#CammyCorrigan

The Economic Times of India reports that Hyundai is worried about Europe. Hyundai Europe’s Vice President, Allan Rushforth, felt positive about 2010. “This year we’ll probably achieve 2.7 percent market share in a market of around 13.49 million,” he said. But with regards to 2011, he poured cold water on that year. “Next year will be really interesting. We have yet to see scrappage washout – the year-on-year effects of scrappage from the reported registration data…..I think the first half-year will be really, really tough.”

Reuters has a different story.

By 2016, federal laws will mandate that the fleet fuel economy of light trucks and SUV’s will be 30 mpg. Which means manufacturers will need to get their thinking caps on if they are to meet this standard. If they don’t, they’ll have to re-think their position in a very profitable area of the market. Ford, which is synonymous with trucks, is planning a diet.

When you enter into a joint venture with someone, it’s kind of important that you’re both on the same page. For one party to say one thing and the other party to say another could look a touch disorganized. Take Renault-Nissan-Bajaj. Renault-Nissan is adamant that their joint venture with the Indian maker would culminate in an ultra low cost car that would compete with the Tata Nano (which is on fire at the moment). Bajaj, on the other hand, is getting cold feet.

A few days ago the BBC reported that, officially, Russia was losing 1 trillion rubles (that’s about $32.5b to you) due to corruption. Also coming 154th on the corruption perceptions index does not help matters, either. “Gigantic sums of money are being pocketed by officials and dishonest businessmen,” said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, “Deal with them and put them in prison – there is no other way out.” So it sounds like President Medvedev is serious about dealing with corruption. He starts with a foreign company with deep pockets: Daimler. Again?

I’ve made no secret that if I wanted one of Detroit big 3 to succeed it was Chrysler. I’m not really a Ford fan and any affection I had for GM got killed off with Bob Lutz’s insane ramblings. Chrysler was always considered the most broken. Heavily dependent on fleet sales, woeful reliability and bleeding money. Then Chapter 11 came and I thought it was game over for Chrysler. Until recently.

Recently, I wrote about how Tata is reaping huge profits thanks to the acquisition of the “toxic” JLR brands. It was a huge gamble to buy them, but it paid off. Literally. Well, it appears that Tata’s growing profits are going to benefit not only Tata, but ironically, Ford, as well.

As mentioned in an earlier article, I’m getting old. Far too old to understand the younger generation. But with experience comes cynicism (maybe that should be a TTAC slogan?). The more things change, the more things stay the same. In the recent cutbacks, which the new UK government introduced, a fund called the “Grant for Business Investment Scheme” (GBI) is to be phased out by 2012. The fund was used by Nissan for their plant up in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. Production of the Leaf came to the UK on the back of a £20.7m grant from the GBI fund. Well, Nissan didn’t take too kindly to the news of the dry money well, says the Daily Mail.

When I was younger, I never thought I’d ever say “I don’t understand young people these days”. But sure enough, the other day I said the exact phrase when a friend’s daughter was explaining why X-Factor (American Idol) is the greatest show on TV. Maybe I won’t understand music matters (I think Golden Earring and Mike and the Mechanics is trendy) but at least I’ll know what young people find fashionable in the car world. Erm…not quite…

The Tata Nano was seen as the car which will set the Indian car market on fire. Unfortunately, it seems it’ll also roast its owners.

Full Disclosure: I hate “The Simpsons” and I hate Renault cars. So this article is going to have me seething.

When Fiat started to get a grip on Chrysler, there was very little chance of success. But to be fair, they are making a go of it. Sergio Marchionne is doing his best to integrate Fiat and Chrysler. Is he really?

When Tata bought Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) from Ford in 2008, the general consensus was that Ford was off-loading a massive problem, and that Tata should have their collective heads examined. JLR had been nothing but a cash drain on Ford. Sucking up resources which other divisions (cough-Lincoln-cough) sorely needed. The Jaguar brand was damaged due to the X-Type “fiasco” (note the inverted commas, because I still love my X-Type!) and Land Rover wasn’t really held in much higher regard. Even I, a big Jag-fan, had to concede that I was seeing the final days of JLR. How wrong was I?

Dealerships are a pain in the neck. The salesman tries to convince you that they’re your friend (when you know damn well they want as much money as they can squeeze out of you), getting warranty work out of them is sometimes a nightmare and, if you’re buying used, you don’t know what the car has been through. You can write a letter of complaint, but will that really help*? You may get a discounted service as compensation, but will anything REALLY change? Well, BMW wants to shake the dealership experience up a bit. In the customers’ favor.

The Royal Automobile Club (RAC) held its first Future Car Challenge. This was a race from Brighton to London (about 57 miles). The Auto Channel says it was to see who could consume the least during the trip. To keep things fair, the trip consisted of different driving conditions from country roads to traffic jams. Well, the race was done and the results are in. I can now reveal that the winner of the first RAC Future Car Challenge is, (soft) drum roll, please…

The idea behind the big car bailout supposedly was to keep millions of jobs in, well, North America. Ford didn’t partake, and hence should be free of moral obligations. ( Not that other companies on the government drip seem to be queasy about exporting jobs instead of cars.) Empowered by a clean conscience, Ford moves production to where it makes the most money. To India.