skip to main |
skip to sidebar
The good news about the V40 Cross Country is that we have a fresh set of high-resolution images and a pair of videos to show you following the introduction of the car the other day. The bad news is that if you live in the United States and thought the Cross Country's tougher looks may have persuaded Volvo to bring it to this side of the Atlantic, we hate to disappoint you, but that's not going to happen. We asked Laura DiStefano, Corporate Communications Manager for Volvo Cars of North America, and her reply was the same we got for the regular V40 hatchback: "No plans for the U.S." Read more »
Negotiations between the Canadian Auto Workers’ union and Ford resulted in a tentative deal concerning the new four-year contract between the workers and the automaker, averting the proposed strike that would start on Monday midnight if a deal couldn't be reached. Though the deal still needs to be ratified by the union members, it includes creating 600 new jobs, modifying the two-tier wage system, paying CAW members US$9,234 in bonuses over the life of the contract and eliminating guaranteed cost-of-living wage increases. Moreover, new hires will start at about US$21 an hour, but will receive full wages of about $35 an hour after 10, instead of six, years. Read more »
Only a day after the official brochure of the 918 Spyder leaked on the web, Porsche confirmed reports that its hybrid supercar posted a 7:14 lap time at the 20.6 km (12.8-mile) Nürburgring track on September 18. Porsche said that the prototype was packing 795HP, which is the first time the automaker is being specific about the 918 Spyder's "770HP-plus" output. Read more »
The Holy Grail in any industry is customer loyalty. All manufacturers are fighting to improve their retention rate, that is, the percentage of customers who, when the time comes to replace a product, will remain loyal to the brand. The automotive industry is no different. In the U.S. market, the current leader is Toyota, with a 58 percent retention rate. General Motors’ percentage is around 52-53 percent, close to the automotive industry average. Clearly, GM execs think that this should change; and there’s a very good reason for that. Read more »
It’s going to a busy time for General Motors and its Buick and GMC brands as the company's executives told dealers today that the two automakers plan to launch nine all-new or "significantly" refreshed models in the next 12 months. The first models to arrive will be the brand-new Buick Encore small crossover and the revamped GMC Acadia SUV this fall. In the course of 2013, Buick will introduce the Regal sedan and LaCrosse (most likely facelifts), while GMC, the new Sierra and Sierra HD full-size pickups, as well as the Yukon and Yukon XL full-size SUVs. Read more »
In a developing story, authorities say a Chrysler employee fatally stabbed a male co-worker at the Detroit company's Jefferson North assembly plant at around8 a.m. Thursday. Detroit police Sgt. Alan Quinn told reporters that the suspect fled the factory and then committed suicide at the Belle Isle Park. The unnamed man is said to have died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. Chrysler confirmed the incident in a short press statement:"Two employees were involved in an altercation inside the plant. One employee was stabbed and unfortunately pronounced dead at the scene. The Detroit Police Department is currently investigating." Read more »
One man’s loss is another man’s gain. That’s the way it has always been and that’s the way it is today, especially in the corporate world. Case in point: China’s anti-Japan protests, which seem to turn uglier each passing day. Toyota, Nissan and Honda have been forced to shut down their plants after attacks on some of their operations and dealerships. Nevertheless, Chinese consumers still buy cars. If they shy away from Japanese vehicles, then they will probably turn to other brands from nations with which they have no quarrel. Read more »
Europe's southern countries, i.e. Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, have been hurt the most by the economic crisis that has hit the Old Continent. In an effort to reduce the public deficit by €65 billion (US$82 billion) by the end of 2014, the Spanish government decided to increase VAT (sales tax) on most items from 18 to 21 percent starting this month. As a result, car sales in the first two weeks of September tumbled by 27.6 percent to 12,300 units, according to Spain’s car retailers association Ganvam. Read more »
Its global sales may be better than ever, having increased by 15 percent in the first half of 2012, yet Porsche is already trimming its initial production and investment projection for next year in anticipation of slowing demand. On the sidelines of the ceremony for the beginning of the Boxster production at VW’s Osnabruck plant, Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller said that 2013 sales could very well be 5-10 percent below initial expectations, despite the introduction of the Macan compact SUV, which the company expects to be a best-seller, and the second generation of the Cayman sports coupe. Read more »
We knew that Suzuki's automotive division was having problems in the United States, but we never imagined that the Japanese carmaker would go as far as to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and completely exit the automobile market in the country (this decision does not affect its global automotive operations). American Suzuki Motor Corporation (ASMC), which is the exclusive distributor in the continental United States of Suzuki Motor Corporation automobiles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles and marine outboard engines, made the announcement on Monday night, citing several reasons: Read more »
Last week, Sandy's furious tempest resulted in 16 brand-new Fisker Karma sedans and three Toyota Prius hybrids going up in flames at a shipping facility in New Jersey after being submerged in seawater for many hours. While we have yet to hear from Toyota, Fisker's engineers finished investigating the incident and have just released their findings through a press statement. According to the manufacturer, the culprit turned out to be a low voltage Vehicle Control Unit in one Karma, which after being under salt water for several hours, short-circuited and caused a fire that then spread to the other 15 extended-range plug-in hybrid models parked nearby due to the strong winds blowing at the time. Read more »
A latest generation BMW 116d EfficientDynamics hatch driven by the team at Green-Car-Guide at the RAC Future Car Challenge 2012 achieved an average fuel economy of 103 mpg UK (equal to 85.8 mpg US and 2.7lt/100km) over the 64-mile Brighton to London route, recording a 39 per cent improvement over the manufacturer's official 74.3mpg UK combined economy figure. Read more »
Toyota hosted a special ceremony today at its Burnaston factory, just south of the city of Derby in Britain, to mark the start of series production of the second generation of the Auris hatchback and welcome future production of the Auris Touring Sports model, which will join its European ranks from next year. Read more »
We already know that it's going to cost Hyundai and Kia a lot of money to compensate some 900,000 vehicle owners in the States (as much as $362 million, according to Nam Kyeong Moon, an analyst at KTB Investment & Securities Co.) after the Environmental Protection Agency discovered that the two carmakers posted inflated gas-mileage ratings. However, the penalty in brand value may be even higher for the Korean car brands, according to market researcher Interbrand Corp. Read more »
It's no secret that Renault was looking for a partner to revive its Alpine sports car brand and now the French carmaker says it has found it in the Caterham Group. The two companies made the wedding official today during a press conference in Paris where they announced the formation of a new 50-50 joint venture to develop both Alpine and Caterham-branded sports cars on common underpinnings and built at Renault's plant in Dieppe in northern France. The Caterham Group will own a 50% stake in the Automobiles Alpine Renault company, which is currently owned 100 percent by Renault SAS. The Société des Automobiles Alpine Caterham (SAAC) venture will be created in January 2013 and will be headed by Bernard Ollivier, who became vice president of Renault in 2011. 
Carlos Ghosn, Chairman and CEO of Renault commented: "This innovative partnership with Caterham embodies a longstanding ambition: the creation of a sports car with the Alpine DNA. It carries both opportunities for the Dieppe plant and the development of its historic expertise." Read more »
There is nothing wrong with flying the Stars and Stripes during an election year; after all, in a democracy, people get to hear all sides and then decide whom they will vote for. Unless, of course, your argument is based on a wrong assumption. Even worse if you make a statement in front of a wide audience based on misinterpreting a news report… Mitt Romney, the Republicans’ 2012 presidential candidate, told an Ohio crowd last Thursday night that Jeep is considering moving all of its production to China. Read more »
Have you heard of the old saying of being "in the right place at the right time"? If anything else, this holds true for a Utah man who was filming trains in the city of Wellington in Carbon County this past Friday with his iPhone. In the YouTube video's description, James Wood says he was recording video for his 4-year old son at 100 E. Railroad Avenue in Wellington when he captured footage of a train ripping through a water truck that was crossing the tracks at that precise moment. Read more »
As it turns out, the 16 Fisker Karma extended-range hybrids weren't the only new hybrid cars to catch fire in Port Newark, New Jersey last Monday on October 29, after being submerged in seawater during Hurricane Sandy. In a completely separate incident during the storm, three Toyota Prius models, including a conventional hybrid and a plug-in hybrid, were also damaged by fire at Port Newark, according to a report from the LA Times. Toyota confirmed the incident. "One Prius out and out burned, the others just kind of smoldered and got really hot," Cindy Knight, a Toyota spokeswoman told the New York Times (NYT), adding that the fire "likely started because saltwater got into the electrical system." The Prius that burned down completely was a plug-in hybrid model. Read more »
Fuel-economy is a hot issue these days. Not only because of environmental issues but also on a more practical level, due to gas being a big, and these days increasing, part of a vehicle’s running costs. Mileage is thus a big consideration for a large number of new car buyers. Therefore, when you advertise that you are an industry leader in the field with four of your models rated at 40 mpg on the highway, you had better be sure you are right or it will cost you dearly. The Environmental Protection Agency found discrepancies between its own test results and the mileage posted on the cars’ window stickers at Hyundai and Kia dealerships. Read more »
Not that there’s ever a “good” timing for a natural disaster, but for East Coast new car dealers, especially those in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, traditionally very big markets for light vehicles, hurricane Sandy had a devastating effect as far as sales are concerned. That’s because, apart from any damages dealers suffered, they also had to shut down their showrooms at the end of October, when their daily sales are at their peak. Moreover, deliveries scheduled for early November are likely to be affected, though dealers are expected to make at least part of that up by buyers seeking replacements for their totaled cars. Read more »
