Tag Archives: autoinformed

General Motors U.S. July Sales up 16%

GM by slightly outperforming the market easily held onto its Number One spot in the U.S. at 234,071. However Ford Motor slipped to Number Three as Toyota had a stronger month with sales soaring to 193,394 to Ford’s 190,080. Continue reading

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Chrysler Group July 2013 U.S. Sales up 11%

It was the best July in seven years as Chrysler Group today reported U.S. sales of 140,102 units, an 11% increase compared with sales in July 2012 of 126,089 units. Jeep, Dodge, Ram Truck and Fiat brands each posted year-over-year sales gains in July compared with the same month a year ago. Chrysler Group extended its streak of year-over-year sales gains to 40-consecutive months in July Continue reading

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Electric Cars and Solar Cells are not so Clean

“Stating that an electric car is clean is like saying that a light bulb is clean. Light bulbs do not produce exhaust, but it doesn’t mean we can use them with zero emissions. The same holds true for electric cars,” said Zehner in an NPR interview Monday. Continue reading

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Ford to Pay Record $17.35 Million NHTSA Fine on Recall

This was apparently the second plea bargain by an automaker this year to avoid protracted litigation with NHTSA over a safety defect. Chrysler recently negotiated a deal on Jeep gas tank fires. Neither automaker admitted guilt in the NHTSA deals, an important defense in product liability litigation that always surrounds major recalls. If the document was leaked from the National Highway Traffic Safety Agency, then the agency is in clear violation of SEC regulation FD, for full disclosure, which says in essence that material information should be released to all, not selectively. Continue reading

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Volkswagen Group Euro-Bit. Q2 Profits Drop 11% to €2.85 Billion

The Volkswagen Group was bit by the Eurozone crisis as Q2 profits sank 11% in Q2 to €2.85 billion or ~$3.78 billion. Europe’s largest automaker by far, headquartered in Germany, Europe’s largest economy by far, has revised full-year estimates down to simply equal the €11.5 billion it reported for 2012. Even that might be a stretch given the European auto market, which is headed for its sixth straight year of declines and running at sales levels last seen two decades ago. Continue reading

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Fiat SpA Q2 Profit at $188 Million – all from Chrysler

Fiat SpA [F.MI] posted a Q2 profit of €142 million or ~$188 Million largely because of the contribution of Chrysler Group where it owns a 58.5% stake courtesy of a U.S. taxpayer financed bailout of the Detroit Three automaker. The northern Italian company would have lost €247 million without Chrysler Group because its European sales dropped 5% during the period. Q2 revenues increased 4% to €22 billion. Continue reading

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Sirens and Chrome Wow at Concours d’Elegance of America

The production underway called “Sirens of Chrome” is based on a coffee-table book by Margery Krevsky that chronicles decades of the most beautiful cars and the women who adorned them. The Concours served as the elegant setting for excellent automobiles and the “sirens” who evoked a touch of Hollywood glamor. Continue reading

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$507 Million Chrysler Q2 Profit. New Cherokee Sales on Hold!

However, the positive trend is threatened in the second half of the year by the admission by Sergio Marchionne – he had to since it’s material to results under SEC regulations – that the new Jeep Cherokee was not shipping as planned starting in June even though it is in production in Ohio due to an unspecified calibration problem on its 9-speed ZF supplied transmission. Continue reading

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Milestones – Henry Ford at 150 years

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Henry Ford, whose ideas helped revolutionized transportation, brought mobility to the masses and arguably established the U.S. middle class. Continue reading

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Silverstone Classic – Record Crowds, Largest 911 Parade Lap

The 2013 Silverstone Classic claims to the world’s biggest classic motor racing festival now that the results are in. The three-day show this past weekend in the UK said attendance of 90,000, up from 83,500 in 2012 was a record. The 24 vintage races with 1113 historic racing cars covering nine decades of motorsports, also is claimed to be a new world record. Continue reading

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Ford C-Max Recalled for Roof Defect

Ford Motor Company is recalling 2013 model C-Max hybrid vehicles, without panoramic roofs, because the roofs do not meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 201 – Occupant Protection in Interior Impact. Continue reading

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Milestones – First Asphalt Road

On this day in 1870, a U.S. professor who had emigrated from Belgium applied an asphalt sheet to William Street in Newark, New Jersey as a test. It worked. Edward de Smedt, the inventor of asphalt mix, proved the value of his invention in combating the ubiquitous mud or dusty roads of the day. Continue reading

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GM Recalling 2014 Silverado, Sierra Pickups for Bad Airbags

GM is recalling its new 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks because of defective airbags. While admitting an embarrassing safety defect on its most recent major product revision, GM told NHTSA in the required recall filing that the welding on the passenger airbag inflator might fracture when the airbag deploys, allowing some gas from the air bag inflator to vent behind the instrument panel, instead of into the air bag. Continue reading

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Milestones – First Car Advertising from Winton Motor

The first known car advertisement in the United States appeared at the end of July 1898 in Scientific American Magazine. Winton Motor Carriage was urging potential buyers to “Dispense with a Horse,” an early indicator of a trend that soon engulfed the nation. By 1906 57 car companies spent more than half a million dollars in what were considered 12 national magazines. Continue reading

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Cuts to 2014 EPA Budget Threatens Auto Emissions Rules

Not surprisingly since the chairman is Hal Rogers, a Republican from Kentucky, the legislation reflects significant efforts to cripple the EPA – “an agency that has been rife with governmental overreach, overspending on ineffective and unnecessary programs, and costly and questionable regulations.” The bill funds the EPA at $5.5 billion, a reduction of $2.8 billion – or -34% – below the fiscal year 2013 enacted level. Continue reading

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