It’s not so much a program as it is a trend. In Spain, which is currently enduring a second blow from a very resilient coronavirus, people are shunning public transit like their life depends on it. It very well could.

What to do? Simple — search classifieds and backyard sheds for any old heap that’s still roadworthy and drive the hell out of it. (Read More…)

The General Motors name might be synonymous with SUVs and pickups in North America, especially after the automaker’s recent passenger car cull, but the Chinese market mostly associates it with SUVs and a bevy of cars. GM apparently wants that to change.

Government documents reveal The General is interested in getting the go-ahead for a Chinese-market pickup. (Read More…)

It hasn’t been a normal year, and all the plans you and I and even Subaru had for 2020 have more or less fallen flat. This year will not see the Japanese automaker grow its volume over 2019 levels. Targets set in the Before Times will not be met.

So why worry? Celebrate what you got.

That’s what Subaru did after tabulating its August sales tally, noting that the figure — representing a year-over-year loss of 17 percent — was actually its best showing so far this year. And once again, Subaru brass north of the border didn’t have to pretend. (Read More…)

When we last checked in on the Volkswagen Passat, the manufacturer was rumored to be considering removing the model from its production lineup. Jetta’s bigger brother failed to garner much attention after its last update, and it just so happens to exist within a vehicle segment that has has seen far better days. Combine that with VW heaping added importance on a lineup of fresh new EVs, and there was good reason to think the family sedan was living on borrowed time.

Despite some company brass eager to kill off the model, it has been decided that the Passat will stick with us a while longer. Autocar recently reported the car has been approved for another generation, expecting it to launch in Europe in 2023. (Read More…)

Going topless is becoming increasingly difficult for new car buyers. Soon, the only convertibles on the North American market will be dedicated sports cars, and there’ll be precious few of those, too.

This depressing statement stems from a report that claims the next-generation Mini Cooper will say goodbye to its convertible variant, leaving the brand with far less whimsy than before. (Read More…)

No Yaris. No Fiesta. No Sonic. No Mazda2. No Fit.

America’s subcompact car segment is decimated. According to Tyson Jominy, the vice president of data and analytics at J.D. Power, 40 percent of last year’s subcompact sales are gone. Jominy doesn’t mean “fewer sales.” He means that the nameplates responsible for 40 percent of the sales are gone.

And is it any wonder? As recently as 2014, subcompact cars produced 3.8 percent of all U.S. auto sales. Collectively, the few remaining subcompact cars now account for just 1.4 percent of the American light vehicle market.

At the current rate of decline, fewer than 1 percent of the vehicles sold in America in 2022 will be subcompact cars. But we all know the current rate of decline is hardly an accurate harbinger. If subcompacts own 1 percent of the market in 2021, we’d be surprised.  (Read More…)

Ford’s pony car has typically made the most out of its platforms, eking out the maximum amount of longevity and profit before moving on to wholly new underpinnings. The Fox-body era saw that tradition taken to extremes.

Come 2022, the Mustang will don a new wardrobe, and Ford expects it to stick around for quite some time. (Read More…)

The Hyundai Veloster remains an automotive oddity in a vehicle landscape rapidly shunning nonconformity, and for that, we give Hyundai credit. The car still exists. You author can still recall the first time he ever encountered one in the wild — in historic Vieux-Québec, with the “three-door” hatchback resting quietly under a streetlamp on those cobblestone streets.

A second-generation model landed in the latter part of 2018, with newfound power coming by way of the first N-badged Hyundai. With 250 horses and 260 lb-ft of torque, the Veloster N was a vehicle worthy of the hot hatch banner. And come 2021, it’ll be the only Veloster offered north of the border. (Read More…)

Consumer spending and confidence are not hitting record highs. Go figure. As the pandemic rages and a vast swath of formerly gainfully employed Americans find their financial future much hazier then before, new car sales are suffering. It doesn’t bode well for sales volume during the remainder of the year.

Of course, that pain is not spread evenly among all automakers, but let’s set the OEMs’ concerns aside for a moment. What are actual buyers and doing — and thinking? (Read More…)

General Motors has conquest on the mind. As the Labor Day long weekend and all of its associated new car deals looms, the automaker wants to woo owners of Fiat Chrysler products (or their family members) into top-selling Chevrolet and GMC models.

It’s not a huge incentive, but it does call attention to the General’s renewed rivalry with Ram. Chevrolet in particular wants to widen the pickup sales lead it only just recaptured from its resurgent rival. (Read More…)

The saga of the Nissan Titan will come to an end in Canada next year, with the recently refreshed full-size pickup and its tweener XD sibling leaving that market after 2021 as the automaker changes course on a global scale.

Nissan Canada confirmed the discontinuation to TTAC on Thursday, claiming the automaker, as part of its new four-year plan, will focus more closely on its core strengths. Refreshed for 2020, the Titan line has recently seen a decline in the number of build configurations offered, as well as vehicles sold, making the model’s vanishing act a seeming inevitability. (Read More…)

The Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon gain arguably overdue refreshes for 2021, ensuring continued consumer traction amid boosted competition from rivals. The midsize pickup segment has grown, and not just in volume.

Joining the GM duo and perennially popular Toyota Tacoma last year was the Ford Ranger; meanwhile, Nissan’s long-awaited Frontier revamp lands for ’21.

Word is that the Canyon, which sees a new AT4 trim for the new model year, will don extra goodies by year’s end. Good news for a truck that’s increasingly playing second fiddle to its bowtie-wearing sibling. (Read More…)

The disappearance of midsize cars, the dismal performance of traditional family sedans, and the eradication of affordable small cars account for the lion’s share of headlines when auto reporters discuss the dwindling American passenger car market. But tucked inside America’s car sector are a handful of fun cars – intentionally impractical two-doors – that muster a mere fraction of the market share they produced just 10 years ago.

In other words, you can’t buy a Honda Accord Coupe or a Kia Forte Koup or a Buick Cascada or a Lexus IS250C in 2020 precisely because buyers of such cars no longer exist in sufficient numbers. Scratch that: buyers of such cars didn’t exist in sufficient numbers when the option was provided to justify offering comparable successors.

How bad is it? We asked J.D. Power’s vice president of data and analytics, Tyson Jominy. And we got answers.  (Read More…)

The Buick Encore GX, a larger, unrelated Encore with fewer cylinders than you’re used to, quietly appeared in the brand’s stable just as “pandemic” became every newscast’s favorite word. Like its Chevrolet Trailblazer fraternal twin, the Encore GX boasts a more spacious body than its subcompact stablemate and a brace of three-pot engines designer for power and thrift.

While the little Encore has been Buick’s sales leader for years, the brand says that’s already changed. Still, there are no immediate plans to ditch the GX’s smaller namesake. (Read More…)

U.S. sales results, at least those that we know of, were a mixed bag in July. Automakers foreign and domestic are busy replenishing inventories drained by a two-month shutdown of U.S. manufacturing; for many, the restocking can’t come soon enough.

At Kia Motors’s West Point, Georgia plant, production of the Telluride crossover got underway again in May, and the automaker can barely keep up with demand. Cox Automotive (via CNN) reported two weeks ago that the country’s Kia dealers report an average 15-day supply of the unexpectedly popular model. That’s tight, to say the least.

But the Telluride isn’t the only vehicle lifting Kia’s fortunes in the wake of the shutdown. (Read More…)