Automotive News

Filed under: Car Buying, Sports/GTs, Trucks/Pickups, Ford

The Ford F-Series has been the top-selling nameplate in America for a staggering 29 years, and in spite of ever-increasing competition, the folks from Dearborn will stop at absolutely nothing to keep that title alive for a 30th year. Ford already has up to $4,007 in customer cash on the F-150, and now it is giving dealers some serious incentive to offload as many full-size trucks as possible. The dealer incentive isn’t a cash stipend to the dealer or salesman, but a slot in a lottery to sell one of the 50 Shelby GT500KRs being made for the 2009 model year. Total production for the KR is only 1,000 units, so the markup will likely run into the tens of thousands of dollars, making any dealer very pleased. For moving pickups, dealers are also getting special edition F-150 die-cast models (Ford loves giving away die-cast models) and dealers also have a chance to host a Toby Keith concert.

Ford has repeatedly said that it will retain its full-size pickup leadership, and the Blue Oval is coming up with some innovative ways to keep its most important product moving off the dealer lots. Right now the F-Series is up 45,000 units on the all-new Silverado. Let’s see if that lead holds once GM begins using more cash incentives.

[Source: Auto News - sub. req’d]

 

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Filed under: Motorsports, Safety, Videos

Spectators, commentators and fans all feared the worst when BMW Sauber’s star driver Robert Kubica hit the wall at the end of the hairpin at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on St. Helen’s Island in Montreal during this year’s Canadian Grand Prix. But as we all know, the Polish driver suffered only a concussion and a sprained ankle, despite the high speeds, high Gs and hard impact of the crash. Now he’s back in the cockpit, sticking it to everyone this side of Ferrari and McLaren, defending champions Renault included. (Thank God for carbon fiber, eh Robbie?)

The techies over at RTL, the German network that broadcasts the Formula One events, put together this three-dimensional re-creation of the crash, complete with some Matrix-style viewing-angle sweeps. The action is slowed down so you can better see what happened, which makes it all too easy to forget the enormous speeds at which the crash occurred.

Unfortunately, whoever posted it up on YouTube decided to mix in a typically poor soundtrack, but since the original was without sound anyway, offended parties can feel free to turn down the volume completely.

• Kubica survives crash at 75 G
• New view of Kubica crash as F1 goes after YouTube clips
• VIDEO: Kubica crashes Canadian GP

Thanks to everyone who wrote in with the info!
Video after the jump.

[Source: RTL via YouTube]

Continue reading Kubica’s Kanadian Krash - now in 3D

 

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Filed under: Motorsports, Marketing/Advertising, BMW

While its cars charge towards the head of the pack on the F1 racing circuit, BMW-Sauber has been positioning itself as the champion of demonstrations off-track. Following such shenanigans as driving on ice, and the return to the old Nurburgring Nordschleife, the team brought a couple of veterans back for demonstration drives at Silverstone.

Three-time world champion Nigel Mansell, more recently a fixture of the Grand Prix Masters series, drove Sauber’s latest at the team’s Pit Lane Park set up at Silverstone to coincide with this past weekend’s British Grand Prix. Fellow retired driver Johnny Herbert, who won at Silverstone in ‘95, also had a go in the Bimmer single-seater. The drivers pulled donuts and smoky burnouts to the delight of the fans.

As you may recall, the team also gave former F1 driver Alex Zanardi another drive behind the wheel of an F1 car, and the handicapped car driver pulled off some impressive lap times, despite a minimum of preparation.

[Source: BMW Sauber F1 via AutoMotoPortal]

 

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Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Volkswagen

One of the problems with being an import car maker at the lower end of the automotive market is an increased sensitivity to currency exchange rate fluctuations. This is particularly problematic if the carmaker doesn’t have a government willing to make currency adjustments the way Japan regularly does. Thus, Volkswagen has had a troubled manufacturing history with the U.S. for the last three decades.

As a response to currency issues, Volkswagen was the first import maker to set up a transplant operation in Pennsylvania in 1978, several years before Honda started building Accords in Ohio. Ten years later the plant closed as demand for the Golf hatchbacks it built dwindled. In recent years, as the U.S. dollar has continued to shrivel compared to the Euro, VW profits have been hit again and so they are taking another look at building in the U.S. CEO Martin Winterkorn told German magazine Focus they are looking at a U.S. manufacturing plant if the dollar remains weak. Given the unlikely scenario of the dollar rising anytime soon, states may be sending in their bribe incentive packages now.

[Source: Detroit News]

 

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Filed under: Car Buying, SUVs, Trucks/Pickups, Marketing/Advertising, Ford, Lincoln, Mercury

Ford’s June sales were down 8.2% vs. the same month in 2006, but retail sales were actually up slightly for the first time since last October. A key to the added dealer traffic was the 0% financing available on all 2007 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models, with an additional $2,007 going towards trucks and SUVs. The successful incentives, which were scheduled to end on July 9, have been extended all the way through the end of August.

Ford has been trying hard to keep away from fleet sales, and with the aid of some reasonable incentives it has managed to steer a bit of its sales back to customers. Lets see if the good news lasts through the end of August.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req’d]

 

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Filed under: Car Buying, Trucks/Pickups, Dodge

When the 2008 Dodge Dakota was unveiled in Chicago, we weren’t sure what to think of the styling, but it was nice to see that Dodge’s midsize pickup finally got serious with the V8 powerplant again. A 302-hp engine is great for speed and hauling, but a value price is what’s going to move the Dakota off lots, and Dodge has announced pricing that has “discounts coming” written all over it. In all, there are a ridiculous 20 different models to choose from, which can either give you lots of choices or confuse the heck out of you. For a reasonable $20k, you can get a ST 4x2 extended cab and a 3.7L 210-hp V6 engine. At the very top end of the model range, Dodge is looking for a pricey $31,745 to pick up a Laramie Crew Cab 4x4.

As sales have slid the past couple of years, the Dakota has been the discount special in the large midsize pickup field. We find it highly unlikely that Dodge will consistently demand $30,000 for top-end models, but with a few thousand on the hood, the Dakota will still be a good deal. Hit the jump to view Chrysler’s press release, which contains all 20 model combinations and vehicle details.

[Source: Chrysler]

Continue reading 2008 Dodge Dakota priced from $20,080

 

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Filed under: Car Buying, Gadgets, Mazda

Back in the Jacques Nasser days, Ford Motor Company decided to cut the dealer middleman and sell its own vehicles online. Considering that’s Ford’s dealer network was probably too big even when SUVs were selling like hotcakes, it’s easy to understand why the Blue Oval’s dealers would be angry. Almost a decade later, Ford’s Mazda arm is getting more involved with the sales process, but instead of stealing bread from its dealer arm like Ford did, the Zoom Zoom folks are simply making the process easier for its customers.

At the click of a mouse on the Mazda website, online car browsers can contact a Mazda employee via web chat, and the Mazda “shopping assistant” will help buyers configure a vehicle, find a dealership, arrange for the dealer and customer to work out pricing, and make sure the final vehicle is sent to the dealership. The anatomy of the OEM sales site has been relatively unchanged for years now, and if Mazda’s new idea works well, we think it could help Mazda nab a few more sales on convenience alone. The Mazda sales initiative has just started, but it took almost eight minutes for us to get someone online. We think Mazda will need to quickly work out the kinks and get wait time under a minute or two for this new endeavor to be a success. If you’ve given the Mazda sales assistant a whirl, let us know in the comments how it turned out.

[Source: Auto News - sub. req’d]

 

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Filed under: Earnings/Financials

Can a drawn-out incentive campaign keep the domestics ahead of the imports? Automotive News, for one, seems to think it would only serve to delay the inevitable. Detroit is on a trajectory to fall below 50 percent in market share in the very near future, maybe even this month. It seems obvious that offering rebates and other incentives is merely a band-aid for the underlying issue.

As of the first half of 2007, GM, Ford and the Chrysler Group were down to just 50.2 percent of the new-vehicle market. That’s a record low. A year ago that number was 56.0 percent. So given the fact that their share is plummeting, does it make sense to throw money at the problem and try to hold onto something they will surely lose eventually?

Actually, they may need the incentives just to stay competitive. Toyota, Honda and Nissan have really been aggressive in using incentives to grab customers this year. The Japanese now account for 37.5 percent of the market, up 5 percent from last year. Sure it comes with some psychological baggage, but losing market share isn’t everything. It’s a largely meaningless number and profits mean more in the end. Not that the domestics are any better in that arena, but dwelling on market share is a bit misleading.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req.]

 

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Filed under: Concept Cars, Gadgets, Coupes, Lincoln

From the outside, it looks like a normal 1993 Lincoln Mark VIII, but with shaved door handles. The reason the handles are gone becomes evident when the window rolls down and the door slides down and under the car, creating a large opening for easy entry and exit. According to the vehicle description at RonSusser.com, the car was created by Joalto Design, Inc. at the behest of FoMoCo execs concerned about the effect the Linc’s wide doors had on parking the car in tighter urban environments. This claim, it should be noted, is completely unsubstantiated, so take it with a grain of salt.

While the backstory may be murky, the car is very real, as are the patents on the door mechanicals RonSusser.com links to in the item description. The Lincoln was actually used as a daily driver by a previous owner and shows 43K on the odometer. It’s also worth noting that the magic door only works on the passenger side, so the new buyer’s going to have to find someone with the know-how to get the driver’s side operational again. As of this writing, the high bid on the car is $10,100, which is still short of the reserve. RonSusser.com has video of the working door in action, and it is pretty cool. Assuming the reserve’s not outlandish, someone has a shot at driving a real conversation piece. Climbing in through the passenger side will probably get old in a hurry, though.

Thanks for the tip, Spec!

[Sources: RonSusser.com / eBay]

 

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Filed under: Etc.

Top Gear has earned the ire of environmentalists yet again, this time for driving cars over the Makgadikgadi salt plains in Botswana. All three presenters of the British car show drove across the plains while filming a segment, leaving trails that could remain there for decades. Usually, you are only allowed to go over if you’re on a quad bike and must still remain in single file.

The region is home to the largest salt pan in the world (take that, Bonneville!) and covers an area of 16,000sq km. Though there was some concern about the damage they caused directly to the salt plains, environmentalists are more worried about the example their drive will set for other visitors.

A BBC spokesperson said the ecology of the area was taken in to account when filming and no conservation areas were touched.

Jeremy Clarkson and his team have always disliked environmentalists and this latest run-in isn’t expected to change anything.

[Source: Metro UK]

 

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