When management keeps quiet about future plans, rumours spread quickly. After the super GL Class, the über CLS and the convertible, the lattest one suggests that Mercedes may absorb its luxury brand.
The current model may join the Mercedes at the top of the range. In the future, Mercedes may develop a lineup of Über Mercedes.
Source: Automotive News
Renault has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Morocco to build a new plant on the outskirts of Tanger. Due to be ready for 2010, the new factory will enable Renault to build 200,000 cars per year at the beginning. Later, it will be able to build 400,000 cars every year.
The new factory will be used to build variants of the Dacia Logan, with particular focus on a new-generation of light commercial vehicles. Ninety percent of these vehicles would be exported.
Renault plans to invest an estimated £405m/€600m/$817m in this project with a first phase of £236m/€350m/$477m. A further investment of £135m/€200m/$272m to £270m/€400m/$544m will then be made according to the number of vehicles produced.
The new factory will provide 6,000 direct jobs and 30,000 jobs indirectly through suppliers.
According to the Prime Minister of Morocco, Driss Jetou, the plant will be built on a dedicated free zone linked to Tanger’s harbour with a special railway.
After much equivocation, Saab is currently working on new compact model due to be launched in the next decade.
This time, the Swedish carmaker will not make another attempt at building a Saabaru 9-2. The designers will focus on giving the compact model a striking design which will take inspiration from the Aero-X concept car.
This is a very good news for Saab. However the premium compact market is a tough market where German competitors meet a big success. The Audi A3 leads the market with 229,394 cars sold last year. BMW sold 151,918 cars over the same period. Unfortunately for Saab, the market will be more mature in the next decade. BMW recently unveiled the 1 Series coupé and will soon reveal a convertible variant. Several Audi A3 convertible have been spotted in the world. Even Mercedes plans to reshuffle its A Class and B Class in order to fight with Audi and BMW. If Saab wants to succeed, it will have to launch, not only a car, but also with a range.
After a spectacular recovery of the French automobile market in July thanks to a 21% increase, the month of August stabilised with 139,640 registrations recorded. This 1.1% more than the previous year over the same period.
However a detailed analysis of the statistics shows a slightly different situation. The passenger car market fell by 2.4% with 111,260 registrations compared to August 2006 while the market for light commercial vehicles rose by a spectacular 17.1% with 28,380 registrations. August is generally not a very active market due to the holiday period.
For the first eight months of 2007, the new passenger car registrations reached 1,375,208 cars. This is 0.6% less than last year compared to the same period. With 307 447 registrations recorded from January to August 2007, the market for light commercial vehicles increased by 5.4 %.
French carmakers have lost their majority market share to imported brands with only 46% of market share. However on the first eight months, they still save the face with a 52% market share. Renault Group increased its sales by 2% thanks to Dacia. The sales jumped from 1,031 in August 2006 to 2,407 in August 2007 while Renault fell by 4%. On the other hand, PSA fell sharply by 13.4%. Peugeot sales decreased by 13.4% with 29,600 registrations. Citroën recorded the biggest fall with -17.3%.
Among the imported brands, BMW is the biggest winner. It progressed by 34.3%.
Fiat has released the first two official pictures of the naughtiest Grande Punto: the Abarth SS prototype.
Based on the Grande Punto Abarth unveiled at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show, the SS version is mainly a booster kit that increases the power by 30 bhp in order to reach 180 bhp. If the basic Abarth version can top 130 mph and runs the 0-60mph in 8.2 s, Fiat has not released any information regarding the performance of the SS kit.
The kit also includes some visual elements just like the adhesives with the ‘essesse’ logo or a chequered flag. The handling has also been improved according to the press release with particular low stance and a more powerful braking system.
Here is a video with Ian Callum, Jaguar Head of Design, and Jaguar’s chassis guru, Mike Cross, talking about the new Jaguar XF.
According to Automotive News, Volkswagen is working on a 10-year strategy plan that aims to catch up with the Japanese carmaker. Backed by Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking, Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn wants to close the gap between both carmakers. Although at a draft stage, the plan will focus on increasing sales and improving productivity.
It is likely that Martin Winterkorn will try to follow the same plan he set at Audi to boost productivity and sales a few years ago. Dubbed internally as “Route 15”, the plan intended to boost global sales beyond 1.5 million by 2015. In order to achieve such a goal, the German carmaker decided to sales in China, the fastest growing auto market, and in the US. Also it planned to add 15 new models to the current range by 2015.
In 2006 Volkswagen Group produced 5,685,000 cars while Toyota delivered 8,036,000 vehicles on the same period.Toyota is looking to sell 10.4 million vehicles around the world in 2009. In other worlds, Volkswagen needs to double sales by 2018. Compared with Toyota, Volkswagen has room for manoeuvre. It is still a small player on the American market. Last year, Toyota enjoyed its best year ever in 2006, selling 2,220,090 vehicles, while Volkswagen’s U.S. sales dropped 34 percent, to 235,140 vehicles, from 2000 to 2006. There is also room for improvement in China where Audi leads the luxury market. Volkswagen is also working on a low cost car. Due to be unveiled at the next Frankfurt Motor Show in less than a week, the car will enable Volkswagen Group to expand sales in emerging countries.
The German group is also likely to add new models to its brands while sharing components between them. At a time when niche markets have the fastest growing demand, Volkswagen move is a smart one but other carmakers have the same idea. While the latters only have one brand to manage, Volkswagen must share the niche markets between Audi, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat, Skoda, Volkswagen and Porsche. That is, unless Martin Winterkorn has found the magic potion…
The Car of the Year contest is a bit of a joke. Every year a group of 58 car journalists from 22 different countries meet together to select the best car of the year. Every year, German journalists tend to favour German cars, French the French cars. The vote makes a little more sense in countries where the automotive industry is not a national industry. However, if we add the fact that sometimes carmakers try to cheat by providing the ‘experts’ with slightly improved cars, the contest becomes even more of a joke. At the end the winning carmaker has the right to put a shiny sticker on the car, adding an extra selling point to the new model.
Despite the contest’s weaknesses, we still like it because it allows us car enthusiasts to argue, discuss and fight over the best car of the year.
Here is the list of the thirty selected cars. Later the list will be reduced to seven contestants and in January the committee will reveal the lucky winner.
Audi A5/S5
BMW X5
Chrysler Sebring
C-Crosser/Outlander/4007
Daihatsu Materia
Dodge Nitro
Fiat 500
Fiat Bravo
Ford Mondeo
Honda CR-V
Hyundai i30
Jeep Patriot
Jeep Wrangler
Kia cee’d
Land Rover Freelander
Lexus LS460/600h
Mazda2
Mazda CX-7
Mercedes C-Class
Nissan Qashqai
Nissan X-Trail
Opel/Vauxhall Antara
Peugeot 308
Renault Laguna
Renault Twingo
SsangYong Actyon
Skoda Fabia
Smart Fortwo
Subaru Impreza
Toyota Auris/Corolla
Volkswagen Tiguan
Volvo V70/XC70
Thanks to a reader, Carscoop has revealed the first pictures of the Mercedes C63 AMG estate due to be unveiled in ten days at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Just like the saloon, the new AMG estate makes its mark by adopting some aggressive lines and an impressive front face. Nevertheless, the back end seems a bit shy when compared to the saloon.
Obviously the estate inherits the engine from the saloon. The athmospheric 6.2 litre V8 delivers a power of 450 bhp/457 hp at 6800 rpm and a maximum torque of 600 Nm. A bit heavier than the saloon, it runs 0-60mph in 4.6s and can “only” reach 155 mph due to an electronically governed top speed.
With this sporty estate, Mercedes now offers a full C Class range that can compete with the ubiquitous Audi. With 36 bhp/37 hp more than the Audi RS4, it takes the lead in the power race by a tiny margin. The question now is: will Audi respond?
It looks like an revolution. For the first time in 102 years, the Big Three American carmakers have lost their majority market share to imported brands. According to Automotive News, American carmakers sold 629,569 vehicles while imported brands delivered 679,523 vehicles in July. This gave the latter a 51.4% market share.
Some defeatists may say that this is the beginning of the end, but actually it is just an economic cycle for the American giants. After years of suffering (slightly dramatic word?), all American players are focusing on core products in order not to spread themselves too thinly. They are also restructuring their plants to cut production costs and reducing sales discounts to keep their finances afloat. In the near future, the Big Three will come back with better products, will start to expand again and will win back their majority market share. Unless, that is, imported brands decided to fight back…
Source: Automotive News