sales
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Johnny Cash fans will appreciate this one: Toyota is offering up for sale online a range of parts from its Formula 1 GP cars - almost enough to build one up, one piece at a time. Pricing is surprisingly reasonable, with parts starting as low as £200 ($320). That £200 will only get you a brake disc or basic suspension piece, however. Stepping up to front and rear wing assemblies, the price rises to a still-reasonable £2,000 ($3,200) while a complete rear wing, engine cover and underbody section goes for £4,400 ($7,026). Some of the pieces available can be found in the gallery below...
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Study: Hybrids to make up one in five U.S. car sales by 2020
Just a bit over ten years ago, only a few of the dedicated had any idea what a hybrid car was, but in another ten years or so, the eco-friendly vehicles will account for 19.4% of total sales in the U.S., according to JP Morgan's latest estimates. Today hybrids make up a little less than 1% of the...
Nelson Ireson -
Mercedes holding off on E-Class cabrio, wagon
Announcements of the delays of new car models are almost more numerous than the new cars themselves, and it seems no one is immune to the practice. Mercedes-Benz today revealed it won't be releasing the new E-Class Cabrio (spied here) at Frankfurt this fall, and the E-Class Wagon will be delayed a...
Alex Kaufmann -
Study: Toyota, Ford set to pass GM in market share, production
As General Motors peers over the brink of the abyss into a future that very likely holds a bankruptcy, the hits just keep coming. Today industry forecasters revealed that Toyota will pass GM in U.S. market share by 2010 at current rates, while Ford will push past the General in North American...
Nelson Ireson -
GM ties with Saab will remain in future models
The future of Saab is starting to look much brighter, thanks in part to important concessions from General Motors to help it build and design its own range of cars in the future, as well as a likely extension from Swedish courts for its restructuring deadline. For a while it looked as though Saab...
Alex Kaufmann -
Toyota to replace 40% of management, plans 30% in production cuts
Toyota may be the world's biggest carmaker but that title appears more and more likely to pass on to Volkswagen as the Japanese carmaker announces another round of production cuts and plans to change up to 40% of its senior management. The news comes as Toyota reports its first operating loss in 71...
James Martinez -
With almost all of its plants shuttered through the bankruptcy period and faith in the company at an all-time low, Chrysler is soon to be passed in both North American production and sales by Honda. The Japanese #2 carmaker has already cut the gap to Chrysler's production figures to 17,011 vehicles according to Bloomberg. That's down from a 236,645 vehicle deficit a year earlier. With sales not swinging upward nearly that much at Honda, it's Chrysler's faltering, not Honda's rise, that's to blame. Effectively there's no difference, however, as Honda is preparing to take up fourth place in...
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Chrysler resale values down 6% in a week as uncertainty rules the day
It's simple math: carmaker plus bankruptcy equals uncertainty and lower resale values. But Chrysler owners are feeling the bite of that equation as the value of their vehicles dropped 6% on average in a single week. In the week after Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, owners of...
Ralph Hanson -
Toyota forecasts $8.6 billion annual loss, posts $6.9 billion loss for last quarter
Toyota, often considered the industry leader when it comes to earning profits, has forecast an annual loss of $8.6 billion for the financial year ending March 2010, as it weathers one of the worst sales slumps in decades. As this is a forecast the final figure could easily change, however, the...
Jeremy Weber -
Hybrid sales crash 45% in April, but up against March
It's no secret that hybrid and small car sales have been among the hardest hit in the ongoing market downturn. They've fallen at rates well beyond the total market's decline and continue to do so, dropping 45.5% in April against the same time a year ago. But total hybrid sales are up 1.4% against...
Alex Kaufmann -
Ford's image improves by staying above the fray, says study
It wasn't so long ago that people were deriding Ford for mortgaging the Blue Oval itself, key investors were dumping shares into the open market and the company was forced to sell off its stake in Mazda. But now a study is saying things have turned around, with Ford's image improving in relation to...
Nelson Ireson -
Poll: most Americans will buy a new American car within two years
Despite the troubles in Detroit and Washington for U.S. carmakers, almost three-quarters of the buying public say they'd buy American - and over half of U.S. consumers are in the market for a new car within two years, according to a recent survey. The news is a glimpse of silver lining in the cloud...
Kenneth Hall -
Rick Wagoner was sent packing earlier this week, then GM debuted a new buyer assurance program and guaranteed warranties, and Fritz Henderson put out a message of determination in the face of difficulty today, but Corvette's plant in Bowling Green won't be back in full operation until at least July. Slow sales of the sports cars means current stock will last at half-production with just a skeleton crew on duty. Staff at the plant is already down to just 400 people from the 1,000 that worked it in 2007. The local UAW financial secretary Cindy Shelton told Louisville's Courier-Journal that the...
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Ford, GM announce new buyer assurance incentives
All the great deals on new cars going around are tempting to many who would be buyers but for the tenous state of the overall economy, but not tempting enough to overcome the fear of a lost job, repossession and the trouble that follows. So Ford and General Motors are both stepping up today with...
Nelson Ireson -
China to be world's largest auto producer by the end of the year
Despite the global economic downturn, the nation of China is still on track to become the world's largest automaker by this year. Currently, China remains in second place to Japan, but last year the Chinese managed to overtake the U.S. to claim their current second-place position, and this trend is...
Alex Kaufmann -
Obama throws weight behind car scrapping, new car tax incentives
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...
Nelson Ireson -
Honda struggling to meet demand for Insight, U.S. production still a long way off
Honda’s new Insight hybrid vehicle has been on sale in the U.S. for just over a week but demand for the car is already pushing production at the company’s Suzuka plant in Japan to the limits. Sales of the Insight in Japan are already triple what Honda had hoped for and with predictions...
Kenneth Hall -
Toyota and Honda continue cutting output as Japan's sales head for 32-year low
In the highly reflexive world of modern markets, forecasts are often self-fulfilling, and that's just more reason to fear the word coming out of Tokyo today. The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) is predicting the worst sales in 32 years for 2009, and already Toyota and Honda have...
Kenneth Hall -
Earlier this month, Toyota executive vice-president Masatami Takimoto confirmed the company was working on a small hybrid sports coupe for the European market but other than a few sparing details no solid information was revealed. This sent the rumor mill into overdrive, with speculation quickly emerging that the car could see a return of the MR2 nameplate. Today, France’s L'Automobile Magazine is reporting that the new RWD sports car being developed jointly by Toyota and Subaru could revive the Celica name. Both companies plan to launch separate versions of the car in 2011, but while...
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Pontiac G8 sees record sales amid harrowed industry
Incentives, incentives, incentives. That's the name of the game at all of the major carmakers these days, and in many cases, it's paying off. Take the Pontiac G8 for example: despite a market that's off over 40%, the G8 sedan saw its best sales ever last month - over double the number sold in...
Ralph Hanson -
Ferrari announces record 2008 profits, retirement of Jean Todt
Following a record first-quarter profit for Ferrari, the slowing global economy and tightening credit markets slammed into the car industry and ground what had looked like a promising year to a halt. There was talk of tough times at Ferrari. But Ferrari's ledger sheet still looks bright, says the...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
GM dealers not ordering new cars due to uncertain brand futures
In what is set to become a terrible domino effect, lagging demand for new cars and an uncertain future at Hummer, Saturn and Saab dealerships is leading to an inventory pile up. That, in turn, means dealers are ordering no new cars, driving General Motors' production schedule even further out of...
Ralph Hanson -
AutoNation CEO says he has 600,000 hybrids sitting on lots across America
Pain at the pump is a thankfully remote sensation for most Americans these days. Just last summer we were all hurting everytime we had to go somewhere, to the point where we traveled 30 billion fewer miles than the year before. But the absence of pain at the pump means we don't have much in the way...
Ralph Hanson -
Bentley gets idle staff to build furniture
Luxury carmakers have a knack for stamping their logos on almost anything, from pens, to laptops and watches. But the latest direction Bentley is turning for additional revenue has left us scratching our heads a little - the 90-year old company has started producing furniture, including tables and...
Kenneth Hall