Riding on strong pickup truck and sedan sales, Chrysler Group and Ford Motor Co. both posted 12% overall sales increases from last August. It was Chrysler’s 41st straight year to year monthly increase. A number of manufacturers’ sales were constrained by tight inventory of models in high demand.

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Calling out one’s prediction for Mitsubishi’s demise is an easy activity that requires one to put little at stake. With a stale product lineup, sagging sales and nothing on the horizon save for a B-Segment hatchback, Mitsubishi’s future looks bleak. But that’s not the main reason why I am pessimistic about the brand’s future in America.

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Europe’s car market is still a good half-decade away from making a recovery, according to Ford’s top man in Europe. Reuters quotes Stephen Odell, Ford’s European CEO, as anticipating a $1.8 billion loss in Europe this year, stating

“There are indications that an end of the decline may come in the second half of this year. However, a recovery of the market, we estimate, will take at least five to six years.”

After closing multiple plants and cutting thousands of jobs in response to major overcapacity issues and declining demand, Odell stated that he anticipated no further restructuring moves on the continent.

Toyota, which faces increased competition for its midsize Camry in the heart of the U.S. car market, says that it will try to hold the line on prices and incentives while still trying to keep bragging rights as the best selling car in America. At the same time, Ford is ramping up production of the Fusion, which is in short supply, and will be trying to keep transaction prices high as it increases supply. Read More >

Obviously this isn’t the new Lexus GX460. Obviously. You know that because there’s no Predator grille up front. This is actually the 2014 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado. Talk about being visually challenged. It looks sort of like a developmentally handicapped chipmunk. But if you’d like to see the Lexus GX460, that’s fine too. I just kind of wanted to ease you in to the whole thing. Are you ready? Okay, one… two… three…
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Long-time TTAC readers will recall that some time ago, I accidentally became embroiled in a Facebook-wall argument with Motor Trend editor (and TTAC alum) Jonny Lieberman. When Jonny’s best friend and boss, Edward Loh, quite sensibly leapt to his defense, I said a lot of mean things that I probably should have just thought quietly to myself. Sometimes I forget that it’s not my job to make sure other people adhere to particular standards, ethical, aesthetic, or otherwise. I’ll do a better job of remembering that in the future.

As part of TTAC Homecoming, I’m featuring one of Jonny’s videos. In this episode of “The One”, Jonny pretends to be a British auto journalist as he drives the Challenger SRT-8 “Core” around what I think is probably the Streets of Willow. While I will freely admit that this sort of automotive journalism is not for me — the last straw on the proverbial camel’s back is probably when Jonny talks about his “good friend” Ralph Gilles, I’m of the opinion that our readers, not the PR people, should be our good friends — it’s definitely unique and it’s all part of the MT YouTube channel which, I am reliably informed, is the biggest automotive media source in North America. Not bad for a guy who used to write here for free, huh?

Sources tell us that Nissan and Cummins will make a joint announcement Tuesday regarding a diesel engine for the next-generation Titan. Our sources suggest the powertrain could be either a Chinese-made 4-cylinder engine or alternately a 5.0L V8. Currently, Ram is the only truck maker to offer a Cummins powertrain. Nissan recently hired Fred Diaz, Ram’s former CEO, to head up Nissan Division’s day-to-day operations.

Say it with me in the Don LaFontaine voice:

IN A WORLD…

WHERE EVERY SOURCE OF “PREMIUM” HAS BEEN EXHAUSTED…

AND MASS-PRODUCED GARBAGE IS REBRANDED AS LUXURY GOODS FOR AN INCREASINGLY FECKLESS, IGNORANT, AND NAIVE UPPER MIDDLE CLASS…

A BRAND SHALL RISE…

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The Internet’s alive with schadenfreude regarding ROTA wheels. The company recently warned consumers that fake ROTA wheels were being manufactured in China and distributed in several of the markets in which ROTA has a presence. This has made a lot of people laugh because ROTA themselves are considered to be “copiers” or “counterfeiters”.

Your humble author has been racing on ROTA wheels since 2008, as seen above in a rather hilarious-in-retrospect incident featuring a spinning open-cockpit racer and my Neon. Naturally, I have an opinion about this.

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The Volkswagen Group announced that global July sales for VW branded vehicles were down half a percent from last year, to 466,100. Reuters reported that July joins March 2013 as the second monthly decline this year.

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For the fourth consecutive month, Canadian auto sales increased in July 2013. An extra 10,600 units translated to a 7% increase, the second-best improvement so far this year. Passenger car volume, which travelled in the wrong direction in the first half of 2013, jumped 11% in July.

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Normally this is something I would have saved for our “TTAC Staff” news items, but I’m the arrival of the Mercedes-Benz GLA is significant. We’ve reached the event horizon for compact crossovers and their global proliferation.

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Sales of passenger vehicles in China were up 11% in July as new assembly plants have opened and as dealers cut prices to clear out inventory before 2014 model year cars start arriving. The state sponsored China Association of Automobile Manufacturers says that wholesale deliveries of automobiles, SUVs and multipurpose vehicles were up to 1.24 million units in July, beating analysts’ expectations. Among the companies that have opened up assembly plants this year in China are Ford, PSA Peugeot Citroen and Chinese owned Volvo. Read More >

After a continuing effort to reduce reliance on fleet sales in the U.S. market, all three domestic American automakers reported declining fleet sales in July while they were up significantly at Nissan, Toyota and Hyundai-Kia. Chrysler fleet sales were down 36 percent from the same period last year, Ford was down 9 percent and GM down 6 percent. In terms of units, the domestic brands’ fleet sales were down 15,300 vehicle. Meanwhile, sales to fleets were up 34% at Toyota, up 43% at Hyundai-Kia Automotive and a whopping 87 percent at Nissan’s North American operations. Read More >

After abnormally high GM commercial van sales results in the United States a year ago, it wasn’t surprising to see dramatic year-over-year sales declines reported by the Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana in July 2013.

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