Diluting Exclusivity

Is Mercedes taking the wrong road with such models as the CLA?


Why do people buy premium marques? Because they represent value for money? No, because they not. Are they more reliable? Lexus and Jaguar are, but for most part they are not really any better than some mass market brands. The reason is they represent prestige, they are something to be aspired to. They let others know you are

New Nissan Qashqai Arrives In NZ

The Qashqai with some typical NZ scenery behind. 


Why is this important? Well, the vehicle in question is a popular type of model for this country. It also reflects a company that looks at the global picture in making decisions. The fact that a car made the other side of the world is sent here, when a not too dissimilar X-Trail already is available shows Nissan wants a sizable slice of the

Car Production UK By Model : 2013

The 2014 Qashqai. In US parlance it's a home run


Car production in the UK flies under the radar for many even in it's home nation. With few local brand names to identify with, and most British too apathetic to bother finding out about it, many are unaware of it's success. That reality of that is shown in production figures, where exports account for about 80% of the total and penetration of

TATA Production History By Segment

The Nexon looks fun and an ideal city car


Tata started making commercial vehicles in 1954, utility vehicles in 1991 and cars in 1998. It enjoyed strong growth in a booming vehicle market as can be seem by the green in the chart below, denoting increase in production over the previous year. However, as the domestic market faltered and competition increased, production has fallen away badly.

Vehicle Production Turkey By Make : 2013

The Renault Fluence made in Turkey mainly for emerging markets


Turkish vehicle manufacturing went up in 2013, thanks to the car side of things. With lower wage costs, you would think that production will continue to improve. Oyak-Renault is by far the largest car maker with over half of all cars made from that company.

Utility vehicles didn't fare quite so well. Ford-Otosan (sounds Japanese)

JD Power APEAL Survey 2014

Dodge Dart was the most appealing Compact Car

The APEAL survey shows how happy people are with their car, scoring in 77 categories. I like this kind of insight more than reliability ones, which never seem to differentiate between minor and major faults. It also is about what a car company wants, happy customers who more likely to come back when they want to buy again.

The top 12 marques are

Brand Profits In Europe

This sort of car is getting sales up, but unit profit is down


I don't understand why car makers discount at the expense of profit. I know factories running below capacity is an issue, but in the end, discounting benefits no one. It is so much better to get costs down, especially with cost savings through co-operation with other car makers. So what are some car makers saying about their

Finland Top 4 Brands : 1960-69

The Escort was a runaway success for Ford Europe


There were some big movements of sales in the 60's in Finland. Only 23,500 cars were sold in 1960, which climbed to 99,900 in 1965. The fell back to 48,300 in 1968, before rebounding nearly 75% to 84,500 in '69. Moskvich started the decade on top, but was not able to quite maintain it although always comfortably in the top 10 during the decade.

Vehicle Production Canada By Make : 2013

Chrysler's Winsdor plant celebrates 30 years of the minivan in 2013

North American car production is rising, in Mexico and the USA that is. Not so north of the 49th parallel. The cost of making cars is high there, especially compared to Mexico. For that reason, Mexico is gaining more car plants, while Canada isn't. The US is also doing well attracting vehicle assembly investment.

It seems the

Honda Civic & Toyota Auris Tourers

The Honda Civic and Toyota Auris Tourers are made for the European market. Hopefully they to be are exported beyond that. If I bought a new car, I would like a Auris Tourer (Corolla wagon) of Civic
Tourer. Neither are currently sold in NZ and maybe too pricey if they were.
Anyway, I asked each importer via email if they are likely to be.

Toyota NZ's reply came within a day:

Thank you for your

Sweden Top 4 Brands : 1990-99

The Volvo 960. More like a barge than a car


The downturn Sweden experienced hit car sales hard. It seemed to hit Volvo less as its market share climbed, then fell back again as things improved. VW consolidated its position as the decade passed and Saab got to a comfortable third.

The economic slump of the 90's was the worst since the 30's. Restructuring of the economy steadied the ship and

Car Production Italy By Make 2013

The Renegade. Bold styling.


The last time vehicle production went up in Italy was in 2009 (a 6% increase) but in 2013 it was a -2% drop. A corner has been turned it and will start climbing again. Fiat has been going through period of change, which will now show some improvement.




The new Jeep Renegade (see pics) will be built in Italy, along with the Fiat 500X which will be a crossover

Car Production Germany By Make 2013

Yes I know, black shows everything. Pain to clean too


German car making has been stable for a few years now, as growth is overseas production facilities, such as China. The premium brands are up but the mass car makers all reduced volumes to some degree. VW is embarking on a cost cutting exercise to try improve profit, as wages are high for VW Germany. Over half of all cars made here are

USA Protecting Car Dealers

Tesla make electric cars. They don't want to put their cars into dealers that also sell fossil fuel powered cars because they realise the dealer may just talk the customer in to what they know best. New technology takes time to learn and understand, something most car dealers do poorly in.

So Tesla want to distribute the cars directly to the customer. In most states in the USA they cannot.

Pakistan Local Sales : 2013/14

29,500 sold in the year just ended


In Pakistan, the sales year goes from July to June, so the figures below are from July 2013 to June 2014. It is also only for cars assembled in the country as well. So Land Rover sales are only for the Defender model, not the others that are imported. However, not many cars are imported due to high tariffs so the data is indicative of what really happens

The Driverless Car - A Layman's View

The driverless - or automated - car is considered a future reality. I have asked people about it and everyone has said "No way. I want to be in control". It may in fact show that people enjoy driving anyway, and they prefer that independence. They also may lack confidence in technology to deliver them safely to their destination.

Some benefits: 1) Fewer traffic accidents in basic driving

The True Global Car Maker

A truly global car


Once it was always GM that was the biggest car maker. You didn't have to think about it. Now Toyota and VW Group are up there battling it out to be the biggest, with Toyota currently on top. So who is the true global car maker?

It is safe to say that GM will end up third in this fight. It just isn't run to the standard required to be the biggest. So that leaves Toyota and

Land Rover Discovery Sales By Nation : 2013

Doing what it does best. Doing it like no other


I have held back releasing the Discovery sales as I had so many estimate figures. All are based on some data, not wild speculation but even so, it is better to have certain figures. Seeing as this list was compiled without any help from Land Rover, not a bad achievement even if I do say so myself. With data becoming harder to come by, maybe the

Nissan Sunderland's New Infiniti Models

Nissan in Sunderland is in an area of the UK which is less prosperous than average. Imagine how important the Nissan plant is there. It produces the Nissan Note, Juke, Qashqai and Leaf models.











Now an additional 60,000 capacity is being added for the Q30 and QX30 models. They will both be made for the global markets. I know nothing much about Infiniti as they do not grace the roads of

5-Door MINI Starts Production

Cowley, UK production is underway


The 5-Door mini doesn't go on sale until October 2014, but it is starting to roll down the Cowley production line. It is seen as becoming a bigger seller than the 3-door hatch model. I have always liked the MINI but the lack of rear portals was a put off. Now it has them it is the sort of car that would appeal. The Clubman was stylish but not well packaged

Renault/Nissan Daimler

An existing plant in the same area as the new one

One cooperation deal that has flown under the radar for me is this one. Since 2010, Renault Nissan and Daimler Benz have been working together in various ways, especially with smaller cars. Now they will share a plant in Mexico, building compact vehicles about 500 km above Mexico City at Aguascalientes.

This makes sense as smaller vehicles are