FEATURED ARTICLE
GM's Whitacre Sees Chance for 2010 Profit, Little Hope for Saab
General Motors Chairman and Interim CEO Ed Whitacre said the automaker has a shot at earning a profit in 2010, but he sees little hope to a rescue of Saab.
In a wide-ranging conversation with media in Detroit on Wednesday, Whitacre said GM's top priority to is earn a profit so that it can pay back its government loans and become a public company again. Going public wouldn't happen earlier than late this year, however.
(Read more...)
December Sales Provide Hopeful Farewell to Last Year
January 06, 2010
U.S. auto sales in December accelerated to their best pace of the year outside last summer's Cash for Clunkers bonanza, providing a hopeful punctuation mark to the industry's worst year in decades.
Sales in December totaled 1,010,003, up 1.9 percent from December 2008, when automakers and American consumers were newly stunned by the economic debacle unfolding on several levels around them.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:56 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Ford , News , Toyota | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
GM's Lutz Details Automaker's 2010 To-Do List
January 05, 2010
General Motors' Bob Lutz, in an editorial on AutoObserver's sister site, Edmunds' Inside Line,
lays out the automaker's 2010 to-do list.
Top to bottom of the list is a focus on product.
"GM builds cars and trucks and crossovers. That is what we do," writes Lutz. "In 2009, we were given an opportunity to continue doing so, and we must not squander that opportunity.
"Therefore," adds Lutz, "we are resolved, if you will, not to lose sight of the fact that if we don't build the best cars, trucks and crossovers on the planet, that opportunity will go for naught."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:53 PM under Commentary , GM , Personalities , Technology | Comments (4) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Saturns, Pontiacs Nearly Nonexistent
January 05, 2010
Only a couple thousand Saturn and Pontiac vehicles remain in 
General Motors' inventory as the two brands are discontinued.
GM's top sales executive, Susan Docherty, told reporters and analysts in the automaker's sales call Tuesday that only 796 Pontiacs and 916 Saturns remain in inventory.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:47 AM under GM | Comments (2) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Ford Mustang Wins Pony Sales Race
January 05, 2010
The Ford Mustang, thanks to a December sprint to the finish, won the pony car sales race 
over the Chevrolet Camaro.
And it wasn't as close as anticipated.
Ford Mustang sales came in at 66,623 vehicles; General Motors sold 61,648 Chevrolet Camaros. The Camaro went on sale in March so did not have a full year of sales.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 11:23 AM under Analysis , Ford , GM | Comments (4) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Auto Industry Believes 2009 Close Bodes Well for 2010
January 05, 2010
Some day, automakers hope to look back on 2009 as the year that both sales and corporate fortunes finally bottomed out. It's far too early to tell if history will treat last year that way, but for now, at least, the industry is taking heart from a definite surge of sales momentum as the decade closed.
Automakers sold about 10.4 million units last year, a disastrous tally that comprised the lowest total of light-vehicle sales in this country since 1970.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:38 AM under Analysis , Chrysler , Companies , Featured , Ford , GM , Toyota | Comments (1) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
In Dismal Year, Subaru Sets New Sales Records
January 05, 2010
Subaru of America was first to announce December and full-year 2009 sales. And not surprisingly. The Japanese automaker is proud that it not only bucked the downward trend of the industry in 2009 -- one of the worst years in three decades; it shattered its own records.
Subaru sold 216,652 vehicles, an increase of 15 percent from 2008, surpassing the previous 2006 record of 200,703 vehicles. .
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 8:11 AM under Business , Companies , News | Comments (1) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
GM, Ford Pony Cars Gallop to Photo Finish
January 05, 2010
The winner of the sales race between the Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang will be 
revealed when the auto industry reports sales Tuesday. And the finish will be a close one.
General Motors already is hailing a victory, announcing the Camaro will win. And, based on Edmunds.com estimates, it's possible even though at the end of November Mustang was ahead.
"It looks feasible that the Camaro could outsell Mustang," said Edmunds.com Analyst Ivan Drury. "The two will be only a thousand or two thousand units apart when final sales are reported."
Still, through the end of the November, the Mustang was ahead.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 5:53 AM under Analysis , Ford , GM | Comments (2) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Despite Year-End Blitz, Incentives Costs Dip, Edmunds.com Reports
January 05, 2010
Despite the year-end incentives blitz and holiday marketing campaigns, automakers actually spent less on incentives in December than they did a year ago or even in November.
Edmunds.com estimates the average automotive manufacturer incentive was $2,542 per vehicle sold in December, down $167, or 6.2 percent, from November, and down $320, or 11.2 percent, from December 2008.
"In December, only about a quarter of new cars sold were leftover 2009 models. That sent the average incentive expenditure lower compared to November and last December when the old model-year vehicles made up closer to half of the new car sales," said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds.com's director of Industry Analysis.
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:33 AM under Analysis , Featured , GM | Comments (0) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Dour HuffPo Blogger Calls Audi Holiday Commercial "Crass"
January 05, 2010
The Volkswagen Group's upscale Audi division probably thought it simply was lightening the 
holiday mood with a whimsical television commercial highlighting Audi's high-tech image. A "green"-oriented blogger at the Huffington Post didn't see it that way.
Jonathan A. Schein, listed at the Huffington Post as the founder of ScheinMedia and publisher of two environmentally-oriented Web sites and who apparently thinks all ads should be opportunities to impart a green message, called the Audi commercial a "crass approach to marketing during the holiday season."
(Read more...)
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 4:17 AM under Commentary , Companies , In the Media | Comments (3) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
Next Page »
