According to a report by the Earth Policy Institute, roughly 14 million cars in the US were scrapped during 2009, while only 10 million were sold. Why? It wasn't Cash for Clunkers.
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We write about a great Saab achievement, and what happens? Minutes later, The General makes a tentative deal with a Chinese car manufacturer to build two Saab models in the Middle Kingdom!
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Now that Koenigsegg has dropped out, Saab's going from one boutique supercar maker to another, with the AP reporting Spyker's interested. "But Spyker has no money" you say. No, they don't, but Saab comes with $600 million in loans.
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Yesterday was going as planned with pre-LA Auto Show news trickling out until BAM! GM announces President and CEO Fritz Henderson was resigning (fired!) and other-old-white-guy Ed Whitacre would take his place in the interim. Today's Dilbert skewers everyone involved.
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President Obama asked South Korea yesterday to renegotiate auto trade clauses in the South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement due to vast differences in scale of auto exports between the two countries.
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New Yorkers, be on the lookout for a douchebag NY Post writer in a brand-new Corvette. It's "business writer" John Crudele trying to screw GM using a 60-day money back guarantee Corvette as a rental while his mulletgasmic Camaro's repaired.
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We made fun of GM Chairman Whitacre's speech yesterday in Seguin, imploring him to make some news. He did. He asked for the Feds to help out (other than by providing billions of taxpayer dollars) by modifying executive pay caps.
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Remember the fake electric car program Chrysler showed off earlier this year in a transparent attempt to get bailout money? Fiat just canceled the entire ENVI program. So predictable. Frankly, we're more shocked Chrysler still exists.
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The original Golf lived on in South Africa for 25 years, but production is ending this year. VeeDub fans covet Mk1s, so it's no surprise they were able to produce more than 500,000 of them for South Africa. [AutoTrader.ca]
Not sure that those figures make any sense - there was a minimum of 5mpg improvement to qualify, so how is it that they're saying it was only 1mpg-3mpg higher? Also, if it's only 1 in 20 vehicles that were traded in that got less than 20mpg, that doesn't really seem all that significant. That still means that 95% of all the vehicles traded in were sedans or light SUVs, all of which got 5-10mpg better or more than the car they were replacing.
So a working truck was traded for a better mileage working truck, what's the big deal? I mean you can be opposed to the program for all sorts of reasons, this one doesn't seem like the most important one.
In a press briefing held yesterday at the fancy-pants Detroit Athletic Club, Toyota Group Vice President and General Manager Bob Carter talked plans for ten new products for the 2010 calendar year, the fiery death floor mat recall and competition.
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Ford's reporting a net income of $997 million, or 29 cents per share this quarter, an improvement of $1.2 billion from third quarter, 2008. So what? They're still in the operating red by $1.3 billion this year. Analysis below. More »
GM's latest numbers from their "May the Best Car Win" campaign? Of 142,000 vehicles sold, 449 customers took the money-back guarantee option, four have returned cars, and 49 vehicles are in process. Overall, less than 1% of total sales.
Chinese automaker Geely is Ford's preferred bidder to purchase Volvo. Ford CFO Lewis Booth, as you'll see below, is particularly excited about the prospects and not at all worried about the possibility for General Tso-flavored Swedish meatballs.
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Consumer Reports, in their annual initial reliability survey results released this afternoon, provides good news for Ford, which is perceived as offering quality and reliability on par with Asian automakers. Chrysler, on the other hand, dropped to near-Daewoo levels. More »
To encourage residents to buy cars with less emissions, Colorado is offering huge tax credits on such vehicles. The biggest winner is the Tesla Roadster, which comes with a $42,000 credit. How cheap is it after the rebate?
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After testing the waters of the cheap-car class with the sub-$10,000 Versa, Nissan is planning to enter the even-cheaper next-generation Nissan Micra into the US market as part of an effort to hit one million annual vehicle sales.
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