Archives for December 2013

The Daily Kanban wishes you all Happy Holidays, whatever they may be

Santa brings a 2Gbit line

Santa brings a 2Gbit line

This is the time for introspection in the auto industry, and for racking up a last batch of frequent flyer miles. The increasingly expatriate management of global automakers is filling the Delta flight from Shanghai to Detroit, Lufthansa  from Beijing to Frankfurt, ANA from Guangzhou to Narita. In Europe, executives traditionally max out the calendar (take 5 days off, gain two weeks of holidays) and won’t be back before January 6th. In America, they celebrate the first real you-know-what since carmageddon.  Even in busy-beaver Japan, they will stop working for 5 minutes , to celebrate oshogatsu (New Year) with mochi  (rice cakes) and perhaps the ritual hime hajime (NSFW in the U.S.).

Only the Daily Kanban won’t rest.

[ There is more … ]

Friday morning car news roundup, December 20, 2013

Fridays - Picture courtesy franchisehelp.com

 

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Toyota disbands Driving Pleasure Dept

Toyota Motor Corporation announced today that it dissolved its Driving Pleasure Dept.  Reason given: It fulfilled its aims. The Cockpit Planning Dept. was likewise dissolved for the same reason.

Tesla in China: A car with no name is just the beginning of the troubles

Tesla in China - Picture blogcdn.com

Bu Hao

 

These pages have been a bit skeptical about Tesla’s long term success. Not because its cars are bad – they aren’t – more because the car business is more complex than rocket science. What turns us into obsessing doubters is Elon Musk’s insistence to know better, and his propensity to step into the many traps this mature business offers. After ignoring laws that forbid factory outlets,  after being way too lackadaisical with NHTSA regulators again and again, Tesla is now in trouble in the world’s biggest auto market, in allegedly the hotbed for electric cars, in China. What’s more, the trouble is most likely bigger than it looks. [ There is more … ]

Here are America’s safest cars. Never mind that most aren’t American

Ooopsla

Ooopsla

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the people who REALLY know how safe cars are (they pay when they aren’t,) announced America’s safest cars for 2014 today. 22 received the IIHS’s highest accolade, Top Safety Pick+. An additional 17 earned Top Safety Pick, IIHS’s second class for safety. [ There is more … ]

Suzuki ships plum of its export business to India

 

Picture courtesy Wikipedia.org

Japan’s Suzuki will shift a large chunk of its export operations to India, R.C. Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki India told India’s Mint newspaper, an associate of the Wall Street Journal.  The process should be completed by the end of the next fiscal.  Export headquarters will report to Maruti Suzuki, a joint venture of which Suzuki owns 56 percent. According to the report, exports to the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia will be affected. Let’s see what that means. [ There is more … ]

Thursday morning car news roundup, December 19, 2013

Thursday - Picture courtesy happyhealthylonglife.com

 

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So the EU car market is on the mend? Hold the Champagne, read here what they don’t tell you elsewhere. (Chevy fanbois, take a Valium)

Party time. Picture courtesy smh.com.au

Not yet. Maybe never

From Bloomberg all the way to the South China Morning Post,  the gullible media is singing happy days are here again – in Europe. This after the market for new passenger vehicles rose an anemic 1.2 percent over November 2012. Time to break out the champagne?  Leave the cork in the bottle and take a look. [ There is more … ]

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