Europe Autos

June 30, 2009

Porsche Rejects VW Takeover Offer

Porsche, the debt-laden German sports carmaker, on Monday rejected Volkswagen's offer to buy a 49 percent stake as the damaging power struggle between the two ...

June 29, 2009

Why GAZ Is Pinning Its Hopes on Opel

Not far from the "Motor of the Revolution" metro station a huge billboard advertises a "legendary automobile factory." Portraits of the company directors who have ...

June 25, 2009

Daimler Fights for Its Future

A high-rise building says a lot about the condition of the Daimler Group, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz. More than 18,000 people work at the main Mercedes plant ...

June 17, 2009

The Story of Saab Buyer Koenigsegg

The Koenigsegg CCXR is almost certainly the fastest car you have never heard of. It will accelerate from standstill to 60mph in 2.9 seconds and top 250mph, if your ...

June 16, 2009

Porsche Looks to Qatar for Salvation

June 7 could become a historic day for Germany's Porsche and Piëch families. On that particular Sunday, the two families met in Salzburg, where Porsche CEO Wendelin ...

June 15, 2009

Brussels Insists New Opel Must Succeed

The European Commission wants to go over buyout plans for struggling carmaker Opel with a fine-toothed comb, says industry commissioner Guenter Verheugen, who insists ...

June 8, 2009

Touring Europe's Best Auto Museums

Hey, kids, let's go visit a car factory! O.K., maybe a vacation spent next to Volkswagen's main auto plant in the German city of Wolfsburg might seem like a tough sell...

June 5, 2009

Putting BMW's New Z4 Through Its Paces

There are times when journalism is a really tough profession—long hours, deadline pressure, readers who post scathing comments about your stories on the ...

June 3, 2009

Opel and the Kremlin: Risks Ahead for Germany?

Is Opel about to turn Russian? That may seem farfetched, but it is the question that some commentators in Germany are asking following a deal struck on Friday that ...

June 2, 2009

What Now for Fiat?

What's the next move for Fiat (FIA.MI) Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, now that General Motors' European operations have slipped through his fingers? Marchionne ...

June 1, 2009

Concerns in Britain over Opel Rescue

The future of General Motors' European arm in the wake of its projected sale was muddied yesterday by concerns over both the safeguarding of British jobs and the ...

May 29, 2009

Magna Seals a Deal for GM's Opel

[Ed. note: This is an updated version of a story that originally ran May 29.] Auto parts giant Magna International (MGA) forged a deal in the wee hours of May 30 to ...

May 29, 2009

GM Europe Hangs in the Balance

Fraught loan negotiations between the German government and GM Europe (GME) are finally expected to conclude today – two days later than planned and with a ...

May 28, 2009

Russia Tries to Save Avtovaz, Again

Yury Zavarzin bought a Lada Kaliana two years ago. With the $10,000 he paid for the front-wheel drive sedan he could have gotten a foreign car, but the credit and down...

May 28, 2009

Germans Peeved at GM as Opel Deal Stalls

By the end of the night, following almost 11 hours of negotiations aimed at finding a way to save the crisis-plagued carmaker Opel from the clutches of bankruptcy, ...

May 26, 2009

What Opel's Suitors Really Want

When senior officals from Germany's state and national government met at the Chancellery in Berlin last week to discuss rescuing the troubled German carmaker Opel, the...

May 25, 2009

New Doubts Raised on Opel Rescue Bids

The future of General Motors' (GM) European subsidiaries, including its Vauxhall plants at Ellesmere Port and Luton and Opel factories in Germany, was thrown into ...

May 21, 2009

Opel Workers Devise Own Rescue Plan

The cards have now all been laid on the table. Italian carmaker Fiat (FIA.MI), Canadian-Austrian auto parts supplier Magna (MGA) and US private equity firm Ripplewood,...

May 19, 2009

More German Companies Seeking Handouts

When it comes to government subsidies, Wendelin Wiedeking has never been shy about making his views absolutely clear. Many corporate executives, the Porsche CEO was ...

May 15, 2009

At 50, the Mini Is Going Strong

The beloved Mini has turned 50. Launched by the now-defunct British Motor Corp. in 1959, this quirky little car has gone through several owners and various iterations ...

May 14, 2009

The VW-Porsche Merger: Fasten Your Seat Belt

On a day when Volkswagen (VOWG.DE) executives in Tennessee erected the first wall of their new U.S. factory, a leading investment analyst warned that shares of the ...

May 12, 2009

Putting Big Brother Behind the Wheel

Transport for London has confirmed it will road-test speed-limiting technology within the M25 area – as reported on silicon.com last year. Today TfL announced a ...

May 11, 2009

Fiat vs. Magna: The Battle for Opel

If anyone knows how to impress someone, it's Sergio Marchionne. The head of the Turin-based Fiat (FIA.MI), a Canadian citizen with Italian roots, has a penchant for ...

May 7, 2009

Porsche Fails to Swallow VW

It was a fight between David and Goliath. But this time David lost: Porsche has slammed the brakes on its planned take-over of Volkswagen (VOWG.DE). The controlling ...

May 6, 2009

Car-Scrapping Plans: Germany's Lessons

The global auto industry may be facing its worst crisis ever, but you'd never know it at Ford Motor's factory in Cologne. There, workers are putting in extra shifts on...