People really like lists, and the pleasure of a great “best of” is only surpassed by a really creative “worst of.” That’s why I was intrigued by the “Eight Best Italian Sports Cars (for the First-time Collector”) list that just appeared on Keith Martin’s highly respected Sports Car Market website. I’m a former Italian car owner myself, treasuring (and restoring) a...
Auto Industry Archive
June 2009
While Chrysler and General Motors throw thousands of excess U.S. dealers overboard, at least one brand, BMW’s Mini, is bucking the trend and adding dealers in the United States, although it’s on a much, much smaller scale. Mini announced last week it will add 20 percent more U.S. dealerships, with plans for a big increase in sales, starting in 2011. Mini franchises are paired with...
Every automaker is looking for bright spots as the dog days approach, and Toyota can take heart in the strong advance orders it has for the third-generation 2010 hybrid Prius. In April, as pre-production began, Toyota said it had received 40,000 pre-orders and would be increasing global volumes 25 percent, from 40,000 per month to 50,000. It also said it would be making as many as 500,000 cars...
General Motors may not enjoy quite the smooth sailing through U.S. Bankruptcy Court that Chrysler enjoyed, relatively speaking. A growing number of states don’t want to let GM off the hook for product liability suits. At the same time, several state auto dealer associations and big dealer groups are objecting to GM dismissing more than 1,000 dealerships. “GM is attempting to take...
The summer driving season has started, and vacation planning is underway. From the results of a new poll, it looks like Americans will be driving to their destinations in smaller cars and trucks, and they’ll be camping, fishing and backpacking locally instead of skiing at Gstaad and staying in luxury hotels. LeaseTrader.com polled 1,500 consumers about their plans in its Summertime Vehicle...
Ford has big plans for the little engine that could. Its 3.5-liter EcoBoost powerplant is “the first V-6 direct-injection twin-turbocharged engine produced in North America.” The engine will be available this summer in the Lincoln MKS sedan. Later in the year, the fuel-efficient powerplant is scheduled to show up in the Flex, Taurus SHO and Lincoln MKT. Ford says the twin-turbo, direct...
Suzuki was the most-improved brand in this week’s 2009 Initial Quality Study from J.D. Power and Associates. Suzuki jumped from No. 32 in 2008, near the bottom, to No. 9 in the 2009 IQS survey. A Suzuki spokesman said the Suzuki SX4 did well in IQS. Some of the brand’s older models also fell out of the survey, which also helped. Suzuki could use some good news. Its plans for a renewed run...
TARRYTOWN, NEW YORK—Lexus likes the concept of luxury hybrids so much that it now offers four of them. The fourth, with a tongue-twister of a name—HS 250h—was shown to the press today. Lexus calls the HS 250h the world’s first dedicated luxury hybrid, which means designed from the ground up. There are actually very few dedicated hybrids at all: The Prius and the new Honda Insight come...
Call me cynical, but one reason I have been openly skeptical about Tesla Motors is that its sales numbers don’t seem to appear anywhere. When you ask the company for their sales numbers, Tesla gets a little vague about the exact details, for instance exactly how many cars have been sold in a given month. They also tend to respond with how many have been ordered, as opposed to sold. Nor...
Money is starting to flow from the Energy Department’s $25 billion loan program to develop U.S.-based advanced technology manufacturing capacity for fuel-efficient and battery vehicles, and the first $8 billion round goes to Ford, Tesla and Nissan. Ford is set to receive $5.9 billion in funding through 2011 “to help finance numerous engineering advances to traditional internal-combustion...
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