What Classic Car

The car business is big business—very big business. And charting the changes from year to year can be a little tough.

But when investment banks get involved, their goal is to be absolutely sure of what’s on the horizon to keep investors interested in the right companies, referencing knowledge of future products and the market overall. Heavy hitter Bank of America and Merrill Lynch did some homework, and they think Ford’s gonna be the one to beat in the U.S.

In a report called “Car Wars,” which they publish annually, the banks say that the 2012 to 2016 prospectus for Ford shows 106 percent of their products being revised or replaced in the near term. How can there be more than 100 percent? Easy. It means Ford’s adding some new, not-yet-seen vehicles to its lineups including the 2014 Lincoln MKD small crossover, 2014 MKC small sedan, and what they’re calling the 2016 Lincoln Aviator large crossover that will likely replace the Navigator or MKT. Filling in the gaps will be the new 2013 Ford C-Max, Transit commercial van, and redesigned versions of almost all the current Ford cars but the Focus, Explorer, and Flex.

The investment analysts say Ford will have one of the youngest model lineups on the market along with Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and the Korean brands. But the Korean brands will be coming out with fewer and fewer new products, according to the information used by the investment firms, suggesting their share of the market will actually decline. And the market will be tightening up with redesigns and refreshes driving new vehicle sales. Meaning the old expression “He who has the most toys wins” will have a certain amount of validity to it in the next few years.

Looking at the report with a certain amount of skepticism, it’s hard to take it all as gospel. Save for another dip in the recession, all indications point to the auto market rebounding to pre-2008 levels in the not-too-distant future, but with a caveat: Customers are going to want more for their dollars, suggesting the Korean brands aren’t as bad off as Merrill Lynch and BoA are reporting. They may not maintain market share, but if they don’t, it’ll only be because the market is growing at a faster rate than their sales.

Additionally, most of the product rollouts the investment firms are mentioning are speculative. There are some obvious omissions on the list of redesigned (2014 Kia Sedona) and some pretty obvious additions that may take a little more than a spoonful of sugar to go down, such as Volkswagen bringing its pint-sized Polo to the U.S. next year. We’re sure their insiders parsed through PR jargon like the rest of us to get some of their information, but a good bit of it seems to be prodded along in a bubble of enthusiasm—sort of like BoA’s outlook on derivatives of subprime loans back in the 2000s.

It’s fun to look at, and we think there’s a modicum of validity that demonstrates the notion of a resurrection of the American Big Three in the U.S. But we get that from using some common sense—not by trying to establish something that isn’t there. But then again, investment firms have historically been very, very good at the latter.

Click here to see the full report. A subscription may be required.

Source: Automotive News

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Article source: http://blogs.automotive.com/future-cars-charted-ford-to-change-almost-entire-lineup-between-2013-and-2016-95083.html

Written by: Jacob Brown
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on
May 17 2012 10:00 AM

When we journalist folk are gathered up at meetings before getting to drive new cars, there’s inevitably some louse in the back of the room who will raise his hand and ask if the automaker will eventually offer a diesel engine/manual transmission/cool feature available in European cars or some other far-fetched feature unavailable in the U.S.

The answer most often turns out to be some tapdance around saying the word “No” or simply that word: No.

But that’s not the case in Kia’s camp. Efficientautomobile.com posted an article discussing the 1.7-liter turbocharged diesel four-cylinder engine the automaker sells in Europe in its 2012 Kia Optima midsize sedan. That engine musters only 134 horsepower but makes up for it with 244 lb-ft of torque, a pretty big number for such a little engine. But that’s not why people buy diesels; that would be fuel economy. The diesel-powered Kia Optima is good for nearly 40 mpg in U.S. gallons on the European combined cycle. For comparison’s sake, the standard, non-turbo Optima gets a combined score of 28 mpg, while the Optima Hybrid gets 37 mpg.

Kia Motors Public Relations asked its Facebook fans if they’d drive one, of which there’s now a long list of affirmatives. That’s to be expected with the whinnying fanboys of diesels in the U.S. who feel they’ve been slighted for the last 20 years after U.S. automakers scarred a stigma of unreliability into the buying masses.

Usually an automaker would brush off diesel engine wishes, but there’s a chance Kia’s PR team could be sending out a feeler for whether the automaker should bring over its oil burner Optima to the U.S. Or it could be Kia just messing with its U.S. constituency.

There are a few points for and against Kia bringing a diesel engine to the U.S., including the automaker’s current inability to satisfy demand with the Optima as it is, the fact that it already sells an Optima Hybrid, and the fact that diesel engines are expensive to produce. But speaking with Kia’s vice president of marketing and communications, Michael Sprague, earlier this year, he said the automaker will be drawing from international plants to meet some of its demand for U.S.-bound Optimas 2013, as its Georgia facility is at capacity. Those plants also build Kia Optima sedans with diesel engines, making the idea all the more feasible.

Source: Kia Motors Public Relations via Facebook

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Article source: http://blogs.automotive.com/kia-asks-customers-if-they-want-a-diesel-powered-optima-sedan-in-u-s-94965.html

The picture you’re looking at with the Audi was taken on flat land. The Aud R8 LMS above was riding a track with an incredible 60-degree banked corner.

Now that we have your attention with that tidbit, here’s your unusually present update of race cars simply too awesome to ignore. We’re saving the Audi for last just so you have to read through everything else, though. It’s not like you should mind; Toyota, Maserati, and Audi are all up to some pretty cool stuff.

Toyota’s news comes as perhaps the most profound and prolific, fielding a team of cars this weekend for the Nurburgring 24 Hours endurance race in Germany. Toyota’s Gazoo Racing will field two Toyota GT86 coupes—what we know in the U.S. as the 2013 Scion FR-S—and a Lexus LFA. Toyota Swiss Racing Team will enter two additional GT86s under its own devices and at a much lower budget level. Along with LeMans, Daytona, and several other premier races, the Nurburgring 24 Hours has become one of the most elite races in the world, now celebrating its 40th year. The only difference is that it covers a 13-mile track and allows more than 200 cars to enter each year. Lexus, for its part, raced the LFA when it was still a prototype, fully competitive, but strictly for evaluation to make it a better sports car. Talk about racetrack to showroom.

Slightly less exciting, yet still plenty noteworthy, the 2012 Maserati Trofeo MC World Series kicks off this weekend in at the Jarama circuit in Spain. Unlike that heathen race in Germany at the Nurburgring, this one’s only open to gentlemen of discerning tastes ans sizable bank accounts—like at least one in Switzerland. Twenty-five teams representing 12 countries will be driving the newly improved 2012 Maserati GranTurismo MC Trofeo through the U.S., China, and Spain over the course of the summer and fall. Surprisingly, while they’ll be driving in the U.S. at Infineon in September, none of the teams hail from this land of liberty. Oh well…

But while we’re on the topic of Spain and Germany, we’ll close this one out with a video of a Spaniard driving in Spain in a German car. Carlos Sainz was perhaps one of the world’s best rally car drivers during his 18-year professional career. In a video in which we understand hardly a word, he drive’s Redbull’s Audi R8 LMS race car around Spain’s abandoned Autodromo Terramar race track, a complex constructed for international racing in the 1920s but abandoned due to financial turmoil. Yet, due to its integrity, it’s withstood the test of time, allowing Sainz and touring car driver Miguel Molina the chance to drive on the relic. We’re not going to spoil it for you, but even if you can’t understand a lick of Spanish, the video is well worth your time.

Sources: Toyota, Maserati, Redbull via YouTube

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Article source: http://blogs.automotive.com/race-car-roundup-toyota-headed-to-germany-maserati-to-spain-and-audi-kicks-it-old-school-94783.html

Officially, the U.S. recession ended two years ago. Corporations, apparently, have not caught the news, busily reaping the benefits of their newly purchased government representatives or reorganizing as their executives soar away on their golden parachutes.

The auto industry seems to be the sole exception. One of the last major manufacturing industries still left in the U.S. (have you checked where your smartphones and TVs are built?), the “Detroit Three” — Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors — have been building products that even the most ardent American car-phobic fanboy admits are actually, well, decent.

Chrysler, Ford, and GM are on hiring sprees to meet the demand. The latter is hiring 600 new employees to staff the second shift of its Lansing, Michigan, plant. While any company hiring is newsworthy, the Lansing news is exceptional because the employees are brand-spanking new, having never worked directly for GM.

You see, most auto workers are union members whose bylaws require Chrysler, Ford, and GM to hire its members first for a job opening. GM spokesperson Bill Grotz, though, states all eligible laid-off members have already been considered and offered employment.

Over 450 of the new positions at the Lansing facility have been filled, though applicants for all 600 positions have been selected, i.e., don’t waste your time submitting your resume. The new hires are training to assemble the all-new Cadillac ATS which go on sale in August this year. The new employees’ starting salaries range between $15 to $17.50 an hour plus benefits, roughly half of other GM employees in similar jobs.

Autmotive.com’s take: While industry news like this may induce yawns, the takeaway here is that Cadillac is already adding a shift to its production facility before it actually begins producing any vehicles. Translation: GM thinks its luxury division has a hit on its hands, and from what we’ve seen of the new ATS, we’re inclined to agree.

Source: Detroit News

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Article source: http://blogs.automotive.com/recessions-over-gm-hires-new-employees-not-laid-off-workers-to-build-cadillac-ats-94673.html