Category: Industry
02/16/2020
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GM the surprise winner in J.D. Power long-term surveys
Of all the automakers, General Motors was the greatest success story of the J.D. Power long-term survey. Sure, Toyota dominated by coming in #2 of mass-market brands and #2 of luxury brands (Lexus), but GM’s performance was stunning given where the company was ten years ago—or twenty years ago—or thirty—or forty—or fifty or sixty or seventy […]
01/17/2020
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Hyperion Motors to debut at New York Auto Show
In April, the Hyperion Company, an aerospace R&D firm, will officially show off its new division, Hyperion Motors. The company claims its products were developed with NASA; Hyperion’s past work has been on electrolyzers, hydrogen storage, and fuel cell systems. Hydrogen cars were a popular idea when George W. Bush was President, but since then […]
01/09/2020
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Sedans failed to die in 2019
Sedans were supposed to be a dying breed in American showrooms, but like minivans, they just keep on keeping on. Toyota sold well over 600,000 Camrys and Corollas (combined), GM sold over 140,000 Malibus, and Dodge sold nearly a hundred thousand Chargers—two hundred thousand of their big cars, if you throw in the 300 and Challenger. […]
01/06/2020
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America vs Toyota, 2019
How well did American automakers do against Japan’s best in 2019? First, let’s look at totals. Toyota reported 2,383,348 sales, entirely from two (Toyota and Lexus) brands. The vast majority of sales were from just five cars and trucks: RAV4 (448,071) Camry (336,978) Corolla (304,850) Tacoma (248,801) Highlander (239,438) Toyota did poorly in the one […]
12/31/2019
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California moving from car emissions to a bigger problem—big trucks
The California Air Resources Board (CARB), that most demonized of government agencies, has finally realized that it’s done all that it can practically do with regular, civilian-owned cars. Now it’s time for trucks. Cummins has sold over 200 electric trucks (like this one) A full tenth of greenhouse gas emissions in California come from trucks, […]
12/30/2019
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At the dealership, part 2: Meet your service advisors
Customers usually don’t talk to the mechanics (or technicians) who work on their cars; they talk to people dubbed “service advisors,” who seem like managers but are really just interfaces between customers, the techs, and, often, the company that made your car. (Why would they talk to the automaker? Because the service advisor is responsible […]
12/23/2019
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You car is spying on you
The Washington Post took apart a Chevy to see what GM is learning about you, when you drive. As they say, it could have been a Ford, Toyota, or BMW, just as easily; and the results were more than a little frightening. Most new cars come with built-in cellular data connections, including all GM, Ford, […]
12/18/2019
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Peugeot/Citroën/Opel and Fiat/Chrysler have agreed to merge
The French and Italian-American companies’ boards have agreed to merge, starting a process that will likely take over a year even after shareholders vote. As part of the “50/50” deal, the Peugeot family may buy more shares, and Dongfeng will turn in a good portion of theirs, to keep ownership balanced. The current major shareholders […]
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With attacks rising, Upstream is launching an auto-cyber-threat service
We are bombarded by cyber attacks on our computers, phones, city and hospital networks, and, as time goes on, in our cars. While cars have largely been ignored until now, criminals have started to catch on and are getting set to rob people and car companies alike. According to Upstream, of Herzliya, Israel, nearly half […]
12/15/2019
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Meet the 1991 Mercedes-Benz W124 E230 – again – in Iran
Mercedes and BMW’s best design language belonged to the 1990s. Mercedes used mature design characteristics back in the 90s, with simple and conservative lines and curves presenting the sexiness of some 40-year old male-model in a black tuxedo, who still had some youth left in his charming smile behind his D&G sunglasses. They created some […]
