Porsche grabs the top spot for the fifth year in a row in the J.D. Power and Associates 2009 Automotive Performance, Execution, and Layout (APEAL) Study. For this year’s study, the team at JDPA gathered information from more than 80,900 purchasers and lessees of new 2009 model-year cars and questioned them on [...]
The Chrysler Pacifica lasted all of four years before it was unceremoniously dumped from the Pentastar’s lineup. The Ford Freestyle endured a name change after three model years, then lasted two more as the Taurus X before being sent out to pasture. The Cadillac SRX lasted six years as a tall wagon before being completely [...]
Reader-submitted “Cars” Photoshops – Click above for image gallery
The styling of your vehicle makes a statement, of course. Designers spend years perfecting the craft of automotive sculpture, and are finely attuned to what types of shapes and conventions send a given message. Now, the researchers want to move in and figure out how to [...]
J.D. Power and Associates has released its 2009 Initial Quality Study (IQS) and Lexus has taken the top spot away from Porsche, the initial quality leader for the past three years. The annual J.D. Power study measures IQS based on problems reported per 100 vehicles (PP100) — a lower score means a lower rate of [...]
With General Motors in bankruptcy, it was only a matter of time before pensions came under scrutiny. The Detroit News is reporting that GM CEO Fritz Henderson has confirmed that executive pensions beyond $100,000 per year will be cut by two-thirds. Recently defenestrated boss Rick Wagoner will likely take the biggest hit of all – [...]
The benevolent-minded folks over at Good Magazine have commissioned infographic specialists Always With Honor to give us a little perspective on America’s recent rash of bankruptcies. Using the ’sinking ship’ metaphor to graphically show where the Chapter 11 filings of General Motors and Chrysler sit among the 20 biggest bankruptcies in U.S. history provides some [...]
America might get most of its oil from Canada, but the moves that OPEC makes still reverberate here. Thus, a statement by the Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmed al-Abdullah al-Sabah to reporters yesterday probably won’t help decrease domestic gasoline prices any time soon. OPEC’s al-Sabah said that the organization will not consider increasing production [...]
2008 Volkswagen Concept Pickup – Click above for a high-res gallery
Remember when Volkswagen just named their cars for different winds? Scirocco, Jetta, Corrado, Santana – they all had a certain clean, sweeping quality about them, even if it wasn’t immediately clear where the names came from. More recently, however, VW has gone further afield, invoking [...]
The die is cast: General Motors has filed for bankruptcy. As expected, the automotive giant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this morning in a New York court, listing $82 billion in assets and $172 billion in debts.
As we told you earlier, the century-old company will gain extensive assistance from the U.S. government, the former [...]
According to the BBC News, supplier Magna International has come to terms with General Motors to purchase a majority stake in its European Opel division. While an agreement has been reached between the two parties, the German government – which has agreed to provide financial assistance for Opel – needs to sign off on the [...]
Even though President Obama’s new national CAFE standards will lean on the stricter California standards for support and there was broad agreement that a national standard of this type is the way to move forward, the devilish details could still cause a disagreement or two.
Problem One is that the new CAFE rules don’t start [...]
What percentage of new vehicles in the U.S. will be hybrid in the year 2020? Take our poll after the jump!
According to a recent study conducted by JPMorgan, hybrid sales are about to take off. Last year, there were some 480,000 total hybrid vehicles sold around the world, which represents less than 1% of global [...]
Despite today’s word of coming to terms with its major shareholders on a debt-for-equity swap, Bloomberg is reporting that General Motors will join Chrysler in filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday. The move is widely expected, but the news agency is adding a bit of flesh to the story, suggesting that what promises to [...]
According to a source at The Associated Press, General Motors will announce the closure of 14 factories on Monday morning. The shutterings will reportedly occur by the end of 2010, and are being viewed as part of GM’s widely anticipated plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The move would not be completely unexpected, as GM [...]
According to Automotive News, Visteon Corp. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Michigan-based tier-1 supplier was spun off from the Ford Motor Company back in 2000, and it has struggled ever since. The filing took place in a Delaware courtroom, where the company has listed total assets of $4.58 billion and total debt [...]
