They could have been Car to Be Seen in ’09
We are a bit late this year announcing our Car to Be Seen in finalists. But I can tell you which new models have been taken off the final shortlist. Our honourable mentions are, for 2009, the following. Audi A4 The Quattro models are fine but the front-wheel-drive model struggles with grip. We like […]
The urgent measures Detroit must take
Above: One of the cars that Ford could sell in North America: the subcompact Ka, built in Poland. [Cross-posted] Earlier this year, before we found out just how bad Detroit’s financial situation was, I wrote a paper for The Journal of the Medinge Group called ‘Saving Detroit, by Not Making the Same Old Mistakes’. My […]
Do US automakers deserve a bailout?
[Excerpted; full post here] Today at the Vista Group luncheon, we’ll be discussing the US auto industry’s desire for a government bailout. My view: of course it’ll be great to protect US manufacturing jobs, since the situation is not of the plant workers’ doing. As mentioned in one of my papers, ‘Saving Detroit’, the troubles […]
GM’s Opel Insignia is European Car of the Year
I hope this is the last car post for a while since we are in danger of turning into a car blog. The Opel Insignia has won European Car of the Year, so I was wrong on my guess that a Ford would take the position. The Ford Fiesta lost by one point: 320 […]
I have a feeling that tomorrow, we will hear that the Ford Ka, as driven by Olga Kurylenko in Quantum of Solace, will be European Car of the Year. It has a good chassis, it’s a subcompact car that ?ts modern European sensibilities, and it has cross-Europe appeal. Our second pick would be the Alfa […]
Merger, divestiture won’t rescue Detroit’s automakers
[Cross-posted] It looks like the American Big Three are doing pretty much what I warned them against in my ‘Saving Detroit’ piece presented to the Medinge Group in August. GM and Chrysler have had exploratory merger talks, while Ford may sell its controlling stake in Mazda. They have cited dropping sales, caused in […]
