is taking the steps necessary to right its financial ship, but when a patient has this kind of issue, the cure can hurt just as much. The small, independent carmaker has been hurt by its relatively and the strength of the yen, the loss of as a noteworthy stakeholder and the resulting . Mazda is expected to post a $1.2 billion loss for its 2011 financial year, which is smaller than earlier estimates but it’s still the fourth losing year in a row and the largest in a decade.
The need to act has forced Mazda North America into a five-month plan to shed a number of its 701 employees for leaner running. Select employees will be offered a buyout package, and if voluntary uptake isn’t sufficient then involuntary dismissals will occur. The timeline begins this month with lump-sum offers, followed by layoffs at the end of May if necessary, and the stretch to August will see the transition of personnel into the restructured organization.
Mazda is also issuing shares to raise $1.9 billion in order to aid its position and get production started in Mexico and Thailand. It is also aggressively seeking a partner and considering licensing its SkyActiv technology.
When Cerberus Capital Management owned , it put former CEO Bob Nardelli in charge of The Pentastar. When Nardelli left, shortly after Chrysler came out of bankruptcy, he stepped across the corporate drawbridge and into , heading its . Now, Bloomberg reports that he’s leaving that role in order to focus on his own investment and consulting firm, XLR-8, although he’ll remain a senior advisor to Cerberus CEO Stephen Feinberg. Nardelli will also give up the , a position he’s held for two months at the Cerberus-owned firearms maker.
This is Nardelli’s third departure in five years, having left The Home Depot in 2007 and Chrysler in 2009, but this time it’s without any obvious controversy after a quiet tenure. His own firm, XLR-8, will keep him in the private equity ranks, as his company’s mission is “to raise money to acquire underperforming companies, and to help them operate more profitably and improve their enterprise value.” He will maintain a connection to Cerberus through his own company, with the private equite house expected to transactions.
Dodge has officially unveiled the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Charger, and as you can see in the image above, tweeted by at the ceremony, it follows in the footsteps of the , with styling and detailing that’s more true to the street car than the generic silhouettes being run by all teams this season.
that at the ceremony, SRT CEO Ralph Gilles was upbeat about the new race car’s prospects for next season, saying that there’s already a lot of interest from different Cup outfits, and that he expects to announce which team or teams will be running the car in 2013 by mid-summer.
The new car’s unveiling puts a more upbeat spin on an otherwise down week for Doge and SRT’s motorsports arm, which absorbed a punch to the gut when after this season to campaign the new NASCAR Ford Fusion in the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
After all the pre-race ceremonies concluded, the new racer hit the track to for today’s Kobalt 400 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Scott Burgess, former auto critic for The Detroit News, has joined the AOL Autos / Autoblog team. He is a veteran automotive journalist with six years in Detroit covering the auto industry and a Michigan native. Each month he’ll dig deeper into the industry’s sales figures and file this By The Numbers special report.
Now that I’ve figured out how to open my email, what in fact my email address is, and where the office is, I’ve been able to catch my breath and go through the February sales figures.
Lots of people were excited over the February sales numbers, which were the highest since 2009, declaring the end of tough times and announcing only big profits ahead.
Then again, that may not be exactly true. Yes, it was a 15-million-a-year sales pace, outperforming everyone’s expectations with sales jumping 15.7 percent compared to the same month last year. But people are waiting to buy cars like never before. The average age of a vehicle on the road is over 10 years old, a trend growing for nearly 20 years, according to a Polk research firm study. Polk says that people are just hanging onto vehicles longer because they’re worried about the economy. To think about how different times were 10.8 years ago – Motor Co. had just (re)introduced the all new Fabulous , which, someone is holding onto right now.
So the depression/recession party may not be over, but times are still good. Here are the things I learned by examining the February sales figures.
1. LOTS OF PEOPLE WANT CARS
This February, cars outsold trucks 53.3 to 46.7 percent.
Throughout the industry, car sales jumped 23.9 percent compared to February last year. (Truck sales rose 7.6 percent.)
There are lots of reasons for the jump, though my gut says that people buying new vehicles are also listening to the fear mongering concerning climbing gas prices. Don’t expect either trend to end any time soon.
A more important trend might be that in February 2011, trucks outsold cars 50.3 percent to 49.7 percent. This February, cars outsold trucks 53.3 percent to 46.7 percent.
However, the big difference between 2008 and 2012, the last time gas prices skyrocketed, are that Detroit’s carmakers have a solid collection of little cars ranging from the and to the and soon-to-be released . More on the later. The key for Detroit is to see if people associate fuel efficient vehicles with those brands. When times get tough, people tend to go with the brands they assume are the most efficient, even when they’re not.
Form follows function, so it’s easy to find one element of a vehicle that explains everything you need to know about it.
Look at the widened haunches of a and you know there’s serious hardware in the Porsche’s rump. Check the elongated bed of an and its obvious the should be roaming free on the ranch. Look at a … Actually, don’t. It’s for your own good.
So when I opened the door to the , a single feature stood out: the cupholder. Encircled in a chrome ring and mounted dead-center in the massive armrest, this lone receptacle was the defining feature of the interior. As it should be. The Prius is the commensurate commuter and the V variant’s raised roof and enlarged hatch make it even more practical for Mommy and Daddy carpool duty. At least in theory.
has announced that it’s recalling 209,724 models for lower control arms that may fracture due to rust. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration says the recall covers certain vehicles manufactured between July 3, 2003 and July 14 2005, which were originally sold or are currently registered in states with a high probability of rust.
In the right conditions, the lower control arms could rust to the point of fracture, leading to a loss of control and a potential accident. Reuters reports Chrysler is unaware of any accidents caused by the defect.
The automaker intends to notify owners and begin the recall by the end of April this year. Those vehicles covered by the campaign will have their control arms replaced free of charge. for the full recall notice.
Like pretty much any driver, we’ve had our share of car trouble over the years, both with vehicles loaned to us for review by automakers and our own private rides. What we haven’t experienced is being the first media outlet to plunk down over $100,000 for a luxury plug-inhybrid, only to have it konk out before we even put 200 miles on it.
That “honor” goes to Consumer Reports and their brand new , which broke down during calibration tests, just a few days into CR’s ownership period. After the dashboard flashed a warning, the driver stopped to see what was wrong, and then couldn’t get the PHEV into gear again. Self-repairs (i.e., let’s leave it alone for an hour and see what happens) didn’t work and the manual was no help, so the nearby dealer sent out a flatbed truck to haul the Karma away. As CR writes:
We buy about 80 cars a year and this is the first time in memory that we have had a car that is undriveable before it has finished our check-in process.
The Karma’s problems are widespread. It has been plagued by a variety of problems, including two recalls, one for a and one for , following a long delay getting the car to market. Owners commenting on the FiskerBuzz forum are also . Not exactly behavior that leads to a “Recommended” rating.
There are a lot of ways to describe the Valmet Dawn you see pictured above, but our favorite could be mouthed by Keanu Reeves: Whoa. And then we would expand it to WTF? As in, “Whoa the F?”
That’s because Valmet Automotive – the makers of the , among other vehicles – has wrapped its electric vehicle engineering chops in what is perhaps the most impractical and odd-looking concept vehicle we’ve ever seen. The Dawn concept is meant to show that Valmet can both research and develop EV components like drivetrains and batteries and put them together into a vehicle, a two-prong approach that Valmet says is a new strategic focus area for the company. With that in mind, perhaps it not a total surprise that Valmet hasn’t released any sort of information about the range, power or really any real-world details about the Dawn. Like, for example, what’s that blue disc in front? An inductive charger? A 21st Century cow catcher? An Identity Disc?
Valmet says this test bed vehicle “integrates both the component developer and integrator roles. Displaying the battery pack, drivetrain, control unit and charging options, it also shows what ultimately can be achieved in the world of electric mobility, by integrating solutions in an innovative fashion.” Innovative. Yeah, that’s the word.
Carbon Motors, maker of the purpose-built E7 police car, won’t receive the $310 million in U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) loans under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) program that it applied for almost three years ago, and said that it’s a victim of politics.
“We are outraged by the actions of the DOE and it is clear that this was a political decision in a highly-charged, election year environment,” Carbon Motors William Santana Li said in a statement. The company added that it was “actively examining its strategic and financing alternatives.”
Carbon Motors says its vehicles will save government entities money because they get better fuel economy and they’re purpose-built, meaning that factory vehicles don’t need to be retrofitted. Carbon Motors has said its diesel-powered cars may cut law-enforcement fuel use and greenhouse-gas emissions by as much as 40 percent, and that building such cars may create as many as 10,000 jobs. The car was to feature a BMW 3.0-liter turbodiesel engine.
The company says it’s received about $200 million worth of financial commitments from private and public sources and has taken orders from more than 500 law-enforcement agencies for more than 20,000 cars.
Last December, the company urging the Obama Administration to push the DOE to approve the loan.
The federal loan process has vexed other automotive companies. Bright Automotive, which was to make extended-range plug-in utility vehicles, publicly pleaded with the government to process its application for a $400 million loan in January. Last month, that company .
Meanwhile, , maker of the extended-range plug-in sports sedan , has been fielding questions about its future after the company in early February and halted production. Fisker has received less than $200 million of the $529 million loan it was slated to get from the DOE.
Please excuse us while we banish thoughts of – Magna; MILA… Uma; Oprah – and instead focus on what this concept car brings to the table. This is , the Austrian arm of Canadian auto parts giant Magna International, and it’s meant to showcase the capabilities of the supplier.
First and foremost, the MILA Coupic’s two-door crossover shape can convert into a convertible or a pickup truck, depending on the configuration of the rear seat. There’s seating for as many as five occupants in full CUV mode, and the two glass roof elements can be opened or closed independently.
The MILA Coupic is an impressive engineering exercise, and, since Magna builds such production machines as the , Fiat 500C and , it’s one that could potentially see a roadway near you at some point in the not-too-distant future. See for yourself in our image gallery above, and read more in the official press release .
General Motors wants to become the second-largest shareholder in PSA Peugeot Citroen, and the gears of are beginning to mesh. It cost General Motors $423 million to buy into PSA, and the companies will remain competitors despite lashing their rafts together.
Both automakers would like to net cost savings over the course of the initial 10-year term of the partnership by leveraging their collective purchasing power for better prices from suppliers and also sharing economies of scale. GM and PSA are also looking to create vehicles, powertrains and/or components together within the next four years. The two companies have already started work on developing a low-cost small car to sell in emerging markets, and GM is looking to hook up with Peugeot’s Gefco logistics arm, as well.
has been forced down in value by the company issuing new shares for General Motors to buy, facilitating the deal. Peugeot has also suspended paying a dividend this year to keep cash on hand, further upsetting shareholders and the market in general. Market watchers suspect that any cost savings may be slow in coming, and there’s little detail of how GM and PSA intend to address both companies’ overcapacity problem in Europe or how they intend to find compromises with the typically strong labor unions there, as well.
Still, the hopeful need only look to for an example of the potential upside. Of course, GM’s deal with Fiat, which started in 2000 and ended with a , is a reminder of just one of the ways the bloom could fall off this rose.
If you live in a warm weather state and haven’t experienced icy roads before, we’ve got some video that will show you what your northern friends have been talking about. Actually, if you’re a veteran of snow and ice, own a four-wheel-drive vehicle and don’t slow down when it’s slippery because you think your 4-high is infallible, we really have a video for you.
We’re thinking the good people of Columbus, Ohio know a thing or three about driving on snow and ice, but even the Buckeyes have trouble with black ice. to watch several trucks and SUVs slip, slide and wreck themselves when encountering a patch of the invisible slick. It’s too bad whoever was holding the camera didn’t have the sense to put it down and go warn oncoming motorists to slow down.
Obscure as it may have been (and remains still) to most motorheads on the western shores of the Atlantic, the original Cisitalia 202 was (and endures as) an icon in automotive design. It was fluid, harmonious, and looked as though it were carved by wind from a single bar of soap. The modern interpretation you see here, however, is a far cry.
Designed by the students in transportation design at the IED in Turin, Italy, the was unveiled here on the floor of the to a largely indifferent audience. You can’t fault the students or their school for that, because there’s just so much going on here. But then it doesn’t do much to stand out, either.
Suffice it to say that some of the projects – namely the – undertaken by previous graduating classes caught our attention in a better way. See what we mean in the gallery of live images above.
Those are the names of the four new Up! models that has to the , the latest expansion of the supermini that by now has than the United States of Tara.
You might think the Swiss Up! is named for the its Geneva debut location, but instead it’s all about versatility, like a Swiss Army knife. We couldn’t get a view inside the car, but the name association is taken to the extreme with knife holders on the backs of the front seats. How’s that for practical?
The Cargo version is a bit more self-explanatory, turning the small car into a reasonable delivery vehicle that will carry 49 cubic-feet of goods. The X Up!, on the other hand, is designed for adventure, with searchlights and a roof box. The Winter Up! comes ready for the mountain slopes with snowboards on the roof and a higher ride height to clear icy hurdles.
None of these clever new concepts will be available when the first Up! model goes on sale in Europe this week, but they do show that VW is serious about thinking outside the standard econobox. The Swiss Up! is the snazzy red one pictured above, and you can see all four models in the galleries we’ve included from the show floor.
introduces four new Up! concepts, because we didn’t have enough already
The production team from Korea averted a serious disaster after a helicopter used during filming crashed into the Arizona desert. Amazingly, both the pilot and the camera person escaped the incident relatively unharmed. CNN reports that the pair credit their survival to the thick exterior of the retired military chopper.
to watch the video of the actual crash. The footage only reveals the last few seconds before the impact, but the aftermath video shows a chopper that is wrecked nearly beyond recognition. We’re amazed and thrilled that nobody was seriously injured.
In grand tradition, is producing another Grand Edition. This time they’re taking the already high-end, high-price, high-style coupe and making something God himself might be seen driving. If he could afford it. And if he were European because we Yanks probably won’t get the chance to buy one.
Creation of the opulent CL Grand Edition probably takes Mercedes much longer than six days since “handcrafted” and “hand-finished” are used to describe the transformation a CL coupe (either the 550 or 600) undergoes to get the Grand Edition badge. This package is more than just a badge. There’s also the choice of three “designo paint finishes” of platinum black metallic, mocha black metallic and for an extra $2,000 the matte magno cashmere white. AMG furnishes front, rear and side sill panels to give it that high-paid sports star look.
Inside, the handcrafted is available in black, porcelain and armagnac to go with the CL’s standard burl walnut or black ash trim.
Underhood is the CL’s bi-turbo 4.6 liter V8 gushing out 435 hp or the CL600’s 5.5 liter, bi-turbo V12 with 517 hp. With that kind of power, will never fail you.
If the Grand Edition were available in the States, all the extra luxury would add about $6,400 to the price, not including that unshiny white paint. A wise man might say it’s a true bargain considering the special edition only adds about 5% to the base $115,000 price tag.
The has officially dropped the “Concept” portion of its name. Making the most of the rear quarters in the , the boffins at have installed power-folding wood veneer picnic tables that are topped by iPads and Bluetooth wireless keyboards, additionally controlled by Apple’s Magic trackpads. In the armrest are a telephone and a Tibaldi pen, and in the trunk is a Mac Mini computer.
None of that counts the eight-inch screens in the headrests or the 15.6-inch screen that drops from the roof. Those are controlled by the Bentley app installed on the iPads, with listening handled by Bluetooth headphones.
It takes 170 hours for the craftsmen to complete the work of installation, and if you need to ask how much their time adds to the cost of a Mulsanne, then you already know the answer. More details in the press release .
Sending an all-electric vehicle up Pikes Peak is not new – a and a custom EV from – but that shouldn’t stop anyone from trying to reach the 14,110-foot height in Colorado better, faster and in a cooler car.
Enter and a radically reworked all-electric Prototype that will participate in the 2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb this July. Based on sketches released today, the car is a one-seat racer the certainly looks ready for on-track duty. It also looks nothing like the bean-shaped i-MiEV we’ve grown accustomed to. We’re certainly curious how well it’ll make the peak, since the powertrain is made up of “the same EV components as the current production i-MiEV” and it’ll be piloted by well-known driver Hiroshi Masuoka, who won the Dakar Rally in 2002 and 2003 behind the wheels of a Mitsubishi Pajero and Pajero Evolution, respectively.
The idea here, of course, isn’t just to have a good time. Mitsubishi will “use the data obtained through its participation in the event to enhance the durability and reliability of pure EVs and plug-inhybrid EVs which it will be bringing to market in the near future.” Read: , the and the .
Being a spy shooter is tough work. It’s all about being in the right place at the right time, hoping to train one’s lens on a glimpse of verboten sheetmetal. We know from our colleagues that it’s hard enough to just catch a blurry glimpse of a distant mule when the quarry doesn’t want to be photographed, making this series of photos from our friends at CarPix that much more remarkable.
Not only have they captured a cold weather testing in the frigid Arctic Circle, their shutters were snapping as the test driver lost control and went sailing through an intersection and into a snowbank, documenting the crash frame-by-frame. Fortunately for all those involved, the snow wasn’t packed too hard and both driver and emerged miraculously unscathed.
Apparently not happy with his good fortune, CarPix reports that “the driver then leaped out of the car, nearly falling down in the process, and came at our photographer in a fairly aggressive manner.”
Thankfully, the embarrassment and anger was short-lived, as a winch-equipped came to the rescue. Seeing that his nearly $400,000 test subject was unharmed, the driver apparently cooled off enough to give our man a thumbs up before going on his way.
is no stranger to achieving lofty goals, whether it’s summiting one of the world’s tallest mountains or traversing expanses of its most barren wilderness. But this time, it has reached another milestone altogether as the millionth (sold in the States as the ) has rolled off the marque’s West Midlands production line.
The achievement was reached just the other day at the JLR assembly plant at Solihull near Birmingham, England, expedited as it was by a 20 percent workforce expansion over the last six months to keep up with demand for the 45,000 units sold across 170 markets in the last year alone. But rather than consigning the capable luxury SUV straight to the museum or selling it to an waiting customer, Land Rover has more philanthropic plans in mind for the landmark vehicle.
To mark the occasion, Land Rover is embarking on an 8,000-mile expedition across thirteen countries over 50 days, starting in Birmingham and ending in Beijing. The epic transcontinental road trip – being undertaken in the very same millionth Discovery built – is earmarked to raise £1 million ($1.95M) for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the most ambitious fundraising project the British automaker has ever undertaken. Follow the jump for the full press release.
