"Green" Convenience Stores, Chevy Dealer Aim To Boost E85 Availability

By Bill Visnic

A Delaware startup company is fronting an ambitious plan to construct 1,000 “Go Green Station” convenience store/fueling stations on the East Coast that will sell only ethanol-based E85 and other alternative fuels.

Alternative Fuel Distributors, created last year to “develop, construct, own and operate convenience stores dedicated to supplying alternative fuels to retail customers,” said it expects to have 100 of the company-owned and trademarked Go Green Station convenience stores open by first-quarter 2009 in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware.

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Why Is Honda CR-V Kicking Compact Crossover Butt?

By Kate McLeod

It’s not often any competitor gets to kick Toyota’s darling butt, but Honda is doing it with its compact crossover CR-V.

Last month, as overall U.S. vehicle sales declined 10 percent, Honda chalked up 15,694 CR-V sales, up 11.4 percent from a year ago February. The combined increase for the first two months of 2008 over 2007 — 14 percent — is a continuation of a record year for the CR-V, which sold almost 220,000 in 2007 making the it the best-selling SUV in America, a spot long-held by the Ford Explorer. Meantime, Honda reports March sales Tuesday.

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UAW Membership Falls to New Low; American Axle Strike Goes On

The United Auto Workers union reported its membership dropped below a half-million people for the first time since World War II.

In U.S. Labor Department filings, the UAW said it closed 2007 with 464,910 members, a decline of 14.7 percent or 73,500 members from the previous year and more than two-thirds below its peak of 1.5 million members in 1979. It marks the union's low-water mark of membership since 1941.

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Edmunds.com Enhances Consumer Reviews

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Edmunds.com has enhanced its Web site to make it easier for consumers to write and submit their own ratings and reviews of vehicles at Edmunds.com/carreviews.html. The changes affect pages viewed by millions of consumers on monthly

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BMW Hydrogen 7: A Surreal World Trial Run

By Nick Kurczewski

MONTE CARLO, Monaco — A hydrogen economy might still be a decade or more into the future but that hasn’t stopped BMW from continuing its real-world hydrogen trial run, courtesy of some surreal clientele. Prince Albert II of Monaco was handed the keys to a BMW Hydrogen 7 sedan at this week’s EVER Monaco ecological car show.

He joins an elite list of roughly 100 celebrities and VIPs who have been loaned one of BMW’s Hydrogen 7s. The average loan extends from six to eight weeks. A BMW spokesman at the EVER Monaco ecological car show confirmed Prince Albert would have a Hydrogen 7 for a two-month trial.

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Time, Competition Rub Sheen from Accord, Corolla

By Dale Buss

Toyota Corolla and Honda Accord are icons of the Japanese automakers’ rise to U.S. market dominance over the last generation — reliable performers on the road, steady draws in the showroom, dependably lauded by public and press alike. And the OEMs have just produced a new generation of each venerable model.

But the long, long run of success could be nearing an end for both Accord and Corolla. Year-to-date sales are off for each nameplate more than for each OEM overall. Proliferating competition — some from sibling models — is squeezing them. Consumer consideration of Corolla or Accord doesn’t translate as predictably as before into purchase. High gasoline prices and a shaky economy have roiled the picture still further.

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GM Closes More Plants Due to Supplier Strike

By Joseph Szczesny

DETROIT — General Motors' Detroit-Hamtramck car assembly plant, which builds the 2008 Buick Lucerne and 2008 Cadillac DTS, will shut down March 31. The closure is due to parts shortages caused by the strike by workers against supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, which is entering its second month.

GM confirmed Thursday it will close the plant for an indefinite period.

A GM plant in Janesville, Wis., which builds the 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban and GMC Yukon, also will close next week, leaving GM with only two plants producing large SUVs and pickup trucks. An Ohio plant that builds the 2008 Chevrolet Cobalt is at risk for closure soon as well.

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Antarctic Melt: A CO2 Warning?

By Bill Visnic

In an event that provides ammunition for global-warming doomsayers, a 160-square-mile portion of a massive Antarctic ice shelf “collapsed” earlier this week, according to an Associated Press report.

The gargantuan chunk of disintegrating ice was about seven times the size of Manhattan island, but was just a 4 percent portion of the Wilkins ice shelf in western Antarctica from which it finally broke off after scientists noted the beginning of its “runaway disintegration” Feb. 28, the AP story said.

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Turning to Turbo

By Kate McLeod

The clock is ticking loudly toward 2011. That's when Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulations will mandate increased miles per gallon for light trucks and passenger cars.

We know automakers are working all the angles to meet these new higher fuel economy goals. Diesels are tough because Detroit doesn’t make them and the Japanese don’t like them — although diesels that comply with 50-state regulations promise to be on sale later this year.

Hybrids have proven they work, but they are a costly solution to the problem. There’s a third option: the turbo-charged gasoline engine. It is cheaper than diesels — which are themselves all turbocharged — or hybrids.

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Alfa Romeo: A Legend Returns, But Do We Care?

By Richard Feast

Alfa Romeo’s decision to sell cars in the United States once more is wonderful news for the marque’s handful of aging enthusiasts in the country. If Europe’s experience is any guide, though, the overwhelming majority of American car buyers won’t even notice its return.

It is probably best to stop reading now if you are one of those unreformed Alfisti. It is time for a touch of automotive heresy.

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GM's Mary Barra: Tuning Up Automaker's Plants

By Kate McLeod

Mary Barra isn’t the new kid on the block. She is a tested General Motors veteran. She isn’t even that new to her new job as vice president of global manufacturing and engineering. Barra, a native Michigander, has been around GM — in particular around manufacturing and plants — for 27 years.

We’re well beyond writing stories about the first woman plumber or jockey, or indeed the first woman anything. Barra is worth a story because of her job, global responsibility for stamping and die plants around the world — Poland, Brazil, Russia, China and yes, Wisconsin, among others. This is part of GM's new focus — trying to create one company out of many. At GM they think it is the key to survival.

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March Sales: Consumers Not Compelled to Buy, Says Edmunds Forecast

SANTA MONICA, Calif. —  Despite an abundance of rich incentive deals, March vehicle sales for the industry are expected to be lower than March 2007 and even lower than February when automakers report results Tuesday, Edmunds.com has forecast.

March new-vehicle sales, including fleet sales, are expected to total 1.33 million, a 13.2 percent decrease from March 2007 and a 13.9 percent increase from February 2008, according to Edmunds’ forecast on sales figures not adjusted for the difference in selling days.

The forecast is less dreary when adjusted for the difference in selling days. This March had 26 selling days, two fewer than last March 2007. When adjusted for this difference, sales decreased 6.5 percent from March 2007.

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Leave the Lamborghini at Home. Electric Vehicles are Big News (and Big Business) at the EVER Monaco Ecological Car Show

By Nick Kurczewski

MONTE CARLO, Monaco — Corporate raiders and business tycoons beware, the supercar-saturated streets of Monte Carlo are about to be flooded with environmentally friendly automobiles. But don’t worry: A weak American housing market, collapsed banks and the falling dollar have nothing to do with the world-famous principality’s sudden change from its usual chest-thumping four-wheeled displays of wealth.

The EVER Monaco ecological car show opened its doors Thursday; it will run through Sunday. Now in its third year, the annual green-car show is dedicated to all forms of transport powered by fuels offering environmental benefits. The show is proof that, even in the glitzy confines of Monaco harbor, Earth-friendly automobiles are making big waves.   

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No Easy Fix for India’s Sputtering Motorcycle Market

By Nick Kurczewski

The Tata Nano is creating an entirely new segment of ultra-cheap city car, thanks to its rock-bottom, $2,500 price. But the Indian-built hatchback could soon face serious competition from the very type of transport it was supposed to make obsolete.

The Economic Times reports the Indian Finance Ministry is considering a cut to the excise duty placed on motorcycles, presently set at 16 percent. This could give a noticeable boost to India’s struggling two-wheeler market.

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Fiat 500 Immigrates to Japan

By Peter Nunn

TOKYO — Japan has become the latest country to welcome the Fiat 500, the new small-car phenomenon that's taken Europe by storm.

First sales of this chic Italian baby kicked off in recent week and Japan is also the first the world to see the 500 launch in 1.2-liter, two-pedal automatic form.

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Tata Will Get Near-Death Jaguar, Recovering Land Rover from Ford In U.S.

By Michelle Krebs

The long-awaited deal that hands British brands Jaguar and Land Rover over to India’s Tata Motors from Ford is finally done.

So what does Tata get from Ford, at least in the U.S.?

Edmunds.com’s analysis of sales, market share and manufacturer incentives shows Tata has one nearly dead brand with Jaguar; Land Rover appears in recovery but with the cost of its meds climbing.

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Ford Sells Jaguar, Land Rover to India's Tata for $2.3 Billion

By Michelle Krebs

DEARBORN, Mich. — It's official. Ford Motor Co. announced Wednesday morning it has signed a deal to sell Jaguar and Land Rover to India's Tata Motors for approximately $2.3 billion.

When the sale closes by the end of the second quarter, Tata will pay $2.3 billion for Jaguar and Land Rover; Ford will deposit $600 million into the Jaguar and Land Rover pension funds.

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Less Than a Week in Q1; Matching 2007 Sales an Impossible Dream

By Bill Visnic

Analysts and industry-metrics powerhouse J.D. Power and Associates already are predicting a heavy downturn in auto sales for March, based on sales figures from the first half of the month. Now, analysis from Edmunds.com is providing perspective on how bad not just March, but first-quarter sales are likely to be when announced next week.

Based on average sales for the first two months of 2008 compared with last year, the Detroit Three automakers have virtually insurmountable deficits to recover to match first-quarter sales from last year. But longstanding sales juggernaut Toyota Motor Corp. — and several other Japanese automakers — won't be likely to fare much better in what is shaping up to be the brutal retail-sales environment many had predicted.

Indeed, everyone predicted 2008 car sales would be worse than those in 2007; the analysis shows just how much worse in the early going. Some forecasts predict an uptick in the second half; others do not.

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Gas Tax? Americans Say "No Way, We Won't Pay"

Many lawmakers and auto executives have long advocated a higher gas tax to get Americans to drive smaller more fuel-efficient and thus lower-emissions cars. But all acknowledged to push a higher gas tax is political suicide.

A new survey proves it. The survey also illustrates Americans talk about their concern for the environment but aren’t willing to pay more taxes to fix it.

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Alfa Romeo: Returning to America

By Michelle Krebs

Alfa Romeo is returning to the U.S. next year, the Financial Times reports in Tuesday’s edition.

Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne told the London newspaper Alfa would beginning selling cars in the U.S. next year and be producing them in North America by 2011 or 2012 — with a partner.

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Japanese Automakers’ Growth Slows Due to Yen and U.S. Slump

TOKYO — The Japanese auto industry’s seemingly unstoppable ability to grow profit is grinding to a halt, Reuters newswire reported Tuesday.

The sector, led by Toyota, Nissan and Honda, has grown profits for seven straight years by expanding sales in overseas markets and cutting costs. But a slide in profits looks increasingly likely in the next business year that stars in April due to a slowing U.S. economy, rising costs for steel and other commodities and the U.S. dollar's tumble to a 13-year low against the Japanese yen.

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Mazda2 Wins 2008 World Car of the Year; Still Not Coming to America

By Peter Nunn

TOKYO — Mazda grabbed the headlines at the New York Auto Show last week when its new Mazda2 compact drove off with the prestigious 2008 World Car of the Year award.

Call it a surprise result, in more ways than one.

For those just tuning in, the Mazda2 is this smart, new-age compact launched in 2007 that’s doing great business for Mazda in Japan, Europe and many other places around the globe.

Everywhere, that is, but North America.

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Sirius-XM Merger Clears Antitrust Hurdle

The U.S. Justice Department has approved the $5 billion buyout of XM Satellite Radio by Sirius Satellite Radio, saying the merger of the nation’s only two satellite-radio companies does not pose antitrust problems. The two have plenty of competition from other radio and entertainment outlets now and Internet outlets will provide even more in the future, the department ruled.

The deal now requires the approval of the Federal Communications Commission. Shareholders of the two companies, neither of which has ever turned a profit, approved the merger in November. The companies say the merged entity will save hundreds of million in operating costs, which will benefit customers.

Consumer groups and the land-based radio industry opposed the merger.

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American Axle, Despite Strike, Boosts Chief's Pay to $10.2 Million

This news ought to go over well on the picket line: Supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., the Detroit automotive supplier embroiled in a strike now entering its fifth week, boosted the total compensation for CEO Richard E. Dauch by 9 percent after he restored the company to profitability last year.

Dauch's pay package, including salary, stock and option awards, and change in pension value, rose to $10.2 million from $9.3 million, the company said in its annual proxy statement filed Monday and cited by Dow Jones. Four other top officers also got raises.

Meantime, the company has told workers — 3,650 of them United Auto Workers union members who have been walking the picket line since Feb. 26 — they must reduce wages and benefits by more than half to compete against lower-cost rivals.

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March Car Sales Down, J. D. Power Report Says

Not surprisingly, major automakers saw retail sales drop in the first half of March compared with the same period a year ago, according to a report by research firm J.D. Power and Associates. The firm predicts total March sales will hit an annual selling rate of 15 million, dramatically lower than the 16.2 million rate of a year ago.

J.D. Power said in a report to its clients cited by Dow Jones that March saw year-over-year double-digit declines in retail car sales at General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. Toyota's sales also were off in the early weeks of the month.

J.D. Power recently reduced its 2008 car sales forecast to below 15 million, which would be the lowest level since 1994.

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Michelin: Tours Over Tires

Michelin, the world’s largest tiremaker, plans to invest heavily in expanding the international reach of its maps and guides division to reinforce its brand as the tire market becomes more competitive.

Michelin plans to increase foreign sales of its maps and guides by 2009 through acquisitions and new guides, such as the Tokyo restaurant guide that took Japan by storm last October, the Financial Times reports.

Michelin publishes about 220 guides in 12 languages, and plans to increase this to 18 languages within two years.

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Chrysler Creates Online Customer Advisory Board

By Dale Buss

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Continuing its rapid-fire tempo of new marketing programs, devices and tactics, Chrysler LLC is launching what it calls a Customer Advisory Board that will attempt to tap visitors to the company’s Web sites for their feedback and ideas on product features and technologies.

Chrysler calls the Customer Advisory Board an industry first. “We have a new platform to engage our customers in two-way dialogue so we can harness their insights and vehicle dreams as we move quickly to develop and refine technologies and products,” said Deborah Meyer, a Chrysler vice president and chief marketing officer.

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GM Establishes Uzbekistan Joint Venture

General Motors and UzAvtoSanoat have established a joint venture to manufacturer and distribute vehicles in Uzbekistan. GM said the joint-venture company will play a defining role both in the automotive industry of Uzbekistan and in the continued, rapid global growth of GM’s largest brand, Chevrolet.

GM said the new joint-venture company, called General Motors Uzbekistan, has the potential in the mid-term to build as many as 250,000 Chevrolet models in the country and distribute a variety of Chevrolet cars and SUVS through a network of more than 60 dealers.

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Saturn Pilot Program to Push Online Shopping

By Dale Buss

General Motors’ Saturn division plans to launch a pilot program within three months that is intended to allow integrated online execution of just about every aspect of a vehicle purchase that can be legally and physically accomplished outside a dealership.

AutoObserver has learned that Saturn’s test — with as many as 10 dealers nationwide — will allow customers to perform several functions on a dealer’s Web site that currently either must be handled in the showroom or executed only piecemeal online, including checking dealer inventories, applying for credit and scheduling a test drive.

The pilot also is expected to test ways to use the Internet to facilitate the evaluation of customers’ trade-in vehicles and to negotiate price using online chat and e-mail between dealership personnel and customers.

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AAA Launches New Web site Dedicated to Older Drivers

By Kate McLeod

NEW YORK — During last week's press days at the New York auto show, AAA  held a conference covering the challenges facing senior drivers and their families. It also marked the launch of AAA's Web site devoted to the topic and includes a checklist of vehicle features that are useful for senior drivers, the fastest-growing segment of the driving public.

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Shifty Events from New York Auto Show

By Bill Visnic

NEW YORK — There was plenty of industry chatter this week about the connotations of the New York auto show. Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp.’s Pontiac decided to headline a couple of muscle cars that raised hypersensitive environmental eyebrows, not to mention a handful of low-volume, less high-profile models that didn’t issue a particularly positive sustainability message, either.

Lost in the hubris over whether the likes of the Pontiac G8, Dodge Challenger and BMW M3 Convertible are politically correct endeavors were interesting developments in the greasy regions that could end up saving more fuel than a healthy fleet of hybrid-electric vehicles.

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New York Auto Show: The Good, Bad and Ugly

By Jane Nakagawa

NEW YORK — The New York International Auto Show opens to the public Friday, and what a difference a year makes.

Toyota is the nation’s second-largest brand not Ford. Jim Press is the vice chairman and president of Chrysler, not Toyota. Cerberus Capital Management, not Daimler, owns Chrysler. The national average price for a gallon of premium gas is $3.60, not $2.80.

And the most interesting cars at the New York auto show are diminutive and original, not colossal and extravagant.

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Economy Grabs the Spotlight at New York Auto Show

You know the economy is bad when the endlessly thriving Toyota says it may not hit its sales targets.

Remarks by Toyota executives in South Korea on Wednesday about the economy echo those being made by other auto company executives during this week's press days for the New York auto show where the economy, more than the cars, grabbed the spotlight.

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Wolfgang Reitzle: Thriving in the Prosperous Gas Business

When German engineer and businessman Wolfgang Reitzle departed Ford Motor Co. in May 2002, it was expected he eventually would turn up somewhere in the auto industry he’d grown up in.

Dubbed the auto industry’s preeminent car guy by Fortune magazine in 2000 and advocated by some to become CEO of BMW, where he had spent most of his career, Reitzle ended his automotive career as head of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group.

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Chrysler Chery Cars: For Emerging Markets Only

Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli mentioned in his keynote address during press days at the New York auto show the automaker's work with China's Chery Automobile was proceeding. But he gave no details or timetable.

The Financial Times, however, reports in Thursday's edition that Chery's work on a small car for Chrysler is taking longer than expected to meet North American and Western European quality standards, with the result that vehicles from the partnership will be sold only in emerging markets.

When Chrysler signed the deal with Chery in late 2006, it had said Chery's small cars would be on sale in North America in early 2008.

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Acura: Can Style Save Honda's Luxury Brand?

By Jane Nakagawa

In 1986, Honda became the first Japanese manufacturer to launch a separate luxury franchise, Acura. Now it’s been the first to dedicate a design studio exclusively for its luxury lineup. Yet despite these accomplishments, Acura hovers in the shadow of Lexus and even Infiniti.

It’s easy to admire the unassuming nature that sets Honda apart from Nissan, or the passion for innovation that sets it apart from Toyota. But this is Acura, not Honda, and Acura’s turf is luxury. Luxury is daring. It makes you dream. Does Acura have what it takes to make it?

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AO Readers Sound Off on Volkswagen Foibles

By Bill Visnic

A recent commentary suggesting the Volkswagen Group of America Inc.’s tactics to improve dismal U.S. sales should focus on reconnecting with the brand’s loyalists prompted a spate of thoughtful and vociferous replies — analysis that VW management might do well to heed.

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Chrysler's Nardelli: Private Equity Can Rebuild Chrysler

NEW YORK — Chrysler President and CEO Robert Nardelli reassured his audience of automotive reporters, often skeptical of late about the automaker's future, that a private-equity firm such as Cerberus Capital Management can build a car company like Chrysler back to greatness.

Nardelli was the keynote speaker Wednesday at the International Motor Press Association's breakfast kicking off press days at the New York International Auto Show.

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Ford Takes a Stab at Reinventing NYC Cab

NEW YORK — When the call went out that New York City wanted to reinvent the venerable taxicab to bring it into the 21st Century, Ford — already the leading provider of cabs nationwide — responded using an upcoming model as its basis.

Ford unveils its concept of the futuristic taxicab based on the Ford Transit Connect at the New York auto show Wednesday.

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New York Icon Getting a Makeover

By Kate McLeod

NEW YORK -- New York City’s bright-yellow taxicab is so entwined with the Big Apple’s identity that tourists put hailing a cab on their to-do lists, along with riding the subway and seeing a Broadway show. A cab ride in New York is a singular experience; it has character.

Now, it appears, the New York taxicab will be reinvented. The deputy commissioner for public affairs at the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), Allan Fromberg, recently released a request for information (RFI) asking for proposals to redesign New York’s taxicab fleet.

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Oscars Ads Like Telecast — Lacked Impact, Says Edmunds.com Analysis

By Dale Buss

Automotive ads aired during the February 24 telecast of the 80th annual Academy Awards were relatively lame in their impact — just like the Oscars show itself.

The movie-industry extravaganza failed to generate anywhere near the lift in vehicle consideration by online shoppers that was spurred by the Super Bowl broadcast three weeks earlier, according to an analysis by Edmunds.com.

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Auto Shows May Pack a Marketing Punch, Says Edmunds.com Analysis

By Dale Buss

As the New York International Auto Show opens this week, automakers may be interested to know their investments in the Chicago Auto Show last month paid strong dividends in online activity by car shoppers, according to a new Edmunds.com analysis.

New-vehicle launches at the Chicago show produced an average lift in shopping consideration of 25 percent in the metropolitan area during the first week of the show, compared with the rest of the country, measured by consumer traffic on the models’ new-vehicle detail pages (NVDPs) on Edmunds.com. The new 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8 ranked highest among all vehicles with a 39 percent lift in traffic.

Such results underscore the growing relevance of auto shows as marketing devices for OEMs, said Dr. David Tompkins, executive director of business solutions for Santa Monica, Calif.,–based Edmunds.com.

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BMW Xs Hot; Honda Hybrids Not

No wonder BMW wants to boost production of its X models; the BMW X5 and X3 are hot.

In contrast, Honda’s hybrids are not, according to an Edmunds.com analysis of days-to-turn statistics in February.

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Middle East Aston Martin Sues Aston Martin Lagonda UK for $50 Million

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — British luxury car maker Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd. UK is being sued for $50 million by its distributor in Dubai, Middle East Aston Martin, for breach of contract.

The lawsuit contends the strained relationship between Middle East Aston Martin (MEAM), the exclusive distributor of Aston Martin cars in the region, and the parent company to which Ford sold the bulk of the company a year ago is due “to the entrenched interests of its majority shareholder, the Kuwaiti investment group DAR, and their intention to refinance its stake in the company which had been purchased in March 2007, allegedly for an overprized rate.”

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VW Shareholders Headed for Showdown

Trouble has been brewing for months, but now it looks as though Volkswagen’s two largest shareholders are headed for a showdown at the automaker’s annual general meeting next month. Last week the two sides clashed — again — over who should have the say at Europe’s largest carmaker, the Financial Times reports.

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Investors Bet On $100-a-Barrel Oil Until 2016

The Financial Times reports investors are betting $100-a-barrel oil will last through 2016.

The London newspaper reports every futures contract until December 2016 finished last week above $100 a barrel for the first time. The five-year forward price has risen 45.3 percent since September, and the spot price has risen by 38.1 percent.

Meantine, the International Energy Agency, the western countries’ oil watchdog, was meeting with financial, trading, producing, refining and economic experts Monday to discuss the roots of the current price rise. Oil hit a record $111 a barrel last week, compared with $50 a barrel in early 2007.

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GM Plans Second Mini Car in India; Could Be Exported

NEW DELHI, India — General Motors said Monday it plans to build a second minicar in India, only a year after it launched its first one — the Chevrolet Spark — there, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

Dow Jones quoted GM’s president of Asia Pacific operations, Nick Reilly, saying: “We believe there is space for us to have another entry in the minicar segment in India.”

Reilly said the new minicar, which he did not identify, could be introduced within two years, could be exported from India and will be built at GM’s second plant in India. The new plant is just now gearing up for full production by the fourth quarter of this year. GM has invested $300 million in the plan to build 140,000 vehicles a year.

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New York Auto Show: Big Engines Not Dead in the Big Apple

By Bill Visnic

In relation to the mainly heavyweight environmental message emanating from the Geneva Motor Show, this week’s New York auto show practically delivers a let’s-dirty-a-little-air counterstroke.

After all, the 2008 New York show, bringing the international auto show circus back to U.S. domestic automakers’ soil, is headlined by seemingly desperate V8 volleys from General Motors Corp.’s Pontiac and Chrysler LLC, the latest twist on BMW’s V8-toting M3 and some big-bore but low-volume fireworks from the likes of Lamborghini and Toyota Motor Corp.’s Lexus.

V8s and V10s — yep, we’re back in the States.

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Ford Beefs Up Global Management Team

By Michelle Krebs

Ford beefed up its global management team with the elevation of five executives to group vice president reporting directly to Ford CEO Alan Mulally and naming a chief operating officer in Europe.

Since his arrival more than 18 months ago, Mulally, a former Boeing executive, has said repeated like a mantra that he wants Ford to be a truly global car company a la Toyota, not a global carmaker made up of a disparate regional units.

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GM, Ford Stock Plummets to Historic Lows

Shares of General Motors and Ford plummeted to historic lows Thursday after Morgan Stanley Research cut its earnings forecasts based on a lowered outlook for U.S. auto sales. The report came on top of waning consumer confidence, higher gas prices, tightening credit availability and issues with auto suppliers.

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Chrysler: A Week of Whacking Costs

By Michelle Krebs

In the past week Chrysler has sold off a unit, closed down another and instituted a mandatory two-week summer shutdown to save money.

Chrysler’s moves could be read as merely a response to the deteriorating economy and slower vehicle sales, but are being seen by some as signs Cerberus Capital Management is whipping the automaker into shape to get it ready for sale.

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Supplier Strike Could Last Through April, Expert Says

By Joseph Szczesny

The United Auto Workers strike at American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. that affected 28 General Motors plants across the country could easily last through April, one industry expert said Thursday.

Sean McAlinden of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., said of the strike against American Axle: "I could see it going 60 days. The union has been telling people its members can stay out 60 days or longer if necessary, and I believe them."

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Toyota Trims Tundra, Sequoia Production

By Joseph Szczesny

Toyota Motor Corp. has confirmed it is planning to cut production at truck-assembly plants in Texas and Indiana because of the economic and vehicle-sales slowdown.

Toyota is trimming production at its San Antonio plant that builds the full-size Tundra pickup truck, introduced a year ago, and at its Princeton, Ind., plant, which builds a mix of trucks and full-size sport-utility vehicles, including the newly redesigned Sequoia.

Toyota will not say how much it is cutting production at those plants.

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China’s Brilliance Motors: Edging Closer to European, U.S. Sales

By Nick Kurczewski

BREMERHAVEN, Germany — The view from the second-floor corner office is almost as dreary as the weather, which is grey and bone-chillingly cold. There is little to see except empty parking lots and huge rectangular warehouses, from which a forklift occasionally emerges.

Bremerhaven is the new and unlikely European home base for China’s Brilliance Motors, BMW’s partner in China. Professor Hans Ulrich-Sachs, chairman of HSO Motors and the head of Brilliance Motors Europe, is tasked with spearheading the entry of Chinese-built sedans produced by Brilliance Motors into the European market.

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Edmunds.com’s Car Stock Exchange Off to a Running Start

By Dale Buss

Edmunds.com’s new Car Stock Exchange already is exhibiting some “natural resonance” with online automotive enthusiasts, which “suggests that it may catch on” for the long term, said CEO Jeremy Anwyl.

Less than two weeks after its official launch, the Car Stock Exchange — where consumers invest virtually in the sales performance of their favorite vehicles — “is running ahead of what we thought,” said Anwyl.

“There’s already a lot of buzz building that we didn’t necessarily anticipate right away. There are some small but rabidly loyal audiences (of car enthusiasts) that are already chattering about this thing quite a bit.”

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Gasoline and Diesel Set More New Records

AAA reported Wednesday that both diesel and gasoline prices broke previous record highs.

Gasoline rose to a nationwide average of $3.246 a gallon for regular unleaded. Diesel prices, which have been soaring even faster than gasoline prices and setting records almost daily for the past three weeks, hit a nationwide average of $3.876 Wednesday. Crude oil rose above $110 a barrel at some points Wednesday, closing at $109.92.

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GM: More Job Cuts in Louisiana

General Motors has laid off 45 workers from its Shreveport, La., assembly plant, less than a month after 68 other workers were idled, The Associated Press reported.

The plant employs about 1,200 hourly workers to manufacture the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon and Hummer H3. GM said the layoffs of the skilled-trades workers (not assembly-line workers) were due to the economic downturn and slow sales. Trucks and SUVs, like those made by the plant, have been particularly hard hit by slumping vehicle sales.

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Chrysler: Not Reaching Buyout Goal?

United Auto Workers Vice President General Holiefield said Chrysler may not reach its top goal of trimming 10,000 workers by April 1, Dow Jones reported.

Chrysler announced in November it wanted to cut 8,500 to 10,000 blue-collar jobs and offered buyout packages to most of its U.S. workforce. But the economy is keeping people from taking the buyouts, Holiefield told reporters at a Detroit event to celebrate the assembly of the 25,000th Dodge Viper.

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Chrysler Sells Brazilian Engine Plant to Fiat

Chrysler will sell its engine plant in Brazil to Fiat, the companies announced Wednesday.

Fiat Powertrain Technologies, the automaker’s engines and transmissions unit, will buy Chrysler’s Tritec Motors plant in Brazil, the companies said in a statement. The price was not disclosed.

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Volkswagen: Time To Get a U.S. Life

By Bill Visnic

The Volkswagen Group sold a lot of vehicles in 2007, a record number at just less than 6.2 million.

That’s good for fourth in the world. Yet in the U.S., typically viewed as the world’s most important — if not prestigious — market, Volkswagen Group of America Inc. stumbled through another miserable year to ring up 230,572 sales.

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Nissan’s Mark McNabb To Depart the Company

By Michelle Krebs

Nissan North America has confirmed Mark C. McNabb, who returned to the automaker last July as senior vice president of sales and marketing, will leave the auto company for personal reasons on April 1.

Rumors of his imminent departure had been swirling in recent weeks. And some speculation has McNabb going to an unnamed Detroit car company.

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Mitsubishi Reveals Its Next Steps

By Peter Nunn

Analyst and observers in Tokyo continue to pick over Mitsubishi Motors’ recently announced midterm business plan, labeled "Step Up 2010."

Anyone expecting a radical, cut-to-the-chase Carlos Ghosn–style makeover to rev up Japan’s weakest automaker, however, was in for a surprise.

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BMW To Expand in South Carolina

BMW will spend $750 million to expand its South Carolina production plant and create 500 jobs to produce the next-generation X3 as well as the X5 and X6, the company said.

The plant is already the exclusive source for the X3 and X5 sport-utilities. The expansion will accommodate the next-generation X3 as well as the X6 sports coupe unveiled at the Detroit auto show in January. The X6 will be made exclusively in South Carolina.

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GM: Won’t Intervene in American Axle Strike

A top General Motors executive said the automaker is concerned by the two-week strike against parts supplier American Axle & Manufacturing, which has slowed or stop