Honda Production: 2008

Honda is an independent car company that has shunned mergers and buy outs. It hasn't got into manufacturing commercial vehicles either. For all that it is successful by building cars with good engines and reliability.
In 2005, Honda made 3.3 million vehicles and by 2008 4.3 million, so it is going the right way. World market share was up in the same period from 5.4% to 5.9%. Japanese production

Lotus Evora

This new model is named after a city in Portugal. Évora is inland from Lisbon and a town of some interest to visit. But I digress. How good is this new car? I haven't driven one or even seen one in the metal but comparing test reports soon gives an idea of what is hot and what is not about a given vehicle.
Starting with the outside, it looks good, very good in fact. Stylish, purposeful and

VW Production: 2008

VW has been relentless in it's sales growth. It has been adding to its range of models, been aggressive in marketing and has a reputation for building solid cars too. But perhaps the main factor has been its dominance in the world's fastest growing major market, China.

In 2005, VW had 5.2% of the world's car/LCV market, in '08 6.5%. Sales have gone from 3.3 to 4.3 million. On top of that

Triumph Motorcycles

I have never owned or learned to ride a motorbike. My father did and had several scrapes with cars. One day, a lady pulled out in front of him and he hit her front tyre. He sailed over the bonnet and landed on his head on the road. Helmets are lifesavers. Mum put her foot down and said no more bike riding for dad. That was the end of that. There is a side to me that would like to ride and

Freelander Does It Tough

Recently I commented on a four way shootout of smaller SUVs and the Freelander won the contest. Now I have just read in my August 2009 Top Gear NZ magazine about a similar head to head. It was the Audi Q5, Volvo XC 60 and the Land Rover Freelander. They were taken around the Flinders Ranges in South Australia on dusty roads. Nothing too serious but testing all the same.

The conclusion was that

Ford Production: 2008

Ford has not been having the best of times lately. It has had to negotiate reduced benefits for its workers in the US and cut back production as sales declined. Back in 2005, Ford had 9% of the world’s car/LCV market but that dropped to 7% in 2008. That is nearly 1 million units less! The 2008 total was 4.75m. 51% of the cars/LCVs were made in the US in 2005, but by ’08, that crashed to 33% or

GM Production 2008

GM understandably had a sales slump in 2008, as it swaggered from one crisis to another. Therefore, for car/LCV sales, 2007 production of 9.2 million slid down to 8.15m for 2008. That's a worldwide market share drop from 13.3% to 12.3%, in production terms. GM has been moving production away from mature markets to emerging ones, which is cost effective. US plants now makes 28.6% of cars/LCVs,