NPR reports that Hyundai’s Assurance Plan, which is widely credited for much of that automaker’s success since the financial meltdown, has been taken advantage of fewer thn 100 times since it was instituted a year ago. In that time, Hyundai has sold over 435k vehicles, meaning the program has cost surprisingly little. Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafic explains:
we treat it almost like a kind of insurance, a kind of social insurance, so we had to make some, you know, financial set-aside for it. And in the end, it ended up being substantially below what our expectations were, thank goodness.
According to Krafic, the program took only 37 days to implement. [Hat Tip: ClutchCarGo]
The Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept, which debuts today at the NAIAS, is a look at the new Cadillac flagship which goes into production in early 2012. The XTS’s brief is to replace the moribund DTS and STS sedans, a task that Cadillac desperately needs done properly if it wants to be taken seriously as a luxury competitor. So why is the XTS concept little more than a glorified Buick LaCrosse?
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will issue a final rule next month that will force states to spend an estimated $1.2 billion to implement the “511” traffic information hotline championed by former Vice President Al Gore. So far, thirty-two states have established telephone numbers that provide callers with pre-recorded traffic updates. The rule will standardize the data formats and required features that will apply to all the states, beginning with coverage in the top-fifty metropolitan areas.
Up to now, the M.O. of foreign joint ventures operating in China was that precious intellectual property was brought to China, where the working masses would turn it into cars. Now, the Chevrolet Sail marks a, well, change of tide.
Old China hands remember the Buick Sail. For quite a while, the Opel Corsa supermini had popped up all over the world under various guises: Vauxhall Nova, Chevrolet Classic, Holden Barina, Opel Vita, as the Chevy in Mexico, as Swing, Joy, and in China as the Buick Sail. In China, the Sail came down in 2005.
Now, a new Sail is sold in China. Not just made, but developed in China. Read More >
It’s definitely official now. The last word in Chinese vehicle sales has the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM,) and the CAAM has spoken. Vehicle sales in China last year rose 46.2 percent to 13.64m units. This is not surprising, but it is nonetheless reassuring that the 13.6m number TTAC had reported last week was only 40,000 short. It is equally official that China is the world’s largest auto market, ahead of the U.S.A. by 3m units, more or less.
Vehicle sales in December alone rose 91.7 percent from a year earlier to 1.41m units in China, the CAAM said. Passenger car sales jumped 88.7 percent in the last month to 1.1m units. Full-year 2009 China passenger car sales are up 52.9 percent in 2009 to 10.3m. If passenger cars alone would count, then the truck and SUV happy USA would look like a 3rd world country: According to Automotive News [sub], only 5.7m new “passenger cars” drove off U.S. dealers’ lots in 2009, slightly more than half of what the Chinese bought.
Will the sales boom continue in 2010? Not as mad as in 2009, expects the CAAM. The manufacturers association expects growth to continue at a more moderate pace of 10 percent. This would mean 1.36m units in additional sales, or a total of a little less than 15m. Merrill Lynch is a little more bullish and thinks that the Chinese market will grow to 15.5 million vehicles this year, the Nikkei [sub] reports. A horrific thought to those who are scared that Chinese will use all our oil, and that melting polar caps will destroy the value of our waterfront properties. Wait, it’s getting worse. Read More >
Volkswagen and Suzuki aren’t wasting any time in consummating their marriage. VW is thinking of providing its hybrid technology to Suzuki. This is what Ulrich Hackenberg, head of VW’s Forschung und Entwicklung (R&D) told The Nikkei [sub] on the sidelines of the NAIAS in Detroit. As usual for a tight-lipped R&D guy, Hackenberg did not volunteer any details, timing or models.
Unusual for a usually tight-lipped R&D guy, Hackenberg said Suzuki has excellent technologies, including low-cost production know-how, and that the two firms have a lot to learn from each other. He also said VW will support its Japanese partner in China, where Volkswagen has a commanding market share, and where Suzuki needs help.
“What Volkswagen hybrid technology?” you will surely ask. Read More >
We’re going to stay with the finny-grilly theme a bit longer. The not-really-all-that-ugly Datsun F-10 was I.D.’d by DweezilSFV, who if memory serves me right, was a prior winner. Congrats! Let’s see what you all make of this little number.
Ok, it’s not exactly a new phenomena: car company shows a low and slick concept, and the final product looks like an obese baby seal. We took GM to task with its Volt bait-and-switch routine. And now we take on Honda, although probably not quite so ferociously; given that the gap between the CR-Z concept and production version is a tad bit narrower than the Volt Grand (Lie) Canyon. But the Volt was always intended to be a four-seater; not the CR-Z. Therein lies the Honda lie: it’s ok to just chop off the back of a sedan and call it…not good. Read More >
Is the Toyota FT-CH the first car deliberately designed to be a troll? It combines all the trigger elements that have kept servers warm since teh interwebs tubes were first hooked up: French, Low-CO, anti-Global Warming, Hybrid, Prius, Toyota, and Questionable Styling. Did I miss something? Read More >
Despite his genial, affable manner, Alan Mulally is a businessman and, by all accounts, a businessman not to be crossed with. One story goes, when he first started with Ford, he let them know, in the clearest possible terms, “Everybody says you can’t make money off small cars,” he said. “Well, you’d better damn well figure out how to make money, because that’s where the world is going.” Long protected from the brutal rationalisation of the global market, Australia might be about to get a taste of the man’s darker side as he attempts to drag Ford’s Australian ops into the 21st Century. Read More >
Having been told by the Secretary of Transportation that the Chrysler Group’s motley assortment of new trim level names, rebadged Lancias, decal-sporting special editions represents “the cutting edge of developing the kind of products that I think people in this country, and also in other countries, are really going to feel very favorable toward,” CEO Sergio Marchionne apparently thought enough had been said about his struggling bailout baby. As CBS reports, Marchionne suddenly canceled a 45-minute scheduled press availability before he had the chance to confirm LaHood’s astonishing opinion.
One might quite reasonably have expected a smaller, lighter two-passenger variant of the Insight to achieve higher EPA numbers than its bigger brother. Say, like it did in 1989, when the CRX HF pulled a 41/50, compared to the ’89 Civic sedan’s 27/33. But reasonable expectations have been dashed by Honda more often than not lately, as in the Insight’s various shortcomings. But a 31/37/33 mpg combined rating for the new 2011 CRX manual, when the Insight is rated at a 41 combined? Does Honda have a death wish? That highway mileage is the same as the Chevy Cobalt XF, which doesn’t need any stinking battery and seats four. And even the combined mileage is only three mpg better. What gives? Read More >
You might need to click through to the gallery to fully grasp the stunning blandness of its New Coupe Concept, which just debuted at the NAIAS. Volkswagen has said again and again that it plans to take over the American market by screwing its loyal followers and selling out for mainstream appeal. The NCC is the apathy-osis of this philosophy, showing an approach to the sports coupe genre that makes the business of car look like a less glamorous offshoot of the packing materials industry. It’s a hybrid. It’s a “poor man’s A5.” It’s a dust bunny to the Scirocco‘s sandstorm. Most of all though, it’s a sign of how misguided VW’s approach to the US market really is.
We’d heard that Dodge (“The Full-of-Life Brand”) would be re-working its trim levels in order to “take ‘base model’ out of the Dodge vocabulary,” as a company press release puts it. So, they’ve changed the names of trim levels on some Dodge models. First off, note that only certain models get the trim level name change: Caravan will still be sold in SE and SXT trim, and Challenger will still come in the standard SE, R/T and SRT8 trims. Otherwise, each model has its own trim levels: Journey now comes in Express, Hero, Heat, Crew and Uptown trims, Nitro is available in Heat, Detonator and Shock, while Caliber comes in Express, Mainstreet, Heat, Uptown and Rush, while Avenger comes in Express and Heat trim. What the Foxtrot does it all mean? There’s no way we want to break it all down, so surf on over to Kicking Tires for the full breakdown. Needless to say, it’s yet a another marketing mess from the soon-to-be defunct bailout baby named Chrysler Group.
(Curbside Classics paid a quick visit to TTAC Command Central in Portland on Saturday, and came away with a few goodies to share from that CC Elysian Fields this week)
With the presumed return of Alfa to our shores, its easy to forget that it seems like just yesterday (to us oldsters) that Alfa was selling its handsome 164 sedan hereabouts until 1995. To the more youthful here, the 164 may have been something you ogled from the back of the family Caravan on the way to grade school. Regardless; it’s a quickly disappearing part of the street-scape, and has some fascinating history behind that tasty exterior. Read More >
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