
1243_image
FIAT SAYS ‘NO COMMENT" TO TCC REPORT
GAS PRICES HIT 22-MONTH HIGH
SENTRA WILL BE
"SULEV"
FORD, HARLEY CRUISE TOGETHER
GM, TOYOTA TO BUILD UTES?
BEETLE IS
BEST FOR FRONT PASSENGER
COBRA STANG RECALL?
OPEL LOSES $440 MILLION
FORD
TESTING CONCIERGE SERVICE
FOCUS GOES LIVE
GM GOES ONLINE FOR FUTURE
CHRYSLER
GOES ORGANIC
EBAY TO SELL NEW CARS?
AUTOWEB TO SELL NEW CARS
AN
EGGPLANT-SHAPED CAR?
FIAT SAYS ‘NO COMMENT" TO TCC REPORT Fiat has declined comment on a report in last week’s issue of The Car Connection on a possible partnership with General Motors. "We do not comment on press rumours," a Fiat spokesman told Reuters.
Last week’s TCC reported that Fiat had approached GM about a partnership that
might have ranged from technology swapping to an eventual merger of their
automotive operations. According to our sources, GM insiders say the Fiat deal
isn’t going to happen. Last month, Fiat Chairman Paolo Fresco was quoted as
saying the group must first strengthen itself "on its own" before considering
any possible alliances "from a strong position."
Read all about the
GM/Fiat talks by clicking
here
GAS PRICES HIT 22-MONTH HIGH What would summer
vacation be without higher gas prices? Last week, U.S. retail gasoline prices
rose for the sixth week in a row, bringing fuel prices to a 22-month high of
$1.206 a gallon. The Department of Energy says today’s prices are the highest
since the week ending October 6, 1997. In February, before fuel-producing
nations cut production, gas prices averaged 90.7 cents a gallon, the lowest
since the DOE surveys began in 1994.
SENTRA WILL BE "SULEV" The next Nissan Sentra, due out early next year, may be certified as the world’s first super ultra-low emissions vehicle (SULEV), Nissan trumpeted last week. The SULEV engine, a 1.8-liter four-cylinder, is expected to emit about one-fourth of the unburned hydrocarbon and one-tenth of the oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions of the cleanest gasoline-powered car sold now in California.
"As a point of comparison, a person will be able to drive this new 2000 model
Sentra with the 1.8-liter engine 10 miles to work, return home and have the
vehicle emit less than a typical new car parked in a driveway all day with its
engine shut off," said Robert Strassburger, Nissan North America’s director for
government and technical affairs. The Sentra will debut at the North American
International Auto Show in Detroit in January and go into production February in
Aguascalientes, Mexico.

990816_harley
GM, TOYOTA TO BUILD UTES? Both strapped for
truck production in the U.S., GM and Toyota are talking about converting their
California joint-venture plant into a sport-utility vehicle plant. Reports from
various Japanese and American news wires suggest the companies will switch over
the Fremont, Calif., plant that builds Toyota Corollas and Chevrolet Prizms to
sport-utility vehicle production by 2001. The reports also suggest Chevrolet
will drop the slow-selling Prizm at that time, and Toyota will move Corolla
production to another North American facility. The joint-venture plant, known as
New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., (NUMMI) was founded in 1984.
BEETLE IS BEST FOR FRONT PASSENGER What’s the best compact car for front-passenger safety? The ever-perky VW Beetle, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The Beetle won a five-star rating for the passenger safety and a three-star rating for backseat riders, in NHTSA’s final round of 1999 testing.
A five-star rating represents a 5 percent or less chance of serious injury,
NHTSA said. Three stars equal an 11-20 percent chance of serious injury. The
Beetle is also the only one of 16 small cars to earn an overall "good" rating
from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

990816_cobra
OPEL LOSES $440 MILLION Wonder where the holes are in
the GM dam? Adam Opel AG, the German subsidiary of General Motors Corp., lost
some $439.5 million in 1998, according to the German business daily
Handelsblatt. The losses came even as Opel won back market share in Germany,
rising to 15.1 percent from 13.4 percent thirteen months ago; according to the
paper, Opel has said it may not return to profit this year as competition in the
market intensifies. General Motors last month said second-quarter earnings
climbed to a record $1.73 billion from $350 million a year earlier as its market
share in Europe rose. However, GM previously announced it had lost money in
Europe but declined to name the amount.
FORD TESTING CONCIERGE SERVICE Is Ford getting
into a hotelier state of mind? According to Automotive News, the world’s
second-largest automaker is testing an automotive concierge service in Chicago
and Los Angeles, which offers to arrange car washes and oil changes on your
behalf. Ford has been on a customer-service tear as of late, buying up
Automobile Protection Corp., an Atlanta-based seller of extended-service
contracts, and Kwik-Fit Holdings Plc, Europe's largest independently owned
car-service chain. Last week, Ford also announced an investment in Carclub.com,
an automotive owner Internet site.
FOCUS GOES LIVE Striking out to tackle the
twenty-something demographic, Ford will air a series of live TV commercials as
it rolls out the Focus subcompact this fall. The 64 commercials will
feature comedian and actress Annabelle Gurwitch, host of cable TV’s "Dinner and
a Movie." For more buzz, Ford will loan customized Focuses (foci?) to what the
automaker describes as "120 trendy people'' — club DJs, concert promoters and
such — in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and Chicago. The live ads
begin Sept. 9, during the MTV Video Music Awards show.
GM GOES ONLINE FOR FUTURE General Motors Corp. says
it plans to move more aggressively to use the Internet in all facets of its
operations, from manufacturing through online sales and in-car electronic
services. By combining its various electronic services and creating new ones, GM
intends to speed up the product development cycle, reduce the time it takes to
get customized cars to customers, simplify the sales process by selling online,
and then add billions in new business through a range of electronic subscription
services that could keep revenues flowing long after customers pay off their car
loans.
For more on e-GM, click
here
CHRYSLER GOES ORGANIC DaimlerChrysler says it has
retained Organic, Inc., a San Francisco Web design shop, to shore up and
integrate the company’s online presence. DaimlerChrysler is in the midst
of a technology push that created a system of Web sites for its Dodge, Chrysler,
Plymouth and Jeep brands, with funding of $500 million, Reuters reports; dubbed
its "Customer Connect" initiative and under way since 1997, it will integrate
all dealer and factory systems. Organic's work sheet will include developing a
unified interactive strategy, building and managing customer relationships, Web
design and architecture and technical enhancements to the existing sites. A team
of 100 Organic staffers has been in Detroit for several months working on
refreshing Web sites for the year 2000 models that will be launched in
September.

990816_ebay
For more on the online buying experience, click here
For this month’s Digital Autobahn column, click here
AUTOWEB TO SELL NEW CARS Autoweb.com Inc., an
online car-shopping site, will add direct sales of new cars to its
dealer-referral service in an effort to counter competition from AutoNation Inc.
and CarsDirect.com, Reuters reports. Autoweb.com said it plans to begin testing
the service this month in several states. A customer will select a model from
the company's site, then Autoweb.com will call the customer with a price. The
customer then commits to a purchase with a deposit and receives the vehicle from
one of Autoweb.com's 5,000 dealers, said Dean Debiase, president and chief
executive.
For more on the online buying experience, click
here
For this month’s Digital Autobahn column, click
here
AN EGGPLANT-SHAPED CAR? Toyota has spaced us out
before with MR2s that look like Ferraris, but now Japan’s number-one carmaker is
going to the garden for inspiration. Japan’s Nihon Keizai newspaper says the
company will introduce a vehicle shaped like an eggplant at this fall’s Tokyo
Motor Show. The aubergine-inspired vehicle is the first model developed by a
special design division established by Toyota Chairman Hiroshi Okuda himself
when he was Toyota's president. Okuda said he expects to sell only about 100 of
the cars per month, while retail salespeople have forecast monthly sales of
about 3,000 units, the report said. It is unknown if the vehicle will only be
produced in purple.
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