Car sales accelerate their decline in Europe. The market for new cars was down fourteen months in a row in November, dropping by 10.3 percent compared with November 2011, says the European manufacturers association ACEA. From January to November, 11.25 million new cars changed hands in the EU, 7.6 percent less than in the same period a year ago. Sales in Europe have not been that bad since 1993. (Read More…)

Volkswagen shows yet again that you are not automatically doomed just because you are a Europe-based carmaker. Its global group sales are up 10.4 percent to 8.29 million units from January to November, after a 11.7 percent rise in November. (Read More…)

Demand for fuel-efficient vehicles remains strong, and the fleet of newly bought cars is taking to the streets getting a better mileage on average than a year before. The cars sold by Hyundai/Kia are most miserly with their fuel, with Volkswagen close behind. Automobiles from Detroit on the other hand stay thirsty. This is the result of TrueCar’s TrueMPG survey. (Read More…)

The bailout of a Volt-producing GM was sold as an investment into a green future, a liberation from the terrorist-supporting Arabs. We have been fooled. The decisive turnaround of the company could be delivered by a new generation of big, gas-guzzling trucks. If successful, the trucks could help recover at least some of the money the tax payer sunk into GM.

Forget the Volt. (Read More…)

Market share by country, passenger vehicles, w/o SUV

The island row does not make headlines anymore in China where people focus on the once in a decade transition of power. Japanese carmakers however still feel the pain. Two countries appear to be the winners: China and Germany. (Read More…)

The world’s largest car market, China, has recovered a bit in November. Automobile sales were up 8.16 percent year-on-year to 1.79 million vehicles, production stood at 1.76 million units, up 3.92 percent, data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) shows. (Read More…)

With the exception of France, European governments offer very little help to their ailing car industries. Fiat hoped that Italy would follow the French example. Today, it received a cold shower instead. Italy’s prime minister Mario Monti “offers car makers sympathy, but no aid,” says Reuters.

Italy has not intervened with financial support for Fiat because its European losses are more than covered by revenue from its Chrysler unit in the United States, the report says.
(Read More…)

HFO-1234yf is a refrigerant that is becoming an industry standard in Europe. Thanks to incentives offered by the Environmental Protection Agency, the refrigerant is likely to be rolled out widely in the United States as well. Honeywell and partner Dupont have a monopoly on the stuff. It also can kill you in more ways than one. Says  Reuters:
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Peugeot will eliminate an additional 1,500 French jobs by 2014, bringing the previously announced 8,000 layoffs close to 10,000, PSA managers told union representatives yesterday. (Read More…)

As predicted a month ago, Daimler did put a board member in charge of its lagging China business. Today, Daimler expanded its Board of Management to eight, and made its new board member and former truck chief Hubertus Troska CEO and Chairman of Daimler Northeast Asia. The job won’t be easy. (Read More…)

With the stroke of a few pens putting signatures under a contract in Moscow today, then Renault-Nissan Alliance has become Russia’s largest automaker. The Alliance took control of AVTOVAZ, maker of the market-leading Lada brand. Lada holds 30 percent of Russia’s rapidly growing car market. (Read More…)

BMW and Boeing will share know-how about making carbon fiber. BMW says it signed a collaboration agreement “to participate in joint research for carbon fiber recycling as well as share manufacturing knowledge and explore automation opportunities.” (Read More…)

A day after GM’s announcement to close down most of its Bochum plant, Germany’s vice chancellor and economy Minister Philipp Rösler blamed GM’s management for Opel’s misery. German carmakers like Volkswagen, BMW or Daimler are relatively unaffected by the European contagion, because they are successful in export markets. “It has been a mistake that Opel was more or less kept out of the growth market China,” Rösler told the Rheinische Post.  “There will be no financial help, because it won’t solve the management problems.” (Read More…)

They are back! Two years ago, a group of Chrysler workers were caught were caught drinking and doobing on their lunch break. Not just that, they were caught on camera by a local TV station. The video went viral, and Chrysler was forthwith associated with quality enhanced by booze and marijuana. 13 workers were fired. Yesterday, they got their jobs back, courtesy of Chrysler’s contract with the UAW. (Read More…)

Last week, we told you to not buy a full-sized GM pickup just yet, and to hold out for big discounts from GM. You did not have to wait long. However, you may want to wait a little more. (Read More…)