Auto News 5

A tiny black Fiat 500L that carried Pope Francis through Philadelphia during his historic first visit to the U.S. was sold for $82,000 at a Friday auction.

Volkswagen halted production at a German factory that builds Passats and at its main gearbox plant as the automaker grapples with reduced demand and technical problems.

Saab AB, the Swedish aerospace company that owns the Saab brand, will not allow its name or logo to be used on future models produced by National Electric Vehicle Sweden.

Beware! Falling gasoline prices are hitting the residual values of used hybrids, electrics and plug-ins - hard. The influx of used small cars set to return to the market is just going to make matters worse.

Hyundai, which shook up its U.S. marketing operation in a push for a clearer brand identity, plans to use the Super Bowl to launch a yearlong marketing campaign with a new motto of its own: 'We Make Things Better.

Toyota is considering idling its domestic car manufacturing plants for at least a week from Feb. 8 due to a steel shortage following an explosion at its group firm Aichi Steel this month, TV broadcaster TBS News reported late Friday.

Operations at New York and New Jersey's cargo terminals, one of the largest transfer points for new-vehicle shipments in the U.S., were being restored late Friday after more than a thousand longshoremen walked off the job earlier in the day.

The DeLorean Motor Co. of Humble, Texas, plans to start production of a souped-up version of the super-cool gull-wing icon from the three-decade-old Back to the Future franchise, and it's all thanks to an act of Congress.

ZF TRW has established a new headquarters for its Global Electronics business in the Arboretum Office Park, Farmington Hills, Michigan.

In 2015 the European car market totalled 14.2m new registrations, an increase of 9.3% over 2014 full year results; the highest since 2009. The market benefited from the last two months of double-digit growth with December setting the highest positive monthly change of the last three years at 1.16m units. Therefore, the last quarter volume increase was the highest of the year, standing at 10.2% more than in Q4 2014, representing 3.42m cars sold in total. The Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate, SAAR, came in at 16.52m units.

Jim Palmer is out as CEO of Campbell Ewald, the Detroit ad agency known for its longtime ties to General Motors. The agency's parent company said today it terminated Palmer, effective immediately.

Swedish car safety products supplier Autoliv predicted sales growth of 5 percent this year, but analysts expected more because of potential new business Autoliv could win amid the Takata airbag crisis.

German politicians will discuss creating incentives worth up to $5,500 to boost sales of electric and plug-in hybrid cars, and may consider whether automakers could co-finance the new subsidies.

Nissan said it will recall about 870,000 Nissan cars in the United States and Canada for potentially faulty hood latches, marking the third time since 2014 the automaker has recalled vehicles to address the problem.

The last Land Rover Defender rolled off the production line, 68 years after output of the iconic offroader first began.

The last Land Rover Defender rolled off the production line, 68 years after output of the iconic offroader first began.

Started the week with, shock horror, driving an actual car for once, in fact several - old Kia Sportage as a means of transportation to the airport and then several variations of the new one, which made its debut at Frankfurt last year. I had never got around to a pedal in the outgoing model, which has been with us since 2010, and facelifted in 2014, and was wondering if they really needed a new one yet but, of course, the redesigned crossover is quite an improvement with new engines and transmissions (hello, in-house-developed twin clutch automatic) and connectivity among many items Kia had to shout about. Fourth generation, already; anyone remember the first?

Opinion 29 Jan, 2016

Global car production and sales have skyrocketed, with Jaguar Land Rover doing particularly well for Britain, says Mike Rutherford

News 29 Jan, 2016

Toyota will take full control of Daihatsu as part of a plan to improve tech and small car production

Honda Motor operating profit for the fiscal third quarter to 31 December, 2015 fell 22.3% to JPY163bn yen due, the automaker said, "to profit-reducing factors such as an increase in selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses that include quality-related expenses and unfavorable currency effects". This would include considerable expense related to ongoing Takata airbag recalls.