Would you buy a new car if the Government gave you £2000 to do it? In Germany that’s roughly what you get, provided you scrap one that’s over nine years old. It has meant sales of small cars over there are surging, despite the economic crash. So you won’t be surprised to learn that dealers [...]
Another wave of catastrophic car-company news this morning, as Honda closes its Swindon plant for a staggering four months. Look around the industry and you see that even the golden boys are in the cack.
Don’t imagine that just because there’s Trouble at T’Detroit Mill, the rival Japanese car makers are laughing. They’re not. So here at the Detroit Show, there have been a lot of expressions of solaridarity from the Japanese.
By half-way through day one at the Detroit Show I was in a cheery mood. In the past it’s been about enormo-SUVs, vehicles I can’t relate to. But this year it was about cars and I felt at home. Then I spent a couple of days staring at them, and my mood began to curdle. [...]
Welcome to the Detroit show, where the spotlight’s firmly on GM and Chrysler. Chapter one of a Great American Comeback story – or an obituary? As far as I can see it’s one of each. GM might just pull through, but Chrysler doesn’t stand an earthly.
It seems incredible now we look back on it, but 2008 started in a fairly ordinary way. The Foreman spent his time trying to work out what the car companies would do next. By the year’s end, it was all about working out which one of them would survive.
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