Industry

Despite Australia’s record-breaking 1 million-car sales this year, Maybach managed to snag exactly zero buyers. To put this in perspective, with a population of approximately 21 million, 1 million cars sold means nearly one in 20, or roughly five percent of Australians bought a car this year...

As the dollar weakens and the American auto market stagnates, GM America’s number one automaker is looking overseas for its future. This year GM made 58 percent of its sales outside the U.S., and since 2004 a majority of GM’s sales have been from foreign markets. The driving force...

Ending Ford’s 75-year run as America’s number two automaker, Toyota has climbed another rung on the ladder toward the top of the U.S. market. In part, Toyota can thank Ford for helping hand the title over, as slipping sales at the Blue Oval tipped the balance in favor of the Japanese...

Global warming concerns, urban pollution and the expected end of the petroleum fuel supply were closer to the forefront of American consciousness in 2007 than ever before. While changes to America’s highly automobile-dependent infrastructure are nearly as slow as those to the environment...

General Motors is looking to dump V8 engines on its luxury cars altogether and replacing them with high power direct injection V6 engines in the near future. Cadillac was expected to be the main recipient of GM’s new V8 engines, to be built in its Tonawanda, N.Y. plant with an investment of...

As the number of people with deep pockets grows, Rolls-Royce struggles to keep up with the tremendous demand for their luxury vehicles such as the Phantom and the Phantom Drophead Coupe. This year they sold just under 1000 cars. In 2008 the company hopes to increase production by 10% after...

Those who have followed the saga of the BMW and Mercedes cooperation talks know that the two makers have been cautious - to say the least - in working together, but at the same time the continuous nature of the talks show that both are interested in the idea. Germany’s two most prestigious...

China’s burgeoning automotive industry has yet to make much of an impact in Europe or the U.S., aside from some of its makers infamously “borrowing” design details from their European counterparts. Likewise, not much has been heard of the once-famous and beloved English brand MG...

The slide in the U.S. economy is hurting car makers all around the world. As the single biggest car market in the world, any slide in U.S. demand can be a serious problem for the suppliers. Reports are surfacing that Volvo may be one such supplier in trouble. The falling dollar and decreasing...

We’ve already reported on Toyota’s slow march towards global domination of car sales and it looks like 2008 may be the year that the company finally overtakes GM as the world’s top automaker. Toyota has said it plans to produce 9.95 million vehicles worldwide during 2008, up 5...

MSNBC has released a list of the best and worst selling cars of 2007. There weren’t many surprises with the Ford F-Series topping the list once again, and the Camry making an appearance at third. The bottom of the list was dominated by luxury cars such as the Porsche Boxster, Jaguar S-Type...

We brought you analysis of the final bids yesterday, which hinted that a decision could be made in the next few days. As recently as a week ago it was expected that the bidder chosen to purchase Jaguar and Land Rover would be announced sometime during Q1 2008, but the news has indeed come out...

Blind zones in large vehicles such as SUVs and vans have been the cause of around four child deaths a week in the US according to safety experts. To combat this problem the House Energy and Commerce Committee in Washington has passed a bill that requires federal authorities to reduce blind zones in...

The rumored merger between Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) and Nanjing Automobile Group is expected to be finalized within the next two weeks, according to a report in the Beijing Times. The report claims that Nanjing would own 5-15% of SAIC and would be absorbed by SAIC. This ties in with...

Poised to purchase Jaguar and Land Rover, the Indian conglomerate Tata Motors is also eyeing a very different segment of the car market. Previous reports had placed the price of Tata’s ‘1 lakh car‘ around $2,200, but reports today indicate the price will be closer to $2,500. The...

Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn has made no secret of his desires to form an alliance with one of America’s major carmakers, and now we have reports claiming Nissan and Chrysler are in preliminary discussions about a possible tie-up. According to a source close to the talks, the two carmakers...

The ongoing saga of the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover continues, although it seems now a real end may be in sight. Ford’s concern with the process is that the brands are sold to a buyer that wants to continue to build upon their legacy. The previous deadlines for the sale of the two brands...

The North American Car of the Year (NACOTY) finalists were named today, and the winner will be revealed at the NAIAS in Detroit January 13th, 2008. Not surprisingly the re-worked American entries are climbing to the forefront this year, beating out German and Japanese competition to make the list...

Following this week’s resignation of 42-year old Antonio Baravalle, 40-year old Luca De Meo has been appointed as the new CEO of Alfa Romeo. De Meo will also maintain his current position as the chief marketing officer of Fiat Group, which he started back in September. As CEO of Alfa Romeo...

Rising sales in its Eastern and Central regions may soon see Europe emerge as the world’s largest car market, surpassing the U.S. possibly by the end of the year. The U.S. has traditionally led Europe by a wide margin but sales numbers so far this year differ by only several thousand units...