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Backseat driver: GM's slide from top long expected

So GM has lost the top spot to Toyota, which sold 2.35 million cars and trucks worldwide in the first quarter; that was about 109,000 more than GM.
It was a long time coming, but was there any doubt it was coming?
Hell's bells, the late David Halberstam pretty much predicted it in his book 'The Reckoning,' which was published in 1986.
For decades, Detroit's Big Three - GM, Ford and Chrysler - have been blinded by short term sales and profits and have ignored the bigger forces at work. While the rest of the world pays astonomical prices for gasoline - $7 a gallon in Europe, for example - Americans pay next to nothing thanks in large part to the anti-gasoline tax lobby promulgated by the Big Three.
And while the Big Three kept on ignoring those signs, it opened the door for Asian manufacturers to start nibbling at the lower end of the food chain. Sure the small, fuel efficient cars were less profitable but once oil prices lost their moorings with the first OPEC crisis of 1973, Americans starting turning to the smaller cars and have never looked back.
I can think of another company that became incredibly successful by building market share while flying under the radar (excuse the pun): Southwest Airlines. Birthed in the shadow of American Airlines and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Southwest started operating as a puddle jumper from Dallas' Love Field Airport. Slowly it nibbled away until it is now one of the largest and most successful airlines in America.
How did it do it? Good management was one essential key, and the same applies to the Asian auto makers. If you're going to lead, know where you're going!
The management running the Big Three have proved themselves clueless time and time again. They tried every trick in the book including persuading Congress to implement import quotas against Japanese auto makers in 1981. They responded by moving up the food chain and building bigger and more expensive cars. And so it went on, with the Asian manufacturers gaining one segment after another and not giving it back.
Talk about being hoisted by your own petard.
In this sense, the recent introduction of Toyota's Tundra full-size pickup truck represents the final step to the top of the food chain just as its worldwide sales finally moved ahead of the heretofore iconic GM.

Posted by   at 12:52 PM to Auto industry , Companies , Sales | Permalink | Comments 0

Facing the prospect of $4 a gallon gasoline

The Associated Press’ report last week that $4 a gallon gas was on its way should send a shudder through every reader of TheCarConnection.com.
As thecarconnection.com's blog states: "While we’re not global-warming enthusiasts like some of our readers and colleagues, we do believe that using less gasoline helps lower prices and will one day disentangle us from dealings with medieval dictatorships in the Middle East, South America and western Africa. And frankly, the specter of $4 gas makes a $50 fill-up for our Prius a little frightening."

Posted by   at 12:24 PM to Gas prices | Permalink | Comments 0

Calif. to sue EPA for permission to regulate automobiles

California will sue the Environmental Protection Agency if it does not act soon on the state's request for permission to regulate automobile emissions, according to the Associated Press.
The state applied in 2005 for a waiver that would exempt California from the federal Clean Air Act, allowing it to more aggressively regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he called EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson on Wednesday and told him that his agency was moving too slowly.

Posted by   at 12:10 PM to Environment | Permalink | Comments 0

Ford post smaller loss, auto division still struggling

Ford posted a first-quarter net loss of $282 million, a vast improvement over the $1.4 billion it lost in the first quarter of 2006, according to the Associated Press. It was the company's seventh consecutive quarter of losses, but the automaker said the smaller deficit reflected its restructuring efforts aimed at cutting costs in the face of fierce competition from Asian automakers.

AP said that despite the improvement, Ford is still having trouble in its core business in North America, where the company said it had a pretax loss on automotive operations of $614 million for the quarter, wider than the $442 million it lost in the first quarter of last year. Ford also posted a pretax loss in its Asia Pacific and Africa operations, but it made a pretax profit in Europe and South America, and in its financial services sector.

Posted by   at 12:07 PM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 0

Backseat Driver: Clean diesel the way to go for short term

Expect diesel technology to hit like a tornado next year because depsite all the hoopla about ethanol, biodiesel and hydrogen fuel cells, it seems to me that clean diesel will join gas hybrids be the alternative fuel of choice in the near future.
A week ago, USA Today published a story about the plans of a number of auto manufacturers to bring diesels to market next year. They include Audi, DaimlerChrysler, GM, Honda, Nissan and Volkswagen.
Certainly the German auto makers have taken a solid lead in developing clean burning diesel engines. The Volkswagen Group has developed exceptionally fast and powerful diesel engines with its Turbocharged Direct Injection (TDI) technology. The essence (if you will excuse the pun) of TDI is the enormous pressure applied in injecting the diesel into the combustion chamber. The result is a fine vapor that burns exceptionally efficiently.
At the same time, government regulations in Europe and now here have cleaned diesel fuel by removing the sulfur which was added for lubrication. It turns out biodiesel does the job and is cleaner. Indeed using it as an additive is about as much use as we can expect to get out of biodiesel given the minuscule amounts being produced.
VW's Audi division has been dominating the race tracks with its R10 TDI Le Mans racecar; the car is incredibly fast, almost emission free and practically silent.
Those three attributes make the new diesel technology very attractive. And don't forget that diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline ones - ie they get more miles per gallon. Overall, they present a very attractive mix of performance, fuel-efficiency, quietness, low-emissions and the traditional low-maintenance associated with diesel engines.
To be sure, it's still a fossil fuel, so it's not a perfect solution. But in the short term, it's certainly a viable alternative to gasoline in that diesel is readily available at the nation-wide network of gas stations. That's a problem with ethanol based E85, hydrogen fuel cell technology and compressed natural gas. That and production limitations.
I agree with the president that hydrogen fuel cell technology offers the most viable alternative to fossil fuels because electricity is undoubtedly the way to go - but it's at least 20 years away. In the meantime, expect more manufacturers to get on the clean diesel bandwagon as it establishes itself as the breakout alternative fuel for the near term.
Actually, BMW has already taken it one step further by proposing to build diesel hybrids by 2010. That's a really smart combination.

Posted by   at 11:04 AM to Alternative fuels | Permalink | Comments 1

Halberstam saw rise decline of Detroit, rise of Japan

The Detroit Free Press's Tom Walsh reminds us that the late great David Halberstam predicted the decline of Detroit's auto industry and the rise of Japan's auto companies back in 1986.
He remembered a phone interview at that time in which Halberstam said Detroit's auto industry was "extraordinarily vulnerable." It "remains weaker and smaller than ever before. There's an illusory quality to the industry's comeback," he added.
It was Sept. 17, 1986, Walsh writes. The man speaking was David Halberstam, whose book "The Reckoning," on the stunning rise of Japan's auto industry and the decline of Detroit's, was new in stores.
Walsh goes on to argue that it should not matter that Toyota is now No.1, the focus in Detroit should be better autos

Posted by   at 10:51 AM to Auto industry | Permalink | Comments 0

Ford promotes environment exec

Hoping to redeem itself among environmentalists and portray itself as a car company worth keeping around, Ford said yesterday that it had given its environmental chief a broader job and bigger title, according to USA Today.
Saying he's convinced that global warming is a real threat and is man-made, Ford CEO Alan Mulally elevated industry veteran Sue Cischke to senior vice president for sustainability, environment and safety engineering. Cischke, previously vice president for environment and safety engineering, reports directly to Mulally. "Green is good business," Mulally said. "Companies that make the products and services people want … (using) the least resources" will stay in business and profit

Posted by   at 9:32 AM to Alternative fuels , Companies , Environment | Permalink | Comments 0

Toyota tops GM in global sales in first quarter

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. became the world's top auto seller in the first three months of the year, passing rival General Motors for the first time, the Japanese automaker said today, according to the Associated Press.
Toyota sold 2.35 million vehicles worldwide in the January-March quarter, the company said, surpassing the 2.26 million vehicles that GM said it sold during the same period. The results mark the first time Toyota has beat GM in global sales on a quarterly basis.

Posted by   at 9:30 AM to Companies | Permalink | Comments 0

Oil prices rising on Nigeria's instablilty

Oil prices climbed to $67 a barrel in London today after Nigeria's presidential election drew condemnation from monitors and investors waited for fresh word on oil supplies from the world's eighth biggest exporter, according to Reuters.
Militant attacks have shut about a fifth of Nigeria's oil production. Energy Minister Edmund Daukoru said last week he expected the country's biggest foreign operator, Royal Dutch Shell to restart its Forcados fields in May.
London's Brent crude was up 51 cents at $67.00 a barrel; U.S. crude was up four cents at $64.15.

Posted by   at 10:05 AM to Oil | Permalink | Comments 0

Sex sells at Shanghai auto show

Political correctness be damned. Modern China’s founder, Mao Zedong may have promised a truly egalitarian society, but today’s increasingly capitalistic Chinese have discovered what the West long knew: sex sells, according to thecarconnection.com. And they seem to have foregone that limiting discipline that has tamed and toned down most U.S. and European auto shows, political correctness.

Posted by   at 9:14 AM to Shows | Permalink | Comments 0

Nanjing's plan for assembling MGs in Oklahoma?

Will Nanjing Auto be coming to Oklahoma to assemble its new line of MG cars?There is some question about the deal, according to thecarconnection.com
The Chinese auto maker made plenty of headlines when it acquired the remains of the bankrupt British automaker, Rover. But it topped that act, last year, when the company announced plans to produce a new version of Rover's classic-reborn MGF sports car - at a plant in Oklahoma.
Since then, there've been a series of conflicting reports suggesting Nanjing/Rover has scuttled the deal. But reports of the death of the American MG have been greatly exaggerated - well, at least maybe, according to MG CEO Zhang Xin.

Posted by   at 8:53 AM to Companies , Marques | Permalink | Comments 0

Where is China's unique sense of design?

The main language spoken at the Shanghai auto show is Chinese, but the vocabulary of the designs is polyglot: Italian flourishes, high Japanese roofs, German solidity, American assertiveness, according to The New York Times.
What is missing? Almost anything that could indicate the emergence of a distinctly Chinese school of automotive design.

Posted by   at 8:43 AM to Shows | Permalink | Comments 0