Archives: March 2006

A Car Called Smart. Maybe Too Smart For The U.S.A.

Posted by: David Kiley on March 30

It's hard to imagine that a brand called "Smart" would do well in the U.S. After all, we are the dumbest country on the planet when it comes to...

Stupidest Sentence of the Day

Posted by: David Kiley on March 30

....comes from The Wall Street Journal story about the new fuel economy regulation for sport utility vehicles Quote: But the rules prompted environmentalists to question President Bush's commitment to reducing...

Smart move tough on Mitsubishi

Posted by: Ian Rowley on March 28

DaimlerChrysler's decision to shake-up its Smart mini-car unit looks like creating another headache for execs at struggling Mitsubishi Motor. As predicted by Gail Edmondson (below), DaimlerChrysler announced its intention to...

Toyota markets to China...

Posted by: Dexter Roberts on March 22

A recent interview with a senior executive from Toyota’s biggest joint venture in China provided some interesting insights about flogging cars into what is still the relatively young mainland...

Zetsche Bets on Smart

Posted by: Gail Edmondson on March 20

DaimlerChrysler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche has decided not to sell its money-losing mini-car unit Smart -- at least not yet, the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported today, citing sources close to...

VW's Fast Making Big Bucks

Posted by: David Kiley on March 17

Some publicity surrounding these little plastic figuresnow appearing in Volkswagen's GTI TV ads have made them collector's items. Fast figures are selling on ebay.com for between $350.00 and $1,000...

Trying to Make Lincolns and Mercs Cool

Posted by: David Kiley on March 17

Net films have become an interesting genre. But with BMW having set the bar for excellence so high, only those prepared for harsh comparisons need enter the fray. Enter,...

At Chrysler, top brass take the hit

Posted by: David Welch on March 15

Is Chrysler taking a cue from its old CFO? On March 15, Chrysler Group said the company would cut salaried-employee and retiree health care benefits, with top execs taking...

So long Jed. Nissan will miss ya.

Posted by: David Welch on March 08

Whenever top execs take a retirement, it always raises eyebrows. Did he really retire? Was he forced out? Did he just say, enough already? Make no mistake about Jed Connelly,...

Vanzura Shaking Things UP at GM

Posted by: David Kiley on March 03

It didn't take Liz Vanzura long to leave her mark on Cadillac. Just a month after taking over as global marketing director at Cadillac, she sent about half the...

Can VW's Pischetsrieder Survive the Florentine Putsch?

Posted by: Gail Edmondson on March 02

Anyone who bet the power struggle at Volkswagen was over in January when cantankerous Supervisory Board Chairman Ferdinand Piech agreed to relinquish his post in 2007, just lost the wager....

VW Concept A....Sweet. Now, Let's See if You can Build It.

Posted by: David Kiley on March 01

When I was working on a book about Volkswagen, I learned there are two kinds of time...the time it takes Volkswagen to bring out a car from concept to...