AUTOS WORLD NEWS
* Boom Times for the Industry?
USA - The Car Connection, by Paul A. Eisenstein -6 Feb 2006: Last year was the third-best ever for the U.S. auto industry, but just barely. Sales were heavily driven by lavish incentives, and tumbled late in the year when the programs wrapped up... Volumes showed some improvement in January, and Toyota Motor Sales' Jim Press believes the figures will reach 17.2 million for all of 2006, which would be the industry's second-best year... Press pointed to a variety of factors for his optimism, including the coming of age of Millennial drivers, booming immigration, and the general affluence of American motorists. It also helps to have Baby Boomers living longer than ever and planning to keep driving as long as possible... Press did admit there's a potentially dark side to automotive growth: rising demand for decreasing reserves of oil, for one thing, resulting in global warming and increased traffic congestion. Products like the high-mileage Prius hybrid are an example, said Press, of how cars can "become part of the solution, not the pollution"...
* Asian companies snag top spots in ‘green car’ survey
Los Angeles,CAL,USA -Los Angeles Times -Feb 15, 2006: Cars from Honda Motor Co., Toyota Motor Corp., Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. occupy 10 of the top dozen spots in the annual "green car" survey... But only three of the most environmentally friendly vehicles are gas-electric hybrids because advances in fuel economy and emissions controls have boosted several conventional cars onto the list compiled by the Washington-based American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy... General Motors Corp., the only American carmaker on the top 12 list this year, placed three models, all with conventional engines...
* GM Will Invest $500 Million in Michigan
USA -Wall Street Journal /The Car Connection -14 Feb 2006: GM is expected to confirm the company's investment of half a billion dollars in the state of Michigan... GM will spend $500 million to upgrade five manufacturing facilities in the state - two assembly plants, one stamping plant, and two powertrain facilities. Among the facilities is GM's Orion plant... The investments will be a spot of good news for the state, which has been inundated with news from Ford and GM regarding job cuts and from suppliers, by bankruptcies...
* Reports of DCX Collapse Overdone
USA - The Car Connection, by Joe Szczesny -6 Feb 2006: Tom LaSorda, the Chrysler Group chief executive officer, said despite reports to the contrary, it was premature to suggest that Chrysler's comeback is over... While the company has been reducing production of some vehicles such as the Dodge Durango to reduce inventories, it is using incentives to boost sales of other vehicles. But it also is preparing to launch ten new vehicles this year, which promise to create new opportunities for sales... LaSorda, however, also stressed the company is taking a close look at costs and has already launched a study of GM's plan to cap the pension benefits and post-retirement healthcare benefits of workers, to see if similar changes make sense for the Chrysler Group...
* LaSorda Hits Cost of Litigation
USA - The Car Connection, by Joe Szczesny -6 Feb 2006: Lawsuits are adding $500 to the cost of every car and truck sold in the United States, said one of DaimlerChrysler AG's top executives... Thomas LaSorda, the chief executive officer of DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group, said during a visit to the Chicago Auto Show that the legal system levies what amounts to a tort tax, which results in higher consumer prices, higher insurance rates, higher healthcare costs, and less innovation by American-based companies... The U.S. now spends about 2.23 percent of its GDP on legal fees and other costs associated with litigation while countries such as France, Japan, and Canada spend less than one percent of the gross domestic product on litigation... "In my business, we have a word for this kind of non-value added cost: waste," LaSorda said...
* Volkswagen to cut up to 20,000 workers at VW brand
FRANKFURT,Germany -Reuters/Automotive News -Feb 10, 2006: Volkswagen expects to cut up to 20,000 employees in the next three years at its core VW brand in a sweeping restructuring program that could also see production capacity cut, the company said on Friday... It said it expects higher operating profit before special items this year, along with slightly higher revenue...
* Volkswagen aims for 30 percent rise in productivity
FRANKFURT,Germany -Reuters/Automotive News -Feb 13, 2006: Volkswagen's VW Brand Group aims to improve productivity by as much as 30 percent in the next three years, its main west German VW plants having made a loss in the order of hundreds of millions of euros...
* Audi sees double-digit China growth after big January
FRANKFURT,Germany -Reuters/Automotive News -Feb 14, 2006: German carmaker Audi has targeted growth of at least 10 percent in China this year after sales leapt 245 percent in January to 6,384 units, the premium division of Volkswagen said on Tuesday...
* Chrysler Going Its Own Way to Fuel Gains
USA - The Car Connection, by Paul A. Eisenstein -6 Feb 2006: Ethanol fuel clearly has a place in the U.S. market... "You need to be there with a product," said Chrysler Group marketing czar Joe Eberhardt. But unlike its cross-town rivals, Ford and GM, the DaimlerChrysler unit does not intend to make a big push for E85... Chrysler will focus more of its attention on another type of fuel that could improve mileage and reduce dependence on import oil, said Eberhardt: "We'll take a leadership role in diesels"... Eberhardt declined to say what other models might be in the offing, but he said diesel will definitely have more of a role at Chrysler... Part of the problem right now is that tough new emissions standards require the most advanced diesel control systems. But that technology won't work in the U.S. until low-sulfur fuel becomes available, about a year from now... Until then, diesels will largely be locked out of markets such as California and New York. But, added Eberhardt, "Eventually, I would see it (the diesel) having the same penetration as hybrids"...
* Survey: Consumers do not check their personal credit score
USA -PRNewswire -10 Feb 2006: A new survey reveals that more than 7 out of 10 consumers do not check their personal credit score (76 percent) or compare financing options from dealers (71 percent) and credit unions / banks (72 percent) before heading to the showroom. This is despite the fact that almost 6 out of 10 (57 percent) of those polled say they do conduct research on particular car or truck models before going to the dealer...
* Greg Smith, Ford's vice chairman, to retire
USA -AN/ANE Daily News -10 Feb 2006: Greg Smith, Ford Motor Co.'s vice chairman, is retiring on March 1, the automaker said Friday... Smith, 54, will not be replaced, a Ford spokeswoman said...
* Mazda raises forecasts after rosy third quarter
TOKYO,Japan -Reuters -10 Feb 2006: Mazda Motor Corp. raised its annual earnings forecasts on Friday for the second time in three months after quarterly results zoomed past expectations, sending its shares up 9 percent to levels not seen since 1999...
* Hyundai Motor to supply $2 billion auto kits to Russia
SEOUL,S.Korea -Reuters Automotive News / Feb 10, 2006: Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's top automaker, said on Friday it had reached a $2 billion deal to supply a Russian firm with vehicle kits, part of a bid to more than quadruple its market share in commercial vehicles... Hyundai said it would deliver parts, including knock-down kit forms, for 77,000 commercial vehicles such as buses, to Rostovskiy Zavod Gruzovih Avtomobiley by 2010. The Russian company would set up production facilities to assemble the kits...
* U.S. panel to open patent probe on Toyota hybrids
TOKYO,Japan -Reuters/Automotive News -Feb 10, 2006: -- A U.S. trade body is to investigate a complaint that Toyota Motor Corp.'s popular Prius and Highlander hybrid models infringed a patent, according to the body's website... The U.S. International Trade Commission will look at a claim that the patent is owned by Florida-based Solomon Technologies Inc., it said... Solomon Technologies filed a complaint with the panel last month saying the hybrid transmission in the two popular vehicles infringed its patent related to motor and transmission systems...
* Toyota says to buy back own shares worth $686 million
TOKYO,Japan -Reuters -14 Feb 2006: Toyota Motor Corp. said on Tuesday it would buy back $685.5 million (80.73 billion yen) worth of its own shares on Wednesday morning before the market opens...
* Western European car sales up 2.9 percent in January
FRANKFURT,Germany -Reuters -13 Feb 2006: Western European new car registrations rose 2.9 percent to 1.206 million vehicles in January, the German automotive industry association VDA said on Monday, citing preliminary data...
* Who's No. 1? Ford, Chevy Debate Sales Numbers
Cincinnati, Ohio,USA -eCommerce Times/The Cincinnati Post, by Dee-Ann Durbin -Feb 13, 2006: Registration numbers may not match sales because a vehicle could be sold in one year and registered to an owner the next, GM spokesman Jeff Kuhlman said. He said sales figures -- not registrations -- give a more accurate picture. "I know 100 percent that our numbers are accurate," Kuhlman said... Ford Motor told dealers Sunday that new data shows the Ford brand outsold the Chevrolet brand in 2005, contradicting General Motors' claim that Chevy came out on top... Ford said it will ask GM to stop referring to Chevrolet as the nation's No. 1 brand in its ads, but GM said it's standing by its numbers...
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