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2011 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe Previewed And Spied In Testing
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2010 Lamborghini Gallardo LP550-2 Spied During Testing
Report: 2010 Audi Ur-Quattro Draws Nearer To Reality
The VFACTS figures for March 2009 are in and despite the overall Australian new car market having fallen by 19.2 percent compared to March sales 2008, sales of the two most popular locally-built large cars are doing okay.
Down, but definitely not out.
Compared to March 2008 sales figures, the Falcon and Commodore were down 14.3 percent and 11.1 percent [...]
Despite stories you may have seen or heard, it is not news that General Motors has stated its plans to persist with the Holden-developed Zeta platform until at least 2020.
Whether those plans survive beyond 60 days and the presentation to the Obama administration of GM’s new restructuring plan is, however, uncertain.
We reported on January 19 [...]
It is getting near the end of the penny-section for GM and Chrysler. President Barack Obama has given GM two months to prove its viability, and Chrysler one month to complete its merger with Fiat. Failure on either count will see the two giant automakers cut adrift from further Federal loan funding and left to [...]
There is nothing new in the announcement from GM’s auditors that there is “substantial doubt” about the giant automaker’s viability as a company. Who didn’t know that?
In producing its report GM’s auditors Deloitte & Touche are only doing what auditors do: running a cold blood-less eye over the integrity and accuracy of the books, casting [...]
General Motors Corporation’s announced Restructuring Plan that has been presented to the US Federal Treasury contains some grim reading for GM’s global operations. GM has proposed cutting 47,000 jobs; 20,000 of these from its US operations (after having already cut tens of thousands of jobs there), the remainder from its global operations.
Certainly, Saab and Opel/Vauxhall, [...]
GM US’s restructuring plan, posted on the US Treasury website, will make unpalatable reading for the US Administration and long-suffering US tax-payers (those still in jobs and paying tax that is).
In it, GM outlines plans to cut costs and to reduce its global workforce by 47,000, including yet more cuts to its US workforce with [...]
European automotive industry research and statistics company, Jato Dynamics, today reported a 26 percent decline in European new car sales for January.
Every market is down, Iceland in free-fall with an 88.1 percent decline and Ireland not far behind, recording a 66.3 percent decline. Of the biggest markets, France has fared best with just a 7.9 [...]
Many industry analysts - including the giant brains here at TMR – may have got things wrong on the effect of the withdrawal of GE and GMAC from new car dealer floorplan financing.
Why do we think so? Well, remember the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV)? It was a $2 billion pool set up by the Rudd [...]
Ford Credit Australia’s announcement that it is to withdraw from retail finance is a miserable act. Especially so because both Ford US and Ford Australia confirmed to Treasurer Swan that Ford Credit will remain in Australia and continue to provide financing to its dealer network.
The assurance was given prior to the Treasurer’s announcement in December [...]
Looking into the 2008 VFACTS Australian new vehicle sales figures is like analysing the entrails of a chicken – favoured, we’re told, by ancient Roman oracles for predicting the future.
Behind the VFACTS stats, once you start poking around in the giblets, you can discern the powerful trends that tell the real story of the state [...]
Guess… what was the top selling car in the US for 2008? Toyota Camry? Honda Accord maybe? Or that evergreen favourite, the Chevrolet Impala? Something smallish… would have to be, wouldn’t it?
Nope, no again… and no.
Top selling car in the US for 2008 was the Ford F150 with 515,513 total sales. Second place went to [...]
ADELAIDE, 22 December 2008. GM Holden today announced the production of a new locally-built four cylinder addition to the Holden line-up to be produced at its Elizabeth plant in South Australia. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, South Australian Premier Mike Rann, and Federal Industry Minister Kim Carr were on hand to underscore the importance of the [...]
The Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has released an Information Guide for Car Dealers on the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) funding facility, designed to fill the $2 billion floorplan financing ‘hole’ left by GE and GMAC’s exit from the dealer financing market.
He also appealed to GE and GMAC to “do the right thing” and continue to [...]
The US Senate has stymied the USD$14 billion bail-out package for the teetering US car industry.
With hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake both in vehicle manufacture and across the sector, and thousands of smaller component suppliers reliant on the industry now facing an uncertain future, be prepared for a tumble on Wall Street tomorrow.
The [...]
So, after three days of talks between Congressional Democrats and the Bush administration (still quacking, but one of the lamest ducks in the history of the species), Reuters is reporting that it has obtained a copy of the draft bill that is going to “save” US automakers.
“Save”, in fact, might be too strong. Such is [...]
Funny thing about blood in water. Turns sharks into a frenzy. Get a sniff of blood and sharks start thrashing around and chomping on each other’s arses. Remarkably, they lose track of the difference between ‘food’ and ‘an arse’. You’d reckon taste would be a bit of a give-away.
Whatever, the whole business is not a [...]
The Federal Treasurer, Mr Wayne Swan, today announced the establishment of a special fund to provide liquidity to car dealer financiers, and to car dealers, who have encountered financing difficulties as a result of the global credit crisis.
Many in the community are aware that the announced exit of GE and GMAC finance from the dealer [...]
In the clearest sign yet that consumer confidence has taken a dive, total new car sales for November are down 22 percent on the same period last year.
In figures released today by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (VFACTS figures), sales for November totalled 71,647 vehicles, down 20,434 vehicles against sales for November last year. [...]
Here at The Motor Report we’ve been sitting on what we thought was bomb-shell news: an impeccable source had informed us that Ford Australia, on direction from Ford Motor Company headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, would announce in February next year a progressive cessation of vehicle manufacture in this country.
In other words, we thought it was [...]
Ford Australia has announced today its Geelong Engine Plant, which currently produces Ford Australia’s brilliant in-line six-cylinder engine is to continue production post-2010. In a further unexpected twist, it will now be engineered for Euro IV compatibility.
Ford Australia is to invest $21 million in plant and equipment, and additional engineering investment to bring the I6 [...]
The bad news is set to worsen for the new car dealer sector. When GE and GMAC announced their intent to withdraw from dealer ‘floorplan’ financing, they set affected dealers a December 31 deadline to find alternative financing arrangements.
That deadline is coming at them like a train.
At least 30 percent, and possibly as many as [...]
The crisis affecting ‘floorplan’ credit to new car dealers is wider and deeper than many industry commentators realise. The withdrawal of credit services by GE and GMAC puts at risk potentially 30 percent or more of new car dealers in Australia. This problem has the potential to compound further as the future of other financiers [...]
The Federal Government today handed down its response to the Bracks Review of the Australian Automotive Industry at the Automotive Centre of Excellence in Melbourne. The Government’s response, ‘A New Car Plan For A Greener Future’, will provide a staggering $6.2 billion in assistance to local manufacturers over thirteen years. Of these grants, $3.4 billion [...]
There are shockwaves belting through the Australian new car dealer sector today with the announcement that GMAC Finance and, announced just minutes ago, GE Money, two major suppliers of wholesale finance to the new car sector, are pulling the pin.
For some new car dealers, this news will hit them like a baseball bat.
Many car buyers [...]
General Motors Corporation US, in merger talks with Chrysler (and more about that in a moment), has now put its crippled Hummer brand on the front of the lot, packaged for sale.
The problem for GM of course, is that while next to nobody wants to put a Hummer in the drive, buyers for the brand [...]
One Australian International Motor Show?
Don’t want to be seen ringing the bell too early, but not all appears hunky-dory with the Australian International Motor Show.
Crowd numbers over this weekend will tell the tale – it’s the only meaningful measure of success – but with reports that FCAI supremo Andrew McKellar was looking a tad [...]
Worrying times friends. Got the butcher’s paper and the red markers out… bit of a high-level think-tank on the go here at TMR Central. Seems we’re all short a global rescue plan at the moment.
The Steanster - he was thinking of pulling a focus group together until someone slapped his face and told him to [...]
Try telling Bill Gates and Michael Dell you can’t make money out of flogging tin to seppos. The two computer mega-nerds have been ‘swallowing up’ dealerships like spuds at an Irish breakfast, right across the US.
Do they know something we don’t?
Gates has stumped-up better than USD$100 million to bite off a 5.5 percent stake in [...]
The Minister for Innovation Industry Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr, today released the Bracks’ Review of the Australian Automotive Industry.
Industry groups including FCAI (Federated Chamber of Automotive Industries), and peak retail industry body, VACC, have urged caution by the Federal Government in responding to the Report’s key findings.
“The automotive industry urges the Federal [...]
Is it just me? Is the joy of owning a car similar to the joy of being whacked about the head with a fence paling?
As further proof that a dark malevolent force has clamped itself to the collective crotch, here’s another sign of the times: petrol pre-pay is now on the rise.
Pre-pay, brothers and sisters, [...]
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