Industry

Lexus has once again taken top honors in the 2006 J.D. Power survey for most dependable vehicles, a study to find out the number of problems owners had with their cars. Models from 37 different brands were tested and surprisingly, how much you paid for your car doesn’t always determine how...

According to Ford, women buy 45% of cars and influence 85% of all car buying decisions, but that involvement hasn’t been reflected in the number of female car designers. Women make up 39 percent of all designers in all industrial trades, but make up much less in the auto industry. In an...

Don’t you hate it when you find out the car you’ve just bought will lose more than half its value in under three years? This is the problem facing many car buyers, and one that can greatly increase the overall running costs of a car. Edmunds has released lists of the top ten cars most...

While it’s still struggling to recover from its multi-billion dollar losses over the last few years, GM has announced that it will cut the development budget for future mid-size sedans by a billion dollars through more efficient use of part sharing, factories, and designs. According to a...

The foundation that was made famous for giving away $10 million to build a reusable spacecraft has now turned its attention to the automotive space. The X Prize foundation wants to motivate groups to build a “mass-marketable” 250 mpg vehicle and be eligible for a prize pool of up to $25...

Ford, like GM can no longer afford to keep loosing money from its subsidiaries. After a recent second-quarter loss of $123 million, Ford has called in the bean-counters to slash and burn away unprofitable assets. Leading the charge is former Goldman Sachs man Kenneth Leet, who will start at one of...

Spy photos are the hottest property in the auto news market. If you’re first to market with early pictures of next years hottest model, you can expect interest from all over the world. The spy photographers that take these photos often have to deal with 120ºF heat or -10ºF cold to get you...

July will go down as a milestone for Toyota as the first month they beat Ford to gain No. 2 position in the American market. The biggest reason behind this is that buyers are flocking to smaller, more fuel efficient cars. GM and Ford made a bet on SUVs and large trucks that worked very well for...

Dodge’s entrance to the small car market, the Hornet concept, was one of the highlights at the Geneva Motor Show and the latest reports indicate it’s been greenlit for production. The funky “micro-SUV” is part of Dodge’s strategy to cash in on the general market move...

This can’t be true; Hyundai worth more than Porsche? In terms of brand value, the Korean automaker’s label is worth $4.1 billion, beating the German brand which stands at $3.9 billion. Thanks to the increased levels of quality across Hyundai’s models, the company is now one of the...

We've been very impressed with Fiat's latest models, especially their small Punto hatch. It's little wonder that the Italian marque is now making some serious profits. Only 18 months ago the carmaker was struggling with losses of $12 billion dollars over the past six years. Restructuring and a...

It was only a matter of time until the foreign automakers were going to overtake the Big Three in the US auto sales race. According to statistics compiled by R.L. Polk and Co., foreign car companies made up 52.9 percent of car sales versus 47.1 percent for the domestics in the first five months of...

Vee Dub has created a new advertising slogan for its Middle Eastern marketing push: “It gets me!” According to Andreas Prinz, Managing Director Volkswagen Middle East, "This region is going to really feel the emotional power of Volkswagen like the rest of the world. We are fully...

Nanjing Automobile Corporation, the Chinese automaker that own the rights to the MG brand, has plans to manufacture the MG TF sports car and the larger ZT to be launched in 2008. With the aid of Group Lotus, Nanjing will modernise the MG range of cars and engines. The new cars will be available...

Nissan today announced it reached a new milestone in June with the production of its 100 millionth vehicle. Since its establishment in 1933, Nissan has produced about 76,640,000 vehicles in Japan and about 23,500,000 vehicles in other countries. At the end of June, Nissan’s total global...

Despite having four of the most acclaimed car manufacturers in the world – BMW, Mercedes, Audi, and Volkswagen – it seems the Germans are most satisfied with Japanese cars. In a recent study by JD Power and Associates, Toyota, Honda, Mazda, and Subaru made up the four most satisfying...

Earlier this week we reported the announcement that Nanjing Automobile Group is to manufacture MG cars in the US. Nanjing has now planned a conference in Oklahoma to make their announcement to build a newly designed MG TF Coupe there, starting in 2008. A convertible version is to be manufactured...

Nobody doubted that China would become a huge growth market for struggling overseas auto makers, but even the car companies seem surprised at just how well they’ve done. The industry had a sales increase of 46.9% to 1.8 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile...

Industrial espionage has been a part of the automotive industry for decades, and now that eager Chinese companies are willing to do whatever it takes to get a foothold over their competitors, they’re recruiting workers from rival companies. Turns out that three employees of Metaldyne, a maker...