Category Archives: results

Ford Motor U.S. Sales Drop 5% in April. Car Sales off 11%

Posted on 1 May 2012 by Ken Zino

Ford Motor U.S. sales decreased 5% in April to 180,350 vehicles, with car sales dropping 11% at 64,790. Fleet sales were 37% of the mix. Overall, Ford Motor Sales were buoyed by trucks and sport utilities, but Ford is now facing a strong challenge from Toyota Motor Sales, which is expected to be up almost 12% in April when Toyota reports later today. Toyota is closing in on Ford’s Number Two U.S. sales ranking. Continue reading →

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TBC Corporation Acquires Midas in Successful Tender Offer

Posted on 30 April 2012 by Ken Zino

TBC Corporation today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Midas, Inc. through one of its wholly owned subsidiaries, Gearshift Merger Corporation, with Midas being the surviving corporation. The short form merger was the final step of the acquisition process and follows TBC’s payment for all of the shares validly tendered. Continue reading →

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Honda Q4 Profit up 61%, but Fiscal Year Down

Posted on 30 April 2012 by Ken Zino

Now that production has resumed, and the all important North American and Asian markets are recovering, Honda predicted record global vehicle sales of 4.3 million vehicles – up from 3.1 million – for this fiscal year and a profit of ¥ 470 billion. Continue reading →

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Ford Motor Q1 Profit $2.3 Billion, Down $500 Million

Posted on 27 April 2012 by Ken Zino

With successful businesses in North America ($ 2.1 billion profit) and Ford Credit ($452 million profit), Ford has now been profitable on a pre-tax operating basis for 11 consecutive quarters. The North American operating margin was 11.5% compared to overall results of a 6.4% margin. Continue reading →

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Ford Moves to Decrease Its $15 Billion in Unfunded Pensions

Posted on 27 April 2012 by Ken Zino

Ford took another step today to solve its huge problem with unfunded global pension plans, by announcing that it will offer to about 90,000 eligible U.S. salaried retirees and U.S. salaried former employees the option to receive a voluntary lump-sum … Continue reading →

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Chrysler Provides Most of Q1 Fiat Group Profits of €866m

Posted on 26 April 2012 by Ken Zino

The weak consolidated Fiat-Chrysler Group return of 4.2% on sales of more than €20 billion stood in stark contrast to Chrysler Group’s return of 7% on €872 million in revenues during the quarter reported earlier in the day. Simply put, courtesy of U.S. and Canadian taxpayers, a reorganized Chrysler, now 58.5% owned by Fiat, is providing the profits for the newly created Fiat-Chrysler Group. Continue reading →

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Chrysler Group Q1 Profit $740 million on 33% Sales Increase

Posted on 26 April 2012 by Ken Zino

“I have really no bad news to tell you,” said Sergio Marchionne, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chrysler Group. “We continue to focus on new product launches, and 2012 is the weakest year for new products. The big one is 2013.” Continue reading →

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Renault Group Q1 Sales, Revenues Drop from Eurozone Crisis

Posted on 25 April 2012 by Ken Zino

The problem was almost entirely in the home French market which shrunk by 19.4%. As a result, Renault Group’s European market share decreased to 9.1%. The EU is heading for its fifth straight year of auto sales declines as politicians and bankers continue to pursue policies that increase unemployment and decrease economic activity. The mix of sales outside Europe reached 46%, up 8 points compared to the first quarter 2011. Continue reading →

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Peugeot Annual Meeting Kills Dividend. Q1 Revenues Drop

Posted on 25 April 2012 by Ken Zino

The Q1 downturn comes as Peugeot is in the process of establishing a global alliance with General Motors, which is also losing money in Europe for more than a decade – $700 million in 2011 alone. Continue reading →

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AutoNation, Penske Report Strong Q1 Earnings from Dealers

Posted on 25 April 2012 by Ken Zino

The two largest auto dealer groups operating in the United States reported large increases in Q1 earnings and profits today. It was the latest sign that a slow recovery is well underway in the auto industry. However, the new luxury vehicle business, where broken out, had relatively weak results compared to other segments. Luxury cars, of course, were once thought to be recession proof and discount proof, but that is no longer the case as discounts are increasing along with competition from non-luxury autos with high levels of equipment. Continue reading →

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Honda Global Production Declines for 2012 Fiscal Year

Posted on 25 April 2012 by Ken Zino

Honda Motor Company today announced that global automobile production declined to 12% to 3.1 million vehicles for the Japanese fiscal year ended March 31, 2012. The setback induced by natural disasters in Japan and Thailand stopped the recovery Honda experienced in 2011, after a decline in 2010. Continue reading →

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Delphi Reports Q1 Profits are Up 9% to $578 Million

Posted on 24 April 2012 by Ken Zino

In the first quarter of 2012, Delphi’s corporate credit ratings were raised to ‘BB+’ from ‘BB’ by Standard and Poor’s and to Ba1 from Ba2 by Moody’s Investor Services, both junk ratings with a stable outlook. Delphi’s stated goal is to achieve an investment grade credit rating. Continue reading →

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Fitch says Ford Motor Company Debt is No Longer Junk

Posted on 24 April 2012 by Ken Zino

Fitch Ratings has upgraded the Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) for Ford Motor Company (Ford) and its Ford Motor Credit Company LLC (Ford Credit) captive finance subsidiary to BBB- from BB+. This means that Ford Motor and Ford Credit debt is investment grade for the first time since 2005 when Ford Motor was losing billions of dollars. Continue reading →

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SAE 2012 World Congress Opens in Detroit Tomorrow

Posted on 23 April 2012 by Ken Zino

Engineers who are developing the next generation of vehicle technologies, will make sober assessments of where they actually are in increasing fuel economy, decreasing emissions and combating global warming, as opposed to the sometimes farcical claims in gushing press releases from politicians and automaker p.r. departments. Continue reading →

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Guangqi Honda to Build a Third Automobile Production Line

Posted on 23 April 2012 by Ken Zino

During 2011 Honda sold 618,000 cars in China last year, dwarfed by market leader General Motor’s 2.55 million and Volkswagen Group’s 2.26 million. Among the Japanese Big Three, Nissan in China is twice as big as Honda and Toyota is 40% larger in terms of vehicle sales. Continue reading →

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