Blog Category Results

In what has to be good news for the cast and crew of Operation Repo, marketing research firm Experian Automotive tells us that auto loans that are 60 days past due rose by 21.2 percent in the second quarter from year-earlier levels. I wonder how many of the Cash For Clunker deals will wind up as reality TV fodder when folks who had a perfectly adequate ride and no car payment traded in because they fell for the promise of "free money". Read the full article at The Detroit News

If you didn't see this one coming you must have been born yesterday. The federal government is unlikely to recoup all of the billions of dollars that it has invested in General Motors and Chrysler, according to a new congressional oversight report assessing the automakers' rescue. The report said that a $5.4 billion portion of the $10.5 billion owed by Chrysler is "highly unlikely" to be repaid, while full recovery of the $50 billion sunk into GM would require the company's stock to reach unprecedented heights...

Gee, even Dub Schwartz saw this one coming.  DOW JONES NEWSWIRES New-vehicle sales are expected to increase 18% in August from July in the U.S. on the popular "Cash for Clunkers" government program, but still remain down 6% from a year earlier, according to Edmunds.com...

Whether Cash For Clunkers was a success, or whether it even was a good idea is another topic for another day. Today I'm interested in (and isn't that the self-centered point of a blog, what interests me?) the makeup of the most purchased and most clunkerized vehicles. What we're looking at is a population of buyers who suddenly were pushed over the edge into buying (almost) any new car of their choosing...

Cash for clunkers! Step right up and get your free money! Did everyone forget we're talking about government bureaucracy here?..

Would you buy a new car on ebay? You may get your chance. From MercuryNews.com The new-car sales experiment between General Motors and San Jose e-commerce powerhouse eBay begins today in California, and both companies will be closely watching the results — particularly GM, which is hoping to increase its market share in the state...

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Bayerische Motoren Werke AG said it delivered 109,923 vehicles in July, 13 percent less than in the same period a year before. BMW saw a 0.3 percent increase in sales of its Mini-branded cars, whilst Rolls-Royce vehicle sales fell 56 percent...

Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. auto suppliers aren’t being considered for any new federal aid and must expect that their business will shrink as the market changes, the Obama administration’s chief industry adviser said...

The Road Runner could always right through the "Free Bird Seed" signs and avoid the various ACME traps that Wile E. Coyote set up for him. Why aren't we as smart as that?..

Car rebates will stop unless Senate acts WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration will suspend the "cash for clunkers" program unless the Senate provides $2 billion more for the popular car incentive plan, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Sunday. He said he expected the current $1 billion pool to be exhausted before Monday. The House approved an additional...