Author Archives: John Neff

Car Wars report predicts Hyundai, Kia will lose market share

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The annual “Car Wars” report by Merrill Lynch analyst John Murphy predicts that, despite their seizing of U.S. market share over the last few tumultuous years, Korean brands Hyundai and Kia will give it all back and then some to companies like Ford, General Motors and Toyota by 2016.

Murphy bases his predictions not on tea leaves or crystal balls, but rather the rate at which automakers launch new products. Ford will replace 26 percent of its product line over the next four years, a number that represents 46 percent of its volume, while General Motors will replace 25 percent and Toyota 24 percent. On account of these new product launches, Murphy says Ford can expect to add 0.8 percentage points of market share, General Motors will recover 0.5 points and Toyota will add another 0.3 points.

Other automakers that won’t be so aggressive in turning over their lineups with new models include Chrysler, Honda, Nissan and the European brands, which Murphy surmises will all remain flat in terms of market share.

Hyundai and Kia, meanwhile, will be introducing fewer new models than the rest and therefore, Murphy predicts, will see a 0.5 decline in U.S. market share.

Of course, these are all just predictions and can be blown to bits with the next unforeseen economic crisis or natural disaster, just like the last three years were. And there are other factors that might affect market share for each automaker during the next three years, including the availability of raw materials, exchange rates, union contracts, recalls and a million another minor things that might grow to become big things, not the least of which is consumers deciding they actually like all those new products being launched.

Car Wars report predicts Hyundai, Kia will lose market share originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 18 May 2012 18:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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April 2012: Not How It Appears Edition

Posted on by John Neff

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Industry Had Three Fewer Days To Sell

The sales figures you see below aren’t quite what they seem. If you look at just the left column where the battle between green and red cells is almost at a draw, you might think that April 2012 was a step backwards in terms of sales momentum for the auto industry. That column, however, is practically irrelevant this month.

Shift your head a little to the right and read the DSR (Daily Sales Rate) column. That’s the important column this month. People usually ignore this column because they don’t understand its purpose or because its data looks so similar to the left column, but this month it means everything.

Why? Because there were 24 selling days for the auto industry last month, versus 27 selling days in April 2011. Usually there’s only a single-day variance between months or no variance at all, but three selling days is a chasm to overcome and means that if you’re only comparing raw numbers like the left column does, the entire industry was at a three-day disadvantage last month compared to the same month one year ago.

The DSR column, on the other hand, shows the change in average number of vehicles sold per day during April of this year and last. This is the more accurate representation of how each automaker performed in April, and as you can see, nearly all continued their momentum of increased sales with the usual suspects occupying those bottom red cells.

Check out how the entire auto industry did in the monthly sales chart below, and visit our By the Numbers section to see all past months.

*Brands and companies are displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 24 selling days in April 2012 versus 27 selling days in April 2011, so there will be a difference between monthly sales volume and the average daily sales rate (DSR) for each brand/company. Also, brands are combined and reported as companies only if their sales figures are released jointly.

April 2012: Not How It Appears Edition originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 01 May 2012 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The List #0041: Attend A Major Car Auction

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When you think of major car auctions, you probably think of Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale. That’s the one that came to mind for us, which is why we sent Jessi and Patrick to experience its sights and sounds this past January.

Not only did they come away with what it’s like to be inside the big tents of Barrett-Jackson on the company’s biggest day of the year, they also followed the experiences of several sellers, all of whom were counting on six- and seven-figure prices for their precious pieces of metal. Did they leave the Grand Canyon State with smiles on their faces? Scroll down and watch the latest episode of The List to find out.

Click here to watch The List #0041: Attend A Major Car Auction.

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Continue reading The List #0041: Attend A Major Car Auction

The List #0041: Attend A Major Car Auction originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chevy C6 Corvette to get Night Race Blue and new wheels for final model year

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2013 Chevrolet Corvette Night Race Blue - in profile

2013 Chevrolet Corvette wheel patterns2013 is scheduled to be the final year of production for the sixth-generation Chevrolet Corvette, otherwise known as the C6. Having replaced the fifth-generation C5 Corvette in late 2005 as a 2006 model, that will mark a seven-year run on the market, which is impressively long in anyone’s book, but fairly typical in Corvette history.

Keeping the C6 fresh all those years had as much to do with special models like the ZR1 and Grand Sport as it has with constantly tweaking smaller things like the options, accessories and colors that have been offered.

For its final model year, the 2013 C6 will reportedly get a last new color called Night Race Blue. The Corvette is already offered in two blue hues: one called Supersonic Blue Metallic (an option that costs an extra $300 on the standard Vette) and a lighter blue introduced for the 2012 model year called Carlisle Blue Metallic. The latter debuted at last year’s SEMA Show to celebrate the Corvettes at Carlisle event in Pennsylvania that claims to attract more privately owned Vettes in one place at one time than anywhere else in the world.

CorvetteBlogger also reports that Chevrolet will be deleting Competition Gray wheels from the options sheet and replacing them with the Black Painted Aluminum wheels you see above.

Chevy C6 Corvette to get Night Race Blue and new wheels for final model year originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 18:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Edsel Ford’s 1934 Model 40 Special Speedster

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Edsel Ford's 1934 Model 40 Special Speedster live at NY Auto Show

If you’ve attended major international auto show in the U.S. this season, you’ve likely seen this car: Edsel Ford’s 1934 Model 40 Special Speedster. We first saw it at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegancee last August, then again in January at the Detroit Auto Show. It is, frankly, a most beautiful specimen, and since we hadn’t yet taken the opportunity to capture it with our own lenses, New York seemed like the perfect place to hold an impromptu shoot.

The Speedster has a very long history going back to 1932 when Edsel Ford, then president of Ford Motor Company, returned from Europe and asked design director E.T. Gregorie to pen a sports car similar to the ones he saw running around Europe. It started out as a 1934 Ford, but was radically altered to make a low slung, two-seat sports car with technology that wouldn’t appear on production Fords for many years. It originally weighed 2,100 pounds and was powered by a 75-bhp Model 40 flathead V8 that was later replaced by a 100-bhp Mercury V8.

Edsel Ford enjoyed the car until his death in 1943, at which point the car began a journey of many ownerships, ultimately vanished and then resurfaced in 1999 when it was sold to a collector for $1.76 million. When the collector died, the Speedster was given to the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House who oversaw a complete restoration of the car. It now travels the auto show circuit, on display in a place of honor within the Lincoln display.

Continue reading Edsel Ford’s 1934 Model 40 Special Speedster

Edsel Ford’s 1934 Model 40 Special Speedster originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 06 Apr 2012 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2013 Subaru BRZ priced from $25,495* [w/poll]

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Subaru announced today that the starting price of its much anticipated BRZ sports car will be $25,495 when it goes on sale. We don’t have an exact date, but Subaru says it will arrive in dealerships “this spring.”

The starting price of $25,495 does include a destination charge of $750* and will get you the BRZ Premium with a six-speed manual transmission. Choosing a six-speed automatic will add $1,100 for a new total of $26,595. That price of admission does, however, include a touchscreen navigation system, Bluetooth connectivity and HID headlamps.

Those who require more pampering can step up to the BRZ Limited with a base price of $27,495 for the manual-equipped model. Adding the automatic again bumps the price by $1,100 to $28,595. Limited models also get heated seats with Alcantara inserts and leather bolsters, heated mirrors, dual-zone automatic climate control, fog lights, keyless entry/start and a body-color rear spoiler. The last and most expensive configuration comes when opting for seats fully covered in leather, which raises the starting price to $27,495 for the manual model and $28,595 for the automatic.

Even fully loaded, the 2013 Subaru BRZ appears to come in safely under $30,000, thought it is more expensive than its sibling, the 2013 Scion FR-S, which starts at $24,200 but doesn’t come with a nav system or leather as an option. Based on our experience driving the car, that’s a reasonable price to pay for such a high level of rear-wheel-drive handling. What do you think? Take our poll and send a Subaru a message about whether or not they have priced the BRZ correctly.

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Continue reading 2013 Subaru BRZ priced from $25,495* [w/poll]

2013 Subaru BRZ priced from $25,495* [w/poll] originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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March 2011 - Fool on a Hill Edition

Posted on by John Neff

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Chrysler Keeps Winning, Hyundai and Kia Set Records

Another chapter has been written in the comeback story of Chrysler, which reported a 69.7-percent sales increase in March compared to a year earlier. We’re starting to wonder, though, what will happen if gas prices continue rising. If consumers begin to shift their tastes back to smaller, more fuel efficient cars, Chrysler will find itself without much to offer. The promising Dodge Dart is coming but not here yet, and Chrysler doesn’t offer any passenger vehicles as hybrids or diesels. The Ram HD is of course available with a diesel, but we doubt consumers will flock to it for a respite from rising fuel costs.

Hyundai also had a good month of sales in March. Actually, it had the best month of sales in its history of selling cars in the U.S. Nearly all of its high-volume products are selling well, while the Veloster is picking up momentum and adding all-new sales to the mix. Soon, the completely redesigned Azera will go on sale, which means this new all-time sales record likely won’t last long. Its Korean counterpart, Kia, also enjoyed its best month ever.

A couple of automakers who seem to be teetering on the edge of trouble are General Motors and Honda. GM can be happy with positive performances last month from Chevrolet and GMC, but Buick and Cadillac continue to falter and find themselves on the very bottom of our sales chart trends this month. Honda, meanwhile, hasn’t seemed to have found its footing as well as rival Toyota, despite both companies reporting that their production lines are completely restored following a year of disruptive natural disasters.

Check out how the rest of the industry did in our monthly sales chart below, and visit our By the Numbers section to see all past months.

*Brands and companies are displayed in descending order according to their percentage change in volume sales. There were 28 selling days in March 2012 versus 27 selling days in March 2011, so there will be a difference between monthly sales volume and the average daily sales rate (DSR) for each brand/company. Also, brands are combined and reported as companies only if their sales figures are released jointly.

March 2011 - Fool on a Hill Edition originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ford Police Interceptor line gets official EPA fuel economy ratings

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2013 Ford Taurus Police Interceptor undergoing testing

Police forces didn’t care much about fuel economy back in the early days of the Ford Crown Victoria, but these days, efficiency is front and center for cash-strapped municipalities. The cost of fuel keeps rising and cities continue to cut their budgets, so one or two miles per gallon might make the difference for a city deciding between a fleet of Ford’s new Taurus-based Interceptor, the Chevrolet Caprice PPV and Dodge Charger Pursuit.

And so it is with great interest we read the news today that Ford has released official EPA-certified fuel economy figures for the new Interceptor. The base model equipped with a 3.5-liter V6 is rated at 18 miles per gallon city / 26 highway, while the twin-turbo 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 is rated at 16 mpg city / 23 highway. Finally, the Interceptor Utility (read: cop-spec Ford Explorer) powered by a 3.7-liter V6 returns 16 mpg city / 22 highway.

We scoured through official specs and data from Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge to produce the comparison table above. As you can see, the new Police Interceptor from Ford is not the precinct captain of fuel economy, not even when comparing the V6 EcoBoost model against its V8-powered competitors. The acceleration numbers, meanwhile, were all taken from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Annual Law Enforcement Vehicle Test and Evaluation Program for 2012 models. Based on their results and the official EPA numbers that we found, the Chevrolet Caprice PPV V6 looks like the best combination of both quickness and thriftness. One thing, though, is for certain: No matter which model they choose, police forces everywhere should be saving lots of fuel compared to the aged Crown Vics in their fleets now. Learn more in Ford’s official press release after the jump.

Continue reading Ford Police Interceptor line gets official EPA fuel economy ratings

Ford Police Interceptor line gets official EPA fuel economy ratings originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 16 Mar 2012 17:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Infographic: Super Bowl ads that won and whiffed

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Seventeen days after the Super Bowl and we’re still talking about the commercials. Crazy, we know, but that’s how significant these ads are, and why the $3.5 million price tag for airtime during the game seems almost justified… almost.

Yesterday we reported that YouTube had crowned Chrysler’s “Halftime in America” as the most watched car commercial from the Super Bowl (an M&M’s ad nabbed the #1 most viewed overall spot). But YouTube views don’t mean much to automakers that are trying to sell cars. They want to know if their multi-million dollar Super Bowl ad directly increased interest in the vehicles they’re selling.

To answer that question we have this infographic from car-shopping website CarWoo!. While we wouldn’t blame you for guessing that Chrysler and Clint Eastwood drummed up the most car-shopper interest, you’d be wrong. According to the numbers crunched by CarWoo!, Chevrolet received the highest lift in consideration after the big game at 61 percent. Chrysler was second with a 26-percent lift and Toyota third at 25 percent. Brands with big ads like Acura, Volkswagen and Honda, however, saw no lift in interest after the Super Bowl.

Chevrolet’s performance here can be partially attributed to the volume of ads it ran before, during and after the Super Bowl. It was by far the most prolific auto advertiser. But not all of its ads were winners. While commercials for the Sonic, Camaro and Silverado contributed positive lift, the ad for the Volt did nothing to help raise the bottom line of consumer interest.

Also interesting to note is the back-of-the-pack performance of Cadillac, which, despite boasting that its ad for the ATS was the most watched advertisement of all time, only saw a six-percent lift in interest.

Follow the jump for the full infographic from CarWoo!.

Continue reading Infographic: Super Bowl ads that won and whiffed

Infographic: Super Bowl ads that won and whiffed originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2012 Hyundai Azera priced from $32,000 and Gen Coupe from $24,250*

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We’ve gotten word from our man on location driving the new 2012 Hyundai Azera that the Korean automaker’s fully redesigned full-size front-wheel-drive sedan will start at $32,000, not including $875 in destination charges, when it goes on sale this spring. The only option available will be a $4,000 Tech package. We’re not certain yet what all will be included in the Tech package since items like touch-screen navigation and a back-up camera will be standard equipment on the 2012 Azera, but we’re looking into it.

Hyundai is asking an awful lot more for its new Azera compared to the one it replaces, which carried a base MSRP of just $25,495. We’ll have our First Drive report on the 2012 Hyundai Azera ready soon to let you know if the price jump is justified.

We likewise have pricing information to report for the refreshed 2013 Hyundai Genesis Coupe, which will start at $24,250, again not including $875 in destination charges. That’s for the four-cylinder 2.0t model with a manual transmission, while the upper bound on pricing is represented by the 3.8-liter V6-powered Track model with the new eight-speed automatic transmission that costs $34,250.

Lastly, while rumors had resurfaced again that Hyundai was considering creating a luxury sub-brand called Genesis that would sell both the sedan and coupe along with the larger Equus, Hyundai Motor America CEO John Krafcik has told Autoblog, “There is no plan to create Genesis sub brand.” He did, however, indicate that the next-generation Genesis sedan should have all-wheel drive as an option.

2012 Hyundai Azera priced from $32,000 and Gen Coupe from $24,250* originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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