Industry

After a nearly flawless company history - over 70 years of profits - Toyota posted its first-ever loss for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. And a new report from Japan today says Toyota is already predicting a loss of up to $5 billion for the coming year as well. The report, which originates...

The continuing downfall of General Motors in recent months has led to some serious scrambling at the carmaker’s subsidiary brands as each struggles to keep its head above water as the ship goes down. We saw it first with Hummer, which GM decided to offload as far back as the middle of last...

As General Motors prepares for its June 1 bankruptcy-or-viability deadline, the decision on what to do with Pontiac is sitting on the back burner. In fact, dealers may have to wait until next year to find out what the General has in store. Or so says Susan Docherty, vice president of GM's...

In the seemingly never-ending merry-go-round of the automotive design world, the latest update is Laurens van den Acker's arrival at Renault. Last month van den Acker resigned from his post at the head of Mazda's design operations, but did not reveal his plans for the future. Now van den Acker will...

General Motors is reportedly preparing for the worst, with work under way to get the company ready for a possible bankruptcy. Earlier on this month, it was mentioned that a bankruptcy plan to split GM and retain only the most profitable aspects of its operations while ditching the dead weight was...

In the first major sign that the U.S. government was keen on helping out the entire domestic auto industry and not just the Detroit 3 carmakers, the U.S. Treasury approved a $5 billion aid package last month for automotive parts suppliers. The aid is to come in the form of guarantees for...

General Motors has already been taken over by Toyota as the world's biggest automaker, but the latest reports are predicting that the struggling Detroit giant is set to fall further down the list. In its place will emerge rival European automaker Volkswagen AG, which is expected to become the...

Just as other Detroit carmakers are clamoring for more federal loans, Ford has managed to reduce its debt by almost $10 billion. The news resulted in the stock price of Ford spiking by over 15% - a rare occurrence for U.S. carmakers considering the state of the market. Ford's debt reduction...

After Steve Saleen resigned from Saleen, Inc. in 2007, the company, under its new leadership, sold the majority of its aftermarket business to MJ Acquisitions on February 2, 2009. About a month later, the new ownership decided to shut down Saleen, Inc. after selling off the supercharger...

The car industry's design shakeup isn't over yet, folks. Today has already seen a new head of design at Volvo and at Ford of the Americas, but now the former Ford-family brand, Mazda, has also decided to change things up. Replacing Laurens van den Acker, Ikuo Maeda takes the helm of Mazda's design...

There's no denying Toyota's rise to power has been as close to meteoric as things get in the lumbering automotive industry. Though it's decades younger than its Detroit rivals, it is healthier, larger and more technologically advanced in almost every way. That's why Alan Mulally is trying to guide...

Late last week Steve Mattin decided to leave his job as Volvo's design guru, and already the company has found a replacement in the form of Peter Horbury. The new design director will take up his pencil on May 1. Horbury comes fresh from the same position - executive director of design - at Ford...

Late last year we reported about Aston Martin's primary stakeholder Investment Dar and the Kuwaiti firm’s plans to sell its stake in the British carmaker. Now, Aston Martin chief Dr. Ulrich Bez is claiming Investment Dar Company is planning to keep its stake and has revealed that the carmaker...

In a bid to stimulate the stagnating U.S. economy and give the domestic car market a boost, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that taxpayers who buy a new passenger vehicle this year may be entitled to deduct state and local sales and excise taxes paid for the vehicle when they file...

Porsche, coming off record sales and profits last financial year, has announced that for the first six months of the current year of business the company has experienced a 27.7% decrease in sales but miraculously profits have risen to €7.34 billion – up from €1.66 for the same...

Historic electric car brand Detroit Electric (DE) confirmed early last year plans to launch a range of all-electric vehicles for sale in Europe and North America by the end of the decade. The company has now taken a major step forward in realizing those goals with the announcement today that it has...

Canada has followed the lead of the U.S. and rejected the respective viability plans of General Motors and Chrysler, claiming the plans do not go far enough in their current form. This means the carmakers may miss out on the initial $3.2 billion in loans pledged in December, though a small portion...

The 'cash for clunkers' type programs have proven hugely successful in Europe - particularly in Germany - and today President Obama put his support behind at $7,500 trade-in incentive for old cars. Along with the car scrapping push, Obama has also lent his support to a set of new car tax incentives...

When you're Rick Wagoner, you get a golden parachute even when you're thrown out of the plane. The news today of Wagoner's $20 million retirement package might come as a surprise to some, following so closely on the heels of his Presidential ouster over the weekend. Wagoner won't get the cash all...

The Obama administration auto industry task force has rejected viability plans for General Motors and Chrysler and threatened that both may be forced into bankruptcy unless further sacrifices are made. The task force has consistently stated that its goal is to solve the industry's problems rather...