Auto News 5

Volvo said on Monday it would halt production at its main plant in Sweden for a week this month due to poor European demand.

The Volkswagen Group booked a 9.7% year on year rise in worldwide deliveries in the first three quarters of 2012, selling about 6.71m vehicles. September sales rose 6.5% to 801,000 units.

News 15 Oct, 2012

New range-topping Hyundai i30 Premium hatchback and Tourer models are now on sale

Fiat's Italian auto suppliers have had a tough time as the automaker cuts investment and production in Europe. Forced to look elsewhere for business or face bankruptcy, some have taken a lifeline offered by German manufacturer VW.

Volkswagen 's plan to open a store on Paris' Champs-Elysees will be great for the brand's exposure in France but do little to boost its volumes, industry watchers believe.

The federal government has a screaming deal for automakers that have struggled to find a market for electric vehicles: Two for the price of one.

A redesigned version of India's no-frills Nano minicar will come to the United States in three years, said Ratan Tata, the billionaire boss of that country's giant Tata Group.

General Motors is trying to build on the success of the Buick Verano compact by adding a zippy turbo model, due out next month. But the Verano turbo could further dent sales of the Verano's slightly larger sedan sibling, the Buick Regal.

U.S. sales of turbocharged light vehicles are expected to triple by 2017 as automakers downsize their powertrains to meet federal corporate average fuel economy targets, Honeywell Transportation Systems predicts.

Scott Painter, the hard-charging founder of TrueCar Inc., can look back now at the crazy events of last December with amused detachment. But at the time the crisis that embroiled TrueCar was anything but amusing.

Beau Boeckmann's announcement in August that he was adding a Shelby Mod Shop to his Galpin Auto Sports operation had the potential to link him up with thousands of new hot-rodding enthusiasts around the western United States.

After months of sleuthing to pinpoint the cause of mysterious fires in power-window switches, Toyota Motor Corp. reached a curious conclusion: The problem presented no safety risk. Just six months later, Toyota changed its tune.

Denso Corp., the Japanese supplier that helped develop Toyota's Entune infotainment system, wants to form a research group with automakers and suppliers to study driver stress.

General Motors is revamping its marketing structure by appointing two executives to run the retail operations of Chevrolet and Cadillac worldwide rather than filling the role of recently dismissed global marketing head Joel Ewanick.

GM and PSA are exploring ways to combine their European operations in a second phase of the alliance they forged earlier this year, sources said. One option is for GM's Opel/Vauxhall unit to merge with PSA's automotive operations in a joint venture.

GM and PSA are mulling a joint venture of Opel/Vauxhall and PSA's core auto manufacturing arm, according to media reports. If the plan goes ahead, it could be a catalyst for wide-reaching structural reform in Europe's ailing auto industry.

GM and PSA are exploring ways to combine their European operations in a second phase of the alliance they forged earlier this year, sources said. One option is for GM's Opel/Vauxhall unit to merge with PSA's automotive operations.

Car names are about to become extinct. You know, names that mean something; names that provoke fear, that exhibit raw power, that bathe us in soothing elegance and that remind us of one of God's graceful creatures roaming the earth.

Today, we get 1, 2, 200, 3, 300, 370Z, 5, 500, 6, 7, 911, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7, A8, B, BRZ, C, C30, C70, CL, CLS, CR-V, CR-Z, CT, CTS, CX-5, CX-9, E, ES, EX, F-150, F-250, F-350, FJ, FR-S, FX, G, GL, GLK, GS, GTI, GT-R, GX, i, ILX, iQ, IS, JX, LFA, LR2, LR4, LS, LX, M, M3, M5, M6, MDX, MKS, MKT, MKZ, MKX, MX-5, NV, Q5, Q7, QX, R, R8, RAV4, RDX, RLX, RX, S, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S60, S80, SL, SLK, SLS, SRX, SX4, tC, TL, TSX, TT, X1, X3, X5, X6, xB, XC60, XC70, XC90, xD, XF, XJ, XK, XTS, XV, Z4 and ZDX.


I'm probably forgetting another hundred or so, but I think you get the picture.

Some now-discontinued model designations were worse. Try telling your brother-in-law “hey, I just bought me a two point five tee ell.” That name couldn't get any clumsier tripping off your tongue. “Uh, I bought an Acura.”

Or a Lincoln. Or a Mercedes and/or Benz. Or an Audi. Or a Mazda. Or a Suzuki. I know that MKS and MKZ are sedans and that MKT and MKX are crossovers, but does the average consumer know that? Who cares, really, as long as you know which brand of vehicle you have purchased.

Very few manufacturers still use real car names, although some are just kind of made up and don't really mean anything, like Passat, Altima, Elantra or Impreza. But Mustang, Challenger and Viper, those are names you'd want to flaunt. Hell yeah.

Bottom line is that manufacturers now prefer that their customers name the brand instead of the model. For certain brands, especially luxury brands, that marketing strategy's been working for decades; I never hear anybody say “I got a bee two hundred” or a “see three fifty four matic.” Nah, they'll say “I got a Mercedes.”

Then again, a name doesn't successfully define the automobile in every case. An impala is a fast, light and agile animal that lives in the savannah; the Chevy Impala is a big, boring sedan with a front bench seat.

Good thing some brands haven't given up on real names that actually evoke something other than a craving for alphabet soup. Keep ‘em coming.

From GMM

Ferrari and Red Bull on Monday separately denied reports Sebastian Vettel is destined for the great Italian team in 2014.

With Felipe Massa set to be re-signed for next year, the BBC claimed in a media report that Red Bull's double world champion Vettel is probably Maranello bound for the season after.

Red Bull's Dr Helmut Marko told Bild: "That's false. That report is wrong, plain and simple."

The German newspaper said Vettel, 25, has a contract with Red Bull that includes 2014, but the deal includes 'get-out clauses'.

Ferrari motor-home in the F1 paddock. (Photo: WRi2)

But Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni rubbished the Vettel link.

"It's not the first time this year we've heard it, and it will not be the last."

That's not exactly a denial, but Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo - speaking on Italian radio Rai - was much clearer.

"I've always said that I don't want two roosters in the hen-house," he said. "I don't like that and it creates instability in the team."

A third consecutive victory for Red Bull Racing driver Sebastian Vettel, following on from his success in Singapore and Japan, has made the drivers' championship even closer heading into the final four rounds of the season.

Vettel, driving a Red Bull-Renault RB7, started the race from second on the grid using the Pirelli P Zero red supersoft tires, and then carried out two stints on the yellow soft tire to win from his teammate Mark Webber, having taken the lead at the start.

Photos: WRi2

The German's fourth victory of the year has given him the drivers' championship lead, while third and fourth places for Ferrari, thanks to Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa respectively, moves the Italian squad up to second in the constructors' championship.