The China Association of Auto Manufacturers (CAAM) is confident that  total auto sales in China may reach up to 16 million units, says Global Times. They seem to be unfazed by the recent cooling-off. (Read More…)

Now that at least partial civility has returned, with Congress having been officially notified that no ghosts were found in any Toyota machines, and that “the evidence points to a preponderance of cases where people who claimed unintended acceleration were pressing the wrong pedal,” it’s time to ratchet-down the tension on both sides.

In diplo-speak, that’s called “confidence-building measures,” or CBMs for short (not to be mistaken for ICBMs.) Toyota is performing CBMs. In a country that is suspect of  building ICBMs. (Read More…)

Times must be good again. Rarely has the bidding for a down and out automaker been so hot as for distressed Ssangyong in Korea. Today was the deadline for putting in binding for a majority stake in the sorry little thing. Two of the six presumptive bidders did a cop-out.

Ssangyong has been under court-led bankruptcy protection since early 2009. Today, at 0600 Zulu the bids had to be in. No messing around like with Opel in Berlin, there are Korean courts involved. (Read More…)

Chinese Automakers are worried that the formerly insane growth rates suddenly has reached levels of relative normalcy, what with total vehicle sales in July up only 14.4 percent.

What to do? Quick! Nissan came up with a novel idea: (Read More…)

Range anxiety. The performance angst and penis envy of the new millennium. So you want to be nice to the planet. You no longer want to desecrate dead dinosaurs. You want to plug in and tune out.

But you also want visit grandpa and grandma who live 150 miles away, and you don’t want to overstay your welcome with an orange cord dangling out of the window. What to do? It’s so simple, that we wonder why nobody has thought of it: (Read More…)

Pop quiz time: Which country is GM’s largest market? Easy. China. By a wide margin. Buick is kept alive because China is Buick country, and for raw numbers, there are the gadzillions of cheap Wuling vans, bought and reviled by farmers and small businesses.

Now for the tougher question: Name the three largest markets of Chevrolet, worldwide. (Read More…)

Everybody in the Japanese auto biz (and who’s not in the auto biz in Japan, except my friends who, but that’s for another day), everybody in the Japanese auto biz has their eye on the sky. Why? Because the sky is soon to drop. On September 30, government subsidies for purchases of “environmentally friendly vehicles” (read pretty much any new vehicle that passes Japanese rules) will expire. Everybody expects a mad dash in August and September, and in October: Whammo. Down comes the sky. (Read More…)

Ooops. Time to send our patent-pending TTAC China sales oracle on vacation. Send the China Automotive Technology & Research Center (and Bloomberg) right with them. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) has given the official word on Chinese car sales in July 2010. And they are down. Way down. (Read More…)

When we reported that FAW will revive the monstrous Red Flag CA7600L limousine, it received mixed reviews. Some wanted it sight unseen. Others puked in the corner. Ever since I arrived in China, my secret wish had been to own the real thing, the huge handmade Red Flag car that luminaries used to drive down Chang’an Avenue. I had been told they don’t exist anymore. I had been lied to. (Read More…)

Doesn’t it bug you when other countries give their carmakers money? Doesn’t it bug you a hell of a lot when other countries give their carmakers money with they express  purpose to increase exports? Shouldn’t those felonious countries be dragged in front of the WTO and shot? Well, there are exceptions. (Read More…)

Yesterday, Cammy asked what could be the ugliest car. She said  “currently on market,” but that limitation that was soon forgotten. Being a customer centric blog, we opened it up to the ugliest of all times. And who knows, ugly as they are, they still might be  “on market,” looking for a buyer with a vision problem. Or a warped sense of humor. And with this, we present to you:  TTAC’s Top Ugly Car Picks Pics. The Best and the Brightest pick the worst of the worst. (Read More…)

India’s Mahindra & Mahindra is putting in a binding bid to buy a majority stake in troubled South Korean automaker Ssangyong Motor. Ssangyong went bankrupt in 2009 after China’s SAIC dropped the ball. They nearly went up in flames, when militant workers incited a riot and threatened to blow up the paint shop. (Read More…)

Toyota’s capacity utilization at U.S. plants dropped to 60 percent in the second half of 2008 after the economic crisis hit the U.S.  Enough of this.  Utilization is  up to 90 percent already. Next year, Toyota plans to run its N.A. factories at full tilt. More than that: Workers will be doing overtime, work weekend and holiday shifts, says The Nikkei [sub].

Of course, the fact that NUMMI is off-line could also have something to do with it.

Japan’s Internal Affairs Ministry has bad news for Japan’s automakers: Japanese citizens are dumping their cars and take the train. Domestic car ownership has declined for the first time since 1964, with declines particularly pronounced in big cities, report The Nikkei [sub]: “Less-status-conscious city residents are abandoning cars for public transit.” (Read More…)

So far, auto marketers and market analysts have focused on the more than a billion people in China who do not have a car. This will remain a lucrative target for a long time. China Economic Daily has identified another attractive target group. People who already have a car. (Read More…)