Porsche's Eggs in New Four-Door Basket

Seems Porsche Cars North America is always one of the first to get hammered when the recession hits. The company's certainly taken its lumps in the past year, with sales starting a slide almost the same day Lehman Brothers tanked in fall 2008 and potential Porsche buyers headed for their bunkers.

Calendar-year 2009 hasn't been much kinder: through September, sales are off 32 percent, a withering number for a niche maker.

But as the year winds down, Porsche is launching a history-making - and controversial - new model to help accelerate it into what is hoped will be a broad industry and economic recovery next year. Porsche is counting on the all-new, 2010 Panamera 5-door sedan to reignite interest in the brand at one of its darkest hours. Almost all of the company's available marketing funds for the rest of the year are earmarked to launch the Panamera.

GM Buyers Pick Cash Over Guarantee

General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson told reporters the "vast majority" of GM buyers are taking the $500 rebate instead of the automaker's 60-day money-back guarantee.

His admission suggests GM is attracting buyers already committed to the brands rather than convincing fence-sitters or converting intenders of competitive makes.

GM's money-back guarantee promotion, which runs through Nov. 30, allows customers to return their vehicles between day 31 and 60 of ownership nearly free of charge. However, after the program started, GM added a $500 rebate if they waive the policy.

Foreign Automakers in the U.S.

By 1991, 143 million cars and 45.4 million trucks and buses were in operation in the U.S., and more than 456 million cars and 139 million trucks and buses were operating worldwide, forming an indispensable transportation network. While the U.S. initially dominated the world auto market, many foreign automakers have become successful, some within the U.S. itself.

Germany’s Volkswagen was the first foreign automaker to become a force in the U.S. It sent its first shipments of autos, popularly known as Beetles, to the U.S. in the early 1950s. British and French automakers also enjoyed growth in exports to the U.S. during the 1950s. In 1978 Volkswagen opened an assembly operation in Pennsylvania, but after slumping sales in the 1980s it moved production to Mexico.

While most European automakers have faltered, Japan has become the leading importer of automobiles to the U.S. The first Japanese imports to the U.S.—16 compact pickups—arrived in 1956. Ten years later Japanese vehicle imports reached 65,000 units. By 1992 the Japanese claimed 2.9 million annual car and truck sales in the U.S.

Starting in 1982 with Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s new assembly plant near Columbus, Ohio, Japanese automakers began building assembly plants and engine-manufacturing facilities in North America. By 1993 foreign-based “transplants,” mostly Japanese, were building 2.7 million passenger cars and light trucks in the U.S. and Canada annually. Some of these plants were operated jointly with U.S.-based automakers. South Korea’s Hyundai also had opened an assembly plant in Québec; in the mid-1990s, Germany’s BMW and Daimler-Benz both opened new state-of-the-art production facilities in South Carolina and Alabama, respectively.

Fuel Crisis.

The fuel crisis of the mid-1970s was also an impetus to clean-air technologies and helped initiate long-lasting changes in the auto industry. Rising gasoline prices led to an increased demand for small cars, and U.S. manufacturers turned out their own models to compete with foreign ones. The future lay in “downsizing” even standard models to reduce weight and increase economy. High-strength plastics and aluminum replaced steel in many components, and smaller, more efficient engines were designed. Chief among these were dual displacement engines, stratified charge engines, and engines whose power is boosted by four valves per cylinder or by turbochargers and superchargers. By the early 1990s nearly all engines boasted electronic controls, such as fuel-injection systems, to manage all vital functions and to provide the most efficient fuel economy and emission control.

As the crisis abated, a national speed limit, set at 55 mph in 1974 in an attempt to conserve fuel, was raised to 65 mph on rural interstate highways in 1987 and entirely repealed in 1995, returning to the states the power to set their own speed limits.

After Clunkers tax rush, states come down hard

WASHINGTON - Struggling states and towns got a dose of badly needed money this summer from a Cash for Clunkers program that poured hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue into their budgets.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33266927/ns/business-autos/

Saturn's Sad Story Nears an End

After talks to sell the auto brand to Roger Penske collapse, GM says Saturn will go the way of Pontiac and Oldsmobile.

The long, sad saga of Saturn is finally over. The once-hot General Motors division that began with a bang 19 years ago is now headed into oblivion after a deal to sell it to retailer Penske Automotive Group (PAG) fell apart on Sept. 30. The chain of auto dealerships released a statement saying it couldn't find a source to manufacture new car models after 2011, when GM was scheduled to cease production of the existing Saturn models.


http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2009/db20090930_351404.htm?chan=autos_autos+--+lifestyle+subindex+page_top+stories

Battle of the ultrapremium automakers

Think of it as one-time siblings rivalry.

For roughly seven decades, Rolls-Royce and Bentley were two faces of the same platinum coin. Separated as part of a bitter bidding war between two of Germany’s most powerful automakers, Rolls and Bentley have lately been carving out separate and unique niches within the ultrapremium automotive market.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33243897/ns/business-the_drivers_seat/