Nissan launched a new generation of its global hatchback, the Note, today. The launch party was held at the Osanbashi Pier in Yokohama, a favorite venue for Tokyo car launches. This reporter has taken the summer off from Tokyo, all I can tell you is what was dispatched from Nissan HQ. (With subtitles.) (Read More…)

The summary execution of Opel chief  Karl-Friedrich Stracke, and the mess this has created, is front page material in the German press today. The fingers point in the direction of Detroit. Detroit has no clear strategy and changes directions like soiled underwear. The fingers also point at an impulsive Dan Akerson who is out of his depth.

According to Germany’s Handelsblatt, the firing of Opel chief Karl-Friedrich Stracke went down like this: (Read More…)

Newly elected French socialist President Francois Hollande told GM’s partner PSA Peugeot Citroen to renegotiate a plan to lay off 8,000 workers. However, Hollande admitted he could not halt Peugeot. Hollande promised government money to “encourage consumers to purchase French-made, environmentally friendly cars,” Reuters reports. Soon he will admit he cannot do that either. The “French made” part is sure to get his government in trouble with the EU. (Read More…)

Opel’s stand-in boss Stephen Girsky demands changes from his workforce. “Our successful revitalization demands from all of us that we accept to do business differently than before, and that we do it quickly,” Girsky wrote in an email to staff, cited by Germany’s BILD Zeitung. How different, remains unsaid. Workers and unions expect a fight and gear up for one. Opel is running out of money. Bankruptcy rears its head. (Read More…)

Also suffering from the European contagion is Ford. The blue oval’s western European are down 10 percent in the first half of 2012, Reuters says. June sales are down a hefty 16.1 percent. (Read More…)

After putting Opel CEO Stracke abruptly out to pasture, one would think that his (allegedly interim) successor Steve Girsky has a new plan to rescue Opel and to spare GM shareholders further losses. Not so. The new man will keep the old plan. “GM fully supports the current plan to strengthen Opel and improve its operational competitiveness,” a spokesman for Opel told Reuters. (Read More…)

I’m looking at you …

Obsessions are a menace. The daughter of a friend had a shower obsession. “I have an obsessive compulsive disorder,” she would readily admit, only to continue: “I’ll be right back, I need to take a shower.” Such a pretty girl. And she always smelled so good.

A prime obsession of the auto blogosphere are the sales of the Lexus LFA. Is it sold out? Is it not?

(To avoid killing you with the suspense: It is. Has been since April 2010 when Lexus had its 500 orders long before production started in December of that year. Not interesting? I don’t blame you. Stop reading. There is plenty of other content.) (Read More…)

On the LFA’s in-house test track. Each car gets tested for some 50 miles

In this week-long report, we followed the Lexus LFA from raw fiber to body, paint, and assembly. In this final chapter, we take it on the test track in Motomachi. 

Each and every LFA that rolls off the line is checked like no other car. 7,000 items of the LFA, all previously checked, counter-signed, eternalized in evidence sheets, are checked again. Each check again is eternalized in evidence sheets. When I said it takes 8 days to make an LFA, I lied. It takes 8 days to make one, and then it takes a full additional week to check it. (Read More…)

Volkswagen has published group sales for June and the first six months, and they are better than those of most other European makers. Global deliveries for the half year are up 8.9 percent to 4.45 million. June looks surprisingly good with sales up 11 percent to 798,500. Nevertheless, Volkswagen looks like no threat to the leading positions of Toyota and GM. (Read More…)

An anonymous reader sent us these Erlkoenig photos. Apparently, they show a car in full leather get-up.

Since we have no idea what it is, we ask you for help. (Read More…)

In the preceding chapters, we followed the Lexus LFA from raw fiber to body, paint, and assembly. Today, the LFA gets its engine. Tomorrow, we’ll test it, and then, we’ll say good-bye to the LFA Workshop in Motomachi. 

On its slow road to completion, the LFA travels down a main line, where it is met by components that come from smaller sidelines. One such subassembly is the LFA’s V10 engine. Covered by a thick sheet of plastic, it comes from Yamaha where it was built and assembled. The engine was a balancing act, in more ways than one. (Read More…)

The Opel mess claims another victim. “Opel’s Karl-Friedrich Stracke stepped down from his position as chief executive of the embattled carmaker to take on “special assignments”, where he will report to the Chairman and CEO of parent General Motors,” Reuters says. (Read More…)

The new energy relationship between PSA Peugeot Citroen and BMW is just about done now that BMW and Toyota intensified their cooperation. An Opel executive dashed hopes that the French will be able to use GM technology instead.  “The honest answer is I can’t imagine that,” Opel development chief Rita Forst told  Reuters, when asked if the two companies would share green car technology.  (Read More…)

We never thought much of De Tomaso’s resurrection. Italian police agrees, thinks De Tomaso’s saviours might be crooks and arrested De Tomaso’s chairman Gian Mario Rossignolo, along with two other men on suspicions of that 7.5 million euros ($9.2 million) of public funds were misused in a failed turnaround plan, Reuters says. (Read More…)

European automakers know that there is only one thing that is worse than Teknikens Värld fabled moose test, and that is failing the moose test and then arguing with the Swedish magazine. Italy-owned Chrysler is getting that education.  Not enough that Teknikens Värld  found  the Jeep Grand Cherokee “lethal in evasive maneuver.”  

It now caught Chrysler’s propaganda arm committing a deadly sin in the hoopla business, violating the first commandment of flackery: When you stepped in the shit, don’t walk around the house. (Read More…)