We must be going into the last week of the month: The sales forecasts are beginning to arrive.  In January, some 900,000 cars should change hands, 10 percent more than January 2011, but a whopping 30 percent below December. GM will be the only major automaker with a minus, both before the growth number and the market share. (Read More…)

Today, “Italian automaker Fiat rolled out an introspective 90-second video for its new Panda compact car on the internet,” says Reuters. The wire claims that the ad is “aimed at tapping into the austerity zeitgeist.”

The commercial is inspired by last year`s “Imported from Detroit” ad that struck a chord with American buyers who want the good times to be rolling again. Now, Fiat wants to do a repeat in Italy. (Read More…)

The Porsche-Piëch clan, ca. 1942. Grandfather Ferdinand Porsche, brother Ernst Piëch, sister Louise Piëch and mother Louise Piëch-Porsche. Ferdinand Piëch (nicknamed "Burli") is sitting in the grass on the left.

Volkswagen does not own Porsche yet. For all intents and purposes, however, Porsche is part of Volkswagen. Volkswagen executives give orders from Porsche board seats. Porsche engineers need to consult Volkswagen Group R&D departments. Insular solutions at Porsche require a written permission from Wolfsburg.

“Actually, Piech and his minion, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn, could leave it at that. The integration of both enterprises has progressed so far, that is does not make a difference whether Porsche morphs into a Volkswagen division, or remains legally independent.

Actually.” (Read More…)

After having been more or less luckless (Lupo, Fox ..)  in the minicar category, Volkswagen appears to have finally found a winner with its autocorrect-busting Up! In Germany, the two-door city car immediately took first place in its class. In December, the Up! sold nearly the same as the former class champs Renault Twingo and Toyota Aygo sold together (see table.) To make backseat drivers more comfortable, Volkswagen introduces a four-door version of the Up! (Read More…)

Rare earth free electric motor

China is learning an interesting lesson: Only take a hostage if the other side wants it back. According to Japan’s Kyodo Newswire [sub], Toyota “has acquired technology to produce hybrid and electric vehicles without using rare earths and may begin doing so in about two years.” (Read More…)

Reporters gasped at the $160,000 a hand-built custom Ford Mustang went for at the auction in Scottsdale. The same reporter nearly had a heart attack over the $4.2 million a rare 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Alloy Gullwing fetched ( it could have been $4.62 million, accounts by the same reporter differ.)

The media missed the sensation of the day: An oil burning six year old Jetta sold for $35,000. (Read More…)

According to media reports and TTAC, all kinds of high-powered parties are interested in sucking the last bone marrow out of the corpse of bankrupt Saab. China’s Youngman supposedly is ready to plunk down  a billion Euro (or $1.3 billion) for the carcass. In Turkey, Brightwell Holdings “will make a bid very shortly, there’s no question,” as Brightwell board member Zamier Ahmen told Bloomberg. The trouble is: Nobody is bidding. (Read More…)

Yesterday, I wrote about the Melbourne Grand Prix and its inability to solicit cars for its stars for the purpose of a celebrity race. Would you believe this made me an intellectual property infringer? No? Just wait.

This morning, I find an email from a tej@transportbrokergroup.co.uk who writes: (Read More…)

It used to be that car companies would kill to have their cars seen with stars. That seems to be changing if a frightening development in Melbourne is an indicator.  The Melbourne F1 Grand Prix used to attract spectators and sponsors with a celebrity race. The celebs of course did not race their own cars. To make it a fair and even-handed race where only driving skill decides, they were handed cars supplied by a sponsor. This year, the luminary laps are a scratch. Oh, there is no shortage of stars. There just aren’t any cars. The organizers could not find a sponsor that was able to supply the more than 25 cars needed. (Read More…)

Do you live in the Boston, Hartford, New York, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, or San Francisco MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area)? Do you see yourself as an adventurer and explorer? In that case, BMW wants to talk to you. BMW has pegged adventurers and explorers as “front-runners of innovation and advocates for sustainability.” These are the people BMW wants to “recruit” for a “field trial” of its  Active E electric vehicles.

It will be a transformative experience. You will be turned into a green lab rat. (Read More…)

The  car industry has high hopes for the young. Automakers have invested and are investing billions into hybrid and electric vehicle, so far with lackluster success. In the U.S., the take rate of hybrid cars is actually coming down from a 2.78 percent peaklet in 2009. The 0.14 percent market share of EVs is too small to move the plotter’s needle. To recoup the investment, new tech vehicles have to be sold in more meaningful numbers. It is the generation Y that is supposed to set the needle in motion. A study of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu promises that Generation Y will make a humongous difference.

Generation Y could be the “generation that leads us away from traditional gasoline-powered vehicles,” Craig Giffi, who is in charge of  Deloitte’s  annual survey of Gen Y auto consumers, told the L.A. Times. The paper summarizes: (Read More…)

The website for midwives the voice of union activists Labornotes reports that a South Korean Hyundai Motor worker set himself afire Sunday after management refused his request to slow down the line. The 44-year-old unionist, Shin Sung-hun, is in critical condition. According to the site, Shin poured paint thinner over and set fire to himself . (Read More…)

I always encourage my young and old colleagues to research TTAC the ancient way: By phone, not by email or Twitter. (Not to mention the common research method invented by Messrs. Cut & Paste.) You find the oddest things when calling around.

Today, while researching the alleged Volkswagen v.v. GM catfight, a source at GM handed me this cute little table of bestselling Chevrolets around the world. (Read More…)

Don’t you sometimes want more attention? Aching to simply blow people away? The people at Banshee Horn LLC might just have the thing for people who want to be noticed. It is called the Banshee Horn, and it does what the name says. The folks promise in an email to TTAC that the gadget helps you “warn motorists up to 3 blocks away” with a pain-inducing 139 decibel horn. (Read More…)

Yesterday, I wrote about Toyota allegedly cranking up Japanese production of its new Aqua a.k.a. Prius C to 30,000 a month. After I did this, jargon vigilantes protested the use of “engineering feat.” Keep protesting. Today, we will see why the Prius C is an engineering feat. We will also learn how the height of batteries and gas tanks can influence aerodynamics. (Read More…)