News Blog Archives – The Truth About Cars
Category: News Blog
While there are dealerships that will joyfully service your vintage automobile, there are reasons a lot of classic cars are wrenched at home or taken to speciality shops. It’s not typically in a service center’s best interest to hunt down infrequent discontinued parts and train employees on the reassembly of carburetors. But it still happens, especially among premium brands.
Porsche is rather obsessive about its heritage and has extended that to maintenance and repairs at a large number of stores. It isn’t alone, either. Mark Rogers, a twenty Group consultant with the National Automobile Dealers Association, estimates as many as 1,800 U.S. franchised dealerships are willing to service vintage cars. Some are even selling them — putting desirable classics on the showroom floor in the hopes they might garner positive attention. Read More >
Subaru Believes Dog-focused Advertising Has Been a Large Part of its Success
Automotive advertising has always been an amalgamation of information and hype. Carmakers use commercials to inform the public of what makes their model different and fresh, while at the same time promising an intangible goodness. Mid-century ads were less specific, reassuring prospective customers of a nondescript better way of life, but modern marketing has become much more focused. If ads are to be believed, buying a car today means purchasing more than just the hardware its comprised of — you’re buying an identity.
I’m reminded of a collection of car commercials from the 1960s that essentially vowed to nerds that, if they bought a specific car, they would be pursued endlessly by attractive women. It was a bold and utterly unsubtle way to kick off the fresh trend.
We’ve come a long way evolved slightly since then, but the concept of identity-focused advertising is more popular than ever. In fact, Subaru attributes a large portion of its own success to marketing that closely associates the brand with good values, family, lovable mutts, and the good outdoors. Read More >
No One’s Kicking the Tires on Fiat Chrysler, Marchionne Says
He came to observe a race, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne took some time out from a busy Saturday at the Italian Formula One Grand Prix to squash some rumors.
You know the ones. Reports emerged last month that Chinese automakers were dangling around FCA’s door, just waiting for a chance to sweep the company off its feet. An unnamed company pitched a buyout suggest, the story goes. Not high enough, FCA allegedly responded. Another company, Fine Wall Motors, isn’t interested in FCA, just its lucrative and growth-poised Jeep division.
Is a Chinese-Italian-American automaker in the works? Will the buck one day stop in Beijing or Shanghai, instead of at the desks of Auburn Hills executives? Hardly, says Marchionne. No one wants to dance with FCA. Read More >
U.S. Auto Sales Brand-by-Brand Results: August two thousand seventeen YTD
A predicted auto sales improvement in August, expected to be the very first year-over-year increase in 2017, gave way to decreases for many automakers as Hurricane Harvey’s drastic effects shut down request in one of the nation’s largest auto markets for the final quarter of the month.
According to Edmunds, Ford, Ram, GMC, Cadillac, and Mitsubishi all claim Texas as their largest market. The period surrounding Labor Day produced four percent of America’s fresh vehicle sales in 2016, but that figure will undoubtedly fall because of Harvey’s devastating influence. Read More >
Despite Acute Midsize Truck Decline, U.S. Pickup Truck Sales Rose four Percent in August 2017
Noteworthy year-over-year sales declines were reported in August two thousand seventeen by the three lowest-volume members of America’s five-strong midsize pickup truck category. As a result, U.S. sales of midsize pickups tumbled eight percent last month, driving their share of the overall pickup truck category down from eighteen percent in August two thousand sixteen to sixteen percent in August 2017.
The Honda Ridgeline, America’s lowest-volume pickup truck in each of the last two months, reported a 24-percent drop to Two,610 units. For the two thousand eighteen model year, Honda will make the all-wheel-drive Ridgeline distinctly less affordable. The GMC Canyon, which persistently and predictably generates far less showroom traffic than its Chevrolet Colorado twin, tumbled by a fifth to Two,698 sales. And the Nissan Frontier, which last year reported its best calendar year results in fifteen years, continued its two thousand seventeen tumble with a 51-percent plunge to only Four,637 units, its lowest-volume month since January.
But those are low-volume midsize trucks, scarcely relevant in the overall pickup truck scheme. Total pickup truck volume rose four percent in August because full-size trucks leaped six percent, thanks mainly to the best-selling vehicle line in America: Ford’s F-Series. Read More >
The Problem That Won’t Go Away: Fatal Jeep Crash Puts Spotlight on Years-old Recall
It’s the same safety issue that saddled Ford’s Pinto with a well known legacy that resumes to this day, and Jeep can’t seem to put it in its rear-view.
In 2013, at the urging of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles issued a recall for 1.56 million Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokee SUVs to correct a serious flaw. The vehicles’ gas tanks, located inbetween the rear axle and bumper, had proven especially vulnerable to rupturing in rear-end collisions. A total of twenty six deaths were recorded at the time of the recall.
After installing trailer hitches on each affected vehicle, FCA felt it had the issue well in forearm. Unluckily, the fires continued, as did the deaths. Now, it’s happened again. Read More >
Leave behind Volkswagen’s ‘800,000 Sales by 2018′ Purpose – VW’s Fresh Aim Is five Percent U.S. Market Share by 2020
In 2009, during the innards of a global financial crisis the likes of which generations had never seen, Volkswagen of America set forward on a nine-year plan that would more than triple sales to 800,000 units in 2018.
Stuff happened. A crisis (or two) got in the way. An overly Americanized product lineup lacking in utility vehicles underachieved. Volkswagen lost its right to sell diesel models in America. Volkswagen will fight to sell 400,000 fresh vehicles in the United States in 2018.
Albeit at very first it seemed possible — Volkswagen sales grew far quicker than the market as a entire exiting the recession — the 800,000-unit sales objective has long since been abandoned. By 2014, before the diesel emissions scandal even broke, now-departed Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn was questioning the timing of the 800,000-sales aim.
As the summer of two thousand seventeen approaches a close, however, Volkswagen’s global boss Herbert Diess has a fresh, seemingly unrealistic aim for the brand’s U.S. operations, Bloomberg reports. With a stronger SUV lineup, Volkswagen wants to grow its U.S. market share to five percent in 2020.
Don’t Be so Quick to Pull the Trigger on That two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry – 2017s Are Cheap and Abundant
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is the very first truly, totally, all-new Toyota Camry since 2002. Built on Toyota’s Fresh Global Architecture, it’s stiffer, safer, and by all accounts, substantially better to drive than the 2017.
Fuel efficiency took a leap forward. Horsepower did, too. The feature count, including the safety department, was elevated. The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry even has a sense of style, whether you like its sense or choose less offensive past examples.
With an all-new architecture for an in-demand car — yes, even as sedans slow, the Camry is still the 15-time best-selling car in America — comes a lack of readiness on the part of Toyota to deal. That’s made all the more true by the current cost of importing Camrys. While production will eventually be in total sway at the Camry’s Georgetown, Kentucky, assembly plant, early copies of the two thousand eighteen Camry hail from Japan.
Infrequent will be the buyer who goes into a U.S. Toyota store this Labor Day weekend with a strong preference for the old Camry, still available in abundance on dealer lots. Even with concerns (albeit modest concerns; this is a Camry) regarding first-model-year reliability, the MY2018 Camry is the bright and shiny object.
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is better than the two thousand seventeen Toyota Camry: objectively, subjectively, on paper, on the road. But is it 41-percent better? Read More >
News Blog Archives – The Truth About Cars
Category: News Blog
While there are dealerships that will gladfully service your vintage automobile, there are reasons a lot of classic cars are wrenched at home or taken to speciality shops. It’s not typically in a service center’s best interest to hunt down uncommon discontinued parts and train employees on the reassembly of carburetors. But it still happens, especially among premium brands.
Porsche is rather obsessive about its heritage and has extended that to maintenance and repairs at a large number of stores. It isn’t alone, either. Mark Rogers, a twenty Group consultant with the National Automobile Dealers Association, estimates as many as 1,800 U.S. franchised dealerships are willing to service vintage cars. Some are even selling them — putting desirable classics on the showroom floor in the hopes they might garner positive attention. Read More >
Subaru Believes Dog-focused Advertising Has Been a Large Part of its Success
Automotive advertising has always been an amalgamation of information and hype. Carmakers use commercials to inform the public of what makes their model different and fresh, while at the same time promising an intangible goodness. Mid-century ads were less specific, reassuring prospective customers of a nondescript better way of life, but modern marketing has become much more focused. If ads are to be believed, buying a car today means purchasing more than just the hardware its comprised of — you’re buying an identity.
I’m reminded of a collection of car commercials from the 1960s that essentially vowed to nerds that, if they bought a specific car, they would be pursued endlessly by attractive women. It was a bold and utterly unsubtle way to kick off the fresh trend.
We’ve come a long way evolved slightly since then, but the concept of identity-focused advertising is more popular than ever. In fact, Subaru attributes a large portion of its own success to marketing that closely associates the brand with good values, family, lovable mutts, and the superb outdoors. Read More >
No One’s Kicking the Tires on Fiat Chrysler, Marchionne Says
He came to see a race, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne took some time out from a busy Saturday at the Italian Formula One Grand Prix to squash some rumors.
You know the ones. Reports emerged last month that Chinese automakers were stringing up around FCA’s door, just waiting for a chance to sweep the company off its feet. An unnamed company pitched a buyout suggest, the story goes. Not high enough, FCA allegedly responded. Another company, Good Wall Motors, isn’t interested in FCA, just its lucrative and growth-poised Jeep division.
Is a Chinese-Italian-American automaker in the works? Will the buck one day stop in Beijing or Shanghai, instead of at the desks of Auburn Hills executives? Hardly, says Marchionne. No one wants to dance with FCA. Read More >
U.S. Auto Sales Brand-by-Brand Results: August two thousand seventeen YTD
A predicted auto sales improvement in August, expected to be the very first year-over-year increase in 2017, gave way to decreases for many automakers as Hurricane Harvey’s drastic effects shut down request in one of the nation’s largest auto markets for the final quarter of the month.
According to Edmunds, Ford, Ram, GMC, Cadillac, and Mitsubishi all claim Texas as their largest market. The period surrounding Labor Day produced four percent of America’s fresh vehicle sales in 2016, but that figure will undoubtedly fall because of Harvey’s devastating influence. Read More >
Despite Acute Midsize Truck Decline, U.S. Pickup Truck Sales Rose four Percent in August 2017
Noteworthy year-over-year sales declines were reported in August two thousand seventeen by the three lowest-volume members of America’s five-strong midsize pickup truck category. As a result, U.S. sales of midsize pickups tumbled eight percent last month, driving their share of the overall pickup truck category down from eighteen percent in August two thousand sixteen to sixteen percent in August 2017.
The Honda Ridgeline, America’s lowest-volume pickup truck in each of the last two months, reported a 24-percent drop to Two,610 units. For the two thousand eighteen model year, Honda will make the all-wheel-drive Ridgeline distinctly less affordable. The GMC Canyon, which persistently and predictably generates far less showroom traffic than its Chevrolet Colorado twin, tumbled by a fifth to Two,698 sales. And the Nissan Frontier, which last year reported its best calendar year results in fifteen years, continued its two thousand seventeen tumble with a 51-percent plunge to only Four,637 units, its lowest-volume month since January.
But those are low-volume midsize trucks, scarcely relevant in the overall pickup truck scheme. Total pickup truck volume rose four percent in August because full-size trucks hopped six percent, thanks mainly to the best-selling vehicle line in America: Ford’s F-Series. Read More >
The Problem That Won’t Go Away: Fatal Jeep Crash Puts Spotlight on Years-old Recall
It’s the same safety issue that saddled Ford’s Pinto with a well known legacy that proceeds to this day, and Jeep can’t seem to put it in its rear-view.
In 2013, at the urging of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles issued a recall for 1.56 million Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokee SUVs to correct a serious flaw. The vehicles’ gas tanks, located inbetween the rear axle and bumper, had proven especially vulnerable to rupturing in rear-end collisions. A total of twenty six deaths were recorded at the time of the recall.
After installing trailer hitches on each affected vehicle, FCA felt it had the issue well in arm. Unluckily, the fires continued, as did the deaths. Now, it’s happened again. Read More >
Leave behind Volkswagen’s ‘800,000 Sales by 2018′ Objective – VW’s Fresh Objective Is five Percent U.S. Market Share by 2020
In 2009, during the insides of a global financial crisis the likes of which generations had never seen, Volkswagen of America set forward on a nine-year plan that would more than triple sales to 800,000 units in 2018.
Stuff happened. A crisis (or two) got in the way. An overly Americanized product lineup lacking in utility vehicles underachieved. Volkswagen lost its right to sell diesel models in America. Volkswagen will fight to sell 400,000 fresh vehicles in the United States in 2018.
Albeit at very first it seemed possible — Volkswagen sales grew far quicker than the market as a entire exiting the recession — the 800,000-unit sales aim has long since been abandoned. By 2014, before the diesel emissions scandal even broke, now-departed Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn was questioning the timing of the 800,000-sales aim.
As the summer of two thousand seventeen approaches a close, however, Volkswagen’s global boss Herbert Diess has a fresh, seemingly unrealistic objective for the brand’s U.S. operations, Bloomberg reports. With a stronger SUV lineup, Volkswagen wants to grow its U.S. market share to five percent in 2020.
Don’t Be so Quick to Pull the Trigger on That two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry – 2017s Are Cheap and Abundant
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is the very first truly, entirely, all-new Toyota Camry since 2002. Built on Toyota’s Fresh Global Architecture, it’s stiffer, safer, and by all accounts, substantially better to drive than the 2017.
Fuel efficiency took a leap forward. Horsepower did, too. The feature count, including the safety department, was elevated. The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry even has a sense of style, whether you like its sense or choose less offensive past examples.
With an all-new architecture for an in-demand car — yes, even as sedans slow, the Camry is still the 15-time best-selling car in America — comes a lack of preparedness on the part of Toyota to deal. That’s made all the more true by the current cost of importing Camrys. While production will eventually be in total sway at the Camry’s Georgetown, Kentucky, assembly plant, early copies of the two thousand eighteen Camry hail from Japan.
Infrequent will be the buyer who goes into a U.S. Toyota store this Labor Day weekend with a strong preference for the old Camry, still available in abundance on dealer lots. Even with concerns (albeit modest concerns; this is a Camry) regarding first-model-year reliability, the MY2018 Camry is the bright and shiny object.
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is better than the two thousand seventeen Toyota Camry: objectively, subjectively, on paper, on the road. But is it 41-percent better? Read More >
News Blog Archives – The Truth About Cars
Category: News Blog
While there are dealerships that will joyfully service your vintage automobile, there are reasons a lot of classic cars are wrenched at home or taken to speciality shops. It’s not typically in a service center’s best interest to hunt down uncommon discontinued parts and train employees on the reassembly of carburetors. But it still happens, especially among premium brands.
Porsche is rather obsessive about its heritage and has extended that to maintenance and repairs at a large number of stores. It isn’t alone, either. Mark Rogers, a twenty Group consultant with the National Automobile Dealers Association, estimates as many as 1,800 U.S. franchised dealerships are willing to service vintage cars. Some are even selling them — putting desirable classics on the showroom floor in the hopes they might garner positive attention. Read More >
Subaru Believes Dog-focused Advertising Has Been a Large Part of its Success
Automotive advertising has always been an amalgamation of information and hype. Carmakers use commercials to inform the public of what makes their model different and fresh, while at the same time promising an intangible goodness. Mid-century ads were less specific, reassuring prospective customers of a nondescript better way of life, but modern marketing has become much more focused. If ads are to be believed, buying a car today means purchasing more than just the hardware its comprised of — you’re buying an identity.
I’m reminded of a collection of car commercials from the 1960s that essentially vowed to nerds that, if they bought a specific car, they would be pursued endlessly by attractive women. It was a bold and enormously unsubtle way to kick off the fresh trend.
We’ve come a long way evolved slightly since then, but the concept of identity-focused advertising is more popular than ever. In fact, Subaru attributes a large portion of its own success to marketing that closely associates the brand with good values, family, lovable mutts, and the good outdoors. Read More >
No One’s Kicking the Tires on Fiat Chrysler, Marchionne Says
He came to witness a race, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne took some time out from a busy Saturday at the Italian Formula One Grand Prix to squash some rumors.
You know the ones. Reports emerged last month that Chinese automakers were dangling around FCA’s door, just waiting for a chance to sweep the company off its feet. An unnamed company pitched a buyout suggest, the story goes. Not high enough, FCA allegedly responded. Another company, Superb Wall Motors, isn’t interested in FCA, just its lucrative and growth-poised Jeep division.
Is a Chinese-Italian-American automaker in the works? Will the buck one day stop in Beijing or Shanghai, instead of at the desks of Auburn Hills executives? Hardly, says Marchionne. No one wants to dance with FCA. Read More >
U.S. Auto Sales Brand-by-Brand Results: August two thousand seventeen YTD
A predicted auto sales improvement in August, expected to be the very first year-over-year increase in 2017, gave way to decreases for many automakers as Hurricane Harvey’s drastic effects shut down request in one of the nation’s largest auto markets for the final quarter of the month.
According to Edmunds, Ford, Ram, GMC, Cadillac, and Mitsubishi all claim Texas as their largest market. The period surrounding Labor Day produced four percent of America’s fresh vehicle sales in 2016, but that figure will undoubtedly fall because of Harvey’s devastating influence. Read More >
Despite Acute Midsize Truck Decline, U.S. Pickup Truck Sales Rose four Percent in August 2017
Noteworthy year-over-year sales declines were reported in August two thousand seventeen by the three lowest-volume members of America’s five-strong midsize pickup truck category. As a result, U.S. sales of midsize pickups tumbled eight percent last month, driving their share of the overall pickup truck category down from eighteen percent in August two thousand sixteen to sixteen percent in August 2017.
The Honda Ridgeline, America’s lowest-volume pickup truck in each of the last two months, reported a 24-percent drop to Two,610 units. For the two thousand eighteen model year, Honda will make the all-wheel-drive Ridgeline distinctly less affordable. The GMC Canyon, which persistently and predictably generates far less showroom traffic than its Chevrolet Colorado twin, tumbled by a fifth to Two,698 sales. And the Nissan Frontier, which last year reported its best calendar year results in fifteen years, continued its two thousand seventeen tumble with a 51-percent plunge to only Four,637 units, its lowest-volume month since January.
But those are low-volume midsize trucks, scarcely relevant in the overall pickup truck scheme. Total pickup truck volume rose four percent in August because full-size trucks hopped six percent, thanks mainly to the best-selling vehicle line in America: Ford’s F-Series. Read More >
The Problem That Won’t Go Away: Fatal Jeep Crash Puts Spotlight on Years-old Recall
It’s the same safety issue that saddled Ford’s Pinto with a famous legacy that proceeds to this day, and Jeep can’t seem to put it in its rear-view.
In 2013, at the urging of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles issued a recall for 1.56 million Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokee SUVs to correct a serious flaw. The vehicles’ gas tanks, located inbetween the rear axle and bumper, had proven especially vulnerable to rupturing in rear-end collisions. A total of twenty six deaths were recorded at the time of the recall.
After installing trailer hitches on each affected vehicle, FCA felt it had the issue well in forearm. Unluckily, the fires continued, as did the deaths. Now, it’s happened again. Read More >
Leave behind Volkswagen’s ‘800,000 Sales by 2018′ Purpose – VW’s Fresh Objective Is five Percent U.S. Market Share by 2020
In 2009, during the insides of a global financial crisis the likes of which generations had never seen, Volkswagen of America set forward on a nine-year plan that would more than triple sales to 800,000 units in 2018.
Stuff happened. A crisis (or two) got in the way. An overly Americanized product lineup lacking in utility vehicles underachieved. Volkswagen lost its right to sell diesel models in America. Volkswagen will fight to sell 400,000 fresh vehicles in the United States in 2018.
Albeit at very first it seemed possible — Volkswagen sales grew far swifter than the market as a entire exiting the recession — the 800,000-unit sales purpose has long since been abandoned. By 2014, before the diesel emissions scandal even broke, now-departed Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn was questioning the timing of the 800,000-sales purpose.
As the summer of two thousand seventeen approaches a close, however, Volkswagen’s global boss Herbert Diess has a fresh, seemingly unrealistic objective for the brand’s U.S. operations, Bloomberg reports. With a stronger SUV lineup, Volkswagen wants to grow its U.S. market share to five percent in 2020.
Don’t Be so Quick to Pull the Trigger on That two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry – 2017s Are Cheap and Abundant
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is the very first truly, fully, all-new Toyota Camry since 2002. Built on Toyota’s Fresh Global Architecture, it’s stiffer, safer, and by all accounts, substantially better to drive than the 2017.
Fuel efficiency took a leap forward. Horsepower did, too. The feature count, including the safety department, was elevated. The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry even has a sense of style, whether you like its sense or choose less offensive past examples.
With an all-new architecture for an in-demand car — yes, even as sedans slow, the Camry is still the 15-time best-selling car in America — comes a lack of preparedness on the part of Toyota to deal. That’s made all the more true by the current cost of importing Camrys. While production will eventually be in total sway at the Camry’s Georgetown, Kentucky, assembly plant, early copies of the two thousand eighteen Camry hail from Japan.
Infrequent will be the buyer who goes into a U.S. Toyota store this Labor Day weekend with a strong preference for the old Camry, still available in abundance on dealer lots. Even with concerns (albeit modest concerns; this is a Camry) regarding first-model-year reliability, the MY2018 Camry is the bright and shiny object.
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is better than the two thousand seventeen Toyota Camry: objectively, subjectively, on paper, on the road. But is it 41-percent better? Read More >
News Blog Archives – The Truth About Cars
Category: News Blog
While there are dealerships that will joyfully service your vintage automobile, there are reasons a lot of classic cars are wrenched at home or taken to speciality shops. It’s not typically in a service center’s best interest to hunt down uncommon discontinued parts and train employees on the reassembly of carburetors. But it still happens, especially among premium brands.
Porsche is rather obsessive about its heritage and has extended that to maintenance and repairs at a large number of stores. It isn’t alone, either. Mark Rogers, a twenty Group consultant with the National Automobile Dealers Association, estimates as many as 1,800 U.S. franchised dealerships are willing to service vintage cars. Some are even selling them — putting desirable classics on the showroom floor in the hopes they might garner positive attention. Read More >
Subaru Believes Dog-focused Advertising Has Been a Large Part of its Success
Automotive advertising has always been an amalgamation of information and hype. Carmakers use commercials to inform the public of what makes their model different and fresh, while at the same time promising an intangible goodness. Mid-century ads were less specific, reassuring prospective customers of a nondescript better way of life, but modern marketing has become much more focused. If ads are to be believed, buying a car today means purchasing more than just the hardware its comprised of — you’re buying an identity.
I’m reminded of a collection of car commercials from the 1960s that essentially vowed to nerds that, if they bought a specific car, they would be pursued endlessly by attractive women. It was a bold and utterly unsubtle way to kick off the fresh trend.
We’ve come a long way evolved slightly since then, but the concept of identity-focused advertising is more popular than ever. In fact, Subaru attributes a large portion of its own success to marketing that closely associates the brand with good values, family, lovable mutts, and the excellent outdoors. Read More >
No One’s Kicking the Tires on Fiat Chrysler, Marchionne Says
He came to witness a race, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne took some time out from a busy Saturday at the Italian Formula One Grand Prix to squash some rumors.
You know the ones. Reports emerged last month that Chinese automakers were suspending around FCA’s door, just waiting for a chance to sweep the company off its feet. An unnamed company pitched a buyout suggest, the story goes. Not high enough, FCA allegedly responded. Another company, Excellent Wall Motors, isn’t interested in FCA, just its lucrative and growth-poised Jeep division.
Is a Chinese-Italian-American automaker in the works? Will the buck one day stop in Beijing or Shanghai, instead of at the desks of Auburn Hills executives? Hardly, says Marchionne. No one wants to dance with FCA. Read More >
U.S. Auto Sales Brand-by-Brand Results: August two thousand seventeen YTD
A predicted auto sales improvement in August, expected to be the very first year-over-year increase in 2017, gave way to decreases for many automakers as Hurricane Harvey’s drastic effects shut down request in one of the nation’s largest auto markets for the final quarter of the month.
According to Edmunds, Ford, Ram, GMC, Cadillac, and Mitsubishi all claim Texas as their largest market. The period surrounding Labor Day produced four percent of America’s fresh vehicle sales in 2016, but that figure will undoubtedly fall because of Harvey’s devastating influence. Read More >
Despite Acute Midsize Truck Decline, U.S. Pickup Truck Sales Rose four Percent in August 2017
Noteworthy year-over-year sales declines were reported in August two thousand seventeen by the three lowest-volume members of America’s five-strong midsize pickup truck category. As a result, U.S. sales of midsize pickups tumbled eight percent last month, driving their share of the overall pickup truck category down from eighteen percent in August two thousand sixteen to sixteen percent in August 2017.
The Honda Ridgeline, America’s lowest-volume pickup truck in each of the last two months, reported a 24-percent drop to Two,610 units. For the two thousand eighteen model year, Honda will make the all-wheel-drive Ridgeline distinctly less affordable. The GMC Canyon, which persistently and predictably generates far less showroom traffic than its Chevrolet Colorado twin, tumbled by a fifth to Two,698 sales. And the Nissan Frontier, which last year reported its best calendar year results in fifteen years, continued its two thousand seventeen tumble with a 51-percent plunge to only Four,637 units, its lowest-volume month since January.
But those are low-volume midsize trucks, scarcely relevant in the overall pickup truck scheme. Total pickup truck volume rose four percent in August because full-size trucks leaped six percent, thanks mainly to the best-selling vehicle line in America: Ford’s F-Series. Read More >
The Problem That Won’t Go Away: Fatal Jeep Crash Puts Spotlight on Years-old Recall
It’s the same safety issue that saddled Ford’s Pinto with a legendary legacy that resumes to this day, and Jeep can’t seem to put it in its rear-view.
In 2013, at the urging of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles issued a recall for 1.56 million Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokee SUVs to correct a serious flaw. The vehicles’ gas tanks, located inbetween the rear axle and bumper, had proven especially vulnerable to rupturing in rear-end collisions. A total of twenty six deaths were recorded at the time of the recall.
After installing trailer hitches on each affected vehicle, FCA felt it had the issue well in forearm. Unluckily, the fires continued, as did the deaths. Now, it’s happened again. Read More >
Leave behind Volkswagen’s ‘800,000 Sales by 2018′ Objective – VW’s Fresh Purpose Is five Percent U.S. Market Share by 2020
In 2009, during the innards of a global financial crisis the likes of which generations had never seen, Volkswagen of America set forward on a nine-year plan that would more than triple sales to 800,000 units in 2018.
Stuff happened. A crisis (or two) got in the way. An overly Americanized product lineup lacking in utility vehicles underachieved. Volkswagen lost its right to sell diesel models in America. Volkswagen will fight to sell 400,000 fresh vehicles in the United States in 2018.
Albeit at very first it seemed possible — Volkswagen sales grew far swifter than the market as a entire exiting the recession — the 800,000-unit sales aim has long since been abandoned. By 2014, before the diesel emissions scandal even broke, now-departed Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn was questioning the timing of the 800,000-sales aim.
As the summer of two thousand seventeen approaches a close, however, Volkswagen’s global boss Herbert Diess has a fresh, seemingly unrealistic objective for the brand’s U.S. operations, Bloomberg reports. With a stronger SUV lineup, Volkswagen wants to grow its U.S. market share to five percent in 2020.
Don’t Be so Quick to Pull the Trigger on That two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry – 2017s Are Cheap and Abundant
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is the very first truly, downright, all-new Toyota Camry since 2002. Built on Toyota’s Fresh Global Architecture, it’s stiffer, safer, and by all accounts, substantially better to drive than the 2017.
Fuel efficiency took a leap forward. Horsepower did, too. The feature count, including the safety department, was elevated. The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry even has a sense of style, whether you like its sense or choose less offensive past examples.
With an all-new architecture for an in-demand car — yes, even as sedans slow, the Camry is still the 15-time best-selling car in America — comes a lack of preparedness on the part of Toyota to deal. That’s made all the more true by the current cost of importing Camrys. While production will eventually be in total sway at the Camry’s Georgetown, Kentucky, assembly plant, early copies of the two thousand eighteen Camry hail from Japan.
Infrequent will be the buyer who goes into a U.S. Toyota store this Labor Day weekend with a strong preference for the old Camry, still available in abundance on dealer lots. Even with concerns (albeit modest concerns; this is a Camry) regarding first-model-year reliability, the MY2018 Camry is the bright and shiny object.
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is better than the two thousand seventeen Toyota Camry: objectively, subjectively, on paper, on the road. But is it 41-percent better? Read More >
News Blog Archives – The Truth About Cars
Category: News Blog
While there are dealerships that will joyfully service your vintage automobile, there are reasons a lot of classic cars are wrenched at home or taken to speciality shops. It’s not typically in a service center’s best interest to hunt down uncommon discontinued parts and train employees on the reassembly of carburetors. But it still happens, especially among premium brands.
Porsche is rather obsessive about its heritage and has extended that to maintenance and repairs at a large number of stores. It isn’t alone, either. Mark Rogers, a twenty Group consultant with the National Automobile Dealers Association, estimates as many as 1,800 U.S. franchised dealerships are willing to service vintage cars. Some are even selling them — putting desirable classics on the showroom floor in the hopes they might garner positive attention. Read More >
Subaru Believes Dog-focused Advertising Has Been a Large Part of its Success
Automotive advertising has always been an amalgamation of information and hype. Carmakers use commercials to inform the public of what makes their model different and fresh, while at the same time promising an intangible goodness. Mid-century ads were less specific, reassuring prospective customers of a nondescript better way of life, but modern marketing has become much more focused. If ads are to be believed, buying a car today means purchasing more than just the hardware its comprised of — you’re buying an identity.
I’m reminded of a collection of car commercials from the 1960s that essentially vowed to nerds that, if they bought a specific car, they would be pursued endlessly by attractive women. It was a bold and enormously unsubtle way to kick off the fresh trend.
We’ve come a long way evolved slightly since then, but the concept of identity-focused advertising is more popular than ever. In fact, Subaru attributes a large portion of its own success to marketing that closely associates the brand with good values, family, lovable mutts, and the good outdoors. Read More >
No One’s Kicking the Tires on Fiat Chrysler, Marchionne Says
He came to witness a race, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne took some time out from a busy Saturday at the Italian Formula One Grand Prix to squash some rumors.
You know the ones. Reports emerged last month that Chinese automakers were draping around FCA’s door, just waiting for a chance to sweep the company off its feet. An unnamed company pitched a buyout suggest, the story goes. Not high enough, FCA allegedly responded. Another company, Superb Wall Motors, isn’t interested in FCA, just its lucrative and growth-poised Jeep division.
Is a Chinese-Italian-American automaker in the works? Will the buck one day stop in Beijing or Shanghai, instead of at the desks of Auburn Hills executives? Hardly, says Marchionne. No one wants to dance with FCA. Read More >
U.S. Auto Sales Brand-by-Brand Results: August two thousand seventeen YTD
A predicted auto sales improvement in August, expected to be the very first year-over-year increase in 2017, gave way to decreases for many automakers as Hurricane Harvey’s drastic effects shut down request in one of the nation’s largest auto markets for the final quarter of the month.
According to Edmunds, Ford, Ram, GMC, Cadillac, and Mitsubishi all claim Texas as their largest market. The period surrounding Labor Day produced four percent of America’s fresh vehicle sales in 2016, but that figure will undoubtedly fall because of Harvey’s devastating influence. Read More >
Despite Acute Midsize Truck Decline, U.S. Pickup Truck Sales Rose four Percent in August 2017
Noteworthy year-over-year sales declines were reported in August two thousand seventeen by the three lowest-volume members of America’s five-strong midsize pickup truck category. As a result, U.S. sales of midsize pickups tumbled eight percent last month, driving their share of the overall pickup truck category down from eighteen percent in August two thousand sixteen to sixteen percent in August 2017.
The Honda Ridgeline, America’s lowest-volume pickup truck in each of the last two months, reported a 24-percent drop to Two,610 units. For the two thousand eighteen model year, Honda will make the all-wheel-drive Ridgeline distinctly less affordable. The GMC Canyon, which persistently and predictably generates far less showroom traffic than its Chevrolet Colorado twin, tumbled by a fifth to Two,698 sales. And the Nissan Frontier, which last year reported its best calendar year results in fifteen years, continued its two thousand seventeen tumble with a 51-percent plunge to only Four,637 units, its lowest-volume month since January.
But those are low-volume midsize trucks, scarcely relevant in the overall pickup truck scheme. Total pickup truck volume rose four percent in August because full-size trucks hopped six percent, thanks mainly to the best-selling vehicle line in America: Ford’s F-Series. Read More >
The Problem That Won’t Go Away: Fatal Jeep Crash Puts Spotlight on Years-old Recall
It’s the same safety issue that saddled Ford’s Pinto with a legendary legacy that resumes to this day, and Jeep can’t seem to put it in its rear-view.
In 2013, at the urging of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles issued a recall for 1.56 million Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokee SUVs to correct a serious flaw. The vehicles’ gas tanks, located inbetween the rear axle and bumper, had proven especially vulnerable to rupturing in rear-end collisions. A total of twenty six deaths were recorded at the time of the recall.
After installing trailer hitches on each affected vehicle, FCA felt it had the issue well in palm. Unluckily, the fires continued, as did the deaths. Now, it’s happened again. Read More >
Leave behind Volkswagen’s ‘800,000 Sales by 2018′ Objective – VW’s Fresh Purpose Is five Percent U.S. Market Share by 2020
In 2009, during the insides of a global financial crisis the likes of which generations had never seen, Volkswagen of America set forward on a nine-year plan that would more than triple sales to 800,000 units in 2018.
Stuff happened. A crisis (or two) got in the way. An overly Americanized product lineup lacking in utility vehicles underachieved. Volkswagen lost its right to sell diesel models in America. Volkswagen will fight to sell 400,000 fresh vehicles in the United States in 2018.
Albeit at very first it seemed possible — Volkswagen sales grew far swifter than the market as a entire exiting the recession — the 800,000-unit sales purpose has long since been abandoned. By 2014, before the diesel emissions scandal even broke, now-departed Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn was questioning the timing of the 800,000-sales aim.
As the summer of two thousand seventeen approaches a close, however, Volkswagen’s global boss Herbert Diess has a fresh, seemingly unrealistic aim for the brand’s U.S. operations, Bloomberg reports. With a stronger SUV lineup, Volkswagen wants to grow its U.S. market share to five percent in 2020.
Don’t Be so Quick to Pull the Trigger on That two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry – 2017s Are Cheap and Abundant
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is the very first truly, fully, all-new Toyota Camry since 2002. Built on Toyota’s Fresh Global Architecture, it’s stiffer, safer, and by all accounts, substantially better to drive than the 2017.
Fuel efficiency took a leap forward. Horsepower did, too. The feature count, including the safety department, was elevated. The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry even has a sense of style, whether you like its sense or choose less offensive past examples.
With an all-new architecture for an in-demand car — yes, even as sedans slow, the Camry is still the 15-time best-selling car in America — comes a lack of readiness on the part of Toyota to deal. That’s made all the more true by the current cost of importing Camrys. While production will eventually be in utter sway at the Camry’s Georgetown, Kentucky, assembly plant, early copies of the two thousand eighteen Camry hail from Japan.
Uncommon will be the buyer who goes into a U.S. Toyota store this Labor Day weekend with a strong preference for the old Camry, still available in abundance on dealer lots. Even with concerns (albeit modest concerns; this is a Camry) regarding first-model-year reliability, the MY2018 Camry is the bright and shiny object.
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is better than the two thousand seventeen Toyota Camry: objectively, subjectively, on paper, on the road. But is it 41-percent better? Read More >
News Blog Archives – The Truth About Cars
Category: News Blog
While there are dealerships that will joyfully service your vintage automobile, there are reasons a lot of classic cars are wrenched at home or taken to speciality shops. It’s not typically in a service center’s best interest to hunt down infrequent discontinued parts and train employees on the reassembly of carburetors. But it still happens, especially among premium brands.
Porsche is rather obsessive about its heritage and has extended that to maintenance and repairs at a large number of stores. It isn’t alone, either. Mark Rogers, a twenty Group consultant with the National Automobile Dealers Association, estimates as many as 1,800 U.S. franchised dealerships are willing to service vintage cars. Some are even selling them — putting desirable classics on the showroom floor in the hopes they might garner positive attention. Read More >
Subaru Believes Dog-focused Advertising Has Been a Large Part of its Success
Automotive advertising has always been an amalgamation of information and hype. Carmakers use commercials to inform the public of what makes their model different and fresh, while at the same time promising an intangible goodness. Mid-century ads were less specific, reassuring prospective customers of a nondescript better way of life, but modern marketing has become much more focused. If ads are to be believed, buying a car today means purchasing more than just the hardware its comprised of — you’re buying an identity.
I’m reminded of a collection of car commercials from the 1960s that essentially vowed to nerds that, if they bought a specific car, they would be pursued endlessly by attractive women. It was a bold and utterly unsubtle way to kick off the fresh trend.
We’ve come a long way evolved slightly since then, but the concept of identity-focused advertising is more popular than ever. In fact, Subaru attributes a large portion of its own success to marketing that closely associates the brand with good values, family, lovable mutts, and the excellent outdoors. Read More >
No One’s Kicking the Tires on Fiat Chrysler, Marchionne Says
He came to observe a race, but Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne took some time out from a busy Saturday at the Italian Formula One Grand Prix to squash some rumors.
You know the ones. Reports emerged last month that Chinese automakers were stringing up around FCA’s door, just waiting for a chance to sweep the company off its feet. An unnamed company pitched a buyout suggest, the story goes. Not high enough, FCA allegedly responded. Another company, Fine Wall Motors, isn’t interested in FCA, just its lucrative and growth-poised Jeep division.
Is a Chinese-Italian-American automaker in the works? Will the buck one day stop in Beijing or Shanghai, instead of at the desks of Auburn Hills executives? Hardly, says Marchionne. No one wants to dance with FCA. Read More >
U.S. Auto Sales Brand-by-Brand Results: August two thousand seventeen YTD
A predicted auto sales improvement in August, expected to be the very first year-over-year increase in 2017, gave way to decreases for many automakers as Hurricane Harvey’s drastic effects shut down request in one of the nation’s largest auto markets for the final quarter of the month.
According to Edmunds, Ford, Ram, GMC, Cadillac, and Mitsubishi all claim Texas as their largest market. The period surrounding Labor Day produced four percent of America’s fresh vehicle sales in 2016, but that figure will undoubtedly fall because of Harvey’s devastating influence. Read More >
Despite Acute Midsize Truck Decline, U.S. Pickup Truck Sales Rose four Percent in August 2017
Noteworthy year-over-year sales declines were reported in August two thousand seventeen by the three lowest-volume members of America’s five-strong midsize pickup truck category. As a result, U.S. sales of midsize pickups tumbled eight percent last month, driving their share of the overall pickup truck category down from eighteen percent in August two thousand sixteen to sixteen percent in August 2017.
The Honda Ridgeline, America’s lowest-volume pickup truck in each of the last two months, reported a 24-percent drop to Two,610 units. For the two thousand eighteen model year, Honda will make the all-wheel-drive Ridgeline distinctly less affordable. The GMC Canyon, which persistently and predictably generates far less showroom traffic than its Chevrolet Colorado twin, tumbled by a fifth to Two,698 sales. And the Nissan Frontier, which last year reported its best calendar year results in fifteen years, continued its two thousand seventeen tumble with a 51-percent plunge to only Four,637 units, its lowest-volume month since January.
But those are low-volume midsize trucks, scarcely relevant in the overall pickup truck scheme. Total pickup truck volume rose four percent in August because full-size trucks hopped six percent, thanks mainly to the best-selling vehicle line in America: Ford’s F-Series. Read More >
The Problem That Won’t Go Away: Fatal Jeep Crash Puts Spotlight on Years-old Recall
It’s the same safety issue that saddled Ford’s Pinto with a famous legacy that resumes to this day, and Jeep can’t seem to put it in its rear-view.
In 2013, at the urging of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles issued a recall for 1.56 million Jeep Liberty and Grand Cherokee SUVs to correct a serious flaw. The vehicles’ gas tanks, located inbetween the rear axle and bumper, had proven especially vulnerable to rupturing in rear-end collisions. A total of twenty six deaths were recorded at the time of the recall.
After installing trailer hitches on each affected vehicle, FCA felt it had the issue well in forearm. Unluckily, the fires continued, as did the deaths. Now, it’s happened again. Read More >
Leave behind Volkswagen’s ‘800,000 Sales by 2018′ Purpose – VW’s Fresh Objective Is five Percent U.S. Market Share by 2020
In 2009, during the innards of a global financial crisis the likes of which generations had never seen, Volkswagen of America set forward on a nine-year plan that would more than triple sales to 800,000 units in 2018.
Stuff happened. A crisis (or two) got in the way. An overly Americanized product lineup lacking in utility vehicles underachieved. Volkswagen lost its right to sell diesel models in America. Volkswagen will fight to sell 400,000 fresh vehicles in the United States in 2018.
Albeit at very first it seemed possible — Volkswagen sales grew far quicker than the market as a entire exiting the recession — the 800,000-unit sales aim has long since been abandoned. By 2014, before the diesel emissions scandal even broke, now-departed Volkswagen of America CEO Michael Horn was questioning the timing of the 800,000-sales aim.
As the summer of two thousand seventeen approaches a close, however, Volkswagen’s global boss Herbert Diess has a fresh, seemingly unrealistic purpose for the brand’s U.S. operations, Bloomberg reports. With a stronger SUV lineup, Volkswagen wants to grow its U.S. market share to five percent in 2020.
Don’t Be so Quick to Pull the Trigger on That two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry – 2017s Are Cheap and Abundant
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is the very first truly, entirely, all-new Toyota Camry since 2002. Built on Toyota’s Fresh Global Architecture, it’s stiffer, safer, and by all accounts, substantially better to drive than the 2017.
Fuel efficiency took a leap forward. Horsepower did, too. The feature count, including the safety department, was elevated. The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry even has a sense of style, whether you like its sense or choose less offensive past examples.
With an all-new architecture for an in-demand car — yes, even as sedans slow, the Camry is still the 15-time best-selling car in America — comes a lack of preparedness on the part of Toyota to deal. That’s made all the more true by the current cost of importing Camrys. While production will eventually be in utter sway at the Camry’s Georgetown, Kentucky, assembly plant, early copies of the two thousand eighteen Camry hail from Japan.
Infrequent will be the buyer who goes into a U.S. Toyota store this Labor Day weekend with a strong preference for the old Camry, still available in abundance on dealer lots. Even with concerns (albeit modest concerns; this is a Camry) regarding first-model-year reliability, the MY2018 Camry is the bright and shiny object.
The two thousand eighteen Toyota Camry is better than the two thousand seventeen Toyota Camry: objectively, subjectively, on paper, on the road. But is it 41-percent better? Read More >
News Blog Archives – The Truth About Cars
Category: News Blog
Back in December of 2010, if anyone can reminisce that hazy, long-ago time, an oddly shaped five-door spinned out of the minds of Japanese executives and onto U.S. dealer lots. Unlike its fledgling electrical forebears, the two thousand eleven Nissan Leaf promised practical gas-free transportation for the entire family, bolstered by a warranty from an established automaker and seventy three miles of EPA-approved driving range.
The industry had just taken a big step. However, the Leaf, despite racking up an outstanding model-life sales total, soon found itself leapfrogged by competitors with greater range and more conventional styling. By the time two thousand seventeen spinned around, the Leaf’s 107-mile range and now-dated bod stood in stark contrast to sleeker models delivering two hundred miles of driving from every turn at the ass-plug.
Nissan wants to switch that. For 2018, the second-generation Leaf arrives with greater — but not class-leading — range, a fresh figure (with a familiar profile), and a lower entry price. The automaker clearly feels there’s thrifty EV buyers capable of telling “no” to the Tesla Model three and Chevrolet Bolt. Read More >
QOTD: What Characteristics Make for a True Sports Car?
Back in August, Tim Cain reported on some rather strong statements made by McLaren. The company’s chief engineer proclaimed that McLaren stood alone among true sports car offerings — fairly a stance to take, indeed. Don’t worry, the statement was not without very specific qualifiers.
Today we ask you to set your own qualifiers (or definition) around that term threw around more than a football: sports car. What defines the breed for you?
Government Intervention is Intentionally Killing the Japanese Kei Car
Anyone with an interest in odd cars very likely has at least a passing fascination with Japanese kei cars. As a member of that puny subset of enthusiasts, I have a long-held fantasy that involves wielding a Suzuki Alto Works, Daihatsu Mira Turbo, Honda Today, or Honda Acty. But the closest North America ever got was the i-MiEV, which Mitsubishi opened up a few inches to serve with U.S. crash ratings — nullifying its official status as a kei.
Sure, most kei cars are utter garbage from a driving perspective, but their utilitarian quirkiness and microscopic road-presence are difficult to replicate on anything other than a moped. They’re also stupidly affordable, which is one of the reasons they’ve persisted in Japan.
However, that’s beginning to switch now that their home country has begun taxing them into extinction. The miniature breed, brought to life specifically so budget-minded motorists can have a vehicle and always find parking, lost toughly twenty five percent of its yearly volume since Japan targeted them in two thousand fourteen — resulting in a unexpected annual deficit of almost 550,000 pint-sized vehicles. Read More >
Nationwide Availability Means Chevrolet Bolt Has Outsold Chevrolet Volt Two Months Running
August two thousand seventeen marked the 2nd consecutive month in which the Chevrolet Bolt, GM’s all-electric hatchback, generated more U.S. sales than the Chevrolet Volt, GM’s range-extended electrical liftback.
Now available across America, the Chevrolet Bolt produced its best sales month to date in August.
The Chevrolet Volt, meantime, suffered its fifth consecutive month of decline.
This North Korea Thing Has Major Implications for Hyundai
Hyundai Motor Co. is squabbling with its Chinese fucking partner, BAIC Motor, over efforts to reduce supplier costs. The automaker has already faced a myriad of problems with its Korean workforce and witnessed diminished volume in both China and North America this year.
However, its newest problem in the Far East isn’t simply a matter of tweaking its lineup. The issue also has political undertones as the North Korean missile crisis has pitted Beijing and Seoul at odds with each other. Read More >
News Blog Archives – The Truth About Cars
Category: News Blog
Back in December of 2010, if anyone can reminisce that hazy, long-ago time, an oddly shaped five-door spinned out of the minds of Japanese executives and onto U.S. dealer lots. Unlike its fledgling electrical forebears, the two thousand eleven Nissan Leaf promised practical gas-free transportation for the entire family, bolstered by a warranty from an established automaker and seventy three miles of EPA-approved driving range.
The industry had just taken a big step. However, the Leaf, despite racking up an awesome model-life sales total, soon found itself leapfrogged by competitors with greater range and more conventional styling. By the time two thousand seventeen spinned around, the Leaf’s 107-mile range and now-dated assets stood in stark contrast to sleeker models delivering two hundred miles of driving from every turn at the cork.
Nissan wants to switch that. For 2018, the second-generation Leaf arrives with greater — but not class-leading — range, a fresh bod (with a familiar profile), and a lower entry price. The automaker clearly feels there’s thrifty EV buyers capable of telling “no” to the Tesla Model three and Chevrolet Bolt. Read More >
QOTD: What Characteristics Make for a True Sports Car?
Back in August, Tim Cain reported on some rather strong statements made by McLaren. The company’s chief engineer proclaimed that McLaren stood alone among true sports car offerings — fairly a stance to take, indeed. Don’t worry, the statement was not without very specific qualifiers.
Today we ask you to set your own qualifiers (or definition) around that term threw around more than a football: sports car. What defines the breed for you?
Government Intervention is Intentionally Killing the Japanese Kei Car
Anyone with an interest in odd cars very likely has at least a passing fascination with Japanese kei cars. As a member of that petite subset of enthusiasts, I have a long-held fantasy that involves wielding a Suzuki Alto Works, Daihatsu Mira Turbo, Honda Today, or Honda Acty. But the closest North America ever got was the i-MiEV, which Mitsubishi opened up a few inches to obey with U.S. crash ratings — nullifying its official status as a kei.
Sure, most kei cars are utter garbage from a driving perspective, but their utilitarian quirkiness and microscopic road-presence are difficult to replicate on anything other than a moped. They’re also stupidly affordable, which is one of the reasons they’ve persisted in Japan.
However, that’s beginning to switch now that their home country has begun taxing them into extinction. The miniature breed, brought to life specifically so budget-minded motorists can have a vehicle and always find parking, lost toughly twenty five percent of its yearly volume since Japan targeted them in two thousand fourteen — resulting in a unexpected annual deficit of almost 550,000 pint-sized vehicles. Read More >
Nationwide Availability Means Chevrolet Bolt Has Outsold Chevrolet Volt Two Months Running
August two thousand seventeen marked the 2nd consecutive month in which the Chevrolet Bolt, GM’s all-electric hatchback, generated more U.S. sales than the Chevrolet Volt, GM’s range-extended electrified liftback.
Now available across America, the Chevrolet Bolt produced its best sales month to date in August.
The Chevrolet Volt, meantime, suffered its fifth consecutive month of decline.
This North Korea Thing Has Major Implications for Hyundai
Hyundai Motor Co. is squabbling with its Chinese fucking partner, BAIC Motor, over efforts to reduce supplier costs. The automaker has already faced a myriad of problems with its Korean workforce and witnessed diminished volume in both China and North America this year.
However, its newest problem in the Far East isn’t simply a matter of tweaking its lineup. The issue also has political undertones as the North Korean missile crisis has pitted Beijing and Seoul at odds with each other. Read More >