Despite Toyota’s high-profile decision to close an American auto plant and to delay the opening of another due to tepid auto sales, smaller competitor Nissan has decided that it has no plans to reduce its manufacturing capacity in the United States. However, analysts have expressed their concern that Nissan’s decision to maintain its American production capacity could end up harming the company.
Currently, Nissan can produce 950,000 vehicles in the United States, but weak demand for its cars has led Nissan to only produce 360,000 vehicles in the same period. This means that Nissan has slowed its U.S. plants to 44 …read more

Iconic motorcycle manufacturer Harley-Davidson Inc. has posted a massive 84 percent decline in third-quarter profits from last year to this year, marking difficult for Harley. While Harley brought in $166.54 million, or 71 cents per share, in the year-ago period, this quarter saw Harley bring in a profit of $26.48 million, or 11 cents per share.
Harley has also announced that it will cut its Buell and MV Agusta brands, incurring a $14.2 million one-time charge this quarter related to Buell and a goodwill impairment charge of $18.9 million related to MV Agusta. Without these one-time charges, Harley’s profit would have …read more

Delphi, the automotive parts maker that was spun off from General Motors, has finally emerged from its stay in bankruptcy after a protracted four-year stint with bankruptcy protection as the company got its financials back in order. According to the company, the final push to get Delphi out of bankruptcy involved the sale of assets to lenders and to General Motors, its parent company.
The new company, post-bankruptcy, will be called Delphi Holdings, and its newfound stability comes as a great relief to General Motors. GM has spent plenty of money to make sure that Delphi’s reorganization went through smoothly, placing …read more

Chrysler’s management team announced a shakeup on Monday as two recently appointed CEOs have left the company. Fiat Group SpA CEO Sergio Marchionne, who took over control of Chrysler in June, also announced that they are splitting the Dodge brand into two groups — cars and trucks.
Peter Fong, president and CEO of the Chrysler brand and Michael Accavitti, president and CEO of the Dodge brand have both abruptly left the company. Fong left for personal reasons, while Accavitti left to pursue other interests, according to a Chrysler statement. Sales of Chrysler Group LLC vehicles (Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands) have …read more

Despite hopeful rumors that Chrysler had changed its mind about closing down a plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Chrysler Group LLC and Fiat SpA CEO Sergio Marchionne has confirmed the plans to shut down the plant. The plant, which will be completely shut down by the end of 2010, employs 1,300 workers.
In the two years leading to Chrysler’s April 30th bankruptcy filing, Chrysler shed 35,000 jobs in an attempt to cut costs as Chrysler and other automakers feel the heat of the recession. Hundreds of workers and their families turned out to rally against the closure of the plant and …read more

General Motors Co. has decided to wind down the operations of its Saturn brand, GM’s answer to Japanese automakers that was started 24 years ago. While GM had originally intended to sell Saturn to Penske Automotive Group, the latter pulled out of negotiations with GM and has forced GM to make this decision.
Penske, which operated 310 auto retailers, backed out of the deal because it was concerned that it would not have access to new vehicles in 2011 when GM was expected to stop supplying them. Its inability to sell the Saturn brand has forced GM to adapt its post-bankruptcy …read more

Even what appear to be the smallest problems can turn out to have huge impacts: just ask Toyota, who has initiated a recall of about 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles because of a problem with the driver’s side floor mat. The recall will be the largest safety-related recall for Toyota and the sixth-largest auto recall ever in the United States.
According to several reports, the affected vehicles have had several instances of the accelerators sticking to the floor mats, which then caused sudden, uncontrollable acceleration of the vehicles. This has led to as many as 30 crashes since 2004 that …read more

Toyoto, the Japanese auto giant, recently unveiled their plans to blitz United States consumers with a $1 billion marketing campaign. The campaign will take place in the fourth quarter of 2009.
The reasons why Toyota is making this push are numerous. First of all, with the United States economy strengthening, hypothetically there should be more car buyers on the market. Additionally, GM is also being aggressive with their marketing (including their new 60-day money back guarantee marketing campaign) and Toyota wants to make sure that they remain in the fight for attention.
Although Toyota sells more cars than any other automaker, they’ve …read more

The Ford Taurus was once the auto company’s best-selling car, but after twenty years of underperformance, the brand was discontinued and Ford focused its attention on other better-selling vehicles. However, Ford has decided to reinvent the Taurus, using technology found on jet fighters and a host of other eye-catching improvements to draw interest for the vehicle.
 
According to Ford, the Taurus will feature radar devices that will help to avoid crashes by using an alarm system and flashing red lights to warn the driver if the car gets too close to another car. The device marks Ford’s emphasis on providing a …read more

Barely topping Wall Street expectations, Pep Boys has managed to post a second quarter profit that marks 42 percent increase over profits posted last quarter. However, the profit report comes alongside reports indicating that Pep Boys’ revenue has suffered due to falling sales of discretionary items.
Pep Boys shares have fallen 5.4 percent to $9.55 due to sales falling short of analyst expectations for the company, which places Pep Boys stock 10 percent below its one-year high two months ago but much higher than its $2.62 January low. The company is in the midst of a turnaround, one that has begun …read more