Production

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Mercedes-Benz parent-company Daimler AG will spend $1 billion on a battery and electric SUV plant near the company's facilities in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A company spokeswoman said the automaker would make an official announcement later in the day. The...Read More»

Today, Australia's auto industry was dealt a death blow. In a press release, Toyota Australia revealed "that it will stop building cars in Australia by the end of 2017 and become a national sales and distribution company." Toyota Australia's president and CEO, Max Yasuda, and Toyota Motor...Read More»

Before 2008, before the international economic meltdown, auto companies weren't known for being efficient. Sibling brands overlapped, cannibalizing sales. Production was fragmented, with little thought given to manufacturing vehicles for multiple markets with the greatest of ease. Cars and trucks...Read More»

1925 was a pretty big year. It saw the birth of John DeLorean, Paul Newman, Johnny Carson, and Dick Van Dyke. F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby in 1925, and Adolf Hitler published Mein Kampf. And in Australia, Ford Motor Company began building Model Ts for eager drivers. Today, Ford...Read More»

Yesterday, our colleagues at Motor Authority predicted that today's press event with Toyota president Akio Toyoda would include an announcement that the company is moving production of some Lexus vehicles to the U.S. Move over, Walter Mercado, because it appears that our team was right. At a press...Read More»

Update: See below Last week, Bloomberg News ran a story with this headline: "Fiat Says Jeep Output May Return to China as Demand Rises". There are three ways you could look at that. 1. You could cock your head to the side like Nipper the RCA dog and wonder what the heck it means. 2. You could...Read More»

The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March, 2011 wreaked havoc on Japan, killing thousands of citizens and bringing much of the country to a standstill. Automakers like Toyota were beginning to get back up to speed later that year, when flooding in Thailand put more crimps in the production line...Read More»

Many eager auto shoppers in Japan have been stymied by inventory shortages, but according to the Wall Street Journal, the wait for new wheels may be coming to an end. The Journal reports that most Japanese companies are ramping up output, with significantly more cars rolling off the lines over the...Read More»

The Tohoku earthquake and tsunami that struck northern Japan on March 11 has affected millions of Japanese citizens, their families, and businesses. The country's auto industry was hard-hit -- both directly and indirectly -- and most Japanese automakers halted operations to grieve for lost workers...Read More»

After a nearly 10-year run, the Honda Element is dead, its quirky, boxy thunder stolen by the more conventional CR-V. Honda today announced its plans to cease Element production after the 2011 model year. In total 325,000 units of the Element sold over its tenure, though of late sales figures have...Read More»

For much of this year, automakers overall have become smarter about controlling inventories and slowing production to match still-tepid demand at dealerships. But it looks like some assembly plants are (or will be) roaring back to capacity for a while: A number of new 2011 models, such as the...Read More»

Despite what can rightly be called the worst auto market in decades, there are a few signs that long-downtrodden parts of the industry are rebounding. Take GM, for instance: It's actually increasing production of a couple of its strong-selling crossover models, the 2011 Chevrolet Equinox and 2010...Read More»

Car buyers have always had to watch out for car dealers who excessively mark-up the price of new models in the late summer/fall when a new model year rolls around. In this age of Internet sales where pricing cars at invoice is becoming the norm, dealers look forward to the roll out of new models as...Read More»

Toyota has revived plans to develop a manufacturing facility near Tupelo, Mississippi. An official announcement is expected later today. According to an inside source, Toyota will resume work on the plant and begin producing vehicles there in the second half of 2011. However, the facility won't be...Read More»

The much anticipated 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee is showing up at select dealerships across the U.S. in small numbers as production ramps up. The one thing prospective buyers are missing is the online configuration tool on Jeep's website. Or are they? Well, as previously reported, Jeep's website has...Read More»

It's really, finally over. Yesterday, the very last HUMMER H3 rolled off the production line in Shreveport, Louisiana, part of a special order for rental-car company Avis. After a lengthy and ultimately failed effort to sell the quintessential maker of sport-utility vehicles to a Chinese company...Read More»

Large SUVs and minivans have fallen on the hardest of times in the industry's late downturn, and casualties of the recession mount daily. Nissan today confirmed in an email to TheCarConnection that it would be bringing U.S. production of the Quest minivan to an end later this year, and will not...Read More»

        With so many websites trying to predict the future at GM, many have come to conclude GM has no plans to continue the current Lucerne beyond 2010. The Lucuern has been on the market since 2005, and while it was a good product at its launch, it has become stale next to the new Lacrosse...Read More»