Car News Articles

Hyundai just started production at its new $790m plant outside Beijing, as it ramps up its bid to become China’s largest car manufacturer. Forbes MarketScan reports that initial production at the new plant will be 200k Elantras, ramping up to 300k by 2010. This would give Hyundai’s Chinese operations an annual production capacity of 600k, putting it at the top of the Chinese biz in terms of volume. But Hyundai has to match increased capacity with improved sales numbers. The Korean firm’s sales were down 20 percent last year, and Chairman Chung Mong-koo has set the ambitious goal of increasing sales in the Middle Kingdom by 64 percent this year and by 100 percent by 2010. The new plant should help meet this goal, says Chung, as its economies of scale should help lower costs and increased capacity means more vehicles can be tailored to the Chinese market. With Chinese sales booming, the opportunity exists for Hyundai to score big sales. With commodity prices rising however, it remains to be seen whether the extra investment actually translates into improved profitability.

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The Chevy Impala showed a 1.8 percent gain in sales in March. At the first of April, GM only had a 21-day supply on the lots. The factory in Oshawa, Ontario has been running three shifts with Saturday overtime for several months. So why are they suddenly cutting back on production? An industry source (yes, we have them too) tells us that GM’s canceled Saturday overtime and laid off the third shift until further notice. Rumor has it the American Axle strike is affecting the plant; although it wasn’t previously identified as one threatened by a parts shortage. The more likely scenario: Chevy’s filled all its Impala fleet orders. With overall sales down 11.1 percent for the year, and the distinct possibility that Malibu sales are (as predicted) cannibalizing the Impala, GM’s simply slowing Impala production to meet retail demand (or lack thereof). The sales numbers over the next few months will throw some light on the truth of the matter. We’ll keep you posted.

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Speaking to The New York Times, Republican Senator Charles E Grassley made no secret of his contempt for “foreign officials” at a Washington conference on food prices. Grassley says biofuels are not to blame for recent food price spikes and the resulting political instability (e.g. Haiti’s riots). “He questioned why they were not also blaming a drought in Australia that reduced the wheat crop and the growing demand for meat in China and India. ‘You make ethanol out of corn,’ he said. ‘I bet if I set a bushel of corn in front of any of those delegates, not one of them would eat it.’ Equally unsurprising (if slightly more conciliatory), the president of The National Corn Grower’s Association says ethanol production has a minor impact on food prices and supply. “There’s no question that they are a factor,” admits Ron Litterr. “But they are really a smaller factor than other things that are driving up prices.” Yes, well, the Old Gray Lady reports that “a fifth of the nation’s corn crop is now used to brew ethanol for motor fuel, and as farmers have planted more corn, they have cut acreage of other crops, particularly soybeans. That, in turn, has contributed to a global shortfall of cooking oil.” So ethanol might not be “the” problem, but it’s “a” problem. And that’s going to get… better?

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This briefly caught my attention. There was some stuff about cleaning your engine and valves but I didn’t really wake up until Ferrari F1 test driver Marc Gene did some laps in last year’s F1 car. Alone on the Fiorano track, which is partly surfaced with Shell minerals, that wonderful car really rammed home the value of an F1 tie-in. Then they ran it on forecourt-quality road car V-Power and it didn’t make any discernable difference.

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I heard an upbeat tale from Jonathan Nash, responsible for Saab and Cadillac in UK, earlier. Well, you would expect him to be upbeat I guess. One thing I will say - the guy is very keen to communicate with the media and that’s not something I always find when I interview senior execs. He also spoke pretty candidly about a couple of things - like, say, future product or past mistakes - where I’ve seen others in similar situations prefer to back off. There’s a good product story with Saab on its way - new 9-5, 9-4 crossover (replacing the somewhat cynical rebadging for the US in the 9-7x ‘TrollBlazer’, the 9-4 will be based on the rather fetching 9-4x concept, with proper Saab design cues, will be made in Mexico and will sell in Europe) and a 9-1 around 2012. GM appears to be finally getting the Saab product act together now and new segments will mean higher sales. Russelsheim for Saabs? He had a good answer on that. 

And the product development at Cadillac is now becoming much more attuned to global tastes, unlike previous European disasters.

Only trouble is, the interview running for much longer than I was expecting, I’ve got one heck of a lot of interview transcript to wade through.

One thing about both Saab and Caddy. In Europe, they are left-field choices for people who don’t want, say, a BMW or Merc. A quirky choice. But as Mr Nash said, much lower volume than the big Germans can be turned to your advantage in terms of things like the dealer experience.

Overall, maybe Saab isn’t the busted flush it seemed not so long ago. In any case, who’d buy it off GM - it’s not exactly a sellers market for unwanted brands right now.

GM really has no option but to put some money in and maintain the brand, sweat the asset a bit. And when you are coming off a very low base (loyal Saab customers are out there and never went away) growing volume in the future on the back of some new product maybe doesn’t sound so daunting. Same with Caddy, though I remain a little more sceptical about Cadillac’s chances in Europe.

At the end I did a quick video clip in his office. 

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DETROIT — General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz’s FastLane blog apparently has been such a hit that Saturn couldn’t help spinning off a version of its own. The Saturn blog and social network site went live on Monday.

Saturn General Manager Jill Lajdziak introduced the blog, saying “I plan to post there periodically, along with many Saturn team members.” She added: “You’ll find news about Saturn and see photos and videos you haven’t seen anywhere else.”

The new Saturn site features Saturn Astra slot-car racing, a 200,000-plus-miles group, Ion forums and the Saturn Tuners club. Erin Cochran, the self-described “newest member of the Saturn marketing team,” blogs about “My First Big Person Job.” The first 400 members will get a free T-shirt. “You can also start your own blog or your own group, or join other groups, and upload your own photos and videos,” Lajdziak said.

What this means to you: A new way for you to interact with other people who are nuts about Saturn, while getting a more direct pipeline to the powers that be at the GM brand. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent

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The passenger and luggage compartment on the BMW X6 are distinctly separated from one another in the usual style one would expect of a fully-fledged coupe. Offering almost 25.6 cu ft of storage space, the luggage compartment behind the rear seats of the BMW X6 is far larger than in a conventional coupe, providing enough space to store four full-size golf bags in the luggage compartment-even with four people riding in the vehicle.

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