Steves Auto Blog
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The sports car racer recovers from a crash in practice at New Jersey’s Thunderbolt Raceway, and his team will go to the backup car.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Inside Line Automotive News
Steves Auto Blog
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In another sign of the rise and fall of the Motor City, Volkswagen overtook Ford in the first half of the year as the world’s third-largest carmaker in vehicle sales.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Inside Line Automotive News
Steves Auto Blog
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The luxury sedan gets a set of all-wheel-drive variants.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Inside Line Automotive News
Steves Auto Bloghttp://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com//media/il/news/2008/0829/toyota.fuel.cell.hybrid.160.jpg. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Inside Line Automotive News
Steves Auto Blog
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Barack Obama has a lot to say about cars as he accepts the Democratic nomination for president. At the same time, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz makes a plea for federal loans for Detroit automakers.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Inside Line Automotive News
Steves Auto Blog
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GM’s European division is set to launch its first models in the environmentally friendly Ecoflex lineup.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Inside Line Automotive News
Steves Auto Blog
I have heard alot of industry-speak, but I’m not sure what to make of this, as reported in Automotive News:
DENVER — Ford Motor Co. executives are telling lawmakers and other policymakers that suppliers as well as automakers are in critical need of low-interest federal loans soon.
Ford purchasing chief Tony Brown was part of the automaker’s pitch to policymakers here today at the Democratic National Convention.
But even Ford isn’t able to say what amount of federal money it needs.
“We’re still dimensioning,” Brown told Automotive News after chatting with Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. He was accompanied by Bruce Andrews, Ford vice president of government affairs and a former Democratic congressional staff member.
Stabenow led the effort to add a provision to last year’s energy law authorizing $25 billion in loans for factory retooling to produce vehicles with fuel-saving technology.
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Auto Beat
Steves Auto Blog
I have heard alot of industry-speak, but I’m not sure what to make of this, as reported in Automotive News:
DENVER — Ford Motor Co. executives are telling lawmakers and other policymakers that suppliers as well as automakers are in critical need of low-interest federal loans soon.
Ford purchasing chief Tony Brown was part of the automaker’s pitch to policymakers here today at the Democratic National Convention.
But even Ford isn’t able to say what amount of federal money it needs.
“We’re still dimensioning,” Brown told Automotive News after chatting with Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. He was accompanied by Bruce Andrews, Ford vice president of government affairs and a former Democratic congressional staff member.
Stabenow led the effort to add a provision to last year’s energy law authorizing $25 billion in loans for factory retooling to produce vehicles with fuel-saving technology.
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Auto Beat
Steves Auto BlogIndustry sees slight uptick since July, but still lagging the previous year; Detroit Three suffer more losses.
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Inside Line Automotive News
Steves Auto Bloghttp://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com//media/il/news/2008/0829/volt.r34.2.160.jpg. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Inside Line Automotive News
Steves Auto Bloghttp://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/12h/www.edmunds.com//media/il/news/2008/0829/audi.tts.coupe.front.160.jpg. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Inside Line Automotive News
Steves Auto Blog
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GM is recalling 88,809 2008 Buick Enclave and 2007-’08 GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook vehicles for a problem with the windshield wipers.
Originally Syndicated via RSS from Inside Line Automotive News
Steves Auto Blog
Okay…I’m taking a lot of crud for my LaCrosse comments.
www.Jalopnik.com offers this link to the image of the whole car, apparently previewed for media in July, though I was not present.
Here is the link to the image. IT’s worth noting that my wise-guy friends at jalopnik.com have identified this car in their blog as a Lucerne, but we think it is the image of the new LaCrosse. My question: Will Tiger Woods actually drive one of these things?
http://jalopnik.com/photogallery/newgmcars/1002793462
Looks like a decent job from Lutz’s design lab. But I’m still not excited.
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Auto Beat
Steves Auto Blog
Okay…I’m taking a lot of crud for my LaCrosse comments.
www.Jalopnik.com offers this link to the image of the whole car, apparently previewed for media in July, though I was not present.
Here is the link to the image. IT’s worth noting that my wise-guy friends at jalopnik.com have identified this car in their blog as a Lucerne, but we think it is the image of the new LaCrosse. My question: Will Tiger Woods actually drive one of these things?
http://jalopnik.com/photogallery/newgmcars/1002793462
Looks like a decent job from Lutz’s design lab. But I’m still not excited.
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Auto Beat
Steves Auto Blog
Automotive News this week reported that Indian auto/truck maker Mahindra and Mahindra is delaying launch by six months to the fourth quarter of 2009. This, in fact, was known months ago, which is why Mahindra dealers haven’t begun building showrooms.
Since anything can happen to further delay a launch, dealers will wait until the last possible time to erect showrooms.
Mahindra, which said months ago it was delaying launch from mid 2009 to the end of the year, right now has a handful of pickup trucks being durability tested in Wisconsin. This Fall, the test will be expanded to 25 vehicles. The company plans to launch with a pickup truck in late 2009, and follow with an SUV a year or 18 months later.
According to sources, the chief concern of the company is to make sure that trucks are spot-on in terms of fit and finish and won’t be prone to early recalls for quality issues. Mahindra is anxious to avoid the Hyundai syndrome (quality problems that set in shortly after launch sunk the brand for a decade.
If there is a concern among executives at Mahindra, and U.S. distributor Global Vehicles, it is the continuing high price of diesel in the U.S. All of Mahindra’s vehicles are diesels, and expected to get around 30 mpg. Diesel today, nationally, is about $4.15 per gallon on average, compared with $3.69 for gasoline.
Mahindra is developing a “cost-per-mile” marketing and education campaign to support the case for buying diesel vehicles. The other concern is convincing pickup truck buyers to trade down to a smaller size truck. To that end, the Indian company is focusing on making sure the pickup (as yet un-named but previously called the Appalachia) can tow a typical bass boat, with total towing weight perhaps reaching 3,500 pounds.
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Auto Beat
Steves Auto Blog
Automotive News this week reported that Indian auto/truck maker Mahindra and Mahindra is delaying launch by six months to the fourth quarter of 2009. This, in fact, was known months ago, which is why Mahindra dealers haven’t begun building showrooms.
Since anything can happen to further delay a launch, dealers will wait until the last possible time to erect showrooms.
Mahindra, which said months ago it was delaying launch from mid 2009 to the end of the year, right now has a handful of pickup trucks being durability tested in Wisconsin. This Fall, the test will be expanded to 25 vehicles. The company plans to launch with a pickup truck in late 2009, and follow with an SUV a year or 18 months later.
According to sources, the chief concern of the company is to make sure that trucks are spot-on in terms of fit and finish and won’t be prone to early recalls for quality issues. Mahindra is anxious to avoid the Hyundai syndrome (quality problems that set in shortly after launch sunk the brand for a decade.
If there is a concern among executives at Mahindra, and U.S. distributor Global Vehicles, it is the continuing high price of diesel in the U.S. All of Mahindra’s vehicles are diesels, and expected to get around 30 mpg. Diesel today, nationally, is about $4.15 per gallon on average, compared with $3.69 for gasoline.
Mahindra is developing a “cost-per-mile” marketing and education campaign to support the case for buying diesel vehicles. The other concern is convincing pickup truck buyers to trade down to a smaller size truck. To that end, the Indian company is focusing on making sure the pickup (as yet un-named but previously called the Appalachia) can tow a typical bass boat, with total towing weight perhaps reaching 3,500 pounds.
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Auto Beat
Steves Auto Blog
I caught a few minutes of Rush Limbaugh’s radio show today. God help me.
Rush, who is no fan of promoting the purchase of more fuel efficient cars, was blathering about how the current Moscow Auto Show is showcasing gas guzzling SUVs. He then excoriated the U.S. for promoting “bubble cars” at its shows. Hmmmm. I don’t recall seeing too many “bubble cars” myself.
He then made the cogent point that because we are beginning to emphasize more fuel efficient vehicles, and Russia and China are pushing gas guzzlers at its shows, we (the U.S.) are abdicating our role as a global super power. Never mind that Russia and China subsidizes the cost of gasoline, making gas cheap in those countries.
They actually pay the guy for this kind of insight.
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Auto Beat
Steves Auto Blog
I caught a few minutes of Rush Limbaugh’s radio show today. God help me.
Rush, who is no fan of promoting the purchase of more fuel efficient cars, was blathering about how the current Moscow Auto Show is showcasing gas guzzling SUVs. He then excoriated the U.S. for promoting “bubble cars” at its shows. Hmmmm. I don’t recall seeing too many “bubble cars” myself.
He then made the cogent point that because we are beginning to emphasize more fuel efficient vehicles, and Russia and China are pushing gas guzzlers at its shows, we (the U.S.) are abdicating our role as a global super power. Never mind that Russia and China subsidizes the cost of gasoline, making gas cheap in those countries.
They actually pay the guy for this kind of insight.
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Auto Beat
Steves Auto Blog
Earlier this week, I wrote a story for BusinessWeek.com about the protests enveloping the plant which is slated to soon commence production of the $2,500 Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car. To recap, on Aug. 24, an estimated 30,000 protesters, angry at the way the state government had acquired 400 acres of land surrounding the plant, gathered at the factory and blocked roads leading to it. Some 4,000 riot police with water cannons were on standby in case of violence. Some of the protesters stayed on, setting up a reported 21 camps and promising not to leave until the land, which Tata wants for suppliers, is handed back. Protesters are said to have attacked Tata employees and stolen equipment from the site.
Yet for all that Tata insists that the Nano will go on sale as planned in October. If the problems at Singur aren’t resolved, the company says one possibility is to shift production to another plant. There’s also the option of ditching the Singur site altogether and building a new site somewhere else in India.
One wonders what this is going to do to the Nano’s profitability. Tata says it’s already spent $350 million on the plant in Singur. Even if it can move successfully the whole plant bit by bit to a new site, Ashvin Chotai, an independent auto analyst, reckons it would cost another $50-$100 million. And that doesn’t taken into the account the added costs for suppliers, which would also face the prospect of moving closer, or sending “>parts further, to a new site. “There is a possibility that Tata may need to shoulder some of these costs,” says Chotai. Then there’s the impact of rising raw materials costs, which consultants Global Insight estimate account for about 23% of the Nano’s pretax price.
So what’s all this got to do with the Mini? Well, like the Nano, the Mini was small, had an innovative design and low price (retailing at under £500). It was hugely successful, too, selling over five million between 1959 and 2000. Most analysts expect the Nano, with its super-cheap price to be at the very least a big seller in India. Still, there’s one aspect of the Mini’s history that Tata would be wise to avoid: the more Minis that were sold, the bigger the losses were for the now long defunct British Motor Corporation. Indeed, Ford estimated it lost £30 on every one sold because the price was too low. Putting that into perspective, that equates to a loss on the Mini of over £7 million, a huge sum at the time, in 1967 alone. That’s caused some auto historians to claim that the legendary Mini was in fact “a major factor in the demise of the British auto industry”. Sometimes a commitment to a low price can be very costly.
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Auto Beat
Steves Auto Blog
Earlier this week, I wrote a story for BusinessWeek.com about the protests enveloping the plant which is slated to soon commence production of the $2,500 Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car. To recap, on Aug. 24, an estimated 30,000 protesters, angry at the way the state government had acquired 400 acres of land surrounding the plant, gathered at the factory and blocked roads leading to it. Some 4,000 riot police with water cannons were on standby in case of violence. Some of the protesters stayed on, setting up a reported 21 camps and promising not to leave until the land, which Tata wants for suppliers, is handed back. Protesters are said to have attacked Tata employees and stolen equipment from the site.
Yet for all that Tata insists that the Nano will go on sale as planned in October. If the problems at Singur aren’t resolved, the company says one possibility is to shift production to another plant. There’s also the option of ditching the Singur site altogether and building a new site somewhere else in India.
One wonders what this is going to do to the Nano’s profitability. Tata says it’s already spent $350 million on the plant in Singur. Even if it can move successfully the whole plant bit by bit to a new site, Ashvin Chotai, an independent auto analyst, reckons it would cost another $50-$100 million. And that doesn’t taken into the account the added costs for suppliers, which would also face the prospect of moving closer, or sending “>parts further, to a new site. “There is a possibility that Tata may need to shoulder some of these costs,” says Chotai. Then there’s the impact of rising raw materials costs, which consultants Global Insight estimate account for about 23% of the Nano’s pretax price.
So what’s all this got to do with the Mini? Well, like the Nano, the Mini was small, had an innovative design and low price (retailing at under £500). It was hugely successful, too, selling over five million between 1959 and 2000. Most analysts expect the Nano, with its super-cheap price to be at the very least a big seller in India. Still, there’s one aspect of the Mini’s history that Tata would be wise to avoid: the more Minis that were sold, the bigger the losses were for the now long defunct British Motor Corporation. Indeed, Ford estimated it lost £30 on every one sold because the price was too low. Putting that into perspective, that equates to a loss on the Mini of over £7 million, a huge sum at the time, in 1967 alone. That’s caused some auto historians to claim that the legendary Mini was in fact “a major factor in the demise of the British auto industry”. Sometimes a commitment to a low price can be very costly.
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Originally Syndicated via RSS from Auto Beat
