing matters on their plate. Read More >
Here is a round-up of the Toyota news that is flowing furiously out of all news outlets. Everybody, from the Wall Street Journal to Al Jazeera weighs in on the issue. Grab a cup of coffee. Or something stronger.
More recalls: Toyota announced late Wednesday that it must recall another 1.1 million vehicles “to address the risk that floor mats could trap accelerator pedals and cause bursts of sudden acceleration,” says Reuters. According to Reuters, “Toyota now has recalled nearly 6m vehicles for problems with the accelerators used across its lineup.” This is not counting the 2m vehicles in Europe that will be recalled.
EU recall official: Toyota Motor said today that it definitely will be expanding the recall to Europe, says AFP via Google. “Toyota will implement a recall in Europe,” said company spokesman Paul Nolasco. “We are still not sure about the models and the number of vehicles.” Initial estimates, published by The Nikkei [sub], spoke about another 2m cars in Europe. Plants will not be closed in Europe, because different parts already are being used in new production.
Recall spreads to China: China’s quality watchdog agency said “bu hao” to Toyota and ordered the recall of “at least 75,000 vehicles in China,” says London’s Times. Read More >
I apologize about the irregularity of the CC Clue. I’ve been cranking up the production of CCs substantially, hopefully without the same loss of quality and consequences as Toyota. So sometimes I’m up late writing, and it’s too late for the Clue, or I’m too tired. But today I set a personal best: wrote this morning’s Malibu CC and tomorrow’s mystery CC all by 4 PM! Time for quick Clue and head for a hunting walk beofre it gets dark. Enough about that; the Rabbit’s radio hole was going to be recognized by a former loving owner, and that would be Chuck Goolsbee. I promised him a prize of an un-rusty Toyota Tercel tailgate. I guess I better take some tools along, but I know I won’t have to walk far; there’s several a few blocks away.
Back when GM was going through its recent bankruptcy bailout-related unpleasantness, Toyota’s Yasuhiko Ichihashi told the AP that “Toyota was only hoping for an overall recovery for the U.S. auto industry, including GM.” Months later, then-Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe even suggested that “it’s not something we would bring up on our own, and we don’t know enough about the restructuring plan, [but] if some talk about supporting GM comes up, we would like to consider it earnestly.” Now that Toyota is in a spot of PR trouble over its unintended acceleration woes, you might expect that GM would show the same class and tact that Toyota did just months ago… but you’d be wrong.
BMW is playing some PR roulette at the DC Auto Show [via Autoblog Green] with a “study” ostensibly proving that people who lease an electric MINI are “delighted” with the car. As if self-selection weren’t already an issue in a study of people who voluntarily spend $850 per month on a small hatchback, the 57 respondents (out of 450 MINI E guinea pigs) were (you guessed it) self-selected. Why the University of California Davis allows its name to appear on this blatant PR fabrication is difficult to fathom. Especially considering the MINI E rollout was a disaster, the product was compromised, and there are plenty of MINI E critics out there.
Japan surely can use some good news, what with pedal-gate and Standard & Poors warning that they might downgrade Japan’s sovereign debt rating from stellar to less than stellar. CSM to the rescue: They think, vehicle sales in Japan could grow by 4 percent in 2010. Honto? What’s driving sales go motto-motto? Government stimulus money. Read More >
The search for “potential synergies” between Alfa Romeo and Maserati has already yielded its first bitter fruits, as Auto Motor und Sport reports that a special edition Alfa will be built as a loaner for Maserati owners who bring their cars in for service. Because there’s nothing Sergio Marchionne can’t fix with a special edition…
Mamma mia! Fiat’s order book looks “worse than in the beginning of 2009, when we were deep in the economic crisis,” said Sergio Marchionne. Cosa facciamo? Eccola: Fiat will close all of their Italian plants for two weeks, from February 22 to March 5, reports Das Autohaus.
That doesn’t bode well for the company. Read More >
CSM Worldwide thinks that car sales in Europe are in for a nasty drop as governments in the West discontinue scrappage schemes that propped up demand in 2009. That would the third consecutive drop.
CSM is forecasting that 2010 sales in Europe will fall 7.9 percent to 16.7 million units. According to CSM, this “follows declines of 13.4 percent in 2009 and 5.1 percent in 2008, when total European sales were 21.0 million units.”
Careful with those numbers. Read More >
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