Thank you for your interest in Edmunds.com's coverage and analysis of carmakers. AutoObserver.com is being integrated into a new area of Edmunds.com. Coverage of carmakers now can be found at http://www.edmunds.com/industry-center/. To stay connected via social media as well, please follow Edmunds.com on Twitter@edmunds and fan... more
Volvo
Lux-taposition: 2010 Premium-Brand Finish Means 2011 Up for Grabs
By Bill Visnic January 6, 2011In one of the luxury market's closest finishes in years, fewer than 10,000 sales was the difference between the industry's top luxury player in 2010 - still Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus - and the second- and third-place finishers, German standard-bearers Mercedes-Benz and BMW. That suggests the luxury sales crown is up for grabs in 2011. more
December Provides Industry-Stirring Finish to 2010
By Michelle Krebs January 5, 2011By Dale Buss, Michelle Krebs, and Bill Visnic Last month showed up for automakers like a luxury sedan wrapped in a huge red bow in one of the many holiday-sales promotions that have dominated TV advertising for weeks. In fact, propelled by seasonal promotions and by the momentum of an increasingly sturdy industry recovery, U.S. automakers sold about 2.2 million vehicles in December, for a 12.48 million Seasonally Adjusted Annual Rate of sales, the highest rate for any month of the year. In fact, except for the Cash for Clunker-juiced August 2009, it was the highest monthly SAAR since more
November Sales Uptick Feeds Industry Expectations
By AutoObserver Staff December 1, 2010Holiday spirits are bright across most of the U.S. auto industry this week after carmakers posted November sales about 18 percent higher than a year earlier, and at a strengthening seasonally adjusted annual rate sales pace of about 12.2 million units for the second consecutive month. more
Volvo: 800,000 Sales a Year by 2020, Highlighted with Green
By AutoObserver Staff November 17, 2010By Michelle Krebs and Danny King Swedish brand Volvo, now owned by China's Geely, has its sights set on selling 800,000 vehicles a year around the globe, with a heavy emphasis on environmentally friendly models, Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby said in his keynote address to open the Los Angeles Auto Show today. "If we play our cards right, I can imagine Volvo selling 800,000 cars per year by 2020," said Jacoby, who left Volkswagen of America in summer to head Volvo under Chinese ownership. Volvo will have to play its cards right. In 2009, Volvo, which was then owned more
Consumer Reports: Honda, Toyota Still Tops in Reliability; GM Improves
By Michelle Krebs October 26, 2010Consumer Reports magazine revealed the results of its 2010 reliability survey Tuesday and here's the upshot: - Toyota, despite numerous large recalls, and, to an even greater degree, Honda reign supreme in reliability. - General Motors, which shed its debt in bankruptcy along with problem-plagued brands, showed vast improvement, especially with its newest models. - Ford, on a continuous improvement path for the past half-dozen years, showed more incremental improvement. - Hyundai and Kia is making "extraordinary" progress. - Chrysler still trails everyone. - European automakers fell off a cliff in reliability. more
Ford Sets Third-Quarter Record with $1.7 Billion Profit
By Michelle Krebs October 26, 2010Ford Motor Co. reported Tuesday that it had earned $1.69 billion in the third quarter, a new record for the quarter that surpassed analysts' forecasts. Ford also announced plans to further reduce its hefty debt load further. "This was another strong quarter and we continue to gain momentum with our One Ford plan," Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement. "Delivering world class products and aggressively restructuring our business has enabled us to profitably grow even at low industry volumes in key regions. Looking forward, Mulally, who will hold a media and analysts conference later in more
The Substitution Effect: New and Premium Cars Lose Share
By Karl Brauer September 8, 2010The recession may not have changed everything about the auto business - but it's changed just about everything. And here's the one that currently is hurting automakers at the most fundamental level: buyers who in normal times would have been snapping up new vehicles now are shopping the used-car market. And those who were cracking open the wallet for a premium badge are shifting to less-indulgent, less high-falutin brands. This "substitution effect" is what many analysts expected as a plausible outcome of extensive unemployment, under-employment and a drastic downshifting of household consumption. What largely wasn't expected is how extensively more
Geely Gets EU Okay to Buy Volvo, Pilfers VW's Jacoby
By Bill Visnic July 7, 2010China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, whose deal to purchase Volvo Cars from Ford Motor Co. was approved by European Union regulators this week, also took another big step toward becoming a major player on the world stage - by stealing away a high-level executive from the Volkswagen Group. Stefan Jacoby's abrupt, unexplained departure as head of VW's U.S. operations is all the more remarkable due to the fact that he accomplished a makeover for VW in relatively short order. With the talented Jacoby now gone to run Volvo, VW must quickly find a replacement who can hold U.S. operations more
Done Deal: China's Geely Buys Volvo from Ford
By Michelle Krebs March 29, 2010Late Sunday, China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Company Limited completed an agreement with Ford Motor Co. to buy Ford's Volvo Car Corp. unit and its related assets. The deal, under negotiation for more than a year, was said to be on the verge of collapse in recent weeks. But Ford confirmed the agreement on Sunday, saying the deal for Geely to buy Volvo will close sometime in the third quarter. Geely paid $1.8 billion for the storied Swedish automaker that made safety innovations a brand watchword. Ford said $200 million will be paid in the form of a note more