This is The Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place every weekday morning. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parse it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
Spyker, the Dutch builder of gorgeous mid-engined supercars, just filed for the Dutch equivalent of Chapter 11 financial restructuring. In layman's terms, they just filed for bankruptcy.
Ever since Volvo found itself sloughed off from Ford in the wake of the Carpocalypse, it was adrift among the heaving seas of the global auto market. Rescued by China's Geely, it just dusted itself off and is now preparing itself for a US comeback, announcing big investments and an all-new product line.
I usually enjoy reading Zero Hedge because the insights are often interesting and I think pessimism is an underrated virtue these days. However, this guest article on unsold cars is so demonstrably false I had to take a break from my Sunday morning to dispute it.
Increased complexity always frightens car enthusiasts, thinking at the newest crop of tech-heavy cars may be much less dependable in the long-term than their predecessors. A new JD Power survey might justify that fear.
This is The Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:30 AM. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parse it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
Government Motors is no more. Five years after the first round of bailouts of two of the three American automakers, the U.S. Treasury Department this afternoon sold off its last shares of General Motors.
This is The Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:30 AM. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parse it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
Say, remember a few years ago when the government was giving people money to ditch their old car in exchange for something shiny and new? It saved the American car industry and fixed the environment, right? According to new report by the Brookings Institution think tank in D.C., the answer is "kinda, but not really."
This is The Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:30 AM. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parse it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
Over the weekend, former General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz dropped a bombshell on car enthusiasts and policy wonks when he revealed for the first time that the federal government told GM to drop Pontiac or they wouldn't get a bailout. Enthusiasts may balk, but this was the common sense idea — and even GM knew it.
When General Motors shut down Pontiac, it left a lot of enthusiasts wondering why. It was primed with a lineup of powerful, rear-wheel drive models, and seemed like it had a bright future ahead of it. It turns out that GM killed it on government orders, according to former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz.
Gumpert, the German maker of insane road racers with a flair for aggressive design, is no more. With the passing of Wiesmann last week, this is the second German automotive death in just the month of August.
Will General Motors ever live down the bailout? That's the biggest question that surfaces when you consider the National Legal and Policy Center's campaign against a GM-sponsored "free enterprise" tour put together by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The government auditors responsible for monitoring the Trouble Asset Relief Program (i.e. TARP) say executives at three companies received pay that was "excessive" given the guidelines outlined in the program, including employees of GM and Ally (formerly GMAC).
Remember "Cash for Clunkers," that program implemented in 2009 where the federal government was giving people money to buy shiny, fuel-efficient new cars if they traded in their old gas-guzzling clunkers? It was supposed to be a win-win situation for both the environment and America's struggling economy.
Even though we keep hearing of rumors you'll be able to buy a new Saab 9-3 sometime next year in some part of the world, and an EV coming after that, there's still the matter of closing out the Spyker Era of the old Trollhattan firm.
Back in 2009, Barack Obama made a gutsy move at the beginning of his presidency. He used his political capital on an $82 billion gamble to put General Motors and Chrysler through bankruptcy, and deal with a bunch of collateral issues surrounding the auto industry.
GM is recalling 426,240 midsize sedans because the shift cable might break. That means that when you put the car into Park, it might actually end up rolling down a hill.
Selling used cars is a pretty good business: you buy crappy old cars at rock-bottom prices from desperate people; sell these crappy cars to desperate people at inflated prices; repo the cars when the desperate people run out of money; and then sell the same cars all over again.
