#BertelSchmitt
With Sales Down Only 5.2 Percent, France Hopes This Is The Big Turn-Around
The situation in Europe is so desperate that a 5.2 percent drop of French car sales in April gave reason to rejoice. “The plunge seems to be halting after the double-digit declines of previous months,” Francois Roudier, spokesman of the French CCFA industry association, told Reuters.
Porsche Snaps Up Opel Workers
Porsche is looking to fill 1,400 jobs in for its expanded factory in Leipzig, where the new Macan SUVlet will be built by the end of the year. A lot of these jobs will go to current Opel workers, says Germany’s Focus.
And The Hits, They Keep On Coming: America's Top Twenty
This is the list of America’s best-selling car in the month of April and in the first four months of the year, as compiled by Reuters.
Ford Creates Jobs By The Truckload
Lower gas prices and a turn-around in the housing market rekindled America’s love for the pickup, resulting in 2,000 new jobs at Ford’s Kansas City Assembly Plant.
April U.S. Car Sales
April is Detroit month. Strong sales of pickups and crossovers bring double digit gains to Detroit while other brands lag. Final table, courtesy of Automotive New [sub].
Japanese Car Sales Up Slightly In April
April sales in Japan were up 1.5 percent in April, with sales of kei cars lagging behind resurging regular cars while imports surprise.
April Sales: Detroit Up By Double Digits
Detroit delivers on the double digit growth rates predicted by auto analysts for April.
- GM sales rose 11 percent in April
- Ford Motor is up 18 percent
- Chrysler Group sales rose 11 percent
A Walk Down The Memory Lanes Of The Japanese Car. Tour Guided By Lexus LFA Engineer, With 92 Never Before Released Pictures
Electric Car Maker Coda Goes Bankrupt
Electric car startup Coda is the latest in a series of greenm dreams to go down the drain – and it won’t be the last. Coda filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today, writes Reuters, “after selling just 100 of its all-electric sedans, another example of battery-powered vehicles’ failure to break into the mass market.”
GM Prepares A Barrage Of New Cars, Hopes To Right Sinking Market Share
GM’s pickup truck changeover has received all the attention of TTAC’s commentariat, but GM knows it needs more than new trucks to make up for decades of deteriorating market share. All hopes are on a wave of new showroom offerings. “Seventy percent of the automaker’s U.S. portfolio will be refreshed between the start of 2012 and the end of 2013, and 89 percent will be refreshed by 2016,” writes the Detroit News.
Residual Value Miracle Aston Martin To Fetch Millions
A car bought in 1956 for $15,000 is expected to sell for between $1.5 million and $2 million when it goes on auction in November. It is expected to be the star of Sotheby’s first significant auction of collector cars in more than a decade, where some 35 prewar French cars, postwar American and European sports cars, as well as American and European classics will vie for the attention and wallets of affluent car nuts.
Even Back Home In Korea, Lying About Gas Mileage Can Get Expensive
Guess which South Korean carmaker prompted the South Korean government to tighten its rules about overstating their cars’ mileage? Under new South Korean government rules “aimed at reassuring consumers after Hyundai Motor Co’s fuel economy fiasco last year” it can cost more than $900,000 if one is caught with overly optimistic mileage claims, Reuters says.
Analysts Predict Very Strong April Sales
When automakers report U.S. April sales tomorrow, they will be up strongly for the sixth month in a row. The U.S. auto industry’s annual selling rate will be 15.25 million vehicles in April, according to economists polled by Thomson Reuters. Here is why:
Winterkorn Not Worried About Billion Euro Porsche Lawsuits. Or So He Says
After plans failed to sue Porsche in America, where juries are impressionable and awards are rich, the lawsuits are now in Germany, where courts are cautious, and where professional judges need to be convinced. The wheels of justice crank slowly.
Boston Marathon Bomber's Deadly Mistake: He Took A Mercedes
Daimler is set to profit from theBoston Marathon bombing drama in a strange way. The car hijacked by Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a 2013 ML350 with an active telematics subscription. Mercedes-Benz USA confirmed to Automotive News [sub] that “it was contacted April 19 during the hunt for Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Mercedes was asked to help find the vehicle using the Stolen Vehicle Location Assistance function on the crossover’s mbrace telematics system.“
Recent Comments