The sagging EU economy led to the worst car sales since 20 years (cause and effect could also be the other way round.)  With so much riding on car sales, France’s La Lettre Auto K7 found a way to predict them with greater certainty: They simply ask car dealers how many orders they received. Most volume brands in Europe are built-to-order, and even in the worst economic climate, that takes a minimum of 4 weeks until the car is ready to be registered. That’s when usual statistics recognize the sale.

Reuters has received an advance copy of the new prediction. May data see an overall 3 percent fall in passenger car orders at the surveyed dealers. That’s not too bad,  unless when your brand is Opel or Dacia.  Says Reuters:

“Opel, the European division of General Motors, experienced a 32 percent decline at surveyed dealerships in May, with orders for its Adam mini falling short of expectations.

 

Renault’s orders grew 15 percent, helped by the new Captur compact SUV, but its no-frills Dacia brand tumbled 24 percent. Orders for Peugeot cars fell 2 percent while sister brand Citroen dropped 7 percent.”

This shines the spotlight on how car sales are generally counted in Europe. They are counted when cars are registered, and the data are published by the registering government entities, not by automakers. That should make for the most dependable data, would there not be a nasty phenomenon, which TTAC has mentioned a few times in the past. Dealers “buy” the car themselves, register it for one day, then sell it as “used” at a high discount.

According to Jesse Snyder in Automotive News, they sell it “usually to dealers in other countries, who then resold them as new. If a car is shipped from Italy to Austria to Slovakia to the Czech Republic, how many times is it reported as a new-car sale?”

Whether the second “sale” goes in the new or in the used column, at the very least, this practice skews reported car sales. It makes them look better than they actually are – at least for a while. Last year, sales looked benign in Europe, and especially in Germany, for a while. One of the reasons behind it were the one day registrations. Last September in Germany, approximately 30 percent of the “sales” were phantom sales.

Howls of protests ensued when GM stopped disclosing monthly production numbers, touching off, says Automotive News [sub], “concern among industry analysts and economists, as well as suppliers that rely on the data for their production plans.“ The industry paper explains what is wrong with this move:

“For decades, GM and nearly all other major automakers have reported the number of cars and trucks produced at their North American plants each month, broken out by nameplate. The data get folded into numerous economic indicators, including ones published by the Federal Reserve, and are a benchmark for industry insiders to forecast GM’s future production.

But this month GM notified several research providers that publish production data — including IHS Automotive, the Automotive News Data Center and Autodata Corp. — that it will no longer give them those figures, providing instead only the number of wholesale deliveries.”

GM said this move is related to accounting changes. From now on, the profit or loss on a specific vehicle is recognized in the country where the vehicle is sold, not where it’s made, says Automotive News, and continues: “For example, a Cadillac ATS made in Michigan but sold in China will be reflected in the financial results of GM’s Chinese operations, rather than in its North American results.”

Strange that GM wants to expatriate profits while it still sits on a – some say ill-begotten – $30 billion tax loss. Meanwhile, the lack of data is felt as a much bigger loss elsewhere, like in Washington.

Production data are needed all the way from suppliers of parts to the Federal Reserve. The Fed uses production data to get a picture of economic activity. It will fly blind as far as this important part of the economy is concerned. Many in the industry expect other makers to follow GM’s bad example – after all, why should I show mine if GM doesn’t show me theirs?

Automotive News’s Jesse Snyder, a man who usually can’t find anything at GM he does not like, says:

“Any withheld info is bad news, And here’s the worst part. GM knows every bit of this — and chose this path anyhow. Good golly, just how bad is the situation? GM just shot itself in the foot. “

At TTAC, we are not surprised. For many years, we have been a critic of GM’s data policy. The company has a culture of spin and obfuscation. Many times, data did not add up. To the trained eye, the obfuscation usually is transparent. Many untrained writers, and this business is full of them, do swallow the spin, and they regurgitate the undigested spin straight into their keyboards.

Among the world’s top three automakers, GM is the only one that does not publish global data on a monthly basis. It is very scary that the world has to wait for sales and production numbers until they are reconciled with the quarterly report. GM is a public company. The taxpayer, whether we like it or not, has bailed-out the company and still holds a sizable chunk in GM. Shareholders are entitled to key performance data.

GM, and the rest of the world, would be well advised to study and implement the Japanese model of data reporting. Each month, all Japanese makers send out a spin-free standardized spreadsheet that tabulates worldwide production, along with domestic sales and exports. The Japanese automaker association JAMA then plugs it into a big database, accessible to all. If the supposedly inscrutable Japanese can be open, why does GM close up?

Hopes of a bottoming of the European have been frustrated, and the small April uptick turned out as a flash in the pan.

We warned in April not to read too much into car data, caused by a curious confluence of calendars. We predicted two weeks ago that the EU market will continue on its downward trajectory. And so it does.

The new car market throughout the EU was down 5.9 percent in May, the auto manufacturer association ACEA says.  For the year, the market is down 6.8 percent. Among the volume markets, the UK (+11 percent) is the only one that is not down. Across the Channel, France is down 10.4 percent.

Among the volume makers Daimler (+0.7 percent) and Ford (-0.3 percent) look the best. The Ford data give rise to the hope that the Blue Oval can stem the European hemorrhage earlier than others. Bloomberg says that “ Ford  is counting on new models such as the EcoSport compact sport-utility vehicle to help reduce reliance on low-margin sales to rental-car companies in Europe to stem losses in the region.”  Ford definitely has more reason for optimism than GM.

Just as Suzuki prepares to wrap things up in the North American market, their global product line is set to be revamped entirely, with a focus on vehicles like the Nissan Juke.

AutoExpress is reporting that no less than five new cars will debut in the Suzuki lineup, including

• A new three-cylinder city car to replace the Splash
• A four-wheel drive version of the highly acclaimed Swift
• A new B-segment crossover
• A production version of the Suzuki G70 concept car using Fiat’s TwinAir two-cylinder engine
• An MPV-type vehicle slotting above the Swift

Right now, the last two are under consideration with the others being given a green light. Given that none of those products would really fly in North America, save for the Swift (and that’s a longshot at best) it’s easy to see why the decision to close up shop was made, rather than invest in North American-specific product.

With all the troubles in Europe, one would expect Volkswagen to hurt, but the Wolfsburg company is doing just fine, thank you. For the first five months, Volkswagen Group sales are up 5.9 percent to 3.87 million units. In May, global deliveries rose 6.9 percent to 816,500.

In China, Volkswagen could edge out perennial numbers leader GM.

In Europe, Volkswagen is indeed suffering, but not as much as other volume makers. Volkswagen’s European sales are down 3 percent. Volkswagen makes it up abroad. North America is up  13 percent, China is up 18 percent

In China, the Volkswagen Group appears to have outsold GM – at least as far as the last month is concerned. In May, Volkswagen sold some 290,000 units in China in the month, GM reports 253,000. We had to calculate the May number for Volkswagen as the company reports only year-to-date numbers. We will supply the exact number when we have it.

Year-to-date, Volkswagen keeps nipping on the heels General Motors, but so far fails to overtake in China. Volkswagen sold 1.28 million cars in the Middle Kingdom from January through April, whereas General Motors reports 1.33 million.  Bottom-line wise, Volkswagen fares much better in China . More than half of GM’s Chinese volume consists of low-cost, low margin Wulings in a joint venture where GM holds 44 percent of the shares,  making GM’s Chinese leadership a hollow one. More than half of Volkswagen’s sales are coming from outside Europe.

Premium brand Audi braves the rough elements even better than  Volkswagen, again with a positive effect for the bottom line. Interestingly, Mediterranean SEAT, which had been given up for dead by many, shows surprising resiliency. Seat grew 31 percent in Germany, and 9 percent in the UK.

The next generation European-market Volkswagen Passat will be delayed until at least the end of 2014, as Volkswagen follows an industry-trend in Europe of neglecting their slow-selling D-segment cars.

Europe’s economic crunch has led to a sharp contraction in new car sales, and D-segment vehicles are among the hardest hit. Ford is delaying replacing the Mondeo with the car we know as the Fusion, until late 2014, while other cars like the Honda Accord are on the chopping block for Europe.

According to Just-Auto, the next Passat will be based off the MQB modular architecture, but with sales of D-segment cars moving so slowly, VW sees little reason to introduce an all-new car in such a slow market. Where VW is really hurting is in the mid-size crossover segment, which is the main culprit behind slowing sales of large sedans. Buyers are opting for crossovers like the Nissan Qashqai, which is roughly the size of our Rogue, rather than a mid-size sedan – and Volkswagen doesn’t really have a competitor in that segment, save for the relatively unpopular (in North America) Tiguan.

(Editor’s note: Despite being a close neighbor, ally, and NAFTA  member, Canada usually receives short shrift when it comes to the counting of cars. TTAC is a prime offender. We cover sales in Europe, Japan, China, and of course America – but Canada? Our resident car counter Cain will now cover the Canadian market on a monthly basis. Any volunteers for Mexico?)

For the second time in what was predicted to be yet another year of growth for the Canadian auto industry, volume grew significantly in May 2013. January volume was down 2%. By the end of February, the market was off 2012’s pace by 3%. March’s decline wasn’t as bad, but through the first quarter, sales were still down 2%. After April’s 9% increase, auto sales in May reached their highest level in six years.

Ford, Canada’s leading manufacturer, sold more vehicles in May than in any month since 1997. Buoyed by record Ford F-Series sales, Ford Canada outsold Chrysler’s five brands by more than 3000 units.

Another truck sales record was set by the Ram Pickup, the second best-selling vehicle line in Canada. Just under three out of every ten Chrysler Group sales came from the Ram during Chrysler’s best sales month since 1971.

In all, 16 different brands, including soon-to-be-defunct Suzuki, posted year-over-year sales declines in May. The worst of May’s decreases were recorded by Smart, Lincoln, Mini, Volvo, Suzuki, and BMW, all of which have also sold fewer vehicles in the first five months of 2013 than during the same period a year earlier.

20 brands reported year-over-year sales increases. Boosted by the FR-S, which was responsible for 41% of Scion volume, Toyota’s sub-brand boasted of a 63% jump in Canadian sales in May, the best improvement of any brand. Cadillac, Jaguar, Porsche, Subaru, Acura, Honda, and Ram all reported gains better than 20%.

As the Canadian auto market grew 5.4% in May, passenger car sales made gains of just 2%. Car volume is down 1% through five months. Pickup truck sales grew 9% as 13 nameplates accounted for 17% of the industry’s volume. A year ago, 15 truck nameplates accounted for 16% of the market.

14% of the vehicles sold in the United States in May were pickup trucks. And while Ford, Chevrolet, GMC, and Ram attracted 83% of truck buyers in the U.S., that figure rose to 92% in Canada last month. May’s U.S. new vehicle market was nearly eight times the size of Canada’s, but America’s truck market was just six times the size of the Canadian truck market.

Excluding the Sprinter van, Mercedes-Benz was outsold by BMW for luxury brand leadership. The six-unit margin was quite clearly slim. So far this year, Mercedes-Benz is just 149 units ahead of BMW. Although they go without it in the U.S., Mercedes-Benz markets the B-Class in Canada. With 1255 sales through five months, the B-Class is responsible for a larger portion of Mercedes-Benz Canada’s volume than the E-Class and CLS-Class combined. The B250’s base price is $7400 lower than the base price of Benz’s C250.

While America’s five best-selling cars in May were midsize sedans, the best-selling midsize car in Canada ranked eighth among cars, as is normally the case. May was the fourth time in 2013 that the Hyundai Elantra topped the leaderboard as Canada’s best-selling car. Its year-to-date lead over the Honda Civic now stands at 332 units. The only brand which has sold more cars than Hyundai this year has been Toyota, and Toyota’s car lead is only 804-units strong. Combined, Hyundai and Kia’s cars have outsold the cars of Toyota, Lexus, and Scion by 13,472 units through five months.

Despite the Elantra’s leadership, Hyundai-Kia’s market share has fallen from 12.8% in the first five months of 2013 to 12.1% this year. Ford MoCo, Chrysler Canada, and General Motors have combined to grow their share of the Canadian market from 44.8% last year to 45.9% in 2013. As a trio, the automakers formerly known as the Big Three have sold 15,000 more vehicles in 2013 than they did in the first five months of 2012, helped in large part by 11,000 extra pickup truck sales.

Miss the full table for Canada? Here it is?

Independent analyst Timothy Cain is the founder and editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. His look at the important segments will be a permanent fixture at TTAC, along with a  look at the market up North.

The recent rise in U.S. car sales emboldened forecasters to predict that 16 million units will be made in North America this year. Some already raise a specter that was thought to be dead for nearly a decade: Capacity constraints.

According to Automotive News [sub]

“Automakers are expected to build more than 16 million light vehicles in North America this year, the region’s highest output since 2002. Two major forecasters, LMC Automotive and IHS Automotive, predict that production will rise from last year’s 15.5 million units as the U.S. economy continues to improve. “

LMC’s Jeff Schuster  said:

“We’re getting close to the point where all factories are hitting full speed. We could hit a wall if this keeps up.”

According to Schuster, automakers are running their plants at close to 90 percent capacity utilization.

Note: These forecasts are for North American Production, not for U.S. sales. The U.S. sales outlooks however are not far behind.

LMC Automotive currently maintains the total U.S. light-vehicle sales outlook for 2013 at 15.4 million units.

U.S. light vehicle sales were the highest in the year 2000, when they exceeded 17 million. Sales hovered above the 16 million mark through 2007, only to crash to below 10 million in 2009. Since then, sales recovered steadily.

$44,470 will buy you a Chevrolet SS when it goes on sale later this year. That’s about $7,500 less than a base model, no-options C7 Corvette Stingray $5300 less than a Chrysler 300C SRT8 and $2995 less than a Dodge Charger SRT8. The SRT8 cars have more power, but the SS does have a couple advantages; it’s more subdued looking than the overwrought Charger.

Word around TTAC is that the 300C in SRT trim is a monster of a machine, and adding a supercharger makes it an unbeatable weapon when street racing lesser machines. Personally, I have a major issue with all of those cars; no manual transmission. I’d much rather take this gently used C6 Corvette Grand Sport for the same money. Because, like all real enthusiasts, I buy used. And I’m poor.

Lincoln is cutting their free maintenance program in half, from 4 years/50,000 miles to 2 years/24,000 miles.

Automotive News reports that dealers were informed of the change last month.

In a May 6 memo sent to dealers, Lincoln said the revised program “complements short-term 24-month leases.” In a statement, Lincoln said the new program is “competitive with other luxury brands.” Jaguar and Volvo also recently cut back their complimentary maintenance programs.

Some dealers expressed disappointment over Lincoln’s decision, but Rhode Island dealer principal told AN that most Lincolns are leased for between 2-3 years, and the move wouldn’t have a great effect on his business. But given Lincoln’s supposed push for industry-leading customer service, it’s puzzling why Lincoln would decide to cut the program so drastically. It’s not just the Germans who offer 4 year maintenance packages either – Cadillac does it too.

The Acura TSX’s future has been in doubt ever since the debut of the smaller ILX, but more than ever, the rebadged European Accord appears to be living on borrowed time.

Automotive News reports that a few factors are conspiring to bring about the demise of the TSX. One is that the European Accord that the TSX is based on is a very poor seller in Europe, and the car sales crisis happening on the continent isn’t helping matters. Mid-size cars have really taken a beating, and the slow-selling Accord has been hit especially hard. Because of the slow sales, Honda is killing off the car rather than developing a whole new generation. That means no future platform for the TSX to ride on.

Furthermore, the next generation TL is going to be downsized to fit better below the upcoming Acura RLX. The TL and the new American market Accord actually use a global platform that can be scaled up or down, which is far more efficient rather than using regional platforms. The new, scaled-down TL is reportedly slightly larger than the TSX, meaning cannibalization would be inevitable.

Acura says that the TSX will remain in the lineup ”for the foreseeable future.” After all, why kill a good thing. The ILX isn’t exactly setting the sales charts a blaze – it can barely pull away from the TSX.

May sales were down in Japan, and this time around, small kei cars could not bail out their bigger brethren. Imports into the allegedly closed market Japan on the other hand are zooming, despite the weaker yen that makes imports more expensive.

Sales of regular cars were down 7.3 percent. It would have been worse without a helping hand from the gaijin. Imports are up 24.8 percent in May after surging 35.5 percent in April. Quite possibly, buyers of imported cars rush to the showrooms before the weaker yen makes the car more expensive. Sales of domestics are down 10.4 percent. This according to data released by  the Japan Automobile Dealers Association. Sales through May are down 10.8 percent with imports up 13.2 percent.

Sales of minivehicles stopped growing and fell a sympathetic 6.3 percent in May. Kei cars are down 1.7 percent percent for the first five months, the Japan Light Motor Vehicle Association says. Keis hold 40 .4 percent of the Japanese market.

Total vehicles sales are down 6.9 percent.

Nissan, Ford and Chrysler led the way in April. GM and Toyota made smaller gains. Mitsubishi was this month’s loser, down 15 percent.

May 2013 U.S. Auto Sales

Final table, courtesy Automotive News [sub].

Chrysler sets the tone for a most likely very happy sales day, reporting an 11 percent increase in its May U.S. light vehicle sales to Reuters.

Ram sales rose 24 percent, they were up 23 percent at Dodge, 1 percent at Jeep and Fiat. Chrysler brand sales dropped 2 percent.

Analysts expect the market to be up by 6 to 8 percent. Follow us throughout sales day today to find out whether the analysts guessed right.

New and current Honda Fit EV customers can look forward to a reduction in their lease costs.

The old lease cost of $389/month for 36 months with 12,000 miles allowed annually has now become $259/month for 36 months with unlimited mileage. Also included are scheduled maintenance, collision coverage and a free 240V charger (the unit is free but you have to pay for installation). Customers who already leased a Fit EV will be able to take advantage of the new rates going forward.

The EV market is experiencing a bit of a price war lately, with aggressive deals from Fiat, Nissan and Chevrolet. For commuters in California, this presents an opportunity for a cheap runabout for short distances. TTAC contributor Jeff Jablansky is slated to give us his impressions of what it’s like to live with the Fit EV in the next couple weeks. In the mean time, Alex Dykes has driven a pre-production version, and currently has a Fiat 500e in his garage. The rest of us will have to watch from afar.

Something I’ve long maintained (and that has been backed up by many of the B&B) is that young people still like cars and do care about them. The issue of falling car ownership among young people is largely an economic one. The cost of living is going up while wages are stagnating. Gasoline is expensive. Student debt, smartphones and rent are more important obligations than car payments, insurance and fuel. All of that can be quantified with data.

What hasn’t been so easily demonstrable was that young people still like cars, despite the wishful thinking of many who cheer for the end to the automobile era. Now we finally have some good research that backs up my gut feeling.

A new study by Edmunds shows that not only are more Millennials buying new cars, but they aren’t opting for the usual old boring appliances either. Using data from Polk, Edmunds discovered that the number of 18-34 year-old buyers is rebounding – not quite to pre-recession levels, but improving steadily from 2011 to 2012. And it looks to be holding steady this year.

According to the Edmunds study, Millennial buyers tend to buy a greater share of luxury and sporty cars as well – segments that are traditionally the domain of older buyers with disposable income that can be spent on a car. This is another notion that has long suffered from an absence of hard data, but I can tell you that the rationale behind this is simple; if we’re going to shell out for a car, it’s going to be something that we really want, like a Scion tC (yes, lots of people want those, even if we don’t) or a Hyundai Genesis Coupe, rather than a more utilitarian car.

The study isn’t entirely rosy, and it highlights a number of roadblocks that could continue to derail car ownership for Generation Y

For starters, the job market remains very tough for under-25 crowd. Double digit unemployment rates persist for the youngest segment of the labor force despite that fact that its labor force participation rates have continued to fall and are at their lowest levels since at least 2003.

Meanwhile, the older Millennials — the 25 to 34 year olds — continue to struggle with slow income growth. From 2010 to 2011 (the most recent year available), their median household income grew 1.8 percent but as in the previous three years, failed to keep pace with inflation. This growth rate is particularly concerning since the older Millennials tend to be in the first ten years of their careers, the period during which 70 percent of raises typically occur.

The Millennials’ job and income issues are compounded by the fact that they are entering the workforce with significantly more student loan debt than previous generations. This higher debt burden impedes their ability to qualify for other loans, including car loans.

Not mentioned is the rapid expansion in credit and auto loan terms – are younger consumers with lower incomes taking on 72, 84 or 96 month term loans to help them afford that FR-S or 328i? It’s certainly plausible, but again, without hard data, it’s little more than a theory.

Over at Automotive News, Mark Rechtin wrote an equally insightful rebuttal to the latest study that posits that Generation Y are eager to reject cars and home ownership for an urban lifestyle of renting and Brooklyn Bohemianism. Rechtin delicately puts forward what we all know in the back of our minds; one day, we will turn into our parents and trade in the chic loft in a gentrified neighborhood for new digs that are more suitable for raising a family. These will likely be in the suburbs, and will necessitate a car.

But before that, they will grow up

Young people do care about cars. They just haven’t had to. Either unemployed or underemployed, many Gen Y college grads have moved back home with their helicopter parents who have resumed their role as their childrens’ personal taxi services. Gen Ys can’t afford cars, but they can afford iPhones.

If Edmunds is correct, then this is all set to change. The economy will recovery, good jobs will return for America’s youth and the dream of a middle class life will start to become a more realistic goal for the 70 million young people who constantly uncertain about their future. I certainly hope it happens. The alternative is extremely ugly.

The last week or two, I’ve been getting the Toronto Sun free of charge. The Sun, as it’s known, could be compared to, say, the New York Post, but it’s really more in the vein of a British tabloid paper. Like the Post, the front page always has some sensationalized headline, and it’s often looked down upon as the newspaper of the uneducated middle class, but if you want to know what’s really going on in Toronto, especially our farcical municipal politics, The Sun cannot be beat.

While its competitors have ads for local Aston Martin, Bentley and Land Rover dealers, the Sun seems to have never-ending full-page ads for local domestic car dealerships, which seem to be perpetually wrapping up some kind of blowout sale that brings a whole new meaning to the term “dealer may sell for less”.

Having never picked up The Sun prior to getting it delivered, I was unaware that you could get such a good deal on a new car. But every day, there are 2013 Fusions, Escapes, Journeys, Grand Caravans and even full-size trucks going for utterly unbelievable prices. How about

• A 2013 Dodge Journey Canada Value Package for $17,995?
• If you want a Pentastar and a 6-speed automatic, you can get that in a Grand Caravan CVP for the same money.
  
• If you look around a little more, you can find both cars listed at $17,295.
• A 1.6L Ecoboost Escape is $19,788, minus another $1,000 if you’re a Costco member.
• You can lease a 2013 Fusion 2.5L for about $25/month less than a Mazda3 SKYACTIV – or a well equipped Focus, for that matter.
• A Chrysler 200 is $555 more than a base model Honda Civic.

In some cases, like the Journey and the 200, you are getting some old tech, like 2.4L engines and 4-speed automatics. I don’t think I’d really want to drive a minivan at this stage in my life, but the Caravan at 17,995 is an unbeatable value – and the step up to a model with Stow N Go seats (which I’d imagine are a must have when kids and all their associated cargo are part of the equation) only brings the price up to just under $22,000.

The fact that a Dart 2.0L costs more than a Fusion or an Escape strikes me as absurd. I don’t know how much of it is manufacturer cash on the hood or a price war among dealers. One dealer principal I spoke to told me that this is happening already. According to him, car dealerships are just convenient real estate plays for a number of wealthy Toronto residents, and they’re ok with selling cars at rock bottom prices. For consumers, there’s never been such an abundance of good deals out there.

Juan Barnett of DC Auto Geek tweeted some interesting information last weekend regarding the last generation of CTS-V; just 1,200 examples of the CTS-V wagon were sold during the car’s lifecycle; by comparison, Cadillac sold a total of 254,000 examples of the CTS.

Of those, 215,000 were sedans (with 8,000 being V-Series), 32,000 were coupes (6,000 were V-Series) and a mere 7,000 were wagons. Given Cadillac’s assertion that 5 V wagons needed to be sold to break even on the project, it seems that Cadillac managed to make their money back many times over on a variant that accounted for barely 0.5 percent of CTS sales. If nothing else, it was a profitable PR exercise for Cadillac. Even male fashion bloggers and the guy from American Pie ended up driving them.

(N.B: Many of you have expressed disbelief at the “5 wagons = profit” figure, so I’ll explain the rationale behind it. The tooling was already there, the drivetrain was certified, the car was crash tested and all the associated FMVSS regulatory crap was homologated. For Cadillac, it was simply a matter of bolting it all together. The above points are the exact reason why European manufacturers are reluctant to bring their high-power wagons over here. The costs of doing all of these seemingly minor things add up very quickly. We are talking low to mid 8-figures.)

Like the GM EV1, Volkswagen is planning a lease program from their XL1. While VW hasn’t announced pricing, the idea behind leasing is for VW to maintain a measure of control over the cars, specifically to ensure they’re located close to proper servicing centers and to avoid a secondary market for the cars. VW’s Mark Gillies confirmed to Autoblog that the lease program is the most likely avenue for customers to obtain an XL1.

When the NSX was last available for sale, the rest of the world knew it as a Honda product. But now that the next-generation NSX is intended to be a flagship for the Acura brand, Honda has run into a small problem – Acura doesn’t exist in much of the world.

So far, Acura has expanded into China, Hong Kong and Mexico. Plans are in place to roll the brand out in Russia, the Ukraine and the Middle East, but Western Europe is off limits for now due to the region’s economic slump. But plans are in place to roll out the Ohio-built next generation NSX across the globe, and Honda will have to make a decision about whether to badge it as a Honda (like last time) or roll it out as a stand-alone Acura vehicle.

Honda dealers in the UK are reportedly taking orders for the car already, despite not having any distribution for Acura products. One way or another, it seems like the NSX will get a global roll-out.

Expect May auto sales to come in 6 percent to 8 percent higher than in May 2012, and the SAAR to rise above 15 million. This according to Reuters, and “after a disappointing result in the prior month” – for some.

Reuters analyzed the predictions of a few analysts, so we don’t have to:

“Sales of new cars and trucks in May are expected to top 1.43 million vehicles, while the annual sales pace is forecast to hit 15.2 million vehicles, according to a report by J.D. Power and Associates and LMC Automotive, as well as one by TrueCar.com.

Kelley Blue Book’s forecast is slightly more conservative, as it sees sales rising 6 percent to almost 1.42 million and an annual sales rate of 15 million.”

A sad day for both Ford and Australia. The Blue Oval has officially announced an end to building cars in Australia, which Ford has done since the 1920s.

Both the Broadmeadows assembly plant and the Geelong engine plant will close in 2016, resulting in a loss of 1200 jobs. Declining sales of the Ford Falcon, and the expense of retooling Geelong to build engines that are complaint with Euro 5 emissions standards. Ford’s One Ford strategy, which seeks to eliminate regional specific models like the Falcon, also hastened the demise of Ford’s Australian manufacturing operations.

A rising Australian dollar has also been identified as a culprit, but Holden and Toyota are expected to continue their manufacturing operations in Australia despite this. Holden has even committed to a new generation of Commodore beyond the yet to be introduced VF – though it may not follow the traditional rear-drive Aussie sedan template, as smaller, more fuel-efficient cars have become popular in Australia.

Either way, Ford’s Australian operations have been on shaky ground for some time. Today is only a confirmation of what many thought was inevitable.

A piece in Bloomberg that could hardly be seen as anything but relentless Detroit homerism puts forward the thesis that cutting-edge design is helping Detroit capture increasing market share in a white hot new car market. Per Bloomberg

From the fires of Detroit’s descent into near-death, GM, Ford and Chrysler Group LLC have forged some of the most distinctive designs since tail fins were soaring in the halcyon days of the postwar-era. Models such as GM’s Cadillac ATS sports sedan, Ford’s Fusion family car and Chrysler’s Jeep Grand Cherokee are turning heads and stoking sales.

On the strength of stylish new showroom offerings, GM, Ford and Chrysler all gained market share in the first quarter for the first time in 20 years. Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Corp. (7203)’s staid standard-bearer, the Camry, has endured three months of declining sales as the automaker ceded U.S. share this year.

Rather than single out Detroit as the object of my scorn, I will say that we are far from a golden age of car design, and that sentiment transcends vehicle nationalities. Safety regulations, CAFE and a relentless focus on fuel economy have made most cars look utterly homogenous; nearly all sedans are some variation of the reverse teardrop shape, while crossovers, tall wagons and SUVs blend into the same amorphous two-box conformity. There are a few standouts these days and Detroit seems to have a disproportionate share of them; the Jeep Cherokee (which is distinctive if nothing else), the Jaguar F-Type, the Chrysler 300. The Ford Mustang will sadly be turned into another organic blob as the Blue Oval prepares it for sale in Europe and other world markets. The new Cadillac CTS is a wonderful execution of the concepts expressed in the ATS, but at a price point that’s off-limits to many of us. But by and large, it is getting harder and harder to tell one car from another.

Bloomberg pays particular attention to the Ford Fusion, the 4th best selling car as of April 2013. Even so it is still being beaten by three dull-looking Japanese cars; the Camry, Accord and Altima. Cadillac is resorting to incentives to push the ATS, a car that was already the subject of more Bloomberg  boosterism and the Jeep Grand Cherokee, despite being a lovely SUV in every single respect, is not exactly a ground breaking design. Hell, the consistently criticized Chevrolet Malibu is currently ranked tenth in the sales charts despite being panned by just about everybody who fancies themselves an armchair Adrian van Hooydonk.

There are many factors driving the growth of domestic auto sales; the need to replace an aging vehicle fleet, the expansion of subprime financing on the part of certain manufacturers and of course, the general competitiveness of a wide number of American cars. But to suggest that we are in a “Golden Age” of design not seen since the 1960s – a truly superlatve era for automotive design in America - is an absolute farce.

As predicted by TTAC, European car sales were up slightly in April. Car sales in the EU rose by 1.7 percent in the month, Europe’s car manufacturer association ACEA says. We warned you before not to read too much into it, and we warn you again.

According to the ACEA, “the region counted on average two more working days compared to the same month last year, which would account for the increase.” Actually, what happened was that the Easter week fell into March this year, last year, it was in April. March and April, taken together, shows sales down 5 percent.  In the first four months of the year, the EU new car market was down 7.1 percent. A week ago, we expected the market to be “down around 7 percent for the first four months of the year.”

On a manufacturer basis, the Volkswagen Group (+9.9 percent in April) continues to outpace the market. So does Daimler (+ 10.7 percent.) Not all carmakers were able to profit from the favorable alignment of the calendars. PSA is down 10.1 percent, Fiat is down 10 percent, BMW lost 3.7 percent. GM Group is down 4.5 percent with a very strong drop for Chevrolet and a slight gain for Opel. Ford is down 0.6 percent.

Beleaguered EV start-up Better Place faced yet another blow this week, as Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn declared that rapid-charging, not swappable batteries, will be the predominant charging technology for EVs.

Israeli business outlet Globes quotes Ghosn as saying

“When you look at the overall trends, we must conclude that replaceable batteries are no longer the main track for electric vehicles…The main trail is flat batteries in cars with charging. We believe that people want flexibility in the technology, and we can see that the demand is for rechargeable standard batteries.”

Ghosn stopped short of completely writing off Better Place and their battery-swap technology, but Ghosn made it clear that the focus would be elsewhere. Commercial fleets were one area where Ghosn identified potential demand for swappable batteries, due to a lack of downtime with charging the vehicles.

“There may be cases where people prefer replaceable batteries – as we have tried to include Israel and Denmark. Here we will continue to offer the Fluence with replaceable batteries. There may also be large companies, where they have a huge fleet of cars, and do not want to wait for charging. But it will not be the majority of the market, and going forward, our focus is on the charging technology, among other things look at our new Nissan Leaf.”

Increasingly efficient rapid-charging technology and a lack of demand for EVs has led to a downward spiral for Better Place’s fortunes. The company recently shuttered their American and Australian operations and gave founder Shai Agassi the boot.