Category Archives: results

Nissan and Daimler to Build Engines in Tennessee

For years Mercedes-Benz sold gas guzzlers in the U.S., paying millions in fines – passed on to customers – for its flouting of CAFE regulations. Much higher fines under the latest CAFE standards and growing pro-environmental standards globally makes this a risky strategy going forward. Continue reading

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December U.S. Unemployment at 8.5% Remains at Crisis Levels

The 200,000 employment increase is roughly half of what is needed each month to return the almost 20 million under-employed and unemployed back to full-time work as taxpayers in the still ailing U.S. economy. At this rate it will take a decade or more to return to pre-Great Recession levels. Since 80% of workers in the U.S. commute to work in a vehicle, the unemployment crisis hurts the auto industry’s prospects and its own fragile, mostly jobless, recovery that is underway. Continue reading

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Ford Motor December Sales Up 10% Tracking Market Growth

How Ford’s sales performance is interpreted depends on whether the Number 2 U.S. automaker in sales should have picked up more than the 3.7% increase in passenger car sales (industry +9%) with all the major Japanese automakers virtually out of the market for months – May to September or later – because of natural disasters. Ford car sales were actually down 16% in December. Lavishly publicized Fiesta sub-compact and Focus compact launches were not strong successes as sticker price resistance appeared to overcome their relatively good fuel efficiency in a year when U.S. gasoline prices stayed well above $3 a gallon. Continue reading

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GM U.S. Sales Up 5% in December, +14% 2011. Share Increases

GM expects full-year 2012 light vehicle sales to be in a range of 13.5 million to 14.0 million units. In previous years, GM’s forecasts were based on total vehicle sales, which included medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, or about 300,000 additional units. Continue reading

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Chrysler Group December 2011 U.S. Sales Up 37%; Year +26%

Nevertheless, the sales gains were not large enough to hold off resurging Toyota Motor Sales, which displaced Chrysler from the Number Three U.S. sales spot when Toyota inventories rebuilt this fall after the Japan earthquake and tsunami tragedy in March that removed Toyota and other Japanese automakers from the market. In October and November Toyota picked up 2 market share percentage points, with December results due later today. Continue reading

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Milestones: First U.S. Diesel Powered Car – Cummins Packard

Fuel prices have risen since then, now ranging between $3 to $4 a gallon. The company Clessie Lyle Cummins founded in 1919 – Cummins Engine Company of Columbus, Indiana – to build engines based on Rudolf Diesel’s compression engine (patented 20 years before) has grown to be a Fortune 500 company with more than $18 billion in annual sales. Continue reading

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Car Spy Jim Dunne Catches Revised Lincoln MKS or MKZ?

Following the Ford Jaguar debacle, success is also not a word that can be applied to Ford’s management of Lincoln, which is a poseur in the world of luxury cars dominated by the German Brands and Toyota’s Lexus, which even though it was out of the U.S. market for five months this year because of the Japan earthquake, still managed to outsell Lincoln by a better than 2:1. Continue reading

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Federal Appeals Court blocks Enforcement of EPA Cross State Rule until Dozens of Power Company Lawsuits are Resolved

The rule requires reduction in emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which the auto industry successfully undertook decades ago. The Appeals court will consider the legality of the rule sometime next year. Continue reading

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U.S. Treasury Says China Continues to Undervalue its Currency

In what will undoubtedly become a Presidential campaign issue next year, as a result of the undervalued renminbi, China continues to increase its global export market share, and it remains heavily dependent on exports. Continue reading

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Toyota Launches Prius c Hybrid as Aqua in Japan for $21,700

In Japan the Prius c comes in seven models with a price ranging from $21,750 to $34,500 for lavishing equipped models for handicapped people. Look for the Japanese-built Prius c in the U.S. to start somewhere under $20,000 with several more expensive option packages. AutoInformed is betting Toyota will continue to use aggressive ‘comeback pricing’ and incentives to regain market share lost post-tsunami and Thailand floods this year. With the introduction of the all-new reduced price Camry last October, Toyota has regained 2 percentage points of U.S. share in the last two months. Continue reading

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The Top Stolen Cadillac Escalade Has New Antitheft Devices

Cadillac Escalade is more than 6 times as likely as the average vehicle to be targeted by thieves and has overall theft losses more than 10 times as big, according the Highway Loss Data Institute – HLDI. So little wonder that Cadillac in a release today is touting what it claims are new security enhancements developed to thwart thieves on Escalade models. Continue reading

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Milestones: U.S. Population of 312.8 Million on New Year’s Day

Through 2050, the United States is projected to remain in third place behind India and China among the world’s most populous countries with 423 million inhabitants. China of course has been the world’s largest auto market for three years now, and will likely remain so for the next decade. While this looks like a large increases in the number of persons in the U.S., the rate of population growth, is projected to decrease during the next six decades by about 50 %. The decrease in the rate of growth is mostly due to the aging of the population and, consequently, a dramatic increase in the number of deaths. From 2030 to 2050, the United States would grow more slowly than ever before in its history, potentially an economic disaster with potentially grave implications for economic expansion, revenue and national wealth. Continue reading

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Iran Threatens to Close Strait of Hormuz, Shut Off Oil Supply. Here We Go With Another Oil Crisis Caused by Despots?

The larger issue remains an amorphous U.S. strategy conducted and – alas – at times directed in Washington by big money interests that care not about the welfare of the United States or its citizens. U.S. energy policy going back to President Carter and the first OPEC oil embargo four decades ago has failed under one-term Carter and every successive President and Congress since – Democrat or Republican – to eliminate this security threat – as well as the corresponding national economic decline posed by oil imports and the resulting enormous transfer of U.S. wealth overseas. Continue reading

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EPA Finally Decides 2012 Renewable Fuel Standards

This ongoing Congressional debacle started when EISA established annual renewable fuel volume targets, reaching an overall level of 36 billion gallons annually in 2022, including 16 billion gallons of cellulosic biofuels; 15 billion gallons of conventional biofuels; 4 billion gallons of advanced biofuels; and 1 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel. EISA further specifies that 21 billion U.S. gallons of the 2022 total must be derived from non-cornstarch products such as sugar or cellulose. Continue reading

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IIHS Posts a Record 115 Winners for 2012 Top Safety Pick

The independent Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Top Safety Pick has a record number of choices – 115 – among 2012 models. The best vehicles are those in IIHS’s view that do the best job of protecting people in front, side, rollover, and rear crashes. Continue reading

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