RAUH-Welt Porsche Is A Hoonigan, Chrysler Sales Jump, And Honda Supercharges An Accord
This is the Morning Shift, our one-stop daily roundup of all the auto news that's actually important — all in one place at 9:00 AM. Or, you could spend all day waiting for other sites to parcel it out to you one story at a time. Isn't your time more important?
1st Gear: Chrysler Sales Jump 27%, Everyone Else Just Does OK
Most of the October sales reports are in, and the real shock is that Chrysler did well. Three reasons: First, last October's Chrysler sales were pretty awful. Second: There's a ton of new product. The third comes from Reuters: Chrysler spent big time on incentives. At least that last tactic never led to disaster in the past. Oh, wait...
2nd Gear: Volvo's Peter Horbury Has The Balls To Design Geely's Cars
Automotive News reports that Peter Horbury is going to head up design for Geely, the Chinese company that bought Volvo. So maybe this means there will finally be a Chinese car company cars that don't look like melted knock-offs of other companies' models. Meanwhile, Volvo gonna need a new designer.
3rd Gear: Subaru Reveals Production XV Crossover
It's an Impreza on stilts. We weren't expecting anything different. See more at AutoExpress.
4th Gear: Honda's Supercharged a V6 Accord Coupe for SEMA
Oh goodness, Honda's gone and stuffed a supercharged on its V6 Accord coupe. They say the front wheels now are responsible for 335 hp. Everyone likes more horsepower, except when it's done like this.
5th Gear: Brian Scotto's RAUH-Welt Porsche Bows at SEMA
One of the first RWB Porsches in America, this baby was built by Nakai-San himself. Scotto — a jack of many trades and the man who rode the Segway in that little Ken Block video with a few million views — drove the car 850 miles to the SEMA show in Vegas. It looks gorgeous.
6th Gear: Infiniti Is Setting Up a Global HQ in Hong Kong
According to the company, "As Infiniti grows its presence in the global luxury markets of North America, Europe, China and South East Asia, we selected Hong Kong as the optimum location for our new global Infiniti headquarters." What went unsaid: It's so much nicer there than on the mainland.
Reverse:
⏎ Chevy finally sells more than a thousand Volts in a month [Detroit News]
⏎ Toyota made another robot nurse. So Data works for Dr. Crusher. [Toyota]
⏎ To celebrate Chevrolet's centennial, AdAge has a cool historical timeline of the company's ads [AdAge]
⏎ Toyota's stock hits 52-week low [TheStreet]
⏎ Peugeot unveiled its new Fiesta-sized subcompact. French cars used to be pretty. [CAR Magazine]
⏎ In Japan, new laws penalized a rental car company for renting to a member of the Yakuza [Business Insider]
Today in Automotive History:
Engineer Andrew Riker delivers the first four-cylinder, gas-powered Locomobile-a $4,000, 12-horsepower Model C-to a buyer in New York City on this day in 1902. The Locomobile Company had been known for building heavy, powerful steam cars, but by the turn of the century it was clear that the future of the automobile-and thus of the Locomobile-lay in the internal-combustion engine. Until it went out of business in 1929, the company built elegant, luxurious touring-cars and streamlined racers for wealthy patrons. A Locomobile, ads crowed, was the "Best Built Car in America."
[History]
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