By Igor Holas

02.29.2008

Just days before Monday, when automakers will report their US sales for February, Chrysler and Ford released a series of reports preparing the media and Wall Street for declines in their sales. “This year is going to be a pretty severe year,” said Jim Press, Chrysler Vice Chairman on Friday. Ford Sales Analyst George Pipas echoed this sentiment on Wednesday, saying, “I think we can all agree: ‘08 is getting off to a pretty low start.”

Overall, Ford predicts a sales decline of about 10% compared to last February, but predicts that its market share will remain stable as other automakers are also expected to post sales declines. This would be a similar situation to last month, when despite 4% decline in sales, the overall industry’s decline of 4.4% ensured that Ford’s share of the market actually slightly increased.

In related news, Ford said on Friday its newly redesigned Ford Focus will actually increase its sales in February. In a release highlighting the sales performance of this model, Ford pointed out that the model is “tracking up” in retail sales, attracting younger buyers, and attracting buyers who choose more options than they tended to in previous Focus models.

Chrysler expects lower overall sales, but stable or even growing retail sales. In this tough month, growth in the retail market would be good news, as low-margin fleet sales erode both profitability and resale values.

Both of the automakers, as well as the industry in general, expect 2008 to end with a decline in overall sales, as US is expected to slide into a recession on the back of the housing and credit troubles. GM and Ford, however, expect early signs of recovery to appear in the latter half of the year. Chrysler and Nissan were not as optimistic, predicting that the weak market would continue at least until the end of this year.

Contrary of the generally gloomy outlook, Honda Motor Co. CEO Takeo Fukui said he saw no signs of recession in the US, and Honda did not expect decline in sales this year. His opinion was unfettered by Honda’s 2.3% sales decline in January, when only General Motors posted sales increase. However, Honda’s 2.3% January decline was not as steep as the overall industry decline.

COPYRIGHT Autosavant.net – All Rights Reserved

By Chris Haak

02.29.2008

The strike that the UAW undertook starting Tuesday, February 26 against American Axle and Manufacturing has begun to require certain GM truck plants to close. In spite of American Axle stockpiling parts in the weeks leading up to the strike, yesterday (just two days after the start of the strike), GM closed its Pontiac, Michigan truck assembly plant, which builds Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. The plant builds about 433 pickups per day and employs around 2,500 workers.

Later today, the Flint truck assembly plant and its 2,100 workers will also be idled as it runs out of American Axle-supplied parts. The Sunday night third shift will be the first one affected by the parts shortage.

American Axle produces almost 80% of the axles used by GM, including parts used on nearly every SUV produced by GM. The company and the union appear to be very far apart, with management seeking wage cuts and employees feeling personally betrayed by the company.

At the moment, GM does not appear to be particularly concerned about the strike. In the short term, GM also somewhat overproduced trucks in January in anticipation of an American Axle-caused shutdown. In fact, GM’s overall truck inventory in terms of days’ supply jumped from an 83 day supply as of January 1, 2008 to a 113 day supply as of February 1, 2008. Meanwhile, GM’s car production – which is mostly front wheel drive and therefore not affected by this strike – kept better pace with demand in January and went from a 57 day supply to a 59 day supply. (The industry generally considers a 60 day supply of unsold vehicles to be ideal). Therefore, a short American Axle strike might actually serve to help GM reduce its inventory of unsold trucks.

Now, should the strike last for a while – which seems entirely possible, given how entrenched the sides are in their negotiating positions – GM could be harmed by the strike, because 58.3% of GM’s sales last year were trucks. If the truck supply ran out, GM would suddenly be without more than half of its potential sales.

UPDATE, 12:30 p.m.: In addition to the Pontiac and Flint plants noted above, the Ft. Wayne, Indiana and Oshawa, Ontario truck plants will also be idled this weekend due to strike-related parts shortages.

COPYRIGHT Autosavant.net – All Rights Reserved

By Chris Haak

02.29.2008

Holden, the General Motors subsidiary in Australia, revealed two long-awaited, much rumored concepts today at the Melbourne International Motor Show. While both are derivatives of the VE Commodore (just launching in the US as the Pontiac G8), it’s hard to say which model will prove most interesting to enthusiasts.

Holden Coupe 60 Concept
Ever since the debut of the VE Holdens in 2006 (intially available only as four door sedans), as well as the discontinuation of the popular and legendary Holden Monaro coupe, Holden – and in fact GM rear wheel drive performance enthusiasts – have been begging the company for a new Monaro. Holden was coy about the car’s chances, implying that with renewed concern about CO2 emissions and fuel prices, the car’s chances for another resurrection in the short term were slim.

At least, until today. The Holden Coupe 60 concept is basically a VE Commodore that is 60 millimeters shorter (yet with the same wheelbase), and an aggressively-sloping roofline. Like the 2005 Chevrolet Camaro concept, it is a pillarless coupe, and like the Camaro, if/when it reaches production, it would probably have a fixed B-pillar to keep the weight down and the safety up. Under the hood (or bonnet, as the Holden press release states) is a 6.0 liter V8 calibrated to run on E85, coupled to a six speed manual transmission.

Holden is being noncommittal at the moment about the car’s prospects for production. Reading between the lines, however, it does seem like a reasonable possibility, since the car would not require nearly as much engineering effort as an all-new car, since the platform’s engineering is already complete and in production elsewhere.

GM Holden Chairman and Managing Director Mark Reuss said, “This is a vehicle I know our designers would dearly love to see go into production, but for the moment it has to remain a concept only.”

However, Project Designer Manager, Peter Hughes, said, “With Coupe 60 we think we have designed a car that has the potential to write another chapter in the book of Holden icons.”

From the quotes above, it sounds like the car definitely has potential for production, but it is not confirmed yet. If it is produced, would GM dare import it as the Pontiac GTO again, or has the company learned its lesson and would instead call it something less risky like “G8 Coupe” or “G8 Sport Coupe?”

For high-resolution photos of the Holden Coupe 60 Concept, click here.

HSV W427 7.0 Liter Supercar
Holden Specialty Vehicles (also known as HSV) is the company that tunes and builds high performance versions of Holden vehicles. HSV has already built several other hot rod variants of the VE Commodore, but the latest one will take on all comers. It is basically a Commodore with the Corvette Z06’s 7.0 liter LS7 V8 engine producing in excess of 496 horsepower (370 kW) and 472 lb-ft (640 Nm) of torque, connected to a six speed manual transmission.

Backing up this impressive powertrain are goodies such as bi-modal mufflers (similar to those on the Z06 and other Corvettes), dry sump lubrication (also lifted from the Z06), 30% stiffer springs, a 20 mm lower ride height, and magnetic ride control with an all-new calibration. Brakes are six-piston front calipers with a 50% (!) increase in pad surface area.

Visually, the W427 features an all-new unique front fascia, all-new 20 inch wheels, and an all-new three-piece carbon fiber spoiler. Other than fuel consumption (which actually may not be much worse than the other V8-powered HSV sedans), the only problem with this car is its price. It’s expected to be about $150,000 Australian ($141,000 US) including the VAT, or about twice as expensive as the next-most-expensive HSV model. That’s a big chunk to bite off, but also an extremely impressive piece of machinery.

I don’t ever expect this car to come to the US. Why would any buyer want to pay $100,000 for a Pontiac when a $60,000 Cadillac CTS-V would have similar, if not superior, performance, better comfort, and arguably more attractive (mature?) styling? The other obvious question is whether GM tuners such as Mallett, who is already capable of stuffing small block V8s under the hood of Pontiac Solstices and Saturn SKYs, will start working their magic with LS7 crate motors and Pontiac G8s. The LS7 crate motor costs less than $15,000 from GM Performance Parts; of course labor would add a large premium, as would all of the ancillary components such as a beefed up drivetrain, larger brakes and wheels, etc., but Mallett can probably build a car that can match this one’s performance for less money.

For high-resolution photos of the HSV W427 7.0 Liter, click here.

COPYRIGHT Autosavant.net – All Rights Reserved

1958 DAF 600

But the cars improved over time. Indeed, they were so successful at first, especially among older people not inclined to wrestle with stiff and unwieldy stick shifts, that new models followed rapidly, each with a larger engine than its predecessor: the 750; the 44; in 1968, the 55, with the 1108-cc 50 hp engine of the Renault 8; the downright peppy 55 and 66 Marathon models, which introduced a line of sporty DAFs with more horses (60) for the masses, especially the ever-elusive youth market; and, for the family, there was the Combi station wagon. The 66 handled better then previous DAFs, thanks to an improved leaf-sprung axle design. It even started winning road rallies, and acquired a reputation for reliability and character, if not for blistering acceleration.

55 Marathon coupe

Then, as so often happens in the car industry, just when the product was really improving, the public turned its back. The mid-‘70s were pretty desperate years for the little Dutch cars, which were failing to attract much of a clientele beyond the senior-citizen market, Dutch loyalists, and younger oddballs. As one of the latter, I was sufficiently tempted around about this time (I liked the crisp lines and unpretentious uniqueness of the things) to take one of the more sophisticated models, the 66, for a test drive through the Jura mountains of France. I was smitten. It drove smoothly and well, even on twisting mountain roads in the slippery slush of early spring. Just the thing, I reckoned, and never mind that I was then an out-of-pocket, semi-employed would-be writer, and that I was living in an attic in my mother’s house. I gathered together sufficient coins left over from the English lessons I was giving to the locals and put down a deposit on a pine-green beauty at the local Volvo dealer–yes, Volvo. By then (’76) DAF as a car company had ceased to exist. Presto change-o, the Swedes had marched in and saved the day by extinguishing the firm. (It still exists as a truck manufacturer). All DAF grill badges were switched for the Volvo diagonal arrow, and automatically the customer base expanded, for those who’d been embarrassed to drive a DAF were quite willing to be known as Volvo owners.

Alas, I wasn’t to be one of them. Further negotiations at the dealership determined that my income, such as it was, would fail to keep pace with car-payment demands. My car was repossessed before it was even sold. So, after recouping my deposit, I reluctantly left DAFs and Volvos behind and resumed teaching my English classes. Anyway, soon enough thereafter my allegiance, ever fickle, shifted back to Citroens.

But a seed had been planted, both worldwide and at home. The 66 and its successor, the 343, sold well over a million copies over the next ten or so years, and one of them was to my mother, who for 22 years drove her Volvo-DAF happily all over Europe, until age and infirmity intervened and the car, and she, went to their respective unknowns.

COPYRIGHT Autosavant.net – All Rights Reserved

By Igor Holas

02.29.2008
Following a very well-received 2006 IROC concept, Volkswagen is preparing to release the new 2009 Scirocco at the Geneva Auto Show in a couple of days.

Today, first two official photos broke onto the Internet revealing the full beauty of this new small coupe/hatchback, which will seat four occupants. According to World Car Fans, the little beast will be powered by 2.0 liter TFSI (200 horsepower) and 1.4 liter TSI (122 horsepower)turbocharged gasoline engines connected to the wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. Some other likely options include adaptive shock absorbers and a panoramic sunroof. Standard features will include 17 inch alloy wheels, ESP, and sport suspension.

The new car comes some 34 years after the original Scirocco made its debut. The only sad part of this news is the possibility that the Scirocco will not be sold in North America. It would have made a great competitor to the Mini Cooper, Volvo C30, or other premium small hatches. Autosavant will have more details, including the official press release, when Volkswagen officially reveals the car in the coming days at the show.

COPYRIGHT Autosavant.net – All Rights Reserved

By Igor Holas

02.29.2008

Automakers in Europe faced a tough month in January as sales declined slightly to 1.308 million.

Among the best selling brands, only a few managed to increase their sales from last year. Among them, Fiat and Volkswagen recorded the largest increases of about seven and six percent, respectively. The increased sales of Volkswagen helped solidify its position as the best selling brand in Europe, and helped VW Group solidify its top-spot as an automaker with almost 247,000 sales. The other largest automakers, PSA, Ford, GM, and Fiat all reported slight sales decreases, led by GM’s 8.1% decline.

Despite this grim month, one automaker has reason to celebrate: Nissan continues to ride its wave of increased sales, with a 50% increase from a year ago to almost 34,000 units. These additional sales propelled Nissan past most other Asian automakers like Mazda, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, and Suzuki, to the position of the number two Asian automaker in Europe behind Toyota. Nissan now also outsells Ford’s Volvo and Volkswagen’s Seat.

Renault’s still-new Dacia brand is also rapidly gaining sales, reporting a 73% increase from a year ago, surpassing Mitsubishi, Mini, Land Rover, and Alfa Romeo. Meanwhile, Alfa Romeo lost nearly half of its sales since a year ago, declining from 14,000 sales last January to only 8,000 sales last month. Lexus and Jaguar also posted significant declines in sales.

Eastern European sales continue to rise, but they still account for only a small portion of the market. The top five markets remain Italy, Germany, France, the UK, and Spain; combined, they account for about two-thirds of all sales. However, among them, only Germany recorded a sales increase. Sales in most other Western European countries stagnated or declined.

According to Automotive News, January sales are usually skewed as local governments usually use New Year to enact new taxation rules. A year ago, Germany reported an extraordinarily weak month of sales as many consumers bought car in December to avoid a hike in sales tax. Similarly, The Netherlands reported a 3.3% sales decline due to similar hike in sales tax, which also resulted in a “pull ahead” of potential sales into December instead of January.

COPYRIGHT Autosavant.net – All Rights Reserved

By Kevin Miller

02.27.2008

Earlier this month, Mitsubishi announced its 2009 Eclipse models are being launched with restyled front and rear bumpers, bringing the Eclipse’s look more in line with Mitsu’s current design language. As the 2009 cars are already going in to production and will soon be showing up on dealer lots, Mitsubishi is offering consumers incentives on the 2008 Eclipse and is selling the vehicles to fleets such as Avis.

When I arrived in Orange County at John Wayne International Airport with my wife on the evening of St. Valentine’s Day for our getaway trip to Palm Springs, the Avis representative offered me a 2007 Chevrolet Impala, a 2007 Chevrolet Malibu, or a 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse coupe. Having never driven an Eclipse (while having driven both of those Chevys numerous times), and being in style-conscious Southern California, I chose the Eclipse.

The first things I noticed about the silver Eclipse GS coupe were its extremely high lift-over height for loading luggage into the hatch, and its poor visibility for reversing. The car had just 164 miles on it when we wheeled it out of the parking garage and on to the streets of Orange County. On the short drive to our hotel near the airport, the four cylinder’s coarse low-RPM sounds were intrusive as it idled and ran between stoplights. This is a sound that would prove to detract from the Eclipse’s appeal throughout our five days with the car.

The next morning we hit the road for the 100 mile drive to Palm Springs. Driving the Eclipse on the freeway highlighted just how low the car sits, with even mainstream sedans like the Toyota Camry blocking the view ahead. As we encountered heavy traffic on portions of our journey to Palm Springs over the holiday weekend, the trip took almost three hours. During that time, we had plenty of opportunity to evaluate the comfort of the seats and the sound of the basic stereo. While the seats were fairly comfortable, their positioning in the car lacked sufficient leg room for me behind the steering wheel. My wife found the passenger seat to be sufficiently comfortable. The stereo was merely adequate, without much sound depth and with fairly poor radio reception.


From the driver’s seat, the door-mounted rear view mirrors seem to be placed quite far back on the doors. They are mounted there because the doors have a fixed window pane at their front edge; the mirrors are mounted to be viewed through the rearmost window pane on the door (so that they are not obscured by the window frame). Having the mirrors mounted so far rearward accentuated the car’s natural blind spots while underway.

With the car on the freeway cruising between 70 and 80 MPH, the motor is turning around 3000 RPM. At this speed, the engine loses its coarse notes and its noise is largely drowned out by wind and road noise. With 162 HP from the 2.4 liter 4 cylinder, the mid-range torque provides adequate power on the freeway, though the automatic didn’t kick down as quickly as I would have liked when I wanted to pass vehicles. The “Sportronic” manual shifting feature of the automatic transmission wasn’t particularly quick-shifting, and didn’t shift down if the engine speed in the lower gear was anywhere near the engine’s red-line. The car handled well throughout our trip, with its suspension firmly planted to the road at high speeds, though the short wheelbase combined with some repetitive freeway expansion joints induced an unsettling see-sawing motion on one segment of our trip.

For daily use while we were in Palm Springs, we found it tiresome to get in and out of the Eclipse, which sits much lower than the Saab 9-5 and Volvo V70 we drive at home. The low roof and low seating position combined with the small, sporty cabin meant we had to perform contortions to climb in and out of the Eclipse, especially if we were parked close to other cars which prevented us from fully opening our doors.

Despite our rented Eclipse being the entry-level GS coupe with low-end audio system and blanked-out front fog lamp openings, four-wheel disc brakes with ABS and electronic brake-force distribution (EBD) are standard, as are advanced dual-stage front air bags, seat-mounted side air bags and front seat curtain side air bags. Also standard are automatic-sealing frameless windows, which drop slightly when the door is opened, and raise when the door has been closed to provide a tight seal against wind noise and water entry.

During my time with the Eclipse, I was pondering where it fits in today’s automotive marketplace. Many of the Eclipse’s traditional rivals, like the Toyota Celica and Acura Integra/RSX have gone out production. The Hyundai Tiburon and Scion tC are probably the closest matches, with other front-wheel drive coupes such as the Chevrolet Cobalt, Honda Civic, Nissan Sentra, and Ford Focus, and hatchbacks like the Saturn Astra and VW Rabbit also vying for market share. While the FWD Audi TT is a close match dimensionally, it is in a different class due to its features and optional AWD.

We ended up driving 330 miles in the Eclipse, about 250 of which were on the freeway, though some of that freeway driving was stop-and-go. Over that time we got 24.5 MPG from the Eclipse, which seems about right given its EPA rating of 20/26 MPG.

Mitsubishi says “the Eclipse Coupe combines thrilling design and performance with outstanding value to offer the sport coupe customer an attainable exotic.” I’d say that isn’t too far from the truth. The Eclipse looks like almost nothing else on the road, and was an enjoyable car to drive around for our long weekend in California. What it lacks in refinement it seems to make up for in style.

COPYRIGHT Autosavant.net- All Rights Reserved

By Brendan Moore

02.27.2008

There is an article in The New York Times this morning about the damaging effect the increase in gasoline prices is having on many household incomes. The article states that the price of a gallon of gasoline could be an average of $4 a gallon by the second quarter of 2008.

Here is a quote from the end of the article:

Oil prices are unlikely to drop anytime soon, analysts said. Barclays Capital recently increased its long-term prediction, saying prices could reach $137 a barrel in 2015, up from a previous target of $93 a barrel.

“An oil crisis is coming in the next 10 years,” John B. Hess, the chairman of the Hess Corporation, said at a recent conference held by Cambridge Energy Research Associates. “It’s not a matter of demand. It’s not a matter of supplies. It’s both.”

Our focus here is on cars and the car business, so when I read an article like the one in the NYT, I start to wonder if the “sustained higher prices” scenario that people say will effectively move people to more fuel-efficient vehicles is finally here.

I am a disciple of that premise, as are many others, but I have to admit, I thought the market would have seen a little more movement towards fuel-efficient vehicles than it has so far at the $3 a gallon mark, so those results have left me a little unsure just what price-point that migration will show up in a big way. But, I can say with a great deal of certainty that if we end the year at an average $4 a gallon here in the U.S., then the migration towards purchase of more fuel-efficient (and generally smaller) cars will pick up considerably over the current positive trend in that direction.

So, if most Americans come to believe in the next few years that the price of gasoline will never go back down to, say, below, $3 a gallon, what does that mean for the auto industry?

My opinion is that it means that whatever efforts are occurring now regarding development of PHEV vehicles, hydrogen-powered vehicles, clean diesel, etc. need to be re-doubled by the players in the industry. Right now. Shifts in public consciousness tend to build slowly towards a tipping point, and then, suddenly, the attitudinal about-face arrives with a bang. I have a feeling that’s the way it’s going to work with this cultural sea change and woe to the auto manufacturer that gets caught out with a vehicle lineup that’s behind the curve of newly-minted public desire for the most-efficient car available.

COPYRIGHT Autosavant.net – All Rights Reserved