Category Archives: people

World Record Claimed for Pebble Beach Auto Auction

The official auctioneer of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance sold more than $113.7 million at the Pebble Beach Auctions on August 18 and 19. Twenty-four collector cars sold in excess of $1 million each, led by the von Krieger Special Roadster, a 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540 K, which sold for $11,770,000 on Sunday night, a claimed double world record for a Mercedes-Benz and a pre-war car at auction. Continue reading

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Auto Theft UK Style – $473 Million Unrecovered in 2011 Alone

The latest auto theft numbers in Great Britain are just as grim as in the U.S. In 2011, 65,000 vehicles were taken from their owners in the UK and never recovered for losses of £300 million or $473 million. More than two thirds (71%) of stolen cars disappear, never to be seen again. As they are stripped for either parts or shipped out of the country, according to swiftcover.com. Not surprisingly, more expensive stolen cars are more likely to disappear without a trace. Continue reading

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Top Ten Stolen Vehicles for 2011 Revealed by NCIB

The National Insurance Crime Bureau or NICB today released its list of the 10 stolen vehicles in the United States. The top spots were evenly split in 2011 with five occupied by offshore brands and five by U.S. automakers. The most popular stolen vehicles among the Detroit Three bands were Ford, Dodge and Chevrolet pickup trucks each holding one spot with Dodge Caravan and Ford Explorer rounding out the domestic models. Continue reading

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School Driving Safety – Slow Down and Get off the *#$+ Cell Phone

As summer wanes and school bells ring 55 million children in the United States will return to the classroom. With 13% those school children typically walking or biking to school, AAA warns drivers to drive carefully – as it has since 1946 – and to be especially vigilant for pedestrians during before- and after-school hours. Continue reading

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China Sales Satisfaction Down. Audi, Nissan, Hyundai Lead

There is a decline in customer satisfaction in China as experienced salespeople are in short supply as auto dealerships continue to expand. Coupled with the slow down in Chinese vehicle sales this year, there is a “notable deterioration” in overall sales satisfaction among new-vehicle owners in China. Continue reading

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GM CEO Akerson to Auction His 1958 Corvette for Detroit Charity

General Motors Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson plans to auction off his Corvette with proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity Detroit and the rebuilding of the Morningside Commons neighborhood. Continue reading

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Works of Artist Hanns Lohrer Coming to Porsche Museum

Starting in early September the Porsche Museum will display the works the Stuttgart painter and commercial graphic designer Hanns Lohrer (1912-1995) with an exhibit that goes beyond his automotive oeuvre. During the 1950s and ’60s, Lohrer played a vital role in the visual appearance of the Porsche brand in promotional pieces. Lohrer’s works helped create a positive image for what was then an upstart sports car manufacturer. Continue reading

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Yazaki Exec Guilty of Price Fixing Sentenced to 14 Months

An executive of Tokyo-based Yazaki Corporation pled guilty for his role in a conspiracy to fix prices of instrument panel clusters today in a U.S. District court in Detroit. Toshio Sudo from Japan is the 11th executive to be charged in the government’s ongoing investigation into price fixing and bid rigging in the auto parts industry. The sweeping investigation, which is ongoing, has implicated some of the auto industry’s largest suppliers, most of them Japanese. Yazaki manufactures and sells a variety of automotive parts, and is a major supplier to Japanese automakers, among other firms. Continue reading

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U.S. Treasury Appoints Well-Known Ex Auto Finance Execs Gerald Greenwald and Henry Miller to Ally Board of Directors

Ally Financial said today that Gerald Greenwald and Henry S. Miller have been elected to its board of directors joining nine others. The U.S. Treasury directed appointments – it holds a majority interest in Ally- of the two well-known former auto executives, as well as the re-election of the current members of the board, occurred earlier at a meeting of Ally’s stockholders. Ally reported a net loss of $898 million for the second quarter of 2012, because of the bankruptcy of its home mortgage subsidiary, ResCap. Continue reading

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Digital Politics – Obama Ahead of Romney in Web, Social Media

The Obama campaign is using digital tools to talk directly with voters at almost four times the rate of the Romney campaign, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center. The tools, now also in widespread use at automakers, bypass the filters and biases of traditional media coverage. However, the latest electronic communications techniques are also largely a one-way street as campaigns (and automakers) talk at but rarely share or forward responses, long a complaint of traditional media critics. Continue reading

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Fisker Appoints New CEO – Tony Posawatz from GM’s Volt Program

Fisker Automotive today named Tony Posawatz, the former head of the Volt program at General Motors as its new Chief Executive Officer, its third CEO this year. The current CEO Tom LaSorda will stay with the company in an “advisory” role. LaSorda was only appointed CEO in February 2012 after joining Fisker two months previously. Continue reading

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Treasury To Sell More AIG Stock. Taxpayers Still Owed $24 Billion and Hold 53% from Controversial Bailout of Reckless Company

Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that it expects to receive an additional $750 million from its public offering of American International Group (AIG) common stock. The Wall Street underwriters have exercised their so-called over-allotment option to purchase another 24.6 million additional shares of AIG common stock at the public offering price of $30.50 per share. Continue reading

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Pilot School Owners Go to Prison Over Swiss Bank Accounts

The criminal actions by the Roberts were made possible by UBS, which in February 2009 entered into a so-called deferred prosecution agreement whereby the bank admitted to helping U.S. taxpayers hide accounts from the IRS. As part of the agreement, UBS provided the U.S. government with the identities of, and account information for, certain U.S. customers of UBS’s cross-border business, including the Roberts. Continue reading

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GM Restructures Global Product Development Again

In the seemingly endless series of corporate moves that are always claimed to improve competitiveness, General Motors is restructuring its vehicle line engineering groups to consolidate current development executive roles and reduce new product birthing times. It appears to be the first major action by Mary Barra, a human resources executive who took over product development in January 2011. Continue reading

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TRW Guilty of Price Fixing Seatbelts, Airbags, Steering Wheels

TRW Deutschland pled guilty to price fixing seatbelts, airbags and steering wheels sold to two German automobile manufacturers, and installed in cars sold in the United States yesterday. This is the second case filed over occupant safety systems sold to auto manufacturers as part of the department’s ongoing antitrust auto parts investigation. Continue reading

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