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Tag Archives: auto informed
Will Rising Gasoline Prices Hurt New or Used Car Sales?
What this means for the recovering U.S. vehicle market is unclear. New vehicle sales have been slowly rising but are still far below pre-Great Recession rates. What is clear is that this is bad news for drivers and energy consumers, is that global liquid fuels consumption is at historically high levels. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, energy, news, news analysis, transportation
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, gasoline prices, Ken Zino, nada, new car sales, oil prices, used car prices
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Kansas Refinery to pay $1 Million Fine for Pollution Violations
Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing (CRRM) will pay a civil penalty of more than $970,000 and invest more than $4.25 million on new pollution controls and $6.5 million in operating costs to end violations of air, superfund and community right-to-know laws at its Coffeyville, Kansas refinery. CRRM’s refinery has the capacity to refine more than 115,000 barrels of crude oil per day, producing gasoline, diesel fuels and propane. Continue reading
Ford, Lincoln Change Touch Screens after Quality Ratings Dive
While Ford keeps claiming its customers want electronic features such as MyFord Touch, saying 56% of them rate the technology as an “important” part of the buying decision, its quality and customer satisfaction ratings by users as measured from independent sources have plummeted during the three years since introduction. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, customer satisfaction, design and styling, distracted driving, news analysis, quality, safety
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, consumer reports, Ford, infotainment, Ken Zino, myford touch, mylincoln touch, quality, telematics, touch screen
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Ampera and Volt Voted European ‘Car of the Year 2012’
The Volt and the Ampera have won many international awards including the “World Green Car of the Year 2011” and the “North American Car of the Year 2011” award. Volt and Ampera also received the maximum 5-star Euro NCAP award. While awards are good for promotional purposes, journalists are notoriously out of touch with real car buying trends. The award comes as GM is preparing to close its Detroit Hmatrmack assembly plant for five weeks where the Volt and its Ampera identical twin are assembled because of slow sales – 1,626 Volts so far this in 2011. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, awards, electric vehicles, marketing
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, chevrolet volt, geneva motor show, GM, Ken Zino, opel ampera
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GM Posts February Sales Record in China, Up 30%
The makes February the third highest for any month in GM’s history in China where it has led sales among foreign automakers for seven straight years. In January, GM sales dropped 8% year-over-year, and Ford’s plummeted 42%, leading to speculation that the Chinese economy is slowing down. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, marketing, results, sales
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, february sales, GM, gm china, Ken Zino, results
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Volt Production Halted. Workers Laid Off for Five Weeks
The announcement of the setback to employees came Thursday after GM released February sales results that showed 1,023 Volts were sold in the U.S. GM has sold 1,626 Volts so far this year. Earlier in the day, a Chevrolet sales executive claimed that Volt sales would pick up now that it is approved for California HOV lanes and tax credits as a plug-in hybrid. Continue reading
Only Nissan of Japanese Big Three Grows with Overall Auto Market in February. Toyota and Honda Lag Industry Slightly
Nissan North America reported record February U.S. sales of 106,731 units versus 92,370 units a year earlier, making for an increase of 15.5% over last February’s record total. Toyota Motor Sales moved 159,423 vehicles in February for a 12.4% increase in volume. American Honda reported February 2012 monthly new-vehicle sales of 110,157, an increase of almost 13%.
Since the overall light vehicle sales market grew by 16%, only Nissan actually kept pace with the slow recovery in auto sales that saw the best February since 2008, although Nissan also has the highest incentives in the group. Economic indicators – from consumer confidence to the stock and job markets, are showing the best results in four years. This is good news for automakers since sales are off to their strongest start industry-wide since 2008 at a strong seasonally adjusted annual selling rate or SAAR of 13.3 million light vehicles.
The difference among the Japanese Big Three was more pronounced in the higher-margin luxury segment. As usual, Lexus easily led the way with almost 17,000 luxury cars and trucks, followed by Acura at 11,000 and Infiniti at 9,000 vehicles. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, marketing, news analysis, results, sales
Tagged aiada, auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, detroit three, february sales, honda, Ken Zino, lexus, nissan, results, toyota
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Chrysler Group February 2012 U.S. Sales Up 40% as the Strong Comeback Continues for the Fiat Controlled Automaker
in February every Chrysler Group model posted a year-over-year sales gain, where the comparison was available. The Chrysler brand led the way with a 114% increase. The Fiat brand finished its first year of sales with its best month ever. Sales of the Fiat 500 were up 69% in February compared with the previous month. In 2011 Fiat sold 26,000 vehicles in the U.S. after predicting 50,000. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, marketing, results, sales
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, chrysler group, Ken Zino, results, sales results
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General Motors U.S. February Sales Up 1% as Last Year’s Incentives Are Claimed to have Hurt Results
General Motors Company today reported total sales of 209,306 vehicles in February, up 1.1% compared with the company’s February 2011 results, which were boosted by high incentive levels. Overall the industry was up almost 16% based on preliminary numbers. A question remains whether GM’s recovery has stalled in the face of a strong seasonally adjusted annual selling rate or SAAR of 13.7 million light vehicles. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, marketing, results, sales
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, GM, gm february sales, Ken Zino, results
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Ford Motor February U.S. Sales Increase 14%
Leading the way at Ford was the F-Series pickup truck sales totaled 47,273 pickups, up 26% – V6 engines made up 57% of F-150 retail sales in February; the expensive EcoBoost option accounted for 43% of mix. Trucks continue to be the real strength at Ford with trucks up 21%. Cars were up 16%, utilities up 5%. Continue reading
Posted in auto news, marketing, results, sales
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, february sales, Ford, Ken Zino, results, sales results
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GM Buys 7% of PSA Peugeot Citroën to Share Parts, Vehicles
PSA already has partnerships with Ford on diesel engines, and Toyota, BMW, and Mitsubishi on components and engines. A previous GM venture started in Europe with Fiat in 2000 failed in 2005 when GM spent $2 billion to buy its way out of a put option in the deal that allowed Fiat to sell its automotive company to GM for market value. Globally, alliances have had mixed results at automakers. Continue reading
Honda Recalls Grass Trimmers for Laceration Hazard as Consumer Reports Bumps Honda out of First Place in Autos
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada today announced a voluntary recall of about 17,600 Honda grass trimmers. The latest Honda safety recall came as Consumer Reports said that Subaru for the first time has earned the top score in automaker report cards for 2012. Honda, the winner for the past four years, slipped to fourth place among 13 major automakers behind Mazda and Toyota. Continue reading
Posted in auto news
Tagged auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, consumer reports, honda, honda recall, Ken Zino, recalls
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Audi Announces U.S. A3 e-tron Electric Vehicle Pilot Program
A3 is currently sold to U.S. consumers in gasoline-powered and turbo diesel configurations starting at $28,000 with several thousand dollars in options. The A3 EV – dubbed e-tron – has a 26kWh lithium-ion battery pack and claimed zero driving emissions, if you ignore how the electricity to charge the expensive battery pack is generated. No pricing was given since this is a development not a marketing program. One Audi insider said that eventually an A3 e-tron is “highly likely” here. Continue reading
Posted in alternative fuels, auto news, concept, electric vehicles, environment
Tagged a3 e-tron, audi, auto informed, autoinformed.com, automotive news, EVs, johan de nysschen, Ken Zino
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Fisker Automotive Makes Tom LaSorda CEO
Nevertheless, the future of Fisker is not clear. In 2010, the U.S. Energy Department awarded Fisker $529 million in loans as part of an effort to help development of so-called advanced-technology vehicles. Part of the loan was for redeveloping a closed General Motors plant in Wilmington, Delaware – home state of vice president Joe Biden – to build a small electric car, code named Nina – that has yet to appear. Fisker said that about one-third of the total loan amount – $190 million – has been drawn, mostly for Karma design and development. Continue reading
GM Annual Report Says No Dividend is Planned for Common
Even though GM common stock traded as high as $39.48 a share – arguably irrational exuberance by small investors after what now appears to be a high IPO price of $33 in November of 2010 – the financial condition of the GM is not strong enough to distribute money to common shareholders. This affirmation comes even though GM posted a record $9.1 billion profits in 2011. Continue reading
