#IHS

Your Carfax data is going to new hands. IHS, the company that owns businesses from the defense publication Jane’s all the way to the not always reliable Global Insight, told Reuters that “it struck a deal to buy privately held R.L. Polk & Co, the owner of used-car history provider Carfax and a leading provider of auto industry data.”

Parts shortages triggered by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan could reduce global automobile production by up to 30 percent, research firm IHS Automotive told Bloomberg. Or at least that’s what Bloomberg heard.

In the beginning of the new millennium, U.S. new auto sales topped 17 million a few times as Americans used the assumed equity in their houses to stuff their three car garages with more cars than there were driver’s licenses in the nation. In 2000, a total of 17,349,700 new cars changed hands. A year later, 17,121,900 units. It deteriorated from there. In 2007, 16,089,300 cars were sold. And we know what happened thereafter.

If we buy and sell 11.5 million new cars this year, it will be called a recovery. For 2011, J.D.Power sees maybe 12.8 million, if it all works out. They had seen a bit more before, but grew cautious lately. Now, a prophet appeared that predicts the miracle everybody prays for, a return to former (albeit fleeting) glory: