Car Throttle

I've been covering the whole "Cash for Clunkers" program as it began to take form in the United States and more recently as the U.K implemented a revised version of the plan. Now it seems the two representatives that created the two competing bills in the House might be nearing a compromise.

The two bills being discussed were Rep. Betty Sutton's (D-Ohio) HR. 1550, the Customer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Act. The other is HR. 520, The Accelerated Retirement of Inefficient Vehicles Act of 2009 introduced by Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY). The two sides have some key differences in their bills. Rep. Sutton's bill gives the largest subsidies to American made vehicles, smaller subsidies to North American vehicles and nothing for foreign made vehicles. Rep. Israel's bill is

This piece of news won't take long to figure out if it's true or not; Monday is only a few days away. The report by Edmunds' Inside Line doesn't come as a total surprise either. Pontiac was left out of GM's viability plan has a "core brand" and GM repeatedly has said all options were available for the other brands not included in those 4. Looks like Pontiac will be heading for the same fate as the others. The shocking thing is that Pontiac is GM's third largest division by volume. The brand sold 267,348 cars in 2008, behind only GMC's 376,996 and Chevrolet's 1,801,131. What was Pontiac's place though that couldn't be taken up by other brands? A dedicated performance brand; Chevrolet's SS models can take care of that. Niche brand;

Ah, it's First Quarter results time. After experiencing a string of good press with it's market share successes, VW's profit results for Q1 have posted a decline. While some might seek to contrast it with the fact that VW might become the World's Largest automaker this year, I'm going to take it for what it is: a remarkable result considering today's economy.  So there's no journalistic sensationalism to be found here. The fact the Volkswagen AG is achieving a profit at all is amazing. Companies around the world are losing cash. Even the once (and I quote) "invincible" Toyota money printing press is posting losses for the first time since it began reporting such numbers 1941. Think about that; it's an incredible record of success that is being brought down by this economic crisis. It is against that backdrop that VW has

Looks like another high-end sports car manufacturer had a good year in 2008, despite the strong headwinds. Lamborghini has come out of 2008 in excellent shape considering. There was a similar situation with Rolls-Royce and it's 2008 report. Surprising, but true!

Overall sales, profits, etc are all up. The United States saw a drop of 20.3% to 741 units, from 930 the year before (2007). Given the U.S is Lamborghini's largest market and that is a significant hit to global numbers, you would think overall sales would be down. Not so though; traditional markets Germany and the United Kingdom saw small increases while emerging markets like Asia and the Middle East saw strong growth. In addition, Lamborghini saw growth in it's home market of Italy, with sales

I'm sure you're well aware of the economic situation, and the numerous cutbacks from the automotive manufacturers at various international automobile shows. Following this dire outlook, news comes from organizer IMIE and SMMT about the cancellation. \ According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), this is the show's first cancellation since 1939. Must be pretty bad! The decision was made after talks with automakers and exhibitors at the show. The British International Motor Show is conducted in a bi-annual fashion; it is put on every other year. As Britian's largest consumer show, it was a hard cut to make. The show's owners SMMT just couldn't get concrete commitments from automakers to exhibit at the show. With the Sydney Motor Show already cut and possibility of the Tokyo Motor Show as well,