Nissan's In Trouble, GM Ren Cen Is Empty And The Miata Is In Danger In This Week's News Roundup

Folks, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but Nissan is in some deep shit right now, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better anytime soon. Late last week, the Japanese automaker put out some very disappointing global sales numbers, and now some are worried it’ll once again fall short of its fiscal year profit forecast. Of course, this was already cut once before back in July. - Andy Kalmowitz Read More

Hurricane Helene left a trail of death and destruction throughout the U.S. Southeast, but the impact of the massive storm may disrupt the automotive industry worldwide for months to come. - Andy Kalmowitz Read More

The famed Renaissance Center in Detroit has been the hive where GM houses its most important worker bees since it acquired the building in 1996, but lately the building is feeling more like an empty nest. The complex comprises six giant office towers, a 73-story Marriott hotel, and a pair of shorter 21-story buildings occupied by an insurance company, but these days it’s host to just a fraction of its pre-pandemic traffic heights. - Bradley Brownell Read More

Sideshows are dumb and illegal but they keep happening. They also seem to be getting worse, with unexpected people and vehicles taking part in them. A recent sideshow in Sacramento, California would be the last place you’d expect to see an Amazon semi truck, for instance. - Lawrence Hodge Read More

A Canadian student mechanic got a rude awakening when a local Hyundai dealer refused to honor the automaker’s warranty for his Elantra N’s blown engine. Christian Matzoros bought the 2022 Elantra N just two years ago – paying for an extended warranty that made him think he had complete coverage for seven years 140,000 kilometers (about 87,000 freedom miles) – but the dealer wouldn’t follow the warranty because he had been “over-revving” the motor. - Andy Kalmowitz Read More

October 1 marked the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2024, which means it’s time for quarterly sales reports. And if you’re a Mazda fan, I’ve got great news! With total of 313,452 vehicles sold through the end of September, Mazda’s year-over-year sales are up about 15 percent. What can I say? People just like the CX-50 and CX-90. There is bad news, though. MX-5 Miata sales are down, and they’re down bad. If things don’t turn around soon, we may be looking at the beginning of the end for the humble Miata. - Collin Woodard Read More

New Jersey couple John and Georgia McGinty were riding in an Uber in March 2022 when their driver got into a wreck. They both survived, but Georgia spent a week in the critical care unit with a fractured spine and abdominal trauma while John escaped with “only” a broken sternum and a hand injury. As the Independent reports, when the McGintys tried to sue Uber over the crash, the judge determined they couldn’t because they’d agreed to the app’s arbitration clause in its Terms of Use when their daughter used Uber Eats to order a pizza. - Collin Woodard Read More

A Toyota dealership in Mississippi may find out the hard way that customer safety is important even if they’re not in a car. A court of appeals cleared the way last month for a man’s negligence suit against J. Allen Toyota in Gulfport, Mississippi to move forward. The suit stems from an incident that happened in 2019, Automotive News reports: - Lawrence Hodge Read More

Tesla’s Supercharger network has become the North American Charging Standard and tons automakers are building their EVs with this network in mind. While this is good for mass EV adoption, it’s turning out to be a headache in practice. - Lawrence Hodge Read More

Two random cement prongs off the side of a Georgia interstate have caused thousands of dollars in damage to a man’s car after he hit them, and the state’s transportation department won’t handle the claim he filed for the damage. Atlanta’s WSB-2 reports that earlier this month, Brian Briggs was on Georgia’s I-285 in metro Atlanta when he became lost while using his GPS. Cutting across the highway’s gore — the triangular area separating the main highway from an exit — to pull over is when he heard and felt large pops. The prongs destroyed the front and rear driver’s side tires on his BMW i3 causing $2,000 in damage. - Lawrence Hodge Read More