You’d think with an owner by the name of Fiat, Chrysler would be knee-deep in small cars. Just the opposite is true. The Freep complains:
“Chrysler, for all of its recent improvements, is missing out on one of the biggest opportunities of the year: a chance to grab a larger slice of the small-car segment while Japanese automakers try to rebuild their car supplies after the March earthquake and tsunami that disrupted operations.”
Someone is really trying to shop around Opel. Or maybe it’s just a tactic to cow German unions into submission? Two weeks ago, Volkswagen and the inevitable Chinese were floated as possible buyers. What other bogeymen could there be? Ah, yes, the Koreans! (Read More…)
Our friends at Saabsunited are slacking off. They used to have cameras trained on the Saab plant in Trollhättan that allowed them to (prematurely) report the return of the workers to the idling plant. Now they had to learn out of the press that the plant will remain closed for a few more weeks. From Reuters all the way to Car and Van Weeks, they all report that Saab workers will stay at home for another two weeks, or thereabouts. The negotiatations with the darned suppliers are ongoing. What else is new? Well, Saabsunited was able to provide the news that the news are true, and that “no definite date for a production restart has been set.” To make up for the temporary breakdown of communication, Saabsunited was allowed to listen-in on a conference call with American suppliers. However, they “can’t reveal specifics.” So why listen in at all? I know, the matter is getting old and tedious, but while we are at it … (Read More…)
Remember how our man in Brazil became infatuated with the “anti-retro” Citroen DS line? Remember the DS5 pictures Herr Niedermeyer found? Well, here is the production version. And a chance to polish your French.
Do you think that cars have lost their soul? Nina Tortosa, General Motors aerodynamicist for the Voltec/E-Flex programs, says that cars look more and more alike because “we all have to abide by the same laws of physics. It doesn’t matter if we don’t like them,” Nina Tortosa told WardsAuto.
Mere mortals have to contend with two certainties – death and taxes. Car designers are faced with a third one: Cd, or the drag coefficient.
(Read More…)
On Thursday, the J.D. Power and Associates’ initial quality study will be published. If you pay the hefty fees J.D. Power charges, you get an advance copy, along with much more data than just the list J.D. Power releases to the public. Last year, Ford ranked highest among all non-luxury brands. It looks like someone is softening the blow that could come from a big drop down the rankings. (Read More…)
Jacques Séguéla, a French photographer and founder of the advertising agency RSCG supposedly once said: “Don’t tell my mother I’m in advertising, she thinks I’m a pianist in a brothel”. It must have been an exclusive brothel. Photographers, especially for cars, are paid higher and are sought after more than exquisite courtesans. Fees of $1,000 per hour are not unheard of. What do they do for that much money? They make the cars look good. (Read More…)
Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota, Daihatsu, and Hino) is expected to land with a thud on place 3 in the global ranking of automakers in 2011. I came to this conclusion after several telephone calls and a flurry of emails. In the end, Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco gave it to me (as requested) in writing:
“When it comes to the current CALENDAR YEAR, on a consolidated basis (TMC, Daihatsu and Hino combined), TMC is now (as of June 10) forecasting production of 6.8 million units.”
The avalanche of telephone calls and emails was triggered by an article in The Nikkei [sub] today, that had left the opposite impression. We’ll get to that article in a minute. First, the table: (Read More…)
A chicken could become as unreachable as caviar in many poor countries, warns a study of the OECD and the United Nations. Chicken is projected to rise in price by 30 percent in the next ten years – inflation adjusted. Other staple foods such as corn, sugar or cooking oil are seen rising in price by twenty percent. Why? On one side of the ledger is higher demand, mainly from China and India. On the other side: „Increasingly, the crop doesn’t end up in the pot, but as fuel in the tanks of cars,“ says the German magazine Der Spiegel. (Read More…)
Foreign suppliers could produce the final nail in the coffin of struggling Saab, the head of a European supplier association fears. “I think that the patience has more or less run out,” Lars Holmqvist, CEO of CLEPA, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, said to Swedish news agency TT [via The Local]
Foreign suppliers “probably have less feeling for Saab than many Swedish companies which have grown up with Saab in a different way. Many also have a personal connection to Saab because they might have driven one at some point in their life. But the foreign suppliers are tougher,” Holmqvist, himself a Swede, told TT. (Read More…)
Yesterday, The Nikkei was all worked up about a takeover of Russia’s largest automaker AvtoVaz by the Renault-Nissan Alliance. The Nikkei became so excited that it forgot simple logic. More on that here. The Nikkei had it on not so good authority that Nissan would soon buy 25 percent of the Russians, and together with Renault’s 25 percent and change, Japan and France would finally achieve what had been tried before: Rule Russia. We had our doubts.
Do you hear the big hissing sound? That’s the lukewarm air coming out of the story. (Read More…)
The Volkswagen Group is hitting on all available cylinders, and there are many: For the first time in recorded Volkswagen history, VW delivered more than 3 million units in the first five months, 3.37 million, to be exact. Compared to the same period last year, that is an increase of +14.6 percent. These gains are steady and continous. In May, VW sold 708,900 units worldwide, up 17.4 percent compared to May 2010.
Around the world, Volkswagen’s January-May sales were as follows: (Read More…)
At today’s annual stockholders meeting in Toyota City, Toyota wrapped up most of the SUA and recall troubles that had plagued the company last year. Says The Nikkei [sub]: “When asked about the fallout from the recall of millions of vehicles over the past couple of years amid quality concerns, executive vice president Shinichi Sasaki thanked the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for clearing Toyota of some of the most serious allegations about defects in its vehicles.“
However, there is one man Toyota still holds a grudge against: (Read More…)
Europeans are either tired of their old cars, or the effects of the cash for clunkers largesse are finally getting digested, or both. Whatever the reason, new passenger car registrations increased by 7.1 percent in the EU in May, as data released by the European Auto Manufacturers Association ACEA shows. (Read More…)
A month ago, our friends at Carnewschina spotted an odd creation in Kumming, a Chinese city that is famous for other products than cars. The owner of a hair salon (we don’t know what kind of a hair salon, some hair salons in China are famous for other services than hair cutting) was infatuated with the new Lamborghini Aventador. What he didn’t like was the $968,426 sticker price (MSRP, landed in China, taxes included, and yes, you did read right.) So the hairdresser called on the local roadside sheet metal fabricator, showed him a picture and said: “Can you make that?” (Read More…)
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