Daimler To Open Office in Iraq
Daimler AG, after a 20-year absence, plans to open an office in Baghdad by year-end, a display of confidence that Iraq is stabilizing.
A Daimler spokesperson told various media outlets Tuesday that the office is intended to establish the German auto and truck maker’s corporate presence in Iraq more than generate immediate sales.
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GM Partners With a Second Cellulosic Ethanol Maker
General Motors plans to announce Thursday a second partnership with a cellulosic ethanol maker. The automaker is providing no further details until GM President Fritz Henderson makes the announcement in Washington, D.C.
GM already has announced a partnership with an Illinois-based cellulosic ethanol maker, Coskata Inc., and last week said Coskata was establishing a pilot plant in Pennsylvania to demonstrate its innovative process of converting a variety of materials, from garbage to agricultural waste, into ethanol.
GM's partnerships for developing cellulosic ethanol come against a backdrop of increasing outcry for the industry to quit using corn-based ethanol, as food prices rise.
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GM Downgrades 2008 Industry Vehicle Sales Forecast
Previously more optimistic than other automakers, General Motors Wednesday announced it had downgraded its U.S. vehicle sales forecast for 2008. GM now expects industry sales to come at in the mid to high 15 million units range, instead of the low 16 million. GM had predicted some upturn in the second half.
GM President Fritz Henderson, in a conference call with analysts and media on first-quarter earnings Wednesday, said April sales, which will be reported Thursday, look like the weak sales throughout the first quarter.
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Oil: Another Day, Another Record
Oil prices set yet-another record Monday of $120 a barrel. The record price was spurred on by a weekend refinery strike that closed a pipeline delivering a third of Britain's North Sea oil to refineries in the United Kingdom and supply outages in Nigeria.
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VW Hopes ‘Max’ Advertising Builds on Sales Momentum
By Dale Buss
For Volkswagen Group of America executives, life is about as good as it can be right now -- given that U.S. car sales are at their lowest level in a decade, their dealers are starved for product, and the parent company still hasn’t figured out how to offset the growing currency-exchange disadvantage of producing in euros the vehicles that they sell in the United States.
Their good cheer results from the fact that VW has bucked the trend and posted a first-quarter increase in U.S. sales, including a 13% gain in March, and that a record five new and re-launched models will be streaming into dealerships as the year unfolds.
And one more thing: “Max” is now on the prowl. The personification of a black 1964 Beetle is the “mascot” of an ambitious new advertising and marketing campaign for Volkswagen called Das Auto, German for “the car.” The campaign “will build on Volkswagen’s unique place in pop culture through its message of ‘It’s What the People Want,’” Volkswagen Group said in a statement.
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Oil Prices: A Broken Record -- Literally
It’s beginning to sound like a broken record playing over and over again: oil struck a new high Wednesday – above $114 a barrel -- $114.41 to be exact. The price is more than three times the average price of 2002, when oil’s rally began, Reuters reported.
Another oft-repeated refrain: the U.S. dollar was headed toward a record low against the euro Wednesday on news of disappointing quarterly earnings announcements by major U.S. corporations.
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Oils Soars Past $113 a Barrel to New Record
Oil set new record highs above $113 a barrel Tuesday. Oil is up 18 percent from the start of the year when it was averaging about $100 a barrel.
Meantime, the dollar was at near record lows against the euro Tuesday. The weak dollar tends to cause the price of commodities like oil to rise as investors look for a hedge against inflation.
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‘Cuda Designer John Herlitz Celebrated at Memorial Service
John Herlitz, the Chrysler designer who penned the legendary 1970 Plymouth Barracuda as
well as the 1971 Plymouth Road Runner, numerous concept cars and important recent production cars, died last month at the age of 65. A memorial service was held Saturday.
Upon graduation from Pratt Institute, Herlitz began his career at Chrysler in 1965 as a manager of the Plymouth Intermediate Car Studio. He retired in 2000 as senior vice president of design.
Herlitz made his mark with the classic American muscle car, the 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. His Barracudas, especially those with powerful Hemi engines, currently fetch millions of dollars at auction from collectors.
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American Axle Strike Head into Seventh Week; More GM Plants Threatened
The strike by United Auto Workers union employees against Detroit parts supplier
American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. is headed its seventh week with no end in sight, and it is threatening to close General Motors' assembly plants that produce some of the automakers most popular vehicles, including the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu.
In the latest development, the UAW rejected the company’s request to bring in a federal mediator to settle the strike.
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Ford Dealers Get a Glimpse of 2010 Taurus
Ford CEO Alan Mulally showed dealers the next-generation Ford Taurus behind closed doors at a Las Vegas gathering. The Taurus is believed to be scheduled as a 2010 model and could be unveiled at the Detroit auto show in January.
Ford has given no official details about the new Taurus to the media yet. However, last week, the Taurus Car Club of America Web site posted a hazy photo showing a far more chiseled shape and European appearance than the current model, as reported by Edmunds' InsideLine.com.
Jim Farley, Ford's group vice president for marketing and communications, told the Detroit Free Press that dealers gave the Taurus a standing ovation.
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In a Recession or Headed Toward One?
Is the U.S. headed for a recession or already in one?
The man on the street likely would say we're in one, but experts are debating it.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Tuesday the U.S. was in recession. On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund's issued its latest World Economic Outlook that said the U.S. will slip into a recession that will spread globally.
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Chrysler Elbows in on Ford’s American Idol Action
Ford may own American Idol but Chrysler managed to uses the popular program to debut
its new ads for the Dodge Journey crossover.
Chrysler aired a 30-second spot it had unveiled to the media on Monday. Entitled Water Slide, the Journey crossover pulls up on a crowded city street on a sweltering day. From its flexible interior space and numerous storage spaces emerge various pieces that are used to build a 700-foot water slide, which Chrysler alleged is “the world’s largest.” Professional types quit their offices and come out to see what all the commotion is about.
The Journey’s theme line is “if you can dream it, do it.” The ad is intended to demonstrate the Journey "is a car that lets you do anything.”
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Chrysler Launches Dodge Journey with ‘Value’ Messages
By Dale Buss
BIRMINGHAM, Mich. -- In the all-new 2009 Dodge Journey, Chrysler’s product-development pipeline has delivered what seems to be the right vehicle at the right time. Now, it’s up to the company’s marketing and sales chiefs, and its dealers nationwide, to get American consumers interested in Chrysler’s first true crossover product since the ill-fated Chrysler Pacifica.
Top Chrysler marketing executives unveiled their plans here Monday, combining confidence in Journey’s capabilities with positive reports about early sales and consumer reactions. They believe that the reasonably priced, relatively high-mileage new entry is perfectly aimed with a “value” proposition at Americans who are being made palpably anxious by belt-tightening at home and sky-high prices at the gas pump.
“If you can dream it, do it” will be the Journey’s theme line when the campaign breaks on Tuesday, spotlighting the vehicle’s combination of innovative features, versatility and flexibility.
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New Chrysler Tries to Win Over Consumers With Dream Ad Campaign
By Dale Buss
BIRMINGHAM, Mich. -- Faced with a public that remains skeptical about the nature of Chrysler’s rebirth, the company will break a new corporate positioning campaign on April 14 that is intended to help win over American consumers.
“We want to increase consideration, re-engage with customers, and target community influencers and current owners,” said Deborah Meyer, Chrysler’s chief marketing officer, in explaining the campaign to automotive press here on Monday. It will begin with both TV and print advertisements.
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Mazda: No Change in Incentives
Mazda plans to keep incentives in the U.S. unchanged even though sales fell more than the
overall market last month and some competitors are upping the incentive ante, Bloomberg News reported Monday.
“We will continue to try and manage it as best as we can, not to increase it just to chase volume,'' Daniel Morris, the company's head of marketing, told Bloomberg in an interview last Friday.
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BMW 1-Series Marks Automaker's Biggest Online Effort Yet
A campaign now under way for the BMW 1-Series makes extensive use of nontraditional
media and is trying to promote the tiny compact coupe and convertible as a "pure BMW," The New York Times reports.
Patrick McKenna, manager for marketing communications at BMW of North America in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., told The New York Times that the 1-Series introduction represents “the highest concentration of nontraditional media of any BMW launch.”
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Ford’s Farley to Unveil Marketing Plan
Next week, Ford’s long-awaited marketing plan will be unveiled by Jim Farley, Ford’s
group vice president for marketing and communications who was lured away from Toyota last fall.
The marketing plan includes an experiential aspect taking place this weekend in conjunction with the ABC TV show "Oprah's Big Give"; a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, with the tagline "Drive One," rolls out Tuesday.
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Consumers Are Late on Car Payments
The number of consumers who fell behind on payments for their car, credit cards and home-equity loans rose to their highest level in 15 years during the fourth quarter, according to an American Bankers Association survey, which tracks payments at least 30 days past due across eight loan categories.
The overall increase was driven by late payments for car loans, which make up two-thirds of all closed-end consumer installment loans, the Washington, D.C., trade group reported. Auto-loan delinquencies rose to 1.9 percent from 1.81 percent.•
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Volkswagen U.S.’ Biggest Problem: Metal to Move
By Bill Visnic
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sure, Volkswagen Group of America is concerned about the debilitating dollar-euro exchange rate, which almost daily shrinks its profit margin on vehicles built in Europe and sold for U.S. dollars.
But new Chief Operating Officer J. Mark Barnes’ biggest concern is having enough metal to move. Barnes said dealers are practically rioting for more product. Anything will do.
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Toyota Plans Research Institute Near Detroit
Toyota announced Tuesday it is establishing a North American research institute at its Detroit-area facility and plans to spend $100 million during the next four years on advanced research.
The Toyota Research Institute of North America initially will employ 35 researchers and staff in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Toyota already has a technical center, and plans to add 10 researchers this year and 20 more by 2010. Toyota hinted the institute will be used for its environmental efforts.
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GM, Partners Open China Mini-Vehicle plant
SAIC-GM-Wuling, General Motors’ mini-vehicle joint venture in China, began mini-vehicle
production Monday at its second assembly plant in the coastal city of Qingdao.
Its initial product is a new mini-commercial vehicle powered by a 1.2-liter double overhead cam gasoline engine. The facility has an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles and can manufacture multiple vehicles on the same line.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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GM Ties Up Loose Labor Strings With Moraine Action
By Bill Visnic
General Motors Corp. appears to have set the stage for shuttering its SUV assembly plant in Moraine, Ohio, by offering buyout packages to the 2,346 union-represented workers there.
The plant builds GM’s aging midsize SUVs, the Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy, Saab 9-7X and Isuzu Ascender — and it has long been thought GM plans to close the Moraine plant, near Dayton, as it moves to a new generation of more refined crossover vehicles built elsewhere.
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GM: 19 Plants Could Close Due to Strike
By Joseph Szczesny
More than 30,000 General Motors employees from 19 different plants could be idle by Monday as the fallout from the United Auto Workers strike at American Axle & Manufacturing Inc., now in its second week, spreads, GM officials reported Thursday.
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GM: Another Plant Closes Due to Supplier Strike
General Motors said it would close another assembly plant, and still another is at risk for closing due to a strike by workers against Detroit-based supplier, American Axle & Manufacturing Inc.
At the same time, bargaining teams for the company and the United Auto Workers union, which represents the hourly employees at American Axle, were scheduled to resume negotiations Thursday, for the first time since the strike began Februrary 25, largely over wages.
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Chrysler Resumes Minivan Production with Supplier Strike Settled
By Joseph Szczesny
WINDSOR, Canada — Chrysler has resumed production of its 2008 Chrysler Town & Country and 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan now that one of its key suppliers of minivan parts has settled a strike by its workers.
The Canadian Auto Workers and supplier TRW Automotive have settled a contract dispute that had halted production of minivans at Chrysler’s Windsor, Ontario, assembly plant since last week. Workers received higher pay from the deal.
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Ford Flex Pricing to Start at Nearly $29,000
By Dale Buss
Ford is promoting its new 2009 Flex as a “white-space vehicle” that will be delightfully difficult to categorize. For the privilege of purchasing the flat-topped, three-row vehicle, consumers will have to pay a suggested starting price of $28,995, including shipping charges — a beginning price point that will put Flex atop the automaker’s growing lineup of crossovers.
When it is introduced this summer, the Flex will be offered in three trim series, and in front-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive versions. Flex SE is the base model, a front-wheel-drive version. Prices for the all-wheel-drive Flex Limited will start at $37,255, including shipping, but options could make the top price much higher.
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Bush Comments Lend Another Boost to Cellulosic Ethanol
By Dale Buss
The politicians in Washington aren’t on the same page on every issue with the U.S. auto industry. But it’s increasingly clear the most important of them see eye to eye with some major automakers when it comes to cellulosic ethanol.
Remaining presidential candidates have made a point of touting cellulosic ethanol — which can be made from a number of sources other than corn — as an important alternative fuel. On Thursday morning President Bush added to the chorus of support at his White House news conference. He emphasized cellulosic ethanol as a crucial part of the short-term answer to problems of fuel pricing and availability, as well as a long-term solution.
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Hydrogen-Powered Cars: 16 Million on Europe’s Roads by 2030, Report Says
A new report by the European Union (EU) estimates 16 million hydrogen-powered vehicles will be traveling European roads by 2030, dramatically reducing oil consumption but requiring lengthy and expensive infrastructure changes.
The use of hydrogen fuel is a realistic alternative to fossil fuels and could cut oil consumption by 40 percent by 2050, but infrastructure investments could cost the equivalent of nearly $90 billion (based on today’s exchange rates), says the EU’s research, reported on by Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday.
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GM, Chrysler Supplier Takes a Strike
By Joseph Szczesny
More than 3,650 members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) began a strike early Tuesday against American Axle & Manufacturing Holding Inc., a key supplier to both General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, which could quickly feel the impact of the walkout.
The strike began shortly after midnight when the company and union negotiators reached an impasse over wage cuts for employees at American Axle plants in Michigan and New York.
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Toyota to Seed More U.S. Research
By Bill Visnic
News from the U.S. financial media cites a report from Japan as saying Toyota Motor Corp. plans to fund several new advanced-research groups in the U.S.
Media in Japan are reporting Toyota will establish new U.S.-based research teams for alternative energy, safety and advanced materials. The company typically has engaged such long-term research only in Japan.
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Nissan: 500,000 Vehicles In China in 2008
Nissan Motor Co. said Monday it aims to sell 500,000 passenger and light commercial vehicles in China this year as it launches three new models, including the Qashqai in March, Dow Jones reported.
The Japanese automaker will launch three new models under the Nissan brand in China this year, Nissan said in a statement. The first new model will be the Qashqai, or Xiaoke, a crossover between a hatchback and a sport-utility vehicle that goes on sale in March. The other models weren’t mentioned.
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Tata Nano: World's Cheapest Car Gets an On-Sale Date
By Nick Kurczewski
The world’s cheapest car finally has an on-sale date.
When it appeared January 10 at the New Delhi Auto Expo, the Tata Nano amazed everyone with its rock-bottom starting price of $2,500. Tata Motors executives explained how and why the company chose to build such a low-cost car, but no one would go on the record to say when the Nano would go into commercial production.
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Maserati's Selwa Leaves North American Distributor
Maserati North America Inc., announced Thursday that James Selwa, president and CEO, has left Maserati, effective Friday.
The Italian automaker said Maserati CEO Roberto Ronchi will continue to directly oversee the market in coordination with the Maserati North America team.
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By Nick Kurczewski
Launched at the New Delhi Auto Expo to a frenzy of worldwide interest, the Tata Nano city-car is coming to Europe within four years, according to Reuters.
The Nano was the unequivocal star of the New Delhi Auto Expo in early January, where it was announced the car’s Indian-market price will begin at only “1-lakh,” the equivalent of $2,500. About the only thing louder than the waves of applause during the Nano’s debut was the sound of other automotive executives’ jaws hitting the floor.
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India’s Mahindra Plans Truck Production in Ohio
The U.S. distributor for Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. told dealers Monday it plans to assemble tens of thousands of light pickup trucks annually in Ohio starting in 2009, and to start selling a range of hybrid vehicles in the U.S. by 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday afternoon.
Mahindra, which was defeated in a bidding contest by rival Tata for Jaguar and Land Rover, has partnered with Atlanta-based Global Vehicles USA, which will distribute the vehicles, establish marketing plans and manage a network of hundreds of dealers that have signed up to sell Mahindras throughout the U.S., the newspaper reported.
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Chrysler Plan Kills Models; Consolidates and Reduces Dealerships
By Michelle Krebs
Chrysler has launched what it calls Project Genesis, a plan to reduce the
number of models it sells and consolidate Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep franchises under a single dealership roof.
Chrysler’s announcement comes on the eve of the National Automobile Dealers Association convention, wich kicks off this weekend in San Francisco. In the company’s statement released in the wee hours of Friday morning on its Firehouse Web site, Chrysler Vice Chairman and President Jim Press said he and his team will discuss the plan with dealers at the convention.
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UAW Will Help Elect Democrat — Either One — to the White House
United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said Sunday the union will work hard to elect a Democrat to the White House, but said the union would not endorse either Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., or Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., for the Democratic nomination.
“The stakes in this election could not be any higher. Our jobs are on the line,” Gettelfinger told an assembly of about 1,000 union activists gathered in Washington for a conference. More than 3 million manufacturing jobs in the U.S. have been lost since January 2001, he noted.
Gettelfinger said the union will support the Democratic presidential candidates with money and sweat equity.
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BMW Chief Hits the Roadshow Circuit
Norbert Reithofer will this week become the first chief executive of BMW to go on an investor roadshow as the German automaker seeks to deflect worries about its profitability and shed its reputation as an industry laggard, the Financial Times reported over the weekend.
Reithofer will visit London on Wednesday as well as New York and Boston on Thursday and Friday to update investors on his efforts to cut costs.
The paper noted these visits mark a cultural break for the German carmaker, which until now only made its chief financial officer or other lower-ranking executives available to its shareholders.
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Chrysler Interprets ‘New Day’ With New Ad Campaign
By Dale Buss
Chrysler is trying to leverage the positive aspects of its ownership change in a new marketing campaign that breaks Super Bowl Sunday, while attempting to move consumers past the muddle created by the automaker’s acquisition by Cerberus Capital Management last summer.
Under the theme “New Day,” Chrysler’s ads will emphasize the company’s responsiveness to customer and dealer feedback by promoting the fact that it approved 260 “line-item” improvements to its products within the two months after Cerberus took Chrysler private, and that its new promotional packages offer many “extras” at no additional charge.
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Porsche sold 2,595 cars in the U.S. in January. Although its sales fell 13 percent, January 2008 still came in as the German sports car maker’s third-best January ever.
Porsche sold 174 Boxster models, up 26 percent form a year ago. Cayman sales rose 11 percent to 539 vehicles.
Porsche said Cayenne sales dropped 28 percent to 1,008 vehicles due to low inventories of the SUV.
The 911 had sales of 829 units, down 10 percent from last year’s January record.
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Volkswagen's January Sales Fall 13.2%
Volkswagen had January sales of 14,411 units, a 13.2 percent decrease from a year ago.
Sales of Volkswagen's core products were off by double digits. Jetta sales were off nearly 15.7 percent; Passat sales nosedived 24.5 percent. Touareg sales plummeted 47.4 percent.
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Ford Forecasts Fifth Profitable Year in Europe
Ford is forecasting a fifth consecutive year of European profit as new models
such as the Focus, Kuga and Verve boost sales in the region.
"We should have a solid year of profit,'' John Fleming, Ford of Europe chief, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News Friday from his office in Cologne, Germany. "I certainly intend for sales to be better in 2008 than in 2007.''
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Chrysler and the United Auto Workers appear to be headed for a showdown that might be the first test of the groundbreaking labor contract negotiated last fall.
Leaders of UAW Local 412 in Warren, Mich., which represents, among others, about 100 salaried designers being laid off indefinitely by Chrysler, say the automaker is violating the new contract.
“It looks like we are at war with the company. They're doing everything wrong here,” Jeff Hagler, Local 412 president, told the Detroit Free Press.
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Isuzu: Out of Business Next Year
Isuzu Motors Ltd. will get out of the U.S. consumer-vehicle market next year. Its exit comes as no surprise as the automaker has seen a steady sales decline for years, causing many to wonder how -- and why -- Isuzu and its roughly 200 dealers were hanging on.
Isuzu said in a statement it will end sales of the Ascender SUV and its pickup trucks, both supplied by General Motors, in January 2009.
Isuzu's vehicle sales have fallen 93 percent in eight years. The Japanese automaker will post a loss of about $37 million related to its exit from the U.S. over the next two fiscal years.
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GMC Gets First In-Game Super Bowl Ad
By Dale Buss
GMC will air its first in-game Super Bowl ad Sunday when the General Motors division shows off its new Yukon hybrid in a 60-second commercial during the second quarter of Fox’s broadcast of the game.
GMC Marketing Director Steve Rosenblum told AutoObserver the division has “had plenty of ads during the pregame shows” on previous Super Bowl Sundays “but we haven’t had one in-game as far as I can remember.”
GM’s announcement that GMC would occupy its single in-game slot Super Bowl Sunday ended an internal derby of sorts for what brand or products would land the spot.
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Volkswagen To Build Powertrains in North America, Report Says
Volkswagen has said it will build an assembly plant in the United States, a decision that could come this year. Now the German automaker appears to be looking at powertrain production in North America as well.
The German magazine Automobilwoche reported over the weekend Volkswagen plans production of engines and transmission in North America to reduce its exposure to the U.S. dollar exchange rate.
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Subaru Boxer Diesel Is One-of-a-Kind
By Peter Nunn
MALAGA, Spain -- Never one to run with the crowd, Subaru has just released the world’s first 2.0-liter Boxer Diesel engine in European versions of the Legacy and Outback.
A Boxer Diesel?
Think of it as a brand-new, clean sheet, four-cylinder horizontally opposed turbodiesel engine, developed completely in-house by Subaru and conceived exclusively for European markets.
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Federal Panel Calls for Serious Gas-Tax Hike
By Bill Visnic
The Associated Press reports this week a special panel is recommending a significant increase in federal gasoline tax that would more than double today’s rate. If fully phased-in, the new tax rate could add 40 cents to the price of a gallon of fuel.
In addition to the continually escalating price of gasoline and a burgeoning environmental consciousness in all consumer-goods sectors, the proposed gas-tax increase could be another factor that accelerates automakers’ need to “remix” their U.S. product lineups toward more fuel-efficient offerings.
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Senator Wants Funding Help for Fuel-Economy Increases
By Michelle Krebs
Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., told AutoObserver Wednesday that one of her top priorities, now that the new energy bill is passed, is to procure federal funding to help automakers meet the recently passed more stringent fuel economy standards.
"I'm laser-focused" on the issue, Stabenow said. In particular, she said she wants to see funding for development of lithium-ion batteries, currently produced by overseas companies yet a critical element to make future hybrid and range-extending vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt, viable. Having U.S. battery makers is a national security issue, she said.
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GM Launches Partnership With Coskata To Pursue Its Ethanol Dreams
By Dale Buss
WARRENVILLE, Ill. –- Here in a cluster of tiny laboratories, in a nondescript one-story office building, in a cookie-cutter industrial park in suburban Chicago, scientists and engineers –- as of Sunday, officially partnered with General Motors –- may be coming up with one of the most feasible solutions yet to the wrenching problem of global dependence on oil for gasoline.
It’s called cellulosic ethanol. It’s created by proprietary strains of bacteria that convert farm waste, wood chips, old tires, landfill plastic and a whole bunch of other organic materials into ethanol. The process was licensed and is being commercialized by a startup called Coskata Inc.
Specifically, the promise is that Coskata plans to produce enough cellulosic ethanol here by later this year to begin fueling the GM test fleet at the Milford (Michigan) Proving Grounds. And if that works, Coskata projects that it could be running its first commercial-scale plant, producing 50 million to 100 million gallo
