A quick run-down of the demographics for the 3-series customer, as written by BMW for its salespeople. No real surprises, but it is nice to see the information collected in one place.
A Singaporian merchant ship carrying nearly 5,000 Japanese cars is taking on water south of the Aleutian islands. A Coast Guard rescue team evacuated the crew of the Cougar Ace, which had been bound for Tacoma, Washington. The ship is still listing and taking on water, but authorities have no plans to save the cars -- among which include nearly 1,400 Mazdas.
In a very clever move, it has taken this secondary data and produced a reliability index \226 an independent comparison of frequency of failure across the 55,000 vehicles it insures. Read on for a list of the 100 most reliable used cars over the past decade. And before you take a peek, have a guess at where the best Japanese, German, Swedish, British, Korean and French-built cars will rank. You won\222t even come close!
SUV owners who are faced with rising gas prices have found a new way to get out from under their high car payments \227 arson. This trend was spotted by a Southern California arson task force in the summer of 2005 when gas prices spiked. At one point, firefighters responding to a report of a vehicle fire arrived at the Los Angeles River Bed to find two SUVs burning at the same time.
The Chrysler Crossfire is not selling as well as expected, so the decreased production numbers are requiring DCX to cover the compensation to Karmann, who is under contract to manufacture the vehicle for Chrysler.
We live in a world where Toyota is poised to become the world's largest auto manufacturer and Honda isn't far behind, but it wasn't always this way. Japanese car makers struggled for decades to earn credibility and market share. Here's a "way things were" look at a few classic Japanese vehicles.
Porsche leapt to the top of the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, while perennial top finisher Lexus was a close second. More startling, however, was Hyundai. The Korean brand - which stunned the automotive world in 2004 by beating Toyota in the study - repeated the feat this year by jumping to the third spot. Jaguar, which has boasted that its strong quality perception lags reality, finished fifth.
For the first time last month, an American auto buyer was more likely to get behind the wheel of a new Toyota than a new Ford. It\342\200\231s hard to read anything into one month\342\200\231s numbers, and Ford Motor Co.\342\200\231s year-to-date sales are still ahead of its Japanese competitor\342\200\231s. But the shift seems to symbolize the recent stumbles of U.S. automakers in the face of rising gas prices and changing views on fuel economy.
Honda of America Corporation is about to open a new manufacturing plant somewhere in the United States. The question on every ones mind is where? I have a prediction, I predict that the new plant will be in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Aston Martin is being bought by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the French luxury goods consortium that produces upper-crust products ranging from leather trunks and wallets to champagne and cognac...and now exotic luxury sports cars, too.
Doug Korthof, an electric car advocate, talks about how the automakers, in a conspiracy with oil companies, have worked against the development of electric cars. How? By controlling the patents on high-capacity rechargable batteries.
With more and more cars packing a titanic punch, performance-oriented competition has increased. So much so that models that can't keep pace run the risk of coming off, well, wimpy. BusinessWeek.com took a look at the 2006 models that could take inspiration from the CCR and Veyron, or even the relatively inexpensive models, and boost power to better compete.
Turbocharger manufacturers see no let up in demand for their products, particularly in Europe. The insatiable demand for turbocharged cars can be attributed to the popularity of direct injected petrol- and diesel-powered cars in both Europe and Japan as well as rising fuel costs.
For example, the Honda Accord Hybrid has an Energy Cost per Mile of $3.29 while the conventional Honda Accord is $2.18. Put simply, over the "Dust to Dust" lifetime of the Accord Hybrid, it will require about 50 percent more energy than the non-hybrid version.
As the American auto industry continues to flounder in its competition with overseas heavyweights such as Honda and Toyota, people are beginning to realize that it isn\342\200\231t that easy to define an \342\200\234American\342\200\235 car company anymore.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is set to announce a preliminary regulation requiring electronic stability control technology on all new vehicles. The technology, which has been described as the most important automotive safety advance since seat belts, helps prevent vehicles from veering out of control and possibly rolling over.
From the first slide below, which was presented by BMW AG, on 2 August 2006, for their Interim Report press conference, as clearly indicated, growth in worldwide sales has been dramatic from 2000 to 2005. This record-breaking trend continues into 2006. But where has the growth come from recently?
Workers at TVR's only factory were told that 260 jobs were cut immediately and the factory would be closed for at least 6 months. A spokesman for TVR said that the company was not closing down, but was instead moving production.
Sweden's Volvo, the world's number two truck firm, is to buy Japan's Nissan Diesel Motor for 7.5bn Swedish kronor ($1.1bn; £548m), to expand in Asia. Volvo, which already owns 19% of Nissan Diesel, cited its hybrid technology and medium-heavy trucks as strengths.
BusinessWeek's Bradley Berman takes a look at hybrids, and how manufacturers are overusing the term to attract attention to vehicles that may not save as much money or pollution as consumers are led to believe.
Honda today announced plans to advance toward its "2010 Vision" for North American automobile operations, in conjunction with a wider global strategy announced in Japan today by Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
Looking to buy a vehicle? Aside from searching on eBay, Craigslist, and Autotrader, there are scores of sites where cars are listed, particularly on smaller enthusiast-oriented sites. In fact, those might be the only places to find that pristine '95 M3 LTW you're looking for. Vast.com is a new search engine that claims to have more than 4 MM vehicles indexed.
Beginning Monday, GM implemented a preferential parking policy at the plant. Parking spaces closest to the plant are now reserved for employees driving GM vehicles. Drive a Ford, Honda or Toyota and your walk from the car to the plant just got longer. Wetter when it\222s raining.
Fuji Heavy Industries and Toyota have agreed to work together to develop a hybrid-powered Subarus. Tyota investigated providing existing solutions, but adaptation to the AWD systems had proven difficult.
Marketing is clearly and important part of the success and direction of a vehicle brand, and Cadillac could use a fresh face. An interesting look at Liz Vanzura, a Hummer marketing executive, and how she looks to shake things up at other groups around GM.
Though performance-minded Americans frequently decry the lack of specialty models and options, the fickle public ends up putting the manufacturers into a bad position that requires them to peel back on their offerings, assemble hefty option packages, and cut off whole model options entirely. Audi is taking measures to ensure that they stay right in the meat of the bell curve. The other German manufacturers can't be far behind.
Foreign cars are usually the ones with the big markups from unscrupulous dealerships that are looking to make a few thousand dollars in extra cash for a high-demand car. The Pontiac Solstice has enjoyed such notoriety, but now it's the Saturn dealers that are marking them up -- the same chain of dealerships known for no-haggle pricing and a great dealership experience.
Toyota has announced that it plans to design a low-cost car for the Russian market, the Nikkei has reported, citing Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe. Toyota's offering, the report states, is expected to be in the price range of US$6,000 to US$7,000, with sales scheduled to begin in 2010. Automotive industry analyst Valery Tarakanov believes that the car will fall under the B segment, akin to the Renault Logan.
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