Archives for January 2017

In between blinged-up custom vans and hardly dressed campaign girls at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon, I ran into the man that busted Japan’s kei car keiretsu. He will have to be thanked when Japanese soon get 20 horses more in their mini-vehicles. Also, Donald Trump should talk to the man before he says again that Japan is a closed car market.

The man is Justin Gardiner, chief of Caterham Cars Japan, exclusive importer of the legendary Caterham race cars from the UK. I found him in that special kind of relaxed mood reserved to the exclusive few on this planet who made their annual quota two weeks into January.

More in Forbes.

A week ago, I carelessly opined that BMW would be among the last automakers exposed to the wrath of Trump. After all, the Bavarian automaker produces more cars in the U.S. than it sells in-country, a rare honor shared only with Tesla and Daimler. As a net-exporter of cars, BMW deserves a medal from the impending president. Boy was I wrong to apply logic. Yesterday, BMW was next in line to be bludgeoned by the bully-in-chief.

In an interview with Germany’s BILD Zeitung, published late Sunday night, Trump said BMW would “waste its time and money” building a plant in Mexico, because Trump would slap the Bavarian automaker with his infamous “35% border tax.” After Ford, GM, and Toyota, BMW is the fourth automaker in Trump’s cross-hairs.

More in Forbes.