These F-words were brought to you by Ford. Yesterday, Ford’s 350 millionth vehicle rolled off the lines. It was a Ford Focus, and an occasion to celebrate an even more auspicious record: The Ford Focus “is the world’s best-selling car for the first half of 2012,” says a Ford press release. Media from Associated Press to Autoblog obediently announced the record. The record went down in a hail of protests. (Read More…)
People keep their eyes on automaker incentives for various reasons. Customers are hunting deals. Analysts hunt carmakers that are sitting on a glut of cars. Incentive numbers don’t always tell the full story, says Edmunds. In August, incentive spend was subdued and stable. Automakers and dealers have become adept in camouflage though, and the reported stability of incentive spending doesn’t factor in some of the “hidden incentives.” (Read More…)
“A model poses beside a car by Beijing-Hyundai during the 15th Chengdu Motor Show (CDMS) in Chengdu City, southwest China’s Sichuan Province,” writes China’s state-owned Xinhua news agency under a spread that is long on long legged girls and short on cars. Well, we aren’t Xinhua. (Read More…)
Predictions for August new car sales scale higher and higher as we approach release day this coming week. Economists polled by Thomson Reuters expect sales to rise as high as 20 percent from a year ago. (Read More…)
Turns out that Fiat wasn’t affected too bad by Serbia’s sudden cash crunch. As reported yesterday, the country is having a hard time coming up €90 million it owes Fiat towards a jointly owned car plant in Kragujevac. Fiat has a richer sugar daddy, and he lives in Brussels. The European Investment Bank sees no reason not to continue disbursing its 500 million euro ($625 million) loan to Fiat, Reuters says. The loan is earmarked for the same plant. (Read More…)
If a Pennsylvania company will get its say, Ford needs to equip its F150 truck with carburetors. Or, at the very least, with something else than its current fuel injection system. TMC Fuel Injection System LLC of Wayne, Pennsylvania, sued Ford for allegedly infringing a TMC patent, Reuters says. (Read More…)
Volkswagen chief Martin Winterkorn heaped salt into the open wounds of Europe’s embattled automakers. In light of the drooping demand, Europe could perfectly manage with 10 fewer plants, Winterkorn said in an interview with Germany’s Handelsblatt. However, don’t you’re your breath on Volkswagen shutting down any of its EU assembly lines. Volkswagen stand behind its European sites “without ifs and buts.” What about Sergio Marchionne’s accusations that Volkswagen is waging a brutal price war in Europe? Winterkorn: “Nonsense.” (Read More…)
Tomorrow, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn will be at a groundbreaking in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese dignitaries in attendance. A plant for high tech DSG transmissions is being built there, using technology that is in high demand in China. So high is the demand that joint venture partner FAW has, according to recent media reports, “systematically and repeatedly” stolen designs of important components such as engines and transmissions. (Read More…)
The united Europe is more and more turning into a divided Europe, at least when it comes to making cars. On one side are the hugely profitable German carmakers Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler and Porsche. On the other side are its loss-making or barely-profitable rivals including Fiat, Peugeot-Citroen, Renault and GM’s Opel. Now, the split drives the two countries apart that started Europe’s unification, France and Germany.
France’s new socialist government wants to punish buyers of bigger cars with huge taxes while lifting the tax burden on smaller cars. The bigger cars are mostly German. (Read More…)
Japan’s carmakers are preparing for the next big one, and move to higher ground, says The Nikkei [sub]. Many Japanese car plants are near or next to the water, some on reclaimed land. Large level tracts are rare in Japan, and by building cars at the waterfront, the ship can come to your loading dock. After the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, perspectives changed. (Read More…)
Carnewschina spotted this looooooooooooog Ford F650 streeeeeeeeetch in front of a swank Beijing hotel. This is a good place to spot outrageous cars in China, sometimes, it feels as if they get imported only to be permanently parked in front of a fivestar. As you can see, even the rope wasn’t long enough to completely rope off the monstrosity. (Read More…)
Volvo’s Chinese owners at Geely encounter something in Europe that is unheard of in China: A drop in car sales. Volvo has to cut production in Sweden by about 10 percent, and will let 200-300 contract workers go, Reuters says. (Read More…)
The U.S. government may have to wait a little more until it sees the money it has sunk into GM. The reverse is true in Serbia. There, Fiat has to wait a little longer for the money owed by the Serbian government.
Wolfsburg’s Über-VW, the Phaeton, will be produced in China. At least if the Chinese car site Auto.163 is correct. The news is coming to you via Chinacartimes, which doubts the article’s veracity, not only because the logic behind Auto.163’s reasoning is a bit backwards. Is it really? (Read More…)
Chinacartimes, the website that monitors the Chinese car market, put its finger on a disturbing new trend in China: Cars adorned with Nazi paraphernalia.“Some Chinese like to dress up in period military costumes and stick WW2 era German military insignia all over their motors,” reports Ash Sutcliffe, the owner/operator of the site. (Read More…)
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