Ram had the first modern Class 1 pickup with a diesel — a VM engine originally created partly for General Motors. Ford and Chevy were caught flat-footed. Then came an emissions scandal, thanks, it seems, to placing too much trust in suppliers. Eventually, Ram got their engine certified for 2018 trucks, […]
Elon Musk rose from riches to more riches by being one of the creators of an online payment system. It was not a “save-the-world” project, but an opportunistic one. Since then, his main legacy has been the Tesla electric car company, which has made a profit in just two quarters […]
Ford sold 522,087 F-series trucks in the USA from January to July 2018. If that figure doesn’t stun you, consider that full-line sales of Subaru and Volkswagen were just 382,286 and 365,799 in the same period. Hyundai-Kia’s full line sales were 733,474 — less than Ford F-series plus Ram pickup/chassis cab sales. […]
Remember Genesis, Hyundai’s luxury-challenger brand that was going to wipe the floor with all the other large cars, especially that old Chrysler 300C? Without a crossover in the lineup, Genesis has been plummeting in US sales. This July, for example, they sold just 615 Genesis car, down 63% from last […]
Congratulations, Mr. Manley — or is it Mike? — on taking over Fiat Chrysler. I admit I don’t know you well, since we met just once (you didn’t seem impressed; I guess my digital recorder exploding didn’t help). It’s clear you’re driven by both customers and business issues, and that […]
It’s always interesting to see how writing about cars focuses most on the vehicles that matter least. A car like the Corvette or Maserati GranTurismo will attract acres of verbiage, while the cars that people buy by the hundred-thousand, like the Corolla and Cruze get little attention at all. This […]
Much has been made of automakers dropping their sedans. FCA started the trend, ending the Dart and 200, and Ford followed with its own announcements; and then GM said it would drop one of its small Chevys. But is the death of the sedan overstated? The most popular sedans, coming […]
Compact and midsize sedans sales are falling fast. So are diesel sedan sales. Why not combine the two and do a compact diesel sedan? Chevrolet must have a good market for the diesel Cruze, since it’s been making them for quite some time. The 2019s get a 1.6 liter version, […]
It was all the rage, decades ago — automakers splitting off their parts units, seeking both higher efficiency (since the parts division now had to compete, and report on a separate P&L) and greater sales to other automakers. Delco, Acustar, and Autolite joined Denso in having a large degree of […]
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