Industry

A lot of hullabaloo on the topic of the need (or lack thereof) to act quickly and decisively on the economy, and to help kick-start the car industry in particular, has been flying about living rooms, bars, offices and Houses of Congress lately. To help give some life to the debate, the analysts at...

America's car-market troubles are well-known and much belabored of late, but China's automotive industry isn't facing such a dire situation. In January, China's total car sales overtook America's for the first time, and many of the constituent companies, such as Chery, are looking outside China to...

Before Chrysler was ever involved in alliance talks with Fiat, the Auburn Hills carmaker was already tied with Nissan over several platform swapping and production sharing deals. Both Chrysler and Nissan have now confirmed that two out of the three original product-sharing deals have been put on...

Just as Chrysler and Nissan plan to keep their previous platform and product sharing deals now that the American carmaker is on the verge of an alliance with Fiat Group, the Italian giant reportedly plans to keep its own dealings with BMW alive as well. While there was speculation that the proposed...

Coming off record sales of 10,014 vehicles in 2007, Bentley's performance last year didn’t go so well, with sales figures dropping by 24% over the course of the year to just 7,604 units in 2008. The super-luxury carmaker is being forced to make further cutbacks after earlier shift reductions...

General Motors has notified its employees that it will reduce salaried employment globally from a current level of 73,000 to approximately 63,000 - a reduction of 14% - over the course of the year. The company will also slash compensation and benefits for its remaining salaried employees as it...

Carmakers are increasingly becoming aware of the influence video games are starting to have on the buying habits of new car buyers. In fact, according to a new report, video games have become as culturally pervasive as movies. More importantly, the report also claims that being able to race with a...

American engineering firm Scuderi has announced the completion of the first prototype of its new ultra-efficient engine design called the ‘split-cycle’. The design uses a revolutionary new system to provide engines that release significantly fewer emissions than current offerings and is...

Bob Lutz, the iconic and often polemic Vice Chairman of General Motors' global product development team, has announced he will be retiring from the company at the end of 2009. Until then, Lutz will adopt a new role as Vice Chairman and Senior Advisor starting April 1. During his 46 year career in...

Nissan is the latest carmaker to succumb to the effects of the global economic crisis, with the company announcing today its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2008 and a massive round of job cuts. In the third quarter, the consolidated net loss after tax came to ¥83.2 billion...

Chrysler has come out with its second sales plea in as little two weeks, urging dealers to order more than 15,000 cars by Monday to keep the company viable. Not one to mince his words, Chrysler co-president Jim Press told dealers over a conference call that they basically have two choices: "You can...

Less than two days after Chrysler confirmed that it had received three offers for its Dodge Viper sports car business, the investors who just purchased most of the assets of specialty-car maker Saleen Automotive have revealed that they have also considered adding the Viper business to their...

General Motors has confirmed that the first batch of its upcoming Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrids will feature an internal combustion ‘back-up’ engine sourced from Aspern, Austria, and not from Flint, Michigan, as originally planned. The announcement comes just a week after it was...

The phenomenally weak market in the U.S. is setting record lows on a regular basis, and today is no exception: China has surpassed the U.S. in total car sales for the month of January. Conservative estimates for 2009 have the U.S. market selling 10.5 million or more vehicles, but so far this year...

Large SUVs and minivans have fallen on the hardest of times in the industry's late downturn, and casualties of the recession mount daily. Today's trio in triage are the Infiniti QX56, Nissan Quest and Nissan Armada. Nissan today confirmed that it would be bringing U.S. production of the three large...

Fiat and Chrysler first released a joint statement announcing they had signed a non-binding term sheet to establish a global strategic alliance just over two weeks ago but according to Fiat's CEO the deal could be signed and completed by as early as the middle of this month. The alliance, to be a...

The past month has been one of the busiest for struggling Detroit carmaker Chrysler, within the past several weeks receiving a $1.5 billion infusion from the federal government, revealing plans for a strategic alliance with Fiat, and announcing a range of new incentives. Under the new...

In January we brought you news of Toyota's predicted surpassing of Chrysler in North American output in 2009, and nearly two years ago we reported on the Detroit 3 slipping below 50% market share in the U.S. Now the trend continues, with the Detroit 3's North American car output slipping below 60%...

Apart from Lexus, Japanese luxury brands still pale in comparison to their German rivals in terms of the number of models they produce and the prices they can command. Overall image in the marketplace and status on the street have likewise proven difficult to develop. That's why Acura is making a...

General Motors has made it clear that it intends to focus most of its resources on just four core brands in North America but has left much doubt about the long-term viability of its other brands. The Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC brands accounted for 83% of GM's total sales volume in the U.S...